Saturday, January 26, 2013

Loud, Crazy, and Messy

 
Random pics from a couple crazy weeks!
 

She found the ink pad. She did some stamping and then, I can only imagine, buried her face in it.
She came to show me her artwork. Gorgeous isn't she?   Can I tell you how much I love stamp pads?    I really want to love them, and in theory they seem fun.  Only it mostly ends up like this, which doesn't seem like so much fun to this mom.   Of course she left her prints on the walls and doors and everywhere else she touched.   Its washable.   Good thing.


We started potty training.  We spent a few days like this.   Potty, Dora, repeat.  The good news if you wait till 3.5 years old to potty train your kid, turns out it goes very fast.   Granted her speech delay made potty training quite difficult in the past, which is why we put it off.  Until last couple weeks when I was just done and convinced her so was she. Now we are in Big Girl underwear.  Halleljuah!  Guess which character is plastered all over just about every pair?   Dora.  Dora, what would we do without you?


Some nights bedtime can be a lot of fun.   Dad is all about routine, no fussing, no screwing around, getting them to bed.   And me, well sometimes you just have to stir the pot a bit and raise a ruckus.   Its fun.   They are only young once and before we know it, they most definitely won't want us to put them to bed.  They won't want anything to do with us.   So until that moment....

I love getting a cute moment caught on camera. 

 
The game on on this night was put on your character towel and run around like crazy.   Makena had on the monster towel, and then would stop, point one finger in the air and scream "Super Why, to the rescue!!!"     I couldn't get enough of it.  It was so stinking cute.   We have made amazing progress with her speech delay in the last few months.  I soak moments like these up.  We worked hard for them.   She is quite the character and now we know what she has to say.

 
Dad came through with quite a bit of patience while the 'Super Why' game was going on.   His patience finally wore thin.  He wanted the girls in bed.   Its hard to get them to stop and focus on PJs after you've got them going.  Shocking, I know.   Mike got creative, trying to lure Makena to her bedroom saying he was going to put on her PJs.   Honestly, she didn't seem to care to much.   But it made for one great picture.   They did eventually go to bed.   They always do, whether its on Dad's expressway routine to bed, or Mom's raise some ruckus bedtime.  

Leavenworth

We took a trip to Leavenworth for the Ice Festival last weekend. It was gorgeous sunny and bitter cold. At least by our wimpy standards. We were bundled up and prepared.  It was great to getaway and do something different.  The girls behavior wasn't so great, but I guess that is par for the course sometimes.
 
Gorgeous and Cold


The sleigh ride was well, frigid.  I tried like hell to enjoy it but between Makena calling out for snacks, and Maddy buried between us....it was uncomfortable, frozen, and difficult.  I think it was about 16 degrees outside.    I kept thinking about back in the "old times" as Maddy likes to call them, how this mode of travel was normal.   Definitely tougher than us.  We lept out of that sled, ran to a tent for some hot cocoa, and then ran to the car to turn on the heater.   Next time I'll be checking weather forecast for temps, before making any reservations.

The girls buried themselves between us toward the end of the ride.  Bundled up with wool blankets and still frigid.



 A bit later we headed back into Leavenworth and went for a short dog-sled ride. Much warmer, quicker, and more smiles. A group does this every year, setting up a course right in a park in the town of Leavenworth. Some of these dogs have run the Iditarod, or so I heard someone say. The dogs loved it and once one would start howling, they all started howling. Dad and the girls had a good time too.
 

And then we had the inevitable meltdown that ended all smiles.   Makena threw down quite a screaming mess.   She was a bad combo of tired and hungry, and just done.   Michael threw her over his shoulder to get us out of the dog sled area, and I can promise you we were quite the scene.   Her meltdowns are loud and fierce, so we got lots of good looks.   I've learned to "put the blinders on" like my Mom use to say, and just deal with Makena.  We headed home a bit early after this mess.  Till our next weekend getaway...

She was screaming "Put Me Down, Put ME DOWN!!!"