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.

Jan-Sick-uary

Janaury has turned out to be the month of the sickies for us. This is not the first year, but actually the 3rd year in the row that the month of January has proven to be filled with illness. I had hoped we just might break tradition this year. It was not to be as last Monday Makena came down with Croup. It was pretty bad week, half of it filled with a non-sleeping baby which made for some exhausted parents. Michael also discovered after a doctor's visit, that he had some nagging Pneumonia in his left lung. It was definitely a back to basics, kick our booty, kind of week - but I'm happy to report we are just about all healed up.

As if being sick wasn't enough for Ms. Makena, she was also determined to get up on those knees and figure out crawling. Personally, I would have chosen to sleep more..but not her. Nope, wheezing and moaning she was much happier rolling around and trying to crawl. She hasn't quite got it yet...but is pretty determined about it.

Another big step for Makena is moving out of the infant car seat and up to a convertible car seat. No longer do we have the ease of dragging her around in her car seat. But at 20+ pounds, that infant carrier was getting to be way too heavy to carry around. So onto the big girl car seat she has moved....and now things will get a bit trickier for us.


Madelyn has amazingly managed to escape the sickies this week. I probably shouldn't have put that in writing..I'm sure I just cursed myself. She spent much time at Meme & Pepe's house this week. And a big Thank You to them for helping us out. She is always full of piss & vinegar, as my mom use to say, and I have no idea how we would have made it through this week with out my inlaws help.

Maddy& Dad being silly at Rubys Diner

First time in a high-chair and all smiles about it.

Dad pulled out the Kelty to get dinner made

Makena's crib, according to Maddy, is purely for playing

Loving bath time

Almost crawling....with the cat on guard and ready for her

2009

Random Pictures from 2009

Its been one heck of a year, feeling much like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Starting out with finding out that we'd be having another girl and Maddy would have a little sister...and then waiting for this sister to arrive. And on May 28th with much anticipation, Makena made her appearance.

We were certainly off to the races then. Shortly thereafter, Maddy turned the big two and didn't we all know it - as she literally searches the house for things to get into..and Mom finds herself saying 'No Touch' about a thousand times each day. Mom and Dad were reminded just how exhausting newborns could be and put into an all new level of sleep deprivation + a toddler = complete chaos. But time marched on and soon baby was sleeping better, and the whole family was a bit happier.

As we came into Fall, it was much about just keeping our heads above water with managing nap schedules, keeping Maddy busy, and finding a daily routine for us all. The holidays came upon us and it was big fun this year since Madelyn is more aware of everything. Much talk about Rudolph and Santa, and 'reindeer on the ruf'. We made it.

We made it through 2009 and come out the other side with two adorable girls, a house still standing through much chaos, and 2 parents who are getting more sleep as the weeks & months go by. Makena is now 7 months and I can barely believe it. What happen to my newborn? Didn't we just get home from the hospital? I guess not..the days flew by in a blink of an eye. I'm sure this next year holds more chaos and hopefully many more laughs!

Just back from visiting the neighbor's goats....Maddy loves to feed the goats.

Up from a nap...and the face and hair says it all.

Trip to Leavenworth

Big Belly Girl

Pure Bliss

Dad started to remember just how tired newborns can make you.

Michael's nephew, Jr., came to visit - one super fun day out on Lake Washington.

Happy Mike

Maddy and Cousin Emily

Cousins Angelica and Emily up for a visit. Maddy had so much fun with them.

She's Two!

Checking out the summer flowers

I found my thumb!

Mickey needs a diaper change. This happens to be my (Karin's) Mickey which my dad bought for me at Disneyland when I was 5 years old. He is being well-loved all over again.

Giggles

Funny Faces


One of these kids is not like the other.... Meme & Makena look great and Maddy is not cooperating. Just a wee bit of attitude in that toddler.

Happy 2010 -May it be a great year for all of us!

X-mas

X-mas descended upon us this year with great anticipation that Santa and Rudolf would take the bait we left out for them. Madelyn really got into things this year, I told her that I hear noise on the roof when she woke up at 6:15am on Christmas morning and she yelled Reindeer. She was overjoyed to see all the presents hanging around under the tree and to see her stocking stuffed with gifts.

Family photo, Madelyn takes these with the camera remote, it's the only way we can get her to sit still long enough for a photo shoot.

Happy times with Zoe.

Quilt from Meme for Makena

Eating her way into a present

LOL - "Some assembly required(2hr 15min)"

The kitchen set from Santa was a huge hit.

The wrapping paper was flying fast and furious.

Ruldolf and Santa polished off the treats.

Holidays

Its a bit late, but just thought I'd post some recent holiday photos and a short post. Maddy is very much getting into the Christmas Season this year, with her favorites being Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman. Rudolph and Frosty have been spotted in many places and the songs are sung multiple times daily...and she never tires of them. Unlike Mom & Dad. :)

The girls are very cute together lately. Madelyn has a way of playing with Makena and can make her laugh like no one else. I've madly been trying to capture this on film or video, but as soon as I pick up a camera - they both stop and stare. Ughh.

The girls opening presents at a friend's party

Tigger & Pooh Book - an instant hit!

Wyatt, almost back to his normal self...still in "recuperating mode" so says the lazy cat who sleeps just about all the time!

Garden D'Lights at Bellevue Botanical Garden

Dinner at The Ranch in Bothell....mmm Grilled Cheese & Fries

Makena enjoying some Meme time over lunch one day

Rudolf

We've had a rough week to start off December. It started with Makena getting 4 shots last week and the multiple day fallout from that has included lots of fussiness, more missed naps than we can count and to top it off she managed to catch a cold and has decided to start waking up at 4:30am, Groan. We love her dearly but she's has most defiantly cracked us this last week. I get so tired that I put myself to sleep during Madelyn's 1:30 nap and Karin goes down for a evening nap at 5:30pm after Makena goes to bed.

Somehow in the mist of all of this we cut down a tree planted it in our living room, it has lights up but we ran out of energy for the ornaments. Madelyn is way in love with Christmas this year. She loves Rudolf most of all, she might be disappointed to learn that Santa delivers the presents.

Lunch at Swanson's nursery last Tuesday.

Frosty the Snowman hat :)

Swanson's has a Camel, miniature donkey and two Reindeer to gawk at. The Camel is above Karin's head. He gets fed Marshmallows for a treat.

The Girls


Looking for Rudolf's red nose.