Sunday, January 27, 2008

Mac's boyfriend

I was so lucky the other day and got to spend the whole morning with Nolan. Damon and Shelly are our really good friends who live down the street. We talk to them or see them almost every day for one reason or another. Shelly had an interview, and I offered to watch Nolan while she was there. What was supposed to be an hour interview turned into about 4 hours, but it was great!

I was worried at first, because Mac has been known to be very jealous of her Mommy's attention. But she did really great! When I fed Nolan his bottle, Mac fed her baby. Then we burped our babies, and changed them. She did great as a little mommy. It makes me think she is ready for a little brother or sister :) The only time she got jealous is when she was getting sleepy and ready for a nap.

--Pretty laid back, enjoying the little bouncer--

--laughing and cooing--

I forgot how fun babies are at this age. He is starting to reach for things and giggle. We had a great time. I can't believe how strong he is. He is 4 months old and already rolling and holding his head up while on his tummy. They are going to have their hands full!

--Here is Mac showing Nolan how to spin--

Handling two kids is definitely a new dynamic. I am glad that we waited to have kid #2 until they were farther apart. I don't know how people do it with a baby AND a 2 year old.....whew!

Dinner Party

Friday we got together with a group of friends that we enjoy. Two friends Scott and Melissa live in Boone and we headed out there and met up with Char and Jaime. Char, Scott and I all work together and we always have a good time eating and playing games. Scott has a home theater room that would upstage any hollywood studio. He has a seperate insurance policy on that room alone. So we enjoy going over there for movies, and Wii play :)

So Friday we dropped Mac off at her Aunti Ems. She just loves her Aunti Em. She also loves this silly backpack I got her at a garage sale for a dollar. It is a purple nike bag that she feels all grown up wearing. She calls it her "bap-pack." She puts her jammies, diapers, wipes, blankey and toothbrush in there, then zips it up and with some assistance puts it on. She knows we are going somewhere fun when we pack it up.

--Here she is ready to go--

--Mac and her bap-pack--

I was in charge of the appetizer, so I made this fruit salsa with homemade cinnimon sugar chips. It was really good, and quite the hit. Then we had chicken ala king, and an oreo ice cream cake for dessert. Very tasty. Then we played Dirty Minds. It was hilarious...if you haven't heard of this game you should check it out. It is really inappropriate and quite a hoot.

Mac was great at Em's. We are so lucky to have such great family so close!

Poo-Poo

This blog will only be appreciated by parents.

We are playing with the idea of potty training. The only thing holding us back is consistency. I can't take a week off to just do it at this point, and I don't want to have to ask Mac's nanny to start her, because the other child Mac's age isn't ready yet. Also, Mac tells us when she has to poo-poo, but really doesn't get the idea of big girl underwear, or any of that yet. So I don't want to start too early and hinder the process. The other night I asked her if she needed to go potty before bath. She nodded yes, and we had a successful pee-pee in the potty....woohoo!

The next night I asked her and she said no. But half way through her bath she goes ah oh. Then frantic "poo-poo" then I asked her if she had to go, and before we could do anything she screamed "ICKY!" and up float little poo poos.

Really it is funny, but now she is scared of taking a bath saying poo poo all the time, whether she needs to go or not and pointing at her bum. This potty training thing is hard.

Date Night

Last Friday Josh and I had a date night. It has been WAY too long since we have done anything, just the two of us. We dropped Mac off at Gona and Baca's. It was a good chance for Mac to hang out and spend the night before Gona and Baca went to Africa. They planned a two week trip for their 40th wedding anniversary. We are all anxious to hear details and see pictures!

Josh and I went to Noodle Zoo, a little restaurant that serves great salads, noodles and dinners. After that we went to the movie Cloverfield. I was unaware that it was Blair Witch-esque, but really enjoyed it! It is made by the same people who work on Lost, which I also like, so it was no surprise that we both loved the movie. I am not going to give anything away, but it is pretty good - a little far fetched, but worth seeing. I really felt old, because Friday night at 7pm around here is high school date and go to movie with your high school friends night. When the movie started I felt like I was 20 years older than I am, young wipper snappers and their new fangled text messaging. Can't they all be quiet.....so never again early movie on a friday night.

The next morning we got up early and went to a home improvement show in Des Moines. We are finishing our basement (or should I say Josh is finishing our basement.) He has the guest room almost completely framed. And we have lots of ideas. I am excited to have the extra space, not that we need it, but will be nice for guests to have more of a suite than a room off of ours.

The home show was pretty cool. We got some ideas about making our home more efficient and earth friendly (which I am big on.) We also got to see tigers. That's right......tigers! In some random way tigers are somehow tied to home improvement. You could get your picture taken holding a baby tiger for $25. I just took pictures of them in their cages and called it good.

--Here are their parents....they don't look too happy--

--Really cute, and only a few feet away! What a strange business--

Mac had a great time at Gona and Baca's and we had a fun weekend! Nice to have a date once in a while :)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Christmas #5

Wow -this has been a long time coming! On December 28th McKenna and I headed home to Washington for our family Christmas with my family. As we get older it is harder and harder to get everyone together! We left at 7pm our time. Luckily Josh could drop us off, because with the stroller, car seat, bags, diaper bag, carry on, bear, blankey, baby and coats...it was a handful! We got checked in and hung out until about half an hour before the plane left. We said goodbye to daddy and went to security. I had to take my shoes and Mac's shoes off, put the DVD player in a separate container, put the two bags and the stroller on the conveyor belt and then grab my toddler who just wanted to run around. And as luck would have it we were 30 minutes late getting on the plane. But, McKenna was an angel. We started by taking walks up and down the terminal and talking to each plant along the way (she thought this was hilarious.) Then we bought some juice and played tea party, then read some books. We got on the plane, and she was scared to death. She didn't like walking down the noisy hallway and climbing in the little door. Once we were seated, things were great. We talked to our neighbors, had snacks, read stories, and played games all the way to Denver.

In Denver our plane was running about 1-2 hours late. We walked around met some other people on our flight and talked with them. By this time it was an hour passed bedtime. Mac got her jammies on, and got her bear and blankey. Then I put her on her stroller and walked in a huge loop over and over until she fell asleep. We got on the plane and she slept all the way to Kennewick, what a trooper!

I couldn't believe it, but the eventful night tricked her internal clock, and she slept in until 8am the next day...that is 10am her time!!! YAY MOMMY GOT TO SLEEP! She slept in a pack and play in my old room, I slept in Chelsey's room next door, and Chels slept upstairs in the guest room.

We had Christmas morning on the 29th. My family was nice enough to wait on all the presents until we got there. McKenna was spoiled and got a train, puzzles, a cute dress, a baby, sweats, and a book of pictures. I got my dustbuster, perfume, money for Europe, and a book about Italy.

--Here is the Christmas tree before the present opening--

--Chelsey, soooo excited she got Grey's Anatomy Game--

--Gramma Rue got Mac a baby that you feed a bottle to--

--McKenna made sure someone was feeding the baby before she headed to other presents--

--Talking puzzle from uncle Brandon--

--Chelsey modeling her coat from mom--

We spent the rest of the day eating great Christmas food, relaxing and catching up. Chelsey did my hair in ringlets, which I think she has fun doing.

--I can never get it to turn out this good at home--

--My bro and sis--

I am going to get all of the events mixed up, because it seemed like the week flew by. We watched a lot of football, visited friends, went to church, watched the 6 hour Pride and Prejudice mini series, watched Pirates of the Caribbean 3, played a lot of games (settlers, sequence, Grey's Anatomy), played music, danced to the singing nutcrackers, talked, slept, ate, just the best, most relaxing holiday!

--Here is Mac dancing to some chiming nutcrackers (she LOVED these)--

--Luckily Chelsey got this cute outfit for Mac for Christmas, so she could go to church with Gramma Rue and Aunti Chelsey--

--All dressed up and ready to go--

--We spent one day with Maren and Jocelyn, Mac is showing her how to line up all her princesses--

--Not too sure what to think of this funny girl--

Jocelyn is quite the little lady, very willing to share and very social. It is so fun seeing Maren as a mom and what a good job she has done with her kids! Deric is still a ball of energy, but pretty good with the girls, and really enjoying school!

--Wathin football. Got spoiled and was able to eat and drink snacks on the couch, silly grampa rue is giving her bunny ears--

--Mac loved to sit and read the paper with gramma--

--her other favorite thing was to ask for a "cracka" every time she got near the pantry--

--on the last day there I got to go out with some old friends from high school, maren, janelle and charis--

It was such a great trip, and a Mac was equally as pleasant on the way home. I told her on the denver to des moines flight that it was time to take a nap. She said okay, and fell asleep. What a sweetheart! Not one peep out of her either travel day....she is going to be a great world traveler.

Happy belated Christmas to all!