Her best friend

A few minutes ago, I made Madeline go potty. She always says she needs to go and then changes her mind at the last minute, but if I don't make her go she usually wets her pants. After she had gone and was getting up, she said, "That better! Thanks asking me go pee mommy. You my best friend." and she gave me a hug.

Yeah, so sweet. Makes me smile.

And I also want to mention that we went to the dentist today for her cleaning and to see her be so big and brave and wonderfully good while strangers with scary masks and glasses put their hands and strange instruments in her mouth made me want to cry. She'd look over at me without moving her head and I'd nod at her and mouth "good girl" and she'd nod back really small at me and look back up at the ceiling. She's getting so big.

I'm going to go cry now.

VIDEO!!

I put a link to short home movie clips in my sidebar. Just click on "See us in action"...

Turkey Day

First of all, I can't believe it's already Sunday. Thanksgiving was four days ago. Time is flying by.

We had a good Turkey Day. Madeline, my master napper, who has missed maybe two naps in the last year, decided Thanksgiving would be a good day to not go down. I gave up after an hour and decided that that could kind of count as a rest, and hoped she would make it through the day without a major meltdown. She did really well. Thank goodness. It was easy for her, which makes me afraid that she might be getting ready to drop her nap altogether.



We went to Gma's at about 2:00. Mark, Kim, Jeff & Britt came from Arizona and Susie came from Chicago. It's always fun when everyone is here. Thor decided he wanted to try to make the turkey, so he researched different techniques and decided to brine it in a 5 gallon bucket overnight, do an herb rub under the skin and cook it upside down (It turned out really good and we pretty much demolished all 21 pounds of it). Not dry and lots of flavor. More power to him- I won't touch raw poultry. I'll barely touch it when it is cooked. Eeewwwww.


What's up turkey butt? hehehe!



We had most of the usual stuff- green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, cranberry salad, ham, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs and more. We're never short on food, that's for sure. And, like usual, our desert spread was nearly as big as our dinner with cookies, pies, cupcakes, and fudge. Dang, I'm actually making myself hungry again.


The kids ran wild in the backyard playing princesses and bad guys while we ate. We figured that'd be less stressful than trying to get them to eat at the same time. Once we were done eating we got them rounded up and fed.

Granny's (oops, I mean Grammy's) a good rounder-upper...



After dinner, mom got the Wii out, and the kids (and grown ups) went to town. First on Mario Cart, then the sports games.



Mom was trying to teach Madeline how to do the ski jump, but all she could do was make snowballs (it's what happens when your Mii rolls all the way down the ramp, you turn yourself into a giant snowball).



There was a downside to the day. My 97 year old great-grandpa had to be put in the hospital, so my grandparents spent the day going back and forth between the house, the hospital and my great grandparents apartment to be with my great-grandma. It was not a relaxing day for them and we missed them when they were not there.

A note about my great-grandparents: them meeting Madeline is like me meeting Madeline's granddaughter's granddaughter. Almost incomprehensible...

Bust a Rhyme

Our Masta Rappa...


She wasn't really rapping. I think she was singing Jingle Bells or something, but I thought the photo sequence was funny when I saw it. And, no, I don't usually let her stand in the refrigerator. I happened to have my camera in my hand, so she got a 2 minute pass...

The last perfect day

We had a cold week a while back and it made us feel all Fall-ish. After that week it warmed back up again. Thor and I kept complaining that it just wasn't getting cold fast enough. That is was still HOT HOT HOT outside, and blah, blah, blah. Then, suddenly, I realized that it wasn't HOT, it was like upper 70's, and that I better enjoy it while it lasts because it certainly will NOT last forever (this isn't San Diego, you know).

Today (according to those always correct, never wrong, weather forecaster folk) was the last perfect day. Tomorrow it will be cold and gloomy. Which is good for the holiday, but then upper 70's would be nice again if the weather gods wouldn't mind.

We have spent a lot of time outside. Madeline and Sophie palled around for hours everyday. And Maison's whinning broke me down and I've let him crawl around on the patio. We did the park a few times and Maison loves to be pushed around the backyard on the tricycle. He's surprisingly sturdy sitting all by himself, and can even pop wheelies.

I spent the last perfect day at Costco (craziness!!), the grocery store, and Target (where I regularly donate most of my money), and with my friend waiting for her new baby to arrive (what a tiny doll!). And trying to figure out how to post videos on this page, and figuring out how to get the videos off off the 50 mini-dvd disks I have accumulated over the past 2 1/2 years (I think I got it, finally!), and now playing with my new, lovely, photo program, shopping on Amazon, and posting to this wonderful blog. I'm pooped.

Hey cutie bootie, I'm sure I'll see you here in the next couple of hours. Guess I love you anyways.

