Rob, Rachel and Madeleine (and Duncan too)

Well, I am two for two so far in my new pledge to update this blog at least monthly.  I have been keeping notes for both girls on a big post-it at work and since I am out of space, it must be time to blog again.

Summer is flying by–two little girls at home makes us busy busy! 

Madeleine is having a great summer–with soccer, weekly field trips and water days at preschool.  She is tired out and sleeping great.  Her field trips include school bus rides–she looks so tiny on the bus!  Her class has visited the mall aquarium, the riverboats, an indoor playground, and a children’s theater.  Next week is soccer “graduation” and her favorite “drill” has been fishes and sharks. 

She is REALLY into trains right now–newly discovering THomas the Tank engine and his buddies.  We have been borrowing the Minneapolis library’s entire stock of Thomas videos.   For about 3 weeks, she would sing the theme song over and over, especially as she went to sleep–hearing it through the monitor was just hilarious.  “They’re two, they’re four, they’re six, they’re eight.  Shunting trucks and hauling freight…”  She has a little lego Thomas and is working on her latest chore chart to earn James.  This was quite puzzling to her–that Thomas was a gift but she has to work for James.  She kept asking us, I just got Thomas, right, but I have to earn James?  Her train set from Grandma was set up again and she plays with it every day.

Her class has been working on learning days of the week and months of the year.  She frequently sings the Month song at the top of her lungs at bedtime.  We have had to turn OFF her monitor downstairs because we couldn’t hear the TV! 

Her independence continues to amaze me.  She gets her owns snacks, fills up her own water cup, consistently picks out her own clothes, and gets up out of bed each mroning to go potty on her own.  She doesn’t like anyone to help her in the mroning anymore–quite a change from when she would stay on the  bed and call out to us.  She is a loving big sister and runs to Evelyn when she hears her cry or squawk.  She brings her toys, kisses and hugs her and works to make her laugh.  She is such a good helper too–bringing things to me, carrying her bag into school, holding the door etc.  I remind myself of these things in the moments I am frustrated at her for not listening or being stubborn about something–she is truly a good little girl and I am so proud of her.

She is taking her first preschool swim class this summer–without mom and dad in the water.  She is doing well–still doesn’t love getting her face wet, but handles it well when she is distracted.  She and Evelyn are beyond cute in the backyard wading pool together–E loves to splash and M loves to fill the pool with the hose.

Madeleine is doing more pretend play.  She pretends to be mama and cooks for me.  She likes to cook pie-soup with honey.

We recently discussed the idea of middle names.  I explained that her’s is Suzanne and Evelyn’s is Alyce.  She said that Duncan’s is Second Duncan. Awesome.

She is all about swinging at the park–the higher the better. What a change from last year when she got so nervous!  She has discovered under-dog and is learning to pump her legs.

I look at her sweet little face and am shocked how big she is.  I love to look at her when she is asleep because at those moments she looks like my little baby girl.  My favorite Madeleine-ism right now?  “You are my favorite mama in the whole world. You make me SOOOO Happy.”   What a goosie.

And now for my other baby, Evelyn.  Blue-eyed sweet baby.

She is so determined, so assertive, so stubborn and already so independent!  She wants Madeleine’s toys badly and is trying her best to wiggle and roll to get them.  She has even started to fling herself off the boppy cushion so that she can roll towards them.  She loves to pat Madeleine–and we play a game called Madeleine piano, with M on her hands and knees in front of E, and E pats her back like crazy. It is so cute. 

She gives hugs–grabs my face and shoulders and nuzzles in.  She kisses (slobbers!) my face and chin.  She does the same to Madeleine.  She is a good hair grabber.

She is really solid at sitting!  She only falls over if she looks up and loses her balance or if she chooses to fall over to try to get M’s things.  She rolls to her belly very easily now–but still doesn’t like to end up that way while she is sleeping.  She likes to sleep on her side–with one arm on her head, like her daddy.  She does some crazy spins in her sleep in her crib and wakes up trapped against the side, legs up the wall of the crib–funny.

