Name that tune

Cady's discovered songs. I think it's a combination of nursery and me, because I start singing songs and she's suddenly singing along (as best she can). She gets so excited and runs in circles the whole time we're singing together. So, let's play name that tune. I'll give you her "lyrics" and you try to guess what song it is (most of htem should be pretty easy):

1) "I mumumum gah ahh mumumum ear as mumumum hoe mumumumum ear.... leemee gah mumumumum teeemeee... do... sim day"

2) "Heh ... toe ... heh... toe ... eyes ... nose!"

3) "A C D C E S E blah blah blah M M O P coo res 2 vee... Y N C!"

4) *mommy sings* "SNAP!" *mommy sings* "SNAP!" *mommy sings* "SNAP!"

Her current favorite book is "The Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly". We leave it in the car and as soon as she's buckled she kicks her legs and asks for "Fy? Fy?" until we hand her the book and then she will point ot the pictures and name them all (except the spider). It's a relatively easy story, of course, so I'm able to repeat it from memory and she'll pretend to flip through the book as I "read" it while I drive. She thinks it's funny.

Megan's... Megan's just stinking adorable. She's really good at just being absolutely adorable. Every time you look at her she wrinkles her nose at you and grins. It can just melt your heart. She's stubbornly refusing to walk. She'll hold on to my finger and take several steps and I've tricked her into taking half a dozen unassisted steps a few times, but she's such a stubborn little girl! She's actually getting really good at standing. She's crouching while standing, though not confidently, and she's working on standing without having to pull herself up. She's good enough at standing up from a semi-crouch (she'll put her hand on something a few inches higher than the ground and stand from that). Today she actually thought about walking before she took a few steps. Mostly I think she decided I was close enough and she'd worked hard enough to stand, she might as well walk rather than lower herself back to the floor and have to stand up all over again.

I wonder if she's as much of a perfectionist as I am...

Lazy days

There's really nothing more enjoyable than lounging around with my camera, my two girls, a bucket, and a baby toothbrush. It started with me trying to get a better shot of my recent hair cut, but the girls kept climbing all over me (they're very good at distracting me). So I got suckered into grabbing snapshots of them.

Cady's new thing is climbing into buckets. She'd lay around in this thing all day if she could. Give her a book, her doll, and a sippy cup and she's good to go:
She was laughing and squirming so much when I grabbed her to get a shot of the two of us, that I took a dozen and this is one of the few that wasn't blurry from her laughing so much:
I attempted to get a similar shot with Megan, but the girl refused to put the darn toothbrush down! If I ever leave the bathroom door open for longer than two seconds, Cadence is darting in there to rescue the two toothbrushes from their lonely perch:
Snagged Cadence for a trio picture. She looks kinda goofy and Megan looks like she could care less, which means it's pretty much the perfect picture of all three of us:

Kern County Fair

We started off our morning with some family over for breakfast and Saturday morning's Conference session. What a great way to start off the weekend! Fruit salad, cinnamon rolls, and some lessons directly from the words of the prophets.

Admittedly, we chose to skip the afternoon session to go to the Kern County Fair (we'll catch up tomorrow). With James's work schedule and the funky fair hours, today was the only day we could go. As the Houston news is still up in the air, for all we knew it would be our last chance to go, so go we did! Cadence has recently mastered the names for cows, chicken, bunnies, and horses, so I was especially eager for her to get to see the things in person, rather than just as pictures in a book. I have to admit, I was disappointed in her relatively casual reaction to each new animal. But we'll blame some intestinal issues she's had the past few days that are still sorting themselves out for her lackluster mood.

Cadence admiring the baby chicks with Daddy:

Megan pointing to the bunny:

After admiring the livestock, we escaped the smells and went to the small kid activity area. Cadence was intrigued by the different activities set up, but her all time favorite were the pedal-tractors (that Mommy had to push because her legs weren't long enough to reach the pedals) and, of course, the "music-making" stall, where they'd hung different metal items you might find on a farm with metal rods to make music with.

It started to rain as we wandered through the kiddie carnival area searching for a ride that Cadence was tall enough for. At 34" she was about 2" too short for pretty much all of them. James attempted to win with a BB gun game, but every time he had just a tiny corner of the star remaining. We enjoyed the rain, though! With as humid as it's been, it was nice to have a warm sprinkle come down on us. Megan wasn't too thrilled with it, though, and curled up tight against the rain (when the forecast calls for 93 degrees the night before, you don't think to grab a jacket on your way out the door). So we left before Cadence got to ride on the swing ride, which she was tall enough for.

Afterward, we left the girls with Aunt Robyn and James and I returned to the fair for a simple date night. We did nothing worth mentioning, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

And as one might be able to see from the pedal-tractor picture... I have had a very recent hair makeover. During the girls' nap time, I scampered off to cut off approximately 8" of hair (maybe more?) and then darkened it to a tone more appropriate for winter. I'm loving the haircut. I've been needing a "mom cut" for awhile now, with how long and bulky my hair's gotten. Here's the best shot I could get that really shows off the cut so enjoy:

Blast from the past

Thought it'd be fun to compare the befores and after a year can create.

Cadence, around the end of September 2009:
"Taz meowed at her and Cadence instantly grinned big and repeated her "mom" sound, almost a perfect mimic of the pitch and feel of Taz's regular meow. Only then did I realize, Cadence was not saying "mom", she was meowing!"

"Cadence went with me today, so James could run an errand with the car, and did surprisingly well. She charmed everyone in the waiting room and even did well when I wasn't holding her during my exam and when I was being weighed. The doctor said she even sat quietly and looked at us when Megan's heartbeat was audible."

"Cadence has started doing a headstand thing. She'll put her head on the floor and then lift her butt up in the air. The other day I glanced over at her and she was grinning at me from between her legs, upside-down."

And today(ish):

-Cadence is talking up a STORM. She loves the sound of her own voice and will often proudly show off her words. She's mastered the word "Mommy" and it's one of her favorites, right along with "Megan" and "shoes". I don't even want to try to count how many words she knows now.

-Cadence LOVES going places. She'll wait at the door as soon as her shoes are on and bounce excitedly whenever I finally go to open it for us. She waits at the edge of the parking lot until I come to hold her hand and walk her to her side of the van. Can't say she behaves so well in the doctor's office. The last few times we've taken her, she's cried just because it's the doctor's office (even if the visit was for Megan) and repeatedly pleaded to leave. She still adores her sister, though.

-No more headstands, but she loves to dance and her new favorite thing is to run in circles as fast as she can, preferably around a stationary object (such as Mommy). She's also kicking and throwing balls. And she's trying to jump. So far she's been successful, but she hasn't quite figured out how to launch herself from the floor at will.


Megan, around the end of September 2009 (okay, so the picture's from July):
- "She's squirming like crazy. The doctor had a hard time getting her heartbeat because of her positioning. I tried to tell him he was putting the doppler right where her knees were and he'd have better luck from the other side, but doctor's don't listen too good. He did find it eventually and she was so pleased with his success she rolled over to give him a better listen."

- "Megan is definitely more active than her older sister. Cadence would be quiet for long periods of time and then get so active it almost hurt on occasion. Megan, however, is constantly squirming. In fact, those quiet moments are as rare as Cadence's active moments were."

And today(ish):
-Well, she still squirms like crazy. At this exact moment, she's curled up in my lap, but at least one part of her is wiggling at any given moment. Oh, and now she's reaching for the keyboard, lol.

-She's far more laidback than her sister ever was. She can walk and stand, but it's not worth it to her to practice, so she doesn't bother. Why should she when fussing gets her what she wants anyway (and what she wants 90% of the time is to be held)? She's surprisingly spoiled for a second child, lol. But she loves, loves, loves people. Especially her big sister.

-While far more laidback, I did have more quiet moments with Cadence than I did with Megan at this age, as predicted. Megan is constantly wanting and asking for attention. She's already cut herself down to one short nap during the day, no matter how I try to coax her to go down for two. She'll go down for a morning nap only if we run errands and she falls asleep in the car. But in the afternoon her longest nap is an hour and then she's up until bedtime. I don't know if she's more exhausting than Cadence was, or just having the two of them together is more exhausting. The answer should be obvious, but Megan can be so demanding, that some days it's hard to be 100% sure, lol.

Heels, Wrestling, and other stuff

Caught Cadence walking around in my heeled boots this afternoon. You could hear her clacking around in the kitchen and Megan was just following her around like a lovesick puppy. It was quite entertaining, actually.

They're playing together so well nowadays! They've even started wrestling, which is absolutely adorable. If I leave Megan on the couch, she'll crawl to the other end and lay her head on the arm of the couch. Cadence will quickly join her and they'll roll around, half sitting on each other, and giggle like crazy. Or on the floor. Or just about anywhere. They're almost constantly together nowadays. If Cadence is getting into the pantry, Megan is right there with her. If Megan's pulling laundry out of the basket, it's because Cadence tipped it over for her. I once walked into their room to find the four bottom drawers emptied and the two girls sorting through the clothes together.
We also had a fun story with Cadence at Nana's house the other day. Nana has one of those shape-sorter tubs, where you have to put the toy through the right shape hole to get the toys into the tub. Cadence was getting quite frustrated, despite our best attempts to guide her in the right direction. With a sudden determination over a particularly difficult shape, she simply lifted off the lid and put the difficult piece into the tub that "easy way". I busted up laughing, finding her problem-solving skills simply hilarious. She quickly went back to attempting to put the toys back into the tub the "right way", but I still caught myself giggling over her previous solution.

We also bought Cady's Halloween costume and are on the lookout for something matching for Megan that's not super expensive. I don't care to spend to much money on a costume they'll only wear once or twice, especially when they're both too young to really care.

But that's really all for now, I suppose. Having a blast with the girls. Enjoying James's new work schedule that allows him to wake up several hours earlier and almost doubling our daily time with him. We're so spoiled now!

First steps

I've announced it just about everywhere else, but I'll post here nonetheless, for record-keeping sake.

Megan took her first step (at least that I've seen) today! I squealed with delight when I saw it, and my delight had her grinning one of the biggest grins I've ever seen. I was completely stunned. She doesn't practice standing that often, so when she lifted her hands from my leg, I was all set to cheer for her. But then she took that step towards the cupboard and I was about ready to jump up and down with excitement.

I missed Cadence's first step, so I was thrilled to witness Megan's first.

Naturally, she's made no attempts to repeat this particular feat and I have no expectations of it. She still barely stands, deeming it unnecessary and I suspect she'll deem walking unnecessary as well for awhile. But she has the capability and she'll pick it up when she feels like it. :-) I'm in no hurry for her to become an official toddler any time soon.

PS- How pretty is the new layout I stole? LoL. I was just randomly browsing, saw this one and fell in love.

The Great Pepper Attack of 2010

Oh, what an evening.

It was over in minutes. One minute, the girls were sitting quietly in their room reading books and talking to each other. I know, because I checked.

Then moments later, Cadence was at my knee coughing and rubbing at her tongue smelling strongly of pepper. I glance at the table and notice the missing container. I glance at the hallway and find said missing container.

And then I see Megan crawling towards me with dark hair.

*sigh*

They were not happy girls for awhile. Megan was bent backwards over the sink as I did my best to get the pepper out of her hair (once I was sure none of it had gotten into her mouth, eyes, or nose). James forced milk down Cadence's throat to sooth the resulting burning sensation of too much pepper. Then we plopped the girls in the tub while James vacuumed half a container worth of pepper from Cadence's mattress and the floor.

In other news, Cadence learned a brand new word today: "Pepper!"

Mohawk Madness

During bathtime, I coaxed Megan's hair into a mini mohawk. It stayed pretty well and even dried that way. I figured it would disappear by the morning from sleeping on it. I was wrong... Though, now it resembles Alfalfa's cowlick more than a mohawk:

Spur of the Moment Trip!

With the minor hiccups with James's new job, we've been hesitant to go anywhere, because we never knew when Seaboard might call and need James to sign something. We didn't want to be out of town and have that put the whole situation on hold for as long as it took him to get back into town to sign something. But Thursday morning, we got the phone call that everything was set and they'd see him Tuesday morning to start and he'd sign everything else then.

We'd talked about going to the Long Beach Aquarium and the like, but 3 hours in the car with the girls didn't appeal to either of us once we started thinking about it. So, instead, we took advantage of our CALM family membership which gets us 50% off tickets to the LA Zoo. It was fun. A little warm and a lot of up-hill walking (why are all zoos built on a hill? at least, the three I've been to are...). But we got to see gorillas, sea lions, kangaroos, lions, monkey's... Cadence's favorite was probably the tiger because it was roaring and playing with a big ball, which she found hilarious. Her favorite place, though, was the little playground at the top of the hill. Yes, we drove 2 hours to the zoo and her favorite thing was the slide... Well, that and the little sprinkler/mister apparatus they had there for people to cool off. She did a little dance while in the water and got nice and damp.After our visit to the zoo (which ended sooner than expected since the petting zoo had closed before we got there due to the "heat"- It was only 90, silly people), we drove about an hour towards the coast to a little hotel in Camarillo. Dinner at Denny's and then playing around in the hotel room for awhile. Cadence was thrilled that she got a whole queen-sized bed to herself. I was really pleased with how well both girls slept. Cadence went to bed in the new place with barely an issue. Megan took a little more coaxing and woke up more often than usual, but she still slept fairly soundly. Even with a few freeway noises.

