Madeline

My precious Maddy-Boo. She continues to amaze me every single day. We are still being blown away by how much she does new on almost a daily basis. I actually was told by day care today that Madeline is the only kid in her class (12-18 month olds) that actually talks. She is not just saying 1 syllable words either. Full blown, understandable, 3 syllable words. Just this past weekend she asked for lemonade because Abigail had lemonade. Granted it came out em-ohn-ade but I think that is close enough for a 16 month old with not even 4 teeth.

Speaking of teeth, we finally are getting friends for the two teeth at the bottom. Of course I still love the little mouth with the two teeth but they were getting lonely. One popped out recently on top and thankfully the one next to it just popped out recently so she doesn’t look like a jack-o-lantern. One other friend who came to the party is a back molar. We have been having some periods of crying for no reason, which we knew meant teething, but was surprised when a molar came in.

One thing that Josh and I are amazed at is Madeline’s outgoing attitude and personality. Of course that also means she is very determined and wants what she wants. We have had to do a lot of policing because she wants something when Abigail has it and vice versa. Though it is still easier to distract her to a different toy. Abigail is a whole other story and often has a tantrum because of course Madeline has the one toy in the hundreds of toys that we have that Abigail NEEDS at that moment. But Madeline is her own person and it is funny how similar yet different are the two personalities. Abigail has always been clingy and scared of loud noises. I remember my parents got these singing monkey’s for Abigail (insert eye roll here) and it took her almost a year to warm up to them. Madeline just hears a loud noise and laughs as if to say “that is all you got”?

Of course there is a few words that she just refuses to attempt. Madeline has a Shamu stuffed animal that she sleeps with. Josh got it for her on her first birthday and it is adorable to see her snuggle up with this little whale in one hand and her thumb in her mouth. However, she does not say Shamu. She doesn’t even try to say Shamu. Nope. Shamu is Boo-bee. I have no idea where that came from. We try to correct it but if we say Shamu, she just looks at it and says Boo-bee. The other one is a bunny that she snuggles with in Josh’s car. The bunny was Abigail’s but she prefers a stuffed bear. For some reason Abigail named the bunny Bunny so we don’t have a creative name for him. However, Madeline has come up with Boo-bah. Now, this is very distinctive and cannot be confused with Boo-bee. We get into the car, get Madeline’s seat belt on and place Boo-bah in her lap. Whatever makes her happy!

Madeline continues to grow up and I am seeing more of my baby slipping away and a toddler starting to sprout in front of my eyes. I am trying to take it all in because I know I will soon see a little girl in front of me.

Catching Up

Okay. I am a big girl. I can take it. You can start yelling now at the lack of blogging I have done. Go ahead. I can wait. Feel better? Good. Now, that we have that out of the way…

Yes, I have not blogged in a long time. Longer than I care to between posts but what can you do? Life has been marching on and I have felt like I have just been pushed along so fast that my feet have not touched the ground. Remember that new project I told you I was working on? Well, it has consumed me. I barely have time to come up to breathe to work my other programs and then I am pushed down again. I even was so lucky to make a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to get acquainted with that program and people who work this every day. Of course they don’t understand that I don’t work their stuff every moment of every day though I have had to give that impression. I felt like I was cheating on one contract with another. Sorry BWC, I have to work late tonight. Don’t wait up for me. Meanwhile, I am in bed with ATS the whole night through and ATS is leaving cryptic text messages on my phone. It has been quite a balancing act to say the least. I actually worked 20 hours during my staycation at home before my family came in town. I even worked 5 hours during the week of plant shut down. Not too happy about it but you have to do what you have to do sometimes. I would blog about that but I would just as soon forget it than dwell on it.

Happy 2011 on top of everything. One thing I really would like to do this year it to blog twice a month. I know it sounds like a new year’s resolution but it really isn’t. I don’t know why I can’t find an hour or so a month to blog. There is just no excuses and the kids are growing so quickly. I am missing so many milestones that it is hard to keep up. I finally was “forced” to download the pictures from our camera because it was full. Though most of that was due to Josh’s videos from the Dolphin’s game he went to. But I figured the best thing was just to do a catch all post and give you a quick rundown of the highlights.

• Thanksgiving in West Palm. Always fun and lots of food. We even visited Lion Country Safari. It was the first time I had been there and Abigail is still talking about it. We saw lots of animals and spent almost all day there. Great time.
• Partying with the Keepers. One of my favorite activities. Sprite turned into a grown 4 year old which makes me want to groan because Abigail is only a few months behind. By the way, I think we are still working off the sugar!
• Chanukah. Abigail lit her own chanukiah this year and Josh decided to look up latke recipes. He made the most DELICIOUS latkes. Josh and I actually didn’t get each other a present since we, thankfully, didn’t need anything and also we were going to be spending a lot at Ikea to redo the bonus room.
• Little Rock, Arkansas. I was there for a week putting in 12 hour days. Not to mention I got some water in my purse which temporarily shorted out my work blackberry. It was a hectic trip to say the least and since it was almost all work (and exciting Arkansas) I won’t go into too much detail about it.
• Staycation. Josh was off of work but I had to work…a lot…but the good news is that we finally got our furniture for the bonus room, took two days and we now have a completely usable room. Anyone who knows what that room looked like before knows what a daunting task that was.
• Winter Break. My parents came and we had a nice time. But like all visitors, it was nice they came, nice they left.
• New Years. Josh marinated steak and we had sweet potato fries. The champagne flowed and we even had some nice ice cream. After we finished everything and started to wind down the party, we realized it was only 10 PM. The excitement! We ended up watching the Marx Brother movie marathon and enjoyed each other’s company.

There, now you are caught up to speed on almost everything. The kids needs a post of their own to document the last month or so of their lives. Maybe I will do that tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Perfect. Just What I Needed.

I love contributing to the Spin Cycle from Sprite’s Keeper. I don’t do it often enough because even though she generously gives us a week to spin, I just can spin any time into my spinning schedule which is spinning out of control.

What is even better is when I spin the spin! I like being able to get my creative juices flowing. This week’s spin is on perfection. But since I am already perfect (you can stop laughing now) I realized I was stating “Perfect. Just what I needed.” After a lot of things the past two weeks:

I went to the school’s Halloween parade to see the girls in costumes. Madeline saw me and started crying immediately. Abigail saw me and started crying two minutes later. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I had to miss Halloween to travel to Singapore for work. This is the second of Abigail’s four Halloweens and first of Madeline’s two Halloweens that I have now missed. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I almost missed my plane heading back home because I fell asleep in the hotel. I set the alarm, thought I hit snooze but I turned off the alarm. I needed to leave the hotel at 4:30 AM and woke up at 5:15 AM for my 6:50 international flight. Thankfully, I made it all the way to Chicago but my bag took 40 minutes to show up on the belt in customs. I ran through O’Hare carrying my laptop briefcase because the handle decided not to work. Almost missed my plane to Orlando. Luggage didn’t make it but I was able to swing by the airport to pick it up from the next flight. And in case you were wondering, it takes about 24 hours to travel to Singapore not counting layovers. Perfect. Just what I needed.

The girls were perfect for Josh. PERFECT. I get home and they melt into piles of whiney. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I had planned a trip to DC to visit some friends. Of course my meeting in Singapore is the same week as the weekend I had planned to go to DC. I couldn’t change my plane tickets and suffer the change fees just because of work. So I was home for 14 hours between my Singapore trip and my DC trip. Perfect. Just what I needed.

We went to a brunch at my friend’s house. The kids were playing in the basement with some of the dads while the moms were upstairs. I went to go check on Abigail (I took only Abigail with me to DC) and proceeded to slip off one of the steps and landed right on my tailbone. It hurts to sit, lay down, and forget about bending over to pick something up. Not to mention this happened right before my 2 hour plane ride back to Orlando. Perfect. Just what I needed.

Abigail wanted me to tie her shoe while I was driving yesterday. Yes, she sits behind the driver's side. I told her that I can't do that and she will have to live. She decided to cry and carry on. I couldn't do this under normal situations so forget about it with a bruised tailbone. So I took off her shoe to which she cried more. Yes. Over a shoe. I put her shoe back on when we got into our driveway because I could get out of the car. She went into the house and took off her shoes. Perfect. Just what I needed.

Last night Josh had a parent teacher night and was going to be home late. I have had both girls at home by myself plenty of times. No big deal. However, everyone decided to test out their lungs. Madeline went to bed and woke up crying. (Teething! Tooth on the top broke through) At the same time, Abigail walked into her bed. I actually had both girls crying at the same time in two different rooms. In stereo where available! Perfect. Just what I needed.

I also came back to work to find out we won a proposal and my manager wants me to work on the award. Great. I can cut back on my other programs, right? Nope. I am now part time on three programs. You do the math. Perfect. Just what I needed.

I also realized that between Halloween, Singapore, and DC, I have some posts to write. Perfect. Just what I needed.

Make Me A Liar

Madeline is really trying to put sounds together to make words. Some of them are actually quite distinguishable.
On Monday Josh picks up the girls and I am greeted at the door by my family when I come home from work. Greeted usually means Abigail says hi mom while she is glued to the TV (she only gets about 30-60 minutes a day before dinner), Josh is running around getting dinner together and Madeline runs over to me to either say hi to me or if something better, like crayons or the cat, she runs over to greet them. Fortunately I get first dibs more often than not but I think that is just because I will pick her up.

Josh and I usually spend a few moments in the kitchen catching up before I run upstairs and change into some kid friendly clothes before dinner. I always end up wearing a bit of dinner and it is not because I am a messy eater. I asked Josh if the girls had a good day and this was the conversation:

J: School said that Maddy is talking and said agua when she wanted water.
B: Whatever. I don’t believe that.
J: Me neither. There is no way.
B: Madeline, say agua.
M: Agua.
J and B: DAMN!

Madeline has been nodding when she wants things and we have been getting a kick out of that. We know she understands so much but the communication has not been there in words we can understand. So of course we started trying out bunches of words and got some results. This is about all we got:

Oreo – Oooohhhhh
Book – Boo Kah
Abby - Abbb Boo

Thanks for making a liar out of your parents, kid.

Potty Training 101

Rule 1:

When you are potty training, you drill into the head of your intended pupil (child) that you do not go pee-pee in your clothes. Not underwear, pajamas or even swim suits. Pee-pee goes in the potty. Bottom line. Underlined. Bold lettering turned on. Italics are totally optional.

We have been working on potty training for over a year and while accidents are few and far between, we still have them. But since they are very infrequent, we don’t make too big a deal out of them anymore.

Rule 2:

When you take your child to the splash pad that you have been going to for years because it is close to your house, has bathrooms and even a changing table, make sure said bathroom is not locked because they decided to implement a key system.

The splash pad we go to is in an open area. I don’t think that it was originally thought of as a splash pad for kids because it is all cement. Originally, it did not even have tables but has evolved over the years to have tables and even a tarp over the area for shade. Next to the splash pad is a playground with two different size play equipment. It is perfect for us on Sunday mornings when Josh plays basketball. It is only 20 minutes from our house and free. Awesome! Not to mention we usually are there with very few kids on a Sunday morning. Friends usually join us and the kids have a blast.

Rule 3:

When your child turns to you in a wet bathing suit and says “Mommy, I have to go potty”, you look deep in her eyes and try to figure out how long she can hold it because of Rule 2. You try to explain Rule 2 and soon realize that every word just flew over her head.

So being a mommy, I have to improvise often. I told Abigail that she is just going to have to sit in the grass and disregard Rule 1. Of course she looked at me as if I had two heads and I just told her that she can break the rule this one time. She sat in the grass and just couldn’t do it. Looks like we did too good of a job with Rule 1. I tried to move her one piece swimsuit aside, tried to put a towel around her thinking she had stage fright, and even just sat there with her for a few moments willing the pee-pee to just flow. Nothing.

I finally gave up and said we can just load up in the car and go home. I could run to the nearest store but loading up two wet kids or even attempting to change them and then unload the car was not happening. It was just easier to go home at this point.

I started to pack up everything and directed Madeline to come over and get a dry diaper before the car ride home. I turned to tell Abigail to just put her shoes on and saw this:

Rule 4: When your child decides that the only way this is getting done is to strip naked and sit in the field next to the splash pad to do her business, you just laugh and grab the camera.

PITA

For some reason, both kids decided to bounce off of the walls this past Sunday. I went to a baby shower and when I called Josh to give him a hard time about giving me the car with no gas in it again, I knew I was coming home to a house of insanity…more so than normal. Abigail decided that listening was a option she didn’t even want to exercise and Madeline was just being dramatic because she was upset that I wasn’t holding her then upset that I was holding her. Just how I want to start off a Sunday night to get into the swing of a full work week.

