Maddie-isms

Getting a good grasp of the English language is hard, no matter how young one starts. We've had a few chuckles while watching our Maddie-kins learn:

"My antennas fell off" - in reference to her headphones while watching a DVD in the van.

"My tummy has a headache" - we assumed a stomach ache (???)

"Can I watch the 'mersha shows?" - Maddie-speak for commercials (she likes to watch them at the end of a DVR'd show).

[low grumbly voice] 'TUMMY HUNGRY!' [back to normal Maddie voice] "Ooo! My tummy says it's hungry." - sometimes her tummy talks to us. He's kind of rude.

"I had a 'vream about ladybugs, unicorns, God and Baby Jesus." - yep, that's what she tells us she dreamed about every morning.

"Can I suck my fum' and 'fwirl my hair?" - when she knows her hands are dirty she'll ask before sucking her thumb and doing the corresponding hair twirl.

Her favorite thing to order at McD's is "chickie nuggies" and she likes to eat "minis" (Mini-wheats) in the morning for breakfast. And her favorite drink is "red juice" aka cranberry juice.

She also has taken all her stories to heart and narrates her way through the day, "...and now her runs quickly to her room to get her dresses. And her runs back to the kitchen!"

We can't give her apples too often either, as her favorite story is Snow White and whenever she bites an apple she falls into an immediate and deep sleep -- usually in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Oklahoma blizzard

We survived the Oklahoma blizzard of 2009! I'm not a huge fan of snow, but I can admit that it's exciting to get snow on Christmas Eve. Here are a few snaps of the white stuff around our house:

Disney World!

We finally went to Disney World! We booked this trip last January, so it really was a long time coming. It was wonderful and magical and we want to go back - NOW! Hopefully we'll be able to go again soon.

We met up with our good friends, the Burks', and their little boy Ethan. And we were able to get together with my cousin Beth and her fam' for a day, too. We were so glad they came down for a day in the parks (though I sure wish I could have snuggled on those kids of hers for a bit longer!).

The trip was loads of fun - but a picture is worth a thousand words, so feel free to click one of the photos to see some highlights! Here's the quick run-down:

Got there Wednesday. Told Claire we were riding the Magical Express (the Disney shuttle) to our hotel. Upon entering the bus she said to no one, "I would like a bottle of water." When one didn't magically appear she told me, "This bus isn't really magic." But it did have a TV so all was good.

Thursday: Magic Kingdom. The girls proclaimed every ride their favorite by saying, "I like this ride as much as It's a Small World!" Ate dinner at the Crystal Palace with Winnie the Pooh and his friends. Maddie was NOT afraid of the characters (whew!) and Tigger fed Colin baby food.

Friday: Animal Kingdom. Loved the Nemo show. Loved the Animal Safari. Got scared of the Bug's Life movie. Got rained on after the Lion King show. Watched the Christmas parade and went home a bit wetter than when we arrived.

Saturday: Epcot with Beth and her family! Rode a couple of rides and then ate lunch with Disney's princesses at Norway's Akershus. Excellent food. Girls didn't notice their food due to their excitement over THE PRINCESSES! Hopped over to Magic Kingdom and caught the Spectral Magic parade.

Sunday: Hollywood Studios. Said good-bye to Beth and gang after breakfast and then headed out. Caught some great shows and Colin and Ethan got to meet Speed (or Lightning?) and Mater from Cars. Went back to Epcot for dinner and froze our tushies off! Isn't Florida supposed to be warm???

Monday: Breakfast with Mickey and pals at Chef Mickey's in the Contemporary. Back to Magic Kingdom and some "Fairy Godmothers-in-training" gave our girls a make-over. Once they were princessified, we set off to terrorize Claire and Maddie: Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain. They tolerated the Mansion, LOVED the pirates (who knew?) and Claire warned Maddie off of Big Thunder because it was too scary. Met the step-sisters and step-mother from Cinderella (and they were hilarious!!!) and re-rode Small World, the Tomorrowland's People-Mover, and the Cinderella's Carousel.

Tuesday: Caught the Magical Express back to the airport at 5:45am. After a slightly delayed connecting flight, a scare with losing "Pink Blankie" in our taxi, the drive from Dallas, and a potty break at an almost-impossible-to-get-to Target store... we got home at 9:30 PM.

Whew! Exhausting, but we're ready to go back (after we rest the wallet a bit...)!

Grandma Millie

Phil's Grandma Millie was called home last week. Grandma Millie: we love you very much and we'll miss you terribly.

Holiday Party

Last night we went to the squadron's holiday party. It's always a nice party, held at Quartz Mountain Resort, with lots of fun games like the random object scavenger hunt (which gets really competitive) and the traditional indoor snowball fight (OK, they're technically marshmallows instead of snowballs). Last year we were lucky enough to get one of the town's few babysitters in our home. This year we were not so lucky and had to take the kids to the on-site babysitters.

The on-site babysitters were a local girl scout troop and a couple of their moms. Claire and Madeline did fine at their "party" in the big kid room, though they were rather zombie-like in appearance by the time we picked them up. Colin, on the other hand, was in the baby room doing his part to ensure that none of the girl scouts would become a teen-pregnancy statistic. After Phil and I scarfed down some dinner I went and rescued him and he spent the rest of the Christmas party like this:


Yep, that's my pashmina, doubling as a sling. Thank goodness I reviewed my slip-knot tie before we left for the party, though I hope one of the girl scouts could have refreshed my memory if necessary. He behaved himself quite well at the grown-up party by sleeping through most of the festivities so we still had a nice time. Maybe next year we can score some grandparent babysitters (hint, hint!!!).

