I couldn't resist...

After reading Madelyn a bedtime story tonight (post-pool, where everyone apparently wore themselves out!), I walked into Sienna's room to find this sweet scene:


It was just too cute to pass up the photo op. Notice it's still light outside - very light. We've had such a hard time getting the kids to bed at a reasonable hour because it's stays lighter here, later, than it did at home. I'm so relieved the kids are in bed and asleep before 8 PM! Hopefully our Saturday morning will get started on the right foot with a bit more sleep!

Da Bangs. Da Big Bangs.

The first half of our first 4th in Arkansas was pretty much a bust. I got the kids all excited about going to the parade (not a real parade, per se, but one where the kid all wear their red and blue, decorate their trikes, bikes, etc., and march around the town square; in the center of the square, the Farmer's Market was going on) and rallied them for getting dressed up in red, white and blue. Piled everyone in the car, then put the address into the GPS so we could actually FIND the town square, LOL. We got there a bit late and it looked like a lot of the parade was over, but the kids were amused by the remaining kids riding around on their decked our bicycles. There were some fun ones! I was really enjoying myself by the time we crossed the street and got to the first stall at the Farmer's Market; the local farmer was extremely friendly, chatting up the three girls, and we found some really good looking cucumbers and zucchini to come home with. Across the way, there was a stall with adorable handmade, embroidered dresses with lemonade stands, flower appliques, etc. as well as pretty headbands (defintely my kind of place!). We were checking that stall out when the first drops of rain fell...and then had about a thirty second warning before the heavens just opened up and torrential rain ensued. The market goers pretty much ran for the hills, as did the Hedgepeths!

It rained pretty much straight from then until sometime around 3:30 or 4, when it finally cleared up and began getting hot again. Maddie and I took advantage of the rain and decided to run to Target to get a few more things we seem to have missed out on packing or needed for the pantry. We came out and the rain had let up quite a bit - but of course, as we headed for the car the skies opened up again and Maddie and I had a seriously good laugh over both of getting drenched.

*OH* *NEWS FLASH* I'm in danger, danger, danger. We are currently living about 1 minute from a Target. A brand spanking new Target, with a huge food selection. And a Starbucks. I'm in heaven! We're also about 2 minutes from a beautiful outdoor mall. My shopping options just got a whole lot better and more convenient! Bad for the wallet, but fun for me!

After the requisite 4th of July hot dogs, baked beans and watermelon for dinner (no hamburgers, alas, due to no grill at the temporary house!), we headed to Arvest Ballpark in Springdale, about 15 minutes away, for the big 4th of July celebration. They were having inflatables for the kids, as well as live music, ballpark food, and a big fireworks display. The ballpark also has one heck of a playground, as it turns out, so the kids had a ball!

A few things I learned about my kids while were were there:

1. Madelyn is getting to be quite the daredevil, and has seriously improved her coordination over the past few months. She wanted to go on the biggest, tallest inflatable obstacle course (with about a 20-25 foot slide drop) and scaled that thing with absolutely no issues. She also came back a couple of times to help her sister, who gave it a good effort but had to bail in the end because her little legs just weren't quite long enough to get from rung to rung.
2. Lyla loves fireworks. She clapped and cheered all through the fireworks show, saying, "Here comes da bangs! Da big bangs! I like fireworks! Where's the fireworks?" All day today, the day after, she has continued to ask when we are going to get in the car and go see the fireworks and "da bangs." I feel so bad that it only happens one night a year, since she enjoyed it so much! We do have a few sparklers, so we may light those tonight, very carefully. No bangs, but still a show!
3. Sienna continues to amaze me with her ever growing acceptance of her own allergies and the limitations that sometimes brings with it. She doesn't feel sorry for herself, and in that respect has taught me a few lessons about not making the situation worse by acting like she's missing out. She often suggests bringing her own wipes along, in case we need to wipe things off to keep from "getting her allergies." We don't go crazy with this kind of stuff, mind you, but in places like ballparks or airplanes where peanuts abound, I usually like to give her hands a good wipe before she touches her mouth!

All in all, a very successful day. Lots of fun had by all. We really enjoyed the ballpark and were so glad we took everyone, despite the late night. We finished the night with snowcones for the girls, and I think they felt like it was a perfect holiday. Madelyn did mention fireworks with grammy and grampy a couple of times, and I think over the next few days as it hits her that we've truly moved, she's going to miss them more and more. But I'm glad that our 4th was a happy one!

