Wednesday, June 30, 2010

No More Monkeys Jumping On The Bed

She fell off and bonked her head...

L: Maddie, I think you're going to get a black eye from this.

M: No mama, I have blue eyes. You have green eyes.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Eat your veggies!







Our veggie garden has being growing like crazy. It's so fun to be able to eat things that we've grown. Madeline loves to come out and help water and harvest. We've had far fewer premature harvests than I was anticipating. She is dying to pick the blueberries though. Everyday we go out and look at them and have the same conversation.
M: The blueberries are still growing Mama.
L: Right Maddie. We have to wait to pick them.
M: Why?
L: Because they're still growing.
M: Oh. We not pick them?
L: Right Maddie.




Friday, June 25, 2010

Eleven Months

Eleven Months

Tomorrow you will be eleven months old. You've started showing so much more of your personality this month and let me tell you, it's exciting. Seeing the world from your view is so fun. Watching your fingers point at your crazy sister running around, your chubby hands clapping (and feet, you love to clap your feet together) with excitement...wow. I am lucky.



This past month you and Maddie have really become sisters. You're starting to play together and even have little squabbles. Allie Pallie, you know how to get a rise out of her and it's hilarious. You know which trains she covets and have no problem diving from your sitting position to try and get them.




Two days ago you "crawled" a bit on your own. When I put you on the floor there are still plenty of anguished cries (GET ME UP NOW!!) but you've mastered the spin both on your tummy and your butt. Watching you sit on your tush and spin in 360s is hilarious. Despite your lack of crawling you DO seem to be able to get to where you need to go. If you had to take the V-Sit test in PE right now you'd be at a 10+. I swear those hamstrings are made of taffy.

However, you really need to get moving on all fours. If you see something you want while we're walking I immediately have a squirmy little body in my arms trying to bail. You're getting hard to hold on to!



We've been done with jarred baby food for awhile now. Never showed much interest. No, you prefer taking all your food and shoveling it into your mouth as fast as you can. And you can pack a lot in. The quantity of solids has gone up significantly too. The other night you had about 15 penne noodles, 10 grapes and 5 strawberries. I think your favorite is shredded cheese though. We're still working on drinking from a cup. You seem to find it more amusing to blow out and spray water everywhere. Thank you for helping me to entertain your sister. She definitely appreciates it.


And lastly, as I have been able to write down for every month since your birth, I still get asked constantly how we have such a happy baby. Allie, you are the sweetest, happiest little girl. I am so happy you're mine.




Dare I say











The dent someone left in my car while I was getting the umbrella for this table is kind of worth seeing these two sitting down together and laughing.

The Conductor
















Watching Madeline orchestrate her trains always leave me in awe. She reminds me of an air traffic controller, timing when to send off her trains based on their speed and what coaches they're carrying and running around the track to fix any disabled trains. Let me tell you, the proud look on her face when her trains are "punching along" is to die for.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

The Balloon









Today we went to UVillage. UVillage has these events called "village playdays." I don't know why I keep trying. Someday Maddie will participate. I hope. Today the event was yoga at Lululemon. She was pumped, I was pumped, we were totally ready to rock out the yoga at Lulu. As long as Madeline didn't mention that we do downward dog to wipe her tush to the entire group we would be good.
Well, she didn't mention it which is great but she also choked under pressure. We left early. No big deal. UVillage has a lot of cute things to do even without the village playday. We cruised on over to the playground, climbed on the cows, played with the squirting turtles and even had an awesome sandwich at Specialty's bakery.
Kids Club (a toy store/hair salon) had free bang trims today. Allie got her hairs did and my does she look cute with her little pigtails and bangs. Love it. LOVE it. As Kip put it, she is A-freaking-dorable. Madeline even benefited by getting a balloon out of the whole deal.
We can probably all guess how the balloon story ends. But Madeline, if you're reading this some years down the road, when you lost that balloon tonight my heart broke for you. We were out weeding in the yard discussing how you were going to keep a tight hold on the string because if you dropped the balloon it would be gone forever and you would cry. Well, you dropped it and I do believe this was your first experience with regret. The sadness emanating off your little body killed me. You wanted to know what would happen to the balloon and if it would indeed be gone forever. Sorry little one, it is but I promise we'll get you another one soon.
6.22.10

Saturday, June 19, 2010

There's Hope!

