abby attack

I love how much Madilyn and Abby like to play together. Abby gets so excited when Madilyn lays on the floor next to her to play, so today I put Abby on top of Madilyn and they both thought it was pretty funny. I can hardly wait until Abby is mobile enough to keep up with Madilyn's all-over-the-place busy-ness, except then I'll have two kids I can't keep up with!

too fits!

Madilyn got a stroller, play pen, and swing for her baby doll for Christmas. She loves putting her baby in each of these things, but she's always trying to climb in them herself. I think I've convinced her that she's too big for the swing and the stroller, but I had no such luck with the play pen because she climbed in when my back was turned. When I tried to tell her again that she was too big, she said, "No too big, too fits!"

christmas day...finally!

Christmas was great this year because Madilyn is old enough now to get excited about it. On one of our pre-Christmas shopping trips we let Madilyn play with this drum to keep her occupied while we shopped. When we got done she wouldn't put it down and it was cheap, so we bought it and put it away with the rest of her stash to be received on Christmas. However, a few days later Madilyn started asking where her drum was.

I told her I thought Santa took it but he would bring it back. I hoped she would forget about it, but she didn't and continued to ask about it every few days. On Christmas Eve when we put her to bed we told her Santa was coming and he would bring back her drum, and sure enough, the first thing she said Christmas morning was, "Santa bring my drum back?" It's a week later and she still makes comments about Santa taking her drum and bringing it back. Guess we'll have to be more careful next year!
Madilyn put on her new bracelets and then had to be very careful not to let them fall off when she opened other presents.




Abby really enjoyed her presents too!

santa baby

We were lucky enough to have Eric's mom and sister, Laura, come spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day at our house. Laura brought a Santa hat that Madilyn loved, and she also liked the "snowball" on the end of it.

I'm a Santa!

Eric needed to dress up as a wise man for sharing time in Primary today, so I pulled out my robe to pack into our church bag. As soon as Madilyn saw it she wanted to wear it, and as soon as she had it on she said, "Nook, I'm a Santa Claus! Ho ho ho, Merry Christmas!"

candy houses

rolling rolling rolling

Yesterday I laid Abby on her back while I was getting dinner for Madilyn. I turned around for a minute to look at something on the computer, and when I turned back around she was on her stomach! She's been rolling from side to side a lot lately, but this was the first time she made it all the way over and I missed it. I haven't had the chance to be too sad about it though because now it seems like she can't stop rolling. It's cute and fun to see her learning new things, but it's also a bit of a pain because she doesn't last very long on her stomach before she gets frustrated and starts whining. I think her cheeks are just too dang heavy to hold up for very long.

8-10 inches?

On Saturday night we got a call from our home teacher telling us that church was canceled due to the huge snowstorm we were expecting. The thing is, our church doesn't start until 1 p.m. and we had hardly received any snow by the time we went to bed that night. Apparently everyone is a lot more sensitive about being out in/after a snowstorm around here.
The snow did come and it was a pretty good storm, but it certainly wasn't 10" and it certainly wouldn't have canceled church in Utah. I'm not complaining, of course. Eric and Madilyn had a great time playing in it (I stayed in with Abby) even though the "real feel" temperature was 3 degrees. Madilyn had on so many layers of clothes I was amazed she could move at all.
She had fun making snow angels until the wind blew the snow into her face, at which point she was done for the day.

books and bedtime

santa sighting

Santa came to our ward Christmas party so Eric waited in line with her to meet him. She already told us that Santa was scary, but we hoped that she would see how much the other kids liked him and get over her fear. When it was their turn Eric put Madilyn on Santa's lap, hoping she'd stay there long enough to get a picture, but the instant he put her down she looked terrified and started grabbing at him. Oh well, at least we got this picture and Madilyn got her goody bag. On the way home we talked about how nice Santa was and Madilyn keeps talking about how he gave her candy and is nice, but she can't seem to convince herself that he's not scary too.

terrific to be two

Madilyn turned two today! I can hardly believe how fast she's growing up! She's such a smarty-pants and oh-so-definite about what she wants. She can be such a sweetheart, saying "please" and "thank you" and "I love you" spontaneously (she even told me I looked pretty the other day), and in the next minute she can be such a stinker, declaring that everything is hers (does anyone else know a 2-year-old who thinks she owns a checkbook?) and whatever we do it's her turn. She certainly keeps things interesting! Happy Birthday Madilyn!

snow...finally!

We finally got our first touch of snow so Madilyn and I sneaked outside to shovel the driveway while Abby took a nap.

Madilyn absolutely loved the snow and was so excited that we had a shovel her size. She even did a pretty good job of clearing a path in the snow and tried to carry it over to the grass. The downside was that I couldn't find her gloves from last year and her coat was too small. She slipped once and started crying about her freezing sore hands, then cried that I tried to make her go inside and leave the snow.

firsts

Today Abby had rice cereal for the first time. I wasn't too eager to start her on solids because I've had more than enough mealtime "fun" feeding Madilyn for the past year and a half, but it went really well and she seemed to like it.






Also, Abby wore her first hair clip today. You may be able to see it if you click on the picture to make it bigger.

so happy together

Abby was fussing more than usual today so I put her in her bouncy chair facing me while I tried to get some bills paid on the computer. Madilyn came over and started climbing on top of her, which I thought would only exacerbate Abby's bad mood. However, before I could tell Madilyn to leave Abby alone, Abby started smiling and cooing. Far from being upset at being squished, she was glad for Madilyn to play with her.
Another funny thing: for a while now when Abby begins to fuss I tell Madilyn to sing to her to help her be happy. For a long time Madilyn mostly ignored me and kept doing whatever she was doing. I guess it's finally sinking in though, because for the last week or two whenever Abby begins to cry Madilyn starts singing to her, often without any prompting at all. Her song goes something like this, "Abby, Abby, don't cry. Abby, Abby, it's okay." It's one of my favorite songs.

happy halloween

Here's another pumpkin we carved. I think it bears a striking resemblance to Abby, although I didn't intend for it to. Also, this is Madilyn wearing her Africa shirt over her pj's, as I mentioned in the previous post.
I almost didn't take the girls trick-or-treating because we were all tired and Eric had to stay late at work, but at the last minute we dressed up and went. When I pulled out the eyeliner to make Madilyn's nose and whiskers she wanted me to give Abby some too. We only went to the 15-20 houses on our street and Madilyn was ready to go home halfway through, but it was still really fun. I couldn't get Madilyn to say "trick-or-treat" at the doors, but she always said thanks when prompted. Only she said, "thanks, Mommy." I guess she thinks the two words go together.

twin tees

*
My parents sent us a package from their mission in South Africa. Among the different things they sent were t-shirts with African animals on them. As soon as I showed Madilyn the shirts she wanted to wear hers. Then, when Abby woke up from her nap she wanted me to put Abby in her shirt. It didn't matter to her that Abby's yellow shirt probably would have fit her better, she loved the blue one. She wore it the rest of the day, and then when I got her ready for bed she made me put it on over jammies.

1st pumpkin

We got a couple pumpkins to carve, and, as you can see, Abby was really excited about it.

Madilyn enjoyed sticking her pumpkin carver into the pumpkin, although she didn't have much luck cutting any holes, and she liked pulling out the seeds.

She was pretty pleased with the face I carved and seemed to think it was her new friend for a while.

Her favorite game was taking off the pumpkin's "hat" and then calling me to put it back on the right way.

trunk-or-treating

Three wards gathered at our stake center to trunk-or-treat. Madilyn still fit into her kitty costume from last year, so we dressed her up, bundled Abby up, and went.









Madilyn loved her costume and was fascinated with her tail; she kept holding onto it.
Loud spooky music was playing, and when it got too loud Madilyn covered her ears.




She didn't know what her kitty nose and whiskers looked like until we got home, so she was really excited when she saw herself in the mirror.

rabbit, mouse, and the guy

These are Madilyn's favorite toys lately: a small, Gumby-like rabbit, a Minnie-mouse that says "oh my!" when you squeeze her, and a Luke Skywalker figure out of a kid's meal. She makes sure she has them with her everywhere we go, including to bed. If she can't find one, she'll ask me to help her or wander around the house calling, "the guy, where are you?" She likes to "feed" them, especially from her sippy cup, and she loves having Rabbit clap his hands.