Who's that sleeping in MY bed?

So I'll admit that I'm pretty strict when it comes to kids sleeping in our bed. Mainly, I don't allow it. It's totally a personal decision, but I'm one of those people who thinks Mom and Dad should have their space apart from the kids. I'm sure it has something to do with how my own parents felt about it, because that's always how I remember it being in our house growing up, too; I can't ever remember climbing in bed with them. I know, too, that I need that space away from them. The days are long and tiring, and when I am able to get some sleep, I like it to be entirely mine, if that makes sense!

BUT...I totally break the rules when Brad's not home. And I have to say, I absolutely love little nighttime visits from my girlies when Brad is away, love snuggling with them and showering them with unexpected kisses during the night, and love waking up to find warm, squishy kids laying next to me. Brad's been away all week, and two nights ago it was Maddie who came in at about 3 AM and asked if she could sleep with me. By 6 AM, I had both Maddie and Sienna in with me, and then by 6:45 Lyla had joined the crew. This morning we made it until about 5:30 before I ended up with both M and S in bed with me again. What great snuggle time! Don't get me wrong...I can't wait for Brad to get home. Mostly because I've missed him, because honestly it doesn't phase me that much anymore to do it all myself. The kids are a bit older, the baby is much more self-sufficient than she used to be, and we've got a good routine going. But even though I can't wait for him to get home, I'm definitely ok with one more night of my sweet little guests.

Little Ears are Everywhere!

Now that the kids are getting a little older, I really have to remind myself that little hears can hear a whole lot! It's amazing how much the kids pick up on, and even more amazing still when they might decide to drag up some of the information they know or have heard.

Sienna has been the source of a lot of laughs lately with what she comes out with -- all of which serve as reminders that even little kids DO listen...at least selectively. We were in church yesterday and the minister was giving the sermon, talking about a scripture lesson that included a man named Jonathan. While doodling on the bulletin we gave her with a pencil from the back of the pew, Sienna all of the sudden whispered (very loudy!), "MOM... he's talking about JONATHAN!" and I knew immediately that she was referring to out next door neighbor. I told her that she was right, he had been speaking about Jonathan - but it was a different Jonathan than her friend next door. A minute later, the minister went on to say '...and Jonathan was killed." Ok, a bit above the two year old, I thought. But Sienna stops drawing once again and turns to me with huge eyes and says, "MOM!! Jonathan was KILLED???" I didn't know whether to be amazed that she was actually listening to the sermon or concerned that she was hearing things a little over her head in church, but in the end it made me laugh.

I got my second little Sienna surprise of the day when we were driving home from church and all of the sudden Si started singing the following:

"I kissed a girl, I kissed a girl! Taste of her Cherry Chex..." repeat, repeat, repeat....

Obviously Sienna has taken in (in very short order!) the lyrics "I Kissed A Girl" by Katy Perry, which comes on the radio sometimes while we're driving. She hasn't got it quite right, but close enough! (You can tell that Chex is one of her favorites, LOL.) Last week I was fairly flippant in my response to a question about whether that was the kind of song I would let my girls listen to. But something about hearing your 2 year old singing does just sort of bring the topic front and center, huh? Another prime example of little ears picking up on everything!

Maddie gave me a good reminder today that even if some kids stories are funny to me, it may not be so fun for the kids to hear me recounting them to people. Last week at Sunday School Maddie was told all about the kids in foreign countries (India, Haiti, Kenya) that the Sunday School is going to be sponsoring through their donations, which will go to helping kids that are not as fortunate as those in her class. At the end of class, I asked M what she had learned and she handed me the info. sheet, answering "You're going to have to spend a LOT of money!" It totally cracked me up, and I've told the story to my mom, etc. and recounted it to the Sunday School teacher today. I just thought it was cute, and yeah, funny to that the prime message she took away seem to be that Mom and Dad were going to have to pay a lot of money...somehow I doubted that was the primary message! In any event, it must have been bothering M to overhear me telling the story, because this morning she got a bit sulky and when I asked her what was wrong, she said, " I don't want you to tell everyone that I said you were going to have to pay a lot of money! I don't want you to tell people that story, I don't like it!" I instantly felt bad and wanted to acknowledge that she was right, and I was wrong -- I didn't mean anything by telling the story, but I did tell her that I was sorry and that I would not tell people again if it bothered her. She does seem very concerned that people are going to laugh at her for some reason, and I definitely felt bad. At 4.5, she is certainly old enough to know and appreciate when she is being talked about! So key lesson learned: Mom needs to be a little bit more careful when telling stories around little ears!

Back to the Routine

So I haven't posted anything in a while (again!) and lately I really feel I miss blogging. Time is just flying by so fast, and I feel like if I don't write something down here every once in a while, I'm going to forget just about everything!

We're trying to get settled back into a fall routine, and so far it's going mostly ok, with a glitch or two here and there. Madelyn started her first full week of Pre-K this week and really just seems to be loving it. I didn't really think I would notice a difference between preschool and Pre-K, but I definitely do. There are three new kids in her class that weren't in the preschool class last year, and she's happy to come home and tell me all about her new friends. Last year, she was the oldest in the class; now, there are a few others older than she is, which I think is good for her. I keep warning her teacher that she seems to have turned into a teenager over the summer (with all the sass and attitude that comes with it, ugh!). After her first day, the teacher told me that they were reviewing the family pictures that the kids were asked to bring in, and half way through Maddie said, "Umm...excuse me Miss K. I really think that, um, now that we're, you know - OLDER - we should really call our mother's "Mom" instead of Mommy or Mama." All the while she's doing her hand new teenager-style hand gesturing thing, of course. Miss K told Maddie she thought it was ok if the other kids still wanted to call their Moms "Mommy" or whatever. But Maddie said, "Well, you know. I just think since we're four, we should probably call her Mom, you know?" What a character. The teacher said she was perfectly nice and polite about it, and really seemed like she thought they should have to graduate to calling their mother's "Mom." Where does she come up with this stuff??

Pre-K is three days a week...the rest of the weekly schedule is now taken up with gymnastics for Maddie and Sienna on Saturday mornings, then Music & Movement for Sienna on Monday (the babysitter takes her during the day while Maddie is at pre-K, and Lyla watches), and year two of dance for Maddie on Wednesday. She's in the 5-8 yr. class this fall, a bit early but she seems to enjoy the challenge and since at this age it's mostly about following directions, that class is a better fit for her than the 2.5-5 year old class.

As for Lyla, she's going through a tremendous language spurt right now, mimicking more and more words and jabbering up a storm. She's in that adorable phase where she'll throw out what seems like an entire sentence of gibberish, and then end it with a very real word like "puppy" or "baby" or "up." It's so endearing! She's cut all four molars in the past few weeks, which has made for a bit of a clingy baby. But since they've all finally come through, she's back to her fairly independent and strong-willed self. Her favorite thing to do right now is to look at books, practice climbing up and down stairs (and chairs, etc.) and push around the baby stroller with a doll in it.

Can I just say...

That having ONE child in diapers is such an improvement over having TWO kids in diapers?!! Yes, Sienna is officially potty trained now... YAHOO!! We still have an occasional accident here and there, but we've gone days without one. And last night, I put her in undies even for bed, since she's been napping in them, waking up to go potty when she needs to, and waking up dry in the mornings. This morning...dry undies! Hooray Sienna! With prices of everything so high these days, it's really nice to be getting a break from having to buy double the diapers each month!

Maddie Knows Best

Maddie is 4.5 going on 30. More specifically, she's a preschooler going on being a mother. Her most favorite activity is to boss her sister around and "discipline" her as if she's a parent. She is driving us NUTS with this. Poor Sienna gets told how to dress, what to sing, where to dance, what she should go to time out for, what color cup she should drink out of, what to build with the mega blocks, etc. etc. Seriously, it's amazing that Sienna even knows what she wants at all or has an opinion on anything, given that Maddie seems so willing to impart her wisdom on every aspect of Sienna's thoughts and actions. As ridiculous as it seems, I often find myself trying to defend her and speak up on her behalf. I have such a hard time just sitting and watching her get told which play food to put in the play oven, for goodness sakes!!