She has two teeth–the bottom center ones.  They are sharp!  So far she is kind to her mama and doesn’t bite me.  She is liking exploring different foods.  So far she eats banana, pears, sweet potatoes, avocado and baby cereal.  She is VERY independent with food–she wants to do it herself and prefers to just hold a globbed up spoon and suck on it.  This is very messy.  She doesn’t care.

She can go on the swings at the park now, since she sits so well!  She looks so very proud, when she realizes that she is doing what her big sister is doing.  Her little face is so radiant when she smiles.

She watches her hand now–her left hand (will both my girls be left-handed???).  She holds her hands together and shakes them up and down.  She is fascinated by us clapping. She smiles and squeaks at us when we do So Big and Peek-a-Boo.  She slaps her knees when she sits.  It is so funny–her arms start flapping away and she ends up slapping her knees, loud enough to make a pretty good sound.  She sometimes slaps her knees when she nurses too, especially at night.

Her baby babble sounds more and more like talking every day.  She makes lots of da and ya sounds now–over and over again.  She does little old lady talking–where her lips go together/apart/together/apart, but no sound comes out.  I am working on hypnotizing her to say Mama first!  We’ll see. 

Evelyn goes to sleep on her own most times–very different from her sister.  She just adores Madeleine and I love to watch them together.  I am so happy we went on our hard journey and made Evelyn, for us and for Madeleine.  I think they will be close friends as well as sisters.

Today is Evelyn’s half birthday, she is six months old already. For weeks now I have been contemplating getting back to blogging—I worry constantly about forgetting things—I wish my mind were a video recorder. I feel like there are already so many details about her first few months that have escaped from my brain. And then there are the details of Madeleine’s days—the girl who is speeding towards FOUR. But I also worry that the blog will be one more thing that my type-A personality stresses over. I don’t need more items on my to-do list. But, I type fast and I am thinking about it anyway, so maybe I should do it! If I do it once a week, that will suffice, I won’t let myself feel bad if I miss an entry. It can be a gift to my girls when they are bigger—my memories of them.

I will start with some catch up on Madeleine since my last entry.
She moved to the big preschool room this summer and is doing well. She is big on testing her limits right now and loses her favorite toys on a regular basis for not listening. She has handled becoming a big sister really well, but I think there are some undercurrents of jealousy and frustration—she is asking for help with things that she has known how to do on her own for a long time, like shoes, pull-ups, washing hands, etc. We are trying to structure some more intentional one on one time with her and pointing out when she gets to do something that her little sister doesn’t.

She knows all her letters. She can write many of them. She can write her name—well, Maddy, if you prompt her with which letter comes next. It is amazing! She can count to 20, she can count to sometimes 10 in Spanish. She knows her colors, in English and in Spanish. She loves to read. She loves her matchbox cars and her duplos. She also loves her fairy dolls—I love that she loves both of these things, the mix of traditional boy and traditional girl worlds. She and I make homemade granola bars—with lots of butter and chocolate chips. She rides a big girl bike—got it this spring. She is confident and fast on that thing! She is playing soccer at school and seems to really like it. She gets to go on field trips this summer—they ride big school buses. Seeing her get on one that first time was bittersweet, she looked so proud but it foreshadows kindergarten and her rolling away from mama! She is getting into Thomas stuff and playing with her train set a lot. She constantly kisses and cuddles Evelyn, telling her that she loves her sooooo much, that she is her little sweetheart, and saying “look at her, awwwwwwwwwwwww.” It is so cute.

She is tall and gangly and has crossed from toddler over to little-kid. She is doing imaginative play and has her first neighborhood friend—she is very proud of this. She likes to say, watch this, watch me, come see, come watch, look. She likes to watch herself in her mirror when her shirts are stuck on her head—I did that too! I used to pretend the shirts were my princess hair. She does too!

She cracks us up:
Is it funny? I am not laughing.
To her dolls: you are in timeout FOREVER. You are a BAD listener.
The last car of a train is a “ca-da-boose” or just a “boose”
She asks for small, medium or big amounts of water and milk.
On hearing that she should drink slowly, she asked “why is it so complicated?”

