Birthday Girl

Happy 2nd Birthday Sienna!!

It's so amazingly hard to believe that two years ago today, we were welcoming little Sienna into the world! Time has gone by so fast, but at the same time it's fun to think back on the millions of laughs and smiles we've had since her arrival. Taking a trip down memory lane, here is a pic of Sienna on her birth day... and today, two years later! She's such a funny, loveable kid -- I feel so lucky to have her!

Turkey Day already?

How did it get to be Thanksgiving week?? This whole fall season has just flown by, and I can't believe that 1) we are going to be having Turkey in three days and 2) my girls are going to be turning 2 and 4 in less than two weeks! I'm busy trying to finalize details of their party amidst crazy holiday schedules for everyone. I'm not sure I'm really ready for the work involved in planning birthday parties for three kids, but I guess that's what I signed up for, LOL.

In addition to Thanksgiving, we have an appointment for the kids to have pictures taken on Wednesday afternoon. I hope it all goes well...this is the first time we will be trying to get all three of them in one professional picture, and that just seems like an amazing task to me!

Even though the holiday has just totally appeared out of nowhere this year, it seems, I'm still really looking forward to turkey day and, in particular, my mom's delicious Thanksgiving spread.

sweet baby talk

Little Lyla has gotten quite vocal in the past week or so. She has developed this really LOUD cry/yell/laugh combo which is really kind of funny. You never know whether she's really happy, really ticked off, or just sad and wanting some attention. But you definitely know she's got something to say.

Yesterday, she began using her voice in another way - and started babbling! I just love baby voices, so I'm so thrilled to hear hers so regularly now. It's like something clicked, and she went from just making baby noises to "ba-ba-ba-baa"ing and "ma-ma-ma-MAAAA"ing all over the place! Of course, in our house (as in most, I think) Brad and I have a bit of a "friendly" competition going over whether the babies say Mama or Dada first, and he's conveniently reminding me that she doesnt' really mean anything by "Mama" yet. Thanks, I know that...but score one for Mommy!

Here's a video of chatty little Miss L. It's such a fun phase, I just couldn't resist putting a video up.

Out of the mouths of babes...

So I have to 'fess up... we left the below mentioned toy store with toys for all three girls. How the heck do you go to a toy store and not buy them all something??? Maddie had asked if she could get a toy, and I told her that when she was Sienna's age, we did the same thing with her - and she traded her paci's in for her baby doll. Now it was Sienna's turn, because she was giving up her paci's, etc. etc. Well, Maddie quickly figured that she could get a toy too -- she just needed to give something up! So she runs upstairs and comes back a few minutes with a baggie of her own, stuffed with her two yellow silk "lovies," which are little 1 foot square security blankets. She's had these since she was about 1, and I honestly wasn't even ready to have her give them up. I wouldn't even care about paci's if they didn't interfere with speech and teeth. So I said, "Are you sure you want to give those up? I'm not sure you're ready..." And she said, "Why, are you worried I won't have anything to love on, Mommy?" In any event, we brought them to the store, and she fell in love with a Disney Princess cash register. She was so cute, and so willing to give up her lovies to get it. But in the end, she said "Mom, I'm just not sure I'm ready to give up my lovies. Maybe in a few more weeks..." My heart just melted, she was so cute. There was no way on earth we were walking out of that store without the cash register. She was so well behaved, and didn't ask for anything while we were there because she knew that she needed to give up her lovies to get a toy. I was really, really proud of her - and I didn't want her to give up her lovies. You're only a kid once.

When we got home, we let all three kids play with their new toys (because of course Lyla had to get one too!) and it was the first time that I've really seen them ALL fight over toys. They played well together for the moest part and were so excited to have new toys. In our house, it gets a bit desperate by fall because both Maddie and Sienna get all their gifts during the same time of year, wheras most kids have birthdays that are somewhat separated from Christmas time. So our toys are really "stale" by this point in the year, LOL! But man, Lyla is becoming quite the scrappy little thing, especially now that she's mobile and can pretty much army crawl her way anywhere. She was all over that Disney Princess cash register! At one point, I saw Sienna push her little arm right out of the way and say "No Lyla, that's not yours!" Guess the third one has to fight for everything, huh?

Maddie eventually wanted to play with the Dora castle, but Sienna was still very much engrossed in it and was having a hard time sharing. So Maddie says, "Hey Si Si, why don't you go play with my castrator??" OMG, I almost died laughing. I asked her to repeat herself, and she said "I want Sienna to go play with my castrator!" Guess cash register isn't quite an everyday part of her vocab yet!

Paci Free!!!