The flip side of it is that even though her bossiness seems to have reached a new level lately, she really is a good protector of her little sister -- and sometimes with Sienna, you're really grateful that Maddie's always got her eyes out for bad behavior, LOL. Maddie's the first to let us know when Sienna is getting into trouble, and also the first to help keep her out of trouble when we're out and about. So I guess there's a positive side there somewhere.

The other day I had had enough of Maddie acting as if she was Sienna's mom (she was telling her she was going to have to go to time out for some little thing) so I said, "Madelyn, PLEASE stop telling her what to do. We have enough parents in this house!" Without a moment's pause, she shot back, "Moooomm! We ONLY have two!" Didn't even have a response for that one!

Sienna takes a lot of it in stride, but does get ticked off every now and again. And her repsonse is usually to squeal or yell back and say "NO Maddie! I'm NOT doing that!" or "No Maddie! I NOT going to time out!" And then every once in a while, she tries it out on me and sends ME to time out...because who wouldn't want to copy big sister? Gotta love it. I've already spent more time in time out as a mother than I can remember spending in TO as a kid!

This is one of those lovely behaviors that I'm really hoping is a phase...

"Drek-shuns"

Sienna has a habit of running into my walk-in closet as of late, and trying to get into my craft stuff. Generally, I keep a doorknob lock on our bedroom door and that does the trick. But those have never kept Maddie out, so if she opens it, or if I forget to shut it for whatever reason, Sienna tends to go right for the closet while we're getting the other two ready for bed. Tonight I was handling the bedtime routine on my own while Brad was out, and she made a beeline for the closet while I was finishing Lyla's bath up. Which was guaranteed trouble...even before Madelyn headed right in after her. Not two minutes after they went in, I heard muffled giggling coming from the closet. I went running in with a big 'ole "Sienna ABIGAIL!" and found the two of them hunched over a big pile of tiny colored eyelets from my scrapbooking supplies; I keep them in a little divided plastic organizer case and Sienna had opened it and dumped them everywhere. GRRR. Needless to say, I wasn't happy about it and had them in bed less than ten minutes later. They were overdue and I was worn out!

I went in to kiss Sienna goodnight, and she looked up at me with her huge eyes, sort of batted a little eyelash at me with what I think of as her "How on earth can you resist this magnficient cuteness?" look, and said: "Momma, I'm sorry I didn't do your drek-shuns (AKA "directions"), but I just don't CARE about drek-shuns!"

OMG, I nearly peed my pants. How much more brutally honest can you get? LOL. I think I'm headed for trouble. If she doesn't care about my directions now, I shudder to think how she'll react to the "drek-shuns" I'm going to give her when she's 16!

Ahh...Quiet!

Here is one of my favorite recent stories; I'm starting with this story because it leads perfectly into one of the strangest - yet very nice - aspects of our Memorial Day Weekend:

Lyla is in the clingy phase...teething up a storm, severe stranger anxiety, freaks out whenever Mommy or Daddy leaves the room or even puts her down. In other words, that really fun phase. So our days over the past few weeks have pretty much consisted of her crawling or cruising around behind me, wherever I go, screaming or yelling at me because I won't pick her up. If I stop for a second, she climbs up my legs; if I don't then pick her up, she yells even louder. It's obviously VERY loud.

This means that putting Sienna in Time Out for hitting Madelyn could nearly put you over the edge, since the volume level more than doubles. But that's where she ended up the other day after getting a little too agressive. So, she was in Time Out (in a small hallway off the kitchen) screaming that she didn't want to be there. Lyla was crawling around behind me in the kitchen, screaming because I was dealing with Sienna and wouldn't pick her up. Thank goodness Maddie wasn't really hurt by the little incident with Sienna, and therefore was NOT crying and was instead satisfied by Sienna going to time out. Lyla managed to crawl her way over in the general vicinity of Sienna's Time Out spot, still yelling and screaming at me. Sienna momentarily stops carrying on enough to shake her little index finger and Lyla and yell, "HEY! NO, Lyla! I'M CRYING!! You don't cry!!" I had all I could do to keep the tears from running down my face. We've reached a new level...they're fighting over who gets to cry!