Fancy day

First there were fancy cookies:

Then there was fancy standing:

Bad picture, but his other hand isn't holding onto anything either.

So far today

Maison slept all night, but of course, my newest addition had to get up at 4:00 to go pee outside.

Madeline watched 3 episodes of Little Einsteins from her new Christmas DVD that she loves. She woke up way too early today, so she also watched Jojo's Circus and Johnny and the Sprites in my bed while I tried to not get up.

I vacuumed and did dishes.

We hit up Starbucks for the Eggnog Chai that I'm trying not to make a daily habit, and a pack of Madeleine cookies for me and Madeline to share (which is, by the way, where I got her name, although we spelled it differently. She was named after cookies. That can't be surprising coming from me.)

We went to the park. There was no one else there. I let Maison crawl around on the ground. Gross I know, but I give up. I also put him in the swing for the first time and he kicked and smiled with delight. Madeline climbed up the slides and slid back down backwards and upside down.

Madeline and Sophie (our new dog) are now playing in the backyard. They've been playing quietly for half an hour now, which , I think is a record. I keep sneaking looks, being very careful not to remind them that I'm here. It looks like they are collecting a lot of "trees" (small branches from our evergreen bush/tree things).

Maison is napping. I put him down without his binky and he didn't even notice. I think he might not ever see a binky again. He has been taking big, huge naps lately. Yesterday's was 4 hours. Hopefully today will be the same. After his four hour nap:

On the other hand, Madeline has already been in her bed twice just to have her binky.

I am having anxiety issues from trying to choose my favorite photos from our family photo shoot we did with Lesley this weekend because all of the pics turned out so nice. So I took a break to write this lovely post.

I think I hear Madeline dragging a very dirty toy into my recently vacuumed house from the backyard. The one that is holding all of the "trees", so got to go...

Yep, she was. I told her to "take it back outside". She told me to "check it out".

Something I don't want to forget

I didn't start this blog until after Maison was born, but there are some things that pop into my head about Madeline when she was younger. I'm going to try to put them here as I remember them, otherwise they will dissappear from my brain completely.

When she first started walking, my mom and I took her to The District one weekend evening to walk around and do a little shopping. On the weekend there they have bands that play. Madeline has been a little dancer since she could move, always moving and groving to whatever beat or music she'd hear. Even funny things like the blowdryer would make her start bee-bopping.

Anyways, the music was playing and she was tottering around. As we got closer to the band, she started bopping. At one point she could barely keep walking because the music had taken over. It was hilarious. This little tiny thing, trying so hard to walk and dance at the same time.

Tonight's highlights

Tonight my parents watched the kids so we could catch a movie. Instead we decided to go to dinner (thanks Anna!). It was a nice night away. The highlights were:


1. Wine

2. Chocolate covered strawberries

3. On the way to pickup Maison (Madeline stayed the night), Thor was reminiscing about the old days of staying out late and sleeping in late, and joked that "he was getting tired of all this mature adult stuff" we have to do all the time.

4. The kids put together a cool haunted house at my parents house and tried to charge us a dime to enter. We counter offered a hug and kiss, and ended up settling on us just saying our name at the door. It was dark, we entered one by one, they chased us and threw stuffed animals at us. Max jumped on Thor and may have tried to bite his head. When I was at the door I could hear them telling Madeline over and over to "stay in your spot!", "get in your spot!". I thought she was being pretty brave in the dark and she chased me pretty good. The kids thought it was all hilarious. Madeline was having a great time.

5. There was one more thing I wanted to mention, but I can't remember what it was. Darn my forgetful brain.

As political as I get

1. I'm glad Obama won. I hope he can turn this country around, but I think our expectations are a little high for the poor guy.

2. I feel bad for McCain. He really wanted to win.

3. The SNL skits were really funny.

4. This is the first time since they started teaching us this stuff in school that I seriously have no idea who our VP is. I'm glad he didn't run for President.

5. I wish Amanda Peet would have come to my door to remind me to get out and vote.


That's it. It's as political as I get.

Holy Halloween

We had a zillion (give or take) trick-or-treaters and it was such a nice, warm night. We went to 4 houses so Madeline could do her first ever trick-or-treats and she loved it. Thanks to our candy-hander-outers (my Mom, Dad, Grandma, Aunt Debbie and Great Aunt Judy), her candy bucket was nearly full with candy. She now loves candy and all I hear all day is "it's candy time", "mommy, more candy", "candy now, please," and the wonderful, "WAHHHHH CANDY!!". And, of course, Thor and I haven't had a single piece of her candy, at all, ever. I'm funny. I know.

We seriously went through at least 500 pieces of candy, and for the most part, only gave 1 piece per person. Thank goodness for Costco.

