Evie’s bottom two teeth are now on proud display! She is starting to enjoy eating solid foods,
mostly little bits of bread and puffs.
She is so close to putting the puffs in her mouth, but so far hasn’t
made the connection.
Give me some nums nums!
Loves rocking on Blue the horse
Maggie continues to learn more about the past and future... tenses. Right now, everything that occurred in the past happened “yesterday.” Doesn’t matter if it was an hour ago, a week ago, or 2 years – it all happened yesterday. Everything that is going to happen in the future will happen "tomorrow."
My birthday is tomorrow.
Pre-bath party
Jamie is required to chaperone one dance at Foley every
year, so he “invited” me to tag along on Saturday for a little date. He bought me a corsage (mostly to show
the high school kids the proper way to treat a lady), and we had an awesome
dinner beforehand. It was a lovely
little date, though I must admit the dance portion was really boring. The kids were really well-behaved and there
was no drama – which I suppose is a good thing!
Maggie is trying to understand the past tense. She now puts an “ed” on the end of every word
meant to be in the past tense – like “I falled down” instead of “fell”. It’s cute and also a reminder of how
frustrating it must be for people to learn English!
I will conquer English just like this mountain!
Here is Maggie in her Tinkerbell outfit - she couldn't look any more beautiful (her words):
I feel pretty
Maggie's imagination is awesome, and cracks me up on a daily
basis. We now have a lot of monsters in
our house, but we have decided to be friends and invite them to dinner instead
of being scared of them. Our living room
is a sheet of ice, the stairs are the steep north mountain, and the entire
upstairs is covered in lava (thankfully we have our special lava shoes that
help us get across it – but they only last a few seconds before melting!).
Playtime at the park
For the past few weeks, Maggie has been referring to Grandma as "Grandma-with-red-hair." It makes no sense, but at least for now, that is her full name, and you will be corrected if you refer to her as Grandma only.
Grandma-with-red-hair
Maggie so proud that she can hold up three fingers to identify her age... she hasn't totally grasped adding more fingers when counting, but we're getting there!
Maggie was never a huge fan of stuffed animals, but all of
sudden she needs to have 4 or 5 “friends” in bed with her every night. Every object must be completely covered with
the blanket so they don’t get cold, and Maggie must have at least one pony-tail
holder on her wrist as a bracelet.
My little lady is trying to walk in my footsteps
Love this little face
Maggie loves to jam with her Daddy in the basement. She counts them in, and then plays the piano while he drums. Normally she sings also, but this time she was just feeling the music:
Can't resist a few photos of Evie girl too:
Joy!
Evie has mastered putting a paci in her mouth – huzzah! Hoping we will have fewer interruptions in
sleep now! I can’t really complain, she
might need us to comfort her once or twice a week, but otherwise, she makes it
through the night with a little whining now and then.
Evie has reached the 9-month mark, and is doing just
great! She had her pediatrician check-up
and is now 22 lb, 11 oz and 30 inches tall.
She loves to practice walking while holding our hands, rolling all over
the place, investigating anything she can get her hands on, babbling and
cooing, and playing with her big sister.
My happy little girl
I don't know what is happening here...
I'm a little frightened
We also had Evie's helmet checked last week, and she is now
down to 3mm differential! She started at
10mm, and the goal is to get to 2 mm (though 0mm is the best possible result). One more month and we’re done
with this thing, woop woop!
Evie is such
a curious baby, and she often ends up falling forward or backward while trying
to reach something. It’s been no big
deal with the helmet to protect her, but I think she now has a false sense of
protection. We will have to be more
watchful when the helmet is gone!
Hoodlums
In other news, my mom came over this past weekend to teach
me how to use my sewing machine. We went
over all the basics, and she taught me how to read a pattern – “a very simple
one” she says. My mom is a liar! There is no such thing as a simple
pattern! I finally gave up (temporarily) after
sewing the neck-line shut. Maybe I’ll
try again this weekend… I’m pretty sure
whatever I end up with (it’s supposed to be a dress for Maggie), my daughter is
going to look like a hot mess.
