Playdates, Getaways, and Tantrums

"Smile Madelyn"

Its been awhile since we've done a post, so I thought I'd post some pics from the last couple weeks. It's late and I'm tired, so this probably won't be the best post I've ever written. Dad does a better job at this than I....but we've been busy lately, the blog is falling behind.

Madelyn is 20 months and changing into more of a 2 year old everyday. The tantrums have officially begun. She is obsessed with putting on her own shoes and can do it most of the time. If we try to help, that will cause a big head shake with "Nooooooo" and possible tears. So if time allows, we wait , try to help, and hope that those shoes get on the right feet the first time. It's one of the small things in our days that is showing her new independence. She is also very insistent on choosing socks and coats, and of course, they never match. It drives me (mom) crazy.

This girl loves her dolly's. They now come with us in the car

Maddy & Will sharing his chair

Brooks and Maddy - more chair sharing

We took a weekend getaway to Leavenworth, a touristy town nearby. It was great to get out of the house for the weekend. I have to admit that Madelyn is not the greatest car-rider in the world and we definitely have a 2 hour time limit. But, she loved being in a new place and had a lot of fun playing in the park and exploring the town with us. We had one huge tantrum trying to get her in her stroller, as its a newer stroller and we haven't used it much. But later on in the day she was asking to get in it and playing with it! Dad was amazed at the quick turn-around in attitude about the stroller.

Dad & Maddy found the bookstore in town and look who got something.

Fruitstand with Farm Animals. How could you resist?

Stroller

Madelyn has had so much fun with her dolls lately that Mom bought her a dolly-stroller today.  She got huge grins an knew just what to do with it.  This is what you get when you ask a 20 month old to smile and the picture below is just her being happy.  

Meme&Pepe can now put Maddy to bed, for the first time last night somebody other than Karin or I put Maddy to sleep.  Thanks guys!  

She spends most of her time buckling her doll into and out of the stroller.  Speaking of buckles, Maddy can climb into her booster seat and buckle herself in when she wants food, crazy kid.  We gave up the high chair a few months ago since she liked sitting in the normal sized chairs so much.  She can feed herself well now and likes to use a fork and spoon.

Words and Hats

Hats have been a struggle since Madelyn was old enough to take off her head whatever we tried to put on it.  Much to our surprise she will ask for a hat before leaving the house now.  Everything is a phase with kids.

Not the most verbal at times but new words keep showing up so I've tried to write down everything that she can say: "Hi, Mum, Dah, Kitty, Dogee, Bowl, Ball, Cereaaal(Cereal), Mor, Apple, Pear, Quack-Quack, No-No-No, Brooks, Co-Co(cookie), Cheeeeeese, Sip(sippy-cup), Sit, S%$#, Poop, Uh-Oh, G0-Go-Go, Roooowlleeeeeeeow(kitty sound), Birrr(Bird), Fish, Eeeeeeaaaaahhhhh(goat sound), Hahahaha(panting like a dog), Hat, Mummumdahdah(used to say, meaning Mom & Dad), Show(Fifi and the Flowertots, groan...), Tras(Trash - taking out the garbage), Bubbo(says whenever she farts - meaning bubbles - came from the bubbles in the tub she blows with her farts, one of the finer joys in life I might add)"

Words that we would like to hear soon, Please, Help, Meme&Pepe, Potty and maybe some sort of word or sign for thanks.

Still eager to help around the house, she still likes to take out the garbage everyday, maybe I should start an allowance.  I tie up the garbage bag, open up the baby gate and she'll drag the bag all the way out the the garage with a big grin on her face.  She will also drag her step stool into the laundry room and help load clothes into the washer.  Unloading the dishwasher works about 1/2 of the time for us.  It does not sound like much but it's the little things that help sometimes.

Sesame Street

Luckily for us the vocabulary on Sesame Steet is clean and the s$#! word has been dropped from her vocabulary for now.  Maddy seems to say 2-3 new words a week.  It's neat to watch her say a word for the first time.  She gets all happy and lobs a new word out, doing her best to pronounce it.  She finally decided to say "Pear" today,  although it sounded more like "Peeeeahr", but that's close enough for now.  We ventured down to the Seattle Children's Museum on Saturday, she spent most of her time going down every slide and that she could find and shopping in the small pretend mini-mart. 

Walking up the back steps after feeding the neighbor's goats.

Playing with Brooks again.

New Words....good ones and bad ones

It was only a matter of time, our daughter has added the word "shit" to her vocabulary.  I was next to her the other day and watched her fall and hit her head, so my reaction was to say, "shit".  She popped up decided not to cry and said, "shit" right back to me.  Mom did not help things later that day when she broke an egg unloaded groceries, said "shit" only to have Maddy say it right back to her.  Needless to say this is hysterical to us and it's all we can do to not bust out into major fits of laughter whenever she mutters this word.  This morning she must have rattled it off about a dozen times before decided to move onto cleaner vocabulary.  Lucky for us, Apple is another favorite word that she likes to use just as much.

She loves to play outside and will stand next to the front window and point when the neighborhood kids are riding their bikes.  It's OK if they are 5 years older than her, she just fascinated by what they can do.  Get the shoes put on a coat and off she runs.  If we go outside and no kids are around she'll insist that we go over to the Glover's house next door and ask for them to come outside.  

Running around in Meme&Pepe's yard

Snacks for Zoe

Baby #2!!!

Move over Maddy, it's almost time to share your blog with little sister.  We had another ultrasound today and were lucky enough to get a 3-d shot as well.  It's still crazy to think that we'll have two little girls by the end of May.  Time to get the spare bedroom picked up and painted.

Maddy & Friends

We finally had our Peps Holiday get together last weekend. It was rescheduled due to the crazy snow over the Christmas and took us awhile to find a date for everyone. It was amazing to see how big everybody has grown. It's rare to see this many kids outside of a daycare in one place :) It was definitely loud but a lot of fun!



We don't have many banned toys in our house but the Fisher-Price corn-popper is one of them. It make a horrible racket. Maddy loves it and grabbed this one and ran all over the house with Brooks and the other boys in tow. This went on for about five minutes until she crashed into the table.

A Ride in the wagon bring smiles for Ella

Grayden running around the kitchen island - all laughs!

Molly chasing after him!

And AJ trying to figure out if he's going to join in

GoGoGo!!!!!

No mistaking it, this word, "GoGoGo!!!", has become Maddy's favorite.  It's popular on the weekends when I'm around.  She'll yell "GoGoGo" and round up her boots and coat and it's off to the Aquarium or a children's museum for some fun.  Her other favorite word is "Mummumdahdah", it's either a city in India or her word for the both of us.  Normally used when she wants both of us to head upstairs at night for bath, books and bed.

The water table at the museum is always a big wet hit.

Look closely and you'll find Brooks in this picture :)

All of this gogogo, make for one tired Dad.

Check that off the list.....

Its the thing that as a Mother I've dreaded. One of the things on that list in my head that I knew would hit us one day eventually...all moms go through it....and on Thursday it hit me. Well actually it hit all over my friend's home. We got the stomach flu. And its not pretty.

Maddy got sick all over a friend's house at a play-date with many other kids. I never saw it coming and sat there for a moment in shock. And then the Mom in me kicked in and I was trying to contain it and her and the mess....uggghh. Unfortunately then Mom got it on Friday and not to be left out, Dad on Saturday. We've been a mess. But, were recovering and food is starting to look appealing again.

We'll have a new more positive post soon with pics! I was pretty sure no one wanted pics on this post. The stomach flu raging through a family is just not pretty.

We are going to have a .......

It's the question of the day! Boy or Girl? Everyone wants to know, but no one more than Michael and I. I can never relate to those couples who decided to wait and keep the surprise of it till the birth. I just couldn't do it.  So, without too much more rambling, here it is!

What? Hard to tell? Not used to interpreting a 20 week baby ultrasound? Or maybe you can tell and you've seen a few of these pics before!

We are having another GIRL!!!

Open Hand

Foot

Madelyn will be 18 months on Wed, Jan 8th and we can hardly believe she is a year and half. She's running and chatting up a storm and giggling with delight most days. Of course we have plenty of whining, a few temper-tantrums, and lots of tears to go with her struggles. Today I distinctly thought I heard her say "Hi Dai Dai" when dad walked in. Its all a mumble of sound, but I swear I heard it. She calls Dad "Dai Dai" as she can't quite say Daddy quite yet.   Karin is 20 weeks pregnant, halfway there and the time has flown by. She isfeeling better but still exhausted all the time, which definitely has more to do with the little monkey that she chases around all day.

Santa

We Really did get a picture taken with Santa this year, however he was smart and snuck up on her from behind.

X-Mas

It took Maddy a few minutes to get into the swing of things on Christmas morning.  But after she figured things out, she was more than happy to unwrap her presents and help out with Mom & Dad's as well.  We had the whitest x-mas that Seattle has seen in our lifetimes, about a foot of snow at our house and closer to two feet at Meme and Pepe's.  We've lost power twice in the last few days, but luckly it was back on in a few hours.

Puzzles were a big hit.

Delivering a present to Mom.

Another book about dogs.

Getting into the Stocking stuffers.

This has to be my favorite picture of the day, Madelyn will play a good game of "watch me stick my finger in your mouth", if you let her.

Who is this child?

New surprises come day by day for us now.  We can get Maddy to wear hats, mittens and even boots now.  Just three weeks ago if we tried to put a pair of boots on her you would have led to a huge crying fit.  Now she'll round up her boots and a jacket, drag them over to you and tell you GO-GO.  It really does not matter where you go, it's just her way of saying I'm tired of being cooped up in this house.  Still lots of snow on the ground to play in and more on the way.

We have whittled down the bedtime book readings to 4-5.  We were up to 10 for about a week and it was just too many.  She's not much into giving out good night kisses, but would rather nibble on your nose a few times instead.

This is Fred, a gift to Mom and Dad from Grammie.  He's about the size of a toddler.

X-mas Tree farm

Yes that's the pumpkin hat that our kid refused to wear for Halloween.

Last Saturday afternoon found us up at Farmer Brown's tree lot hunting for a tree. Madelyn somehow decided that her pink-kitty boots were 'OK' to wear now and came in handy for walking around in the mud. We have been trying to get them on her feet for about 5 weeks now and she's finally warmed up to them. At this rate we are going to have to start buying next summers sandals next month she she'll be used to them when the time comes. After much deliberating we found a tree and headed on home.

New words this past week have been 'Bbball' and 'brd (bird)' and what sounds like 'this' and 'kitty cat'. She loves the word 'ball' and will chase the big yoga ball all over the house while yelling 'BbbALL', it's great fun to watch. She can pick out a reindeer in the x-mas books, but she's not picking up on what/who Santa is yet. She ate everything in sight this weekend so she's either over her cold from last week or tanking up for a growth spurt.

She's running quite well now, she'll sometimes take off and get going so fast that she crashes, but she's defiantly getting the hang of it all. Walking up the stairs like a big person is a hit and we can coax her to go down them on her tummy most days. Not having to carry her down the stairs is just one of the little things that makes things a little easier.

Kids at this age seem to understand far more than we think they do. I gave Maddy the full trash bag from the kitchen garbage yesterday and told her to take it out to the garage, and off she went. Dragging the bag behind her, it was hard not to laugh too much at the sight. Heck if she wants to keep that up I'll start paying her an allowance. She'll also help drag the dirty clothes from our bedroom upstairs to the laundry chute and want to toss the clothes down.

Books

Madelyn has been in love with her books as of late.  Big books, small books, she loves them all and if the book has pictures of dogs inside she'll want to read it again and again.  This picture is fairly common on our couch now, she'll raid her book drawer downstairs and pile them up on the couch.  Then she'll toss one leg up on the couch and struggle to get up, next if you are sitting on the couch you will be presented with a book that you may read to her.  If you're lucky you'll get past page 4, but most of the time that is where her attention span ends and it's on to the next book.  Reading books before bedtime is always fun, we must keep 10 books beside the rocking chair just so we have enough to read to her, many of them will be rejected depending on her mood. 

Turkey Day

Karin cooked up a Thanksgiving dinner and Andy, Meme and Pepe came over.  She outdid herself this year.  Madelyn loved having everybody over and got to play a good game of chase with Pepe and spent the afternoon running all over the house.

Sitting in a "big-girl" chair is a big hit now, it's funny how kids always want to do what they see the older kids doing.

Kicking back and watching some TV, sometimes you just have to let things slide :)

Ok, I'll go back to sleep....

Somebody asked about PEPs, so here is the link. It's been great for us to connect with other parents who are going though all of the fun that we are going though, rather than stay at home and go crazy by ourselves.

http://www.pepsgroup.org/

Thankfully it seems like Madelyn's latest round of teething is just about over and we are back to our normal sleep routine. She'll still wake up here and there screaming (like there is a snake or something in her bed), but just having us walk into the room seems to be enough for her to go back to sleep.

Whenever she wants to go outside now she will round up her coat and shoes and bring them over to you and insist that you put them on. She won't take "No" for an answer, I guess she just wants to see what's going on in the neighborhood or get the mail, how could you resist that?

Walking upright up the stairs (with us holding her hands) is a big hit now. She's not terrible content to crawl up the stairs like she used to do, she would rather hold your hand and try to do it herself. Our only new food this past week has been avocado, it takes her a few bites to get started but she seems to like it. She also ate a piece of Pizza the other day while at PEPS. This is a huge deal for us, most of the time she's just not up for new foods.

Big Sisters Rock???

What's this on Maddy's T-shirt........"Big Sisters Rock".

Hmmmmmm......


Yep, that's correct! Madelyn will get the chance to be a big sister when our newest addition arrives in late May. Karin is 14 weeks pregnant with Madelyn's sibling! It took Meme and Pepe a few minutes to decipher the t-shirt but their reaction was worth the wait. And the look of surprise on their faces says it all!


We are excited about having another child and nervous all at the same time. It seems like just yesterday that we brought Madelyn home and into our lives and now were doing it all over again! Wish us luck with two little screamers. :)