Madeline the Little Mommy

Being a mom is hard work. Lots of little tasks to repeat over and over again, day in and day out. But Madeline has embraced this challenge with lots of vhim and vigor! Truly, she tries to mimic me in every aspect of my day. Often times this is exhausting, because of course she can't do much of what I do as a 24 month old. Madeline would beg to differ, as evidenced in her various expressions: "Mama, I do it!" "Madeline have it." "Myself, mama, myself." 

So, as best as I can, I try to let Madeline work alongside me. Here are a few of the ways she's embraced the mommy lifestyle:

1. Cleaning

2. Cooking

We got Madeline a play kitchen for Christmas and she loves it. Lots of meals prepped for her babies here. 

She also always wants to be doing whatever I'm doing in the kitchen, so I try to let her help with anything age appropriate. Here she is learning to shred chicken, quite the skill set she is gaining. 

3. Changing Diapers

4. Staying fit

In the midst of one of the coldest winters in 30 years, it gets a little stir-crazy sometimes stuck in the house all day. So I found a toddler yoga video at the library, and she LOVES it. Especially downward dog. 

5.  Feeding Babies

A funny story with this photo. I was busy with Isabel, so I told Madeline she should go feed her baby- she has little baby doll bottles. But this is how she decided to feed her baby, and she said to me, "Where are they, mama?" "Where are what?" I said to her. "The boobs!" Ah, kids - always a laugh! 

6. Keeping Babies Healthy

7. Keeping general order in the ranks

Of course, really we just hope Madeline can learn to be a good big sister. She has her ups and downs in the world of sisterhood, but on the whole she loves her little sister. She loves getting to hold her, and has some very sweet, tender moments with her. I will cherish these days that I've been home with my girls on maternity leave. 

I think Isabel is enjoying being a little sister, too. Although there are those moments where she gives me the face below, the "mom, can't you make Madeline stop with all this tomfoolery! I'm not just another baby doll in her line-up of toys!" face. 

Poor Isabel. Well, at least she's not lonely!

Isabel is Two Months!

Isabel Therese. You are two months, time has been flying by. Already in your two months of life we have fallen totally in love with you. You are a sweet, relaxed little one. You very rarely cry hard, usually you just give us some fussy noises to let us know you need something. We call you a "purpose-driven crier" because usually you just need to be fed, diaper changed, or rocked a little bit to get to sleep. You seem to be more of an "independent player" thus far than your older sister. You will happily play on your playmat for long periods of time while I'm chasing around your big sister. It's been so different having a baby this time around with another one in the picture. Madeline keeps me running all day, and you are so patient, little one. When Madeline is taking a nap or sleeping, I treasure our time of just snuggling together. 

You've been giving us little smiles for a few weeks now, and they've been increasingly more present. We also have little conversations sometimes - when I start talking to you, you often "talk" back to me with your sweet little babbles and coos. I often wonder what you are saying to me. Clearly you have some important things to say. And you still have your little dimples when you smile, I hope they don't go away as you grow. 

I have two weeks left on maternity leave before I go back to work full-time, and I am savoring every moment at home with you two girls. Fortunately I'll only be back to work for 3.5 months before I'm on summer break again, and by then you may be scooting around or crawling or who knows? 

I took a little video of you at two months to remember your sweet sounds. Love them. 

Your big sister Madeline is growing to love you very much. Although she sometimes still displays little moments of jealousy (she always wants to be on my lap when I'm holding you, or sometimes doesn't want me to feed you), she wants to be involved in everything I do with you. She wants to feed you, burp you, hold you, change your diaper, etc. She's not quite up to the task yet for most of those things, but she mimics what I do with you with her baby dolls. Whenever you cry, she pipes up, "Isabel Ok?" and we assure her that you are. Lately she's taken to putting your pacifier back in your mouth if you start to get fussy. And she loves holding you on her lap with a pillow when I let her. This is a little video I took of her holding you recently. 

 And just for fun, here is a picture of your big sister at two months. People keep commenting lately how much you are starting to look like your big sister. But you still have darker hair than Madeline - perhaps you'll be a brunette?

Love you so much, sweet girl!

A few short home videos

At the request of some family members, I'm putting up a few fun videos from the last few weeks.

Here we have Madeline meeting her sister for the first time. She clearly was a little overwhelmed and wasn't quite sure what to do with herself!

A this is a video of little Miss Isabel from earlier today, at exactly 3 weeks.

And finally, a rather silly video of Madeline eating crackers and hummus. She was watching when I took the video of Isabel today, and insisted that I take a "Madeline" video. It turns out she was more interested in hummus than being a movie star. :0)

Father's Day

In case any of you are reading this and didn't know, let me just tell you - James is an incredible Father! He really is. James loves our little girl so much, and she adores her daddy. Not long before Father's Day, I went on a four day girls trip to New York City to spend time with some friends from grad school and James watched this girl for four days straight. That's not the first time he's done that. I've had a few other work trips, and another girls trip where I've been away. The longest I've ever been alone with Madeline is one night. What was so interesting about this last time away is that I came home, and these two had noticeably bonded more deeply in my absence. Madeline had been going through a strong "mommy" phase the past month or so - which is fairly typical around 15-17 months. Sometimes when James would sit down with her and a book, she would take the book from him and bring it to me to read- silly girl. But while I was gone, these two had a blast together - play dates at the park, library trips, bagel shop dates, rendev-vous to the Farmers Market, etc. And I could just tell that she had clicked with her daddy even more deeply when I was gone - she even started calling him Dada much more regularly. I have been so grateful for the ways he cares for Madeline as a daughter and me as a mother. Spending time with us has been a huge priority for him. 

