Just Like Her Brother

I have recently come to the realization that my calm, laid-back, easygoing baby girl is turning out to be just like her big brother! I guess it's a good thing that I adore that boy! Madelyn spends so much time with Andrew and she has always thought he was "something" from the beginning. He can get her to smile bigger and laugh harder than anyone else. So it's no wonder she is turning out just like him! Madelyn turned 8 months on the 13th of this month and started crawling just days before. It's a very interesting crawl, it resembles an army crawl, but her chest isn't totally off the ground and she isn't dragging her legs. She truly looks like a swimming frog! But, it gets her where she needs to go! She attempts to get up on her knees, but it just isn't working out for her. Her poor little knees are carpet burned and her tummy is getting a small rash since it's down on the ground while she's going. Once she started crawling she realized that she could get to any of us at any time, so if we leave the room for any reason, she will follow and cry the entire way. Sweet, yes, but the constant crying will get to you after a while! If she is going after her brother, she will growl. I have noticed that Andrew growls every now and then just to be silly and so I'm pretty sure that is where she has picked that up from. It is really funny to hear this boyish growl coming from this tiny little girl! Here are a few pictures of what we've been up to. I didn't realize how long it has been since I've uploaded pictures from my camera. The last pictures I posted were from our trip, the others were from my aunt. So here goes....

Madelyn enjoyed her first lake trip! She certainly looked adorable....
which is more then I can say for her brother who has decided to pick out his own clothes lately. It usually consists of a t-shirt (elmo, mickey mouse, sea world...) and pajama pants or shorts. It could be worse, he could just want to run around naked! This was his sparkler on the 4th of July. He loved it!

We've let him swim a lot in his pool. He doesn't really get in it. He just enjoys playing with the hose!

Madelyn getting some sun

Snacking on the back porch

Our church had VBS a few weeks ago. The theme was Deep Sea Adventure. It was a lot of fun. Andrew participated with his class, I did registration and was the craft leader, and Jason helped in the snack shack. Madelyn enjoyed being with the babies too! Sunday night before VBS we had a luau. We were there very early for board meetings and to set-up, so Andrew had some time in the bouncy house and to run around the gym before a lot of kids were there. He is devistated that the bouncy house was gone and still talks about it every time we go to church....and we go there every.single.day! Andrew carried around the inflatables, which were technically decoration!

He later ended up just tackling the palm tree!

More VBS fun!

Helping Mommy with registration. He knew just what to do!

The other night, I was feeding Madelyn her bottle and Jason was finishing Andrew's bath. I saw Andrew streak through the living room and grab part of his mobile (I am currently getting ready for consignment and all baby items are going, so that is why it was out!) he ran back to the bathroom. Jason was dying laughing and said you have got to come see this. He sat down in Madelyn's tub with the moble pole and was pretending he was fishing. He said "I'm going fishing. I catch fish." Wow! What a great imagination on that boy! I love watching him play pretend!

Here is a shot of Madelyn crawling before she got too upset. She is trying to pull up, but only on very low things. She climbs out of her bathtub (so it's going to the sale) and she tries to pull up on my legs and her bouncy seat. Andrew wasn't doing any of this until he was 9 or 10 months! I wasn't expecting all of this yet!

Andrew was very carefully placing his cars into the big truck. He is just like his Mommy when it come to organization and order!

A rare shot of Miss Madelyn happily playing with HER toys! She is usually after Andrew's!

We got Andrew some fingerpaint soap. We're considering buying stock in it, because he loves it so much! That is a pretend razor. He likes to pretend to shave like Daddy....and like Mommy!

Madelyn takes off after her bath and will not lay still to get her pj's on. I wonder who taught her that???

I finally got the kids in there Disneyland outfits to get a picture together on Sunday. I thought it would be very quick, but not the case! Now that Madelyn can wiggle away too, I'm in for it! This was the best I got. Here are some of the others. They are cute too!

Andrew is getting his 2 year molars and is drooling as bad as Madelyn!

And here is what we did this morning! Madelyn loves playing with Andrew's cars. They really are her favorite. She will sit and play with them by herself, if Andrew will let her!