Josh and I finally just decided to ignore the bad behavior rather than trying to compete with it. We had a lot of time outs but at some point you just give up because they do lose their effect if they have to be done in a row. Unfortunately a 3 year old doesn’t understand go to your room and think about what you have done. Now, we were still correcting behavior but the two of us were just spent and in need of a cocktail. Josh finally told Abigail she was being a PITA. (Pain In The Ass in case you don’t know what I am talking about) I laughed and when she repeated PITA to us with an quizzical look on her face, we just said that she was being a pain today and left it at that.

So Monday morning comes and Madeline is fussing again as I attempt to get the three of us out of the house. We think she is teething because she just fusses for no reason. (Nothing logical equals teething. Right?) I finally just tell Maddy that she will have to sit on the floor and cry for a moment while I get the last minute items corralled before we head out of the door. Abby sits down with Maddy and matter-of-fact says to her:

“Maddy, you are being a PITA.”

I stop in my tracks. “Maddy isn’t a PITA.”

“Yes, she is.”

“Do you even know what that means?”

“Yes, she is being a pain.”

Damn…Smart girl…JOSHUA!!!!!

I called Josh in the car to relay the entire conversation. He just laughed…

We have been watching what we say from a language perspective for so long that cursing has pretty much been erased from our vocabulary. Now we are forced to go to a whole other level and make sure we clean up quips! But I live for quips and one liners! I guess we just have to teach the right ones.

Yes, I am Talking To You!

We have been anxiously awaiting Madeline’s first words. While she has started to progress from just pure baby babble and cooing to discernable sounds. Sometimes she looks at us and says “Do be addor thipbt” and while I will always answer her so she knows that I am listening to her, I am sure she is asking me for a raise in allowance that I am not giving her. Josh and I do not believe in baby talking back with her because how can she learn proper language if we are not practicing it. So Josh and I constantly talk to her and as I have stated before, what she understands is amazing. If I tell her that breakfast is hot, she blows on it to cool it off. If Josh tells her to tickle Daddy, then she reaches over to tickle him. She will sit down if asked and helps put her shoes and socks on in the morning. Madeline has a sense of humor and gets a kick out of when I take her socks off at the end of a day and tries to bring me her stinky socks. I guess my reaction is funny and that keeps her coming back.

With all of this fun, we have been keeping an eye on the calendar knowing her first words were just around the corner. Abigail said her first word at 13 months and since Madeline was now 13 months, we were just waiting. Would she say “nana” (banana) like her big sister or maybe “Oreo no!” (stupid cat) which is the most common phrase we say in our house. As we wait, I keep saying “mama” to her and Josh keeps saying “dada” to her. However, the other day I was holding Madeline and making dinner. I was going to drain the pasta and had to put her down so I did not hold a boiling pot of water in one hand and a baby in the other. Shocking, I know. So I put her down and walked away. She stood right up, raised her hands and walked towards me while saying “MAMA! MAMA!”. I immediately put the pot down to pick her up and Josh just stood there saying “And there is her first word!” (I won! HA!)

Speaking of talking and listening, Ms. Abigail is having issues with her listening ears. I am sure I bought the warranty on them but they seem to be sputtering out. I am sure I at least have the receipt. We have had to have a few timeouts recently because of not listening. I even went to her after her 3 minute time out and asked if she was ready to listen. She said no so I put her right back in time out for another 3 minutes. Josh and I are having our patience tested daily. This week we asked her what she had for lunch and what she did at school. After 45 minutes of working through it and changing our techniques, we were unsuccessful. Finally the only thing we could do was to put her to bed early for being stubborn and obstinate. Punk.

It seems as if we are working hard to get both girls to talk to us! Good thing I have you people to listen to me! Right? Is this thing on?

One and Beautiful

I am long overdue for Madeline’s one year post (Happy Birthday, baby.) but before the month of August got away from me, I wanted to do a quick post. There are so many milestones that Madeline has hit before Abigail and I have been amazed every day. Not that hitting milestones is a race and we are keeping score but it is just so fun to see who did what first. We only have Abigail to use as a benchmark and since she is growing up fabulously, we know we are on track to have another outstanding girl.


One of the most amazing things is that by one Maddy is walking. Not just a few steps but full out walking from the kitchen to the family room without falling down. She still toddles like she has been drinking the spiked milk but walking is walking. It was amazing how quickly she took to walking. We were seriously seeing the differences from week to week instead of just month to month. My parents even came down to visit once and then three weeks later and remarked at the difference.

We are also still saying “Dooo! Or Doh!” to everything and not really saying Mama or Dada yet. Sometimes it is said as a fluke but we working on speaking words to hear in hopes that we will get something back. As with Abigail, we have also started baby sign language teaching her how to put her hands together to say more. Well, we sort of made progress. Maddy will put her pointer fingers together and say “Boah!” Which of course we applaud and she just laughs. So we aren’t really talking much but what she understands blows us away. We were at a friend’s house the other day for a birthday party. Maddy made herself right at home and started to take off small magnets off of their refrigerator. I was concerned that she would swallow them so we just turned to her and asked “Can you put those back on the fridge, please?” Sure enough, she turned right around, walked over to the fridge and stuck them back on. I turned to Josh and stated “I totally didn’t think that would work!”

Madeline is making strides to becoming a toddler and I am seeing my little baby slipping away. She knows what she wants, understands everything and will be talking up a storm before I know it to keep up with her sister.

Happy Birthday, Maddy-Boo.

Poof! Gone!

I am back. The summer, as usual, went by in a flash. I have been writing posts in my head but unfortunately that does not get the post onto the computer. I just need to get back into the swing of things.

We had a good but very busy summer. I can say that easily because I was at work all summer just like I am all winter…and fall…and spring. I never really see the change of seasons from inside my cubicle. But Josh definitely knew it was the summer. We counted down the days until the end of school and with excitement (and some apprehension) the summer started.

Summer started off with swimming lessons for both girls. Yes, we had our 10 month old in swimming lessons. We really didn’t think that there was a point to this but the instructor assured us that if she can crawl, she can swim. Our main focus was taking Abigail to swimming because she is the one who I fear the most about falling in the water. Okay, I fear that both of them could drown but I will admit that I keep my eyes on Madeline more since she doesn’t understand what she can and can’t do. Abigail understands it but often chooses not to follow directions but that is a whole other story. After 4-6 weeks of swimming lessons, Abigail was able to swim by herself and Madeline could float unassisted. I was so amazed. I am now a little more secure with Madeline around the water and really liked that she got used to it.

