Frying Pan Park

About a week ago, my parents came to visit and we went to a great local park that has a farm on it. Maeve loved seeing all the animals and even got to pet a goat and cow. Afterwards when asked about it, her two comments were "horse.....poop! and "peacock". Isn't it always interesting to know what makes a lasting impression?

Maeveisms

The funny things a toddler can say with all seriousness........

the phrase that made my year today......."mommy you beautiful"

the discipline phrase: "you get a TIME out"...."go on the naughty step", "not listening", "cooperate", "try again", "that's better"......said over and over and over again to her doll (do I really say that all the time????)

"daddy no swiping" (does she like Dora or what!)

"I be soft" (every time she sees the cat and then proceeds to pick Chili up by the neck and carry her around)

"I love mommy, I love daddy, I love Kaleigh, I love _(fill in for anyone else that is present)___, I love maevey!" (a typical statement said around the dinner table)

"I maevey Calkins"

"Stop it" "I don't like it"

"Why did you DO that?" (after daddy took her bunny blanket)

"I NEED my paci"


"daddy juice" (anytime she sees a beer related item)

Now for the mommyisms..... as stated above along with the rest of them, I feel like I say them at least 100 times a day
"be soft, be gentle, play nice, gentle hands, cooperate, try again, It's not ok, sit down, stop screaming, stop whining, say it in your regular voice, I can't understand you with your paci in, You don't need your paci,"

what are some of your favorite phrases?

Gymnast potential

I don't know how Jonny and I could ever have produced a flexible child, but Kaleigh seems to be double jointed. Her current mode for getting around is to revolves around moving from sitting to commando crawling through the splits. It hurts me to watch! She is also starting to understand more words like "clap," "kiss" and "so big" and will do the action.

Colmenero visit!

Tommy and Kaleigh on the playground Maeve and Nadia at DQ.....yummy icecream!

Bathtime is always more fun with cousins!

The cousins!

We had our cousins Tommy and Nadia visit with Aunt Teener and Uncle Al. Unfortunately it rained the first two days, but we still made the best of it. After visiting the local mall on one of the rainy days, we went to Eastern Market, Clemyjontri park, Banana Cafe, and our local playground once it stopped raining. The kids got along well, but Maeve is definitely in her "take control stage". She is a strong female and likes to assert herself. Needless to say, we had many discussions about being "gentle", "no pushing" and being "nice to our cousins". The twins are adorable; it's hard to believe they are going to be two in a couple of weeks.

musical beds

Maeve relocating herself on a night of the thunderstorm. Notice the yellow flashlight around her wrist.

On any given night we move from bed to bed in our household. It is still my goal to have the girls sleep the whole night together. They start out pretty good, but Kaleigh is definitely a different sleeper than Maeve. Maeve at this age slept easily through the night. Kaleigh is a little more unpredictable. 10 pm, midnight, 2 am....she sometimes feels the need to wake up and talk...just talk..... da....dada....bada, mama....MAMA... waaaaaaaaaaaaaa(if I don't respond within about 5 minutes). As you can imagine this doesn't work well with Maeve in the room with her. Maeve, true to her style, may wake up but all I have to do is say, "it's not morning yet, go back to sleep" and boom, she's out like a light. But then, begins the musical beds. Last night is a perfect example, with a little twist from Maeve:

6:30 pm: Kaleigh down to sleep

7:30 pm: Maeve down to sleep

10:00: mom and dad go up to bed and discover Maeve sleeping in our bed. (I went out to run errands, dad was in the basement brewing. There was an awesome thunderstorm. When I got home, Jonny said he hadn't heard the girls. But there was Maeve, lying on our bed, all the lights on, with a flashlight wrapped around her wrist sound asleep. It was really cute!)

10:10: dad falls asleep before mom, mom eventually gets up to read on the couch since dad is SNORING SOOOOO loud!

12 am: Kaleigh awake babbling...mom goes and gets her, brings her to bed....Kaleigh dozes

1:30 am: Kaleigh's up again, mom tries to let her cry it out by moving her in the guest bedroom

2 am: Kaleigh in her pack in play, crying....mom can't sleep, down on the couch again

4:00 am: Kaleigh up again, mom goes and gets her, Kaleigh fall asleep and proceeds to kick mom

4:00-5:05 am: mom lays awake while Kaleigh kicks her in her sleep and dad snores

5:05 am: Dad's alarm goes off. Dad hits snooze.

5:15 am: Dad gets up to work out.

5:20 AM: Kaleigh is up for good!

5:30 am: mom relocates to couch to half sleep on couch while Kaleigh plays on floor

5:55 am: Maeve gets up, want milk.....want oatmeal.....want diaper changed.....want banana.....want paci........want bunny.......want semee stweet.......want elmo...............................etc.

Really though, it is getting better and many nights I don't have to get up. They are both early risers and it would be great to get them to sleep till 6 am consistently (7 am would be heaven!).

Can anyone relate or give suggestions!

Kaleigh is 9 months (how did that happen!)

9 months....WOW....still not crawling but oh so curious. I call Kaleigh octopus arms. How she get a hold of things amazes me at times. She is getting good at moving around in circles on her tummy, moving from sitting to stomach and sticking her bum up in the air. She talk a lot including mama and dada (Obviously I work a lot harder on MAMA!). I think Kaleigh is beginning to understand more words too; Definitely "eat",(getting excited and flapping her arms), "kiss" (she lean in with a nice wide open wet lick when I say it), and "bye-bye". She love to "feed" me and laugh when I "eat" the things she stick in my face or when I bite on her paci after she gives it to me. I just can't believe she is 9 mo! Big sister kisses!