Cutting Teeth

The fun never stops in the Potter house, both kids have colds and both are teething, Mom is sick but thankfully for the first time in the last month Dad feels like doing something besides making dents in the couch every night.

Makena's mobility has improved dramatically these past few days. She is starting to crawl all around the room now in search of new toys and items to stick into her mouth and eagerly focuses in on whatever her big sister is playing with. She'll take a few steps crawling and then drop to the floor doing an army crawl the rest of the way. Its so fun to watch her nervously put that knee/hand forward. We cheer and she looks up with big smiles.

She was all fussy the other day so I stuck my finger in her mouth and found her two bottom teeth had broken though the gums. That explains all the night wakings which have made life a bit rough lately. The poor girl has been fighting the sickies for a couple weeks, now has two teeth coming in and she is trying to crawl. Give it a rest girl - save something for next week!

She still loves to bounce in her Jumperoo, sometimes with the help of her sister. Since she's out of the infant car seat, she is now riding up-front in the shopping carts. She sits up there checking everything out and her eyes are wide open with amazement. I love this phase....where they are in pure wonder of everything and make shopping so easy. It doesn't last long before screeching and whining will begging. So I'm enjoying it now, while I can. Bedtime is around 6:00pm and we are almost down to two naps a day. She can sit up play for a length of time and can almost push herself up into a sitting position.

Maddy still is not an adventurous eater, she adds about 2-3 new foods to her 'OK' list per month. This month it's been rice, peanuts and frozen tubes of yogurt. Pretty basic stuff, but that's our picky eater. Ever helpful she still takes out the garbage for me every night and she's a wonderful gopher, fetching diapers, burp rags and pacifiers for her sister, without complaint. She loves to grab the play vacuum when one of us is vacuuming the floors and help out. We've also have watched her grab napkins when she spills water. Emptying the dishwasher is still a hit, she can figure out where most things should go but I always cringe when she puts all the glasses up on the counter for me.

Given the chance she will climb into her sisters crib at the end of nap time and bounce around with sequels of laughter to Makena's delight. She's also quick to round up toys for her sister or stick a pacifier back in her mouth. The neighbor's goats still appreciate her visits and offerings of old vegetables, "Go feed goats Dad!". Puzzles are still a favorite activity and after doing them a few times we are always amazed to watch her put all the pieces in. We are also entering into the land of negotiations, we'll suggest something..and she always has a comeback with a different offer. "Maddy, do you want some Mac & Cheese?" and she'll come back with "How about.... strawberry?" Oh yes, good times ahead for us since she's starting to figure that one out.

More fun things that Maddy says:

"Farts come out of my butt" (Wonder who taught her that.....DAD!!!)

"I want to see my poop, .....that big girl poop, Pheyyyweeeawww"

"Want to do Play Dough with me", repeated 1,234 times a day.

"Got you nose", says Dad, "put it back on!!!", says Maddy. This game took us a few weeks to work out with her, most of the time we would just get a punch in the nose when she tried to get ours. Now she steals her sisters nose and thankfully is more gentle.

"I want to jump off a bridge too", in reply to hearing her father say this phrase the other morning.

"I want to read books on MomDad bed", better than reading books on the floor in her room by far.

"I do that all by myself!!!!", on numerous occasions she will undo what we have just done or put something back just so she can do it herself. She has a mean independence streak in her to say the least. Now if we could just channel that energy to potty training we would be all set.

"It's going to be OOOOK Makena, OOOOK", this phrase gets used when things go to pieces around Makena's bedtime. I think it's aimed more at us than her sister.