And We're Back... Part 2

Ok, so you've made it through part 1 and now what?? Now I give you...



M's 2 year old post!! :)







M officially turned 2 on June 9th at 7:17 pm. To celebrate, she spent the morning at the dr's office for her 2 year check up. Nice mom, huh? Here are her stats:



Height: 36" (95%)...yes, she is my kid but apparently will be looking down at me by the time she's 7.



Weight: 29 lbs (75%)



Here are some things M likes to do:



- Read books. She tries to read them herself and always starts them off with "Once upon a time..."



- Sings. She loves to sing all the time from old classics like Old McDonald to Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. She also makes up her own songs all the time.



- Dance. M has a blast dancing. She has actually accompanied us to C's dance classes and started joining in. It's too cute!



- Play. Of course M loves to play. Her favorites right now are: playing with stickers, balls, little people, cars, baby dolls, and the big doll house we have. She also loves going to the playground!

- Talk. She is a talkative little girl! I should have a list of words she can say, but there are too many. At her appointment, the dr. asked if she was stringing a few words together. No sooner did she say that, M turned around and said "I want to get down!". Sentences only here!!

Here are some pictures of M over the last 2 years:



This was taken when she was a day old.



Her & C on M's first day home:





6 months:





1 year:





18 months:





2 years:



I cannot believe how fast these 2 years have gone! M...I love you and am enjoying watching you grow up! I'm looking forward to see how much you grow and change over the next year. Happy birthday big girl!

The Great Mother's Day...

Mother's Day started early this year as C's class had Mother's Day Tea on Thursday. I promptly joined her and her class at 10:30 am to observe her gymnastics/dance/get-all-their-energy-out class and then headed off to tea. J was nice enough to stay home with M, so C and I got some one on one time. I swear, her teacher's are amazing! They prepared quite a spread for us, including cucumber sandwiches! :) The best part was find our spot, which was marked by a special place holder and placemat.

(The card reads: Recipe for Motherhood
1 Heart full of love
1 Head full of understanding
2 Eyes in the back of your head
3 Heaping cups of patience
1 Gallon of generosity
1 Barrel of laughter

Mix well. Sprinkle with kidness, add plenty of faith. Heat with sunshine and spread generously over a lifetime for a plateful of joy and a cup of warm memories.)

We then got our munchies and the teachers played a little game. They had each child fill out a survey about their mom and we had to guess who it was. C's answers were as follows (they are in bold):

1. My mommy is ? years old. (Other children's answers ranged from 6 to 21 but apparently my daughter was nice enough to not reveal my age. :) )
2. My mommy's favorite color is brown. (Really, since when??)
3. My mommy likes to eat salad. (Ahhh, gotta love this response. Yes, I like salad, but if it was my favorite I would probably be a lot thinner!!)
4. When I am at preschool, my mommy: I don't know because I can't see her. (Other kids said work or take care of a sibling. Got to love my literal daughter!!)
Right after question #4, C recognized her answers and told me this was mine. I started cracking up!
5. My mommy and I like to cuddle. (Can I get a collective, AWW!)
6. My mommy laughs when I do funny things.
7. My mommy is really good at everything. (I swear I didn't put her up to this one!!)
8. I love it when my mommy gives me hugs and kisses. (Can you tell we are an affectionate family?)
9. I love my mommy so much because she does nice things for me. (Again, no bribing here!)

I loved this exercise and listening to what other kids came up with!! I went home with tears in my eyes and a huge smile on my face. Score one for C.

After this we headed up to NJ for a wedding. Truth be told, I wasn't looking forward to this. I mean Mother's Day is supposed to be a day of relaxation for me and here I was going to have to drive back home. Yuck! The wedding turned out well, in a comedy of errors sort of way. Here's some of the highlights...

- We got there in one piece which was a small feat in itself since C was coming with us. She was all dressed up, white and purple dress, white tights, white shoes. So of course what does she do 5 minutes after we arrive? Decide she wants to cut through a bed of flowers and wind up with mud up to her ankles! Stockings were thrown out and shoes were washed. How did she manage to get no mud on her dress?? I'm still trying to work that one out myself.

- Once the wedding was over we headed into the reception area and made it through cocktail hour unscathed. Thank god. No sooner did we get into the actual reception room then did I get a flute of champagne dumped down my dress!! Nice, huh??

- C wound up having a blast and dancing all night long. We didn't get home until almost midnight and M was still awake! She was with my mom and apparently decided to have a crib party all her own. I was greeted with her voice over the monitor saying "Mommy, I miss you!!!". Insert aaaawwww here. She didn't sleep at all Saturday night, nor did C.

Both girls were up before 7 am Sunday morning and I was dead. Needless to say we were all cranky beasts and Mother's Day was bad as a result. I even tried to make it to my brother's lacrosse game until to arrive as the horn blew signaling the end because C didn't want to wear a coat!! GRRRR!!!

I definitely was bumming the whole trip home and was still in a foul mood on Monday. Then I realized, well, this is all being part of a mother right?? Why should Mother's Day be any different than any other day? Shouldn't we celebrate our families every day of the year?? So that's what I am trying to do. Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day and you celebrate every day and every milestone! Someone said to me the other day that when you have kids the days go slowly but the years go by too quickly. How true is that?!? So enjoy every moment!! :)

Weee'rrrreee Heeerrreee!!

Yup, we're back in VA. What a week we had! Here's the summary:

- C had her first all night sleepover at my cousin's house!

- We saw Horton Hears a Who and C loved it!

-M had a miserable time with diaper rash. She had an allergic reaction to something causing her to have an explosive diaper and burns all over her area. Luckily it's cleared up, but I'm definitely taking her for allergy testing!

- My mother in law and I took the girls to the Big Apple Circus and sat in the front row! It was a great show, but so windy we thought the tent would blow down! M was thrilled with the puppies and horses! :)

- We had a nice visit with my 88 year old grandfather, Pop Pop. He came over to spend time with us on Thursday and on the way out of the door fell on top of me! Thank god I was there or he would have hit the sidewalk. Still took 5 years off my life!!

- I stayed up until 2 am making a Tinkerbell cake for C's party on Saturday. Here's a shot of it:

- We had a great party on Saturday for C, J, J's cousin, and my cousin's boyfriend. Of course C made it all about her and ordered everyone to wear party hats and play games. It was a lot of fun though!

- We made it home in one piece...thank god!!!

There was definitely no relaxing on this trip. I enjoyed the time up there and the company. No one warns you how lonely you can get staying at home all day. It definitely was a nice break from that and it was hard to come home. The girls are already asking when we can go back!!

Unfortunately there is no rest for the weary this week. It's C's and J's birthday tomorrow, I have to make snack for her to bring to school on Thursday, and we're having a small party for her down here on Saturday. I'm definitely going to need a loooong nap and vacation after this week!!

Dancing with Daddy...

Recently C has become obsessed with dancing. She has always loved it, but she is barely walking anywhere anymore...she's dancing. This past week J decided to teach C how to waltz. The result? Take a look...



I love her smile in this one!! :) Just ignore the kitchen mess please...lol!

I took another of her dancing and doing the waltz on the floor...but I can't figure out how to flip it. I took it with my regular camera and didn't realize I would need to rotate it! If I figure it out I will post that as well.

New Looks

On Sunday we took M for a haircut. She was definitely in need of it as she was sporting a baby mullet, but I wasn't sure what exactly to do with it. After a nasty morning with a plateful of maple syrup and hair that looks like dredlocks, I decided it was time. The result?

I think she looks really cute! It's a little shorter than I would have liked but it will last longer. While trying to grab a picture of it, she shot me this face:

And then this one...

Nice, huh? That's the new face she gives you when you say smile or no, or anything else. The look also accompanies her "NO" or her demon voice as she likes to wip out from time to time. All this has made me realize that she's hit the terrible 2's. Yes, she's a bit early but so was C. It seems my girls like to start it at, ohh around 18 months. I have been dealing so much with the treacherous 3's as J calls them, that I've been caught offguard by this. The attitude, the tantrums, all has started to come falling out of my sweet baby girl. Where oh where did she go?? Oh right, she comes back out right when she knows she's in trouble... Manipulation at it's finest!! :)

Little Ballerina

I accompanied J to C's ballet and tap class this weekend. I actually haven't gone since the session started a few weeks ago because C always wants Daddy to go. It's kind of a big deal because she's in the big girl class of 4-5 year olds as per the teacher. I was a little nervous as to how she would fare, but apparently I had nothing to worry about. She's doing beautifully in it as you can see from the following pictures:

Now the challenge will be to figure out what class to sign her up for the next session. I want to involve her in some type of sports as well as dance, but I also don't want an overscheduled kid on my hands. Decisions, decisions...

A Season of Pictures

Here are some pictures from our holidays. Enjoy!!

Our giant Christmas tree. It was over 8' tall and 6' wide. What were we thinking?!?



Here is C and her friend Sophie. We couldn't get one of them looking and smiling at the same time, but here they are making silly faces.



Here is C and M playing. Also, M's first ponytail. Yes, I know I'm a wacko and had to take a picture of it...but she looks so cute!





And here are some of C's favorite presents: Fairy wings, wand, and a Barbie house! (Yes, that is a disco ball hanging from it...)



Hope you enjoy them! I'll be back with a more meaningful post soon...

Winter Wonderland Recital

C's recital was Saturday. I haven't had a chance to put the video online yet, but here are some pictures from the day. This is the best one. The called C's name and she ran across the stage. Unfortunately, her tutu decided not to stay on her hips...

Here she is shaking her thing. She was a Rockin' Rudolph and danced to "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer".
To say the whole thing was hilarious was an understatement. It is truly the best money I spend. I get the whole mommy pride thing going as well as sore sides from laughing! Her teachers really do a wonderful job at preparing the kids, but the kids have their own agendas. Here's one little girl deciding to take a "seat":

She wound up sitting down right on the end of the stage. Priceless!! I'll post the video once it's up.

Bah Humbug!!!

Yes, I am officially a Grinch. I've noticed every year how stores start the Christmas season early and earlier. At first, it was right around Thanksgiving, then it was Veteran's Day, now...it was out before freaking Halloween!!! WTH?? Next year I'll be getting Caitlin's school supplies and buying tinsel at the same time?!?

Some may say I'm completely overreacting to some early holiday tidings, but it's not just that at all. Sure, I can't take Christmas lights up before December 1st but I know that's my personal pet peeve. What's bothering me is why are we rushing it? Why are we preparing for a holiday that is months away? Are our lives so busy that we need to multitask even holiday shopping right now? Buy a pumpkin and get a Christmas wreath for free??

I've recently discovered (well really admitted) that I am running, no sprinting through my life. Who made me realize this? My precocious first born, Miss C. I believe her exact words as I was rushing to get somewhere were, "Slow down Mommy! I can't move this fast!!" And she's right. She can't move that fast and neither can I without feeling like I'm shooting up crack. So the moral of this story is...SLOW DOWN!! Enjoy each moment even if you are running late, because you're running past precious moments in your life. In my case this means I need to wake up earlier or prepare more the night before so we don't have to rush, but I think it will be worth it. End of public service message...

Happy Halloween!

Here are some Halloween pictures. Both girls had a great time!!

Here is C posing with our pumpkins. Yes, that is a Cinderella pumpkin next to her...















Here is one of the girls with J. C is doing this smiling with her head up thing that we can't stop. Oh well...

No big surprise that C was another princess this year for Halloween. I figure by the time she's 8 we'll probably have each and every one. I was going to dress M up as a black cat, Flounder (with C being Ariel), or Tinkerbell, but she kept yelling "MICKEY!!!" at the Disney store, so I took that as a hint. Luckily, I had a costume from C's second Halloween and just had to buy some ears. Nice, huh??

Cox Farms

Since Blogger decided not to let me post more pictures in my last post, here are some shots of our day at Cox Farms on Sunday:


Here is C on the pony ride.








Here M is enjoying her apple.

I'll post some pictures from trick or treating tomorrow. Happy Halloween!!

Thank you, thank you

Just a little prayer from the mouth of Miss C...

"Thank you for our food and friends, thank you, thank you, Armens."

:)

The Great Pumpkin

Monday the girls and I headed to a local pumpkin farm. We had a great time. There were hayslides, a hay ride, petting zoo, and fresh apples and apple cider! The weather was beautiful and the girls really enjoyed the morning.

After running around for a while, we went to head out and grab our pumpkins. My kids seem to have a strange attraction to pumpkins. Could it be because I loved to eat pumpkin muffins while I was pregnant with both of them?? They both treat the pumpkin like it is a new member of the family. Let's start with Miss C's story...

C got her first pumpkin at school last week. They did a cute little hayride to the other side of the school where a local farm provided pumpkins for all the kids. C was so excited to show off her pumpkin when she got in the car. When we brought it home, she immediately sat it down at her little table and ate lunch with it. Ok...strange right? Well, it doesn't end here. Her princess dolls had to play and talk with the pumpkin, and get this, the pumpkin talks back?!? She wanted to know where the pumpkin would sleep and what it eats. After several discussions of how the pumpkin is not a person, I decided to approach it another way. Why not decorate the pumpkin? So, armed with a white crayon, black paper, scissors and tape, I let C draw a face and then cut it out herself and tape it to the pumpkin. Let me tell you, it was cute. If I had known it was going to come off so quickly, I would have taken a picture right then and there. Well no sooner are we done, then Miss C starts a complete OCD meltdown about how we HAD to take it off the pumpkin. I was able to convince her to leave it on long enough for Daddy to see it, but she would not go to bed until it was off. So nakey pumpkin it is...

With Miss M, it's not so much a person, but she loves it. As in hugs and kisses, won't put it down love it. She insisted on having it in the stroller, her carseat, and then had a complete meltdown when it wasn't allowed in the tub!! So M's pumpkin has moved outside. Mean?? I did go out and get her a cute felt trick or treat bag that's a pumpkin so she has that, and then some of those tiny pumpkins to carry around. See, I'm not completely heartless! ;)

So I ask you...are my kids weird or what?? Are they the only ones with this extreme obsession to the pumpkins??