Once swimming lessons were over, Josh finally got to enjoy the girls with being able to capitalize on all the fun things that we have in our backyard. Theme parks, story times and running errands as a good house husband. I totally get spoiled by having him run all the errands for me so I can come right home after work. What was the best part was that Madeline was done with bottles by this point so Josh didn’t have to worry about feeding her a warm bottle in the middle of a theme park. Though he could have just warmed it up on the pavement, it was just another stop that Abigail wouldn’t have the patience to sit and wait for Madeline to eat.

And almost as quickly as it started, it ended. Last week was our first week back to “reality” and life as we know it for 10 months out of the year. Abigail has moved into her 3-4 year old room and we now have to take a right into day care instead of the left we have been taking for 3 years. It is amazing how the little details mean time is moving fast. Madeline is also in a new room since she is a walking girl. Not just a few steps but walking the whole house without falling down. More details to follow.

Thanks for catching up.

EPCOT

I think the smiles were going to be permanent on our faces. While the kids were slightly fading, we knew we had to persevere. There was still so much Disney to see! We were so excited to be heading over to another park and meeting up with our friends. After taking the monorail over (and it slightly dying on us for about 10 minutes which led to me freaking out that I wasn’t going to see my friend) we walked right into EPCOT and met up with the Keepers of Sprite. I was seriously more excited about seeing them than anything over in EPCOT. After oohing and aahing over how much the kids have grown, we headed to see what ride we would first hit. The boys decided that they wanted to ride Mission Space since it had a 5 minute wait. Works for me! The girls decided on the ride next door which was Universe of Energy. As we entered the darkness of Universe of Energy, I thought that this may be fun for Abigail because it has dinosaurs in it. Abby loves dinosaurs so I figured we would give it a try. I asked Jen if she foresees any problems and she said it shouldn’t be that big of a deal. Her little Sprite will just cower in her mommy’s hair if she does get scared. Similar to the Sesame Street Safari of Fun episode. Then the announcer states that small children may be scared because of the dark and loud sounds. Okay, now I am wondering if we should still do this ride. We can do it. Right? (Did I mention I had Madeline in the Bjorn and Abby next to me?) Sure we can! The show started and poor Sprite started to meltdown. Unfortunately you are locked into this ride and there is nowhere to go. I felt so guilty because I felt like I talked Jen onto this ride with the kids. Abby just sat there with her hands over her ears and telling me she was having fun every time I asked. Maddy jolted one time during the big bang (the ding dang?) but promptly fell asleep after that. 45 minutes later, the ride was over and all the kids were again sane. We met up with the guys and decided to go to the Living Seas with Nemo. That one everyone should like. Right…Right? Well, we walked in and it started to go downhill again. I said that we can just meet up with them after but Jen stated that they had just ridden that ride. She was pulling out all the stops not to go on another ride. However, once she was on the ride, everything was great. We had a fun time at Nemo and even did Turtle Talk with Crush!

Minor tangent…I am so glad that Jen blogs more religiously than I do so I could totally just hyperlink her posts instead of writing out ones of my own. I am so sneaky.

After the Living Seas, it was getting soon time to depart. What we did walk by was a character meet and greet. Knowing Sprite is scared of characters, I asked Jen if she minded if we went in and said hi to the characters because Abigail would love it. She of course didn’t mind and we all waited the 15 minutes to see all of the major characters. I was so excited that Abigail was going to meet Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto. It isn’t every day that you can meet all the prime characters in under 15 minutes. It was the perfect end to the day. After lots of hugs, we said we were going to leave before the fireworks because Abigail is petrified of fireworks. Unfortunately she heard me say the word fireworks and I proceeded to freak out. Like seeing the streetlights and telling me that they are fireworks. That kind of freak out. The only thing that seemed to soothe her was her knowing that I am the all-powerful Mommy. I told the fireworks to go home and they went home. So no fireworks!

We trudged back to the parking lot and decided to just walk to our car instead of undoing the stroller and kids to load them into the tram. As we found our aisle, Josh asked me for the keys. I told him I didn’t have them and he told me he didn’t have them. Um. Where are the car keys? Remember in that last post how I said we were so busy getting out of the car? Well, we left the keys in the IGNITION of the car. Thankfully, only at Disney, would we return to our car 12 hours later and still find it sitting there with the keys in the ignition.

We were beat tired and covered with multiple layers of sweat, dirt and sunblock but it was well worth it. We have loads of memories and pictures.

Disney Magic

We arrived at Disney around 9 AM heavily armed. We had water bottles, the double stroller, three bottles of sunblock, snacks and the credit card. We were set.

Usually when we go to a theme park, we are only slightly armed. We have passes to the other Orlando area attractions so there is no reason for us to spend an exorbitant amount of time at any of them. Whatever we don’t get on that day, we will save for next time. But with one day passes, you go first thing in the morning and try to cram in everything possible until your feet and the kids fall apart.

As we pulled up to park the car, Josh got out of the car and started unloading. I stayed in the car to enjoy the last bit of air conditioning and finish the song on the radio that we were listening to. Then I got out of the car to give Josh a hand. We decided to not load up the stroller because we were only going a few feet to the tram stop. Abby was so excited to see the tram and the fact that it was going to be a neat ride. Little did she know what she was in for. Once we took the tram, we went to the monorail and crammed in it as much as possible. There is no way you wait the 5 minutes for another tram! As we unloaded the tram, we set up the stroller and we were on our way. The first challenge was the gate. I was still nervous about the passes not working for some reason and me being forced to resort to tears. Thankfully, we got in and headed for a first stop…the bathrooms. Yes, I know that was anticlimactic. Sorry. You will get over it. The first real thing we did was to head to the back of the park so we could work our way forward. The line for Daisy Duck at the front of Main Street was 20 deep as it was. We headed for Fantasy Land for our first ride, which ended up being Mickey’s Philharmagic. This is a 3-D movie with the music of Disney. I had to feed Madeline anyways and where better than somewhere air conditioned. We sat down and at the first loud noise, Abigail started crying. We just told her to put her hands over her ears and Josh and I started singing. Because she likes the music, it was a very short fuss. Not to mention, Abby had never been to a 3-D movie before. This in itself was a new experience. After a short show, we headed to our first real ride. Peter Pan! I love this ride. Josh stayed out with Maddy in the Bjorn and I took Abby on the ride. I honestly don’t know who was more excited. After the ride we both had huge smiles on our faces. What more, Josh had a huge smile on his face because he found out that Madeline can pretty much ride everything from the Bjorn. We headed for the carousel, Small World, Winnie the Pooh and more. This was just going to be a day of awesome rides and smiles all around.

