Halloween

Here is Mellie as an adorable panda bear.

Here is Maddy before makeup..but with her kitty cat ears on.

Mid way through trick or treating. By this point my usually shy child was saying trick or treat before people even opened their doors. She also said Happy Halloween and thank you. I was so proud of her. She was running between houses she was so excited.

Granddad came too!

Here we are post trick or treating. Mellie was so done being in her costume.

Ahhhh...time to enjoy some candy! First thing she picks...a lollipop :)

Pumpkin Patch

So we took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch on Sunday. I dressed them a little to warmly for the 80 degree weather (whoops, still not winning any parenting awards here people) but they had fun anyway...and rosy red cheeks!

Here they are super excited to be there. I had spoken to Maddy about it so much on Saturday that she was sitting in the car grinning and shaking with excitement over going to the pumpkin patch.

It was hard to get a good pic of Maddy here. All she wanted to do was stare and point and say "people" over and over.

Awww. Sisters and best friends. If you notice, Maddy is definitely over the 3 ft mark. She's going to be taller than me by next summer!

This is the cutest pic of Mellie...I love her squishy face!

Here are a few family pictures

My gorgeous girls

Me and my beauties

Daddy...why so serious??

Overall we had a good time. Maddy waited patiently in line for the hay ride but when it was our turn she was too scared to get on it. She wanted only Melanie to ride it! Well, we'll try again next year. The girls both got pumpkins and Maddy got a special little pumpkin that she picked out. Maddy was very interested in all of the people and would continually point them out. Melanie just wanted to get out of the stroller and play!
I am prepared with both girls Halloween costumes and can't wait for trick or treating. I have a feeling once Maddy sees the candy she is going to really love Halloween :)

9 month appt

Melanie had her 9 month appointment last Wednesday. She is now 23lbs and 30 inches tall!!! I can't believe how big she has gotten. She is doing so many things now.
She waves and claps. She's trying to pull herself up into a standing position. She is really interacting with Madison now. Maddy has noticed too and the other night said "MelMel playing!" and was so excited that they were being silly together.

Melanie is still a very happy child who sleeps well and eats well and gives little hugs when she's tired. She is also babbling a lot but no real words yet. I still squeeze those puffy cheeks every chance I get. She has really made our family complete. I can't wait to see what the next nine months bring!

Weekend Wrap up

We had a great weekend. Beautiful fall weather. The girls were so adorable and fun and Gary was off!
Sunday we took a trip to the park. Maddy was very excited.

That was her going down the slide...with sippy cup. She did really well going down the slide but always had to have some help. Here are a few pics from the park:

Melanie likes to swing....Maddy does not!

My family <3

This is how Mellie gets poor Maddy's hair and yanks on it the entire time we're in the stroller :)

I did have one moment this weekend, I usually do, it was just Melanie and me and she was being so cute and talking and she reached for me and put her head on my chest and just rested there for a while. I hate having to go to work and miss opportunities for moments like those.

Shopping

I had a 30% off at Kohl's coupon...Melanie needs 18 month winter clothes...a shopping we went. Holy Moly. I am lucky that my mom doesn't mind accompanying me on these types of adventures. There's no way that Gary would have gotten up early to come and I would have done it myself and left with only a few things because once the meltdowns started and Maddy had to be held, I would have ran out of there. With YaYa as a distraction and a helping pair of extra hands, I got a ton of stuff for Melanie and one adorable sweater dress for Maddy. We did, however, leave the nice people at Kohl's a trail of clothes strewn about as Madison happily picked out clothes for MelMel. Things like 3 month dresses, boys cardigan and khaki set, several cute but not size appropriate outfits. Whenever she did pick up something that was the right size....I bought it :) I think my children's entire wardrobe is going to be from Kohls. Granddad gets $10 coupons and gives them to us all of the time so most of Maddy's shirts right now are from Kohls. I'm lucky that they have cute stuff. After our exhausting, hot shopping trip, we headed out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday. Overall it was a very pleasant dinner. Both girls were hungry by then so they ate quietly. Of course Maddy had to ask for ice tea but they didn't have any decaf ice tea (like we do at home) so she had to settle for juice. She's too funny. If you ask her, "do you love MelMel?" She'll respond "yes!" But when I ask her "do you love Mommy?", she says nothing. No words. Not even a nod.
Sorry for the randomness of this post. I think my mommy brain needs some rest. I did get all of the new clothes washed tonight so Mel is going to be one hot baby tomorrow!

Firsts

We have done a few firsts lately. We traveled to visit the in laws which is a three hour trip and it was the first time Melanie had been there. It was a good time. The girls were great during the car ride there. We left Friday (I took the day off) around lunch time. I wanted to leave earlier like we did for the beach but, well, you know. So anyhoo, we just ate in the car and Maddy seemed to like spreading her cheese sandwich crumbs (or cheese sam as she calls it) all around the car. Melanie was also wonderful and took a little cat nap. They both quickly warmed up to the family + John. We did have total melt down and whininess from both Friday night because neither really napped. I slept in the room with the two pack n plays so needless to say I didn't sleep much either. Saturday Maddy chased after the kitty cat and Dal-puppy. She was so animated and cute and VOCAL. It made me very proud. Mellie was her usual happy, bubbly, babbling self. Sunday's trip home was not so great. We were all tired after not sleeping in our own beds and we had to sit in a bit of traffic. I entertained them the last 20 minutes of the trip by giving Melanie a Ziploc bag filled with lunch trash (awesome) and gave Maddy a coke bottle with a drip left in it that she pretended to take sips from and put the cap on and off (double awesome). If anyone wants some of my eagerly sought after parenting tips please let me know!
Our other first was that someone who is not related to the girls watched them today. I had absolute confidence in Kelly and knew that she would do great. I've known her for awhile..we went to college together and she is a wonderful friend. That being said she hasn't seen them in a while thanks to her living in San Francisco and then traveling all through Europe...ahhh...I am definitely not jealous :) I told Maddy Sunday that Aunt Kelly would be watching her and she was very excited even though she didn't know who Kelly was. I was nervous. Not because I thought something would go wrong for the kids but because I know she was doing me a favor and I wanted my kids to be the good version of themselves so that she has fun and loves them. I don't know why I care about what other people think about my kids...it shouldn't matter but it does. Kelly said they were great and stuck to their schedules (yeah!) and when I got home I was greeted by two very happy little girls. Maddy was so amped up after Kelly left I thought I was going to have to wrestle her to the ground. We had a wonderful night and both girls went happily to sleep.
On another note, Maddy's speech has progressed like crazy! I can't believe all the things that she says. I will try and write a bunch down and fill you all in.



Thanks Kel! Here we are when Maddy was born.

This is from tonight. Maddy was so excited to wake Daddy up that she brought all of her animals and light into bed and laid with him while I did Melanie's bath. Here is my little family :)