Merry Christmas, and Happy Potty Training!

Franny-bug says Merry Christmas:



The kids have been having a great time, and I am having so much fun on my break with them. My family came to our house on Christmas Eve, and we had a nice Christmas dinner and opened presents.

I have to show off the homemade play kitchen that my amazing husband built for the kids:



It is so cute! The Doodlebug/Ladybug love to pretend-cook (and real-cook, for that matter), so I know they will have a blast with this. "Santa" brought it on Christmas Eve.

Here is the Doodle with his present from Uncle Andy: a real ukulele. He has been running around pretending everything he owns is a guitar for months now, so he was thrilled with this!



On Christmas morning, we got up and went to Nana and Papas house to celebrate Christmas with Craig's family. We opened Christmas presents in the afternoon and the kids had fun seeing their cousins.

Also, can I mention that potty training is going awesomely? The Doodle is wearing "underwear" (cloth training pants) all day long with almost no accidents, and even though he is sleeping in diapers at night, he has stayed dry for four nights in a row. He is very into it and tells me "I'm SO BIG!" :)

We have had a potty chair and training pants available to him for a long time now, but we didn't pressure him at all. He knew they were there to use when he wanted them, which he did every now and then. Then when he decided he was ready, it was almost like he trained himself. (Daddy did tell him he could have a chocolate chip each time he used the potty, as an extra incentive...) Anyway, I'm very proud of the Doodle and hope this post doesn't jinx us!

Return to "Normal"

Finals are over, and I am over finals! One semester down. I actually have really, really enjoyed classes, and even studying for and taking finals. But I am now ready for a much-needed month to catch up on my real life! Because while I walked out of a test on Friday feeling pretty good about how I did, I was even more giddy about the fact that on Thursday, the Doodlebug had pooed in the potty for the first time. Yes, this is my life. :)

I finished up on Friday morning, and on Friday afternoon the kids and I went to the dinosaur museum (giving Daddy a much-deserved break). Here's the Doodle standing next to a mastodon. (It was too big to get them both in the picture, so I went with my handsome boy.)



When I came home Thursday night, someone had made some "muffins" and left them baking in the "oven" (under the rocking chair). They were delicious!



Franny-bug rocking her shades at Grandma's today.



She looked so funny in her little outfit I had to take pictures! Here she is using the oven door as a mirror to make crazy faces at herself.



So how are we? Pretty great. I remember panicking a little when the Doodle was only 7 months old and we found out he was getting a sibling. In the early months of two-under-two we kept telling each other, "It gets easier." Of course, we had no reason to know that but we had to say it to keep our sanity.

Turns out, it does get easier and easier is now! We don't have to hold their bottles, spoon-feed them, or swaddle them and trick them into sleeping. For the most part, when they find small objects on the floor, Atticus ignores them and Franny conscientiously delivers them to me.

Although, truth be told, Craig went into Atticus room the other day to find Franny balanced on the foot-board of Atticus' bed, heel-to-toe, like it was a balance beam. (We have to admit, the girl does have an uncanny sense of balance.) And when we try to sing along to the ABC song from their CD, Atticus witheringly says, "Mom, don't sing!"

What's not to love? :)

Just a few pictures from today. Franny's new look:




She was wearing this around this morning and she thought she was hiLARious! I wasn't really able to capture the fahbulous attitude in just a picture, so you will have to use your imagination.


The Doodle making playdough:



He has played with playdough before but we had never tried making it. He was bored this afternoon and I asked him if he wanted to help me make playdough, and you would have thought I had asked him if he wanted to go to Disneyland.



The finished product. A little sticky, but not bad. He's making "muffins:"



By the way, anyone with a two year old boy who doesn't have a tea set might not realize what fun they are missing. Ladybug got a little teapot and cups for her birthday, and Atticus thinks they are the most wonderful toys in the world. He also puts his blocks in the teacups for ice cubes. The things he might have missed out on if he didn't have a sister!

Duck Wings

So last night we are putting Atticus to bed, and Craig is asking him about his day. Craig asks him if he remembers what we had for breakfast. (We had pancakes, his favorite.) Atticus thinks about it, and says, "Ummm...duckwings."

What? We can't understand him. "Duck Wings," he answers.

Duck wings? I am sitting behind Craig on the bed, and am dying laughing but burying my face in his back so Atticus can't see me. Craig is trying not to laugh, but poor sweet Atticus is dead serious.

"Duck wings?" Craig asks him. "Yes," says Atticus. "Duck wings."