So back to this weekend...my parents offered to take Sienna overnight after Maddie's dance recital, so that she could have a special night too, in the midst of all of the fanfare over Maddie's performance. Since we've been getting so little sleep lately with her waking up at all hours, we were looking forward to a night of sleep and some time with Maddie and Lyla. Maddie was pretty upset about the arrangement, so my mom and dad ended up taking Sienna on Saturday night, and then Maddie on Sunday night. It really gave us some time to spend a little more in-depth time with each of them. But the thing I noticed most? It is SO much quieter at our house with only two children! I missed them both terribly, but we found ourselves appreciating just a bit of quiet SO much. Obviously we love the loudness and the chaos and pretty much everything about our three kids, but sometimes it's so loud I can't think straight!

So we did some fun things... while Sienna was at Grammy and Grampy's, we took advantage of having no allergy worries and actually going out for breakfast at Percy's Place. OMG, it was delicious! Maddie, Brad and I all had EGGS and loved every bite of it! And little Lyla put away so much pancake I thought she might seriously burst. Then while Maddie was gone, we took Sienna and Lyla to the duck pond and the Grist Mill for a picnic lunch. It was a gorgeous weekend, weather-wise, and we took full advantage. I missed each of the kids tremendously while they were gone (it was especially weird not to have Maddie around after spending so much one-on-one time with her over the past several weeks at dance recitals, rehearsals, etc.), but I think it's always nice to get a little more time to focus on each of them - especially if it's a little quieter and less chaotic!

Our little librarian

Sienna seems to be showing a real love of books and reading already. I know Maddie was interested in them, but Sienna spends so much time just poring through books of all sorts, carrying them around the house, reading them to herself...and oh yeah, destroying them as well. She has a bit of a destructive streak in her (ok, maybe more than a bit), and while she loves books she also loves to write in them, draw on pages, and even tear them from time to time. I've already got one library book that I'm going to be paying for this week that she managed to get to before I hid Maddie's books from reach.

Despite the "improvements" she seems to want to make to them, she is really adorable when it comes to her books. Yesterday, I was cleaning and organizing our walk-in closet in the master bedroom. To keep tabs on her, I brought in her Dora castle and people, and we pretended Dora was hiding away with her friends; Sienna thought it was particularly funny to pretend Dora was sleeping in the closet and kept whispering to me loudly, "SHHH! You need to be quiet!" But while in my closet, she found a paperback novel I finished recently. She must have spent a half hour sitting next to me while I sorted and organized clothes, flipping through the 200+ pages as if she were reading it. No pictures or anything, just words. She kept calling it "my book" and when I asked about Dora and how her nap was going said, "You don't take away my book!" (she's in a very possessive phase right now where she thinks everyone is going to take things away from her -- I think this is a direct result of having to fight to keep her stuff from Maddie all the time these days!). Finally, she put down the book and looked at me with the cutest puppy dog eyes and shook her head, saying, "Nope. I can't read the book. It's too hard!"

Awwww! I felt so bad for her...but it was oh so cute!

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!

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!!!

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.

Handy Mandys

In our house, the kids pretty much only watch programs that we record for them on TIVO. They usually watch the same two or three shows in rotation until we get tired of it (mainly, when Brad and I find ourselves humming the catchy little theme song in public places and wondering how on earth it came to be that Noggin preschool tunes are topping the list of our most listened to music). So even though it’s not a new show, my kids have just discovered the fascination of “Handy Manny” … or, as Madelyn calls it, “Handy Mandy.” For some reason, she can’t seem to drop the “D” out of poor Manny’s name – though interestingly enough, Sienna has no problem pronouncing it correctly. But since we have all girls in our house, Handy Mandy seems to suit us just fine.

If you haven’t seen the show, it features a cute little Spanish-speaking handyman with 8 talking tools that accompany him everywhere, fixing whatever problem one of the townspeople call him to assist with him that day. He answers each phone call with a peppy, “Handy Manny’s Repair Shop! You break it, we fix it. This is Manny!” And the tools are all appropriately named… the hammer’s name is Pat, the tape measure is Stretch, the pair of pliers is named Squeeze, etc.

