8 Months

I'm really enjoying Maddie at this age. She is crawling around. She is able to get into a sitting position on her own. And she can even pull herself up to a standing. She has also finally figured out opening her mouth for the spoon to eat. She still really prefers veggies but will eat a little bit of fruit. And she's eating table food like waffles and crackers. It almost seems sometimes that she is not happy with her jar food if she sees me eating something she wants, like the bread from my sandwich. I have to give her little pieces or she will scream.

Her and Nate are starting to play together. He likes to make her laugh, usually by getting in her face. Or his favorite and our least favorite, screaming. He screams, she laughs, he laughs and then screams again. Oh, the joy! They also like to "wrestle" around. Basically, this is rolling on top of each other. Maddie is pretty tough but I have to keep close watch because Nate doesn't understand how big he is in comparison to her and will sometimes get a little too rough.

She is doing pretty good at night, still getting up at 12am and 4am. She now has 4 teeth and is working on some more.

She always been a big mommy's girl, but in the last few weeks it has become much worse. I can't even leave the room without her getting upset. It's even worse when she's teething, and then she just wants me to hold her the whole time.

Saturday = Fun Day

This past Saturday was awesome! We started the day by heading up to the Children's Museum. We started in Lego Land. There were incredible displays and different areas to build your own lego creations, including one with super huge legos. I thought for sure Nate would love that one, but instead he just ran around the exhibit like a crazy person, not playing with one single block. He did stop to check out the train, but then it was on to the Potato Head exhibit. This was much more interactive and we spent a lot of time there. He ran around a lot but stopped to play with the different stations and even tried building his own Mr. Potato Head! After a quick walk through the dragon center and stopping for lunch, we finished at Playscape-his favorite room. He spends most of the time at the sand table. He did want to play at the water table but refuses to put on the apron so he doesn't get to play there. This room is perfect right now because Maddie finally was able to get out of the stroller and play too! She had a ball crawling around and playing with the other babies.

We went home and decided that since it was such a beautiful day, we wanted to keep going. So we got the bikes out and hit the bike trails (we really need a map to figure out where they all go!). The kids love this and it's great to be out in the fresh air! We got a pizza for dinner and headed home. After we put the kids to be we even watched a movie (this is rare!).



It seems like recently the weekends have been ruined with drill or kid meltdowns or other things that just make the weekend not feel so good. This is exactly what we needed. We all had such a good time the WHOLE day!

Spring Break

The last couple of weeks have been long weeks. I usually get together for a playdate once a week with my friend Sara and her kids, but the week before her kids were sick, and then last week Nate ran a fever (turned out to be nothing but thought it best to cancel since I wasn't sure what was going on). This also meant Nate only went to CMO once last week.

No CMO this week and no playdate because Sara's son is sick again (which let me say, really throws me off not seeing them every week!) I thought that this would be a horrible week. However, the weather has been beautiful so we have been able to spend some time everyday outside (or as Nate calls it outshide, not sure where the "sh" sound came in). So that has helped a lot. We have ran errands, went to the park, and visited Daddy at work. The best part was finally getting the carrier seats on the bicycles! We took a short ride through the neighborhood yesterday for a test run and it went great! Both kids really seemed to enjoy it. I am super excited about being able to ride the bikes again. We are going to finish up the week at the Children's Museum on Saturday, which should be a lot of fun.

I look forward to seeing the Herter's again and Nate returning to CMO, but all in all, spring break has been a good week!

Progress

Progress, even if once, is good enough for me. In the last couple of weeks Nate has done much better when I drop him off at CMO. He runs to go play without even a good-bye. I'm so happy that he loves it there and knows that I always come back to pick him up.

The BIG moment of progress happened in the bathroom. I told Nate I was going to go pee-pee in the potty. He told me he had to too, and so I took him in there, set him on the potty seat and 3 little dribbles of pee came out! Now, I have been told that this does not count, which is fine, but I am still super duper excited. It was the first time he acknowledged wanting to use the toilet and actually doing so, even if it was just a couple drops. He was very excited about it. And that's where it ends. :) But, hey, it's a start!

There's also progress between Nate and Maddie. As she gets older and can interact more, Nate seems to really be taking to her. He tries to make her smile and laugh and now they play together, which is mostly just rolling around on the ground together, giggling. It's adorable.

It doesn't seem like great strides, but I'll take these little ones. I know as they keep getting older it's going to be exciting (and easier!). A little progress at a time...

New Clothes

I apologize in advance for anything that you are about to read that you really don't want to. In addition to keeping family up to date on us, I use the blog as a family journal, keeping track of our lives, so I can remember it always. Because of that, the blog will contain good, bad, and of course the ugly.

Poop. My kids poop like no other. I literally have at least one outfit soaking in the sink every single day. Maddie cannot poop without it being a blow out. I have gotten very used to this, because Nate was the same way as a baby. And actually, still has some good blow outs.

So, when I picked up Nate from CMO last Thursday and found him in a new outfit, all I could think is, oh no. He pooped. Surprisingly, I was wrong. He had taken the cover of his sippie cup off and before the teacher could get to him, he dumped his milk all down his clothes. I think I said things like "oh no" and "thank you so much for changing him" and "sorry he dumped his milk" but all I was thinking was "Thank God! It was not poop!". And I'm sure if anyone at CMO has to change one of his dirty diapers, they will welcome a little spilled milk. :)