And now my littlest love. Evelyn. I have not blogged on her before. Her birth story shall be a separate thing for her to read when she is bigger. She is a joy to me every day.

She is adorable and sweet and doughy and plump and yummy. She is smiley and huggy like her big sister. I am so lucky to have these two loving girls. She laughs with her whole body and likes to shout. She is determined to stand all the time and I know she wants to run after Madeleine. She loves to watch her big sister. Her little ears stick out and she has elastic band wrists and ankles and thighs. Her little plump hands look like starfish. Yum.

She was a nap fighter for months 2-4 but we figured out how to help her like naps—darker rooms and a pacifier. Now she goes to sleep on her own most times—very unlike her big sister. I am hopeful that this means less sleep drama for her as she gets bigger.

She has a stork bite—the exact same one her sister had. She had an ear-tag, which fell off at 2 weeks of age or so.

I think she is going to be tougher and more assertive than Madeleine. She is feisty! We are going to have a hard time keeping her out of Madeleine’s things when she is mobile.

As her personality started coming out in month 4—fter she was past the just eating and sleeping stage, she started patting my face, patting my chest, and flapping her arms. She started her one leg dance—hilarious. She flaps her arms when she is excited and especially when she sees Madeleine after some time away. She started to come at my face with an open mouth—I think trying to give me kisses, or at least, that is how I like to think of it. Her hair started to grow, every day she looked fuzzier!

Months four and five—she is a roller! She rolled from front to back three times one day and hasn’t done it since! But she started to roll a lot from back to front—and now she is starting to prefer being on her tummy to play. She got a tooth. Then she got another one. The two on the bottom, boy are they sharp, but so far she hasn’t bitten me. Her little butt is plump—her sister’s never was. Her eyes are still blue—I hope they stay blue!! She started sitting in her little seat—banging her toys while we eat and shouting. Madeleine would look at her, this little creature who got so loud, with an expression of “what is THAT?!”

Month six—she started flapping her hand—just opening and closing the fingers over and over, mostly while nursing, doing it against my chest. She found her ears and likes to flap them around. She kept shouting and banging. She started making loud noises on the inhale—really loud squeaks. And she discovered how to cough. Now she does it for fun and loves when Madeleine does it too. She has more hair and those eyes are still blue! She grabs at my face, my lips, my eyes, my cheeks. She gives me kisses and she sucks on my chin. She lets me cuddle her in a cradle position now—for bedtime. I treasure it, as she doesn’t like it other times. She laughs hysterically to her daddy throwing toys in the air and saying WOOP!

Today is Evelyn’s half birthday, she is six months old already. For weeks now I have been contemplating getting back to blogging—I worry constantly about forgetting things—I wish my mind were a video recorder. I feel like there are already so many details about her first few months that have escaped from my brain. And then there are the details of Madeleine’s days—the girl who is speeding towards FOUR. But I also worry that the blog will be one more thing that my type-A personality stresses over. I don’t need more items on my to-do list. But, I type fast and I am thinking about it anyway, so maybe I should do it! If I do it once a week, that will suffice, I won’t let myself feel bad if I miss an entry. It can be a gift to my girls when they are bigger—my memories of them.

I will start with some catch up on Madeleine since my last entry.
She moved to the big preschool room this summer and is doing well. She is big on testing her limits right now and loses her favorite toys on a regular basis for not listening. She has handled becoming a big sister really well, but I think there are some undercurrents of jealousy and frustration—she is asking for help with things that she has known how to do on her own for a long time, like shoes, pull-ups, washing hands, etc. We are trying to structure some more intentional one on one time with her and pointing out when she gets to do something that her little sister doesn’t.

She knows all her letters. She can write many of them. She can write her name—well, Maddy, if you prompt her with which letter comes next. It is amazing! She can count to 20, she can count to sometimes 10 in Spanish. She knows her colors, in English and in Spanish. She loves to read. She loves her matchbox cars and her duplos. She also loves her fairy dolls—I love that she loves both of these things, the mix of traditional boy and traditional girl worlds. She and I make homemade granola bars—with lots of butter and chocolate chips. She rides a big girl bike—got it this spring. She is confident and fast on that thing! She is playing soccer at school and seems to really like it. She gets to go on field trips this summer—they ride big school buses. Seeing her get on one that first time was bittersweet, she looked so proud but it foreshadows kindergarten and her rolling away from mama! She is getting into Thomas stuff and playing with her train set a lot. She constantly kisses and cuddles Evelyn, telling her that she loves her sooooo much, that she is her little sweetheart, and saying “look at her, awwwwwwwwwwwww.” It is so cute.