We finished with Fantasy Land and headed for Mickey’s Toon Town. There isn’t that much to do there from a ride perspective but we did see a kiddie coaster. Works for me! I would hold Madeline and Josh could take Abby on a coaster. First the height check and they were off! They even got to ride in the front seat which makes the coaster better, so I am told. I DO NOT do coasters. Next we walked by the Disney Race Track. Abby wanted to go ride the car. I was not a fan of this because she wouldn’t get to drive the car (The car is on a track if you didn’t know) and what fun would that be. But I decided it would be perfect timing because Madeline needed to eat some real food. I fed Maddy in her stroller and waited for Josh and Abby to come around the bend. After Maddy was done, we started looking for Josh and Abby. To my surprise, I see a little girl in the driver’s seat with a huge smile on her face. I was so happy that they let her drive. She came off of the ride dancing and we headed to lunch. Lunch was the usual theme park fare of hamburgers and chicken fingers. We were pushing her to eat quickly because we had so much time and so little to do. Wait, strike that, reverse it. Quick, name that movie!

We finished up the rides in Fantasy Land and headed for Liberty Square and Frontier Land. The only thing that we wanted to do there was the Haunted Mansion. This was really going to be a test of Abigail because while it isn’t scary, it can be for a 3 year old. However, with me on one side and Josh on the other, she did so well. Of course she later said she didn’t like the ghosts but I am sure we could get her on there again. We are so mean. The next rides were much more tame. We did Aladdin’s Magic Carpet and the Jungle Cruise seeing all of the animal animatronics. Animal-tronics? I just made up another word! The last stop was Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, Abby LOVES pirates. Her favorite thing at Sea World is the show Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island. We figured this would be another scary ride for her but with pirates, we may be able to pull this off. Sure enough, she was a trooper! She had a great time.

After that ride, we looked at the Magic Kingdom map. We did everything there! I was shocked and even Josh didn’t believe me. But it was only 4 PM and we still had time to play. What next? EPCOT!!!!

House of Mouse

We live in Orlando. So it should come as no surprise that one of these days we were going to visit Mickey Mouse and all the wonders of Disney World. We had been putting this off for some reason. Disney is EXPENSIVE! We are blessed to have passes to Sea World, Busch Gardens, Aquatica and Universal thanks to my brother and his girlfriend. These passes that we have were free so we are not complaining nor depriving our children of theme park fun in the theme park capital of the world. Though even if we didn’t have Sea World connections, we would have bought passes. I am a Sea World addict. I did also price out the theme park tickets for Disney. The lowest option for us would be $250 per ticket for an annual pass with blackout dates. Hmm. Let me see. $250 PER PASS or free…I will let that soak in for a moment. We would just have to be happy with what we have.

Then about two months ago, Josh came home and a coworker of his had two FREE passes to Disney. We were so excited that we could finally take the girls. With free passes, we picked a date and set everything up. One thing that I was very adamant about was that I wanted to company to come with us. I wanted to be selfish and go on the rides with Abby instead. We could take turns between Josh and I but I really wanted it to just be our family of four for the first time to Disney. Not to mention, when you go with a big group of people to a theme park, you have to accommodate everyone. Get the consensus on where we should eat, stop because someone needed a bathroom break because they didn’t need to go when we made a group stop or even have to skip a ride because someone doesn’t want to go on it. Nope. I try to make my weekends Mommy and Daddy time with the kids. I don’t mind sharing once in awhile but not when it comes to the first time at Disney. Second time to Disney, no problem. We even like to go to Sea World or Busch Gardens with friends because we can be leisurely in our explorations. But with one day free passes to Disney, we had no time to be leisurely! We had rides to go on!

Now here are the weird twists…We had planned to go to Disney on June 11. I was going to take off work and we figured the crowds would be at a minimum on a Friday before schools got out for the summer and people are more inclined to go to Disney during a weekend rather than a weekday. Thankfully friends of ours told us to make sure that the passes we had don’t expire. I didn’t even realize the passes had expiration dates but THANK GOODNESS we did look because the passes expired on June 10. (Thank you again Aaron and Karla!!!). We would have been screwed and I am pretty sure I would have just sat down and cried on the front steps of Magic Kingdom. So we changed our plans last minute and decided to go June 5. Yes, it was a Saturday but again it is still before the summer kicks in. What I didn’t realize (I don’t realize a lot sometimes) was that it was Gay Days at Magic Kingdom. This is the annual get together of the homosexual community. While I am very supportive of having Gay Days events, I am not supportive of it at Magic Kingdom the first day we are taking the kids to Disney. They can come the second day we are at Disney. I was just so worried about the wait for rides. Thankfully, everyone was on the big rides like Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain, neither of which we could (I wouldn’t have gone anyways) ride because Abby wasn’t tall enough. Not to mention, everyone was just so nice and happy there that even waiting in the lines we did were made better by the groups there for Gay Days. One group of guys gave Abby a magic wand and a wishing star from their Cinderella breakfast. I would totally go back to Disney on Gay Days. Now for the best twist, our friends and fellow theme park buddies, the Keepers of Sprite, decided on June 4, that on June 5, they would go to Disney. It was unbelievable because I had not told a lot of people that we were going to Disney because I didn’t want company. But how could I be in the same park at Jen and not see her? We chatted on the phone on Friday night and decided we would meet up in the afternoon because she too understood my request for no one accompanying us to Disney.

The best part was that we did not tell Abigail where we were going. This was because for one, she has no concept of time. We would have been asked if we were going to Disney today endlessly. No thank you. Second, we really wanted her reaction. Unfortunately it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. If you want to see a good reaction, go here! (Jen also mentioned how she called me but left out the jaw dropping part of We were all going to be in Disney together!) We were met with a more skeptical reaction. “Mickey Mouse? Mickey? Donald?” and then a smile as if to say “I will believe it when I see it.” Which I can’t say I blame her because after paying the parking fee, driving and then unloading the two tons of stuff you need into the stroller, taking the tram to the monorail, loading like sardines into the monorail car, getting to the gate, you then finally get to see a Disney character.

I am going to have to write a few entries in this blog to fully document what we did. If I did it just here, then this would take you days to read.

Doctors Can Make Me Vomit

Last week we had a weird anomaly. Abigail vomited after a nice morning at the beach. What is weird about this? She has never vomited before other than the usual baby spit up. But never the gut wrenching, abdomen crunching, stuff that can come from not feeling your best. The day started out pretty normal. We had a lot of family in town for Memorial Day and my one plan was to go to the beach. The original plan was to do this on Sunday but after Josh hitting Old Town a little too hard and sleeping until noon, it wasn’t going to work out. Therefore I decided to hit the beach on Monday because it was our last chance (I am not even going to get into the BP oil spill debacle) that weekend. The girls all loaded up in the car, Josh’s mom, Teri, Abigail and Madeline. We had a fabulous time at the beach. I even got a workout schlepping everything onto the beach and then back to the car. We played in the water for about an hour and headed back for lunch. Abby wasn’t even hungry when we got back to the house. She had some crackers and goldfish on the beach but nothing abnormal. After nap time, Abby still didn’t want to eat. She finally drank some water and then 30 minutes later…you know what happened. We turned on the TV and it went downhill very quickly. Poor baby wanted to just sit in the bathroom and “spit up” as she put it. It was sort of hard not to laugh at her sitting on Josh’s lap while hugging the toilet. Finally we got her to bed after she just wanted to keep “spitting up” though there was nothing else that was coming up.

The next day she felt better and even ate a little bagel for breakfast. I decided since she had no fever, said her tummy was feeling better I would take her to school. Poor baby had a tough day. Her teacher said she wasn’t herself and just wanted to lay down. That night was pretty uneventful and she was even perfect when it came for bed time. The next morning I decided to see how she was doing. She had half a cup of milk and one bite of waffle since she had not thrown up in over 24 hours. As we were loading up in the car, Abby threw up again. Of course this time all over the car seat and interior of the car. I won’t even tell you what that smelled like. I decided that I would take her right to the pediatrician after dropping Maddy off at day care.

After the weight and temperature check, (she had no fever, thank you) we proceeded into the waiting room. Thankfully, our pediatrician’s office has walk in hours and I can get right in to see someone. I tell the nurse the whole story and she does her obligatory “hmmm, okay” and states that the doctor will be in soon. The doctor walks in and I have to share the entire story again. I don’t know why doctor’s offices do this. Why do I have to tell the story twice. Let me just tell my story once and be done with it. So the doctor walks in and I rehash everything. The first thing the doctor says is how I shouldn’t have given her milk if she was throwing up. Um, didn’t you listen to me? She hadn’t thrown up in 24 hours and had half a cup of milk. See you even knew that because you were paying attention. Then he told me that I shouldn’t have given her waffles because they are high fat and that just sits in her stomach. First of all, I gave her one waffle and a small douse of syrup. It wasn’t a bagel with cream cheese, waffles, bacon, sausage and eggs slathered with butter. It was one small waffle. Then I told him that when Abby first got sick, she had goldfish crackers and juice. Then I told him how she only ate one chicken nugget for lunch the following day. I even told him that we give her “water juice” which is only about 30% juice. I again got a bit of a tongue lashing for giving her the empty calories of juice instead of something nutritionally better. Not to mention that juice stays in your stomach longer and can cause more vomiting. Should I mention that my kid loves vegetables and shares my salad when I have one? Thanks for the guilt sandwich. I wasn’t even hungry.

The doctor did an exam of Abigail’s eyes, ears, mouth, etc. and then said “I am going to get something off the printer and then we are going to need to talk.” I immediately started to internally freak out. What are we going to need to talk about? What did you find? What are you getting off of the printer? Should I alter life as I know it? The doctor came back and said that Abby is fine but probably just has a bug…that is it…Just don’t give her any dairy for a few days and then handed a prescription of an anti-nausea medication if the vomiting is persistent…Are you kidding me? You just freaked me out and the guilt over a bug? Thanks.

We proceeded home and Abigail took a 4 hour nap. After that, she ate a little dinner and went to bed. The next day, she was almost back to normal and by Friday, she was back to her old self. I am definitely going to go back to our pediatrician and request not to see THAT doctor in the group. I don’t need that sort of pediatric care. I am afraid of what he would say if I brought her in with something more than a stomach bug!

Why Not?

I knew this stage was coming. It is the beginning of the end when your child turns to you and asks why? I know it is just natural curiosity to ask why after a statement when you are young and trying to figure out the world. But…

IT IS DRIVING ME INSANE!

“It is time to go to school, Abigail”
Why?
“Let’s put your shoes on.”
Why?
Daddy has to go to work
Why?
Dinner is ready!
Why?
“Bed time!”
Why?
“Can you find my sanity?”
Why?

I almost want to make a drinking game out of it. One shot for every time that she says “why?”. Gosh. I would be drunk before I hit my cornflakes! Maybe not the best idea. Especially since I drive the kids to school in the morning.

I really do like the sense of questioning your surroundings and foster the sense of curiosity. I want to teach her to never take things for face value. Question authority! Except mine. Or Daddy’s. Well, Josh can fend for himself.

Both of us are really answering every question that she has because we do not want to squash the questions and the learning. Yesterday Josh told her to put her sneakers on versus her sandals. “Why?” Because the forecast called for rain and therefore not sandal weather. “Why?” Because there is a low pressure system moving in which increases the chance for precipitation. “Oh…” I am sure about 90% of what we said just sort of sailed over her head but we answered the question.

Unfortunately there are situations where I can’t quite get to the “Oh…” moment. As I picked up the girls from day care the other day I told Abigail it was time to go home. “Why?” Because it is getting late. “Why?” Because the sun is going down. “Why?” Because the Earth is rotating. “Why?” Because it does that every 24 hours. “Why?” Because that is the way life is. “Why?” Do you want to watch TV when we get home? Mommy is going to need a break.

I really do like the curiosity. I just have to keep telling myself that.

Why?

Why not! Take that!

Dollars and Sense

I am cheap. I have accepted this. I can’t even say that I am just frugal. I am just all out cheap. I question every nickel and dime that I spend and wonder if I should have spent it. I don’t know why I do this. But, I can live with this. I am even alright doing a Spin this week because it is free.

What really amazes me is that I have no hesitation on spending money when it comes to the kids. Now, I will wait for a sale for anything but if they need it, we buy it. I guess that is the real key word. If they need it. Not just they want it. Of course that may lead into why I don’t spend money on myself. I don’t really need anything and I am very happy with life as it is currently. I have plenty of wants and what girl wouldn’t? But actually spending the money is a real problem. I will wait for sales, coupons, and deals just to buy anything. Even when it comes to something I need. For example, my favorite shoes broke. The leather upper separated from the sole. Nothing I can do about it but I sure did look to see if I can fix my four year old shoes that I wear to work at least twice a week. Unfortunately, I did not find that there was anything I could do so I waited for a sale. How pathetic is that? I only bought those shoes four years ago and the moment they break, I wait to buy new shoes that I am sure I will get another four years out of them. But where am I leading with this?

