And She's Off!

Mabel is walking! About four weeks ago she started taking more and more steps and for the last three weeks, walking has become her primary mode of movement. We are so happy and thrilled for her. She loves it too! All she wants to do is walk. It is great, except, along with her independent movement came independent, strong willed Mabel. ALL SHE WANTS TO DO IS WALK, no carrying, no hand holding, just walking. If you pick her up, you will hear a “No, I wanna walk!!!”. For the most part it means we just slow down, but in cases like parking lots, it means we win and we pick her up (and there will be a meltdown - so maybe we don’t win).  Either way it is great to have the months of physical therapy, dr's appts and practicing pay off!

Getting Caught Up

So much has been going on in the last few weeks that I could write a ten page post. I will try to keep this one short and sweet, just to get caught up!

The weekend before Easter, Brad sent me on a trip to NYC with a college girlfriend to visit another friend who lives in the city (a positive of having a husband that travels so much is all the free trips we get with the miles!). We had a great time. It has been a few years since I was in the city, so it was great to get back. We saw the musical Wicked, which was amazing and had a great time shopping, eating fabulous food, great drinks and of course even better conversation and company. It was an exhausting few days but good to get away and not have to worry about being a mom and a wife! Brad did a great job with the children, even though he was stuck at home with a sick Louis. As great as the trip was, it was wonderful coming home and getting all the hugs I missed so much!

Oh, and while I was in NYC, my brother Brian and his wife welcomed their third child, baby Ben! Welcome to the world Ben!

Easter weekend was great. On Saturday my family came over. The children had a great time with the Easter egg hunt and hanging out with each other. The adults also had a great time. Brad impressed us all again with his cooking. It is so nice to have a husband who is the cook in the family. It really allows me to just enjoy hanging out. On Easter we visited my aunt who lives nearby. Another day with family and Easter egg hungs, does it get any better? Below is a picture of Louis and his cousin Owen both dressed as Spiderman.

For the most part Louis and Mabel get along great, but they don't exactly play together - that usually ends up in fights.  So they more or less play side by side and co-exist.  The other night I was trying to do a work out dvd and they were not being cooperative.  So I quickly grabbed my iPhone (not sure why I didn't just grab the computer) and let them watch a Mickey video via YouTube. They fought a little over how to turn the phone but mostly they both just stayed still and watched it - together.

Bring on the Spring!

So even though daylight savings has begun and we all lost an hour and my kids were out of whack and I was out of whack…I loved it. It means that spring is here! How great is it that sunset doesn’t occur until 7:30pm! My tulips are starting to come up and we are able to play outside after work/school. It is all so refreshing, and bright and nice and well I just love spring!
Mabel received her “braces” about four weeks ago. They are actually orthotics and the goal is to give her a little more stability, which should also help her confidence in walking. They bothered her a little on the first day but now is used to them. We have seen some great progress, so hopefully this will be the thing to get her going! Go Mabel!  Here you can see a quick picture of what they look like alone and in shoes.

Mabel is super silly and is quite the actress! The other day we were singing and I asked her, “Mabel, who is the baby” and she replied, “Lou Lou’s the baby!”  Louis immediately replied, “No, I’m the big boy”, to which Mabel laughed, like she knew she was teasing him! She is like a grown person in this tiny body!   A couple of weeks ago she got her first haircut. I haven’t decided yet how long it may or may not be, but it was time to clean it up. The lady at Kids’ Hair decided to put in a ponytail and paint her hair pink. Mabel did great. She doesn’t let me put clips in anymore, so I was amazed she sat so well…I wonder if the sucker had anything to do with it?

Happy Birthday Louis!

Louis turned three while we were on vacation in Mexico. We were able to have a nice beach party for him there, but we also had a small family get together after we got back. He had a great time but I am nervousthat he will now think that his birthday always lasts for 10 days!

At three, Louis is a lot of fun. He can be very serious at times, but also has a great silliness factor that cracks us all up. As he promised, he started going potty on the potty chair as soon as he turned three. He is determined to do things on his own time and on his own will. Potty training is going well, and we officially moved him to underwear for the daytime hours (he protested a little because he knew that meant he had to pay attention), you can tell from the picture below that he thinks he is hot stuff.

He is total boy now. He loves his super heroes. Overnight he became interested and soon knew that Peter Parker turns into Spiderman and Bruce Wayne into Batman. He thinks “tooting” and burping are the funniest things ever (and now so does Mabel), but is very good about saying “Excuse me” after. He also has become a grammar nut; if he puts a sentence together awkwardly, he will stop and correct himself right away.

