See Madeline Dance

Sort of, anyways.


Here's a video her teacher made in class of their recital dance. Double click on the first screen to get the movie to play. Madeline's on the end in the black leotard. The recital isn't until June, so she still has time to decide to actually, maybe, do part of the dance.

Maison, 1 year 4 months 6 days

Maison, my little man. First your specs: about 25 pounds and as tall as your sister when she's on her knees- average weight and height according to the doctor. Since we cut your hair, I'm constantly told how much you look like your dad. Funny how that happens most when you're nearly bald. You are very nearly done with the whole 8 teeth in 30 days thing (at least I'm hopeful. The last two may have popped out or should very soon). You are a little brute, still swinging your noggin around. Now, you swing it intentionally for a variety of reasons. To say sorry, you lean in with your forehead, for kisses you use your forehead, if you're mad, we better watch out because you hit with your head, HARD. If you're not near a person to knock when you get mad, you walk to whatever wall/door/piece of furniture that's nearby and slowly (you're a quick learner) bonk your head against it.

You recently discovered that you can reach into the drawer where we keep some food and help yourself, and Sophie, to crackers throughout the day. I'm now wishing we hadn't decided against cabinet locks (except we do have the under sink cabinet locked, of course!). Your favorite cabinets are the ones where we keep the food and my glass bowls. I guess pots and pans, and tupperware cabinets are for sissy 12 month olds.


You climb up as high as you can, on anything that's climbable. And then you balance on the edge or walk backward or do whatever you think will give mommy the biggest heart attack. Today, when we came in from flying our kite in the front yard, I noticed your lower leg was covered in scrapes and scratches. You didn't even notice. It must have happened when you were climbing on and off the planter wall. Your first big boy ouchies and they didn't even phase you. I think I'm in big trouble.

For you, happiness is:

• Mommy
  
• Playing in the backyard
  
• Running down the driveway toward the street
  
• Banana's, avocados and Wheat Thins
  
• Drinking from a water bottle
  
• Lids that fit on perfectly
  
• Raspberries blown on your hands and feet
  
• Sitting in mom or dad's lap
  
• Your binki
  
• Rolling all around on mommy's bed
  
• Jumping, although your feet do not leave the ground
  
• Swinging
  
  
• Putting your shoes on
  
• A basket or box to put things in
  
• The inside of the refrigerator
  
• The garage
  
• Television
  
• Stuff with wheels
  
• Standing on the counter, looking out the window
  
• Getting dishes out of the dishwasher
  
• Unraveling toilet paper and/or tearing it into very small pieces
  
• Giving kisses with your forehead
  
• Playing in sisters bed (but she gets MAD!)
  
• Your tricycle
  
• Playing with daddy
• Playing Ring Around the Rosie
  
  

That's a whole lot of happy. Of course, you still have your whole lot of mad, frustrated and impatient to go right along with it, but you are always an easy smiler. And your smile completely lights up your face. Many times a day daddy or I will mention how gorgeous you are. And you are, every single bit of you. But it's your smile that always makes our hearts explode. Even strangers can't help but smile at you, and when you smile back they always laugh , and say something like, "Oh, my! What a beautiful boy!". I have a strange tendency to notice strangers who come close and don't smile at you, I think because it's rare. And because I know that if they would, you'd smile back and give them some happy.

You are so much fun. You are understanding more things and playing games. Pointing is your main means of communication. You and your sister are interacting more (not always nicely), and you always like to hang out with mommy, but you will also play by yourself for long periods. I can stick your shoes on and open the backdoor and you'll go entertain yourself for a good long time. I watch from the open window or the open door. You'll go push your swing, or climb on and off the big rocks, or just go wandering out to the big, odd, slab of concrete that takes up the back corner of our yard. You and Sophie have become friends, I rarely hear you complain about her anymore (unlike your big sis!).

You are growing so fast and getting cuter and more fun everyday. I can't wait to see what comes next. I'm waiting for some words to come out of that cute toothy mouth of yours! I'm predicting binki will be the first, or maybe it'll be Sophie because we yell it so much.

PS. Mommy's a slacker and now that I've finally finished this post you are 1 year 4 months and 9 days old and doing more new things, that I'll save for later.

Could've been a nice picture

Thursday's Wednesday's Wanderings, Again

I am just not on the ball.

I'm mad at UPS because they delivered my package so totally obviously damaged, with the stuff I needed TODAY, missing. Bastards. How am I supposed to (try) to make a firetruck cake without red food coloring?? Errrrrr...

I had lots to say at one point today, but now... nothing.

We went to Target. I bought some tee shirts. Madeline tried to convince me that Daddy wanted some gummy bears. We visited the bathroom, of course. Maison ate the top of a box of vanilla extract. And I had a conversation with the Checker about our dogs.

See, nothing.

I looked up myself on Facebook to see if I come up by my maiden name. I was surprised how many people have my maiden name. I didn't think it was that common of a name. I did not show up though.

Oooh, I finally gave our tax stuff to the CPA.

Next month I'm going to try to plan more kid friendly meals. I'm tired of making 3 dinners every night. Thor and I like spicy. Kids do not.

I literally can't remember what I did yesterday. I didn't do laundry, I know that. My ears are ringing from thinking so hard.

Madeline will not stop wearing these brown corduroy slip on shoes, that are really cute, but getting too small and VERY stinky. i bought them at Walmart, of all places, and can't find anything similar to replace them. Of all the shoes she has (a lot), she'll only wear the too small, stinky brown Walmart ones, or her hand-me-down tennies.

Saturday was spent with family. Susie was in town. Sunday we went to the Scottish Festival. Dad wore his skirt. Madeline wouldn't let go of my mom's hand, and Maison and Ian were grump buckets. It was really nice outside though.

We had buffalo chicken pizza for dinner tonight. Not heathy, at all.

Ok, enough nothings.

The Happiest Place

Disneyland 2009. We were there for a day and a half. Next time we hope to make it three whole days so we have time for breaks and naps. We ran the kids ragged and even stayed to watch the fireworks on the first night, even though the kids were begging mercy by that time. Madeline still mentions how she saw Tinkerbell flying.

We headed over to the park after we got into town on Thursday. It was pretty dang cold. Thor even bought himself an insanely expensive sweatshirt because he got cold. And he never gets cold. That first day we mostly just rode the train, looked around, watched the parade, and watched the fireworks.




Mom and Ian went on the rockets. I didn't go on anything the first day, but I think the big kids hit the Mansion, Pirates, the rockets and the teacups.


Madeline got picked to dance in the parade. That was really fun. She even got into it and boogied down a bit.



Ian got picked to participate in the parade too. He went all around in the conga line and danced some.

That first day we made the mistake of walking to the park from the hotel, so we had to walk back, at night. It wasn't too far, but the two oldest kids were dragging butt, Madeline was asleep in the stroller, and I hauled a sleeping Maison around in the hip wrap. We were POOPED by the time we got in.

The weather forecast for Friday was not good- wind, rain and cold. But in typical weather forecasting fashion, the forecast was WRONG. The day was nice and sunny.

On Friday we decided to take the bus over, so we wouldn't have to walk back. We dressed and walked over to Ihop for breakfast. Then headed back to the hotel to catch the bus.



All day, Madeline had this look of confused excitement. Or excited confusion. She kept making the cutest all scrunched up face.



The first ride we went on that day was Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Madeline did not like it at all. Too scary. So for her, we stuck to the really simple stuff. Me and GG took her on the teacups. Which she loved once she got over the initial shock of spinning around in a giant teacup.


Then we ended up spending a lot of time in Toontown. There was lots to see for all of the kids.





I took Madeline on the cars and let her drive. She thought it was hilarious. Thor and Max were behind us and kept yelling at us to hurry up. Madeline's driving was a little rough so we kept getting thrown all over and I kept forgetting to keep the gas pedal down. Ian went in a car all by himself and was ahead of us.




Max was trepidatious about the rollercoaster rides. He went on the Haunted Mansion and Pirates and loved them, but decided to skip the log ride and the bobsled. Ian went on both rollercoasters, but skipped the Mansion.


Here are my guys as we waited (and waited, and waited) for Mom, GG, and Ian to go on the log ride. We actually ran into a friend of mine and her family from Vegas while we waited. Funny.


I didn't go on many rides, but I was perfectly happy just strolling around with the stroller. I can't wait to go back. Next time, I'm gonna have to pull the fake pregnant woman trick I saw on a commercial, where a guy stuffs his fake prego belly with tacos. The food just was not good. I can live on Churros myself, but Thor really had a problem. And I don't like to see Madeline just eat french fries for 2 days.

This is the closest to a group shot that I have.

Wednesday Wanderings

1. Yes, my Wanderings have wandered into Thursday.

2. I had to buy Madeline new socks today. I always think my babies' feet are so much smaller than they are and have returned so many pairs of shoes and socks. I realized a little while ago that I had Madeline and Maison in the same sock size. To me, Maison's looked way too big and Madeline's just right. But, yesterday I had to stop in the grocery store several times to pull Madeline's socks out of her shoes because they kept popping right off her heel. So I bought her some new, unbelievably huge, socks. They're a little big, but not much. (the grey ones are mine)

3. I like what the recession is doing to my clutter. Between not buying so much crap, and throwing stuff out that the kids drive me crazy by getting into over and over again, I'm just about down to the necessities under my bathroom sink. 1 shampoo, 1 conditioner, 1 hairspray, 1 facewash, 2 moisturizers, 3 nail polishes, etc.

4. On the other hand, there are lots of things I'd love to buy. Like camera stuff and a photography class, a waxing session and a full massage, Mini Boden clothes for the kids, frames for my pictures, a new comforter and sheets for our bedroom, and we need to get our roof fixed.

5. Seriously, can a kid really cut 8 teeth in a month? Give me 2 weeks and I'll let you know. Although, you might have to come find out yourselves if I don't survive it.

6. Madeline has replaced "goggy" with "doggy", and "show me" with "show you", and is obsessed with her butt.

7. I told Madeline I'd give her a thousand dollars if she'd throw her binki in the garbage. She wasn't interested. BUT she is interested in the big pink pony from Target and $5 from her grandma. We'll see how it goes. I just really, really don't want to force her to give it up. It's her lovey and if it was a stuffed animal or blanket that she loved so much, I wouldn't make her trash it. It just sucks that it's messing up her teeth. So for now, we're just TALKING lots about getting rid of it.

8. Thor has started a Topsy Turvy upside down garden. One tomato plant and two jalapenos.


8. I still need to do my taxes. As usual.

9. Right now the kids are playing outside. TOGETHER. I keep the back door closed to keep the flys out, but the window open so I can hear them and I'm at the kitchen counter watching them out the window. Madeline came up a few minutes ago and told me that they were having fun. She seemed surprised. And she keeps bringing me things that she's stopped Maison from chewing on. A piece of a drip line, some pipe, a rock, a hook that came with the Topsy Turvy, and a stick.

Easter fun

This was our first Easter that we dyed eggs. Too bad I forgot that I only had brown eggs, so the colors turned out pretty muddy, but Madeline didn't care. She loved the egg dying and did a great job.

Saturday we had our family's Spring picnic at a park up in Boulder City. It's a super nice park with a couple duck ponds and a little water park, and since the weather was a little wishy-washy, we had the place mostly to ourselves. The kids got to do an Easter Egg hunt to prep them for the big day.


Even Maison got into it and didn't even care that his eggs were empty.

The men hung out all masculine-like.

And we played lots. I spent way too much time on the merry-go-round. I don't know why the kids like that thing so much (barf!).


