two

diane turned two on monday. i can't believe it.



we started the celebrations a little bit early on sunday. my mom and rachel share a birthday on the 25th and diane's is on the 30th, so we did cake for everyone sunday night and diane opened her present from my parents.

then, on monday, it was her actual birthday. she didn't get much fanfare. we blew up a bunch of balloons in the morning and put up a few other decorations and then after randy got home from school, we did presents again.

a new doll from grandma and grandpa peck. she quickly incorporated it into her baby entourage.

a dump truck from grammy and grandpa bob.

playing with some new puzzles from mom and dad.

diane is a delight and the past two years have flown by. i can't imagine our lives without her.

out of diapers

it's official. both of my children are potty-trained. three months off before i've got to start buying diapers again.

potty training diane was leaps and bounds better than potty training madeleine. i think it was less them than me though. i was much better prepared this time, both physically and emotionally. diane had tons of accidents for two days and then almost exactly forty-eight hours after i started, it clicked and she's been dry except for wetting the bed once last night. it's nice to have it done a few months before the baby arrives this time, rather than two weeks before, which is what i did with madeleine.

i was actually a little worried about how madeleine would do during the whole process but she has been great. extremely supportive and helpful and i think that helped a lot. it helps that she's been getting treats too.

here's to no major relapses.

baby, it's cold outside

it has been freezing here the last few days. cold enough that i'm not even willing to bundle up and go outside. so these pictures are actually from a couple weeks ago, but i forgot to post them. it had snowed about an inch and madeleine was so excited to get out and play in the snow. diane is not as thrilled about the cold and lasted about five minutes.

 

phone photo dump

 some of these pictures are from quite a while ago. i may or may not sync my phone approximately twice a year. 

 just picking out a morning outfit.

testing out "joker," as a halloween costume. we went with candy corn instead. a little more age appropriate. 

my ragamuffin. she has gotten better, but she used to end up with most of her dinner in her hair by the time the meal was over. 

 

along the same vein... can you see that red object in her hair? yes, that is a fruit snack. and yes, we did take her out in public like that. i could explain the circumstances and why it wasn't removed before we went out in public, but the details are more complicated than i care to go into and i don't have to explain myself all of the time on my blog. suffice it to say it wasn't my proudest moment as a mother. 

one of our summer picnics in the park. i love my mountain backdrop.

another picnic day.

 

diane has been transitioning to one nap lately. it doesn't always go so smoothly though. sometimes she falls asleep when i would rather she doesn't.

art mornings in our living room.

the girls helping me smash the leaves down in the dumpster. one of their favorite jobs.

in the wee small hours of the morning

every afternoon, madeleine and i get about an hour of time to ourselves. just the two of us.

after an hour of quiet time (i use the term loosely), i sneak into her room and tell her that she can come out. diane, blessed child that still takes a nap, stays asleep about an hour longer than madeleine's quiet time.  as we creep out of the room, madeleine whispers to me, "i want to do something fun." those exact words pretty much every day.

and pretty much every day, she picks painting as her something fun. that girl could watercolor for hours. and since diane could eat paint for hours, it's the perfect activity to do during our one-on-one time. and as soon as we hear diane wake up, madeleine's job is to go distract her in her crib while i put away the paint supplies. we have it down to a system.

lately, i've been praying to know how i can spend more one on one time with diane. i feel like she gets neglected sometimes because she is younger and more easy going than madeleine. plus, there just hasn't been time where she is awake and madeleine isn't.

except occasionally in the morning when she wakes up before madeleine and i can sneak her out of her room without waking up madeleine. and the last few days, she has consistently woken up much earlier than madeleine. given my extreme morning fatigue recently, i have answered that opportunity by putting diane in front of an episode of sesame street and going back to bed myself.

but this morning, when i was a little bit more with it than usual in the morning, i had the strong thought that this was my answer. this is my one-on-one time with diane. really? 5:30 in the morning?

but i went with it. as we slowly turned on the dimmest lights in the house to adjust our eyes to daylight (or the lack thereof at such an hour), i crept back into madeleine's room to retrieve some puzzles. i couldn't find diane's favorite one that she carries around with her all day, so we went on a dimly lit treasure hunt and finally found it safely stowed under the kitchen table.

we spent the next hour doing three puzzles over and over. lots of quiet clapping after each one was completed and then promptly dumped over to be done again. after puzzle fest 2011, we went into the kitchen and ate cereal at the table together. one of us ate her cereal in a very dramatic manner and drank the milk afterward. it wasn't me. i never drink my milk.

and then madeleine woke up. and i put away the proverbial paint while madeleine quickly began to dominate the scene with her made up songs and long, dramatic stories. the lights came on and the curtain closed on our intimate time together.

maybe i'll get to bed at a decent hour and be up for it again tomorrow morning. it was a surprisingly pleasant way to spend the five o'clock hour.

autumn leaves

we have a large tree in our backyard that has been depositing its leaves in our yard for the last month. this leads to lots of raking, which the girls love. madeleine has me make her a "nest," and then she spends the rest of the time trying to convince diane, her "baby bird," to come and join her in the nest. baby bird would rather flit about the yard though, wielding a rake, or seeking our decaying vegetables from our garden that i mostly have torn out but still has some vegetables lying in the ruins.

here are more pictures of my children than most people care to look at: