Birthday Girl!

Videos Now Included!

Wow! The last year has flown by! Already our little Mady cakes (who was never very little) is a 1 year old! On Tuesday we took her to the doctor. She weighed in at a very healthy 26 lbs and 33 inches. Wowee baby girl! We cheated (despite my being a serious stickler on this rule) and turned Mady's car seat around a week early. She giggled pretty much the whole car ride that day. On Thursday when Aaron got home from work he had a surprise - my sister Jessica came to town to visit! I think this is the only picture we have to document her being here, but she came, we played, and Sydney has asked almost every day since where Auntie Jessa went! She got to come to book club with me which was so fun since Aaron even made sure she knew which book we were reading! Way to go babe! Thanks to both of you for the great surprise! There are 3 little girls out here that were all born within days of each other. We all got together to have a fun little party for the girls. We lined them up and gave them each a little cake and a party hat. Brooklyn and Brynne both hated their hats and cried. They weren't super excited about their cakes either. Mady wasn't thrilled about the hat but she tolerated it. She wasn't interested in the cake at all, until I finally shoved some in her mouth and got her to taste it. Then she went hog wild!
Everyone had a blast watching Mady go to town on that cake. We had stripped her down, so we just let her go at it. Then Paul & Janell were kind enough to let her bathe in their sink so she could be all squeaky clean for bed that night!

The next night (on Mady's actual birthday), we gave her her presents. She struggled opening them but had fun playing with them all! She especially loves that dolly and yells Bah-bee! a lot. It's hysterical.
Brilliant Auntie Jessica even thought to include Sydney in the presents and brought her an adorable little bag with a baby penguin in it. When Sydney opened it she exclaimed, "My handbag!" Thank you granny from Madagascar 2!
Also on her birthday Mady finally let us record some big stuff - she's walking now! She's actually walking a lot and being oh so big! I now have 2 toddlers!

She's walking much better now, although she still has the Frankenstein stance (which I adore). She's walking more than she's crawling now, so I guess she's all grown up! sniff sniff

I Know, I Know...

I stink at this. But my baby had a birthday, almost a week ago, and I'm determined to get caught up. Because she keeps doing funny things. So here we go. January in review...

On New Year's Day we went to the Museum of Nature & Science with our good friends Martin, Casey, & Kenzie. I love this picture of Syd & Aaron in the Expedition Health exhibit learning all sorts of cool stuff.

Kenzie & Sydney had a great time together riding Guanacos
Can't you see them being best friends forever? I can see the sleep overs now...

I decided to get out and go on a walk. I asked Sydney if she wanted to go to the park and she said no. I spent the next few minutes convincing her that she likes the park. After we discussed slides & swings she agreed to go give it a try.

We shopped lots of Target clearance (yay!). And we wore our new boots a lot. Aren't they just stinkin' cute?
On the 16th we went to a local candy shop that still makes all their candy by hand just like they did in 1930. Sydney's favorite part was the candy samples and the brochure rack like they have in hotels.Then over to the zoo. Take advantage of that decent weather when we can get it!
Next we built a fort. This is only blog worthy because it is the first fort my kids have cared about and played in. I'm pretty sure it was because I bribed them with popcorn.
A few days before Mady's birthday we went to the Children's Museum. Had to take advantage of her still being free! Sydney caught on to the role of a fireman real quick. While Mady and her friend just gabbed over some shopping. Ah, such fun.

Equally Cool

Today a friend was visiting me. Sydney happens to really like this friend and shows her all her toys each time she comes. Sydney really loves small animal figurines. She plays for ages with them, lining them up, arranging them into families, etc. Those little guys were the only way we got through church for a few months. Today she brought them out for my friend's viewing pleasure. Robin picked up a particularly strange one (shown here on the right) and asked Sydney, "Who is that?"

Sydney glanced up and nonchalantly answered, "That Toth"

After noticing the blank look on my friend's face, I helpfully informed her that Toth was an Egyptian God.

"Of course your child knows this," she responded.

Sydney proceeded to tell her who all the rest of them were including King Tut, the mummy, Anubis, Isis, and Nefertiti. Then she schooled her in a few other things including what a Tapir is and one of her favorite Disney characters.

Apparently Dopey and Toth are equally cool. Or equally uncool. Not quite sure which.

Deep Thoughts and Dilemas

We're going to Target today to pick up some more chicken nuggets (among other things). This morning while Sydney devoured one for breakfast (it wasn't worth arguing about) I realized I have a big dilema though. We usually buy the dinosaur shaped ones, which Sydney really likes, but she doesn't eat the whole thing. She bites of the dino's head, arms, legs, and tail, and leaves the rest to be thrown away. EVERY time. So here's my dilema: Do I continue to let her waste half of her food simply because she prefers appendages? or do I buy the "nugget shaped" (what does that mean anyway? What shape is a nugget?) ones and make her eat the whole thing? The nuggets would severely limit my artistic abilities. What's a mom to do?

P.S. This is not Sydney's plate although it gives me great ideas!

Potty Training

I hate it more than anything else right now.

Who You Gonna Call?

Yesterday Sydney was sitting on the potty when she suddenly starting seriously crying. I finally managed to convince her that I couldn't understand what she was saying while she caterwauling like that and got her to spit out, "A dragon getting my toes!"

Well, that was my first guess.

We proceeded to kick dragons out of the house for another 15 minutes. Apparently we had a very serious infestation. Here's Sydney showing off the dragon she caught. And here she is drop kicking him out the backdoor into our subzero wilderness.
After bruising their backsides she'd yell, "No come this house naughty dragons!" We're a dragon free home now. But she caught another one in Walmart last night. Be careful if you shop there.

Christmas 2009

Well, Christmas is over. My tree and all other holiday decorations are finally put back in the basement and my house looks, as Aaron noted today, "Bare." Which I think might be another word for clean that we are unaccustomed to using. Here's our farewell to 2009.

Sydney's first year leaving out treats for Santa. We had no cookies, but Sydney generously ate some of the treats before going to bed and included treats for the reindeer. She was very disturbed to discover that Santa had actually eaten "her" treats the next morning. Go figure, but I think it says on the plate that they are his.

Christmas morning. Oh the joys of the candy cane. Seriously, the kid had fruit snacks (from her stocking) for breakfast. But we had sticky buns, which aren't much better!

Mady with an awesome toy that makes all sorts of cool noises from Nana. Each girl opened 1-2 presents and then wanted to quit because they wanted to play with them. This is why we didn't go overboard this year.
This pretty much sums up our Christmas dress photo shoot. Seriously. These were taken Jan 4 because it was basically the first time Mady had been to church in forever because she has been sick. Despite my cajoling, they did not want their pictures taken. I have a great one of Mady in a headlock (courtesy of Sydney) on the floor crying. We love Christmas.

Hooray! A happy face! My mom got these great Christmas dresses for the girls and Aaron finally got a good picture of them. Happy day.
2009 was fun, now on to 2010!
Soon to come - this little girl is starting to walk!

Catch Up...Again

Ahhhh! I hate having to do catch up posts, but poor Mady has been sick for awhile. She got a cough the week before Thanksgiving and 3 sicknesses and 1 round of antibiotics later, she still has it. And it sounds worse now than ever. In fact I think it caused her to do a little baby barfing twice today. I might rip my hair out. I love winter and snow and Christmas and last year I was dying for it to be cold because that meant I would no longer be hugely pregnant, but this year I'm done. I love it still, but I want my baby to be not sick now! We were spoiled with Sydney's superman immune system and now we are paying for it. Grr. Anyway, here is my recap of the past month. I know I blogged, but these are some things I missed and want to record. Feel free to skip, but my little journaling self wants these preserved. Maybe now we can get back to that "More frequent shorter posts" mantra we were going for a long time ago...

Look at those sisters

I know this one isn't of family members and I'm not generally a fan of pictures of animals or things with no people in them (unless you're a pro-type), but I finally got to see the baby red pandas at the zoo. FINALLY. They're like a year old now. I want to eat them up and take them home. Don't they look cuddly? We went to the zoo. I think 3 times this month. So fun. We took lots of silly baths together We went to an ugly sweater party. Also so much fun. Oh yeah Tom, I posted it. Mwuahahaha. We went to Aaron's work Christmas party. Also so much fun. They always do a kids party instead of the more traditional adult-only drinking ones, so they have Santa, balloons, breakfast, face painting, carnival games, and a REALLY great present for each kid. Ooh, I love that party. I look forward to it all year. And I do mean ALL year.Next, a Christmas post and then on to 2010!

Never Fear - Michelangelo is Alive and Well

This is the underside of my table. Awesome work Sydney. The floor was even better. At least it came off easily with a Magic Eraser. I have to admit though that while cleaning off the table, that sentimental side of me thought, "Maybe I should leave this here so that when she's 15 we can all have a good laugh about it." Then I figured it would happen again soon!

Sydney has been a coloring fool lately, and it's all been completely voluntary! It's fun to see her exhibiting some creativity!
She is starting to figure out that when you draw you can do more than just scribble too, so that has been very exciting! If you're lucky, you'll get a Sydney creation!

Hallelujah

We finally found our copy of this last night. Hallelujah.

You bet we're listening to it. And Sydney loves The Little Drummer Boy. She keeps saying "Pum Pum again!" and singing with it. So darn cute. I love Christmas.

I'm so sad though because I am all done wrapping Christmas presents. Anyone want some help?

How to Eat Un-Fried Worms

We had such a great day at the zoo on Wednesday. Sydney asks to go almost daily, so it was heaven for her. (She chased the geese around telling them not to poop anymore.) Both she and Mady each got to have a friend come with us, so we all (moms included) enjoyed a much needed day of fun with other people. Sydney and Kenzie held hands the whole time. Mady and Brooklyn are 3 days apart. They'll be best friends too.

