First visit to Santa

We went to the mall today to visit Santa. We've never taken Maddie before, we've walked past the holiday display and pointed him out in years past, but were never willing to stand in line. This year we went with the intent of standing in line and getting pictures of the girls with him. But when we walked into the mall, there was no line. We just walked right up and Maddie got to sit with him for a really long time. And she has been consistant for the last month about wanting "a horse with a line under my legs for my bum to sit on. with a unicorn." Aka a hobby horse w/ a horn. She "wrote" it in her letter to Santa, and told us that's what she was going to ask him for, and infact did.

We're still working on making that happen. . .

She was a little shy at first with the prospect of going up to him, but I just told her that he's like a Grandpa, so don't be scared.

Ava even cooperated, and didn't wimper or anything, just kinda looked at him, then looked at us.

yes, I know. . .she needs socks. . .

Saturday fun

On our clear blue sky Saturday we headed up to Jordan's brother's house in Ogden. One city short of our destination we ran into. . .SNOW?! and lots of it. Jordan was far from thrilled because he discovered the car was not handling properly and so instead of going to the craft boutique I wanted to go to, we went straight to Matt's house and sat there for a bit. When the cousins and Emily got back from their primary activity Maddie got a chance to play in the snow with them for a bit. She didn't want to put her jacket on, so I let her go out without it and see why we wear jackets outside when there's snow.

She came back fairly quickly and wanted her coat.

The reason we went up there was so I could take some family pictures for Matt's family(go check them out and tell me what you think!).

But of course I have to get some pictures of my girls too.

Ava can attack Maddie back now!

I'm a lucky mommy!

I love Christmas decorations!

Maddie was doing great potty training. For the last month and a half we've had very few accidents. Until yesterday. pee poop, you name it, went through a couple pairs of pants. Then today, went through the rest of her pants. Why the sudden regression?! Yesterday's poopy pants I took as a true accident. She hadn't pooped in her pants in a very long time. So I talked kindly to her and wiped her up, told her it was okay and she'd do better tmorrow (though I did get exasperated when she didn't understand how to lay on her back), all was well. But today. . .it's not just that she pooped, it's that I had told her to go on the potty about 10 minutes previous, but she "didn't need to" which I was okay to accept because we had used the restroom at the thrift store about a half hour before. (got 5 books for Jordan to give me for Christmas!) Then I'm telling her, okay go get your jammas on! and she said Okay, but first we need to clean up my poo poo! And I said, Your poo poo? DID YOU POOP IN YOUR PANTS?! Maddie, (very matter of factly) uh huh!
I told her too bad. If she wanted to have poopy pants like a baby she could stay that way. And yes, I'm an evil mother and put her to bed poopy pants and all.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!!! Not loving potty training or the age three.

Thanksgiving

We went to our Aunt Betty's for Thanksgiving dinner.

I tried to get sibling pictures, but this was the best I got.Maddie and cousin Adam (they're only like a month in age difference) played Candyland. When they abandoned it, Ava had a chance to play! It was adorable because she grabbed the gingerbread man and was tapping him on the board like the kids had done while moving their pieces each turn.
This dress was Maddie's first Christmas dress.
I don't know if we have any pictures of her in it though.

Maddie's favorite part of Thanksgiving is the olives of course!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!

HA!! FINALLY!! The Immunization "Catch-Up" Schedule! http://www.aap.org/sections/infectdis/IZSchedule_Catchup.pdf

Also found while playing on the utah valley pediatrics webpage, italics are my comments:

From age four to seven months, the most important changes take place within your child. This is the period when he’ll learn to coordinate his emerging perceptive abilities (the use of senses like vision, touch,and hearing) and his increasing motor abilities to develop skills like grasping, rolling over, sitting up, and possibly even crawling.

Here are some other milestones to look for.

Movement milestones
Rolls both ways (front to back, back to front) -been doing this since August!
Sits with, and then without, support of her hands -she's an excellent sitter!
Supports her whole weight on her legs -loves to hold our hands and pull up to stand!
Reaches with one hand -oh yes!
Transfers object from hand to hand -sure does!
Uses raking grasp (not pincer) -especially if her cereal is infront of her. . .
Visual milestones
Develops full color vision -I can only assume so
Distance vision matures - see above
Ability to track moving objects improves -she's great at tracking!
Language milestones
Responds to own name -was playing with this earlier today, it was funny
Begins to respond to “no” - going to test that out tomorrow
Distinguishes emotions by tone of voice -oh yes, she knows when Maddie is in trouble!
Responds to sound by making sounds -loves to have conversations and play echo
Uses voice to express joy and displeasure -yep, our little squealer. . .for both happy and upset
Babbles chains of consonants - she's mainly still a vowels girl. does throw in an occasional h and w
Cognitive milestones
Finds partially hidden object -she's excellent at this. Much to our chagrin
Explores with hands and mouth -everything goes from hand to mouth.
Struggles to get objects that are out of reach -she does her best to get anything and everything
Social and emotional milestones
Enjoys social play -loves when big sis will consent to playing with her. loves playing with mommy and daddy
Interested in mirror images -thinks that baby in the mirror is hilarious!
Responds to other people’s expressions of emotion and appears joyful often -yep yep, my sweet little Ava is on track!

Ava is a crawling fiend!! No more scooting for her! She starting crawling for real today!

In other news, I am once again irritated with any online article in regard to infant health. Ava's left eye has been very watery and started getting goopy yesterday, it wasn't red at all until she started rubbing it today, so I don't think it's pink eye (besides I don't know how she could get pink eye without Maddie or I having it) So researching online I decided maybe it's a blocked tear duct, or maybe it got scratched. Everything of course says "And call your baby's doctor ". WHAT IF YOU DON'T HAVE ONE?!! Driving me nuts. Jordan did get his enrollment paperwork in and said he'll ask tonight when our insurance goes into effect and how to find a pediatrician accepted by our insurance.
Looking forward to getting Ava in for her immunizations. Finally. Yep, she's 6 months behind already. . .
Which leads me to another complaint. . .no one says anything about what to do if you've missed vaccinations!! Everything says "here this is the recommended schedule", and obviously assumes everyone is able to follow it.

Not the best conversation

for 6:30am.

Mommy: Okay, did you go on the potty (knowing she hadn't), you need to go on the potty first thing in the morning remember!
Maddie: {exasperated sigh} Oh mommy, but I already goed in my bed!