Bathtime....together!!

I finally got the girls in the bath at the same time today! Now that Maddy's such a good sitter, she really never falls over anymore. And of course they both loved it. Here is a cute sequence of the fun. I guess we will be doing this more often.

Fighting over toys....as if 30 bath squirty toys weren't enough.

I love Maddy's dimpled elbow in this shot!

And I love her cute chubby everything! Especially her chubby butt poking out of the water! 

Goggle Girl

Abby is definitely in "copy" mode these days. She saw kids on PBS swimming in the pool with "glasses" on the other day, and all she could talk about was how she wanted to swim with glasses too. So luckily the dollar store had these cute kid goggles.....for $1 of course. So minimal investment for something that likely won't actually touch the water.......maybe ever! She was so impressed she had some too! And they have princesses on them too, so thats a plus!

Love

This is the usual entertainment while Maddy is hanging out in her high chair! Abby comes up to her and gets her laughing, which usually involves a bit of hair pulling (courtesy of Maddy). Maddy loves the attention, and  it buys me some time when I'm making dinner or washing dishes. Abby knows just the silly thing to do to make her happy. And now she tells her "don't cry Maddy, you're ok".

I love the giggles

Sometimes random things trigger Maddy to laugh, she seems to like when I use a gruff voice with her!

Maddy Time

I love the times when Maddy wakes up from a nap and Abby is still sleeping. Its fun to spend time with her one on one, AS IF she were my only child. NOT!!!!!! Luckily she is a great 2nd baby and doesn't mind taking a backseat to big sis! I'm guessing she's learning a lot though.

Here she is playing with Abby's "crawl and giggle" baby doll. She mostly just chews on the dolls, but the ones that make noises really get her attention.

Blowing Raspeberries!! Copy cats!

Abby loves to copy Maddy being a baby, and blowing spitties is their new favorite hobby!

Maddy usually wins, she is much more drippy at the mouth than Abby! (AND....still no teeth...hmmm....when will they appear?? Abby got her 1st at 7months!)

Bouncing Maddy

Maddy has finally figured out her jumper and enjoys it much more than Abby did as a baby! She loves to sit in it and watch shows with her big sister....Like Curious George!!

Laughing Sisters SO Silly

Abby is always doing something silly to make Maddy laugh.

Hanging Poolside!

We were hanging out watching daddy & big sister swim, then we joined in the fun and we swam too!

I swear one day she is going to catch a fly in that mouth....she leaves it open so much!

Yumm....mommies glasses are great!!!

Daddy's Home = Mommy in photos!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY to my dad!!

And Grandma Bob, Grandpa Jerry, Uncle Craig, Uncle Ken!!

And to the Smith Family dad's......Anker, Kyle, & Dave!! ENJOY this one day we focus on you!!

We are spending father's day indoors (I have a touch of a cold, surely from the let down of activity now that my body is catching up with me since Mike is home and helping out)

Okay, so not the greatest photos, but they are recent and will have to do!

Maddy @ bottle time....She loves her bottles! And holds it all by herself!

Abby all decked out in her swim gear (protective long sleeve/pant swim outfit, full coverage hat and floatie!!) No sunshine will touch her LOL! Swimming twice a day she needs to be covered, otherwise I need stock in the sunscreen companies!!

Pre-Crawl Training

This last video is of Maddy's recent attempts to get up on her knees in the pre-crawl position. In this case her rocking back/forth cracked me up! She loves chewing on the pink bear rug....or anything really!
And Abby rubbing Maddy's head after she rolled over and hit the piano is just par for the course of her being the little mommy. She truly loves Maddy and is always wondering where she is, even at times when I figured she wouldn't notice, like right after I put her down for a nap. The first thing she says is "Where'd Maddy go?".

Musical Fun

This next video was funny, because I finally grabbed these floor toys out of the garage storage bin for Maddy and of course Abby was drawn right too them. Let the fighting over toys begin!!!! I love how Abby kept getting frustrated that Maddy would interrupt her music by hitting another piano key and swats her hand away. SISTERS!!!!

Eating......silly girls

I took a few cute videos this weekend and wanted to share since they capture our moments day in and day out as we keep ourselves entertained!

This first one was just lunch time while I fed Maddy, after Abby already had her lunch.

Hard at work

Abby loves my Discovery Toys "Motor Works". She loves using the handheld battery operated screwdriver to take the colorful screws in/out of the vehicles! It has really helped her with the fine motor skills as she holds the vehicle with one hand and uses the screwdriver in the other to complete the task! So fun to watch her succeed!

Just my cute chubby wubby

I Eat my Feet

Maddy loves to put everything in her mouth, including her feet! She suckles on them all the time, so I finally caught her wtih the camera chewing away!

Melon Lover

Maddy tries water

Ever since her 6 month check-up, the doctor said I should start letting Maddy sip on a sippy cup to get used to it, and offer her water in it. She loves to chew on the soft rubber spout, and when she accidentally sips out some water, she gets this horrified look of disgust on her face......over water.

Mommy Gets a Night OUT!

Okay, so I had to take advantage of two things....

#1 That I am actually in a photo....amazing!!

And #2....I got a FUN night out with the girls even while Mike is away!!

Thanks to my AMAZING friend Lisa who came over and stayed with the girls!  Each time I get to go out like this, I realize how much I need to go out like this.

This was a farewell dinner night for our friend Heather (far right in this group picture), she and her husband and 3 kids are moving to Atsugi, Japan this month. Her husband is in the same squadron as Mike so this will be their first overseas tour! She is also in my weekly playgroup, so she will be sadly missed!!

Goofy Girls

My girls!!

Abby put the minnie mouse ears on Maddy and was so proud! Finally something that is bigger than Maddy and made her look a bit small.......

Abby in the sprinkler

Abby insisted on running thru her dolphin sprinkler tonight....so she got it! Of course she spent most of the time hiding in her house though! Oh, and yes, the bathing suit is too big, but it was the closest thing I could grab to avoid her being the naked kid running in our backyard!

MOUSE!!!! Eeeeeeekkkk!!!!

Okay, so my welcome home present after travelling 8.5 hrs from NY was a mouse in my house!!! I saw him out of the corner of my eye as I was starting laundry after we got home, and I freaked out!!!

I've never had to deal with rodents!! YUCK! So, this is what my pantry looks like on my kitchen table!! NICE!

Box traps are set (the humane kind) and we shall see what I end up with. The little guy was definitely scared when he realized we were home, but he made a mess of my pantry and got into a ton of stuff! Apparently he likes the soy nuts best and enjoyed those for 5 days because they were EVERYWHERE.

Again......yuck!

I will keep you posted once he is evicted! And of course there is no before photo because he is too sneaky and fast....if only I had a cat, I hear they are the real answer. A husband would be even better since I'm so freaked out by this whole thing. I was half inclined to put a towel at the bottom of my bedroom door last night.....

Museum Time

One of the days we visited the "Long Island Childrens Museum"....VERY CUTE! Abby had a blast and it was a great way to burn 2 hours on a hot day!

She wasn't very happy in this photo, Mike held her up and I grabbed the camera amidst her protest!

The giant birds nest. I told her to sleep like a birdy!

Big Girl!!!

There was a cute interactive news studio. You could record yourself on the green screen doing the weather, and do a radio recording where you hosted a show and you could playback your show!

I think this telephone station was Abby's favorite.....Mike's too!

There were 4 or 5 different phones that connected to each other, so you picked up one and the other in the matching color would ring across the room. Abby got a kick out of talking on the phone. The funniest part was that they were ALL corded phones, which she has NEVER touched before, so she couldn't figure out which end went on her ear/mouth!! She always had the cord end up to her ear. We laughed at how "historic" the phones seemed since she had no clue what the cord was there for!!

There was a cute arts/craft station....

And Miss Maddy taking it all in....before she zonked out and napped!

Hands on...turning the cranks; learning about everything!! She'll try just about anything.

And of course there was a bubble station. Probably her favorite....giant bubble wands and soapy water, what kid could refust that!

Family Dining Out

One of our days in NY we went out to the mall to let Abby run around, and then hit up "Johnny Rockets" for lunch!

Sister Storytime

I brought plenty of books and toys to keep the girls entertained while we were in the hotel room (I swear it looked like we were moving into his hotel for a month's stay, but that is the reality of travelling with 2 kids at that age.....they require a lot of crap!!)

Abby decided Maddy needed a story read to her.....She loves to be a little mommy!

Daddys Girls in NY

Well, the girls and I made a LONG trip up to NY this past weekend to visit daddy (he is up there on Long Island doing training for their new plane that will be phased into the squadrons soon). It was 10 hours up there last Thursday, and 8.5 hrs back on Monday! And we were surprised to learn upon arriving that Mike had Friday off, so that made the 3-day weekend even more enjoyable.

Here are the girls and him during our downtime in the hotel room!!

I didn't get any photos of it, but Abby swam with Mike everyday in the hotel's indoor VERY heated pool! She loved it and it was all she talked about the entire trip (and every 10 min on the ride up there and back.......oy vey!!!! I ran out of excuses VERY fast!)

I caught them playing on their cell phones (well, Abby was playing a game on mine) with their legs crossed the same......weird!!! They are SOOOO related!!! Genetics run really deep I guess.

Waking up.....watching morning tv together! NO, we didn't sleep in the same bed together. Abby slept on the pull-out bed, and Maddy slept in her pack-n-play. Everyone slept great!!! And napped great too! Made the trip all the more worthwhile and stress free!

Look at me! I sit up ALL on my own now! She has mastered this in the two weeks Mike has been gone and is great now.....until big sister zooms in for a hug & kiss and knocks her over.