Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Playing with my new flash

All of the following photos were taken with my new flash.  Some need a bit of work but they were too cute so I needed to share.

This thing Jackson is doing with his lips is how he walks around most of the day.  It cracks me up.



This is Jackson sulking because I raised my voice at him for throwing something he shouldn't have and our house in absolute shambles after Christmas.


Baby plumber's crack



The tool set was a big  hit


Madison's new super cool Wonder Woman shirt from Auntie Courtney


"Where's your belly??"





I did a comparison shot of our tree.  The middle one is the one with the new flash.  The shadows are so much softer and nicer.  I just love it.

Monday, December 29, 2008

More things

Raffe spent they day with us. When he left with his mom Jackson stood at the window saying "Raffe go, Raffe go" over and over.


Madison and Jackson consistently say "da" when we ask them to say Kristen (Raffe's mom). We eventually started to say Krissy instead and Madison caught onto that. She now says "antie Kissy".

Kristen is not from the north so she says "antie" rather than "auntie" which works out well for differentiating between Kristen and Courtney.

She's been putting two words together really well lately. You can tell she's really concentrating too. She takes quite a pause between the two words and sometimes if she pauses too long she'll start over to get the two words together.


Jackson has been really sweet to Madison lately. Last night they were walking toward each other in the living room. Jackson was leaning toward her with his lips puckered but she walked right by him. It was so cute and sad at the same time.

Today Madison was whining about something. I was holding her but couldn't figure out what she wanted. Jackson walked up to us and handed Maddie a binky. It was exactly what she wanted.

He is so good about sharing with her. Any time we say "Can Maddie have that?" he'll immediately give it to her.

Today they were both sitting on my lap eating strawberries. Jackson leaned over and put his head on her shoulder. Oh my god, I feel weak just thinking about how sweet that is.

Jackson is also very generous with his cold germs.  The cold he got a couple weeks ago eventually passed to Maddie, then me, and now my mother.  It hasn't been an awful one for the kids but I was pretty run down for a couple days including Christmas.


I think we're finally making progress in the "time out" area. For a long time now Chris has been very strict about putting the kids in their crib if they're throwing a tantrum over something. I was torn about it because I felt like if I knew what they wanted I could get them to stop by just giving them what they wanted and avoiding the downward spiral of the tantrum. I do however realize that this isn't teaching them any lessons on how to act appropriately. So mostly Chris has done the time outs (I *have* done a few). So now over the last few days if either of them are starting to melt down I say "If you continue to cry you're going in your crib" and they stop! Then I shower them with praise and give them what it is they wanted in the first place.

I'd say the biggest issue that we run into on a consistent basis is when I'm pouring them drinks and they both stand there and scream until I give them the cups. I would have tended to let them cry then give them the cups but Chris would make a big production out of it and put them in their cribs for a minute then take them out and attempt to explain to them why it happened.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Things

Out of nowhere today the kids started saying "Hi".  I'm not sure what took them so long.

Madison picked her nose for the first time today.  She was cracking herself up.

When we ask them to say "Git er done"  Maddie says "git done"

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Christmas at Nana and Papa's

At my mother's house I received a very fantastic new toy for my camera...an external flash!  My ridiculously awesome friend Rae of Rae Leytham Photography had a very expensive one that she was willing to sell so I set her up with my mother's email address and they made it happen!  I put it on once we got to Chris's parents' house. I am in love with the below picture just because I could take it.  The lighting is so yummy!



Cousin Jackie and Dad Jim



Cousins Jim and Mike sleeping after dinner. 
(and Chris glaring at me for taking ANOTHER picture)




Once again, Maddie was the present opener.



They got Melissa and Doug puzzles from Chris's Aunt Judy and Maddie absolutely LOVES them.  The day after Christmas she put the above truck puzzle together all by herself CORRECTLY!

Jackson didn't want to be in a picture with the girl cousins Jamie, Bella, and Emma (note the fabulous lighting :-)


Nana with big brother Paul

Playing on the stairs cause that's safe

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

After opening presents at home we went back to my parents' house to see what Santa left for them there.  Jackson still wasn't in a great mood so Maddie did most of the opening.


At one point Jackson wandered off.  I found him in the formal living room playing with their old exersaucers.  I put him in it and he was happy as a clam.  He stayed in there by himself for about 20 minutes.

Maddie slipped in the kitchen and bit her lip as she fell.  Poor baby cried so hard. 

Maddie enjoying the ornaments on the tree.



They both love these trucks!


Christmas morning at our house

We woke the kids up at 7am.  They weren't too happy about that since they had finally gotten to bed at midnight the night before.  Jackson especially was in a pretty whiny mood.  He wasn't interested at all in opening presents.


Madison got the hang of it and pretty quickly opened all of their presents while Jackson played with the truck they got for their birthday last March.


Santa brought them their very own real cameras.  They can be dropped in water and on the floor and still work.  Maddie can now say "picture".  They both already said "camera" but now they say it a lot.



Mommy's little blue box which contained those earrings.









These are all the things the kids got from Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles.  Plus the kids and I got a 6 month membership to the YMCA from Nana!  Now I can finally take them for swimming lessons!

Christmas Eve 2008

The twins and I went to my parents' house in the morning to spend the day there getting ready for the family to arrive for dinner.  M&J took a good nap in the afternoon so they were ready to entertain for the evening.  Mom's speghetti and meatballs was delicious as usual and the holiday poppers were fun.


Madison decided she was going to say all kinds of new words that night.  She said high chair with no prompting.  She finally said "gammy" for grandma after Nana was bragging that Madison could say Nana but not Grandma.  She also said Bob for my dad.
 


The table all set for dinner.




My Aunt Judy bought them a magnadoodle and Madison is in love with it.

After dinner and dessert at my parents' house at 9:30pm we went to Uncle Matt's (Jackson's Godfather) like we have done every Christmas Eve.  They have family over all day and evening and by the time we get there everyone is gone so we get them all to ourselves.  M&J were definitely tired but they did so well playing with toys.  Madison found all of the matchbox cars and lined them up on the couch but would totally melt down if Jackson tried to take one.

Matt took a family picture for us!




The kids would NOT sit with Matt and Stacy without crying so Chris had to hold Jackson.


We left there at 11:00 and the kids obviously fell asleep on the way home.  I managed to keep Jackson asleep on my shoulder getting him out of the car and into the house.  It felt so good to have him asleep on me that I just plopped on the couch with him and shut my eyes.  I didn't have the heart to attempt to change him for bed.


Eventually I had to.  He woke up as I moved him but as soon as he laid back down he fell asleep again.




Sunday, December 21, 2008

My big girl

How do I have a baby that is old enough to sit on a stool like that?

I bought their potties a while back.  They were very interested in them at first but the newness quickly wore off.  Since then they've been collecting dust (literally).  Tonight I saw Madison playing with hers.  I asked her if she wanted to take her diaper off and sit on it.  She got very excited so I took off the diaper and she sat on the potty.  I got her to stay there for quite a while (probably 10 minutes) by reading a book with her.  She eventually got antsy and got off.  I put her diaper back on and within 2 minutes she grabbed her diaper and said "POOP!"  Damn, we were so close!  So she was so happy with her potty that she wanted to sleep with it.  And we let her.  If for no other reason than for me to get this photo...


Also today my daughter said "Ah wha, mama" (translation: I love you, mama) TWICE!  She is such a sweetheart!!!

Jackson's cold is pretty much gone.  It never got worse than a runny nose.  But now Madison has the runny nose.  Poor girl's nose and upper lip are red from us wiping it so much.  I put some aquaphor on it tonight to see if that would help.

Their newest obsession is the movie Cars.  They still like Mickey but specifically ask for Cars  now.