We are both about to lose it when I remember that while we had pancakes for breakfast, for lunch we had chicken and dumplings. Poor kid. It must be so frustrating to be two.

Happy Birthday, Ladybug

Ladybug is a year old! We had her birthday party last weekend, and here are a few pictures. She had a good time. By the end of the party, you could tell she realized it was HER party (for once, ha ha).

Here she is trying on part of the Doodle's Halloween costume:





She wasn't too sure about the cupcake at first.

What IS this stuff? Is this even food? What a mess!



I guess I'll try it...



Whoa! It's amazing! I love it!



And one more picture from the big day:



We took her to the doctor for her one year appointment and she weighed 21 lbs. Getting weighed was about the only part of the whole doctor's appointment she cooperated for. We went in for flu shots a month ago, and I'm pretty sure she remembered.

At one year, Franny is such a sweet girl! She is very affectionate and gives lots of love and hugs and cuddling. She loves her brother and tries to do everything he does. But she will get upset and SCREAM if he takes something away from her.

She will climb on anything she can find and isn't afraid to try anything. She is still crawling a lot but can take 5-10 steps at a time. She still eats some homemade baby food, but eats most of what we eat, too. She still takes a bottle sometimes but also drinks from a cup.

She has a few words, but they aren't very clear. She shakes her head yes and no in answer to your questions, and signs for "milk," "more please," "bath," and "all done." She can play ball and peek-a-boo. She LOVES animals and gets so excited to see cats or dogs or to go feed the ducks.

Anyway, that's Frannybug at one year. We love you, Franny!

We can fly, we can fly, we can fly!

We had such a busy day yesterday! Ladybug had her first birthday party, and then we went trick-or-treating. I have tons of pictures so I'm going to do Halloween first, and birthday pictures soon.

Here's Tinkerbell:



Tinkerbell and Peter Pan:



It was impossible to get a good picture of the kids together. The Doodle loved his costume but did NOT want his picture taken, especially with his sister. I was only able to get the above picture because they were both distracted looking at a cat.



Trick-or-treating. They both LOVED it. Atticus loved ringing the doorbells and saying "trick-or-treat." Franny loved riding in the wagon and seeing the other kids in costume. We trick-or-treated past her bedtime, and she did great. Just laughed and laughed the whole time.



Oh, and these costumes were so easy! I made the Peter Pan stuff from clothes I bought at the thrift shop, and I made his hat and Franny's tutu myself for a combined total of about $4. The only thing we bought were the wings. I think doing everything took less than 30 minutes.

Stay tuned for birthday pictures...

Funny stuff

Picture this, if you will...

I've gotten the kids out of the bathtub. This is CRAZY TIME in our house. We have two kids running around that we are trying to corral and coax into diapers and pajamas. So tonight I'm struggling to get Ladybug snapped into her jammies, she's crying, things are nuts.

The Doodle comes in, naked, with a toy piano. Climbs into Franny's dollbed announcing, "Look, Momma! I'm in the BATH!" And proceeds to give the following stellar performance:




In other news, Franny is walking! She can't get very far, though, because she thinks she is SO AWESOME that she gets too excited to stand up. She crashes down, laughs hysterically, and then jumps up and tries again. She cracks herself up.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

We have a long-standing ritual of cooking Saturday morning breakfast. Doodlebug/Ladybug have now decided they are old enough to help. This morning Daddy brought in this step stool for Atticus to stand on. We turn around, and the next thing we know, there Franny is, balanced precariously on the step right behind him. She's definitely our little climber!



A few more random pictures of Frannybug I have. Here's one Uncle Chad took:



And one more I found from our outing to the pumpkin patch last week. She's ready to head home after a long day on the farm! :)

Pumpkin patch

Yesterday we went to this farm and pumpkin patch my friend Mendy told me about. We had a blast. They had train rides, hay rides, a giant trampoline, an 80' slide, animals, etc. The kids got to pet a baby pig, goats, sheep, and Atticus got to hold a bunny.


Here is Franny checking out one of the horses:



Hey Horse! She loves it!



Atticus next to the train. We rode in the caboose. :)



Atticus and Craig both played on the trampoline and went down the slide multiple times. Craig was the one begging to go down the slide "one more time." I think we had as much fun as the kids did.

We have had a great weekend. I was starting to get pretty burnt out with school, but I took this weekend and recharged my batteries, and it was SO great.

This girl wants to walk so badly she can't stand it:

She now says "uh-oh" when she or anyone else drops anything.

