Carly Smiling and Giggling

Just before giving her a bath, Carly and I played together and I captured a few moments on video. More proof that Carly does just a bit more than sleep and eat all day.

Carly at 10 weeks old:

Potty News

Today when I arrived at Maddie's preschool to pick her up, I was greeted by her teacher who excitedly said, "Maddie pooped in the potty today!"

Yep! Maddie pooped in the potty for the first time today. YAY!

We're still taking potty training very slowly and letting Maddie take the lead since we've had so many changes at home the last few months (new bed, new room, new sister). She still wears diapers but will pee in the potty several times a day.

So far, so good.

2 Year and 2 Month Well-Check Appts

On Friday, we took Maddie and Carly for their 2-yr and 2-month doctor appointments. Overall, things went well.

Maddie at two:
Height: 35.5 in (90%)
Weight: 28.2 lbs (50%)
Head: 48 cm (50%)

Maddie is a beautiful, intelligent, curious, friendly and funny little girl. She's learning new things daily and adding words to her vocabulary all the time. She's still selective about taking but understands almost everything we say to her or ask her. Our pediatrician thinks Maddie is still currently on track with her talking and suggested we wait another 3-4 months and then visit a speech therapist just to get another point of view. We'll see where Maddie is with talking at that time.

Details we want to Remember about Maddie:

• Loves to play with balls


• Has a wonderful imagination and plays pretend everyday


• Is empathetic. If someone gets hurt, she worries.


• Sings parts of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Itsy, Bitsy Spider, her ABCs and Wheels on the Bus


• Can recognize and say most letters of the alphabet


• Knows several colors


• Knows the difference between up and down, on and off, open and closed


• LOVES Dora


• Loves playing with legos and blocks


• Loves hugging


• Loves dancing


• Turns on and off light switches throughout the house
• Loves being outside

Carly at two months:
Height: 23 in (50%)
Weight: 12.7 lbs (75%)
Head: 38 cm (25%)

Although Carly is so young, she seems to be a happy and people-loving baby just like Maddie. Unfortunately, we've already battled a cold and ear infections since Carly probably picks up germs from Maddie (who is exposed to stuff at preschool) and this time of year is tough on any age. As warmer weather approaches, I hope that Carly gets a break from yucky germs.

Things to Remember about Carly:

• Smiles at me or Eric when we talk to her
• Likes to be held
• Can already hold her head up like a champ
• Wiggles and coos emphatically when she's excited and happy

Harmonica Time Between Sisters

Over Christmas, Grandnee and Grampa gave Maddie a harmonica which she's already learned to play quite well. I often hear harmonica music coming from Maddie's room and I'm amazed how well she plays!

One recent afternoon, Maddie decided to play her harmonica for Carly. Carly seemed to enjoy it.

More Birthday Celebrating for Maddie

This past Saturday, we ended Maddie's birthday week by meeting our good friends, the Arvesens, for a playdate. It was a chilly day but the sun was out so that helped. We went to this *great* kid-friendly restaurant called Phil's Icehouse. It's a casual burger and fries place with a nice-sized outdoor playscape. Maddie and Erica played for a while and then we went inside for lunch and finished off with Amy's Icecream, which shares space with Phils. Yum!

Thanks to the Arvesen's for their company and birthday presents. Fun day!

Maddie Turns Two

Yesterday, Maddie turned 2 years old. Holy cow! My baby is a beautiful little girl now. She amazes us, impresses us and fills our lives with so much joy.

We've been busier than usual since Carly's birth so we opted not to have a big birthday party for Maddie this year. But Maddie's preschool celebrates birthdays so I made brownies for the kids and visited her class during lunch time to take pictures. The class sang happy birthday to Maddie and seemed to enjoy the brownies I made. It was very cute.

Eric came home from work early and we had dinner and ate more brownies. We sang happy birthday to Maddie again since she likes the song so much and opened presents from family.

I think Maddie had a fun day.

Awesome

In typical Maddie fashion, she's waited until two days shy of her 2nd birthday to have a speech explosion.

Over the last several months, Maddie has added new words to her spoken vocabulary but been very selective on when she'll speak or repeat words. She's been able to understand 99% of what Eric and I say to her for a long time, but would use gestures instead of speech to communicate.

So, it's exciting for us to see her finally getting comfortable speaking and putting words together to form sentences.

Today during dinner, she said a couple of new words, so I responded with an excited, "AWESOME!". Then I asked Maddie if she could say awesome. Maddie looked at me with a huge grin on her face and repeated, "AWESOME!". She said it again several more times during dinner without being promted.

Totally Awesome.

Baby Smiles

Carly has been smiling for a few weeks now, but it's hard for me to capture the cuteness on camera.

Here are a few shots of Carly smiling (with eyes open too!) at 7 weeks old. These pics are proof that Carly does a little more than just sleep in her carseat all day as current blog photos show. :-)