The Big Apple

Annie after bath at Mona's

Maddie drawing during dinner

Lunch at S'mac (the yummiest Mac and Cheese place around)

Yummy!

Annie loves to say "cheese" for the camera

I couldn't really think of just one "title" for this post because so many came to mind, such as: Naked Cowboy, Homeless Man, Hidden Wall on Canal Street, Ground Zero. There's just too many so I may break up the posts and go with themes.

First and Foremost, I survived BOTH plane trips despite my certainty of instant peril. Madeline and Anna both loved flying. The flight to New York was very turbulent but the flight home was very smooth. I did much better on the way home.

Conferences

Little curled piggies with her new short hair

Maddie's long hair before the cut

Minni cutting 5-6 inches off her hair

My cutie patootie after the cut

Annie just being cute. I said "smile, show me your teeth"

Annie's first tatoo

Since the last post Ryan went to Canton OH for a prospective project with work. He enjoyed visiting the football hall of fame and came home with the coolest football pen. It has a little foam football on it that spins. I love it, but it's for Maddie so I will just have to envy her.

Last week Madeline and I attended her school conferences. She's following the rules better and seems to be improving in that respect. She still has a way to go, but at least she's going forward and not backward. She had her first visit to the pig too (I guess it's an incentive to keep still and follow the rules). She was very proud of being able to go to the pig! She picked out a chocolate egg. Chocolate is a great incentive for her as it's her favorite food/type of treat. Academically she is doing fantastic. She's excelling at all of her subjects, knows all of her sight words for the year and reads very well. She's in the highest reading group at school. Interestingly enough, she doesn't really care for reading or any of her academics actually. I hope she started to apply herself so she can really excell. Spanish is still going very well and now Madeline and Lisset focus on conversational Spanish.

Maddie had dance on Saturday and it was parent observation week. She is doing fantastic at coordination and following the steps, some of which are pretty difficult. We're thrilled because it's a huge improvement for her. She struggles with coordination and we're feeling pretty happy that she's improving. Recital is coming up soon. Her dances are very classy and her costume is cute. It's blue which is Grandma Linda's favorite color. I know if she can see Madeline she will love her costume this year.

Annalise is doing great. She's still working on getting her final molar in and that last front tooth. They're coming in slowly. Her vocabulary is great. She says just about everything you can imagine. She calls Maddie "sister" in addition to "Maddie". She can recite entire sentences of songs or repeat a sentence of what you say. It's spontaneous so we never expect it when she does it. It's funny and I can't remember right now what she's said. It's a little hard to understand everything she says, but it's getting better.

Pretty soon we'll trekk out to New York City. Madeline is looking forward to going up into the Statue of Liberty. I'm looking forward to eating lots of great New York food, especially the pizza. My best friend Mona is lending us her apartment for a week while we visit. She just happens to be in India and Moscow during that time at a wedding and it's unfortunate we will not be able to see her, but I think she's happy NOT to spend a week with all of us in her apartment. HA!





ETA: I forgot to mention Madeline's hair cut. On Saturday she had 5-6 inches cut off since she's no longer growing it out for the wedding. It's super cute curled under.

Daylight savings

We have moderately recovered from the time shift. The girls went to bed late and were both tired this morning. Madeline complained about the daylight but I think the real issue was lack of sleep.

Friday the girls went to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Annie was reluctant and cried a lot as we left but was very content and happy when we returned so she loved being there! We went to a great French-Belgian restaurant. Ryan doesn't care for that type of cuisine, but it's one of my absolute favorites. They had fantastic tomato soup, french bread, frites(Belgian fries), and entrees. We had a brie-apple tart and brie-pear crepe. Honestly the crepe didn't have enough flavor, but the tart was fantastic. I'm trying to figure otu when I can get back there to have more frites. Plus they had the most fabulous chocolate mousse. I haven't had mousse that good since I was in Belgium 20 years ago (yes, I AM that old). Anyway, if you're in town and want to know a great place to eat let me know!

Saturday Maddie had dance class, then we had our weekly shopping trip at Whole Foods. It was too cold to do anything but play games in the playroom. Annie took a three hour nap! We went over to our friends Scott and Marcie's house Saturday night in order to plan the travel portion of our October Disneyworld vacation. The great news: the plane tickets are booked! Which means we're pretty much set until October.

Sunday school went well but Madeline mentioned that a couple of buddies failed to appear (I am guessing due to the time change). We did go to a movie, spur of the moment; The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. It's one of Maddie's favorite "silly songs by Larry" so I thought it would be a great movie. It was. It didn't have the typical Christian lesson, but it had overtones and was a wonderful movie. Annie slept through an hour of the movie and enjoyed the last 20 minutes.

Madeline has been having a tough week. She's had a variety of behavior (talking back and sassing) issues. She's been spending a lot of time in "time out" and we're pretty exhausted from all of the complaining, whining and naughtiness. She's been crying a lot too, which I think is due to not getting enough sleep. We'll pull back her bedtime for a bit and see if that helps. My memory from times like these is that it's a phase and hopefully will soon pass because I am WORN out!

Visit to the Dentist

Annalise and Madeline had their dentist appointment yesterday. Annie was not very happy about the ordeal but did quite well. She is ready for brushing with an actual toothbrush, as opposed to the little rubbery finger brush we had been using. The dentist said her last 1-year molar is starting to poke through. Then, I think, she just has a few more teeth to come in; 2 year molars and (lateral?) incisors.

Madeline had new xrays taken, teeth checked, plaque scratched off and a sealant replaced (it popped out apparently). Unfortunately she does have a small cavity between two teeth which will be scraped out and filled in a few weeks. If history repeats itself, it should be an uneventful filling. She did well last time and will surely do well again. (she loved the laughing gas last time) We're committed to flossing better and will do whatever we need to, to make sure Maddie gets the hang of it.

OH, how could I forget! The dentist said Madelines two front bottom teeth are LOOSE! Maddie was VERY excited to hear this. She should be losing them pretty soon. Little did I know that one of the defining moments of Madeline's life would be losing her first teeth. She's been pining away for this moment for a couple of years now. It will be very exciting and Santa brought her a tooth fairy box just last December so she's all set!

Thin Mints

Mmmm, can't you just taste the thin mints? Imagine smelling them right out of the box and then again after they've been partially digested and brought back to our world projected from Madeline's stomach. Nice image, eh? That was our image right before bed last night.

But, lo and behold Madeline is feeling better and even went to school around 10am this morning. She had eaten some popcorn and watched Pocahontas. I mean, popcorn and pocahontas will cure anything, right?! I will have to try that out next time I'm feeling ill (which I hope is a LOOOONG time from today - like even years maybe).

Poor Maddie threw up after being transported from our bed to hers so she was asleep. She couldn't even talk more than jibberish as we were asking her questions. She fell back to sleep pretty quickly and hasn't had any issues since. I'm glad she bounces back so quickly and that, this time, it smelled minty.

The way to start March

Picking out the animals

Stuffing her bunny

Saturday was very busy. We were out of the house around 8:45am to drop me off for a haircut while Ryan and the girls went to Whole Foods. After which Madeline went to dance class. After dance we came home, Madeline and I went over to a baby shower for a gal at church. THEN, as if that wasn't enough for one day Maddie had a Daisy event at Build A Bear Workshop. And, the most exciting part of the day hadn't even happened yet. Ryan and I had tickets to They Might Be Giants. But for part of the day we weren't even sure we would be able to make it. That afternoon Annie spit up again and we were getting to be more sure that it was actually puking, versus spitting up. So we called the sitter and cancelled. I started feeling ill myself so I wasn't sure I'd be able to go. Mary and Grandma JoLene came to the rescue (Grandma has been speding LOTS of time at our house recently). I think both of them already have the bug that Annie does. I was able to eat a little dinner and deciced to try to go to the concert. Thankfully they had some decent tables and chairs there so I was able to sit most of the time and conserve energy. Ryan took this video. The concert was fabulous and I am so glad I went. TMBG is one of my favorite bands and being able to see them in a small venue that holds a max of 650 was great. They were very close to us. I'm still feeling sick today but it's noticably better since I am able to eat a little bit more than before. Annie got really sick in the middle of the night last night and isn't quite back to herself yet. I got to spend my Sunday cleaning the house that nobody else would clean the previous days when I was feeling sick. Lucky me! It's just like work: take vacation and spend as much overtime as you took off once you get back.

Today Madeline had her Sunday School celebration for the end of this unit. She didn't perform or anything this time. The new unit starts next week. Uncle Ron came over and sang with Maddie a little bit. She was a little too embarassed to sing in front of him though and spent most of her time curled up in a near fetal position on the floor wiggling her behind. Ahhh, to be five again.

Fashion Show

Heading to the show...

Collage of the models (notice Maddie's fabulous photo)

The stage

It's blurry. I couldn't use a flash because of the other photographer

My cutie patootie in her moon and star pajama set.

The evening went well, save Anna who was not happy that we left her. She'd gone home from school a little early on Friday because she spit up twice. We were not sure if it was a gag spitup or vomiting. Maddie was excited. She was in the third section of the show so she spent a lot of time in the dressing/waiting area with the Junion League ladies making crafts and having fun with the other models. She made a little foam pencil holder and a bead necklace. Ryan and I enjoyed a tasy dinner during the show. Maddie was on right after intermission so Ryan ducked out with the other escorts. I was worried she might get stage fright, forget to smile, fall or something like that. But guess what?! She did absolutely PERFECT. She was super cute in her little jammie set. I heard "awwww's" from the crowd when she did a little curtsey. I can't wait to see the professional photos. After the pajama section all the PJ girls came out and pretended to have a slumber party. Maddie had it in her head that it was a REAL slumber party so she was disappointed to find out that it wasn't. She told us it was "100 percent BO-ring". She's such a ham. She said she wasn't nervous at all going down the runway. I think she'll probably want to do it again next year.