Friday morning, we rubbed the girls down with some SPF 50 and loaded up the car, checked out, and drove 20 minutes westward until we hit the Ventura Pier. Unfortunately, we got there fairly early and it was cloudy and breezy. So the girls played at the playground and in the sane for awhile, before we loaded them back in the car and drove further up the coast. We ended up at Carpenteria, which is just south of Santa Barbara.

At this point had had warmed up a fair bit, at least enough for James to let Cadence go get her feet wet in the waves. Unfortunately, once she got her feet wet, she loved the ocean. She would run right into the waves if James let her. After a few moments, it became clear it was still too cold to get wet. Not that Cadence cared. So we had to carry her screaming to the showers to clean off the sand and then quickly change her into dry clothes and turn on the heater in the car, since fingers and lips were turning blue. Even then she was pissed we'd taken her away.
On our way home, we back tracked a bit to Valencia where we had a tasty lunch at Soup Plantation. Megan filled up on cold peas, corn, mac and cheese, and cheese bread. Cadence gobbled up mac and cheese, greek pasta, pizza bread, clam chowder, olives, and bites of everything else James and I ate. And James and I just pigged out, as one tends to do when you have unlimited soup, salad, and pasta. We topped off the meal with ice cream (well, frozen yogurt). Cadence made a mess with an ice cream cone and Megan demanded frequent bites of mine.

We were glad to get home, though. The girls would have probably thrown a fit if we tried to put them in the car again yesterday. So we all just lounged about all afternoon/evening. It was a great trip. Next summer, James and I intend to drag the girls all the way to Long Beach for an aquarium, beach, and other fun exhibits for an extended weekend. Heck, for all we know, we only have 2-3 more summers to do these California vacations. Three summers from now we may be planning vacations from Texas. So best to take advantage of our close proximity to the California attractions while it's convenient! (Though, Disneyland will have to wait...)

Days with Daddy

We've been super lucky in getting to spend lots of time with James lately. Being in between jobs means he's been home for this entire week. We're making the most of it and doing lots of little errands together. We bought him a new toolbox for his new job, which is currently taking up half of our dining room and doing a glorious job at being an eyesore. We've spent some time at Nana's house. We went out to Taft for a last minute visit with Dama. Today, we even went to Hart Park for a chance to throw some old bread at the ducks (pictures below!)

It's been a nice week. We had some bigger plans in the works when we learned how much time we'd have together, but a few issues crept up, including the girls getting sick over the weekend. So aquarium and beach visits have been postponed for later, sadly. On Sunday, the girls got 2 1/2 hours alone with James while he stayed home with our poor sick girls so I could go substitute a primary class. It went smoothly. When I got home, we discovered Megan had managed to cut two teeth in those 2 hours. So, kudos to James for handling that one! Even I get a little frazzled with her when she's teething.

Megan's been extra snuggly today, since she woke up with a 102 degree fever. Regular doses of tylenol and lots of cuddle time has kept her pretty happy. We're unsure what's wrong. It would happen our first day after James's insurance expired. Luckily, she's still covered under MediCal, so if anything's really wrong, I can take her in without worrying at all. We're working on her standing. She's capable of standing on her own and even took a small half-step the other day, but she's fallen and hurt herself badly enough (drawn blood by bonking her mouth) and often enough that she's too timid to stand on her own anymore. As soon as she try, she fusses and falls right back into us.

Cadence is loving having both parents home. She keeps busy. She amazes us daily with a new word or phrase that she's picked up and it's become such a delight to just get her to talk to us. She's such a smart little girl! I'm sure ever mother thinks that, and I'm sure it's just as true for others as it is for my little girl. I am constantly amazed at how quickly these little girls can pick things up!

Anyway, below are a few pictures snapped from our duck feeding. There were just too many cute shots of Cadence hanging out with her Daddy, I couldn't resist taking a dozen of them: