Funny Little Monkeys

This is a very random post and if you're sick of seeing the two little monkeys that run my house you can skip it, but I need to preserve these moments. Sydney is in such a funny phase right now! She's 18 months old on her way to 12 I think. I walked in the living room and found this the other day - Sydney helping herself to a show with some pancake mix on the couch - presumably for a snack? Also note her "Wow, look at that!" face. It's because she got caught with the remotes and is changing the subject. Stinker!

Here"s our little Mady Cakes looking all big. She's 7 weeks old today! She's becoming more and more responsive to outside stimuli (namely us) which is great. Little smiles creep in now and again to melt your heart.
Sydney decided to teach her dolly a much needed lesson about the dangers of drinking and driving (see bottle on floor). Friends don't let friends drive drunk. Sydney might be enjoying the carnage a little more than she should. Also the dolly was not wearing a seat belt. Naughty.

This is a daily occurrence in our house now. I had to rearrange my pantry so the lower shelves held items Sydney could play with. She's sort of into everything. Last week she loved water pitchers, this week it's the colander. Who knows what her next love will be.

Hopefully not this! I know they grow up fast, but this is a little too fast! Last night we were making dinner and I hear Sydney saying "mwuh mwuh." When I turned around I saw this. Yup, apparently this girl loves Indiana Jones because she was totally kissin' on him.

When my parents came out they brought Sydney a baby doll of her own to play with to help with any feelings of jealousy. She's done really well, and she loves that doll. I brought up my doll stroller from when I was a kid and she loves that thing. Poor doll had a few spills at first, but the kid's a pro now, even if the doll is riding upside down sometimes.

Sydney is such a little copycat right now. She'll feed her baby doll, tap the bottle on her wrist to check the temperature (she doesn't miss a beat!), burp her baby, and try to help change Mady's diaper. Aaron mentioned the other day how observant she is and that she's learning right now how to be a mom. Kind of scary that she's learning while I am, but kind of neat too.

She wants to do everything we do. Sometimes this is great like when I brush my teeth, she wants to brush hers. Other times it doesn't work so well, like when I'm cutting chicken or something - I know, we're totally mean parents and won't let her use knives or uncooked meat yet. Talk about overprotective! We're making smoothies in this picture and Sydney is scarfing the fruit down almost as fast as I could get it in the blender.

Mady is my snuggler. Sydney always preferred snuggling with Aaron. Mady prefers me. Different shapes I guess, but I like having a snuggle budy. It's cozy.

Look - proof that we had flowers. Beautiful crocuses. It's been really nice out here and all of our bulbs have been coming up and starting to bloom. Then the evil beastie bunnies came and devoured them all. I hate those varmints. It's wabbit season again.

That's My Kid

One of my favorite memories/stories of me as a kid was from when I was about 4 or 5 years old. My mom was working in the garden and I came to her informing her that I was STARVING to death (I think I was really convinced that I was). She told me she would be in soon to make dinner, and despite my protestations, sent me back to the house.

I then proceeded to forage for food (since I was actually going to die any minute). I remember going for a hot dog, but it was a new sealed package and I wasn't allowed to use sharp knives, so I had to skip that. I went for some cheese, but again, no sharp knives were allowed. I tried cutting off a slice of cheese with a butter knife, but it didn't work (shocker). In desperation I decided to use the one thing that would work and was also not banned - my teeth. When my mom came in from the house she found teeny teeth marks all over the edges and corners of the large brick of cheese in the fridge. Good thing I was such an obedient child and didn't cut my fingers off.

Back to me all grown up, today Sydney was sitting on the counter while I got lunch ready and when I turned around, this is what I saw.

Whose kid is she anyway!?!

Shelvsies

I'm totally late posting this, but a few weeks ago we built some shelves in our garage to improve our storage solutions and make things all nice and organized! Aaron did an awesome job with the design & construction and we now have 2 awesome new seriously sturdy shelves. Here's the photo journey:

Aaron securing those suckers to the wall and Sydney with her own little power tools. She had a blast trying to run to the neighbor's house at least 6 times. She knows they have a dog and a cat. Caleb & Michelle, you almost had a visitor a lot of times. She likes you.

My studly hubby finding some studs to work with.

Goofing around

Sydney couldn't be bothered to sit still and look at the camera. There were things to do and tools to play with.

Ok we finally got her to look in the right direction

There's a smile!

The finished product! We've been cleaning out our basement and taking things out to the new space. Now our basement will be cleaner. Yay! Maybe one day soon we'll finish it!

Props to Aaron for an awesome job on design & construction! I love my handy man!

One of Those Days

We've had one of those days today. There was not much of this going on

But this one was into everything. I think she was trying to see how big of a mess she could make. It went really well in case you were wondering.
What an appropriate toy she found (it's a devil's pitchfork if you can't tell) while we were cleaning the basement - yeah, it's a disaster at the moment .
And this was her running away when I tried to change her diaper. Awesome.


Even when I tried to be a great mom and take these kiddos to the park, nothing went right. The stroller was packed, Mady was in the front carrier crying her eyes out and Sydney was running around whining and fussing. We were about to walk out when Mady spewed all over me. Out of the carrier she came while I cleaned me, it, and the floor (she cried the whole time). Sydney wouldn't stop fussing, so she got put down for a nap and the whole park excursion got cancelled. It just went on and on today, so it seemed completely appropriate when I found this poem while cleaning out the aforementioned basement earlier:

The baby is teething; The children are crying. Your husband just called and said "Eat dinner without me."
One of these days you'll explode and shout to all the kids, "Why don't you just grow up and act your age!" And they will...
Or, "You guys get outside and find something to do -- without hurting each other And don't slam the door!" And they don't.
You'll straighten their bedrooms until it's all neat and tidy, toys displayed on the shelf, hangers in the closet, animals caged. You'll yell, "Now I want it to stay this way!" And it will...
You will prepare a perfect dinner with a salad that hasn't had all the olives picked out and a cake with no finger traces in the icing and you'll say, "Now this is a meal for company." And you will eat it alone...
You'll yell, "I want complete privacy on the phone. No screaming, Do you hear me?" And no one will answer.
No more plastic tablecloths stained. No more dandelion bouquets. No more iron-on patches. No more wet, knotted shoelaces, muddy boots or rubber bands for ponytails.
Imagine.... a lipstick with a point, no babysitters for New Years Eve, washing clothes only once a week, no PTA meetings or silly school plays where your child is a tree, no car pools, blaring stereos or forgotten lunch money.
No more Christmas presents made of library paste and toothpicks, no wet oatmeal kisses, no more tooth fairy, no more giggles in the dark, scraped knees to kiss or sticky fingers to clean.
Only a voice asking, "Why don't you grow up?" And the silence echoes: "I did"

After reading it the first time (and almost crying) I had to just sit down and hug Sydney - Mady was blissfully asleep at the moment. I need good reminders like that sometimes to keep me from getting frustrated too much. Tomorrow we're attempting the zoo. Who doesn't love 74 degree days in March? Halle-freakin'-lujah for that zoo pass we have.

Holy Awesome Bag Batman!

Since adding Numero Dos we've needed a bigger diaper bag. The little guy just wasn't cuttin' it. Then my fabulously talented friend Kiffon MADE me this beauty (She sells them). That's right. And she didn't even know I was a pink and brown girl. Oh yeah. I'm in love.

This baby has 10 pockets and is loaded with goodies in all sorts of fantastically coordinating fabrics!
Included are (from left to right) A Hooter Hider (Aka nursing cover for the slightly more boring. The back of that baby is so dang soft too. Seriously, Sydney stole it and snuggled it when she found it.) A diapers/wipes holder, and a changing pad. Below that you can see the fancy button (for some reason it's one of my favorite parts) and the keychain clip (for people like me whose keys fall into the unknown depths of their bags and are lost for 10 minutes while standing at the car).

Had to include this shot of my own little accesory who happened to be wearing a shirt that matched the bag exactly. Awesome.

Good Weather

Wow, how much do we love the warm weather? A TON!! It's been beautiful here for February lately (mid to high 60s) and we've been loving it. Before Mady was born I was desperate for snow. To me, snow = winter, and I like to experience all 4 seasons, so I'm not ashamed to admit I was wildly jealous when reading all of your blogs and seeing the snow you had. Then Mady was born. Apparently I associated winter (and therefore snow) with the end of my pregnancy. As soon as it was over, I've been craving sun. Probably so I can escape the confines of my self induced quarantine of anyone who might possibly infect my infant with a disease, but still, we want out! Because of this, if the sun is shining (as it does nearly always here), we try to get outside. It's healthy for me and Sydney loves it. Also, if Mady's in the front carrier, she's usually sleeping. Yay. When the warm weather hit this week, I started dressing Sydney in sundresses. I know, I'm crazy, but they're so darn cute! We also painted our toes together this weekend (she was fascinated and will totally show them off to you if you ask) and pulled out her brand new flip flops, which she really likes. This has got to be why God gave me girls.

I just love those pudgy little cheeks, arms, and legs showing. And look, pigtails! Last Friday I convinced her to hold still and I got some teeny hair bands in. Happiest day ever. My daughter won't get called a boy anymore. Plus they're stinkin' cute. Also this morning I will admit that I bribed Syd with gummy bears to sit still while I painstakingly tied teeny tiny bows around those little piggy tails. Then we finished getting ready to leave the house, and as we were walking out the door she ripped them out. I was uber irked. Little stinker.

