Madeline is four and a half!

My sweet princess muffin head is four and a half years old. Did you know that when they get their shots any time after 4 that they will not have to have any more shots until they are 11?!

On our way to the doctor's office she said, "I want you to tell them that I HATE SHOTS! Maybe then they won't make me have a shot. You could tell them you are Madeline and they could give you the shot and then we could split apart and tell them the truth after you have the shot." I love her so much. She had to have her shots but before she did she had a lot of time with her doctor and talked his ears off.

She has become so outgoing and precocious. I never said a word and she told him all of the things he needed to know to assess her and more. When asked, "What does a fish do?" her response was , "sucks in air in his mouth and swims in the water." I just sat back and smiled trying not to laugh. I love it when I can just let go and let her be Madeline. Just enjoy her as she is- with no rules, time constraints, or places to go. She is wonderful. She shines and she has become so much fun. Again. I feel like I am finally getting my Madeline back.

Here are her stats: She weighs 43 lbs and is 42.5" long. The doctor said he though she would probably be around 5'7" or so as an adult.

Here are her tricks:
She is a great little artist. I like for her to color in coloring books but as cliche as it sounds I want her to "color outside the lines." She does her best work on white paper with a lot of supplies at her fingertips. Gigi is in the hospital right now and I took her a real work of art that Madeline had created just for her. Wish I had taken a picture of it. Madeline said that it was "hearts and sparkles floating to the sky to make Gigi think of Disney World."

She is sooooo sensitive. We are working on empathetic- sometimes she doesn't understand the Golden Rule but she is very very sensitive and her little heart is so tender. If I give her time to explain herself during an argument she usually makes a lot of sense. I always think about that little genius kid on Oprah that said something about kids just being small humans that deserve to be listened to as well. Madeline uses that line a lot.

She's a hilarious dancer. We are working on coordination and rhythm. I think I will sign her up for dance again but mostly because she loves the costumes- I'm not betting on her becoming a professional dancer- but she wins the trophy for enthusiasm!

She can write her name, identify all of the letters in the alphabet and write most of them and she can count to 100.

She has a wonderful imagination and is very creative in her play. She still loves her "barbies"- the little figurines of all of the princes and princesses and can play with them for long periods of time. She loves to dress up her real barbies. I love to go into the play room after she has been in there for a while and try to figure out what scenario she has been playing out with them by where she has them positioned all around the room.

And, she has inherited my amazing ability to write a great song. Me and my girl can take any mundane daily activity and make one heck of a song up about it. The other day when Tucker had a fever she decided to sing him a lullaby that went something like this, "I hope that you feel better soon, I'm sorry that I am sometimes rough with you. I hope you grow up to be a big prince so that you can dance with me."

She loves to make us laugh. She says the funniest, wittiest things that make Tyler and I roll. Lately she has discovered potty humor and talks a lot about poop. The other day she said something about Daddy and Tucker- that "boys just scratch, and drool and pretend to go hunting." Pretty sure that one can be credited to Mamie.

I love my girl so very much. My greatest desire is to take care of her precious sensitive little heart. I know a big girl with a heart just about as fragile. Poor Tyler never saw it coming.

Tucker is eighteen months old!

We took the kids to their well child check ups this week. That's one of the benefits of having them both around the same time of year- we can get their appointments done at the same time. Tucker is eighteen months old and so much fun.

Here are his stats: He is 34 1/4" long and weighs 26.13 lbs.

Here are his tricks:
He is SUCH a fun kid. He does everything full on chest out with confidence. He doesn't doubt himself a bit and is not the least bit cautious. He climbs everything except he (thank goodness) has not tried to climb out of his bed.

He is our clown. He loves to make us laugh. We can always count on him to spit out his food, or milk, or juice to make us laugh. He teases us- he knows all of us by our "names" but when you ask him to identify someone he'll get this look on his face and say "mama!" just to mess with us. Tonight he started teasing me and calling me "dada."

He loves to laugh. He adores Madeline and will laugh at just about all of her antics but mostly he has always loved when she does "physical comedy." She'll jump or do a funny dance and he will giggle his little butt off. He really will laugh at just about anything.

