Memories Are Made of This

This blog is primarily to keep the grandparents / great-grandparents up to date on the happenings with our kiddos, but it's also becoming a great record of our activities. We plan on printing it out eventually, and sharing it with the kids someday when they're older. With that in mind, there are a few more things from this past summer that we want to remember:

We took the kids to the pool a bunch this summer, and it was really great to watch as Madeline became more comfortable with the water and began exploring it on her own. By the end of August, she was tipping her head back (on her own!), "swimming" on her tummy or back (with your help), letting the water splash her face without getting upset, and more. She even was insisting on swimming on her own in the big pool by the end (it's 3 feet at its most shallow - I didn't let her)!

One of her most favorite activities: "crawling" around on her hands, often with water splashing all over her face.

Sliding down the frog.

 

She created a new game where she jumps up and lands on her bottom. The blue thing is a cushion, so she had a lot of fun doing this!

The kiddie pool (i.e. splash pad) went as deep as 2 ft. That meant it was perfect for her!

 

It has been AWESOME to watch the girls become closer in their relationship. There has been some budding jealousy on Madeline's part, but hardly anything really - and Olivia seems to think the world revolves around her big sister. Yeah, we LOVE watching these two!

 

Madeline continues to color ALL THE TIME. Most often she colors on the paper, but sometimes she gets mischievous:

(Look closely, you'll see a little bit of what she drew on her face.)

 

She's gotten really good at staying in the lines, though! Needless to say, we're quite impressed. And of course who can forget all of the princess pictures? (SO.... MANY....) And they all looked like the girls had been using too much bronzer, until Madeline got skin colored markers for her birthday:

(She insists on coloring in the eyes... We don't know why...)

 

Caleb stayed home from work one Friday and we took the kids to the Como Zoo. It got fairly hot that day, but we definitely enjoyed the "family time."

 

 

 

And then, of course, there are the many, many, MANY funny things that a 2 1/2 to 3 year old says. Way more than we could ever remember, but here are a few that were written down (my apologies if you read most of these on Facebook):

- One day, I was giving Olivia a bath in the kitchen sink and true to her age she was splashing everywhere. Madeline came prancing into the room and observed "Oh! Olivia's giving Mommy a bath!" Why, yes, yes she is. Now, can you hand me a towel? And a new shirt?

- I was putting Madeline down for her nap when she asked me, "Can you help me close my eyes? They just won't close, and that makes me feel sad."

- Madeline didn't want to clean up the toys she dumped out, so I put her in the time-out chair until she was ready. She cried and told me, "I don't WANT to sit here!"
I told her "Yeah, that's how time-out works."
Her response? "No, time out DOESN'T work!"
It was hard not to laugh out loud!

- A few months ago, I realized that Olivia has a song that is "hers" (I always hum Braham's Lullaby for her), but Madeline didn't. So we started singing "You Are My Sunshine" for her when putting her down for bed. Now she ALWAYS asks for the "Sunshine Song" (so sweet!), even at nap time.
Well, earlier last week I had Olivia in my arms while helping Madeline get into bed for nap. Of course, she wanted to hear her song, and as I started singing, Olivia started jumping and dancing in my arms! We all ended up giggling instead of calming down to sleep. And now I know why you put one kid to bed at a time.

- Madeline is definitely a sensitive child - a sweet (but sometimes not so charming) trait that we have seen blossom since the winter. For example, one morning she was watching a TV show called Team Umizoomi and the Trouble Makers appeared (you can guess their role in the show). She declared, "Oh no! They break my heart!" My sweet, sensitive girl!