times are a changin'

madeleine was playing with her fisher price bus today and pretending to go to school. she waved goodbye to me and pushed the bus out of the room but quickly ran back in and exclaimed, "i almost forgot my laptop!"

terror in the bathtub

i was giving the girls a bath this morning when sudden chaos broke out. madeleine had pushed the button that turns on the jets in the tub, causing loud noises, accompanied by water spraying everywhere (the tub wasn't all the way full, so the jet holes were only partially submerged, as well as jets of water attacking the girls). i was sitting right there, so it only lasted about two seconds before i turned everything off, but it was long enough to send both girls into a screaming fit. randy even came into the bathroom to check if everything was okay.

i, being the sympathetic mother that i am, said to madeleine, "i told you not to push that button."

and then i comforted them.

quite frankly, i'm surprised it's never happened before. it is a big button, sitting right at eye level when the girls are bathing. what child can resist that? but i don't think she'll ever do it again.

it reminded me of when madeleine tried to climb out of her crib the first time. she fell on her head, cried for a couple minutes, and never tried to climb out again.

terror, without serious injury, is a great deterrent.

spent the day

trying to console an inconsolable child. i literally held diane for her entire afternoon nap because i had finally gotten her to fall asleep after two hours of trying and i wasn't about to risk her waking up when i transferred her to her crib.

indulging madeleine's every dora desire. i am cringing even as i write this. i know that it is going to take weeks to undo what i did today. weeks of madeleine begging to watch episodes of dora the explorer. this girl hardly gets to watch any tv as it is (we actually don't have even basic cable, so anything she watches is via itunes or netflix streaming) and even more rarely gets to watch dora the explorer. i hate that show. i am reminded of a line from modern family: "i'd like to fill her backpack with bricks and throw her into candy cane river." but today, she sat in front of the computer for most of the day, getting her dora fill. i am not looking forward to the battles to come.

covered in bodily fluids. imagine it, and i had it on me at some point today. i at least had the foresight to wear grubby clothes straight out of the shower this morning.

vacuuming cracker crumbs out of my bed. i was just happy diane was finally eating something.

looking forward to bedtime. some days eight o'clock cannot come fast enough.

checking in

yes, we're still here. but the girls are sick. again. and i am sleep deprived. so, blogging hasn't been happening as much. here are some pictures though. when we're all feeling better, i will post pictures of a recent project fail, sure to entertain. in the meantime, enjoy the girlies. 

where are that girl's pants and why is she eating ken? well, sometimes it takes a while to get diane back into her pants after a diaper change. you'd think that she'd get used to having her diaper changed, seeing as i do it several times a day (i will refrain from talking about the astounding frequency of this child's bowel movements on my blog). but no. each time is a fight. it is like changing a cat's diaper. i am just happy when i get a new diaper back on. the pants are just icing on the cake.

and ken? well i'm pretty sure that our barbies' feet all had teeth marks all over them, so either it is a universal childhood experience to try to eat barbies, or it is genetic. 

diane is snuggly all of a sudden. this brings great excitement because she has never been snuggly before and i love it when my girls want to snuggle with me. here she is cuddling up to my mom.

who can tire of the crusty highchair closeups?

madeleine is obsessed with puzzles lately and is quite good at them.  i finally bought her some new ones because she would do this winnie the pooh puzzle in about a minute, take it apart immediately, and do it over again. over and over again. i figured i'd give her a little variety. the dollar store is great for that kind of stuff.

and yes, i do attempt to do my child's hair.

enjoying some happy one-on-one time with diane at 5:45am. 

madeleine and rachel and their babies. not sure why madeleine is looking suspiciously at rachel in both of these pictures.

the other day madeleine busted out her sunglasses and the girls took turns wearing them (matthias, do you recognize these? they are the ones you fished out of the bottom of the merced river). i don't blame her. it must be the same hankering for spring that drives me to plan all of the skirts that i want to sew for myself. maybe we can will spring here with our attire. 

i also do attempt to wipe my children's noses occasionally. i may or may not be successful.

midway ice castles

on saturday, i decided that it would be fun to go to midway to see the midway ice castles that i had heard about from a few different people. it seemed like something that the kids would enjoy, so we loaded the whole family up and headed up the canyon.

i actually didn't really know what to expect and it was different than i had imagined. i imagined something more like fancy ice forts, but these were more organic in nature. it was also a little more expensive and a little less... well, less, than i had imagined. randy and i had to remind each other that we are often too practical and that it was a fun family outing. at least the girls were free.

we got the girls all bundled up when we got there and then ventured through the various ice castles.

you can see the guy working on the castles in the background in these two pictures. he makes them by moving pipes around that slowly spray out water and depending on placement, etc., it forms different structures.

the moon was just coming out and it was really beautiful to look up at the sky from below the castles. i'm glad that randy snapped these shots on his phone.

i think this was madeleine looking up at the moon.

diane fell down in the snow at one point when i set her down to take a picture for a family. of course, instead of picking her up, we took a picture.

by the end of our short walk, the girls were freezing and ready to go home. diane may have screamed the whole drive home. i'm glad that we took the pictures we did because i think that it sweetened the memories for me a little bit. not sure we'll be doing this one again soon. 

on to february

january wasn't all bad. i feel like i was terrible about taking pictures though. i think that's a recent trend - thus, lighter posting in general.  goal for february: take a few more pictures. or maybe do something that is worth taking a picture of.

this is diane's "stop taking pictures, just get me out of this high chair" look. unfortunately, you can tell that all of the pictures leading up to this picture weren't any good, seeing as this is the one that i included.

time with cousins. these girls are going to be sad when we move away and they realize that living with a built in best friend is not the norm.

i made these hearts (on the window) with my activity days girls (recognize this recycled idea?) and madeleine and i made a couple of our own the next morning. she pretty much thinks they are the best thing in the world. she and rachel are obsessed with pointing out the hearts.

diane loves putting on madeleine's helmet. she never leaves it on too long, so it is amazing that beth was able to snap these pictures.

hanging out with all of the linford cousins while i watched audrey and joseph's kids one afternoon.

i may not be big into all holidays, but valentine's day is one of the holidays that i can get behind. love, chocolate, hearts, and red things. what's not to like about it? i saw this and loved how easy and cute it was all at once. plus, i had the felt for it already on hand. so, i whipped it up and madeleine's been wearing it on and off all month.

i didn't realize that i did the heart the wrong way until about a week after i made it, but it still works this way.