A new road opened on our side of town yesterday. Now, I have been waiting for this new road for years to make my trips to and from day care that much easier. Normally, I have to take an extremely roundabout way to get to day care. Day care is 17 miles away from our house but I hit 9 lights, 4 stop signs and traffic from the high school depending on what time I leave. That trip takes me at a minimum, 30 minutes. That 30 minutes is if there is no traffic, I hit most of the lights correctly and there is no back up on the two lane road leading into day care. But, there are no alternatives. Well, there were no alternatives. The new road cuts into the highway that is easily accessible from where we live. That means I can jump right onto the highway, go one exit and then go to day care the back way. This new way means that I hit 1 light and 3 stop signs and the trip took me 19 minutes this morning. The new way I go never has any traffic except for the two lane road right in front of day care. However, because the new road is open, a lot of people who normally travel this road are taking it the opposite direction that I travel and traffic this morning on that road was non-existent. So where is the rub? Well, there is a toll on this highway (So I guess that makes it an expressway? Toll road? Whatever. I would worry about it but time is money! Boy, can I spin the spin of the spin or what.) The toll each way is $1.25. That is a pretty steep toll per way. If I take that every morning, that is $6.25 a week in just tolls for one way. If we use it round trip, then that is $12.50 a week or about $500 a year (we take the girls out of day care for the summer). In just tolls.

I used to work on the other side of Orlando and had to spend tolls every day. There was just no way around it to get from my house to work and back without tolls (Well, technically there is but my 40 minute drive would turn into about 3 hours. Literally) I was spending up to $6.50 a day in tolls depending on if I took some of the streets to avoid a toll or did day care pickup or drop off. Yes, each day! But, like I said, there was very little choice so I just went with it. When I changed job locations, I didn’t have to take any tolls at all. I saw this as a pay increase in itself. However, now I am back to the possibility of tolls. So do I pay and go the easier way? Suck it up and don’t think about it? Take my old way and just go with it?

I am just that cheap that I am spending brain power worrying about it. Why? Because it is free!

"And You Can Quote Me On It!"

“You need to post more.”

“I know. Pictures will be up this weekend.”

“No, more Katz Cradle posts.”

“I know, I know. It is so hard to keep up sometimes.”

“I put an easy Spin up. It is quotes.”

“But I just did a post about quotes. Abigail-isms. Can’t you coordinate Spins with my brain waves?”

“Then spin the Spin! Quote your quote post.”

“Good idea. You are so smart.”

But I one-uped you, Jen. A quote spin about quotes with quotes. Take that! I love you!

Ellipticising

Yes, I have made up a new word again. In case you didn’t know, I do this from time to time. I have been meaning to write this post for awhile to celebrate a momentous occasion. I am the proud owner of an elliptical machine. I know most people wouldn’t care too much but this is very important for me. I have been needing to work out since about October 2006. I sometimes look back and see very cute and skinny pictures of me and want to know where that body went. Well, I can actually tell you exactly where it went.

Here

and here.

Well, pregnancy from these two beauties. Now I would like to get one thing straight. I wouldn’t trade those lovely faces for one pound I gained. Or even 10 pounds that I gained. Though, to tell you the truth, I lost the weight rather quickly with them. However, things just moved enough during each pregnancy and never found their original place again. But, again, they were worth it. What I did notice was that my pants were starting to get tighter. I finally was excited to come back to work after my maternity leave with Madeline in my regular clothes. However, I didn’t fit back into everything. I even stretched out a few pairs of pants. But I was NOT going to buy new clothes. Something had to change.

A quick background for those of you who may have forgotten or don’t know. I used to run, a lot. I ran track through middle school, high school and 3 years in college. I love the adrenaline kick of a track meet and loved that I could eat whatever I wanted because I would just burn it off the next day. I had a nice tan, flat abs and had a very low body fat percentage. Once I graduated college, I continued with working out and had a gym membership. One of the best things was that my gym was on the way home to my apartment. I would have to literally pass by the gym to go home and thus made going there 3-4 times a week, that much better. Yes, I could have gone more but I never was one to workout on the weekends. Even when we moved to the other side of town from the gym, I still went. But then Miss Abigail started to make her debut. During my first trimester I was just too tired to even contemplate driving home let alone going to the gym. So I let my gym membership lapse. The reality was I could either workout or spend time with my baby. No contest. I decided that I could take her for walks or runs around the neighborhood and get my exercise there. However, when you get home at 5:30 and the sun starts to set at 6:00, going out for a run started to happen few and far between. Not to mention we don’t have sidewalks or even street lights where we live. If you have seen where we live, you would NOT run in the dark out there. Once the daylight savings time started to change, I was able to purchase a jogging stroller from Craigslist ($40 for a Graco. One of the best finds!) and did start to workout here and there.

Then Miss Madeline started to make her debut. I was cursed again with unbelievable fatigue and had to give up my workouts. Not to mention, you are not supposed to elevate your heart rate like I do when you are pregnant. So the workouts subsided again. During maternity leave, I decided that I would take Madeline for walks here and there while I am home. Unfortunately, September and October in Florida are not times of the year you would want to be outside. I tried for mornings but it just didn’t happen. I resigned myself to needing something inside. I tried a few DVDs and nothing was really giving me any results. I knew the only way that I was going to get this accomplished was to get a machine. I started to comb my old friend, Craigslist. I did my research, checked Consumer Reports, and consulted a few websites. I finally decided I really wanted a Nordic Track Audiostrider 990. Yes, that model specifically. Finally, I found it. There was someone selling one about 40 minutes away for a steal. I talked (made) Josh into going and checking it out. He went all the way there, decided to purchase it, and couldn’t fit it in the car. Naturally. What I was really blown away by was that the ladies selling it actually drove it to our house for us. Amazing.

I have never been so excited about a purchase before. Currently the elliptical is in our bedroom next to our bed. I figured it would get more use if I have to walk by it to go to bed at night. That way the guilt will just be radiating from it if I skip a night. So far, I have been pretty good about doing a workout 3 nights a week. What is better? I have lost almost 10 pounds. I have noticed it and my clothes are fitting better. I still would like to lose a few more so hopefully this post will motivate me…and maybe others.

Sock It To Me

I don’t believe in shoes for kids that don’t walk. Call me weird (Go ahead. I can handle it) but I just don’t see the need to spend the money (which is usually a lot when it comes to anything that has to do with a baby) for shoes that are never going to get used. Yes, they are cute but serve little to no purpose. We didn’t get shoes for Abigail until she started to take her first steps because all the books we read stated that kids learning to walk should be barefoot so their little feet can “grip” the floor and therefore assist in their balance. I will admit that we actually were a little late in getting Abby her first pair of shoes but there is no way I am getting Madeline shoes before she is really going to start showing interest in walking. Which at the pace she is going since she has started pulling up on everything at seven months, may be sooner than later.

So if we aren’t getting shoes and it is still winter in Florida, what do we do for Maddy’s little feet? We have a dozen cute little socks that come in all colors and even ones that look like she is wearing Mary Jane shoes. Adorable. My problem is, however, that I cannot keep socks on this kid! She rubs her ankles together and the socks fly off. Between getting her dressed on the changing table this morning and feeding her downstairs, I had to replace the socks three times. THREE! I put the cute socks back on her before we leave the house and then put her in her car seat. By the time I get to day care and pull Madeline out of her car seat, the socks are already gone again. I put the socks back on and take her into day care. More often than not, Josh brings Madeline home without socks again. The other day I went to get Maddy dressed and there were no socks in her drawer. Where are they? Did they run off and join the circus? Is there such a thing as a sock circus? I decided this was getting ridiculous and she just doesn’t get socks at day care. Even with the weather a little on the cold side, she is in the warm house to the car which has a car seat warmer blanket and then outside for all of 50 feet until we get into day care. Because she is still a baby, she isn’t big enough for the buggy that they take the older infants out in during the day. So what does she really need socks for? It is really just for me. However, I swear I get the judgmental looks from the parents (and sometimes babies!) dropping off their kids in the matching outfits with matching socks and/or shoes. I don’t know why I have to justify to them (or maybe myself) that I am not a bad parent for not having my kids feet covered. I don’t know why I even feel that having socks is a measure of my parenting but I swear I feel the eyes boring into the back of me as I exit the baby room in the morning.

I was at Publix the other day with Madeline in the Bjorn and Abigail in the shopping cart. A man stopped me and noticed that Maddy only had one sock on. He told me that the other sock was in the vegetable aisle and walked back there with me. (Clean up on aisle three!) I thanked him profusely (since they are very cute socks) and just took them both off. This past weekend we were at a garage sale and since I didn’t want to leave there with only one sock since Madeline was in the Bjorn again, I just didn’t put socks on her. Of course one of the women selling her wares (not her garage) chided me for not having socks on my baby. I simply said “I know. I can’t keep socks on her” but it went on deaf ears since I am sure she thinks my kid will end up with pneumonia from not having socks when the temperature is in the 60s. People were walking around with flip flops!

I did find out that the socks did not join the circus. They actually were hiding out in the cubby at daycare multiplying like rabbits. There were TEN pairs of socks in her cubby. There shouldn’t even be one since she doesn’t leave them on her feet for more than two seconds. Fortunately this battle is only going to be a little longer because she will get shoes eventually. I predict she will be walking by 10 months anyways.

Everyone told me about it. I just wasn’t prepared.

I like when “they” give me information. You know “they”. “They” recommend things like don’t start solids until 6 months old. “They” recommend that you don’t go swimming right after you eat. “They” are supposed experts in anything in your life. Well, “they” told me that your second child will hit milestones quicker than your first child. I don’t know if it was because they see the first child doing all these things or what but I always take anything that “they” say with a grain of salt. However, I got a taste of it when Madeline turned three months old and rolled over. Thanks to this blog, I was able to look and see that Abigail did that at four months old. I figured Madeline was just listening to “them” and was getting milestones a lot quicker but not dramatically.

By six months old, Madeline has progressed to a full crawl. Not an army crawl like Abby did where she seemed to pull at the floor and drag her legs behind her. I am talking about a full belly off of the floor, hands leaving the floor, on her knees crawling. She can go from her back to her belly, up on all fours and crawl across the family room. I got the biggest kick out of taking her to the doctor for her 6 month check up where they ask you the milestone questions. This month was “Is she turning from back to belly and belly to back?” I laughed and said “Are you kidding me? She is crawling already. We passed that milestone two months ago.” The doctor just sort of looked at me and said “Wow, that is really early.” With that in mind, I decided to look back into my blog files (which is the whole reason I have this blog in the first place) and saw a post about Abigail crawling…at 10 months. 10 MONTHS and that was on track. Madeline is doing this at 6 months, people.

I am constantly marveling at her. The other night, I came home and sat right on the floor to play with Madeline. We usually have this routine where Sesame Street is on from 5-6 PM which means Abigail has completely checked out. So I play on the floor to get some Maddy time because usually after dinner is more Abby time. I like to balance. I was watching Madeline eyeing Oreo on the ottoman. His swishing tail was saying “grab me, Maddy!” So Madeline started crawling over to him and I just watched to see how she was going to negotiate playing with his tail since he was elevated on the ottoman. She ended up about 6 inches away from the ottoman, put one hand up, then the other. Slowly she tucked her feet under her and stood up. Yes, now at 6 ½ months, she is now pulling up. Time to lower the crib mattress.

Take that “they”!

Random Abigail Ramblings

A: Good job, oranges!
M: What? What are the oranges doing?
A: They are buckled in.

I wander over and she has carefully buckled in the bowl of oranges in her booster seat.

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M: Goodnight. I love you.
A: I love you
M: If you need anything, what do you say?
A: Anything!!!!
M: If you need to go potty, what do you say?
A: Potty!!!!
M: If you need Mommy, what do you say?
A: Mommy!!!!
M: If you need a million dollars, what do you say?
A: Million dollars!!!!

Good night

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M: That is my breast pump. What are you doing?
A: I pumping!
M: What are you pumping?
A: I pump milk for Madeline.
M: Okay. That is a little creepy.

Abigail just smiles with her shirt up and the breast pump pushed to her chest.

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M: At the end of this show, it is time for dinner.
A: No!
M: Yes!
A: One Sesame Street then dinner.
M: How about one Elmo or Bert and Ernie then dinner.
A: No, one Sesame Street.
D: Abigail, you do realize that Mommy negotiates for a living.
A. One Sesame Street.

Abigail holds one finger up and I just melt at that smile.