Farms and Muffins

We must finally be coming out of the first year baby fog, because I'm finally starting to do some creative stuff with my girls. I've had lots of ideas, but the time and energy to do them has been lacking.

A friend of mind blogged about making Hide and Seek Muffins quite awhile ago. I thought it was great idea and kept it in the back of my mind. And Friday morning I got it all ready and got Maddy involved. Huge smiles and her running to get the step stool. The recipe calls for strawberries, hidden in muffins and goes along with the cutest little book - The Big Hungry Bear. Huge Success. Of course, Maddy loved making the muffins..but not so much on eating the. She likes to pull them apart and talk about the strawberry - and basically make a huge mess. But I've yet to see her actually eat any muffins. Oh well - we'll keep trying. All about the experience, right?! Thank You to Katy for sharing a great idea!

Today we headed out to one of our favorite parks, Farrel McWhirter Park in Redmond. Maddy and I took a class called Family Day at the Farm. Fun class with just a few kids involving a tour of the farm, feeding all the animals, making homemade butter, stories, and a wagon ride.

She was a bit nervous about feeding the animals at first, but warmed up after a bit. I have to admit when the animal your feeding is as tall as you are...that's got to be a bit intimidating! But she jabbered on about all the animals and animal sounds for the rest of class. The class ended with a Wagon Ride, which she loved. I had no idea the class would be such a hit. We are headed back for a few others this summer!

April

The month of April flew by and I realized its been a couple week since we've done a blog post. The days have been tiring with the girls giving us a run for our money. Makena has had her top two teeth coming on and off for a couple weeks. It was brutal for a week and then calmed down and we can finally see it just about to break through. I didn't realize that Madelyn was a pretty easy teether, compared to her Little Sis.

Trip to the Cougar Mountain Zoo

Its nice the girls have been rather healthy and we've been getting out and about more. Always a challenge to actually get out of the house with everyone and everything intact, but once were on the road it all gets easier, well most of the time.

Maddy and her friend, Molly, at the Kirkland Indoor Playground

Makena is 11 months old and its amazing to believe almost a year has gone by. I'm looking forward to celebrating her one year birthday. More of a celebration for Mom & Dad making it through this year...as it has been much much harder the second time around. Her big sister keeps it real by showing us that the Terrible Two's really are all about testing your limits. Exhausting.

The girls playing. They can be so dang cute.

Makena melting mom's heart

Just about everyday after naptime, Maddy wakes up pretty crabby. We have a little ritual to try and get her happy face back on. On this day, it happen to include being wrapped up in mom's blanket and Clifford.

Curious George is on the top of Maddy's favorites.

Dad, Maddy, and Curious George is a perfect combination.

"And I didn't have to get a tooth pulled"

Madelyn had her first trip to the Dentist this week. Big deal in the Potter house, as Maddy in the past has had a difficult time with the Doctor (IE, lots of screaming) But she is getting older and a bit more adventurous, and it was just time. We talked it up lots..and I got really lucky.

I have a friend from my Moms Group, who is a Pediatric Dentist. How lucky is that? So instead of meeting a stranger, I just chatted with Maddy about how she was going to see Yoo-Lea who was a dentist. We headed into Dr. Yea's office which is all set up for kids. They did a brilliant job and my big girl went back to the chair all by herself, no crying...just walked on back. They had all sorts of tricks to make it fun for the kids and not scary. It worked, as they did a full polish and exam. I was so proud of my little girl and she had big smiles. The balloon and Pooh toothbrush helped a bit too! It is so wonderful to see her grow up and not be so nervous about new things.

We have also been reading about the Dentist in one of the Berenstein Bear books we own. I completely forgot how this book has a bit about how one of the bears has to get a tooth pulled. Well later that day, Dad was talking to Maddy about the big trip to see Dr. Yea, and Maddy says "And I didn't even get a tooth pulled!" Poor thing was worried about this and I had no idea.

We also squeezed in a trip to get haircuts as Maddy was getting a bit shaggy. You can tell she doesn't love having it done, but getting to watch a Curious George movie was all she needed to let someone fuss with her hair. I plopped down with Makena for a minute, as her bangs were in desperate need. Her hair is growing in a very peculiar way around her bangs...so my little cutie is going to have some funny baby hair for quite awhile, I fear. Oh well - makes for good pics.

"Super Maddy Naked"

Maddy is quite the handful at bedtime, like most kids she gets all wound up the closer to bedtime it is. Lately she has been dashing out of the tub, hopping up on our bed and jumping all around shouting, "Super Maddy naked". This goes one for a long time, after all what could be more fun than jumping up and down on your bed without your clothes on? The last of Maddy's two year molars are erupting though her gum line, seems the two year molars take years to come in, we have been working on all of them since x-mas.

Makena has more and more mobility every day, she loves the mountains of toys that her sister tosses around the room for her each day, she spends her time crawling to each toy and deciding if it needs more of her slobber on it or perhaps it would be fun to use it like a hammer and bang it on the floor or her sister. She's an expert at both of these activities. She currently has three teeth. Makena is dying to slobber on the laptop and pound on its keyboard.....sh ggh6 dHB,VJ 9M,I NH.

Easter

Whoa, the Easter Bunny came!!

I didn't get any candy!

What can I say...one daughter likes chocolate, the other has a shoe fetish.

Seriously, she is a magnet for any shoe lying around.

Neighborhood Egg Hunt with her friend Scarlett.

They were so cute and so very excited.

Brunch is served.

Babies playing. Makena and Cousin Lily had fun with each other.

Notice the 'smack-down' hand that Makena has up. Yeah, not the first time.

Family Shot.

I got grief over all our "staircase" shots from friends.

Notice, we are no longer on the staircase.

Hope you had a great Easter!

Spring

Spring is here and we are loving the sunny warm days. Thankful to be healthy and feeling pretty good, getting out more and having some fun.

There is a story behind this rather mundane picture. The girls and I were out at Kelsey Creek Park checking out the farm animals and playground area. See the rather large puddle in the background of this picture? Yes, well after she got off this fun little bouncy sheep..she headed over to the puddle. Only I was busy pushing Makena in the baby swings. I saw what was happening but really only had time to yell "STOP". Being 2.5 yrs old, she had no intention of stopping. She walked right into that puddle and quickly discovered a couple things - much deeper than most puddles and she wasn't wearing her frog rain-boots on to protect her from said puddle. Immediate crying and screaming ensued. I laughed out loud, grabbed Makena and went over to rescue her. We had crying and screaming all the way back to the car...more crying on discovering her socks were also wet....and more crying when I broke the news that I didn't have a change of clothes and she'd have to ride home in just her diaper. But dry towel, Clifford book, and snack managed to dry those tears. I like to think she might have learned her lesson about puddles and listening to Mom. But I highly doubt it.

Meme treated us to lunch at Red Robin the other day. Perfect for us right now..balloons, loud, doesn't matter how much of a mess we make. Meme ordered a shake and Maddy wasted no time in asking all about it. "What dat?" "Can I have some?" Meme looked over and asked after a couple bites "Is it okay?" Well how do you say no to this...Madelyn drooling over the shake and Meme all too willing to indulge her.

We went down to the Woodinville "All Fools Day" Parade this last weekend. The girls had a great time. Makena met Cooper, the Bulldog, and was all smiles about it. Cooper loved the girls and had no problem looking for some attention.

Spending some time at Meme's playing in the sandbox and pushing Makena around in the pink buggy. Look at that smile from Makena. It doesn't get much better than that.

Headed out to Fred Meyer last week. Walked in the store, loaded down with 2 kids and a diaper bag...arms about to break off. I grab the first cart and was about to load them in, when Maddy sees the Truck Cart. "Mommy, I wanna ride in dere!" The only problem is the cart she saw was being used by another Mom. And of course, I'm at the wrong entrance..and they don't have more. So we drag ourselves to another entrance...arms severely in pain at this point. And luckily they have one. Madelyn cheers and can barely contain herself to get in. Makena is amazed, wide-eye as I strap the both in. I attempt to steer this thing, which feels much like driving an RV down a grocery store aisle. Not nearly enough room for you, everyone staring and the girls are squealing with delight. I finally had to stop and take a picture as it was just too much. And if I didn't already feel fully enmeshed in Mom-Land, this made it official.

Makena is 10 Months old

Our favorite photographer, Sandi Heinrich, came over the other week and took some more great photo's of the girls. All pictures on this post and the slideshow are from her photo shoot.

Time has been moving pretty fast lately and our little girl is now 10 months old. She's climbing up on everything that she can and wants nothing more than to play with her sister. She's doing all the fun stuff that kids her age do, refusing to nap, sleep though the night etc...

Gotta love the grumpy face too.

Sunny Days

We've had some gorgeous days lately around Seattle. Tried to take advantage of it today by getting the girls out to Cottage Lake Park with Meme. Fed the ducks, found the slides, and introduced Makena to the swings. She loved it. Nice to have the windows open and the sunshine beating in.

The other big news is our house is getting Maddy's hair up in a pony-tail type thing. I've been trying for well over a year and its always been a great big "no, no, no, noooooooo" response. Any pushing warrants further screams of protest and much drama. I would give it a rest for awhile and try again...same response. But lately, somethings changed..and two days in a row, I got that kid's hair up! Maybe...just maybe....we are turning a corner.

One day this week, Michael came home and took the girls out for a walk. We bundled them up as it was late afternoon and starting to get a bit cold. Makena was off that day for naps, though not for lack of trying, I just couldn't manage to get her down for a nice afternoon nap. We'll it caught up with her during the walk..and as Michael headed back up our street..she fell asleep in the stroller. He looked at me and said "Do I take her out?" I quickly declined...so we moved her to the garage and let her take a short little cat-nap. We kept checking on her and giggling. It was just too funny. Eventually I had to wake her, so we could get her back down for the night. Poor thing. I have to admit though - doesn't it look warm and snuggley??

Hey Mom...look at me!

Earlier this week Maddy and I went upstairs to get Makena up from her mornning nap. Maddy always gets very excited when Makena wakes up, rushes upstairs, opens the door, and climbs into her crib. The girls play and laugh. I turned around after grabbing a few things to find this.

Ms. Makena was standing in her crib. Just standing there like its no big deal, like she's always been doing it. Only she hasn't and it was a big deal to mom!! So I whooped and cheered and there were laughs all around..and Makena knew she'd done something big then. Big smiles.

Makena is 9 months old tomorrow, February 28th. She is flying past those milestones and one happy baby. Crawling all over the place, pulling up and trying to climb on things, and just starting to cruise around the furniture. How did it all happen so fast?

Finally, we are done being sick. Pretty much two months of sickness for this family - way too long. But happy to report we are all well and getting back to a normal routine, crossing our fingers we can stay healthy for a few weeks.

Because these girls have been just a wee bit cooped up, as well as Mom! Hoping the weather stays nice over the next couple weeks, and we can get out and burn off some crazy energy.

Crazy Cat Stories

Simon is home!!!


Wow, we've had some kind of crazy luck with cats in the past year. For awhile there, I was sure we'd be blacklisted from any local area animal shelters. We had two cats in one year that went missing. Its rough sometimes with indoor/outdoor animals. First, Simon went missing in October of 2008. He was a cat who loved to explore and would be gone all day sometimes. I was heartbroken when he didn't turn up and felt like a horrible pet owner. I spent much time searching for him. I really thought he was out there, I just couldn't track him. We have a large ravine behind our house that leads up to neighborhoods uphill quite aways. I always knew he headed that way...its totally a cat magnet area.


So fast forward to April of 2009 and Wyatt goes missing. Ughh, seriously now I really thought I deserved some sort of ticket or punishment for losing two cats. By this time, life was so crazy with I, hugely pregnant, and wild toddler to handle, that I really didn't look long for Wyatt. Knowing Wyatt, I thought that if he disappeared he tangled with the wrong animal. Wyatt loved his food, he loved his home, and he came back several times a day to check on both. So when he didn't come home, I was sure he probably tangled with a coyote. And 4 months later he showed up literally across the way in the apartments. He was on the hunt for a mouse, and Michael went was out on a walk with the girls and happened to see him. Random and super lucky. He's home and now loving life as an indoor cat.



All this time, I still always kept an eye out for Simon. By now its been over a year since he's disappeared. And on Thursday afternoon I was taking Makena for a car ride to try and get her a nap. I usually head up to the neighborhood behind us, as its just a gorgeous area and I love to check out the homes. And out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small yellow sign that read "Found Male Black Cat" with details underneath sounding a lot like Simon! I felt totally crazy. Like, cat-lady crazy.....but I had to call. So I called and left a message literally saying..."this probably sounds nuts, but I lost a cat like your description over a year ago....."


And they called me back, didn't think I was nuts and invited me to come check him out. Believe it or not, all black cats look the exact same. Especially if they don't have any identifying marks..but after comparing a pic and talking about personality, I was 99% sure this was Simon. And the family was ecstatic.. Turns out he'd be hanging out in this neighborhood since last summer. They saw my signs but initially thought this cat was female, so didn't bother to call. A trip to the vet, corrected them on the gender of the cat. So that was when they posted a sign and I randomly drove by and saw it. Its definitely not a neighborhood on my normal route...so something was meant to be.





Simon is in the garage trying to get use to it all. We'll have a few days of getting use to the house, noises, kids screaming...and then we'll try and re-acquaint Wyatt and Simon. I doubt they'll remember each other - so I'm prepared for mostly a lot of hissing.

But my sweet black kitty is home. I missed him so. I feel like one crazy lucky cat lady. And I've definitely had a huge debit to my karma bank. :) I'll be sending those wonderful people some sort of nice thank you for taking care of my cat and posting that precious little sign!

Sickfest 2010 continues....

Yuck, today is day 47 of our Winter 09-10 sickfest(not that we are counting), at least one or all of us have been sick at the same time during past 47 days, Dad has managed to work only 6 days in the last 5 weeks. We have endured Pneumonia(actually Walking Pneumonia because I was upright and not in a hospital bed), bronchitis(more fun with coughing that you can ever imagine), Croup(your child does not sleep at night and has a cough that sounds like a dog choking on a small rodent), one cold for Makena and now Maddy is working on her second cold in the past month, toss in Maddy's second year molars and Makena cutting her first teeth and it's really enough to drive any sane parent mad. Lucky for us the flu has yet to make it's appearance.

It's to be expected with two little ones but it's getting rather old and costly. Other good news to report is Maddy can huck-a- lugie, she's watched her patents do it so many time that when she's outside she announces, "I spit....Agggghhhhh...Phuttttt". Meme and Pepe thought this was funny and as long as she does it outside I suppose it's ok and cute for now. (Her father went though a stage of spitting on the rug in the house after learning how to spit at scout camp in the 5th grade so it runs in the family.)

Despite all of this mess Makena is still on a tear. She pulls herself up on anything over a foot high and we have caught her taking a few steps while holding onto a table etc... It's exciting to watch. Her dismounts from a standing position have drastically improved and no longer involve the sound of her head bouncing off the rug and lots of tears. We've found her sitting up in her crib in the middle of the night with that perplexing look of "What the hell just happened?" on her face. She is all smiles lately and has a grin from ear to ear that lights up the grayest of our winter days.

Madelyn's favorite phrase to the delight of her father continues to be, "That come from my butt!" after she farts, or "That come from your butt.". that's my girl you know what possessive adjectives are :)

No stopping her now

Madelyn is on the left and Makena is on the right, about the same age on the nursing stool. Makena is simple delighted with new found mobility. I looked away from her for a moment this morning and she had hoisted herself into a standing position on a toy. Wow, this from a kid who's just learned how to crawl. She must be jealous of her sister and dying to do all the things she does. We have a few more spills due to her mobility but a few well placed pillows lessens the blows.

Madelyn loves playing with her cars, "On your mark, get set, Goooo!!" she yells.

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.