My favorite things about him right now:
1. At night we say “I love you too” by point to our eye, crossing our arms to show love, pointing for “you” and then showing the number 2. Sometimes when we are in place where we can’t talk, we just do the signals
2. He asks Brad and me each night, “What did you do at work today mommy/papa?”
3. When he tells stories, he gets so serious. His eyes show such concern and conviction

Happy Birthday Louis. We love you!!

Winter Break!

We just spent a fabulous 7 days in Playa Del Carmen Mexico. All four of us went along with Brad’s dad and step mother, Andrew, Kristy and Mollie Budde and Jordan Budde. The 10 of us had a great time in the sand, sun and water.

We started most mornings having breakfast overlooking the ocean. I think all of us enjoyed and appreciated that moment especially. After breakfast we would many times hang out in the hammocks on the ocean deck, followed by a morning at the beach! Unfortunately, neither Louis nor Mabel particularly liked the sand or the waves, but they had a great time hanging out in the sunchairs under a cabana.

During the trip we celebrated both Louis and Jordan’s birthday. How lucky is Louis to have had a real beach party for his 3rd birthday?!? Louis really had a lot of fun. Our resort was huge and was connected to a fantastic zoo/amusement park. Louis loved the sea turtles (tortugas), the monkeys and the flamingos. Due to the large resort, Louis got to jump on the back of the stroller everywhere we went for a quick ride; it also made it easier for us to not have to carry him around everywhere!

Mabel really turned into a full fledged toddler on vacation. Her vocabulary increased tremendously. She would say “Hola” all the time and showed us that she could sing the ABC’s along with Louis! Everything was, “I want that”, “Thank you”, “I want water”, I wanna color” etc.; she makes sure everyone is aware of her needs! The humidity also brought out the curls in her hair. It was so sweet and I was so bummed to see them disappear on the airplane as we flew away. Mabel also tried standing on her own a couple of times, which is very exciting for her.

One of the days Brad and I were able to leave the resort and see the Mayan ruins at Tulum. The ruins are part of a very interesting history and the nearby beach was beautiful.

It was a great vacation. On our last morning I told Louis and Mabel it was time to go home and Louis’ first comment was, “but I like Mexico!” We were sad to leave, but it was good to get back to reality, routine (and unfortunately snow!)

Little People, Little Conversations

Mabel: LouLou, LouLou!! (yelling from the bathroom)

Louis: What baby Mabel? (running into the bathroom)
Mabel: Book
Louis: You want to cook? No, Mabel, you are too little too cook. You need to be big like my mommy and papa to cook. Okay?...Mabel follow me (trying to her to join me and Louis in her bedroom).
Mabel: No
Louis: Mabel, say yes to me. (Mabel then follows him into her bedroom, gives a grin and heads back to the bathroom).
Mabel: LouLou, LouLou!! (from the bathroom, again)
Louis: Yes, Mabel? (running back into the bathroom)
Mabel: Book
Louis: You want me to read you a book? Okay, I will.
Mom walks in and both are sitting on the floor, talking jibberish and reading books. Everyone smiles very big, and mom hides a giggle.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

What a wonderful holiday season. As usual we crammed a lot into three weeks of fun. We had the Kemper Christmas in Melrose the entire weekend prior to Christmas. It was great having the entire family together! Great grandpa and great grandma Welle were also able to stop by and Santa came shortly after!  Santa brought special pillows for each of the grandchildren!

 

  

On Christmas weekend we stayed home as a family of four. We were planning on doing so prior to the storm, so we were lucky in that the storm didn’t alter our plans too much. Grandpa Dean and grandma Dede did stop by on the Wednesday evening and we had a nice Christmas celebration with them. It was a little strange have just the four of us around on Christmas, but we were able to spend a nice, relaxing Christmas together and really appreciate each other. On Christmas night, last minute, we had dinner with the Mikkelson's. It is so nice having “family” down the street (especially in a snow storm!).

Last we celebrated Christmas with Brad’s family the following weekend. It was nice to have nearly his whole family together at our house. Brad did an amazing job with the meal and again everyone enjoyed a nice relaxing afternoon and evening hanging out. We were able to Skype with the D.C. Budde's while we opened gifts.  It was as close to having everyone there as we could get! 

We also hosted a NYE party at our house this year and themed “Married with Children NYE”. From the looks of our kitchen below you can tell everyone had a great time.

And now we are back into regular time. I will have another update soon, but Mabel continues to talk and add new words to her vocabulary. She has perfected giving us dirty looks as well (see below). Louis loved Christmas and was sad to see it go. However, he was quite afraid of Santa and wouldn’t come downstairs on Christmas morning until I could assure him that while Santa was in our house…he was now gone and was at someone else’s house. As I said last year, experiencing Christmas through the eyes of a child is such a gift. The pure happiness and glee would melt anyone’s hearts!!