Madeline loved the big swings. And grandma showed her how to go really, really high.


We even took a little walk up to the fish ponds. Maison rode on his tricycle. He loves that thing and will just sit, relax and look around for so long.


We wore the kids out big-time.


Sunday was very low key. Last year, E.B. came while Madeline was napping and left the kids a little something and hid a few plastic eggs with little toys and boring ol' crackers inside. This time he was nicer and left candy in the plastic eggs, and some little toys and candy in Madeline's basket. We were more lenient than usual with the sweets because, we're supposed to be on holidays, right? So, she spent the day hopped up on sugar and pretty hard to deal with.

I think next year I'll try to make the day more special for them. It just kinda passed us by. I didn't even take any pictures (gasp!).

Happy Hippity Hoppity Easter

Me, with my eyes wide and my eyebrows raised: Hey Honey, if you sit here really quick and take a picture with your brother, you can have one more piece of candy afterwards??

Her:

and finally...

Thursday's Wednesday Wanderings

I have a lot of catching up to do. I started to write last week's wanderings, but ran out of time to finish and post them before our vacation. And my brain just isn't into the whole writing thing lately. Here's a review of the last few weeks, minus our vacation which I'll post separately because there are lots of pictures. I think I've developed camera induced carpel tunnel.

We're all well and good to go. Thank goodness. It took Thor a really long time to get over being sick. And we think the antibiotics he was on were making him feel funny, so that didn't help. I took Maison to the doctor to follow up on his seizure and his doctor was actually surprised that we went to the hospital. I guess that kind of seizure is just not that big of a deal. We've been in the midst of some serious teething for a while now. I couldn't decide if it was Maison's eye teeth or his molars coming in, but I just noticed that he cut both of his top eye teeth and both of his top molars. Now I think he's working on the bottom sets. His binki does not leave his mouth without a fit and I can barely put him down. He is constantly pulling and crying at my legs.


Maison got his first haircut. Now he's a big boy. It's really short, military style. I don't know ANYTHING about boy's haircuts, so I didn't know what to ask for. I would have liked it a little longer, but I really can't imagine she could've done much else with him screaming and squirming all over the place. He does look handsome though.




Today is our 9th anniversary. We didn't do anything special. Thor must have forgotten to give me the card that I know is in his truck. Unless that card is for someone else (uht oh). I made Filet Oscar for dinner. My Bearnaise sauce looked really good until I covered it with tinfoil to keep it warm. When I took off the foil, it looked like it had either curdled or separated or both. But we ate it anyways, we're adventurous like that. It tasted like butter. And I had a glass of wine from a bottle that has been opened in my fridge for I don't know how long. It really tasted fine. My belly's not feeling all that great right now though.

According to spell check, I do not know how to spell separately. Thank goodness for spell check.

Madeline's on a Little Mermaid kick. She sings the ahahah's from the voice taking scene all day and into the night. We've heard her singing until after 9:30 the last 2 nights. I like the movie and all, but I can't figure out who would think that a story about a 16 year old who runs away from home to get married would make a good children's movie. Usually these movies have some sort of upstanding moral, but I can't find it in this one. Maybe it's that nice people are pretty and mean people are ugly? I don't know.

(her "smile" face is getting better)


We had our sprinkler lines in the backyard redone. We thought we could just have our sprinkler heads replaced because the old ones were in such bad shape, but I guess the lines were all wrong too. And we had to put in new drips so all of our plants could survive the summer. The ones that came with the house were not buried underground, so Madeline and Sophie have been working all winter to rip them up to use as ropes and whips and chew toys. Now we have very pretty lines of manure and grass seed all though our yard and it's making our house a mess. I'm thinking the grass that grows in those lines probably won't match the existing lawn and we'll have permanent trails.



My mom and I decided to start walk/ running around my neighborhood when she gets off work, until it gets too hot out. We'll see how that goes. I have to do something. My booty is expanding exponentially.

A completely unrelated to anything in this post, but nice anyways, picture...