Since becoming huge fans of the show, the girls have taken to becoming their own little versions of Handy Manny. Madelyn has always had a fascination with Brad’s tools (think back to her helping us with the kitchen renovation project in Chicago…) so we had given her a set of plastic tools the Christmas she turned two, so she could help with projects. Well, the tools have now made a huge comeback in our house, and we’re constantly finding Maddie and Sienna (or Handy Mandy and Handy Mandietta, as I’ve now nicknamed the dynamic duo) working together to fix something in “need” of repair. Yesterday, the two of them dismantled the paint tray from the front of their easel. Madelyn is regularly measuring Lyla with Stretch…whether Lyla is interested in the idea or not. And we suddenly discovered that the wheel is missing off the bottom rack of the dishwasher… we’ve got a hunch the Handy Mandys might be behind that effort, too. Even if they’re not quite learning the ins and outs of actual repairs, at least they’re learning some useful Spanish. Sienna can count to 10 in Spanish now just about as well as she counts in English, so that’s something. And watching them with those tools is pretty entertaining!

I'm getting sleepy...

There's something so cute and sweet about seeing your kids imitate your behavior towards them (well ok, most of the time...you just have to remember they imitate your not-so-finest moments, too!). Sienna just put me to bed, and it went something like this:

Sienna: "Lay down, lay down, lay down Mommy..." (in her sweet sing-songy voice)

Me: "Ok, I'll lay down."

Sienna: "Want blanket, Mama?"

Me: "Ok, I'd love a blanket. Can you put the blankie over me?"

Sienna: "Ok, here's blanket (throws it over me). Kiss. (Leans over and smacks her lips, giving me a big one.)"

Me: "Want to sing me a song?"

Sienna: "I wuv you, you wuv me...na na na na na na na."

Off she goes, heading to the door. "Bye bye!" and closes her bedroom door, leaving me laying down, covered up, on her bedroom floor.

So, so sweet. What a nice way to end the day. I hope that's the way they feel each night, too.

Long time, no post...

It's been a while since I've updated. What with the holiday, getting ready for fall activities like preschool, etc., and trying to be better about working out on a regular basis, I feel like I haven't had much time for things like blogging (or scrapbooking for that matter -- man am I behind!). So a quick recap of what's new here...

- Labor Day weekend was fun, but far too short. We went to my parents' for a cookout and got to see family and friends that we don't see all that often, which was really nice. The weather was gorgeous, so we spent lots of time outside. We took the kids to the playground and for a nice bike ride along the canal with the new bike trailer. Maddie loves it, but Sienna is still in that "I won't be confined!" phase where she wants to walk everywhere, never ride.

- We've been transitioning Sienna from two naps to one and it has been PAINFUL. She is a kid who really needs a decent amount of sleep, and it's a little rough getting to one nap. Some days she can do it, and others she's begging for a nap by 9:30 a.m. I'm so ready to just get through this though, so she and Maddie can nap on the same schedule and we can have a little bit more flexibility to do fun stuff during the day (rather than having someone always asleep!).

- Maddie started her second year of preschool, in a new school this year. She only had a short one hour day with parents, but seemed to enjoy it. She's really looking forward to meeting new friends. I hope this school is a good fit for her.

- Lyla is getting super mobile, and it even up on all fours rocking on occasion. She does a bit of army crawling and can get anywhere she wants to go by rolling. Where has my little newborn gone to??

- See post below about sisters. I mean to post this update first, then the pics of the three girls. Can't figure out how to change the order of my posts, so I guess I'm stuck with it!

I. Am. Tired.

Have I mentioned lately how tired parenting makes me? We just got home from taking the kids to the library, and stopping at McD's on the way home since it was getting late. I had somewhat of an ulterior motive though... I wanted to take out some parenting books to help give some guidance with Sienna. Man, does she wear us out.

Sienna is such a challenge -- she's so adorable and cuddly/lovable, but she's also such a handful and already a discipline challenge. She's very verbal and has been having tantrums since she was about 13 months old, but now she's becoming a force to be reckoned with. I always thought tantrums had to do with frustration over NOT being able to speak, but it seems like the more verbal Sienna becomes the more difficult her behavior is. Even the phrases she chooses to use can be fairly fresh...if that's possible at 20 months old?

Tonight, we were coming home from the library and I had to reach back to give Lyla her paci. I undid my seat belt and reached back, and Sienna looked at me and yelled "SIT DOWN! Sit down, Mommy!" I asked her the other day if she could help pick up toys, and she said, "Maybeeee...." as if to say, "maybe, maybe NOT!" Then, I had her sitting at the counter to eat lunch and she yelled "RIGHT NOW!" out of the blue. I asked her what she wanted right now, and she said "I want more grapes. RIGHT NOW!" I swear, I do not think she is getting this from us -- but it gives me such a guilt complex thinking that we're teaching her bad stuff already!

She's also very independent. You can hardly do anything for her; she'll say "I do it. Do it MYSELF." about pretty much everything, from feeding to reading a book. She's the one who will take off her own diaper and get into the poop if you don't get her a new diaper quick enough (eww, just had another smearing incident yesterday); she's the one who will look at you and giggle menacingly when you tell her to do something, then do exactly the opposite; but yet she is the one who will be the first to yell "TIME OUT!" when Madelyn does something wrong -- so she clearly gets the idea of discipline.

At the same time, she is so sweet. She always, always says "please" and "thank you" for everything, and she says "excuse me" and "bless you" after sneezes. She never goes to bed without asking for one more hug. She never lets anyone leave the house without asking them for a hug, either. She says "I wuv you" regularly and just makes your heart melt.

So I'm hoping these toddler discipline books will help shed some light. Maybe we're just approaching it all wrong. I know it's easy to have selective memory, but I can say with absolute certainty that by this age, Maddie was listening and following directions a lot more than Sienna is. I know Sienna gets it -- because she acknowledges you and does just the opposite -- but she just isn't interested in following directions when it's not something she wants to do. And I'm not even getting into the tantrums, which are just world class.

I better get reading so we can save a little bit of sanity for when Lyla hits the toddler years...

Baby no more...

Sienna is officially turning into a little girl. She's losing some of her "baby" look, among other things. Just thought I'd post the latest pics of her, though I don't have much to say about them other than what I just posted below...man, do they grow up fast.

Butterflies!

For the past couple of years, my mom has raised monarch butterflies to release into her garden. She's made this a really fun project to share with Madelyn, and Maddie has become quite the little expert on everything from caterpillars to metamorphasis to crysallis...and finally, to butterflies. It's really cute to see her using my mom's magnifying glass to watch the caterpillars eating through milkweed leaves, or to see her concerned about cleaning out their home and getting new leaves for them to chomp on.

My mom bought a little mesh laundry hamper than she's using to keep them contained in the house once they emerge from their chrysalis, until Maddie gets a chance to come over and set them free in the yard.

Last weekend (gosh, it's been a while since I blogged!) we went to my parents' house and a few more butterflies had emerged. Maddie and my nephew, Hunter, had fun letting them go in the yard. Hunter was a little scared of them, but Maddie (being the pro caretaker at this point, LOL) put her finger right out for the butterfly to climb on. Sienna was a little more perplexed by the whole event, and seemed alarmed that we were letting them go.

The Babbler & The Roller

I think certain toddler phases are just so adorably cute that it's hard to want to move past them. Right now Sienna is in the phase where she is talking up a storm, in many full sentences, but she still spends a decent amount of time having an entire conversation of jargon that seems like she has something very important to tell you, but only has a word or two here or there that actually make sense. If she stops to think about what she wants to say, she can generally say it. But when she wants to go for speed and full chit chat, we start to get the toddler babble. I LOVE it. She's likely to come up to me, gesturing hands and all, and say:

"Goodble duecelks blakeuullley GOLDFISH. Gooodswerttbl umberloofy UPSTAIRS."

And she'll tilt her head to the side, wide-eyed, and look at me like I am absolutely crazy for not understanding her. If I could bottle up those cute little non-sensical conversations and store them forever to bring out when I was feeling down, I'd totally do it. You can't help but smile.

Now Lyla, on the other hand, is going through a somewhat less enjoyable phase: the rolling phase. She rolls both ways, and rarely stays on her back anymore if you put her there. This is fine during the day, but at night it's like she forgets how to get herself OFF her belly, even though she can, and wakes herself up by practicing rolling all over her crib. I end up having to go in at random hours and pick her up off her belly, help her get back to sleep, and usually end up feeding her. It's like we've gone back towards the newborn days again all of the sudden, which I really don't mind except for this nagging tiredness. Hope she masters this skill soon so her little mind will let her sleep again at night (maybe even -- dare I say -- through the night?) and therefore let mommy sleep again at night!