And don't forget the animals. It was a tad chilly so we popped in to the bird house to warm up and got there just in time to help feed them. The girls got to grab some meal worms (yum!) and toss them to the birds. Here it is in fullblown technicolor:

Here's the transcript version:

Me (while holding Mady in one arm and my shiny new camera in the other): Good job! What's on your hand? Let me see. Have you got a bug right there? Flick it off. Flick it off. NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! GROSSS!!!!!!! YUCK!!!!!! It's in her mouth!

Casey (other mom): She thought you said lick it off!

We don't use the word flick anymore. Also, I almost vomitted on the spot. Oh. My. Gosh.

On a happier note, both kids LOVED the carousel. It was new for Mady to like it, but it was so fun that she did! She kicked and giggled and held on just like a big girl!
When we rode the carousel, our friends were the only other people on it. And no one was in line. So they let us ride again. Which means Sydney chose a new animal. Tiger first, gorilla second. During our second ride a peacock got in our friend's stroller and stole Kenzie's PB&J (Casey chased the peacock and got it back). So the zoo worker got us all little bags of animal crackers.

Go to the zoo in December. It rocks.

A Christmas Miracle

So that's where Mady's stashing her bottles lately...

Oh, and Sydney cleaned up the living room almost entirely by herself tonight. Oh Happy Day.

Promised Pictures

Sydney was watching me do my hair one morning and asked me to do hers. I jumped on the opportunity. Here's the resulting photo shoot:

And here is Mady's photo shoot a few weeks before:

I have such cute kids.

Sniffers

My daughter has a ridiculously good sense of smell.
I was secretly munching on a few M&Ms the other night when she came running over and said,"Mommy, ope you mouf." After quickly swallowing my secret treat, I complied. She visually inspected, then decided to use a more reliable method. She leaned in and took a whiff of my breath. Intrigued by this new behavior, I asked her what she smelled. "Chocolate!" she replied. I obviously had to share. A few days later we repeated this process as she correctly guessed that I had been sneaking licorice. Apparently, the nose knows all.

This weekend I discovered where she had gotten such a charming trait. We finally got our new bedroom set all delivered and in correctly. (Yay!) While rocking Mady in the room, Aaron came in and informed me I was going to kill our youngest by exposing her to the massive amounts of fumes coming off our new furniture. My reply? "I can't smell anything."
It's all explained. Sydney and Aaron both have overactive sniffers.
Here's the offensive furniture:

Wake Up Call

I'm a crappy blogger, I know. Sorry. I have a funny story to share though. This morning Sydney woke up at 6:42 am. Since Mady was not awake yet, it was a little early and I was super groggy, so I told her she could come sleep in Daddy's bed (he was already gone). She rested for a bit and let me sleep for a half hour. Then I felt her little hands wiping something wet all over me. I thought she had licked her hands and wiped them on my face at first, then I realized it was lotion. She proceeded to cover my face (and hair) with lotion and put chapstick on me to wake me up. I am now all pretty for the day thanks to my personal beautician.

I almost had a heart attack...

Warning: gross story ahead.
Sydney is a mouth girl. As in, she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. Seriously. Thank heavens, she never tries to swallow things, but it still bugs us. She's over 2, this should stop now, right? Well, today we were driving to visit a friend and Sydney had one of those metal buttons that have slogans printed on them that you can pin on yourself. Do you know what I'm talking about?
Anyway, she had a small one of those, but I had removed the pin so that wouldn't stab herself or her sister. On our drive, she apparently put the button (minus the pin) in her mouth and it went back too far and got stuck. I heard her start choking and when I looked back, she was throwing up. I pulled the car over really fast and ran around to help her. As I swiped out her mouth a couple times, she continued to vomit on me, but we got it out. It got immediately thrown away. It was so scary, and so gross.
We immediately turned around to get her a new shirt and coat (Thank heavens we have 2 for her, which I previously thought was a waste of closet space). I got the car seat cleaned up (very little got on it) and we got to finish our day, after I washed my hands.
I'm obviously not happy this happened, my only hope is that it will scare her from putting things in her mouth again. Because in her own words, "I spewed, I coke." You sure did kid.

Productivity at it's best...

What a productive day. Seriously. We started by putting up this beautiful piece so the construction workers (and future homeowners) behind us couldn't watch me shower any more. We were good until the very tall house being built on a hill behind us went up. Now their kitchen looks into my bathroom. Hallelujah, the peep show's over. Then, thanks to my friend Karen who took my little angels for a bit, I got a whole day's worth of errands done in 2 hours. Including getting a stocking holder for Mady! Hooray! It was the last thing I had to put up in the house.
And last, but certainly not least, Mady pulled this trick out of her hat tonight. Seriously, what happened? This happened last October with Sydney. When she was 13 months old. My Mady is only 10 months! She's so big!