He and his sister have been getting along really well lately. He has become more confident in himself and his strength. He has also started running and has figured out that he can chase Madeline. He has several of Madeline's tigers and he loves to chase her all around the house saying "raahh!!" She'll scream and run and he'll laugh and laugh. He has always pushed her around on her bike. As soon as he could walk Madeline would get on her princess bike and yell, "PUSH!" and here would come Tucker to oblige. Today I got onto Tucker for turning his plate over and said his name just loudly enough to get his attention- he melted and started crying (it was nap time) and Madeline went over to him to comfort him and reprimand me for making him cry.

He has become a great sleeper- usually 12 hours through the night and a 2.5 or 3 hour nap during the day.

He is also quite the talker. Not as much as Madeline did but he communicates well and surprises us every day with a word or phrase that we had no idea he knew. The doctor said that it was rare for a boy to talk as much as he is with a sister that talks as much as Madeline does!

He LOVES Elmo and horses. The only way I get a shower every day is Sesame Street. He sits in his jumper and watches Elmo. The other night we were driving home and thought Tucker was asleep. I turned around and he was looking right at me and said, "Elmo." Like, just letting me know what was on his mind. Right now he is sleeping with a small Melissa and Doug puzzle horse. His "hahsie." Last week the girls at the gym lost it while he was in childcare but wonderful Tyler took time out of his lunch break to go and search for it and he found it. Tucker has not put it down since. He has become as attached to it as he is his blankie. He loves real hahsies too. We got to see them at MiMi and Pop's house. I am really trying hard to let go of my anxiety about him petting a horse on it's snotty nose and then putting his two hairy, dirty, horse snot and sweat covered fingers in his mouth to suck. Bleh.

He is so so sweet. I got the best snuggles, kisses, and hugs throughout the day. Every morning is met with him jumping into my arms and laying his head on my shoulder for as long as I want to hug him. I love him so so much. My little country boy.

Aunt Lila's 100th Birthday!

My Aunt Lila celebrated her 100th birthday on July 26th. My Mom (MayMay), Dad (Grampsie Pampsie), Madeline, Grandmother (GiGi), Tyler, Tucker and I all went down to Bedford Texas to celebrate with her. She is such a great lady and she and my Grandmother love one another so very much. It was so wonderful to see them together. They only get to see one another a couple of times a year. We stayed a Homewood Suites- which I HIGHLY recommend to any traveling family. Huge kitchens, nice living area with a door separating the bathroom and bedroom- so you can put your baby to bed in the bedroom and close off 2 doors so that no one wakes him! Brilliant!


That's GiGi on the left (she will be 90 in October) and Lila on the right.


Me and my Muffin eating pink cake. Pink is Aunt Lila's favorite color. Everyone wore pink to the celebration (except me).


My beautiful Aunt.


GiGi sat right next to Lila reading her every card and identifying every guest. She has a degenerative eye disease that has left her almost blind but she can see peripherally- so in a lot of pictures she seems to be looking in an opposite direction from the action but that is how she sees.


Laughing and visiting after the party was great. I told her my favorite story about her- we were visiting with her a few years ago and GiGi was talking about how she used to walk up and down the long street she used to live on every day for exercise- she said she would find the weirdest things. She said that one time she found a big pile of "dirty magazines." Lila asked her what she did with them and GiGi said real matter of fact, "Well I threw them away!" And Lila said, "Why?!"


GiGi and her best friend


My beautiful big girl


We had a little photo session while the grown ups talked


At the hotel Madeline sat down with Tucker and started reading to him. I love to hear her versions of her stories


Tucker loves his big sister





The baby book Madeline is holding is one of Tucker's favorites. Madeline loved it too. She would kiss every baby on every page except the baby on the "brown" page. That baby has wild brown hair and I think Madeline was afraid of her. She had never seen a baby with so much hair. Tucker loves the baby on the brown page because he has developed a taste for chocolate and there is a picture of a chocolate bar on that page too. He says "chah-cat" over and over.

We had a wonderful trip and the kids were great. It was the first time Tucker had been in a car for that long and the first time he had ever seen a movie in the car- but he was amazing- he watched Elmo on and off for the last hour of our trip but that was it. I was so proud of them both and I hope we get to go and see Aunt Lila again soon.

Happy birthday Aunt Lila!