Franny-bug at the church carnival down the street:


FOUL BALL!!
Saturday afternoon I gave Craig break from the kids (much-needed, I'm sure!), and Atticus, Franny, and I went to the park. Atticus saw an adult softball game going on across the park, so of course we HAD to go. We were there less than 5 minutes when Atticus got hit with a foul ball!! I saw it coming but we were up on the bleachers and I had Franny in my lap, so there wasn't much I could do but cover their heads with my body and hope for the best. Lucky for us, it just caught Atticus on the ankle and didn't do much damage!

Also, every time the batter tossed the bat aside to run, Franny yelled "uh-oh!"



Today we were going to take the kids to the flying field to watch the radio-controlled airplanes, but it was too windy and there was no one flying. Instead, we crashed a 4th grade Pee-wee football game, and it was surprisingly fun. I had to end up dragging Atticus AND Craig away when it was time to go.

Tonight a church down the street was putting on a "block party" with face painting, games, a moon bounce, etc.

Sorry for the photo quality here. Taking pictures of kids while bouncing = not easy! (In case you can't tell, he's having the time of his life.)


Anyway, had some AWESOME quality family time and tomorrow it's back to the grind! :)

Can you believe this girl is going to be ONE soon?

This weekend was my mom's family's annual reunion at the lake. We spent Saturday night in my hometown, and Sunday morning while Franny-bug was taking her morning nap, Grandma and I took Atticus to the park.



I remember playing at this park as a kid. I love the old-school park equipment. The Doodle is really getting brave. He wanted to climb everything and go down the big slides himself.



Sweet Ladybug at the lake:


She wants to put EVERYTHING in her mouth, so keeping up with her wasn't easy. We finally put her in the pack 'n' play. She has never used it as a playpen, just for sleeping. I didn't know how she'd take it, but she absolutely LOVED it. She would pull up on the sides, fall down, and laugh and laugh. She thought it was her own little bounce house. Who knew!?

Weekend Getaway

Last weekend Craig and I went to Washington, DC. It was really nice to spend some time together before school starts. (Big thanks to Nana & Papa & Grandma for watching the Doodlebug and Ladybug!)



Neither of us had ever been to DC and it was a lot of fun. We went to a few of the Smithsonian museums. I can't believe the stuff that they actually still have, all in one place. It's incredible. They had Abraham Lincoln's top hat and suit, the original star-spangled banner (the one that inspired the song), Julia Child's kitchen, and Archie Bunker's chair. Of course Craig wanted to visit the air and space museum. He was interested in the WWII planes, but I thought the most interesting thing was the Wright Brothers' original plane.



Me at Mount Vernon. We spent over half a day there and it was great. For such a heavily visited place, it didn't really feel "touristy" at all. We also visited the Capitol and the Supreme Court. We didn't have enough notice in our (very) last minute plans to make arrangements to tour the White House (you have to do it six months in advance), which we would have loved.



Supreme Court (top) and White House (below, obviously)



It was a lot of fun to travel together again. We each only took a small backpack, so it was just like old times. (Except for also transporting 4 days worth of pumped breastmilk through the airport and back home. That was a new experience.)

So now we're back and ready to get into the swing of things. The kids are doing great. Franny's tooth #4 is peeking through but she's handling it fine...

Atticus' haircut. I know this picture is blurry, but I was having a hard time getting him to hold still. Doesn't he look grown-up?

Edit: I suppose I should also mention that the reason he is holding his hands like that is because he is petting a pretend cat. Ha, ha.




Ladybug had her 9 month appointment. She's weighing in at 18.6 lbs and everything went well. She was quite a trooper during the checkup. Of course she cried when she got her shot but got over it quickly. This was our first time with our new doctor for the kids and I think we will like him.

Fun in the...shade

Just a little splashing in the backyard this afternoon...

Sweet Franny's hair is finally long enough for a little 'do:




The only thing more fun than swimming IN the water? Dumping it out!



My handsome husband, lifeguard on duty:

Atticus' "big boy" room. Note the absence of a crib. (He has been going back and forth between bed and crib for six months now.) We were lucky to "inherit" a dresser and nightstand and I think we will be painting them soon to match the bookshelf.





Finally Ladybug has a room of her own (as opposed to sleeping in the Pack 'n Play off the dining room.) My grandma did the painting for me when I was a baby.



We have an iron bedframe that belonged to Craig's great-grandmother that we will be painting and using here in Franny's room. The toy crib was mine.



Franny's closet. This shelf is one Craig made for our living room in our old house. We bolted it to the wall so she can pull up on it.