Mady is filling out and getting cuter. We took her to the doctor on Monday and discovered she might be taking after her large cousins. This 1 month old weighs 11 lbs 7 oz. No wonder those newbie diapers aren't fitting so well anymore...

Check out these next 2 pics. I find them interesting. The lighting isn't the best in this first one, but what do you think? This first one is Mady at 1 month.
This was Sydney at 2 weeks old
Who knows where the time goes. Maybe I'm crazy, but I think they look somewhat similar. Here's to another beautiful day tomorrow and the play group we're going to. Hooray for leaving the house and interacting with other adults. It's not remotely over rated.

Randomness

I've had a request for more pics of Mady, so here are a few for you guys. I have been trying hard to keep this blog more updated than it previously was (I need the adult time and let's face it, if I kept going the way I was, this blog would be extinct in 6 months). First, just a fantastic shot of Mady and her crazy hair. I love it. This was actually taken yesterday morning, so it's very up to date.

We went on a walk last week. Hallelujah. Remember how leaving my house makes me feel semi-sane? Yeah, it's important. Also it's Sydney's favorite thing in the world. Mady is in the front carrier bundled up in clothes & blankies. It may have been 55 degrees, but she's still only 4 weeks old and it's February for crying out loud! Sydney on said walk. She gets cuter every time I see her I think. Am I biased? Yeah probably, but I think I'm also right. ;)
A decent pic of Mady if you blow it up
Look who I caught smiling! Usually my camera is nowhere in sight when she starts doing this, but I somehow caught it this time. How is she a month old already?

I have lots more pictures, so we'll try to keep posting frequently!

Nothing to do with my kids...

Remember how great this show is? I'm watching it now and I love it. Totally takes me back to college history classes and high school sleepovers. Ah, good times. Alli, I noticed Specs for you hon. ;)

Toddlerhood

Ever since Sydney joined our family we've tried hard to just enjoy the phase that she's in and not hurry her. We never pushed her to crawl or walk and we simply enjoyed her babyness, but honestly, as troublesome as they can be, I have a new love for toddlers!

Babies are sweet and fun to snuggle, but I'm discovering there's nothing like a toddler! Sydney is pretty stingy with her hugs and kisses, but just one of those things melts my heart the way a whole day of snuggling with a baby never could. Probably because she is so stingy with them, when I do get one, it's a big occasion!
Sydney is just starting to grasp the concept of pretend. I brought out some toy food and a little baking set I bought for her and she is absolutely in love with it. Tonight she brought me her little apron to put on her after dinner.
Because she is getting bigger and able to do more things, I've started letting her help in the kitchen. It's so fun to cook with her, although our options are somewhat limited since I'll only do stuff that requires about 3 ingredients and doesn't raw meat.

We've made rice krispy treats once and brownies twice now. She thinks it is so much fun to help out and you can tell she feels so big! It's adorable.

Aaron is more than a little concerned about getting salmonella from cookie dough and brownie mix, so Sydney gets her own bowl and spatula with pudding in it to play with. I stir my bowl and she stirs hers. And then plays in it and eats it.

She did get a few licks in on the real stuff and was thrilled with the outcome. No salmonella yet.

I love my sweet girls and always looked forward to the baby stages most. As much as I love them, I now can't wait for Mady to be at this fun phase where we can interact so much! We'll try to be patient and just enjoy it with Sydney for now! Hooray for these cute toddlers!

Life With Two

There's no way around it, life with 2 kids is more challenging than life with 1. I'm sure it gets a ton easier, but at least at first, it's interesting. There's 2 bums to change (since our girls are both babies still!), 2 mouths to feed, 2 kids to bathe, dress, scream, etc. Of course there's also 2 girls to cuddle and a built in playmate (in a few months when Mady's not quite so fragile). I'm still figuring out how to leave the house with 2 kids in tow, but you're all welcome to come visit us as long as no one is sick!

I've found that the biggest hurdle to overcome is psychological. I'm officially outnumbered during the day and the girls totally gang up on me (Sydney handed me a lighter the other day while I was feeding Mady leaving me to wonder how she found it!). It's sort of scary being 100% responsible for 2 tiny girls all the time, and although I am very happy to have them both here, I will admit I get rather stressed at times!

To combat the overwhelming feelings of potential panic, I have instituted a new practice that I think I might keep forever. I've always been a list girl. I have lists of things to do, things to buy, names I like, etc. My new list is the best one of all. It's called "Things I Accomplished" and it gets made every day. I get to write down everything that I get done each day (from the smallest accomplishments to the very large (one day those will happen, right?) so that when I feel frustrated that my house is a disaster and dinner has not even been thought about, I can look at it and remember that I actually have gotten a couple of things done. Happy Happy Day.

