Three years old!!

I know her birthday was technically yesterday, but we decided to celebrate on Saturday that way we could make a day of it. We took the kids to monster vs. alien at the dollar theater, then we went to Mellie's favorite restaurant, 'Gatti Town. Then we came home and had our own little birthday party. I feel bad for my kids because my favorite part of my birthday was all of the family getting together just for me. I guess those birthdays that the family can be together will just be that much more special. I really can't believe my baby is already three years old! I keep hearing that the years go by so fast, but I keep thinking yeah right! I feel like the day will never end. Suddenly we're sitting here with our baby celebrating her third birthday! Can you tell I'm feeling nostalgic? I started putting together some pictures of Melody through the years and could hardly believe how much she has changed. There's a ton simply because my little girl is the cutest little girl in the world (well maybe she ties for first with Katie!) and I have way too many pictures to choose from. I also included a few videos in the bottom bar. They're long, but they're mostly for grandmas and grandpas anyway. Happy Birthday Melody!

1 month

4 months

5 months

Sealed as an eternal family

6 months

First Christmas

10 months

1 year old!

13 months

14 months

16 months

Second Halloween

18 months

Becomes a Big Sister

20 months

2 years old!

I adore her crazy faces!

Third Halloween

lost...

I. can not. find. my camera!
This is a REALLY big deal! I think I'm going to die! There have been several things that have happened and things we have done in the last few days that need to be documented. There was the laundry soap mishap where the liquid detergent I use fell off the dryer and emptied about half a gallon of soap onto the laundry room floor. I wasn't even sure how to go about cleaning that up, but on the up side my floor, washer and dryer are now really clean! Then there was the packing peanuts that came with Melody's birthday present (thanks mom!) that she not only dumped onto the floor but also spread all over and then just to finish it off broke into teeny tiny pieces. She's such an over achiever! Then there's the rockin' hair bow design I invented tonight. Well probably not, but I've never seen it before so I felt the urge to share! Precious moments are being lost and I can not find my camera!!! Just thought I'd share with you why there are no new pictures and probably won't be anymore until I find it. I'm sure it'll turn up in some random place like the pantry, but until it does bear with me!

Brain development

Sometimes I wonder if these children I incubated for 9 months ever got around to the brain development part of their gestation! It seems like my kids are the ones that have to touch the hot stove just to make sure you weren't lying, then after the unavoidable burn and tears they have to go back and touch it AGAIN... just to make sure! Katie is proving so far to be much worse than Melody, which if you had asked me 2 years ago I would have told you was impossible!

Example #1: Today I took the kids swimming because its about the only out door thing I can do with them after 8 AM. Our pool is right across the street from our building so I just carry Katie over there rather than wrestle with shoes. The pool is surrounded by stone instead of concrete and it seems to conduct heat considerably better. When you get out of the pool it literally steams the water off your feet and you then have 2.5 seconds to get your shoes on before the blisters begin to form. When we go swimming I usually let Katie stand on the stairs and play while Mellie does her thing. Inevitably I have to pull Katie back in the pool several times since the palm trees surrounding the pool hold more interest than the pool itself! Today I let her put her foot out and gave her a second to realize that it was really hot, then pulled her back in. She cried for a second and kept saying 'oweeee, oweeee' I figured she understood.

I turned to the nice older lady sharing the pool with us that day and started talking to her, while keeping half an eye on Katie. The next thing I know Katie is half way across the walkway staring at me with panic stricken eyes and what I can tell is scream preparing to be released. So then of course I have to run across the walkway, blistering my feet as I go, and rescue her. She didn't actually cry until I got her back in the pool. While I was trying to calm the heat in my feet Katie was screeching 'OWEEE!' at the top of her lungs and shoving her feet in my face so I could kiss them better, all while I was trying to prevent her from drowning herself in the process. Two seconds after I had finally calmed her down Melody finished our trip to the pool for the day by smacking Katie right in the face with a koosh ball water bomb! I guess at least the positive note would be Melody's aim is improving!