She is tall and gangly and has crossed from toddler over to little-kid. She is doing imaginative play and has her first neighborhood friend—she is very proud of this. She likes to say, watch this, watch me, come see, come watch, look. She likes to watch herself in her mirror when her shirts are stuck on her head—I did that too! I used to pretend the shirts were my princess hair. She does too!

She cracks us up:
Is it funny? I am not laughing.
To her dolls: you are in timeout FOREVER. You are a BAD listener.
The last car of a train is a “ca-da-boose” or just a “boose”
She asks for small, medium or big amounts of water and milk.
On hearing that she should drink slowly, she asked “why is it so complicated?”

And now my littlest love. Evelyn. I have not blogged on her before. Her birth story shall be a separate thing for her to read when she is bigger. She is a joy to me every day.

She is adorable and sweet and doughy and plump and yummy. She is smiley and huggy like her big sister. I am so lucky to have these two loving girls. She laughs with her whole body and likes to shout. She is determined to stand all the time and I know she wants to run after Madeleine. She loves to watch her big sister. Her little ears stick out and she has elastic band wrists and ankles and thighs. Her little plump hands look like starfish. Yum.

She was a nap fighter for months 2-4 but we figured out how to help her like naps—darker rooms and a pacifier. Now she goes to sleep on her own most times—very unlike her big sister. I am hopeful that this means less sleep drama for her as she gets bigger.

She has a stork bite—the exact same one her sister had. She had an ear-tag, which fell off at 2 weeks of age or so.

I think she is going to be tougher and more assertive than Madeleine. She is feisty! We are going to have a hard time keeping her out of Madeleine’s things when she is mobile.

As her personality started coming out in month 4—fter she was past the just eating and sleeping stage, she started patting my face, patting my chest, and flapping her arms. She started her one leg dance—hilarious. She flaps her arms when she is excited and especially when she sees Madeleine after some time away. She started to come at my face with an open mouth—I think trying to give me kisses, or at least, that is how I like to think of it. Her hair started to grow, every day she looked fuzzier!

Months four and five—she is a roller! She rolled from front to back three times one day and hasn’t done it since! But she started to roll a lot from back to front—and now she is starting to prefer being on her tummy to play. She got a tooth. Then she got another one. The two on the bottom, boy are they sharp, but so far she hasn’t bitten me. Her little butt is plump—her sister’s never was. Her eyes are still blue—I hope they stay blue!! She started sitting in her little seat—banging her toys while we eat and shouting. Madeleine would look at her, this little creature who got so loud, with an expression of “what is THAT?!”

Month six—she started flapping her hand—just opening and closing the fingers over and over, mostly while nursing, doing it against my chest. She found her ears and likes to flap them around. She kept shouting and banging. She started making loud noises on the inhale—really loud squeaks. And she discovered how to cough. Now she does it for fun and loves when Madeleine does it too. She has more hair and those eyes are still blue! She grabs at my face, my lips, my eyes, my cheeks. She gives me kisses and she sucks on my chin. She lets me cuddle her in a cradle position now—for bedtime. I treasure it, as she doesn’t like it other times. She laughs hysterically to her daddy throwing toys in the air and saying WOOP!

As usual, I am way behind in maintaining this blog…been a busy fall! Baby #2 is still baking away, hopefully for not much longer, and then there will be TWO kids to try and blog about. Yikes! I keep a list of things I want to post at work so I will try to catch up on our fall and winter so far.

Madeleine’s language use is really developing. She is about 50-50 on using my vs. I in sentences. She can string together pretty long sentences these days.

She mostly still uses the plural with s words: two mapses, two shoeses, etc. which I think is cute.

She can write some letters! A, L, V, X, T, M, C

She has written the number 5 a few times.

She can do more counting “by sight: now–meaning she knows that there are 3 or 4 or 5 just by looking and doesn’t have to count it out.

She is starting to grasp the concept of today, tomorrow, yesterday and weekend vs. weekday. She knows that weekend means the whole family stays home–no work and no preschool.

She loves cutting! She started out being only able to cut one “stroke” at a time but now can cut in a long line. She helped us wrap presents by cutting out huge pieces of wrapping paper at Christmas. She does lots of crafts at school that involve cutting. Not so much anymore, but for a few months, her mouth would move in time with her hand that was cutting–open, close, open, close. Interesting brain link.

She is super cute about the baby coming. We have tried to be pretty open about the baby and how it will come out and how it is growing inside mama. She has made many, many funny comments about it:
My have 2 babies in my belly
My baby is moving a lot
My baby is upside down too
My baby has hiccups–feel it
my shirt not fitting so good today
my body stiff, my legs stiff
my push one baby out today at preschool

And we have tried to describe what the baby will be like when it arrives–no teeth, can’t sit/walk, etc. She seems fascinated by the contrast between herself and him/her. She talked a lot about teaching baby to swing at the park, how to sit, how to eat cereal, etc.

We showed her the ultrasounds from her pregnancy and this one–she asked to see the head of the baby

She has gone to 2 prenatal visits. On her 2nd one, she got to hold the doppler and help with the measuring tape.

Random collection of cute things she has said:
Saying “my practiced” “my try and try and try”
I looked EVERYwhere
Mama don’t sing…at the instrumental section of song: okay, now sing
Daddy–you need to be patient
Daddy–settle down your body (during loud talking at dinner)
It is my turn to talk (during family meal time)
Too many questions (as we interrogate her about her day!)
I am busy right now
Mama belly like a meatball
Duncan is my pet (Over the last month or so, she has really fallen in love with Duncan–chases him, hugs him, brings him his toys, etc. It is cute–keeps them both entertained)

Talking in silly/nonsense language
Singing songs–Jingle Bells was the holiday favorite

Mama has a BIIIIIIG belly

Writing grocery lists—what do you want? Okay! (She always wants to use an orange highlighter to do this. If you give her a sweet thing, like cake, before a meal idea, she will say no, have to eat your food FIRST)

She has been clearing her own place at the table; likes squirting her own ketchup; likes bringing the condiments to the table on her own

Cars are her biggest love. She brings them upstairs, downstairs, in the car, in the bathroom etc. She inventories them, organizes, names them and personifies them in pretend play. She sets up a lot of traffic jams. She builds a lot of garages and parking spots for her cars

Puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles! it is amazing how fast she is.

She clearly picked up on the fact that we really struggled to come up with names this time. She would sit in her chair and say, how about taco, how about fish, how about pom pom, how about chair, how about wall, etc.

In a delightful combination of rough and tumble and delicate, she loves fairies right now. Tinkerbell. She got wings for her birthday and lots of glittery tulle skirts for Christmas. She puts them on and asks Daddy to: Fly me (wearing her wings and fairy skirt; or she will go round and round on her sit and spin.
She has enjoyed doing more in the kitchen with us–pulling a tall chair up to the counter: making pizza, christmas cookies, pancakes, etc. She recently said: I a good cooker

It’s been a painful couple of weeks, but our new family web site is back up and running.  Think of it as RobAndRachel.org, version 2.0.   Over the next few days and as time permits, older blog posts and photos galleries will be restored.

So why were we down?  The short answer is technical reasons.  The long winded reason is that we dropped our old web site hosting company (Daily Razor) due to poor up-time with a heaping helping of lousy service on top, ultimately moving to our new hosting company (Dreamhost) after taking a few other providers out for a test drive.  While migrating to our new host, we discovered that the backup and restore process wasn’t quite as seamless as one might expect; the problems are resolvable but take time to do so.  Aargh.

Anyhoo, that’s all water under the bridge.  The new stuff works, and the underlying tools rock.  Stay tuned for future posts (and backfills).