Maddie & Oli, thoughts & Railroad tracks...

Madelyn, the scooter, is 10 months old! She has two teeth, finally. She is more serious than Oli but her silly side comes out when we least expect it.  She throws a tantrum when I stop her from eating leaves or dirt if we're outdoors or when I put her in the car seat. She prefers playing in Oliver's room instead of hers. She likes avocados, watermelon, flour tortillas and muffins. When I give her "baby" snacks such as Cheerios, she throws them and scoots over to Oliver to snatch his pretzels or animal crackers. She follows Oli everywhere he goes and gets into all kinds of messy situations with him.  (A new post on that topic will follow soon...) 

Oliver is 2 Years 9 months old! His favorite phrase these days is, "No, I wanna do myself!" He gets upset and sometimes throws major tantrums if we try to help him get dressed, undressed or take his diaper off.  He runs to the kitchen and the living room to turn the lights on when we come into the house and will get upset if I turn them on. When he falls asleep in the car I transfer him to his bed but he wakes himself up, says "No, I wanna do myself!", climbs out of the bed, climbs back in and throws a tantrum which ruins his nap. We celebrated his first pee pee in the potty a few days ago, yey! He's becoming such a big boy.

Thoughts...

I love being home with the kids. Every stage is fun and challenging at the same time. I love that they are close in age and that they will start to play together soon, but sometimes it's hard to meet their needs when they're both crying or having a crazy moment at the same time. Some days I don't know whether to laugh or cry but I wouldn't trade this for the world! It's nice to know I can wake up the next day and start all over again and it's nice to talk to other moms who are as crazy as I am :) 

We went to Railroad Square Art Park to take a few photos.  

After that we went to the Railroad Tracks nearby. 

Oli was busy while I took photos of Maddie.

We call her "scooter".

This is Madelyn's preferred method of getting around. She has no interest in crawling and she's becoming a more efficient scooter each day! 

Sideways view...

Bribery works and Face painting

It's been a long time since I've gotten a good photo of Oli, so I did what any desperate parent would do for a great shot - I bribed him with a lollipop, and it worked!

ENJOYING his reward :)

Lately, Oli has been getting into all kinds of messy situations. One afternoon he rubbed Desitin all over himself. Another day he went into my makeup-bag and painted the bathroom sink and floor with mascara. Last Friday, while I was in the kitchen cooking dinner, Oli climbed onto a book shelf in our office. He found the white out and a red marker and painted his face. We tried removing it with olive oil, baby oil, nail polish remover, and soap. The marker stains came off but two days later he still had white out on his face. Brian decided to try goof-off and that did the trick (goof-off is a chemical used to remove paint and glue from surfaces; but don't worry, Brian took precautions to make sure it didn't get in Oli's eyes).

Friday night.

Sunday morning - still had some white out on his face.

Maddie - 9 months, 9 photos

At 9 months Madelyn says "da da," "ma ma," and "pa pa," all at random times of course, but it makes Brian and me happy to think she's calling us!  She doesn't crawl and gets very upset when I lay her on her tummy. She prefers to get around by scooting on her bottom. When Oliver does puzzles on the floor she scoots really fast from one side of the room to the other to get her hands on the pieces.  

Today was a beautiful day for photos. I sat her on a chair in front of our house and snapped away (I stayed VERY close to her to make sure she didn't fall off the chair). 

  

Enjoying the swings at Tom Brown Park.

All about Oli

Oliver is 2 Years and 7 months old! WOW! Our little guy is full of energy and cracks us up with the things he says. I'm writing myself a list so that I don't forget:

1-I accidentally broke the DVD player a few days ago and I was frustrated trying to get it to work. He said, "oh! I know, my tools!" He went to his room and brought back his little wrench to help me.

2-We went to a place that has bouncy houses and one of them was deflated. He said "It's not working, we need batteries." 

3-Whenever we drive by a Bank of America he says, "bankmerica, money!'

4-Whenever we mention uncle Bernie (who lives in CT) he says, "uncle Bernie, got truck!" He remembers that uncle Bernie sent him a gift card for Christmas and we bought him a truck with it.

5-He'll take Brian's drink from him, take a sip and then say, "here Papa, share", like he's the one sharing.

6-He wanted to watch one of his movies and I told him we couldn't because he had thrown all of them under the tv stand. He said, "Oh, I know, my magnet stick." He was talking about his little fishing rod that he uses for one of his puzzles.

7-One morning he climbed into our bed to play with Madelyn. He held her and said, "Hi sissy, don't worry, you're safe." I was wondering where he heard that and then I remembered one of his favorite shows, Caillou. There was an episode where Caillou was comforting his little sister during a thunder storm and he said, "don't worry Rosie, you're safe."

8-We recently bought a tv and as Brian was opening the box Oli asked, "what's that?" Brian told him it was a new tv to which he responded, "New tv, Papa, not old tv, new tv, good idea!"

9-I drove by Zaxbys one morning (to buy a gift card, not to eat at that time) and it was closed. Oli goes, "We gonna eat kicken", I said, "It's closed Oli", he says, "It's closed, we need keys to open door."

10-I was driving and the car in front of me made a right turn into a parking lot without signaling so I hit the brakes pretty hard. I said, "oops, I'm sorry Oli." He goes, "It's dangerous, we gotta slow down, mama made a stake." I said, "yes, Oli mama made a mistake, I'm sorry I scared you."

That's all I can think of for now. 

Climbing ropes at Tom Brown Park

My parents were sad that our Christmas visit was too short so they came to visit us. Oli played alot with my dad and totally bonded with him.

His favorite show these days is Caillou.

He LOVES doing puzzles.

As I've mentioned before he's a bit OCD and likes to organize and line things up. 

"Uncle Bernie, got truck!"

We're crazy about him!

Maddie - 8 months old

It feels like she just turned 6 months old but month 8 has just passed!  Maddie waves hello and loves to make funny faces.  Every morning she wakes up saying "Da Da Da Da," and Brian is thrilled about that! :) She has funny mood swings. She laughs one minute, cries the next, and then goes back to laughing.  Maddie and I go to baby-story-time at the Library and music-class once a week. She's a busy girl.

Happy mood.

Silly mood.

A tear in her eye. She cried the next minute, but I don't remember why.

 Here she is in music-class.

She enjoys biting the drumstick more than hitting the drum. :)

She does play it though - with a little help from me.

Click play to see her in action!

Here, I was asking her to say "Da Da." Instead, she had this to say: 

(click on the play button below)

She is not phased by her crazy big bro screaming and pushing her high chair while she waves.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the new year by going to the beach in St. Petersburg, FL. My family from Canada was staying at a beachfront condo!  We hadn't seen them in years and had a great time visiting with them.  

The first day of 2011 was sunny, windy and beautiful but not warm enough for us to go into the water.  The Canadian visitors were all dressed for the beach but we were dressed in layers. Ha!

   

Oliver was in heaven playing in the sand.

Madelyn loved the sand too!

My cousin's fiance (shirtless guy) had no problem getting in the water! 

Definitely Canadian.

  

The beach is a lot of fun with Maddie and Oli !