Ronald McDonald had a farm?

We have a silly old Ronald McDonald Happy Meal figurine that bounces up and down, and for some reason, Melly loves to play with. I realized that we never call him Ronald McDonald when today she asked for him by calling him "Hop". So I told her that his name is Ronald McDonald. She paused for a minute, looked at me and said, "E-I-E-I-O"

Pictures of Emilie

Here's my new niece Emilie with my "old" niece Claire! What a proud big sis!

Here's Lloyd with Emilie... a proud big bro!

A closeup... I think she looks a lot like Alex!

oooh look! Her eyes are open!


Hurray for Emilie!!!

Welcome Emilie!

Let me be the first to welcome baby Emilie to this ever crazy, yet wonderfully fun world. She arrived today at 11:38 this morning weighing in at 8 lbs. 14 oz. and measuring a whopping 22 inches! WOW! Congrats to my sis for a great job!

Life on the Farm

Before the carnival on Friday, Melody and Ashley went to a local farm to enjoy farm livin'! For a 2 year old, it's really enjoyable!

We got a chance to Baaaa at the sheep...

Throw rocks into the stream off the bridge...

Try and find the biggest rock ever to throw into the stream...

...and enjoy a nice stroll down a country lane with a good friend.

Oh, don't forget the baby moo cow!

Mom Tip #1

My Mom Tip #1 for this blog...

Even though you want to suck every last drop of Tylenol out of that bottle, not to waste any of it... make sure you have the next bottle opened and ready for the middle of the night teething!

No-Duts and Dirtie Birdie

Melody after "noduts"

Dirty Birdie

On Sunday we headed out to the Stormville flea market. Melly, always the adventurist, is up for anything. I rushed the whole family out the door bright & early to try and outrun the rain that was predicted. We stopped at Dunkin Donuts along the way (it's hard not to when it's practically in your front yard), to get a few doughnuts for a nice nutritious breakfast. Melody is not one for eating a lot of food, she often hardly eats anything during the day, but she is no dummy. Bring on the doughnuts! They are apparently much easier to eat as than they are to say. She kept asking for more "noduts". Who am I to ignore that request when it's followed by a "pleeeeaasssssse". So "noduts" she had, and quite a bit!

While at the flea market, we found plenty of Thomas trains to occupy her (and some that will remain hidden until her B-Day), but who knew the one thing that would make her the most happy of all... the Dirty Birdie. We found a man that was selling finger puppets for $1 (A man that Rob called a woman because of the guys long hair....talk about karma coming back to him for all the times he yelled at people for making that mistake on him!) Melody went through the whole bin of finger puppets until she found Tweetie Bird, which she called Dirty Birdie. And then was yelling the rest of the day, "Daddy, put Dirty Birdie on!!! Daddy, where's Dirty Birdie!!" Ahh, life is good with kids!

Carnival Take 2!

Well, a carnival is more fun with a friend! Kerri & Ashley decided to meet us at the Carnival on Friday night for an encore flight on the Rocket Ride (clearly Melody's fav!) The 2 girls not only looked completely adorable riding Rocket together, but Kerri & I kind of got a bit teary at how big our little girls looked! Melody was saying something very important to Ashley, because she was babbling away the whole time. I really enjoyed that Ashley would always make a point to turn her head around after she passed Kerri to look and smile as if to say, "See Mom, I'm still OK!" I think Melly forgot that we were even around when she was on that ride. She did start to get a little too comfy on it towards the end as she started to stand up when the ride stopped. I'm thinking she probably was saying, "I can do it myself" trying to get out. Luckily we're all really fast and were able to get to her long before any jumping could occur. So, about 6 rides later, we all packed it up and went home. Fun at the carnival can't last forever....

Conflict of interest?

Isn't it a conflict of interest to have a children's show actress on a adult commercial? Every time the YAZ birth control commercial comes on, Melody says "Hi-5 Coming!" Karla decided to moonlight as a commercial actress. Good for her career I guess, a little strange for us.

It's CARNIVAL time of year!!

Melly & Tilly on the cars

Melody on the Dizzy Dragons

Melody on "Pink Rocket Nine!"

We all went to the carnival last night, and man did Melody have fun! I know she's a daredevil, but I didn't think she would like as many rides as she did. When we go to Williamsburg next month she is going to have more fun than any 2 year old should have! She really liked going on the "Rocket" ride. I think she actually started singing the Little Einsteins theme song when she was on there.

The other rides that she was really liked were the air bounce (she was in there by herself or else I wouldn't have wanted her there... kids go NUTS in there!). She actually walked and jumped pretty good. Much better than she sometimes walks on solid ground! She loved the Carousel (of course), but realized that there was more to a Carnival than that, so she wanted to go on the bigger rides. (she's such a big girl now!).

Mommy went on the Dizzy Dragons with her (Daddy would have gotten sick because he's a pansy on rides), and went on the car rides. From an adults perspective, THANK YOU to whoever decided to NOT give the cars the horns that beep all the time, but from a kid perspective, it does kind of take something out of the ride. We did run into Billy Willy and his family (Tilly is on the car ride with Melly, but she prefers to ride the swan). Their kids are getting so big too!

It was a really fun night, and we're probably going to go back again tonight, so if any one's interested we'll be by the Rocket Ride!

Seriously... a Mammogram?????

