Happy Birthday to Me

That's right, I'm older now. Happy Birthday to me and thanks to everyone for the emails, texts, calls, etc. They made my day. I've found that when you're "grown up" and have responsibilities (whether they be work related or kid/family related), birthdays become less of a big deal. I still had a great day though. I showered, took a nap (I only got 5.5 hours of sleep the night before), did a lot of house cleaning, and took care of my kiddos. We went to Olive Garden tonight, so my life is complete because I got lots of yummy salad, breadsticks, and Chicken Garlic con Broccoli - it's the only thing I ever get. Y-U-M.

For Independence Day, we had an absolutely fantastic day. We started off with a breakfast with our church group. It's tradition and we love it. There's just something nostalgic about pancakes and scrambled eggs cooked on those large camping stoves. It reminds me of girls camp or something. I don't think Sydney ate a single bite. She was on the swings or the slide or petting a dog the whole time. Which means she was in heaven.

It was an exhausting day for the smallest of the small ones.
After breakfast we headed over to our community clubhouse. Every Independence Day they have a petting zoo and pony rides for the kids. Here are Sydney and Daddy with a tortoise. There was a noisy goat there who almost ruined the whole experience for Sydney. He wouldn't stop "baa-ing" and scaring her, but she eventually got over it.

She was all over the ponies. She kept yelling "whee!" It was like the carousel all over again.

After some naps and lunch, we headed to the pool. Aaron had - sadly enough - never been with the girls. Sydney didn't so much like falling in face first. Apparently 1 ft deep water is scary when you're only 3 ft tall. It took her awhile to warm up to it again.

With both girls. Mady's first time in.
Love Sydney's face. I asked her to smile.
After some more naps, we headed over to a good friend's house for a BBQ. This is all Sydney ate. She loved it (obviously).
After dinner we topped the day off with was a very nice fireworks show with a whole bunch of great friends. Sydney was scared at first, but after a bit of comfort food (cherries), she was good to go! Mady watched silently for a little while, then rolled over and went to sleep.
It was a decent show and, most important of all, from the time it finished to when we were home was only 30 minutes (and this place we went is 15-20 min away anyway!). All in all we had a perfect Fourth of July!

So Much Summer Fun

We finally made it to the pool. Huzzah! Somehow with the tornados and rain and hail we've been inside a lot. Weird. Wednesday (June 24) was our first pool day of the season. Sydney had a fantastic time. Mady had no idea what was going on.

With her good buddy Eli whom she affectionately calls "Lie" or "Die." Both are said with love.
Just chillin'. I've found I'm much different with Mady than I was with Sydney. I wanted Sydney to do everything, even if she was too young for it, and I think it was for me as a mom. With Mady, I'm content to let her just sit and enjoy the warmth (she stayed in the shade). I didn't even put her swim suit on. She just dipped her toes in. This is big for me. Really.

Can't you see these two in about 15 years? Sharing makeup, jewelry, clothes, etc. Ok, at the rate Mady's growing they'll be sharing clothes in about 6 months.

It looks like she stopped for a snack here on her way to her toes. They look tasty in those shiny shoes.

Sydney's first dress up shoes. Proudly purchased by Nana at a garage sale we found. One pair of purple, one pair of pink. We figured Mady would need some in not too long as well. sigh Those shoes make me happy. And check out this outfit. She was going for the Bohemian look. It's one of my new faves.

While Aaron and my dad were white water rafting a few weeks ago (they came back happy, tired, and wanting more!) my mom and I noticed a beautiful Swallowtail butterly crawling on our grass, so we went to check it out. Both wings had clean, identical tears down the middle (not like they had been ripped, almost like it had been formed that way) so it was unable to fly. This gave Sydney a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with a "flies." She was thrilled. We were very gentle with it (Sydney didn't understand that grabbing it would hurt it, but we managed to keep her from maiming the poor thing any further). It climbed on our hands and Sydney's arms and legs. This made her giggle hysterically and wiggle until it fell on the grass again. Good thing it was only a few inches!

She tried her best to apply chapstick to the poor flutterby's head (who doesn't need chapstick?) until we rescued it and hauled it over to our neighbor's flowers. It went crazy and ate for a little while, then decided to crawl across the rocks between our yards for some crazy reason. Sadly enough, this was where I found it an hour later, minus 1 wing. Sydney is now OB-sessed with butterflies. Also butterfly kisses now make sense to her.

We are really enjoying the great weather and time outside. Despite the length of time between posts, we are also almost caught up with all of our pictures! huzzah! Ooh, go check out the new book I read over here -->. It was so good!

Zoo Fun

First, thanks everyone for your words of support. While I definitely find myself going a little crazy at some point most days (such is life with 2 under 2), I'm not going over the edge, overly frustrated with my life, etc. Each day I am truly grateful to be where I am and doing what I am doing. I know being a stay-at-home mom isn't for everyone, but it's for me and I love it. Just thought I'd let you all know I'm ok and not about to jump like I sound like in some of the posts below!
Second, we had a fabulous time with my parents while they were here visiting. The girls got really used to having lots of people at their beck and call instead of just me. It was great while they were here, although we spent a couple naughty days reminding them that mommy does not move as fast as mommy+nana+grandpa together. While they were here we made good use of that zoo pass again and took the girls. Then, last Saturday, Aaron and I took the girls back again. Both times Sydney's favorite animal was the hippo. Weird since it was in the water most of the time and not very viewable, but she loved it and waited patiently for it to surface. She now has a plastic "hop-o" that she loves.

Where have the last 5 months gone?

Sydney and "Caca." Really, Dad, it's a term of endearment.
Every time we go to the Zoo it is more fun because Sydney picks up on more things. There are a few interactive things at the zoo (buttons to push, etc.) and Sydney is just discovering them. This time she found these African drums that she was thrilled with. She drummed equally as often on the posts holding the drums in place, but she had a great time with her new little friend.

When Aaron and I took the girls we sat and checked out the peacock for a good 15 minutes. Then he squawked ans scared the pants off of Sydney. The good news - she can now tell you what a peacock says.

We went to a short animal show where they had birds fly over the audience and some run across the stage. Sydney was all about it for a good while. She clapped and yelled "YAY!" every time the animals did something. Then she got bored, but hey, 20 min is a long time when you're under 2.

She got to go pet the dog (and get kisses) after the show.

Still big. Note the matching shirts (I guess you can only sort of see them). I promise I don't do it all the time, only when I take pictures. But it's cute and fun and I won't make them do it forever. Plus I tell myself if Sydney somehow gets separated from us I can tell people to look for a larger version of Mady with pigtails.

When we went with my parents, I took Sydney on the carousel for the first time. The kid was in love. Seriously. You know in movies where parents are shown dragging their kids away from things and the kids are holding on for dear life so they are completely horizontal? That was my trying to pry Sydney from the carousel. Complete and utter devastation. She honestly cried for 5 full minutes and yelled "Whee!" in a very sad voice the whole time we walked away. Then we bought her cotton candy and she forgave me. Here she is with Daddy when we went back.

Then I had to take her too. We had a couple of free carousel passes, and she loves it so much it was hard to resist taking her. Again, she was in heaven, and although she cried when we left, it wasn't quite as dramatic. Maybe she's realizing we keep coming back to it.

Today

1.We recreated the screaming situation from yesterday in Target
2. I listened to Sydney say "No Way!" at least 64 times. That doesn't include the many times she just said "No!"
3. I changed 5 poopy diapers. Make that 6.
4. Sydney dumped a container of yogurt on her head. Lovely.5. I got so frustrated with the craziness that I ate chocolate covered pretzels and took my kids to Target - a clear sign I was not thinking clearly.
6. I ordered recycle bins
7. We ate fresh raspberries for breakfast
8. Mady screamed the whole time I made dinner - don't worry, our happy little head is back.
9. Sydney started her own movie
10. We were super duper happy when Daddy came home. Mady was so happy she did yoga. Now it's 10 pm and bedtime. Why is Mady so hyper?

The Joys

You know how every time you go to the grocery store there is at least one kid screaming bloody murder? Today that kid was mine. Numero uno that is. Numero dos was an angel. Uno was screaming her lungs out, crying to get down, crying to be held, begging for food, etc. Also she may have bitten directly into a kiwi and tried to wipe off her tongue for the next few minutes. Apparently those hairy things taste icky. Who knew. When we got home she slept for 4 hours. Um, I'm an awesome mom and make my tired kids stay awake to go to the grocery store. Yup.
Ooh, click over there --> (book club bloggers) to see the awesome books I've been reading lately. Come on, you know you want to.

Yup, that's what it was

So we're still mourning the fact that my parents had to go home (darn those jobs), but the kids were a little better than yesterday. As in, not quite so whiny. We are putting the girls in the same room to sleep now, which is good and bad. Good because we might actually have a room that isn't filled with toys and small clothes. Bad because when one wakes up, so does the other. Today at 6:45, early riser Mady woke up (it's usually 6:09, so this was good). Aaron went to grab her and Sydney immediately woke up. He brought her to me, went back for Mady, and she was asleep. The kid slept until 8:15, which left lots of time for breakfast, clothes, and a bubble bath. She got a head start.

This kid loves bubbles and baths, so this was a winning combination. I was not fast enough getting her in, obviously.
Happy happy day

After a 2.5 hour nap, we went to lunch with a friend. We grabbed Subway and ate it at the splash park nearby. Mady was happy to just look around.

Sydney was particularly attached to this metal sculpture of a bear. She kept kissing his bum. What can I say, she's a friendly kid.

Great story for today: While eating our lunch, a very friendly little girl (around 2-3 years old) came and sat by us. As in, right in the middle of our little group. Normally I'm all for small children running around and playing with other people (their parents are watching from afar, right?), but Sydney was already distracted and her new little friend was not helping with my attempts to get her to eat something besides bear. After a couple of polite attempts to get the girl to go back to her mom, we sort of gave up. Finally her mom came huffing over all put out and said, (very loudly, I might add), "Come on, Aspen. I've been watching and these people obviously don't want you around their little girl. She must not be very nice!" and again as "Aspen" was dragged away, "She must not be a very nice little girl, they don't want you by her."
Yeah, that's what it was. My kid is mean so I was concerned for your kid's well-being. Mmm-hmm. Maybe it's just me, but I usually try to assume that people don't want my kids around and let them tell me differently instead of the other way around. I guess I'm weird like that. How about you?

Then I took Sydney to the Splash park since she kept saying "splash" and "kids!" over and over. She was less than thrilled. The swim suit was completely unnecessary. She got about 10 drops of water on her as I dragged her through one fountain saying, "no no no!"
We had some sisterly bonding during diaper changes (Mady is trying to hold Sydney's hand while Sydney is saying "No Mady!")
Daddy showed off his mad Lego building skills and built a house for all of Sydney's beloved animals. I was impressed. Aaron decided we need more Lego's. Can you really ever have enough? It's fun to see Sydney engage in imaginative play though now. And she can play by herself for slightly longer periods of time. Oh the joys. Today I sat and watched her while I read 5 pages of a book. Good times.
We ended the day by eating s'mores (Syd's first). She wasn't overly impressed and preferred the straight marshmallows. Also I discovered that marshmallows do not roast very well when held over the BBQ grill. I think I'll start a fire in a metal bowl next time and try that.

Oh Crap

Just a quick story from today. First, my mom and dad left and the girls totally knew it. They were cranky and whiny most of the day since somehow I am unable to meet all of their demands as quickly as my mom, dad, and I put together were. Weird. Anyhow, I've been putting off my monster stock up trip to Walmart for 2 obvious reasons. Their pictures are posted over there --> if you want to see them. Anyway, I finally got up the gumption to do it today. We went, we shopped, no one got lost, we got almost everything we needed, and I used $25 worth of coupons. Success.
We got to the car and Mady stayed put while Sydney ran around in the mulch picking up sticks (always park on the end by the bushes to entertain your toddlers). I rearranged all of my groceries since the girl bagging them didn't know that if you buy 20 containers of yogurt they don't all have to go in separate bags, and toilet cleaner doesn't go in with the cheese. (Note: I was in a hurry and needed to throw the cold stuff in the fridge and leave.) I finally got everything in and slammed the trunk shut. I turned to grab my keys to stow my children in my car and got that awful sinking feeling. Yes. They were in the trunk along with all of my (now) perfectly bagged groceries.
Aaron was in a business meeting and a minimum of 30 min away even if he could leave right away. I ended up calling my neighbor, sending them to my house to get my spare house key (thank you tornado for blowing it out of it's hiding place so we could remember it was there!). Then he had to go into my bedroom and go through my stuff to find my spare car keys and bring them to me. Good thing Walmart is 5 minutes from my house. I got to sit in the parking lot with 2 increasingly cranky (and smelly) kids for awhile and be thankful I had my cell phone and my neighbor's number and that they were home. Thank you Caleb & Michelle. You saved us.
The funny thing? Not one person stopped to ask if everything was ok. Cause most moms I know enjoy hanging out in the Walmart parking lot around dinner time with small children. I know I do.

Build a Box

Aaron got a whole bunch of sample cabinet doors from work that were being thrown away and he created something really cool: a toy box for all our girlies' stuff. Step 1: Go through the mind numbing process of trying to make a million different sizes of wood into precisely measured sides without cutting them. Ouch. It made our brains hurt.

Step 2: Allow your goofy wife to take pictures of her hot handy man playing with power tools. It's important.

Step 3: More pictures while you build a box

Box complete!
Step 4: Convince father-in-law to come help you attach cabinet panels

Step 5: Spend lots of time doing so while wife continues shooting pics

Step 6: Bring completed box inside and fill with toys!
Step 7: Admire. Doesn't it look awesome? I have to admit, I had some serious doubts, but as always, my man delivered and used his skills to create an awesome and very useful piece of furniture! I love it! Thanks Aaron and to my dad for helping! Come on, you know you wanna come see it! ;)

Unexpected

We had an exciting Sunday. So exciting that I'm just now posting about it... Tuesday night. My parents are in town and we thought we'd show them how exciting life in the big city is, so we had a tornado come to town. Ok, so we actually had nothing to do with it, but there really was one! We have church at 1pm and at about 2 pm (shortly before it was over), Aaron and I both found ourselves in the hall with crying babies while my parents were inside. Everyone was congregating by the doors and Aaron showed me something like this:

That is called golf ball sized hail my friends. And my baby was holding it. And wouldn't let it go. People kept wanting to see it and she was mad. A very short time later we saw something like this:
These two pictures were actually taken by our good friends (we don't regularly take our camera to church), but Aaron did get one on his phone. Aaron watched it touch down 3 times and I saw it happen twice. Needless to say, we missed the last few minutes of church because we were glued to the weather. Someone opened the doors and we realized the tornado sirens were blaring, but no one could hear them because the wind was so loud! Traffic stopped and everyone just stared. It was very impressive.

We drove home quickly hoping that Mady's room wasn't soaked from the rain (window open). It wasn't. But the power was out. Aaron got to open the garage door the old fashioned way. We stood in the garage and watched the hail storm end. Then Sydney and I put on our rain coats and ran outside in the rain. Look how happy she is. You wouldn't be able to say no to her either.

Daddy and Grammy came out too later but they didn't splash. Why waste a perfectly good puddle?

The tornado did a fair amount of damage. There is a large mall 1/2 mile from our house that got hit (car overturned, light posts bent over, debris everywhere, etc.) including a brand new Lowes that has been open for 1 month. The whole experience was crazy, yet slightly exciting (only because all we lost was a few leaves off our trees!) Even more weird than the tornado? The fact that Progressive contacted us within 24 hours to find out if we had any damage from the storm that they could take care of. What? Now that's progressive!

P.S. I promise to post before another week and a half are up. I am getting behind again. And I have garage sale plunder. Can't wait for Friday!

Perspective

Last night I found out that a friend from college had died of cancer a few months ago. We weren't close, and actually hadn't spoken in 4 years, but I was still in shock. She was only a few months older than me, and it really shook me. She had 2 little kids that are now 3 and 5 and a husband trying to hold their family together. It gave me some perspective and some serious gratitude for what I have: health, a home, family, friends, and the cutest darn girls ever. So when Sydney begged to go outside at 8:30 pm while clad only in a diaper and my high heels, what do you think I said?

I'm not that nice! Yes, she's distraught.

So we compromised. I took away the shoes (she would have broken her neck!) and replaced them with her flip flops. Then I made her put on her rain coat.
Then we jumped in puddles!

She was so thrilled by this and honestly, it wasn't going to kill her! I'm sure my neighbors thought we were nuts, but we had fun.

I know it's dark, sorry. It is almost 9pm.

We warmed up with hot chocolate when we were done. In order to keep Sydney slightly clean I gave her a straw.

She was so happy about it she even said "More chocolate pease!" The first time she's ever said 3 words together! We can barely get her to say 2 words together, so this was huge! Then she handed me the camera and said "cheese!" Yup, that's chocolate on her mouth, not dirt.

Sydney learned 4 new words yesterday (which is pretty normal now). She learned rain, markers, puddle, and chapstick (oh goody).

I'm not going to spend time dwelling on the depressing facts of life that are all around me, but I am going to try to live each day to the fullest. We've been richly blessed and we need to enjoy the good times so we have great memories to look back on when storms come into our lives. Then again, when those storms come, maybe we can just jump in the puddles!