I was inspired by my friend Andrea, whose daughter is the same age as Sienna and did a great job a couple of weeks ago giving up her pacifier when it was lost. We have been struggling SO much with Sienna and the paci lately, because it's become such an addiction for her that it was interfering in day to day life, it seemed. We only let her have it when she's going for a nap or to bed, so she has been asking to go for a nap constantly throughout the day, just to get the paci. I'd taken to hiding them beneath her pillow in the crib, but then she figured out how to use a toy fishing rod to get under the pillow and "fish" them out. And then she had developed this strange ritual before bed of always wanting me to wash them both (she has a pink one and a purple one) before she'd go to sleep. Anyhow...

We decided enough was enough. She is a very big talker, and it had gotten to the point where she would be talking around her paci and it just seemed like it couldn't be good for speech development. Plus, I have this theory that her behavior has been worse as of late because she's constantly obsessing over the paci and having tantrums (and you all know that her tantrums are legendary, sometimes make-myself-faint kind of events!) when she doesn't get them.

Monday night, we packed up all three kids and had Sienna put her paci's in a Ziploc baggie, then headed to the toy store so she could pick something out and "pay" for it with her paci's. She immediately fell in love with Dora's magical castle, and it happened to be on super sale. So after casing the whole store (Have to admit I was trying to get her to buy a baby doll or a stuffed animal - like we did with Maddie - so she would have something for comfort at night in place of the paci. No dice!) we left with the castle and she was in heaven. She was SO incredibly good in the store, it was just the best trip to a toy store that we've ever had. Even with all three kids, and two of them walking instead of being in a stroller!

At bedtime, Sienna remembered that she had given the pacis to the cashier (who looked at me like I had three heads when I asked him to just take her pacis in payment and then give them back to me when she wasn't looking), but she wasn't happy about the fact that he had them. She also remembered that we had one left that we couldn't find before leaving for the toy store, so she was pretty adamant that we should look for it. It took a little convincing, but after only about 10 minutes, she went to bed without much fuss. Naptime the next day was a bit harder, but after 3 nights we are now completely paci free...and she's not even asking for it anymore! HOORAY!!

Thanks for the inspiration, Andrea!!!

First School Pictures

Oh my gosh...I picked up Maddie's first EVER school pictures today and it seriously felt like she had grown up five years right before my eyes. I can't believe she's old enough to have school pictures taken - even if they are only preschool pictures! I don't quite have my scanner working right now, but a picture of the picture will suffice for now...

Here's Madelyn, 3 years 10 months old:

And here is her preschool class... all 9 of them!

We made it through Halloween!

I was very nervous about Halloween...this was our first year having to think about Sienna's allergies, and I honestly could have just skipped the holiday altogether (and that's without even taking into account the fact that I really don't even like Halloween!). But what's fun for the kids is usually fun for me too, and Halloween was no exception.



Madelyn dressed as - what else! - an adorable princess. Sienna fit so well into Maddie's turtle costume from last year, and loved it so much, that we decided to use it again. And Lyla was a cute little tiger (also worn by Sienna last year, but who's keeping track? LOL).



We began the festivities the day before Halloween with a preschool party for Maddie. She and I had a lot of fun baking Halloween cupcakes; cooking really seems to be our "thing" to do together and I think we both really enjoy it. She's such a good little helper in the kitchen. We dropped her off in her costume, then all the parents came back at 10:15 for a costume parade around the cul-de-sac where her preschool is located. Parents and kids had yummy treats, then did some Halloween crafts together. All in all, a very fun time. Maddie marched hand in hand with her friends Olivia and Katrina, and they were all just adorable!

Halloween night, the kids all got dressed up in their costumes, and Maddie and Sienna headed out with Brad while I manned (sp?) the door with Lyla the tiger. I think I literally saw about 1,000 Disney princesses. Guess that's what happens when you live in a neighborhood where there are kids under 5 in almost every house! My parents came over to see the kids in their costumes, so all three girls had a lot of fun with Grammy and Grampy when they came back from trick or treating. Sienna was really good, and the allergy issue was manageable, thank goodness. I packed a bag of safe treats for her, and she actually didn't even take any treats from houses (for fear of cross-contamination from candy with peanuts). As it turns out, Maddie was so quick running up to doors with her friends Jonathan and Theresa, that by the time Brad and Sienna got anywhere near the door Maddie and cronies were already done! Sienna just had a ball dressed in her costume and being out and about in the neighborhood with all the big kids.


Madelyn's primary question before going trick or treating was, "Mom, where's your costume? What are you going to be?" And, true enough, I hadn't even thought about a costume. So next year, I guess I'll be thinking a little further ahead. I'm sure it will make Halloween even more fun for them.

I'm back!

Yes, I am still here. Yes, we still have children. And yes - I have completely neglected my blog! Amazingly, Maddie, Sienna and Lyla seem to have found a way to remind me to update (umm...thanks, Mom!). Things have been busy this fall, and somehow posting has fallen by the wayside. But stay tuned for Halloween pics, as well as the latest update...