Allie pulled herself up to standing!

6.18.2010

LOL

6.19.10

Monday, June 14, 2010

Getting ready for bed











June 14, 2010
10.5 months old

Saturday, June 12, 2010

I needed this...











It has been way too dreary here in Seattle. Today was 75 and perfect. The lake was 60 and not so perfect. Thank god Sophia is cooler than I am...and a sucker to a three year old begging to go in the lake.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

And THIS little one




I am a bad mom. No seriously. My kids are always dirty. With Madeline I think I get a few sympathy points. I don't think Martha Stewart could do any better than me. Allie? She's just so tidy. Food goes straight from fingers to mouth, she refuses to crawl or even be on her tummy, she pushes Rudder out of her bubble... What can I say, sometimes I go a couple of days without giving her a bath. Maybe you'll rethink that, "ohhh can I hold your baby" thought next time you see us. It's okay. I understand. She's clean today though.


And this litle gem? Not sure who took it. I am thinking it is the oh-so-cool Uncle Chris and Auntie Sophia who came over to our house on Saturday night to watch the girls while Kip and I went to Siri and Yazid's for a high school reunion. They are the best.




Tuesday, June 8, 2010

What was I thinking?


Exhibit A


Exhibit B



Exhibit C



Exhibit D






Back in January I got a call from Sonja. Against my better judgement I answered my phone. Within 5 minutes she had me convinced that I should sign up for the Rock and Roll half marathon. I hate running. Hate it. 4 miles was the longest I had ever run. 2.5 is standard.
--
Of course I delayed and found the shortest training program possible...8 weeks and halfway through injured myself. I went to the doctor. He was useless. As was everyone else who told me to just give it a rest. Finally after talking to a friend who had just completed the Boston Marathon in 3 hours (WTF?!) I decided that his advice was correct. I gave it a rest. Sheesh, why couldn't people tell me that before I had to pay my $15 copay?
--
After one week off and lots of agonizing about how I was doomed to fail because I wasn't doing anything I went for one of my first long runs. 11 miles. It was horrible. I had my phone wrapped in saran wrap thanks to the dismal weather we've been having, Rudder had to pee and poop every 500 yards and I was running. Duh! Running is freaking boring. I really, really, really need some new music. I need 2.5 hours of Eye of the Tiger caliber motivational music. I did reward myself with Katy Perry's new song right before I went running but couldn't figure out how to move it onto a playlist. So, not only am a terrible runner but I'm also a total apple spaz. I thought these products were supposed to be easy. Am I turning into my mother??
--
Back to the running. I try to plan as much as possible to run alone, meaning without 100lbs of stroller and a toddler who feels the need to hear me gasp out answers to thousands of questions fired off rapidly and reaffirmed 80 times before we move onto the next one.
---
Like I said, I try. To quote Sonja, I have baggage. Unfortunately the City of Renton and Seattle put playgrounds along all of their trails. WHY? Don't they realize that you unequivocally cannot run past a playground with a toddler strapped into a stroller? You have to stop. Have to. If you don't you end up with exhibit A. Exhibit A which has been moved and admitted into evidence is a defiant, I am not moving from this spot toddler. Knowing that this was going to happen I had to tack on an extra half mile onto my run so we could stop at this park. Half of a mile! Remember when I said I don't like running? Well I especially don't like it with all of my added baggage. Exhibit B and C depict said obnoxious, conveniently located-to-trail park.
---
Exhibit D. This is why I encourage immobility. This child was completely content on hanging out in the stroller chewing on my ear buds. Not sure how well they will work after a good saliva dousing but I suppose it's not worse than a little sweat. Right?
---
And my last two pictures? Ah yes, the picturesque brick boardwalk along the river with the cute little ducks. Unfortunately the river is swift and I am nervous. My nervousness= No pushing the stroller for Madeline which = "It's nap time" tantrums. Just in time for my student to walk by. Awesome. "Uh, Hi Bill! Fancy meeting you here! Yeah, we're the spectacle along the river. Okay then, enjoy your lunch!"
--
Lesson learned from all of this? Don't answer the phone when Sonja calls.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Crazy Sleeper

I had to sneak in to take a couple of pictures of how I find this girl every single morning (or every single time I neurotically check on her while she's napping).