We had a slightly chaotic week, but a fabulous long weekend as a family! On Thursday my lovely car battery decided to quit, so Jamie had to drive me to work. Then my entire 16 oz water bottle leaked into my purse and ruined my iphone. So if you left me a message in the past several days, I either didn't get it or I don't like you. Hopefully my new phone will be up and running tomorrow!
When life gives you play-doh, make fake breakfast and keep smiling
Maggie licks all her peanut butter off before eating her toast. It's kind of gross.
Saturday evening we went over Julie and Ryan's house for pizza and hanging out. They also have two little girls about the same age as Evie and Maggie, so we really like hanging out and making each other feel better about parenting.
Our regal princesses
Test drive
Buds
Smaller buds
Sunday we went to church, and it was Doughnut Sunday! It is a little sad how excited I get at the possibility of free doughnuts. At least I know where Maggie gets it from.
Almost nap time, haven't had lunch yet? I'm going to go ahead and eat the whole thing.
When we take Evie's helmet off, she does awesome on her stomach - her normally heavy head just snaps up into the air. She is close to crawling, though right now it's more of a backwards slither.
Let's do this!
This is for Aunt Amy, biggest Full House fan I know!
Maggie is going to be a flower girl in the fall for Andy and Katie's wedding! She really doesn't know what it means, so I need to find some videos to help explain the concept. She seems to think that she will be sprinkling seed on the ground and watching the flowers grow. That, and a lot of dancing.
Hello again! Not much has happened in the past couple
weeks with the girls, we’re just having fun with all the new toys and games.
Best buds
Here's Evie being a doctor, and Maggie attempting to sing her doll's song:
Maggie's newest pet, Star the horse:
Maggie has meltdowns from time to time (or like every 5
minutes on a fun day), and I can always get her to calm down by taking her away
from the situation, counting to 10 quietly, and then taking two deep breaths
together. She knows that this will help
her, but has not figured out how to do it on her own yet… so when she is sobbing,
she will say, “I want to be happy, I want to take a deep breath!” and then wait
for me to approve her deep breaths. It’s
very strange, and pretty amusing.
Maggie loves the Lego store!
In a happy mood with her special new cup
I think I’ve said it before, but I really think Evie is
finally getting her first tooth/teeth.
It looks like they are ready to pop through on the bottom, and her
frequent night cries are a good indicator that chompers are on the way!
Evie loves eating all flavors of baby food, no
particular favorites that I can tell. She
gets very jealous when we are all sitting down for dinner, and lets us know
that she wants to join too – even though I give her food every night at dinner,
she still seems to think I’ll forget about her!
Meanwhile, Maggie hates all things dinner-related. My latest trick is to tell Evie to watch how
Maggie eats her food like a big girl, at which point Maggie likes to show off
and take a big bite.
Daddy thinks he's soooo funny
Jamie got a BB-8 robot for Christmas, which the girls both
really love (and so does he). I totally made
fun of him when he opened it, but it’s actually a pretty awesome toy!
Maggie likes to chase BB-8 around to make
sure he is okay
The girls had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa’s last
week, and had a great time! They even
put rollers in their hair!
Looking good, ladies
Maggie is an awesome big sister to Evie, and is very sweet with
her. She has to be reminded about
sharing, but does pretty well after a little prodding. Maggie calls Evie “honey” when talking to
her, and I love it. Evie will giggle whenever Maggie does, so they play off each other a lot.
Sharing time
I think Evie might walk before she crawls. She is showing zero interest in crawling (or
being on her stomach in general). I
think the helmet makes it quite a bit harder to lift her head off the
ground. I’ve been walking her around the
house this week, just nudging her feet forward to give her the idea, and now
she moves her feet forward on her own.
She has strong legs, and can usually “walk” for several minutes before
they buckle.
Merry Christmas! We
had a wonderful Christmas this year, and were able to see a lot of our
families. We had an event scheduled
every day from Wednesday all through Sunday… so I am beyond tired and ready to
get back to normal!
Christmas 2015 - Maggie (3), Evie (8 months)
Wednesday we went curling with the Blair family while the
girls were in daycare. We got to have
lunch beforehand and adult beverages afterward without the distraction of kids – it
was a jolly good time!
Serious athletes
Perfect form
Sweeping... do the chores ever end?!