So that's what the kiddos have been up to lately. We've been going to school 3 days a week, working on several organization projects at home, I'm getting ready to set up all the classrooms at school for fall, and that pretty well takes up all of our time! I'm looking forward to school starting, mainly because that means I will have to be done with all that I'm trying to do this summer, and our enrollment is higher then it was last year! I've gotten to hire 3 new teachers (excellent, fantastic, fabulous teachers with multiple years experience and early childhood education degrees!!! That is hard to come by in the private preschool setting!) I've also redone the curriculum and bought new manipulatives and developmentally appropriate instructional materials, and numerous other things! I am so pleased with the way things are turning out! And naptime is now over for Madelyn...so it's time to get that girl fed!

A Big Brother and A Little Sister

It's a typical day, Andrew and Madelyn are playing together. Each with their own toys and some that they try to share. Andrew is teaching Madelyn exactly what she should do with the blocks and Madelyn is listening intently, trying to absorb all of her big brother's two and a half years worth of knowledge.

All of a sudden, Madelyn finds a teething ring and realizes that the pain of growing teeth totally outweighs listening to anything that her big brother has to say. This does not please big brother too much, so....
Big brother decides to make sure that little sister listens to each and every word he has to say. This can be done in many ways, but on this particular day, big brother decides to move little sister's face towards him so she will be sure and hear everything.

Big brother uses some excessive force in moving little sister, so he has to be removed from the play area until he can "use his words instead of his actions."

Little sister does not seem to be bothered by this at all! She continues to play, all the while smirking now that she has the toys all to herself.

What? I didn't do anything!

Now he can listen to me!

All is well that ends well!

And now some pictures that show just how adorable big brother really is!

California Vacation 2010

Finally, the pictures from our trip! There are a lot, but I couldn't narrow it down any further!

Here we are at XNA with all of our luggage. We had two large suitcases that we checked, plus Madelyn's carseat. We carried on three small suitcases. We had a bag for Madelyn and for Andrew and I carried my purse and the camera bag. Oh, we had the double stroller too!

Leaving Dallas and heading to LA!
I brought a paint with water book, play-doh, crayons, snacks, and books for Andrew to have on the plane. I think the play-doh was the best thing that I brought.

Madelyn finally fell asleep after they announced our descent into LAX.

Andrew and Madelyn took a bath together at the hotel. They thought it was great! So did I!

Andrew checking out the hotel. He loved all the fountains.

This was the best plate of cheese fries ever! I ate them twice.

Andrew wanted to have a bowl of strawberries for dinner, so they made him one. He gobbled them up!

What would we have done without the double stroller?

We spent one day at the pool. It was the warmest day, so it was a good choice! The other days were cloudy and kind of chilly for swimming. At least for me, I don't get in unless it's around 100 degrees outside!

Jason and Andrew rode the water slides over and over again.

Splash!

Andrew ended up going down the slide by himself. As long as Jason would catch him. The boy has no fear!

Andrew wanted to apply his own sunscreen. His lips did not burn!

Madelyn fit perfectly on the step of the kiddie pool. She could just splash and splash!

Fun at the pool!

They had a lot of pool toys and Andrew really had fun.

Resting in the shade of our cabana.

We got Andrew a bag of beach toys. He was so proud of his bag. He carried it everywhere, even to dinner! It was a pain to get in our luggage on the way home, but we did it!

We spent a day at Disneyland. It was so much fun! My mom and Emily went with us, which was a big help. We started the day with breakfast with Minnie and friends. Madelyn loved it, but Andrew was a little nervous!

Andrew hid his face when the characters would coem up to our table.

Madelyn was all smiles! She just laughed and would talk to them. It was so funny!

She loved Minnie Mouse! She just was in awe of her!

Andrew was alright with the Fairy Godmother. I think because he could see her face. He still didn't totally love her, as you can tell.

I love Madelyn's face in this picture!

Here we are with Tigger. Andrew informed us that he does not like Tigger. Funny thing is, he choose a Tigger stuffed animal as a souviner!

Minnie came back and wanted to hold Madelyn this time. She loved it!

In front of the castle.

I love Andrew's face in this picture. He is so excited!

I had outfits made just for the trip. They turned out so cute, but I couldn't get a picture of them together. I plan to do that on Sunday.

Checking out Mickey's mop and broom. He was thrilled to see them!

Meeting Mickey!

Andrew has told everyone, "I saw Mickey's hose!"

He also says, "I drive Mickey's car!"

He ate one ear off his Mickey ice-cream bar and then just passed out!

Madelyn was still going strong! She loved everything and was just so happy and laughing at everything.

We had a great time at Disneyland! Can't wait to come back!

We ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. Andrew wanted ice-cream for dinner. He also ate a kids pizza.

I tried to get some good pictures of us and the kids at the hotel. It was such a pretty place. I thought they turned out pretty good. Especially since I took the family picture with the self-timer!We walked over to the beach during the afternoon. It was kind of chilly, so we just went in our clothes and let Andrew play in the sand and see the ocean. Andrew ended up soaking wet, because he loved splashing in the water with his daddy!

Another meal of strawberries!

In the evenings they have fire pits at the hotel and you can make Smore's. It was a lot of fun and they were really good!

My dad flew out on Saturday, so we spent the afternoon with him and mom in Santa Monica. Emily had something else to do so she visited with us for a little while.

Saturday evening we drove down to San Diego. It took forever, because we got caught in traffic. Sunday we went to Sea World. We just slept in and went around lunchtime. It was so nice outside! We had a great time!

Andrew wanted a Shamu cupcake with his lunch.

Watching Shamu. Andrew was really amazed!

Shamu saying hello!

These sea lions crack me up! Andrew kept calling them dogs, because they make that barking sound!

Madelyn liked them too!

Andrew tried to feed them, but a sea gull snatched the fish! He told me that I could feed them the rest of our fish.

They have the Sesame Street Bay of Play at Sea World. Andrew was thrilled! We climbed up this rope play thing. I went with Andrew and it was awful! I don't like heights (not even a little bit) and this was too hight for me, plus it was all net so I could see below me the entire time. I also got run over by about 800 kids! I won't do that one again!

Andrew got to meet Cookie Monster, Elmo, and Zoe. He was so excited! He was not afraid of them at all! He gave them hugs and handshakes. He didn't want to leave!

Cookie Monster tried to sit in our stroller. Andrew has told everyone about this!

Madelyn couldn't ride the Sesame Street rides, so she just kicked back and watched Andrew.

Andrew loves The Count, so this is what he wanted from Sea World.

Andrew slept through this whole show on Jason's lap. It was really good. I'm sure he would have loved it!

Checking out the Beluga Whales.

We spent Monday at the San Diego Zoo. We had a great time. The kids were starting to get worn out, but they still enjoyed it.

Andrew was showing Daddy the koala bears. He loved that the babies were on the mother's backs. Fun Fact: Koala bears sleep for 22 hours per day (what a life!) because it takes that long for the eucalyptus to digest!

Checking out the fossils in the bulldozer. We just thought he was really eager to see, turns out his foot was stuck!

Madelyn was clearly impressed!

Andrew's favorite thing from the zoo? Watching the zookeepers clean up poop. We stood here for about 20 minutes watching them clean the elephant area. The elephants weren't in this area, they were just cleaning. Any animal we would walk by he'd say "hippo got poop? Need to clean up?"

Not a real elephant!

Checking out the polar bear den.

Meltdown of the day #982

Time to go home!

These pictures were taken at 2:00am on Wednesday morning when we checked in our hotel after all the crazy airline antics! Madelyn was still going strong, but Andrew was totally out!

When he woke up he looked around and said, "Mommy, there's no vacuum here and we need to do laundry." I had been talking about all the laundry that we had to do when we get home. He did not forget. Thankfully, now the laundry is all done and put away. The bags are unpacked and we are getting rested up again! Madelyn slept from 7:30pm until noon today. She was just so tired from all the fun she had!

Sidenote: We stayed at the Hyatt in Huntington Beach (it was AWESOME), but they accidently charged us twice...that was kind of a problem...so to make up for it, they are giving us (drumroll please!) vouchers for a 5 night stay at any Hyatt. ARE YOU KIDDING??? Between that and the airline vouchers, Summer Vacation 2011 is looking pretty good! Apparently, taking the kids is good luck!