The teenagers were out in full force for free candy, and while it was kinda annoying, I went there one year, too (maybe two years...), and some of them were really funny. Funny enough for me to take pictures of complete strangers.

Madeline wore her costume all night, but Masion only wore his long enough for pictures and then again just long enough to go trick-or-treat at our next door neighbor's house.

Madeline was very weary of the scary stuff (as she should be). At one house she handed her bucket to my mom and told her to do it. She didn't like the scary, but she didn't want to give up the candy. Madeline didn't like Grandpa's mask one bit, but I don't think Maison even noticed it.

And look who we get to buy a costume for next year.

Like I don't have enough reasons to not sleep at night. But she sure is cute...

New Developments

in Madeline land.

We converted her crib to a toddler bed. now she can get in and out whenever she wants. But she doesn't. She still calls for us and waits for us to come and get her. She doesn't know any better and we haven't clued her in. Now she LOVES her bed, though. Much more than when it was a crib. Even when we go get her up, she'll lay for a while until she's ready. And she lays herself down when she's upset and has even gone to lay down when I made her wait too long for her nap. I'm sure the fact that she can only have her binki when she's in her bed is a giant factor in her bed love.


She is just starting to show a preference for particular clothes. As we walked around the mall the other day, she veto'd everything I picked up for her. Unfortunately, (for her because it's not going to happen) she only wants me to buy her outfits that have Hello Kitty on them.

She is also just starting to understand that everyone has a name. It's only been a couple of weeks since she understood the concept of her own name. She has always answered to Madeline, but for a long time, if asked her name, she'd answer, "Sister." It was really cute. But now she knows she's Madeline, and Mommy is Jessica, and Daddy is Thor. I told her that Daddy was crazy, for some reason or another, and she said, "No, Daddy Thor."

This is her new friend "Jack". He's the first thing she has named completely on her own. He's named after Jack the Pumpkin King:


She keeps him clean



And exercised

She asked me, "where's his butt?"


She's pretty scared of all of the Halloween stuff, so when Thor bought these skeletons, I decided it'd be better for her to play with them, than for her to just see them hanging in our tree on Halloween night. Now she won't leave them alone.

10 Month Maison

Maison, Maison, our little man. Everyone who knows you, and anyone who sees you, falls in love with your cuteness.

At 10 months old, you have the best smile we've ever seen (only your sister's is equal), and we are very lucky to get to see your smile often. You are very, very easy to smile, but you are just as easy to cry and fuss, and will move from one emotion to the other and back again without skipping a beat.



Your hair is growing and is long enough now that you wake up with mussed hair. It's too long to stick it up in the funny mohawk we loved so much, so I now push it all forward. Daddy says it looks "dorky" that way, so he still tries to spike it when he gives you your bath. The result is some pretty crazy hair.




You LOVE your sister and everything she does. And sometimes you get lucky and she comes within 5 feet of you, without trying to take whatever you're playing with out of your hands. When you're not lucky, and Mommy isn't looking, she grabs whatever you have, roars in your face, and possibly bonks you on your head.



Crawling has lessened your frustration, and has lessened your fussing by quite a bit. I love it when you "run" to me when you see me. When you get to my feet, you lift one arm to say pick me up. If I don't pick you up quick enough, you lose your balance and fall. you started pulling up and cruising the furniture nearly as soon as you learned to crawl. You will be walking before we know it.




It's been a while since you gagged to the point of puking on a single Cheerio. Which is a good development, since the past few days it seems that you are preferring non-pureed food to the completely mushed up stuff. You do good with cereal, small pieces of cheese, bananas, crackers (although there have been a few gags), sweet potatoes, and bread. You tried to swallow half of a teether biscuit the other day, so I have removed those from your menu for the time being. Tonight daddy noticed you intentionally throwing all of your Cheerios on the floor, (small) handful after handful. I thought I noticed you do it the other day, so now it has been confirmed.

You love to eat paper and you seek it out and find it and eat it whenever possible. You also like to chew on our tables and your crib rail, and lately my shoulder.


Our sleeping situation has spiraled down out of control since I last wrote about it. After our San Diego trip and cutting two teeth we have yet to get our groove back. I have been trying to sleep train you with as little crying as possible, and I thought we had compromised by you going to sleep while I stood at your crib. But, last night you pushed me to the point of very tired tears, with a 12:00am, 2 1/2 hour hold-fest. So, unfortunately, tonight I had to put my foot down. You cried very hard for 27 minutes. Then you went to sleep all by yourself. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

You are still a momma's boy and cling to me often. I don't mind it at all, but it does lead to you crawling after me and fussing when I can't hold you. And then fussing harder when you finally get to me and I turn around and walk the other way.

You give great hugs. Especially when I get you up from bed. You grab tightly around my neck and put your chin or your forehead to my shoulder.

You are much loved, little man.