Madeline's First Birthday

I wanted to share this picture, just because. Here she had probably been asleep like this for 3 or so hours. Madeline was the BEST sleeper. This is just one of my favorites and I came across it looking for her first birthday pictures.

Just wanted to share some pictures from Madeline's first birthday. I didn't have a blog then and I think it will be fun to have the two posts on Madeline's first birthday and Madeline's fourth birthday here to contrast. Notice the cakes...notice which one she devoured. Also notice that Madeline was already switched to whole milk and a sippy cup by her first birthday. I just nursed Tucker before his nap and he just started holding his bottle himself this week. I will baby this baby for as long as I can get away with it!

The good cake

See, the good cake is almost gone, my cake is just sitting there...

My cake. Cream cheese and apple juice concentrate "icing" YUM

Just catching up

Tucker is asleep now and we will go and pick up Madeline at 2. This has been a good day. I got up and got all three of us ready and out the door by 9 to take Madeline to school. Good practice because Tucker will start "school" at Mother's Day Out with Madeline the day after his birthday. Great. Now I'm crying and typing. I have taught Madeline how to go through the bathroom that is between her room and Tucker's room. We have practiced what she will say to her teacher, Ms. Stacy- "Just going to check on my brother!" And she will peek her head into his room. One of my very best friends, Amber, will be Tucker's teacher so that makes me feel better. Madeline didn't start MDO until she was 18 months old but I have got to get into the office (business has picked up int he Real Estate world) and Tucker will do great. I love our MDO so much. It feels like family. All of the staff is really looking forward to Tucker being there. There is only one other "baby" there- all of the other kids started at the beginning of the year and are between 15 and 20 months old. He'll do great with them though, he is used to his big sister! I know I sound like I am reassuring myself and I am.

After we dropped "Sissy" off Tucker went to work with me. He is such a good kid. He was content to stay in his seat throughout most of our meeting and then got out and played nicely until it was over. We went to tour a new listing with the rest of the gang and then to Daddy's office to pick him up for lunch.

Tucker is so communicative lately. This morning he was shaking his head "no" when he was finished with his bottle. Last night he was telling his Daddy "baby" so Tyler would lift him up into the mirror to see his reflection. He "blows kisses" which is just him making the smooching noise but it is soooo sweet.

Madeline has been so good. She is changing so much. She is in full on dress up mode all day every day. She is crowned and gowned from the moment she wakes up in the morning and then again after school until bedtime. She says that her night gowns are her "raggedy dresses" (because Cinderella and Snow white have raggedy dresses before they get their ball gowns) and asks to be changed into her princess dresses. We got down her pink dress that she wore to the first Daddy Daughter dance (it's a 24 month) and she wears it unbuttoned with heels, a necklace, and a crown. I bought her a dress for the upcoming Dance and she wears it almost every day as well. She says things like - "A princess always has her gown/ crown on."

I love my kids. My life is good. Of course we still have days that are not so good but man oh man am I blessed. I have been a mom of 2 for a whole year. It took a little time to adjust to it but at this point Tucker has become so easy. He is sleeping well, eating well, and not too demanding. I am such a more laid back mom with him than I was Madeline. Not that I was mean or strict with Madeline but, well, here is an example. Madeline had never even tasted anything sweet other than fruit (to my knowledge) prior to her first birthday. In preparation for her big day I made, for the first time, her cake. It was a carrot cake with pureed carrots sweetened with apple juice concentrate. No sugar, no "real" icing. It tasted pretty good but it was dense. I allowed mom to order- for the REST of the guests- a sheet cake. Well, of course Madeline got a big hunk of both on her high chair tray. My heart was racing as she chose the good cake. I don't know if I thought her head would explode or what if she ate sugar. But I was freaked out. Not only did she have cake but the grandmothers also let her DRINK the melting ice cream! Well, needless to say, she loved the good stuff and has ever since. But would I really want a kid that didn't? Anyway, Tucker has eaten a lot of cake, a lot of icing, he's not too crazy about ice cream but he does love chocolate. He loves fruit too and will eat a ton of broccoli. So will Madeline. I'm proud of my kids and I'm proud of Tyler and I. We have turned into a pretty good team. We have learned a lot about parenting in the last year and we have become better parents in the last year. This birthday will be a celebration for all of us. I think my eyes are dry enough now to order the invites. Watch for it in the mail and in the mean time here are a couple of sneak peeks at Madeline and Tucker's birthday invites...

My wonderful Hannah took this great picture of Tucker on a play date with Pratt...can't wait to get the boys together again soon!

My little fairy princess.

My babies

My babies were born in March and February. That means that right now I am in complete denial about one of the birthdays and in full party planning mode for the other. I want to skip Tucker's birthday. He is still a baby. There is no way that he could possibly be 11+ months old. No way. Madeline, however, is turning 4 and this is sooo worth celebrating. 3 stunk. It was horrible. There were some highlights, a few, but overall 4 is approaching and I am thankful for it. With every day that she ages lately it seems that her attitude improves. She is becoming more agreeable and seems to be better equipped to understand that actions have consequences.

Poor Tucker. All of my friends with two and more kids told me that it would happen and it did...Tucker is no longer a squishy baby and I feel like I have completely neglected documenting his "babyhood." I've done an okay job because I have had this blog but there are a few funny things about Tucker that I need to write down. Things that I must remember.

His "Christmas ball." Madeline got an Uncle Sam squishy ball somewhere- maybe a freebie at a baseball game or something, I'm not sure. Anyway, there is a caricature of Uncle Sam on it but Madeline has always called it her Christmas ball because she has no idea who Uncle Sam is and she thinks it is Santa. Tucker loved this ball. He carried it with him everywhere from like 5 months to 8 months. He would go about his business and play around the house crawling and exploring but he would always have the Christmas ball in one hand. He liked to squeeze it and bite it.

His "pork chop." It is really a chicken leg and thigh but it's more fun to call it a pork chop. It is Madeline's plastic play food. For some reason Tucker loves the pork chop. Same type attachment to it as the Christmas ball. We got a lot of funny looks out and about with Tucker with this pork chop. We would pull it out when he would get fussy and it would immediately pacify him and calm him down. I don't know why. Hilarious.

He loves his blankie. He doesn't take pacifiers. He sucks his first two fingers on his left hand. When he is tired or a little unsure of his surroundings he sucks his fingers. His blankie is a little tag blankie made by a friend. It stunk so bad last week because he loves on it and slobbers it up every night. Tyler gave it to me to wash so I did it quickly because I knew he would need it at nap time to go to sleep. He hated it when I gave it to him clean. He wanted nothing to do with it. Now he has it stinky again and loves it. That is the first thing he does when you hand it to him- he buries his face in it and takes the deepest breath.

Madeline got Handy Manny tools for Christmas. She'll occasionally "fix" Tyler's recliner but mostly Tucker plays with the tools. He'll pick one and carry it around the house with him everywhere.

He says baby (buh-beeeee), hi, bye bye, and uh oh. His mouth takes the sweetest shape when he says uh oh. It is a really round pronounced "oh." Very deliberate. He uh ohs before he drops something. He gets away with so much more than Madeline did. It's that smile! He smiles at me when he knows he has done something "bad." So mischievous. He gives kisses and hugs upon request and is starting to blow kisses although he doesn't do the blowing part. He just makes the kissing noise when you ask him to. It is precious.

He loves to have his back rubbed. When he was smaller I could get him to go to sleep on his back if I would stand beside his bed and rub his head. I would run my fingers all over his little face and head for the longest time and he would just drift off. When he started turning over on his tummy to sleep I started rubbing his back. I still will sometimes although now he really gets himself to sleep easily. I do cherish putting him t o bed, though, because after he has his bottle he will rest his head on my shoulder and be perfectly still while I rub his back. It is the only time in the day when I still feel like he is a baby.

That's another thing. At exactly 12 months we started giving Madeline milk in her sippy cup. She was weaned off the bottle quickly. I don't feel so anxious to get Tucker off the bottle- he won't even hold it himself yet!

So, Tucker's birthday celebration will be held on Valentine's day. If you don't get an invite it is because I am in denial.

2009, Barbies, and Other Stuff

2009 started with this little precious angel named Madeline that was cute and short and chubby. She was agreeable and kind. I wished that everyone could have a child as perfect as mine. At Wal-Mart or Target I only had to avoid the baby doll isle. On any other isle compromise was possible and a simple "not today" was all that was required. On the baby doll isle there was screaming and crying. Not ugly, spoiled, fit-throwing crying but the sobbing of a two year old "mama" leaving her babies behind. If delusional I thought I could make it down the baby doll isle only purchasing one baby (under $3), Madeline would wail giving Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice a run for her Oscar. And it wasn't just at discount stores. At Cracker Barrel if Madeline got loose she would gather up every baby doll in sight in less than 30 seconds. And that's the thing. They always put the baby dolls in the sight of the two year olds. At their eye level.

Christmas 2008 was especially amusing. At a Christmas service in my husband's home town Madeline became obsessed with the baby Jesus figurine in the Nativity display. She held him throughout the service and had to be dragged out of church while screaming "BABY JESUS!!! BABY JESUS!!!" after having to return him to his Manger. I felt kind of proud. Like I had done an especially good job raising a two year old that REALLY loved Jesus. She does...but at the time it was more about the "baby" part than it was the "Jesus" part. Well, here is the difference between 2009 and 2010 or I guess, really, here is the difference between Christmas 2008 and Christmas 2009...I moved my shopping for Madeline to the other side of the isle. And it breaks my heart.

At almost every store the baby dolls are on one side of the isle and the barbie dolls are on the other. I fought the barbie doll thing for so long. Really fought. Fought with Madeline, fought with my mom, fought with myself, and fought my fight with anyone that would listen. "Barbie dolls are a gross misrepresentation of women." That was the basis of my fight. Still is. I don't want Madeline to grow up placing so much importance on beauty. I want her to understand that there is so much more to being a woman. Women are amazing and beautiful for so many reasons- so many more than the two reasons portrayed by barbie- the two insanely large protrusions from her otherwise stick thin figure. We give life. We grow life. We are a vessel that carries a miracle. Our bodies change. They change A LOT over the course of a girl's life and at every turn girls are shown this unrealistic ideal that they are supposed to live up to. Starting at age 3 (with barbie) then throughout adolescence and puberty through films and magazine ads. But, these are my issues. Not Madeline's. This is what I had to realize when she started asking for "princess barbies." So I have had to reel it in (I just deleted a 2 paragraph tangent) and take it upon myself to educate her about the real beauty in being a woman. I felt like she just loved them because they were beautiful but once I started making myself actually sit down and play barbies with her I realized that she felt very maternal towards her barbies too (like she had her baby dolls). She also plays with them just like she did her little princess figurines- they dance with their princes and last night she made the princes wait at the dance because the barbies wanted to go the library and read books ( I was so proud).

Now, I'm not saying that I'm not superficial. I love clothes and getting my toes done and shoes and dressing up and all of the external silly fun stuff that comes along with being a "girl." I love having a girl that loves playing dress up. I love to go out wearing crowns (yes, both of us). I love my Madeline (even my spoiled fit throwing 3 year old Madeline) and I am learning to love her barbies.

I have to work a little harder on my end. If I'm going to talk the talk I've got to walk the walk. I caught myself saying to my especially impressionable preteen niece- "Wow, you look really pretty and skinny!" I could have said so many other wonderful things about her- like how fun she is and that I love what an individual she is. That I admire that she loves to read books and that she is becoming a great little actress. So that is my hope for myself and for my daughter and for our society in general for the sake of all of our daughters- that we start paying the MOST attention to the "other stuff." Besides, time catches up with us all. I don't care if you are a 70 year old with the body of a 50 year old. If you are blessed with good enough health to get you to 98 you will probably be a 98 year old with the body of a 98 year old and by then all of the superficial falls away (and has probably fallen down). The beauty OF you is the beauty IN you. I know, I have an especially beautiful 98 year old Aunt.

And, I am going to try really hard to stop buying gossip magazines. I sit around comparing myself to the women in them and the magazines sit around the house waiting for Madeline to get old enough to start doing the same thing. I told my girlfriends that I was going to start subscribing to National Geographic instead. I don't care who you are- at some point in your life your body will start to look a whole lot more National Geographic and a whole lot less Playboy.
The end. Happy New Year.

January

So, it's January. That means that in one month it will be February and then my little baby will be one year old. This thought really just hit me yesterday. This week Tucker started really playing peek a boo. He had been covering his face with a blanket for a while but now he uses his little hands to cover both eyes and then moves them away really fast with the biggest smile on his face. He started doing it one day while I was changing his diaper. I was caught so off guard. It was totally unprompted and there is something so grown up about his ability to do this...to know where his eyes are and to know how to play a little game with me. It was precious. Here are some pictures of my grown up little boy. He got a new walker that he loves but he doesn't know how to turn it yet so he goes full speed as far as he can in our house before hitting a wall or cabinets and then waits for us to turn it around so he can do it again. If we aren't fast enough he flops down on his belly, kicks his feet and hits the floor. Full on fit. It is HILARIOUS.

Fit #1

Waiting...

Fit #2

This week Tucker was sick. Madeline had been sick the week before with a high fever and then a cough. Tucker has had the fever and I thought we were going to avoid the painful cough but he has it now. Madeline went to stay with her Mimi and Papa for several nights. She had a great time and Tyler and I were ready for her to come home. She has been so precious lately. Agreeable and generally sweet. Tucker really missed being trapped in head lock hugs and pinned to the floor. In 15 seconds after she got home the house was "princessified." I got busy unloading her bag and cleaning the kitchen and found her in the living room like this...

Tucker's birthday in February means that in another month it will be March and my first baby will be 4. That's a lot to think about. A much longer post coming soon, I'm sure.

Happy New Year!