So I went with the family to Home Depot tonight to get some outdoorsey stuff in our never ending attempt to make our house look nice, or at least not look like the slum house on the block since our across the street neighbor is completely insane about the way his yard looks (which is fantastic!). And Rob had to run out to check a on a tree to see if we were going to buy it. So I'm standing in the seed isle (which I realize now is kind of funny and symbolic), and the very nice, yet strange Depot worker pulls the safety gate across and steps inside my temporary cage. He explains that the aisle will only be closed for a minute or two and not to worry because he'll keep me company. OK... that was just weird. So he looks at Melly and starts doing baby talk to her. She looks at me as if to say, "you've got to be kidding". So he's asking her some questions, and she's answering away, I'm looking at seeds. He then turns his attention to me, which I was really hoping he wasn't going to, and starts babbling about his kids. He then comments on how girls are just talkers, and how he could tell from the Mammogram that the baby was going to be a girl because the mouth kept moving. I kind of pause for a minute, waiting for him to correct himself, then he says it AGAIN! Those Mammograms are really something how they can get some great detail. Seriously??? I am notorious for mixing up words, especially ones that kind of sound the same, but that may be a stretch. Needless to say, thankfully, the gate opened after that, Rob came back without a tree and we high tailed it out of The Depot to get home and watch Idol.

Completely literal

I love how literal and creative these little minds can be. Melody has a huge vocabulary that she uses, but there are still so many words that she doesn't know. That goes for all the kids. Even with that, they still find a way to get their point across. Here are a couple of ways these little guys have completely baffled us with how literal they can be:

1. I had the kitchen window open, and it was a little windy so the curtain was blowing around. Melody kept watching it... awestruck... then said to me, "Mommy, the window flying". How clever!

2. Ashley has spent some time at our house over the past few weeks so Kerri could go to work. It's been in the afternoon so Rob has come home and started playing with the kids. If you don't know Rob, the word that describes him best (well, the word that describes him best when I'm not mad at him) is fun... like a kid. So it's no surprise that all the kids love him. Ashley has been LOVING playing with Rob, and even asking for him. Somehow Rob was a topic at their house, and Ashley said "Rob Ashley's Daddy". Uh-oh... After laughing about that with Kerri, we realized that Ashley really likes Rob, and doesn't know any other way to express it. She knows she loves her Daddy (and the best of all, so don't worry!), and that was the only way she could get it out.

These little minds are the best!

Melody ready for Broadway!

We went to the park over the weekend, and Melody has found her calling at an early age. She decided she wanted to put on a show for us on the stage they have there. She danced, sang, used jazz hands, and when she was done yelled, "Clap for Melody!"

Uh-oh... a new hobby for me!

I went to my first Stampin' Up party.... and I am LOVIN it! (Thank you so much Joanna for inviting me!) For those that don't know what this money pit of a craft is, I made these 2 cards while there. My personal justification for it is that I can use the same products and techniques in my scrapbooking, so technically it's not another hobby. I'm just expanding one of the ones that I already have. I'm not so sure if Rob would completely agree with that or not. I will be having a party of my own soon, so be prepared to get sucked in ladies!

Outside... it's a love/hate thing

So, the warmer weather is here, and that's the LOVE part. The HATE part, is I really had these fabulous fairytale ideas that it would be a bunch of us Mom's sitting nicely at the park, drinking our Starbucks, soaking in the sun, while our little angels played very nicely together, requiring an occasional encouraging word, and a small boo-boo repair time out. Although I do really love the park and being outside, I never really envisioned myself climbing through a plastic tube that really does makes my butt look big as I nearly get stuck inside, and I have to ask another Mom for assistance in pulling me out at the top.

Another odd thing is the mixture of sunblock and sand. It would seem that the sunblock is slippery enough that once it's on your hands, you can't even open a door, yet it acts as a super glue to hold the sand to every square inch of a toddler. That was our day yesterday. We have not ventured to the park yet today, but it will be Daddy's turn to climb through the tube. Maybe I'll actually get a chance to drink some tea?

This morning started off with a bang (which is why I haven't ventured past the back yard yet today). Melody is very attached to her routine (yeah, a little OCD at the moment), and we didn't realize this was one of them. Apparently in the morning, she wants to hang out in our bed until we all wake up and start the day. Usually that's a blessing, because sometimes we're not entirely ready to bounce out of bed the same time she is. We can usually rest for at least a 1/2 hour more with her being all cute and cuddly. Well, last night Rob was at a hockey game until late, so I wanted to help him out by letting him sleep in to the late hour of 8 AM. I brought Melly out with into the Living Room to watch some shows and drink some milk. After a little bit I bring her to get dressed. Apparently you cannot get dressed until you have hung out in Mom's bed first, and she did not let me know of this fact until she was stripped down and out of her jammies. So.... I have a 2 year old standing on the floor of her room, naked, screaming like an air raid siren, throwing clothes around the room as I'm trying to somehow fling a shirt on her. Not really the way that I planned on starting today. Eventually Rob woke up and got her to stop screaming (THANK YOU!!!), but I was not able to get her dressed until about 10!

I finally did it!

Well, after being a part of the Spilt Milk blog for its entirety, and coveting Aimee's blog, I finally ventured on myself. It's an odd feeling knowing all the world can take a step inside my brain, but then I realized that most people checking this out know me, and if they don't know me, do I really care? It's that same feeling of dancing in public. You always feel like everyone in the room is watching and criticising you even though they're probably not.

So, to get this up to date, my daughter Melody is almost 2, and she is VERY 2. Her new favorite saying is, "I can do it myself". Oh yeah, she says it with the attitude too! The best part is when she says it followed by "Mommy help!" But when she's as cute as she is, it's hard to not to laugh.

My husband, Rob, has been a part of my life for what seems like forever. We met and started dating in 1994, and finally got our act together and got married in 2004. Life is good for us and I can't complain. I get to work from home and raise our daughter. It sounds simple enough, but it always has its moments.

So that's where I stand. Prepare for all the anecdotes and silly things that happen along the way!