Altus

Maybe it's the holidays, maybe my hormones are still out of whack from having a baby, or maybe it's because we know we're moving in a few months... whatever it is I'm already starting to feel like I'll really miss Altus when we leave! I know, I know. I do a lot of complaining about it here. There is NO shopping except for Walmart and a couple of ridiculously expensive boutiques downtown. There's no Starbucks anymore. Nowhere to try on shoes. We don't even try to cook any recipes that call for something that might be considered the least bit exotic. We have to drive 60 miles each way to get our minivan serviced. And I won't even start with the housing. But...

Altus is a wonderful place to have a family. We know almost everyone in both of the girls' classes at school. There are at least four other baby boys in our squadron that are Colin's age that he could play with in a few months. We have a great church. Phil comes home for lunch almost everyday and he's almost never out of town for work. The girls take swim lessons and dance lessons with a bunch of their friends because, well, there's really only one place around here to do each of those things so that's where everybody's at. Their horse riding lessons are ridiculously inexpensive and the gal who does them goes to our church. And her daughter babysits for us. It's so comforting to have such a feeling of community.

Don't get me wrong - we are excited to move to New Jersey. I've already mapped out all of the area Target stores and there are TWO Ikea's. Plus several real shopping malls to choose from. We're looking forward to experiencing "culture" like The Nutcracker Suite ballet in Philly and the Statue of Liberty in NYC. But we'll definitely leave behind the small-town atmosphere when we move and I know we'll miss it. Who would have guessed?

Santa weekend

Santa sighting count this week: 4

Sighting 1: At the Altus Christmas in the Park lights - convinced the kids NOT to sit on his lap because it was chilly outside and we knew we'd see more of him later on in the week.


Sighting 2: At the 58th Airlift Squadron children's pancake breakfast. Got to sit on his lap and tell him about the Waterbabies they want. Happily, no crying from Maddie this year.



























Sighting 3: At the Club's brunch with Santa. Again told Santa what they wanted, in case he forgot. Still Waterbabies (Santa's got the memo on that).

Sighting 4: At the Altus Christmas parade. Santa rides on the last float in the parade.

Our Little Gastronome

Colin is 4 months old, which means he's legal to eat real food (or at least, baby rice cereal). We weren't entirely sure how well he'd like it. Claire ate food well enough as a baby but she wasn't immediately a fan. Maddie gagged on anything that came off of a spoon until she was 9 months old and, in an act of sheer desperation, her Grammy Sandi gave her some whipped cream frosting!

How did Colin do? He gobbled it up!



Today was Day 2 of food for him, but I forgot to mix him up some cereal. We all sat down to dinner with Colin in his usual spot: next to the table in his bouncy seat. I barely ate two bites of food before his LOUD complaining (and kicking and flailing) had me up and attending to him. He couldn't take his eyes off of our plates and when I sat him in his high chair he looked visibly relieved. I couldn't shovel the cereal into his little mouth fast enough to keep him happy. Clearly we've been starving him!

Hurry up, Mama!!!

To Tulsa and Back

After lots of talking and planning we FINALLY managed to get together with our good friends from Washington, the Palens. They're living in Illinois now, so we managed to meet up in Tulsa for a fun weekend together. With two little babies (their Colin is 7 months old) plus the 3, 4, and 5 year-old crowd we didn't get quite as much shopping in as we would have liked. And we didn't make nearly enough use of the free-drinks happy hour at the hotel. But we had a great time anyway and had a nice visit.

Tulsa Aquarium (don't have one of these in Altus!) Click pic for more!

Because we were there for Claire's birthday we had to find something fun to do. What's fun for a new 5 year-old? Chuck E Cheese!

Claire's birthday at Chuck E Cheese (don't have one of these in Altus!).

It was lots of fun, and we sure do miss living right around the corner from them.

Claire turned 5

Our little Claire-bear turned 5 years old this weekend. I'm not sure what it is about the age of 5, but my brain categorizes '5' with school-aged KIDS and not with little kids. She seems so grown up. It doesn't help that she acts like a big girl too. One of her favorite phrases is, "This is going to take for, like, ever!!!" (she saves that gem for times when we ask her to wait just a minute or to be patient). She's incredibly sweet to her baby brother and is best friends with her little sister. She can be a bit sassy (and I imagine we're just seeing the tip of that iceberg!) but she has yet to experience much in life that can't be fixed with some snuggles from her beloved companion, Yellow Blankie. We're looking forward to seeing what the age of five is all about!

Her party (held a little early so Grandma and Paw-paw could be there):

Click the picture above to see more from her party!

Dance Showcase

The girls recently had their dance "showcase" - they dance a few numbers on the big stage, but don't have the fancy costumes that they wear for their recital in May. Anyway, Maddie was really excited about her chance to get up on the stage after watching Claire at her recital last year. They both did great on their routines and Maddie even saved up enough energy to get on the stage at the end and dance with all of the kids. Claire, on the other hand, was tuckered out by that point. Here are a couple of shots (click the pictures below if you'd like to see more!):

Grandparental visit

Books were read ad nauseum, dishes were done, baby was held and cuddled and spoiled... Yep! The grandparents were here!

My poor mother is probably hoarse from reading so many books. I'm certain my dad's arms are tired from carrying the baby around. They graciously attended horse lessons and swim lessons. They took the girls to and from school. They attended Claire's birthday party and the girls' dance showcase. Mom sewed the girls their Christmas dresses and Christmas pj's and a Christmas skirt. Dad and Phil golfed in a golf tournament and brought home turkeys as a souvenir (don't ask me, I don't play golf). In other words, we had a GREAT visit and sure do miss them now that they've headed back home!

Obligatory highlight reel: