Unbelievable

2 nights in a row! Wow.

Miracle of all Miracles

Both kids slept all night long and are still sleeping. I don't know how I'll be able to function with a proper nights sleep. They'll probably both be bigger when they wake up.

The Dragon Cake (Max's 8th B-day)

My nephew Max requested a dragon cake with lots of gumballs for his 8th birthday. I love baking and decorating cakes. Even if they look cheesy, it's still lots of fun. Ian liked his skateboard cake, but I think the part the kids liked best was that it had donuts for wheels and candy canes for axles, so my plan for Max's cake was to put lots of candy on it, so he'd love it no matter what it ended up lookin like.

I found a design online that I liked and it actually turned out super cute. I couldn't find gumballs to put on it, but I don't think Max even noticed.

Max's birthday party was a blast. He looked like he was having a great time. The boys all swam, and the kids got to wack at a pinata shaped like a fish.

And there was a fierce game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

Here's Ian right before he stuck the tail exactly on the donkey butt and we realized he could see out of the blindfold. He was disqualified.

Even Grandpa Merrill got in on the fun.

The cake tasted good and looked cool, whatayaknow. It was butter cake with mini M&M's and cream cheese frosting.

Madeline demonstrated how to eat it without utensils.

I don't know who this weirdo is.

We all had a great time. The kids are growing up way too fast...

Favorite Saying of the Week

Submitted by....

Madeline, of course! While staring at Max's unfinished Dragon birthday cake.

"Mommy, pleeeeaaaase, mom! Mom. Mom. Pleeeeeeaaaaaassse, Mommy, pleeeeeaaase! Mom, Please. Mommy. Mommy, pleeeeeaaaaaase! Mom. Maaawwmy pleeeeaaaase, pleeeeaaaase, mom! Mom. Mommy. Pleeeeeaaase, maaawwmy! Pleeeeeaaase! Pleeeeeaaaase! Mommy! Mommy! Pleeeeaaaaase Mom!" and on and on and on...

My least favorite saying this week: "Mommy, booger, yummy."

Something I Never Thought I'd Say

"Honey, I don't have any tissue so just wipe it on your pants and Stop Picking Your Nose in the Car!"

We'll All Be Happier When He Can Crawl

I'm sure I'll look back on that sentence in a couple of months and wonder what I could have been thinking, but I'm going with it anyways.

My twisty, turny, squirmy little boy wants to move so so badly, but can so far only scootch backwards. He has absolutely no desire to roll to where he wants to go, which would be the easiest solution to his horrible problem for right now. For now, he tries to get something in front of him and keeps getting further and further away from it, which is understandably very frustrating for him.

Here's Frustrated Maison-

Here's more Frustrated Maison, just because it's so cute. I could do a whole post on Frustrated Maison, but I won't.

Here he is trying to get to Madeline (sans clothes, of course) and the legos. He started out sitting right next to her.

When neither of us can take any longer, I stick him in the Moby wrap, which he loves. It gives me an hour or so of extra hands free time. Although I spend half of it in front of the mirror playing with him because he's such a ham when he's in it.

Can't leave out Mini-me.

Little Stuff

This is just some random little stuff from the last few weeks.

- If you ask Madeline what her name is she'll tell you it's Sister. If I ask her if she's my big girl, she'll say "No, Sister." If I ask her if she's my sweet baby girl, she'll say "No, Sister." The name thing still confuses her. She decided, after thinking for a little bit, to name her new stuffed puppy Puppy.

- Maison weighs about 18.5 lbs and he's growing fast. He prefers baby food to liquid nourishment, but he's a picky eater. He won't eat it if he doesn't like it, but if he does like it he can chow down two stage 2 jars very easily.

- Maison sneezed with a full bite of food in his mouth. I was too surprised to duck. Yuck.

- Madeline has wanted to take body parts off a few times. The first was her head. She asked me to take it off and when I wouldn't she took her hands and pushed up on her chin, getting irritated that it wouldn't come off. Another time she stubbed her toe and wanted to take her foot off. She pulled and pulled. Just the other day she wanted to take her hand off and another time wanted to take my head off. It's so hard not to laugh.

- A song was playing at PF Changs, and Madeline kept looking around saying Lion?, Lion?, Lion? We couldn't figure out what she was talking about until Thor realized it was a song from a movie she likes called The Wild that's about a lion. Her memory is amazing- it's way better than mine already (I know, not saying much...).

- I've begun mini sleep training and it has already made a world of difference in Maison's sleep habits. If he's crying hard, I won't let him go for more than 5 minutes, but if he's just complaining, I'll let him go until he's asleep or crying.

- I figured out the peeing out of the diaper problem. Point the weenie down (thanks guys!) and tighten the diaper a bit (otherwise it just comes out the back). Now I have to try to lessen his fluid intake at night because he overflows his diapers and they're Overnights, the size bigger than he should wear. 1am diaper/ PJ changes are very annoying for both of us.

- If Madeline needs help with something, she says "Mom, help. Hands are too little!"

I'm running out of postable pictures of Madeline, hard to believe, I know. I have lots, she just never has any clothes on. Thank goodness it's summertime.

Cute messy faced babes...

Home Alone

Thor went to visit his parents in Colorado this weekend, so I've been home alone with the kids. Before kids, I'd have had great plans to eat Milk Duds and watch a movie and just have a terrific night alone. I tried to do the same thing this Friday night, but of course it's just not quite the same. Madeline stayed the night at my mom's, which was awesome, but Maison was sleeping on the way back from taking her there, so I couldn't stop for my Milk Duds. Dang. But at least he saved his 6 normal 'put-my-binki-back-in-my-mouth-woman!' and 'hey-where's-my-boobie-woman!' wakings for before and near the end of the show.

I'm very behind in my movie watching, I don't think I've been to a theater since before Madeline was born. And, I'm a horrible movie watcher. I can never follow the story. I either fall asleep or try to multi-task or can't understand the accent. Thor's used to answering a million questions and I don't think he even notices how annoying it is anymore. When I watch alone, I turn on the closed captions so I don't miss anything.

I decided to rent Atonement because it looked dramatic and pretty. And it was really beautiful, until it made me bawl my eyes out and then I was just pissed off. A-holes. Why couldn't it just have a happy ending? Is that too much to ask? I guess they weren't thinking about my tired/moody/emotional self when they made it. Go figure.

Today Madeline asked if Daddy was still on a helicopter. I had told her he left on an airplane. She gets the two confused. She's such a good girl.

What else have I done since Thor's been gone? Hmmmm.... Dishes, exciting. Made a pumpkin pie. Laundry, don't be jealous. Didn't take my jammies off for a full day. Screwed around on this damn broken computer, like always. Oooh, bought a DVD player with my Amazon points so we don't have to use Thor's noisy playstation anymore. Fixed a light switch. Fed people. Cleaned out the spice drawer. Showered, thank goodness. Bathed children. Joined the Children's Book of the Month club. Let Maison cry in bed a little bit, trying to get the guts to sleeptrain the little dude. Thor's going to be sorry he missed all of the excitement. :)

Hangin' with the Boys

My tough, rough, big boy nephews are so great with Madeline and she just LOVES them to death. Yesterday they were over and they started playing "Drag Race" in the backyard. It always amazes me that kids don't seem to notice when it's 180 degrees outside. I'm just thankful we have windows so I can supervise from inside the house.

I did go out to take pictures (of course). I love taking pictures of the kids when they are running and playing. I get so many great smiles and they don't even notice I'm there (except when they'd nearly run me over). I think I get my best pictures of Madeline when I run around with her with my camera at hip level and just aim, hoping it focuses.

The game ended up being more like bumper cars (or bumper tricycle and bubble mower) than drag race, but I think most games do when boys play.

Hmmm...

Is it bad to have a blog just to show off how cute your kids are? Because really, that's all this is. :)

Swim Lessons

Madeline started swim lessons yesterday. It's a parent and me class. Yes, I braved the public eye in my swim suit.

It's really not meant to teach them to swim, just to have fun in the water. She was very shy yesterday and just held on to me for dear life, but today she had more fun and did all of the exercises- still holding on to me for dear life. I think we may have a trust issue. She thinks I'm going to let her go under. I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm super, super clumsy and have been accidental hurting her since she was born. When she first started talking she'd say sorry whenever she hurt herself because she was so used to me hurting her and telling her sorry.

Anyways, the class lasts a 1/2 hour for 8 days. I cheated and signed up at the Henderson rec center even though I don't live in Henderson because I figured it would be nice and new, and it is. I should have some pics of her actually in the water once someone else can join us and take the pictures.

The Stewart Scowl Lives On

The Evil Scheme Cont.

Turns out it was a conspiracy.

Maison went to sleep at 10:30, woke at 12:30, 1:30, 3:00, and 4:30.

Madeline woke at 2:00 (I think, Thor took care of since I was in with Maison) and 5:30.

Now they're both awake like it was just a normal ol' night.

I'll spare you the picture of me...

It's 9:45pm

and somehow Maison has sweet-talked (read: screamed and cried) his way out of bed and into the living room with me & Thor. He must have wanted to watch Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle with us. Such a funny movie. Either that or tonight's the night he's supposed to learn how to crawl and he couldn't do it alone in bed. Or maybe he's coming down with a cold- he's been coughing a little and sneezing and nose runny. Or maybe his top two teeth are trying to break through. I gave him Tylenol just in case. I'll figure it out in the next few days, I'm sure. But for now he's just up.

Of course he was being a complete ham once I got him up, Thor had some neat animal sound things on his Iphone that were cracking Maison up, but now he's just about ready to go back down, thank goodness. Here are the completely unjuicy details of his evil scheme, in case you're interested:

Bedtime is between 7 and 8. Today he was fed and crashed out by 7:30 because he missed his afternoon nap (turns out it's really hard to nap in PF Changs...). He was up again at 7:50, rocked and back to sleep by 8:10, up again at 8:20, binki'd and back to sleep by 8:25, up again at 8:30, cried for 10 minutes while I put Madeline to bed, back-patted and rebinki'd until 9:10. Then I gave up and here we are.

He's lucky he's so cute.

The Skateboard Cake

My computer has been dying a slow, slow death. I've had lots of days without it lately, but of course, now that I've finally broken down and ordered a new one, it's working just fine. I'm very excited about my new computer though. Can't wait for it to get here. Anyways, about the skateboard cake...

My nephew turned 10 this past week. I can't believe he's getting so big. He's a good kid and a great clubhouse builder.

He's completely obsessed with DC brand stuff and he requested a skateboard cake for his birthday. So, I made him a DC skateboard cake.

It was pretty cheesy, but he liked it. He especially loved the DC logo and the donut wheels.

I found the basic skateboard shape idea online and made the graphics by doing frozen buttercream transfers, which, if I practiced, could actually turn out really neat designs and it was really easy to do. I'm going to try it again for Ian's little brother Max's birthday cake in August. He wants a dragon with bubblegum eyes. So we'll see how that one turns out.

Madeline painted the cake board. We used washable tempura paint on foam board and we covered it with plastic wrap before putting the cake on it.

I think she's a budding artist. She did a purple and blue painting before this one for Ian, but I fell in love with it and decided I needed to keep it.