Top 5 Saturday Laughs

This week has gone SO fast for me.  I can't believe that it's time to write Saturday's laughs already!  I am excited to share a few of the best laughs of this week and actually had the opportunity to get some photos to share along with the post.  I hope you enjoy these as much as I have.

5.  Tonight while Claire was brushing her teeth and stalling like it was nobody's business, I let out a large sigh.  She looked at me and asked, "Momma, why do you say that?" I replied, "Claire, Mommy is tired and really wants to go to bed but you are stalling."  She then responds, "Yeah, I am"  She then gave herself the sweetest smile in the mirror.  I couldn't help but crack up at the situation that she not only knows how to stall but recognizes the fact that she is stalling and is rather proud of herself.

4.  Natalie has been sticking out her tongue constantly, it is super adorable and rather funny since it's always out there.

3.  We went to my in-laws house on Thursday night for dinner.  Claire went to play in her room which is very common.  My mother-in-law soon calls me from her doorway to tell me that I needed to see what she was up to.  Here's my view as I looked in the room.

When Grandma asked Claire how she got up there, she responded, "With my stool."  Didn't we obviously know this?!  Then Grandma posed the question, "How are you going to get down?"  This took a little more pondering, but her response was classic,  "I might need a little help."  Grandma and I cracked up, which made Claire think she was the funniest thing ever.

2.  In addition to the tongue, Natalie has been doing raspberries all the time lately.  She does it once then if you do one back, she will mimic you.  Then she laughs about how funny the interaction has become.  I forget how funny babies can be!

1.  Ryan is an 'engineer brained' guy.  This means anything and everything is taken very literally.  That is the main reason this is SO funny to me.  After her bath, Claire was running around the house naked (a VERY common practice at our house, she loves being without clothes).  She started dancing and jumping around, shouting, "Check out my tushie!"  She just kept saying it, sticking her bum out.  When Ryan asked her, "Where did you come from?"  She responded, "The bath."  I wish I could have gotten a picture of his face, he had his 2.5 year old daughter bust out the standard engineer response on him!

Make sure you check out the blog hop at The Mommyhood Chronicles for more wonderful laughs to kick your weekend off right!

Wordless Wednesday :: Cooking with Claire

Claire and I spend lots of time in the kitchen together.  We both truly enjoy cooking and baking!

We have a sitter!

I can officially say that Miss Natalie is sitting independently.  I have been waiting for this stage for awhile now and we have had lots of sitting practice for her.  Her daycare provider had been working on propping her up as have Ryan and I in hopes of getting her to sit on her own.  She is so much happier when she can sit up and watch the action.  She is doing so well now, I don't even bother to put the boppy behind her!  I even witnessed a time where she began to fall backwards, put her little arm out to catch herself and sat back up proud as can be.  If she does fall, she has started to do it with control.  I can't believe how big my baby is getting!!  Here are some photos from earlier today of our newest sitter.

Isn't she so so cute?!

She can even look behind her without falling!

Happy drooly baby :)

Can't you just tell how proud she is?!

Thought she was going down...

And she's back up again

I'm linking this post up with Mama G from Growing Up Geeky for her Toddle Along Tuesday.  The theme for the week is Milestones or Firsts.  Come join :)

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

I am feeling very reflective and thankful today.  I am thankful that I have the opportunity to blog about my family and the friends that I have met because of this.  I am especially thankful for my friends and family that make the Top 5 Saturday Laughs possible every week.  So before I go and get weepy (I do this on occasion) I will go ahead and post the true topic of the week.

5.  Claire has super sensitive skin as you can imagine from a red-head.  She had a rash under her eyes and we were advised to put vaseline on the skin to help the rash heal.  It worked wonders and we have continued to make that part of our night ritual.  Lately, whenever I put the vaseline on her eyes, she tells me, "Mom I can't smile with this lotion on my eyes."  So we wipe it in a little better and she busts out a big ol' one tooth smile.

4.  Natalie learned how to give those juicy open mouthed baby kisses this week.  Not only does she give these sloppy kisses, but lets out an excited "HA" afterwards.  She must know that they are funny too.

3. If you saw my previous post last weekend, we went to Trunk or Treat with my best friend Jen and her girls.  Claire and Addison absolutely love playing together.  After Claire's potty accident we decided it was time to go and Addison didn't want to leave all the fun.  Claire felt the need to explain that "I had an axcient (accident) and went pee on my costume so we have to leave."  I couldn't help but laugh at her candid response.

2.  Natalie has been saying lots of "Ma-Ma" and "Da-Da" this week.  She uses them for the right parent too.  She loves it when we get excited about it and squeals in delight.  She is such a little ham already!

1.  Before I can get to this laugh, I have to give a little background information.  Ryan's sister has two horses, Love and Cass.  Claire is obsessed with them and every other horse that she ever sees is named either Love or Cass.  Now for the laugh:  It was bedtime and I told Claire, "Alright Love, time for bed."  She was visibly upset by my statement and exclaimed, "Mamma, I'm not Love, I'm Cass."  I cracked up and Claire mustered up her best fake laugh to humor me, obviously not sure why that statement was so funny.

You can't help but laugh at these two!

Wordless Wednesday :: The Love of Sisters

I love that my girls have built in best friends!  The love they share already brings me so much joy!!

Social Media vs DVR

Here is the first blog post not about our girls {gasp}.  I am participating in Toddle Along Tuesday from Mama G from Growing Up Geeky and this weeks topic is FAIL.  Since I already wrote about the mommy fail from Trunk or Treat where I forgot a spare set of clothes when Claire had an accident and she rode home naked, I decided that I would write about the other love in our house, the Detroit Tigers.

My husband is a die hard Tigers fan and always has been.  We even watched all the televised games in 2003 where they lost 119 games (they only played 162).  Claire and Natalie both have Tigers apparel, Claire has the Detroit Tigers book memorized (she knows they play at Comerica Park, names of some of the legends and what the World Series trophy looks like), and whenever we play baseball we are being Tigers.  This year was great because the Tigers made the playoffs.  Since the games typically started at 8:00 we had to DVR them since Claire normally watches a show before bed.  While I was putting Claire in bed, Ryan would get Natalie bathed and ready to eat so that we could sit down and start the game while Natalie nursed.

These days I'm rather addicted to social media, always checking my twitter and facebook on my phone.  Ryan would always warn me to not check these sites as I might see updates.  I don't sit still well, so it wouldn't be long and I'd be on my phone seeing what my friends were up to.  Of course, I couldn't get through a few minutes without seeing an update of some sort.  Reading the updates was not a big deal, the big deal was that I almost always had a verbal response instantly after my reading.  Since my husband knows me so very well, he was pretty much cued into what was happening in the game, despite my feeble attempts at making up excuses and stories to throw him off the trail.

So my fail of the week is telling the husband about the outcome of more than one of the playoff games before he was able to watch it.  Sorry honey!  Moral of the story, I don't lie well and I can't keep secrets from my husband, he can read me like a book :)

Trunk or Treat!

My dear friend Jen invited me and the girls to go Trunk or Treating today.  Claire woke up SO excited to go see her friends and to put on her cat costume.  Since I am notoriously late these days, we started getting ready an hour before we had to leave.  I made sure to get a couple pictures of the girls before we left and they actually smiled!!

 Natalie the Ladybug and Claire the Cat

We were on the road on our way to grab McDonald's for lunch (so, I didn't have time to make lunch and this allowed two things in one: driving and eating at the same time).  I realized that I had forgotten Claire's candy bucket at home.  I was prepared to stop at the local drugstore after getting lunch to quick grab another one (did NOT have time to do it!).  When we pulled up to the drive through window, the girl handed me Claire's happy meal - in a small Halloween bucket!  Thank you McDonald's you totally put me back on schedule.  Thankfully, Claire was hungry and ate her lunch very well in the car.  She was all done by the time we arrived to the park for Trunk or Treat and ready to see her friends!

