April 2008 Archives

Maddie has kept us laughing nonstop with both her antics and ability to justify just about anything she does (good or bad.)

Her latest obsession is photography. We let her use our camera (making sure the strap was around her neck in case she dropped it) and she was hooked. She's now sure that she's going to be a "catogapher" when she grows up. She's our little Annie Liebovitz in the making. Here are a few of her recent shots:

Her other obsession is with her music. The girls recently got some mp3 players from Bill's work and we loaded them up with their favorite songs (mostly "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and the like, with a little Gnarls Barkley and Fergie thrown in.) Maddie not only listens to the music, but also sings and dances along. She spent the entire 45 minute ride to the outlets this past weekend singing to all her songs. She then spent the rest of the time there dancing to her music. People were cracking up. Here's a little snippet of what we saw in each store:

I apologize for the blurry video, but you get the idea.

Josie's personality has started shining through more and more lately. Whereas she usually would follow and do whatever Maddie did, she's now starting to show an opinion. She's coming up with quite a few ideas of her own too.

It can easily be said that the girls did not really enjoy soccer this season. While Maddie proved to be the fastest on the team, and really talented when she did play, she usually spent most of her time walking around and kicking the dirt. She got bored very easily when she wasn't scoring goals of her own. Josie, on the other hand, did a great job of staying involved in the game, despite the fact that her running speed is the exact same as her walking speed. (I love her dearly, but she is definitely not a runner.) She has, however, made a few goals and gotten a few touches on the ball. Recently, she too has started to wander off during games and get bored. We've asked both girls if they want to play soccer again in the fall and have been told that they only want to do ballet. We'll see how they feel when fall rolls around, but it looks like Bill's dream of having a little Mia Hamm and Brandi Chastain may be put on hold for now.

Even though she would sometimes get bored during games, Josie never failed to use her imagination to keep herself occupied. One recent example is a few weeks ago where she spent the entire game galloping and pretending to ride a unicorn:

Another example of just how much of a tomboy she is? {sarcasm} Here's a photo of her insisting on carrying a purse during a soccer game:

One area in which she has really excelled is ballet. Her teachers are always commenting to me how great she is at paying attention and listening and staying focused. We're still working on digitizing the video from the actual recital this past weekend, but here's a little bit from our preview at parent's day a few weeks ago:

Here's a little video to make you laugh on a Wednesday afternoon. What can I say? Our girls love to dance...

My friend Jill is an amazing baker and has entered one of her cakes into FamilyFun.com's cake contest. Please take a moment and vote for her fish-themed cake when you get a chance.

Vote here

Again, we had some issues with Maddie staying in bed tonight. She kept getting up and coming out to the living room where Bill and I were watching TV. We have gone through this just about every night for the past couple of weeks. She is just so wired and worked up in the evenings. It takes her a really long time to settle down at night. I shouldn't be surprised: She was the exact same way as a baby. Go go go go go go... until she finally drops from exhaustion. No wind-down, no relaxation period.

Josie, on the other hand, slowly eases into bedtime. Once she's there, that's it for the night. She might wake up in the middle of the night for a glass of water or to use the bathroom, but she has no problem going right back to sleep.

She's also a deep sleeper, which was proven very true this evening. On one of my many trips walking Maddie back to her bed, I walked into her room to see that the lights were all on. As I was tucking her into bed, I told Maddie that she needed to calm down, turn off the lights, and let Josie get some sleep. Maddie announced,

Look at Josie, Mommy. I made her look really pretty.

How so?

I put lipgloss on her. Isn't it pretty? I put some on her babydolls too.

I looked over at Josie, who was sleeping so peacefully...
wearing bright pink glitter lipgloss. Her two dolls beside her were wearing it also.

Sigh.

{whimper}

{whimper}

- Maddie's response to being reprimanded for sneaking out of bed after bedtime.

Bill and I are still undecided whether it was pure drama or the saddest thing we've ever seen.

The World's Biggest Tea Party

- One of the big highlights of this past weekend was taking the girls to see My Little Pony Live! at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. The girls absolutely loved it. Our seats were great, but since the venue is brand new, nearly all the seats were great. The show involved the ponies and their plans to host the world's biggest tea party. It was very cute. At intermission, Maddie quizzed each of us about our favorite ponies. This later came back to haunt us (okay, Bill) when she yelled out multiple times during the second half, "Look, Daddy, it's your favorite pony!!!"

Bill's favorite pony, Rainbow Dash, on the left.

- The other highlight of our weekend was a visit from my friend Meg, who lives in Minneapolis. Meg and I first met when I was at the Academy and we lived down the hall from one another in the dorm. Later, at IU, we lived down the hall from one another in apartments. Needless to say, a lot of time was spent catching up with one another over cups of Vanilla Almond tea and wine. The girls fell in love with her immediately and wouldn't let go of her the rest of the weekend. We took her to the Georgia Aquarium and Piedmont Park on Friday, followed by a girls' day on Saturday full of shopping, sushi, and wine tasting. I had so much fun with her and look forward to visiting her in Minneapolis sometime this summer. Minnesota State Fair, possibly? :)

Old Friends

- Last week was Spring Break for Atlanta students, so the girls' soccer game had been canceled. The weekend before, however, Josie got to play a game without Maddie. Maddie had a temper tantrum at the start of the game, so Bill took her to sit in the car while Josie played. At first Josie kept asking where Maddie was, but eventually she got into it herself and did pretty well, telling me, "Don't worry, Mommy. I'll score a goal for Maddie." The girls later had professional pictures taken, so we'll be sure to post those when we get them. We got one of each of the girls individually, as well as one of the two of them together. Very cute.

I'll score a big goal for Maddie!

I've heard it's snowing where you live.

- It is Spring in Atlanta. Definitely. The temperatures are still fluctuating between 40 degrees and 80 degrees, but the flowers are in full bloom and the pollen is suffocating. I neglected to take pics of the yellow-ness this year out of disgust, but also because you can already see it from last year here, and here. We're still learning to deal with it (hide the toys inside, keep the windows closed) but Bill and the girls are suffering. They all have runny noses and sore throats and itchy eyes and coughs, with Josie having the worst of all. She woke up one morning with one of her eyes bright red and barely able to open. Having had pink eye last year, I knew to immediately take her to the doctor. It turns out it's not the contagious pink eye that we all know, but instead allergic pink eye. Her eye is just inflamed due to all the pollen. We have eye drops to give her, and they're helping, but they burn when you put them in, so it's not at all fun for her.

The price you pay for flowers that start blooming in February.

- Some of you may have seen the pics on Flickr, but Mallory had surgery about two weeks ago. She'd had a little growth growing on the back of her leg for a while. It didn't seem to bother her, but it had grown to about the size of a golf ball, so we made an appointment to take her in. Of course, two days before the appointment I come home to find blood everywhere an a piece of the growth lying on the floor. She had bitten it off. ***I'm sorry for the grossness of this, but I'm trying to keep it as clean as possible.*** With a few phone calls, and much gagging on my part, I got her to the vet where they were able to take a look. It couldn't be sewn up right away because it needed to drain, but we were able to make an appointment for surgery to stitch it up and remove the rest of the growth the following week. In the meantime Mal wore a collar to keep her from getting to it. She had surgery the following week and they were able to remove almost all the tumor. Pathology confirmed that it's not malignant, but a benign kind of tumor that sometimes occurs in dogs. It's innocent, other than annoying the dog, but it does tend to grow back. For now, we do nothing but keep watch to see if it comes back. We haven't had much luck with our pets in the past year, so please keep your fingers crossed that our cat stays healthy for at least the next few months. I've always laughed a little at the concept of pet insurance, but it's starting to look like a pretty good idea at this point.

One Crazy Summer.

- As many of you know, Maddie and Josie have a big recital coming up on the 26th, where they'll perform at the Smyrna Jonquil Festival. We're excited and will be having lots of family in town to see them and cheer them on. Last week the parents were able to get a sneak preview in the girls' class. They all wore their costumes and performed their routines for us. ABSOLUTELY, COMPLETELY, ASTOUNDINGLY ADORABLE. It was, perhaps, the cutest thing I think I've ever seen in my life. I so badly want to post some pictures or video for you, but I'd prefer it to be a surprise for those of you visiting to see the recital in person. Unfortunately, they had each group perform in a different room, so Bill and I had to split up to see the girls. We each recorded it on video, though, so we could show one another afterwards.

- Last of all, a Happy April Fool's Day and birthday to Bill's dad, Bill Sr. We also have our niece Aly's birthday coming up this week as well. As for April Fool's Day, I hope you all enjoyed it and weren't tricked too badly. While nearly everyone picked up immediately on a tricked that was played on us, I was the sucker who actually believed it. You got me on that one, Michael. Conversely, I tried to play a prank on my sister, Michel, who caught it and didn't believe it one bit. Did I mention I'm both completely gullible and not the best liar at all? I'm still deciding whether that's a good trait or not.

Here's wishing everyone has a great week. We know it's been a busy time for our family members as well, so we welcome news from your end of the world too!