A few videos

Makenna counting to 54 (yes, 54–that’s the number of Berenstein Bears books listed at the end of each book, haha), while Kallie plays with my cell phone and acts mildly interested:

Kallie’s reaction every time she sees Lily…she sort of circles her and laughs hysterically, so excited:

Last but not least, Kallie watching out the window for Daddy to come home…she wants to talk so badly!

 

Cute Things Makenna Said Today

Not to talk about our trip countdown AGAIN, but Makenna has started referring to each day in terms of how many days we are from leaving…for example, we made cupcakes yesterday, and this morning she said “Man Mommy, I sure had fun making those cupcakes on Day #5!!  And I am sooo happy that now it’s Day #4!!”

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As we were getting ready to leave this morning, Makenna asked where we were going and I told her we were going to my doctor. 

She said, “Miss Jenny?” (our midwife). 

I said, “No, the chiropractor…remember Mommy’s old office where we see the nice ladies and I get my back and neck fixed?” 

She said, “Ooooohhhh…the doctor who cracks your neck but your head doesn’t pop off!!”

Yeah babe, that’s the one.  😉

So Different and So Alike

It still strikes me all the time how different the girls look from each other.  I’m not sure that if you saw them on the street, you would even think they were sisters…

…except they do look alike when they are concentrating on something.  🙂

Strangely enough, Kallie gets the exact same look in her eye when she settles down to drink her bottle that Makenna gets to this day when she gulps down her milk.  I mean, they are IDENTICAL in that way.  I’m so excited to see what Kallie will look like as she gets older…for now it looks like she will be the fair-skinned, lighter-haired, blue eyed opposite of her tan, dark-haired, brown-eyed sis.  I’ll take one of each–I love it.  🙂

Proud Mommy Moments

Since it’s the beginning of the school year, every club or group we go to starts every meeting by going around the circle and saying names, and usually something about yourself.  Up until this point, I have always had to say Makenna’s name for her because she’s too shy to speak up in front of so many people.  But yesterday we were at Lego Club, and there were literally probably 30 or more people in the room (a HUGE circle of kids, and most of them were older than her).  As they were going around the circle, I was sure she wouldn’t speak up when it was her turn.  When the leader came to us and asked her name though, she spoke up right away in the loudest, clearest voice and said, “Makenna!”  She even went on to show the airplane that she brought, and told the group that airplanes fly.  I almost broke down in tears, I was so proud!!  I know it seems like such a minor thing, but it is SO. BIG. for her. 

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The other night I was asking Makenna if she wanted to go to the 4 year old class at the MOPS meeting.  She got really excited and said that she wanted to go.  I went on to explain to her that this was a class she would stay in while Mommy went to another room and met with other mommies, and then I would come pick her up after a couple hours.  She was still really enthusiastic about it, and we were so surprised.  We didn’t want to push the issue, but we wanted to make sure she understood so we didn’t have a scene when the actual time came.  So Mark said, “Wow, you really want to do that, babe?”  She shrugged her shoulders all nonchalantly and said, “Yep, that’s just what kids do!”

Rainy Day

Monday was rainy all day, so we were stuck in the house.  Luckily we had nowhere to be that day, so we just hung out and played.  It was actually pretty nice.  🙂

None of these pictures show it, but Kallie is getting really good at standing alone.  She has even put a foot forward to take a step, but then she sees us watching her and grins like it was all a joke, and drops back to the floor.  She definitely knows that crawling gets her around MUCH faster, so she seems content to do that for now. 

Misery Loves Company

In our never-ending quest to get Kallie to sleep more, the poor babe spends hours and hours standing at her crib, facing the door, yelling for us to come rescue her.  She rarely cries, just jabbers away for us.  You can imagine how thrilled she was when we finally came to rescue her this time, and she got a special treat: some company on the other side of those bars.  😉

Naturally, Makenna loves it too.  🙂

Bookworm

Kallie is such a lover of books.  I can almost always distract her with a book when she’s getting into trouble, haha…her favorites are lift-the-flap books, but she will have all the flaps ripped out within 5 minutes of getting the book, so I gave up on buying any of those after she forged her path of destruction through all of Makenna’s old books and her new ones.

She especially LOVES these little Chick-fil-a books from the kids’ meals a while back.  She will literally sit and “read” this book quietly for like 10 minutes! 

The day I took these pictures I was in awe of how long she studied this book, looking at each picture and each page so carefully.  I love it!

Princesses, Here We Come!

Boy, that Disney Princess cake for Makenna’s birthday was worth every last penny, if for nothing else than the plastic princesses we saved from it.  These princesses have provided hours of entertainment for both girls.  Makenna loves to line them up, name them, categorize them, poll us and all visitors on which princesses are their favorites, you name it.  Kallie loves to destroy all of Makenna’s hard work.  But I have noticed in past week or so that Kallie will find the princesses, crawl over to the table with them, and try to line them up like Makenna does.  It’s so adorable!

All of this is very well timed because our Disney trip is fast approaching, and we are SO excited!!

“Preschool”

School is going well so far.  Makenna really seems to enjoy it, as long as it’s on her terms for the most part.  I pick a book and a related project to do each week, we practice writing one new letter and number each week, do lots of reading and learning from real life throughout the day, and she picks a few pages to do from her workbooks each day.  I try to let her help me with all kinds of things around the house, for practical knowledge.  We have a lot of fun… I’m really loving it!

Here she is before co-op this week:

From the moment I got the email that we were doing Eric Carle’s “Brown Bear” this week at co-op, she talked non-stop about “Mommy’s message that I need to bring my bear to preschool!” and counted down the days until she could pack her new lunchbox to take.  It was the cutest thing ever.

She always helps me bake and loves it.  On this particular day we did a pretty complex blueberry muffin recipe that left me exhausted.  They were to-die-for delicious, but of course she declared after one bite that she didn’t like them.  Whatever, more for me!

We’re also making progress in the shyness department.  We’re staying pretty busy between several different groups, and she seems like she’s starting to get just the tiniest bit more comfortable.  This morning we were at a friend’s house for a playdate and not only did she actually leave my side to go play, she went outside with the other kids and played for a good while while I stayed in the house!  I wanted to jump for joy!  We have different activities every day this week, so hopefully consistency will be the key.  I just can’t tell you how happy it makes my heart to see her branch out a little.  Of course I never want to let her go, but it’s so painful to watch your child be afraid of other children.  Hopefully those days are behind us now.  🙂

Sick Babe

Well, Kallie survived her first cold, and boy was it a tough one.  The poor babe was just miserable for a good week.  It was so heartbreaking not being able to help her!  She never let me anywhere near her nose to suction it out, so she just suffered until it cleared up.  She hardly ate the whole week b/c she couldn’t breathe with food or milk in her mouth.  It was so sad.

“You would cry too if you felt like me!!!”