Example #2: As previous videos have shown Katie is rather adept at getting in and out of her high chair and up on the table. Nothing I do or say even slows her down. The other day I was making lunch, Melody was busy working on a project at her desk, and Katie was playing in her room. Before long Melody loudly announces that Katie needs help. I just looked at her wondering how she knew this from her desk in the kitchen while Katie was in her her room. Then she started pointing at the table saying, 'MOM Katie is STUCK!' I looked across the room to see my darling toddler dangling from the edge of our kitchen table. You need to understand that our kitchen table is little more than a frame with a large piece of glass on top so if she fell she it's somewhat likely that she could take the glass table top with her. After seeing that she had a pretty good grip and was in no danger of falling right away I gazed longingly at my camera knowing I'd never make it, so instead I sat down next to her wondering how long I should leave her there to get the point across. After about a minute I pulled her down and told her to stay off the table and sent her on her way.

Less than 5 minutes passed before Melody again announced, 'Mom, Katie's stuck again!' That little turd had done it again! This time I let her hang there until she got upset, staying out of sight so she wouldn't get the idea that mom was always going to save her. After getting her down for a second time I stuck her in her highchair since lunch was almost done. I didn't even get half way to the kitchen before she was attempting to get back on the table!

Somedays I'm not sure if I should, laugh, cry or just tear my hair out! Durring the writing of this post I had to get up 4 seperate times to pull Katie out of one thing or another. Where on earth did this child come from!

For the grandmas

Here are a few more pictures to appease all of the many Grandmas and Grandpas. I know you all look forward to them so I'll try to start including more!

And here's the pictures we had taken for Fathers day. I'll try and get them sent out in the next month or so. Gotta give myself lots of time so I don't feel bad when it's not done in a week!

The recent tragedy

A few days ago the screen on our T.V. started going all wonky. I thought Jared was going to have a heart attack, but he actually handled it pretty well. We're pretty sure the reason our T.V. no longer works is due to a certain little girls penchant for running at it full force and slamming her hands into it. However we will be naming no names *cough, cough, Katie, cough*

Jared and I immediately went looking for the warranty information. Thankfully my husband is one of those that would buy a warranty for his sandwich meat if it were offered. Unfortunately, we were unable to even find the receipt, we were convinced that we had bought it from Best Buy so that was the receipt we were looking for. After some more thought, however, we came to the horrible realization that we had actually bought it from Circuit City. Not only had we bought it from Circuit City, but when we bought it they were out of the warranty packets so we didn't get one. Of course we were supposed to go back and get one, but neither of us seemed to remember that detail! After my wonderful computer geek husband Google searched for a while he came up with a phone number to call. After spending 30 minutes listening to bad opera hold music (who uses opera for their hold music?) and being told I had called the wrong place, I finally found the person who could help us. They sent some nice man out today to take the T.V. away and bring it back to us in working condition.

In case you were wondering this story has been leading somewhere. I am one of those moms that uses the T.V. to baby sit her kids while she showers, cleans, cooks, ect. I admit it, I am a bad mom! My kids are so crazy that if I take my eyes off of them for even one minute they will have completely destroyed some section of the house. The only time can be sure that they will stay mostly occupied is when they are watching T.V. Keep in mind that while I use the T.V. as a baby sitter I am discretionary about what they are allowed to watch. Not having cable pretty much limits their options to PBS or Disney movies. Pretty safe ground I should think.

These last few days the girls and I have had to get a little more creative in ways to occupy our time. We go to the park every morning and swimming nearly every after noon, but then there is that time when Katie is napping and we have to do something that will keep Melody happy, quiet and busy. Those three things at the same time is a tall order! She absolutely LOVES to cook so I knew anything in the kitchen would be a winner. I Googled a recipe for play dough (really how did people even live before Google?) and we whipped up a batch. Then while I started dinner Melody practiced her cookie cutting skills. Before too much longer I should have a quite the kitchen helper on my hands! The following is a tutorial on how to cut a candy cane out of play dough. I don't understand most of what she said, but I found it to be very informing!

EDIT: Play dough recipe

1c cold water

1c salt

2T vegetable oil

2c flour

2T corn starch

food coloring

In large bowl mix together water, salt, oil and a few drops of food coloring (the paste makes more vibrant colors, but the liquid works just as well). In a seperate bowl mix flour and cornstarch. Add 1/2 C at a time to the water mixture stirring constantly. Knead for a few minutes. Store tightly sealed in ziploc bag.