On Christmas Eve we kept up the tradition of going to
Frankenmuth to see Santa and shop at Bronners.
Maggie was really excited to talk to Santa this year, and told him she
wanted a purple doll and a unicorn.
Santa was awesome this year – he took the time to really talk with
Maggie, and I think she felt very special.
I could tell that she was in awe because while they were conversing, she
would not move an inch of her body, sitting like a statue with her hands in a
weird position. It was really cute.
Princess Maggie
Our little family
Grandma with her grandbabies
Hanging with Uncle Justin
Evie was a little less excited about Santa... similar to Maggie when she turned 1:
Why have you abandoned me?!
Don't go!!! (Maggie 2013)
Brotherly support
The Donoghue family, my parents, Jody’s family and Zach and Katy all got together for lunch at Bavarian Inn afterward. Maggie was a handful by that point, and getting through lunch was a bit challenging. We were all ready for a nap afterward!
Cuddles with Aunt Jody and Uncle Ed
Her favorite sleep buddy
Attempting to distract her with toys
Love this little one
After nap time, we went to 6pm mass… Maggie had to go to the
potty 6 times. It was pretty
frustrating... Maggie kept asking where baby Jesus was, and I couldn't get her to understand that he was actually born a really long time ago. She received a little donkey from Santa at Bronner's, and without any prompting from us, said that she wanted to wrap up the donkey to give to baby Jesus for his birthday. Heart in a puddle...
Maggie was frantically looking for the real baby Jesus, so Fr. Gerry let her hold Jesus from the nativity. She gave him lots of little kisses.
Getting everything ready for Santa
We spent Christmas morning at our house. Maggie was so excited to see that Santa ate
all his cookies and chocolate milk, and that Rudolph “and his friends” ate all
the carrots. She was very sweet about
every gift, just genuinely excited. I
just love this age, she brings us so much joy.
Evie was also adorable, though she obviously didn’t understand what was
going on.
Christmas morning!
Present time
Every year, Jamie and I make each other an ornament from one of the shows we watched. This year we both picked the same show - Game of Thrones.
Jamie's ornament - Mr. Jon Snow - yummy!
Toothpicks, hot glue and spray paint = the not-so-iron throne
We spent the afternoon at the Donoghue's where the girls got
some fun new toys and a bunch of clothes!
The little kids were so much fun to watch. My sweet nephew Will is one of the most
empathetic kids I’ve ever seen. Whenever
anyone raises their voice or seems upset, he will give them a hug to make them
feel better. It’s so adorable.
Presents!
Playing together
The following day we went to my parents’ house to celebrate
with the immediate family. The kids had
a great time as usual, and it was wonderful to see everyone.
Horsey rides
Snake rides?
The kids had fun playing "Chubby Bunny," a game where you see how many marshmallows you can fit in your mouth and still say the name of the game. Maggie just kept eating every marshmallow, but Luke got the concept and cracked us up!
Claire loves to color, and so that's how I bond with this sweetie
Pops is able to put anyone to sleep!
Ladies of the couch
Alex and Gilly trying to rock Evie's hair-do
Happy baby with Grammer's toys
Baby Sarah still has more hair than most of the guys!
Party-down!
Jamie had the idea to make a corn-hole game as a gift for my parents, and it turned out really cute! I sewed up the bean bags... so they are a little lopsided!
Corn hole!
Also a good photo op!
Maggie frog
Saving Luke from the black hole
Ain't no party like an Evie party!
Sunday we went to Aunt Jane’s for lunch and Aunt Marleen’s
for dinner. It was a busy day, but we had a
good time and Maggie was in heaven with all the kids at each party.
Hanging with the big kids
Coloring with Emma
Pizza - a new favorite for Maggie
Four generations!
A bunch of Grandma's great grandchildren
Ready to be done with Christmas parties
It was a really busy week of traveling all over the place
with the girls, and I think we are all exhausted. I actually looked forward to work this
morning just to have some normalcy again!
Yikes!
Enjoying her plunder
Trying to jump-start another new hairstyle
Painting with Daddy
Light saber battle!
Don't leave a toddler unattended in the bathroom unless you like to waste TP