One thing I've discovered recently is about motherhood in general. When we first decided to adopt, I felt sort of like I would be missing out on the whole birth experience. I came to accept it, and by the time Sydney was born I was completely happy with the way things were. When I got pregnant with Mady I wondered what would be different. Everyone had told me that there was nothing that could compare to giving birth. Having now experienced both, I can honestly say that although childbirth and adoption are different, they are also equally special. Mady's introduction to our family was physically much more exhausting, but Sydney's was much more emotionally exhausting. I know for a fact now that I never missed anything with Sydney just because I didn't give birth to her. She is as much "our own" daughter as Mady is and we love them both very much. There are many ways to make a family and all of them are wonderful. We love our little family and are happy to have everyone healthy and well.

Thanks everyone for your love and support over the past few weeks!

Sisters

Here are a few pictures of both girls together. This doesn't happen very often, so enjoy them. Abby 2, don't you think that Sydney looks somewhat like Laura did as a baby in this one?

Sydney really likes to rub Mady's head. Maybe it's good luck. I think she just likes that it's fuzzy. She's started doing it to other babies and small children though too.
I think they're telling secrets here! Actually this is what Sydney did when we asked her to give Mady loves. It was very sweet. Hopefully we'll see lots more of this soon as the girls get closer!

Look for the next post - cooking adventures starring Sydney and Mommy coming soon!

My Mushy Gushy Valentine

I've never done a Valentine's Day post, but I thought I'd give a shout out to the love of my life. Here's to you babe!

Some particular things I love about Aaron include:

• He's funny as heck - Those of you who know him know what I mean. He loves to goof off and joke and is quite witty. As you know, laughter is the best medicine, so I think I'll keep him around. ;)
• He listens - when I talk I mean. Once in college we were talking with some friends about how wasteful it seemed to be constantly sending flowers and other things that die quickly just to show your wife you love her. I mentioned that it was the thought that counted and that it wouldn't matter if it were a can of cherry pie filling that you sent (it was the first thing that entered my mind!). The next day at work I had a can of cherry pie filling and a card delivered to me. It was the best can of cherry pie filling ever!
• He's thoughtful - When he moved to Colorado I stayed behind in Idaho for 2 months by myself to work and get things ready to go. It was kind of a crappy time being alone that whole time and he knew I would get sad, so he wrapped a number of small presents and hid them around our apartment. Whenever I got sad he sent me on a treasure hunt to find one. It wasn't even the presents that made me happy (although they didn't hurt!), but the fact that he had thought about it in advance and figured out a way to help.
• He's Daddy of the Year - Sydney is absolutely in love with him and he's so good with both her and Mady. He doesn't just come home and veg after work (although I know he'd like to a lot!). He plays with the girls, bathes and dresses them, and gives me a break, which makes everyone a little happier!

Aaron we love you! You're the best! Happy V-day bud!

Mady Cakes

First, here are some more pictures of the newest midget in our household. She's the smallest of the small ones (you Skippyjon Jones fans will understand that) but she still makes her presence known. Also she wears a shocking amount of pink. This is one of my favorite pics for some reason. Gotta love the adorable outfit (thanks Erica!) and the darling boots (Andrea!) She's seriously stylin'.

I had to show that one of my children was able to wear a barrett before her first birthday. Sorry Syd.

Just a sweet pic of my mom and the little girls the day she left. We still miss you. Also the shoes Sydney is wearing were mine when I was a kid. Aw.

More pink and bows.
Look who else is in pink. It's like there's a house full of girls or something!

We've had a lots of changes around here lately, including a lot of firsts. Here is Mady's first real bath. She screamed an awful lot. I think Sydney thought we were torturing her.

Another delightful first we experienced recently was our first blow out. It was from Sydney, the biggest of the small ones. Apparently stress+toddler=poop in massive quantities. It wasn't pretty and she broke an awesome streak of 506 blowout free days. Mady's record has been lightly less impressive at 6 days. One positive side effect of formula!

Mady is fairly alert for a not quite 3 week old. In this pic she was only 1.5 weeks old but still real bright eyed. This scares her mommy somewhat.

We went to the doctor for he 2 week check up yesterday (my first time leaving the house with 2 kids by myself) and Mady has regained her birth weight and is at 9 lbs 11 oz. Yay.

Sydney loved to be swaddled (until she was like 7 or 8 months old!) but I think Mady will be totally different. She likes to have her hands accessible, which I think looks cute and funny. It's been interesting seeing the subtle differences between the girls, even at such a young age.Ok Mady just finally went to bed, so I'm off to the same place now. Hope you all enjoyed the pics. We're finally getting close to being caught up with our pictures!