Terrific Twos, here we come!

Ah, the power of positive thinking...

Cadence is two!!! Not only has one baby become a toddler, but the other is now on the verge of being a preschooler! She is so smart. I am amazed at how far she's come in a year.

She met most of her "big" physical milestones by one year old. But she's mastered running and stairs and jumping over the past year. She throws balls, she climbs up and down easily. She's learned to manipulate the world around her, especially in dragging a dining room chair into the kitchen to get to the counters. I can't say how much taller she's gotten, but I imagine she's got at least another inch or two. Her face no longer as the baby chub it did and her hair is still baby fine, but if you stretch the curls in the back her hair's almost six inches long in some places! She'll probably be getting her first haircut soon, if only to even everything out (since the hairs on top of her head are, at most, three inches long).

But, most of her leaps and bounds have been in words and the like. I can't even count the number of words she knows. If I were to try to write a list, I'd probably spend all day remembering "just a few more" to add to it and just as it was complete, Cadence would come up with a few new words herself for me to add. I don't even know where she gets them anymore! Just the other day she used the word "chocolate" instead of "mems" for her M&Ms.

She knows all her colors. Not only can she point to them, but she can hold up something and tell you what color it is without any prompting. I kind of helped her, I'd point out colors whenever I had the chance, but she picked them up so quickly once she put her mind to it! She counts to 10 regularly (while holding up her fingers appropriately) and we're working on her ABC's. Right now she loves the Leap Frog Letter Factory movie. We must watch it 2 or 3 times a day... in a row! She stunned me yesterday when the characters got the S-room and she began hissing the S-sound before anyone else even said the name of the letter. She hasn't done it since, but it was still a "whoa" moment.

She loves all songs. Nursery has really broadened her experience in that. I would sing to her, but she was never expected to sit and listen to my songs. In Nursery, her participation is expected, and she now loves songs. She knows all the hand signs for "Popcorn Popping" and sings "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" often. She'll walk in circles singing her ABC's. One of her favorite requests is "Jesus", more commonly known as "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam".

She knows an amazing number of animal names and even knows the sounds for a large number of them. Her favorite is the chicken and she'll "bok-bok-bok" almost fast enough to be convincing! Right now all puppies are "Oreo", and most cats are "Hanna" (which sounds more like "nana" right now), but they "oof" and "meow" appropriately. And bears, tigers and lions all "roar" as well.

I could probably go on and on about everything she's learned over the past year. Any other mother of a 2 year old knows exactly how much they learn. But, I'm still impressed with my daughter (even if she might be only "average"). And she has an awesome personality. She may be stubborn and tantrum-prone, but she's so quick to please, eager to give a hug, and loves to just laugh at whatever she can. She loves shoes and "pretties" (hair barrettes). She'd spend an hour in the bath every night, if only the water would stay warm that long. If she could live at the playground, she would, especially if she had sidewalk chalk to keep her entertained for the rare moment the playground didn't. Such a sweet girl, even with her stubborn tendencies. :-)

One Year Old

One year ago today... wow. I've both dreaded and looked forward to this milestone, as if this first birthday is what makes my baby a toddler for good. It doesn't matter that she walks everywhere or that she already uses a few words... she's 1 and that makes her a toddler. Officially.

This past year with Megan has been so different from my first year with Cadence, and it only has a little bit to do with raising two instead of one. Megan is my laid back little snuggler. She smiles at the drop of a hat and always has (seriously, just smile at her and she'll grin big!). She's quite the distraction during church classes, but, luckily, nobody ever minds. She's just too cute to get annoyed with. She adores playing with her sister, but would gladly spend the entire day glued to my side if she had the chance. With as much as she wants to be held, it's a wonder she learned to crawl or walk! If I ever lay down in reach she'll crawl over and either lay against me or try to pull up my shirt so she can blow raspberries on my belly.

She's into everything, as all toddlers are. Her favorite toy to play with is a bin full of toys so she can take them all out one by one; or just swish her hands back and forth and listen to the toys clink together. Her second favorite toy is a tie between my pots and pans, and the singing puppy that Nana got Cadence last year for Christmas. She can semi-capably put the Mega Blocks together and will spend much of Sacrament reassembling the mini towers I break apart shortly after she completes them. She still crawls, but only about half the time. Walking is her first choice if she's already standing, and even sometimes when she's not. Crawling is her first choice is she's in a hurry.

She has a few "words": "All done" is delivered with her hands outspread in a helpless manner and is quite clearly stated. "Hello" is garbled, but she puts her hand up by her ear like a phone when she says it (or if you say it). "Meow" is always repeated after a cat or someone else. I suspect she's starting to use "ma" and "dada", but cannot prove it, so I won't say she is. But she has looked at me said "ma!" and fell forward for a hug and will point to James and shout "da!" and bounce. Still, they could both be random sounds as well. Only time will tell. She's quickly learning what the word "no" means, but only because I use it so often given her new fascination with plugs and outlets.

She loves sippy cups and will crawls across the apartment at full speed if she sees one laying on the floor. This certainly causes problems when it's one of Cadence's pink sippy cups! Other than night feedings, she's pretty much entirely on solids now, and we'll probably begin fighting her on the night feedings soon (I'm just too tired to bother, lol. Oh, the irony!). She's perfectly capable of long independent play, but she prefers having someone, usually her sister, playing nearby. She loves books and will do her best to interact with the book when we read our story at night together.

She's quickly evolving into a toddler, though. She scrunches up her face and throws a fit if you won't let her grab the cell phone, remote control, or game controller that she has her heart set upon. At one year old, she's got tantrums down rather well. I blame the influence of her big sister. ;-) So, while she's my sweet laid back kid, she's got a stubborn streak as wide as her sister's. Luckily most tantrums are smoothed over with a few snuggles.

Three years and still going strong

Who would have thought the broad-shouldered scruffy redhead who got grumpy with me the first time we met (because I pointed out he was doing something the wrong way, and I was right), would be the guy I've enjoyed three wonderful years of marriage with? I may not get butterflies every time I see him, but I still get them. Especially when he happily confesses, early, the surprise he'd had planned for me for our anniversary, which includes him home early and a cheesecake for us to scarf down right from the platter as we enjoy a late night Bill Engvall comedy show via Netflix.

Saturday night, my sister has graciously agreed to babysit, so we'll be scampering off to enjoy a hockey game, complete with hot dogs and sodas, from the cheap seats. I think it's going to be glorious. Honestly, at this point, I can't imagine a better anniversary. Who needs fancy dinners, candlelight, and jewelry? Cheesecake, hockey, and hot dogs sounds amazing to me.

Anyway, if there's any doubt, I absolutely adore my husband. I do. I probably don't tell him often enough (but he'll probably read this, so this is me telling him again, I guess). Sure, we have our moments where we probably just irritate each other to death. We live together, that's what happens. But three years later, we're still living up to our goal of never fighting. He still makes me laugh pretty much every day. I love watching him with our girls and I love how he takes pleasure in the small things, things I tend to overlook because I'm always around them. He takes his priesthood responsibilities seriously, and he's so passionate about fulfilling them to the best of his abilities.

I am amused that some children find him scary. Even his Sunday School kid once remarked "Do you realized how scary you are?" He has such a gruff exterior, but he's the biggest softy in the world, something I tease him about constantly. Yet, while other toddlers eye him nervously, our daughters know what a teddy bear he is and will gladly settle down to snuggle with him.

Yes, my husband is pretty amazing. I think I'll keep him around for a little longer.

Acting out for Attention

Cute stories, cute stories, cute stories. My kids may drive me up the wall and I may be relieved when bedtime finally arrives and I can sit back and put off doing the cleaning around the apartment. But, my kids are cute.

Cadence has begun actively seeking my attention. Especially in the form of mimicking her sister to get it. This afternoon, Megan got her leg tangled up in the cord of the vacuum and I swooped into rescue her. As I gave her kisses to calm her down, Cadence raced over and wrapped the cord loosely around her own leg and began fussing. She happily accepted my rescue and kisses and went about as if nothing had happened. Then, later, Megan toppled over and I ran into the room to once again administer kisses and snuggles for comfort. Cadence immediately rolled herself off of her bed and began whining for attention.

Later on, during bathtime, Megan was standing up. I very firmly told her to sit down and once she complied, I gave her a cheerful "thank you!". Almost instantly, Cadence popped up to a standing position and grinned at me expectantly. She was overjoyed when I also issued her the command to sit down and gave her the "thank you" as well. Silly girl!

Megan's also begun interacting more. We're loving it. Aside from insistently pointing to what she wants and throwing fits when she doesn't get her way, she's begun "singing" with me. I sing silly songs with Cadence on a daily basis. Her favorite song is the "3 Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree". She loves it. I sing that song more than any other song. This evening, though, as I was waving my hands to be the 3 little monkeys, I noticed Megan holding her hands up and waving. As I got to the alligator she began clapping. I realized she was "singing along" in the only way she could.

Even cuter, after bathtime, she got a very serious look on her face and clapped her hands once. I grinned at her, but kept putting her in pajamas. Again, the serious look and her hands clapping once. She was beginning to look quite upset. On a hunch, I began singing the song again. She got the biggest grin on her face and immediately began waving her hands along with mine. Once we'd gone through it once she was perfectly content to crawl off.

It startles me, sometimes, how old Megan is getting. Cadence I'm used to aging. Each of her milestones is new, and while I love watching Megan master new things, sometimes it's easy to not treat her like she's a 1 year old. She's my baby. Cadence is my precocious toddler who masters new things daily, Megan is my sweet cuddly baby and she's supposed to stay that way. It's so strange to think that she's not a baby much longer. She'll be 1 in less than two weeks. She's walking more and more. Soon, she'll be talking. Heck, she already says "all done". When we finish diaper changes, or clothes changes, or when I asked her if she's done eating, she'll hold out her hands and say "all done". Sometimes she'll say it for no reason whatsoever. She claps and says "yay" and "whee" and she chases after Taz meowing the whole time...

Luckily, they're both pretty sparse on the whole hair thing, so until I have to start putting their hair in ponytails and barrettes, I can at least pretend they're still babies! Except, one of my babies starts Sunbeams in just over a year, and the other one starts nursery next May. Gah!

This is Halloween

Boys and girls of every age

Wouldn't you like to see something strange?
Come with us and you will see
This, our town of Halloween

I love that song from the "Nightmare Before Christmas". I think a part of my affection for the song stems from 8th Grade Show Choir, when we sang the song with flashlights under our face being turned on and off in a choreographed fashion. So very cool to a 13 year old...

Anyway, it is Saturday night, so the bulk of our Halloween activities are coming to an end. Tomorrow night we'll be handing out candy to the plethora of kids that live in our complex (and perhaps a few complexes over). We've got a skeleton on our door and pumpkins on our porch. So it's not completely over, but it's mostly there.

The girls have enjoyed three different parties. First a small playgroup get together, where the girls ate brownies and cookies at 10 in the morning and "trick or treated" down a hallway with all of three doors. The girls were dressed up as pirates. Cadence is technically wearing a "boys costume", but she's such a doll in it! And Megan looks precious in the pirate princess costume we'd initially bought for Cadence:

Anyway, Friday night we crashed Nana's ward's Halloween party. This was a fairly late start for a party, so the girls didn't do as well. They enjoyed the dinner and Cadence was happy to get a small bit of candy in her pail. She was tired, though, so we only made it once through the line (goodness knows there was enough candy to make it through multiple times before they even came close to running out) before we escaped.

Then tonight, we went to our own ward's party. This one started much earlier, which was convenient. Except Cadence went down for her nap late and we had to wake her up in order to be late for the party. Still, once she got to fish for some tootsie rolls, she was in a pretty good mood. Plus, they served hot dogs, which is always a favorite of hers.

She was much more awake and happy for tonight's trunk or treat, though she still threw a fit that we were steering her towards it (some days she refuses to go where we want her to go, just out of spite). Once we got to the first car and she was given a sucker, she calmed down. We got to the second car and she happily ate her sucker while I trick or treated for her. By the fourth or fifth car, she realized that when I held out her hand with the bucket people put more candy in there for her. By the end of our first trip through the cars, she was happily holding out her bucket with one hand and impatiently pointing to the empty space inside with the others until the people put candy in her bucket. She even insisted on two helpings from the bishop. She was also not shy about showing her disapproval of what one person chose to put in her bucket by taking it out, dropping it unceremoniously on the ground, and walking on to the next car.

So, tonight, we retire the costumes. I'll probably hold on to them until next year, just in case. But they'll most likely be replaced with new ideas. What fun is re-using costumes, after all? Maybe we'll just toss them in a bucket to become dress-up clothes.

Our awesome pumpkins

Cadence painted the base, then I added the faces. Cadence decided it wasn't quite good enough and added a few details in black crayon. And then we put them on our doorstep. Awesome!

My Motherhood Superpowers!

So, I've decided, motherhood has given me superpowers. Honestly. Here's a few:

1) I can run on virtually nothing. I do not need to recharge at all! A few hours of sleep is now merely a luxury and I can run off of water and a handful of crackers for hours on end. Pretty impressive stuff.

2) I have super smelling powers. I can smell a dirty diaper from across the room. Half the time, I can even tell which one it is by subtle differences in the smell. I'm just that awesome.

3) I have super hearing. Even with headphones over one ear listening to something, I hear the tiniest fussing from the girls' bedroom and I'm out of my seat and halfway to the girls while James, who has both ears uncovered and is usually closer to the room, hears nothing.

4) I am tri-lingual, whereas before I had kids I couldn't even pick up Spanish. Now, however, I understand, almost fluently, English, Cadencian and Meganese. James is still learning the languages, but he's picked up a fair number of words as well.

5) I have super-speed! I can dash across the apartment and grab a toy from Cadence before she smacks her sister over the head with it in the time it takes her to form the thought and raise the toy up. I can also get breakfast done, diapers changed, clothes changed, and a diaper bag packed and be out the door within 15 minutes of waking up. How's that for speed?

I'm sure there are others, but my super mind-reading powers are warning me that Megan's thinking about trying to wake her sister up...

Potty Training Success

I know I'm probably jinxing it, but I must brag about my awesome daughter.

We just bought her own potty Tuesday morning. Tuesday night, Wednesday night and tonight we let her spend the hour before bathtime diaperless. I figured, why not? She normally needs a diaper change an hour before bathtime anyway, so why waste a diaper when we can make full use of that hour?

Anyway, Tuesday night she ignored everything, just loved being diaperless. Wednesday night, I didn't notice any change. We were back in their bedroom playing for most of that hour and I was talking to my mom on the phone, Cady's potty was in the living room, and she would run back and forth frequently, which is perfectly normal. I'd ask her if she needed to go, she'd tell me "no" and we'd move on. But Wednesday night when I was cleaning up I realized the potty had been used! I was thrilled. Cadence had realized she needed to pee and gone to the potty without having to be prompted to use it.

She did the same thing tonight. Except I caught her this time, so Megan and I did a happy dance for her. Both the girls thought it was great. Cadence immediately sat on the potty again, but no luck that time, lol.

I know we've still got several hills to get over. For example, she does great diaperless, but how will she handle underwear when the time comes? When do we risk no diapers at night or during naptime? How are we going to handle running errands? She's going to have to tell me when she has to go potty.

But, I'm still feeling pretty optimistic. I was going to go full steam ahead tomorrow, but my full steam ahead means no errands for the first day and being home for most of the second. But with groceries needing to be replenished tomorrow and a family reunion luncheon and other stuff on Saturday... We'll put off the full-steam approach until Monday.

Oh, and today I reserved the place for the girls' combined birthday party. It's nothing fancy. But with 20 people coming just for family alone, we definitely couldn't do it at our place! Luckily, the Pizza Hut in the Southwest has a party room that's free to reserve. We were thinking pizza anyway, so it works out nicely in the end. Now we're debating what presents to get. Hmm...

All about Megan (and a pumpkin shot)

Megan has surprised us with how much she's learned just over the past week! Yesterday, she had James and I laughing over the "words" she's picked up from her sister. While meowing with Cadence, we were both surprised to hear Megan utter a low "mow!" When we meowed again, she grinned big and repeated the sound.

Then, as Cadence ran in circles shouting "whee!", Megan bounced and repeated "whee!" Right now, if you say "whee" she laughs and throws herself at you, expecting you to do something "whee-worthy", such as throwing her up in the air or spinning her around.

Then, the girl began clapping and saying "yay" with a big grin on her face. It amused us so much we kept clapping and she'd keep clapping and saying "yay".

She is much more confident on her feet. She's finally taking steps without thinking about it. She bounces on her feet without support, catches herself when she begins to wobble, and continues to take steps forward. It really is quite cute. She's still trying to go too fast for her feet sometimes and will fall on her face most of the time. But she just grins big, gets up to her hands and knees, and takes off crawling as fast as she can to find a place to stand herself up again.

For those of you wondering, our talks went well. Actually, the Sunday School president asked me to email him a copy of my talk so he could use parts of it for preparing a course on how to teach or something like that. So I guess it was good enough. I tripped over my own tongue far too often, but I do that whenever I get nervous or upset, so I wasn't too surprised or embarrassed, just laughed at myself, repeated the word properly, and moved on. James's went well too. I admit I didn't pay a ton of attention. I'd already ready over his and spent the 15 minutes of his talk making faces at my girls. What can I say? I'm head over heels for those two little blonds!

Cadence got to her paint her Halloween pumpkin. I carved the bigger one, but it turned out really lame. Cadence's, however, turned out pretty cool. She got COVERED in blue paint (which, by the way, I know I said this post is all about Megan, but Cadence can now identify colors. At least, if you ask her for a blue crayon, she'll hand you a blue one for all of the colors. Blue and yellow she knows well enough to name on sight, but the others she just recognizes the name. Again, I was completely stunned. I've been going over the colors with her, but two days ago she just gave me a confused look over the whole thing. Then today...)

It's not quite Friday yet

Cadence has successfully learned the name of every animal in a board book we have. She's got butterfly, sheep, pig, cow, bird, chicken, monkey, frog... all of them. Well, no, she calls the goat a cow (can't blame her, it's got the black and white coloring) and she stumbles over guinea pig (who wouldn't?). But the other 20+ pictures she can point to and name and is quite pleased with herself. She'd go through that book a dozen times in a row, so long as I happily cheer her on and praise her each time. She loves showing off her words! She'll proudly point out people and name them every chance she gets. She even knows the animals names. Lately, every puppy she sees is "Oreo" (Nana's dog).

Recently, we got rid of cable television in our household. I must say, I'm loving it. We didn't really watch a ton of TV, but I never bothered with turning it off during the day so it was constantly on. At the end of the day, I'd be irritated with how long it had been on. Over the past 2 days, it's already been on less. The radio's been on more. It's been pretty nice, all around.

We've got some small plans for the weekend. Originally, we were going to go to a pumpkin patch and go crazy with that. But James is going out with the missionaries Saturday morning and then he'll need the afternoon to put his talk together. We're both speaking in Sacrament this Sunday. I've been working on mine for the past few days so that James can have full use of the computer and everything else on his day off. So instead of going out and paying twice the cost for a pumpkin on Saturday, just for a few photo ops, we're going to purchase ours from the store when we go grocery shopping tomorrow. We'll just take a bunch of pictures of Cadence painting her pumpkin (since she is painting instead of carving the thing for obvious reasons) instead. We will be doing that Saturday afternoon, and James will take a break from his talk to join us for that one.

Megan is beginning to mimic her sister recently. James swears Megan repeated "Spongebob" after Cadence. I didn't hear it, but I'll believe him. Mostly because I've sat in the girls' room and heard Megan repeat Cadence's "whee" often enough to believe Megan will repeat just about anything her sister says that sounds fun to say. We're encouraging the walking thing around here. I'm not trying to push her into walking sooner than she's ready, but I am trying to build up her confidence, since I think that's her problem. She thinks about walking, then gets a worried look on her face and lowers herself to the ground again. Lately, though, she walks fairly capably while holding on to just one of my fingers. A little wobbly still, but she was needing both hands held only a week ago.