Jen has two daughters that are nearly the exact same age as mine and her husband was at work too so it was us and the four girls to start the day.  Once we finally got all the logistics figured out, we proceeded to the trunk or treat area.  The girls were both terrified of Griff (the Grand Rapids Griffins Mascot) when we walked up.  They slowly warmed up to the idea of Trunk or Treating and talking to strangers (but none in face covering costumes!).  They proceeded to trick or treat from the various vehicles, collecting more candy than they needed.  

They were having fun, just finally smiling for pictures when Claire announced that she had to go potty.  There were no bathrooms anywhere near us.  Since we're from the country, we have taught Claire how to go potty outside if necessary.  I confirmed that she just had to go pee-pee and took her to the edge of the woods hidden away from everyone.  No sooner did I start pulling her pants down and she was already squatting and starting to go potty!  Needless to say, there was no point trying to get her to stop the damage was done.  So between the potty accident, the chilly weather, blustery wind and the fact that naptime was quickly approaching we decided that we had enough trunk or treat.  When we got to the car, I dug through the diaper bag for a change of clothes for Claire.  I don't know when it happened, but the only piece of clothing that I had for her was a pair of socks.  I then made the judgement call that it was better for her to wear nothing home rather than sit in the wet clothes for the 20 minute drive.  Thankfully, we don't go anywhere without her blanket so that kept her legs warm.  

When we got home, I put Claire in my bed and she said, "I really like my friend Addison!  I had SO much fun today."  I guess the no pants ride didn't tarnish the day for her.  Now we are sharing her candy, Mommy likes trunk or treating too!!

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

I find it amazing when you start looking for the funny things that happen in your life during the week, how many funny moments you actually have!  For two weeks now, I have more than enough laughs to write this post.  This week, I sorted through them all and couldn't just do five, so this here's an extra bonus - Six Saturday Laughs!


6.  For those of you that saw my wordless Wednesday post this week know that Natalie was baptized this past Sunday.  I had bought adorable white shoes for her special day.  (What girl doesn't need new shoes for special occasions?!)  Ryan had gotten Natalie dressed the morning of her baptism.  I had noticed while at church how her shoes seemed to fit better than I had anticipated (I had bought a 6-12 month size hoping to get more than one wear out of them).  Ryan mentioned that they were even a little snug to put on and I didn't think much of it.  When I was cleaning up after the party, I grabbed the shoes and noticed that Ryan hadn't taken the stuffing out of the toes!  No wonder she filled them out :)

5.  Last weekend my mom, sister and niece had come over to help get the house ready for Sunday's baptism brunch.  My niece, Dakota is 10 and a huge help in these situations as she keeps Claire entertained.  Dakota told me that Claire had asked, "Dakota will you put me in my swing so I can tell you about Jesus?"  (She loves the Christmas story).  Later in the day, Claire sang the chorus of "Glory to God" by Fee for about an hour straight.  She stood on the hearth of the fireplace like it was her stage.  Claire has been going to church with us lately and I guess remembered that song chorus very well :)

4.  Natalie had a messy diaper one evening and Ryan took her to change the said diaper.  While he was walking into her room, he commented how he hadn't changed a poopy diaper in over two weeks.  It wasn't long into the change, I hear, "Natalie, ugh!  Don't put your hands in it!"  He obviously had forgotten how wiggly and curious she is during diaper changes.  I was literally crying in the living room listening to the interaction.  I figured it served him right since he had two weeks off of poopy diaper duty.

3.  Claire was climbing all over me and the furniture so I called her a little monkey.  She stopped climbing and told me, "If I eat a banana, then I will be a monkey!"

2.  Natalie has taken a liking to cartoons.  Some of the tops on the list are Dora and Wonder Pets, but Kipper is the absolute favorite.  Whenever she hears the beginning song, she stops whatever she's doing to whip around to see the television.  It will even calm her down when she's really angry.  Her eyes get super big and she kicks her legs in excitement.

1. On our way home from daycare one day this week, Claire asked if she could have a muffin when we got home.  We didn't have any muffins and Natalie was asleep in her carseat, so I told Claire we could make some when we got home.  We made some very simple and delicious oatmeal muffins.  When we were eating them, she took half of mine and replace it with a quarter of hers.  She then exclaimed, "We can trade momma, then we will be best buds."

Now it's your turn, tell me your laughs from the week!

Wordless Wednesday :: Natalie's Baptism

On Sunday, October 9th Natalie was baptized.  We had a wonderful celebration at our house afterwards with our friends and family.  We are so very blessed!!

Hanging with Daddy before the baptism

Maggie Grandma & Grandpa (my parents)

Riley Grandma & Grandpa (Ryan's mom and step-dad)

All the aunts, uncles and cousins

Our great cakes made by my friend Lisa

Happy 6 Months Natalie Sue!

These first six months have passed so very quickly and Natalie is doing new things daily!!  Here are some of her 'major accomplishments' to date:

• She was baptized this last Sunday!  (more to come on this, but since it's very special I had to include it on this post)

• She is a rolling master!  When she first started rolling from back to tummy she would roll back the opposite way from tummy to back and really not go anywhere.  She now knows how to get places by rolling.

• She has begun to army crawl and gets up on her hands and knees occasionally.  I am now 'on duty' while she is on the floor at all times.
• She enjoys playing in the exasaucer/jumperoo combo more than just the jumperoo

• Claire is the person in the family that makes Natalie laugh the most and often can distract her when she is upset just by talking to her **awww**

• Natalie has recently started eating food.  She did not care much for rice cereal.  She has tried green beans, peas and sweet potatoes.  So far sweet potatoes are her favorite.
• She jabbers a ton, but becomes much more vocal when her sister isn't in the room.

There are two milestones that I am anxiously awaiting:

• Sleeping through the night.  I think it may actually be getting worse.  I am going to start the sleep training soon and not looking forward to the process.
• Cutting those two bottom teeth - she is a drool factory and is constantly gnawing at her hands/toys.

Coming soon...

I will post more later this week since Natalie was baptized and turned six months old today, but for now here's a photo I couldn't resist sharing.

Top 5 Saturday Laughs

Thank goodness for Saturday!  It has been a LONG week here and rather eventful.  Here are the top five laughs from our house (that I actually wrote down or remembered).

5.  Claire has been really into playing games lately.  We are trying to teach her how to play, but most of the time she does what she wants.  We were playing Chutes and Ladders one night after dinner.  Claire looks at me and states, "Mommy, you're too old to play this game!"

4.  I had to work late on Monday this week so I asked my mother-in-law to pick up the girls from daycare.  Grandma lives next door (about 1000' from door to door if you take the driveways/road) so Claire rides in the passenger seat or on the center console on the way home.  Natalie is still buckled into her infant seat.  She must have been really tired and fell asleep before we hit the driveway!

3.  The favorite movie at our house is Disney's Incredibles.  It has been the choice of the car DVD player as well as the 'show' of choice.  Now Claire plays that she is Violet and puts on her mask.  She runs through the house chanting, "Go Violet, Go!"  The rest of us are part of the movie too.  Natalie is baby Jack-Jack, Dad is Mr. Incredible, I'm elastagirl and our dog boomer is Dash.  I love her imagination!!

Violet with the secret identity of Claire

2.  Natalie is becoming more vocal these days.  She says the same thing most of the time, "ma-ma-ma-ma" but her inflection changes.  When she's hungry, it's more of a complaining sound followed by lip smacking.  When she's tired, it's whining.  When she's happy to see me, she kicks her legs and says it in a high pitched voice.  It's amazing how they learn to communicate so early!!

1.  My favorite story of the week came in the morning of all times :)  We were getting ready to leave the house and I had just strapped Natalie into her infant carrier.  Claire walked up to Natalie, pet her on her cheek and says in the sweetest voice, "I wub you Natalie."  I exclaimed, "awww, that just melts mommy's heart."  With that Claire proceeds to open up my denim jacket and look at my chest.  She asks, "where is it melting Mommy?"  I had to explain that meant that it made me very happy that she was so sweet.

Now it's your turn, tell me your favorite Saturday laughs!!