We had such a wonderful day together on Father's Day this year. We started off by having him open a few gifts - a framed picture of Madeline, and a gift bag of some of his favorite drinks and snacks. 

Then we took off for Lincoln Park to explore the Lincoln Park Zoo. This was James' suggestion, and I'm so glad we went. Chicago actually has two zoos - and the Brookfield Zoo is the bigger one. But, the Lincoln Park Zoo is FREE!!! And we were very impressed with it - it was full of fun and exotic animals - zebras, gorillas, monkeys, leopards, lion, etc.

This was the beautiful view of the city from the zoo.

This gorilla was HUGE!!! I haven't been to a zoo since I was a kid, maybe 12 at the oldest. And this gorilla was just an arm stretch away from us behind the glass. Madeline's little eyes were like saucers watching this guy move around - and honestly, so were mine.

Madeline's personal favorite was the seals. We could watch them swimming in circles from the lower tank level, and anytime one came by she let out a loud, "Wow!" And as soon as it left she would say, "uh, oh!" So funny.

The zoo is also right near the Lincoln Park beaches. So we packed a picnic and walked it to the beach - that was so fun! Madeline loved getting her little tootsies wet in the water. I'll have to try to get her back to the beach sometime this summer for a full beach day.

Love this picture of these two. So sweet. Such loves. 

Happy Father's Day, James!

Catching Up: Springing out of Winter!

Spring finally rolled into town in late April, and we finally had warmer days with sunshine and green leaves sprouting from the dreary brown tree trunks. That's always my sign of spring in these parts of the country - once the trees are green again I breath a sigh of relief. This meant that we were out and about at the parks ALL THE TIME! So excited to get out of the house, breath fresh air, and let Madeline run and climb her little heart out.

We also frequented the library quite a bit on those rainy spring days. She loves all the puzzles and little games in the children's section, and we are working on not ransacking all the books off the bookshelves. Just so many books to explore!

We spent one Saturday afternoon for a long, lazy stroll along a nearby riverwalk. Madeline loved all the Mallard ducks, and we even saw (so James tells me) a Wood duck. It was so beautifully painted.

We finished off our walk at Starbucks, and Madeline got her first drink - a strawberry smoothie. This girl thinks she is SO cool when she gets to have the same cup/food/plate as her mommy and daddy.

We had an end of the year celebration with our small group from church. We started off with four couples and no children 2.5 years ago. We now have 5 couples, 5 children, and two babies (and possibly one more via adoption) on the way. Such a joy to share in the ups and downs and spiritual journeys with these friends.

And some of our friends moved to Texas late spring, and left us thier old jogging stroller. We are using it tons on the Prairie Path these days. So much better than our other strollers - but now I just lost my excuse to only walk with Madeline. I've been slowly picking up jogging with her in the stroller, and James has been getting back into running shape as well.

Thank you, Lord, for spring and new life. This past winter was a long one for us, both because of cold and blustery days but also because of career disappoints and unknowns in our future. And although we are still living in some unsettling uncertainty about our future, we are grateful for all the small pleasures and sighs of relief that spring brought with it.

Catching up: Passing the winter

Winters are long here - it stays cold well into April. And the bite of the wind keeps it hard to go outside for very long periods. So once Madeline started walking in January, and then climbing and scaling furniture, and getting into EVERYTHING we had to find some creative ways to pass the indoor hours this winter. So spoiler alert, this post is largely cute pics of Madeline from this past winter. I think the grandparents won't mind. :0)

I started dreaming out picnics in the park with green leaves on the trees and flowers to color the landscape, so we tried to recreate the mood with lots of indoor picnics. Madeline got a really fun picnic set from her Ama for Christmas, so we played with that alot. 

We also had some real cheese and crackers and fruit picnics.

We discovered that Madeline loves oranges - she sucks up every bit of juice that she can.

We played in baskets. :0)

Madeline became obsessed with opening the vent covers and climbing in, or stashing toys or food or keys in the vents. We couldn't figure out how to keep her from opening the vents, but I'm happy to report that after four months she has largely lost interest in the vents. 

This girl LOVES shoes. She is always trying on our shoes, and when we are at other people's houses she goes straight to the shoe closet. Just the other day at the park she was trying to put on the shoes of all the kids who were barefoot in the sandbox. We've got a real shoe-snatcher on our hands.

I found a local mall that has a really good play area for kids her age, and we hit that up several times on really cold days. She loves crawling and climbing and sliding on everything. 

Madeline also received some really fun packages this winter, full of clothes and books and crayons and fun things. Thanks Aunt Marilyn for all the goodies!

We read lots and lots of books! We've been going to the library alot as well, so Mom and Dad don't go crazy with the same books over and over.

Madeline still likes playing with her baby dolls, and her Auntie Krista sent her this sweet baby doll quilt she made. Madeline always gets so frustrated when she can't wrap her baby doll in the quilt "just so," it cracks me up. I usually end up helping her swaddle the baby. :0)

And we made our first trip to the local petting zoo one day when it wasn't too cold to walk around a bit. Madeline loves animals, and so far has no fear of waltzing up to them as close as she can. Note her trying to climb in with the cow in one of these pictures - she wasn't happy when I pried her away from the fence.

We had some good times this winter, but now that it's summer - I'm SO GLAD to be in this season. Keeping an active one year old entertained in the house is  hard work.