We interrupt this program for a Special Report...

...Lucy gave me her first, full-on belly laugh today!  Apparently waving a (clean) diaper over her face while making a "shhhh" noise is just...unbelievably hilarious in the baby view of things.  Way to go Lucy!

Outings to the Butterfly Pavilion and the Botanic Gardens

Last Sunday, in an effort to give Luke a few much-deserved hours to relax and play some wierd game on his XBox, Maddie and Lucy and I took a trip out to the Butterfly Pavilion.  We had SO much fun!  Luke and I took Maddie there once before, I think when she was about 18 months, and she loved it then, but this time she was old enough to do and see some really cool things.  Lucy hung out in the baby backpack for most of it, but she seemed to enjoy watching Maddie run around like a maniac, and she got to play a bit while we were there, as well.  All in all it was a great trip for all of us--Luke got to relax for the first time in weeks, and we got to have some fun girl time at the Pavilion.  When I was younger, I didn't realize that "fun girl time" included cleaning poop out of underwear (Oops!  She's getting better everyday, promise.) and trying to figure out how to change clothes in public (Maddie's, not mine.) while holding a baby, but I'm excited to  report that it DOES.  Go figure.

So brave!  Maddie held this supergross tarantula (What?  I'm not a spider person, myself.) without even flinching!  The sign said 3 years and up only, but I figured it's time my Maddie starts to enjoy the benefits of being so tall.

I still can't get over this.  You should've heard Luke squeal when he looked at the photo:)

Cockroaches.  Some very specific and exotic type of cockroach that is supposed to make them, er, not gross.  Maddie bought into it 110%!

Maddie found some Nemo fish.  I have a feeling she's going to want a fish tank someday.  In addition to not being a "spider person," or a "cockroach person," I am also not a "fish tank person".  So we will just have to see how this plays out. 

If Maddie looks like she's in heaven in these pictures, it's because she IS! Here she was petting a big crab.  Maddie loves loves loves crabs.  There's a song on Elmo's World called "The Crabbie Crawl" that started the whole crab obsession.  So she was very excited to get to pet one all by herself!  Lucy would like me to point out that she also enjoyed looking at the crabs, but was unable to be photographed because she was stuck in the dumb baby backpack.  Don't worry, she's coming up soon!

God I love her.  She was so happy about these crabs!

In the butterfly room they had this turtle just walking around.  Maddie followed him for a long time.  She got on the ground right next to him, but I missed the photo op. 

Here she is watching the "boo-fies".  She obviously could not look any cuter if she tried.  Obviously.

Maddie was thrilled to discover that butterflies often have "pokey dots".

You can just see how much fun she was having on her face!

I had to make this one black and white because I couldn't get the red eye out, and she was looking pretty crazy!

HERE she is!  Let's all take a moment to appreciate how cute the Moose was looking on this particular day.  She was so funny the whole time, she was very excited to get out of the baby backpack and get in on the action!

She can't quite sit on her own yet, but she's trying!

The usual scene at our house lately...Maddie being silly, Lucy watching Maddie. 

Lucy showing Maddie some of her wrestling moves.  Maddie wanted me to point out that she wore this dress, which was clearly too big for her, as a tribute to her Uncle Scott.  Uncle Scott used to wear all of his shirts like this in high school. 

I'm pretty sure this is where the pooping happened.  She just couldn't drag herself away from this butterfly!

Lucy and I at the Botanic Gardens.  Lucy would like there to be a permanent record that she was also at this outing, but spent most of it sleeping in the baby carrier.

Maddie at the new Children's Garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  We went yesterday morning and had a great time!  They have this little rock stream where the kids can take their shoes off and get it, move the rocks and sticks around and learn all about making a dam. 

I didn't get too many photos because I forgot my camera and had to use the phone...but you get the idea:)  She spent the whole time in this little stream and running over an elevated rope bridge about 200 times, while Luke and I slowly melted in the sun (Lucy slept almost the whole time!).

Moving rocks around to make a dam like the "beebers". 

This week in Poppishes

Well another hectic week has passed, and here I am, virtuously documenting it all for my little angels:)  We had an exciting week-Maddie and Lucy had their first week at a little neighborhood daycare (they go on Tuesdays and Thursdays while I am at work), which was a HUGE change for us.  Both girls have always been home with nannies, whether it be Karyn, Regiane in South Carolina, or Jennifer here for a few months after Lucy was born.  We realized after watching Maddie play so well with Jennifer's daughter, Chloe, that she was ready to be around other kids for those 2 days I'm not home, and while we were so sad to see Jennifer and Chloe go, we were pretty excited to see how things went this week.  Lucy also loves to be around other kids and is in general so adaptable (poor Moose, she has to be!) that we thought she would do fine as well.  We wanted a small program that was as close to home as possible, and of course since we're so neurotic we had a short list of about 2,000 other requirements.  So Luke got to looking on Craigslist and totally lucked out--there were 2 parttime spots in a home daycare right in our neighborhood.  This is a big find since I guess Denver isn't a big daycare town, something we've recently learned.  It's a great little program with about 8 kids and the most amazing facilities..we knew right away once we met the owner, Dee Dee, and saw how she has things set up for the kids, that we'd found the right place! 

I've never really had to worry about getting the kids ready in the morning before work, which has always been nice, so I was nervous to see how on earth I would get us all where we needed to be on time, given the fact that I am late enough when it's just me!  Luckily it went really well this week, both girls did just fine and Maddie liked it so much that she cried when Luke came to pick her up--she didn't want to go home!  Luke is excited to make Maddie feel guilty about this when she is all grown up--we need all the material we can get. 

Other than that, things were pretty standard around here...the kitchen sink broke (AGAIN.  Poor Luke:(), Maddie continues to do really well with her potty training, and Lucy continues to be chubbier by the day and just a total nut. Lucy loves the way Maddie has to get in her cribbie every day to wake her up from her afternoon nap, and she especially loves watching Maddie eat lunch (Maddie spends about 10% of lunchtime actually eating, and about 90% trying to make Lucy laugh).  So here are a few pictures...

Usually on Saturdays we walk over to Sweet Action and get an ice cream (this would explain Maddie's chocolate stains on her dress).  There is a little shoe shop right next door that has accessories, too, and Maddie loves to try on hats.  So we got a few photos of her.  I think she was channeling Elton John circa 1981-83, myself!

She wasn't enjoying the attention or anything!

Maddie has always liked to memorize her favorite books (think "Goodnight Moon," not "War and Peace"), but this week she has become obsessed with reading all of her books out loud, which is funny.  Sometimes she really does know what she's saying (we've read "Llama Llama Mad at Mama about 2000 times), but other times she just repeats the same nonsense syllables over and over and over.  Luke thinks it's wierd, but I'm loving it because she'll entertain herself for 30 minutes at a time this way!

Poor Lucy didn't have any random photos of her snapped this week--but I'm putting up another post now about our trips to the Botanic Gardens and the Butterfly Pavilion, and she'll make her appearance there!  Sorry Moose!

The Moose Is Loose!

Most of our friends and family are aware at this point that Maddie calls Lucy either "Moosey" or "Moose".  This all started because Maddie can't really say her "L's", but I suspect that the nickname is going to stick long after that problem goes away.  Poor Moose.  We almost never call her Lucy.  And most girls I know aren't really into being called a nickname that brings to mind a large, behorned, goofy animal.  Sometimes we call her "big Moose".  And this is really just not a good idea, but we can't seem to stop ourselves.  Lucy is such a chubby, giggly, mischevious little baby that the nickname just seems to fit very well (as you may or may not know, the moose is a very mischevious animal).  Anyways, we are happy to report that the Moose is an eater, and we have lots of pictures to prove it.  Right now Lucy is really into baby pears, but Luke is at the store as we speak picking up some new foods for her to try. 

Yes, I did sit my kid in her bumbo seat on the stove to feed her.  Maddie was right next to me in her usual spot, breaking green beans in half (Maddie's new-found cooking skills be expanded upon in a future post), so this was the spot that worked.  Moose didn't mind, as you can see!

We've been eating breakfast and lunch together now that Lucy can join the party.  Maddie really likes it.  She frequently exclaims, "Moosey eats food for babies!" during our meals.  This helps Lucy a lot because she wasn't sure why her food looked so different from Maddie's.

Cute, huh?

A profile shot of Lucy eating sweet potatoes. I wanted to be sure to capture this momentous occasion from all angles.

Um, were you going to, you know, put the camera down and, uh, FEED ME?  Thanks.

Coffee Shop

Once again I have a million things to post this week, but will probably only get to one or two.  Luke, who we can think of as "The Man Behind the Blog," took Maddie to the coffee shop and to Target and Whole Foods so I could have time to write this morning while Lucy naps.  We have a nice coffee shop just 2 blocks from our house, and as Lucy has gotten a bit older we now can venture out there most Saturday mornings, before the people without kids are awake (When those well-rested folks are in the coffee shop the whole experience is just a bit too pride-swallowing and humiliating.  Who wants to have a 25 year-old couple look on in horror as I try to explain [beg] to Maddie that poop goes in the potty, not in your big girl underpants?  Not me, thanks.)  2 weeks ago we went and had a semi-relaxing time, and it was all very eventful, as the following AMAZING photos will show:)

We hit the road.  Lucy is now at the point where she can sit in the stroller sans carseat, which has really increased our mobility...within a 4 block radius of our house:)

Lucy chillaxing at the coffee shop.  She prefers the red velvet couch, a cigarette, and a double espresso. 

Aaaand this is where our little coffee shop trip became a MAJOR LIFE EVENT.  Maddie generally rides a pretty sweet sugar high the whole way home from the coffee shop, as she typically enjoys a very large scone.  So the walk home is typically a series of jumps and exclamations such as "I jumping!  I lookie bofe ways before I cwoss da steet!"  Maddie's amazing jumping skills unfortunately left her for a moment, resulting in a fall on the sidewalk and her first scraped knee.  Luckily this happened just a few steps (or jumps, depending on how you look at it) from our house.  She was understandably upset, but also pretty fascinated by the whole process.

Perhaps the most disturbing part of the whole experience for Maddie was when Mommy stopped comforting and nursing to, you know, snap a few quick photos.  She looked at my like, "Hey you crazy idiot, stop messing around with the camera and tend to this hydrogen peroxide crap that's bubbling all over my leg!"

All better!  There is little in a 2 year old's life that is not completely resolved by a few Toy Story bandaids!  Maddie really was very brave about the whole thing, and seemed mostly interested in the blood and dirt...and the fact that she gets candy and stickers for falling on the sidewalk.  I'm sure I'll pay for this at some point:)

Let us take a moment to appreciate my magnificent gardening skills.

Summer is almost over, and I have to say I am not looking forward to winter.  I haven't been skiing in 4 years because, er, I'm always pregnant (or living in South Carolina), so I've kind of forgotten what it's like to do anything but scrape the snow off the car and waddle through snow very slowly in the winter.  So maybe it won't be so bad.  But what I'm most going to miss is the gardening I've been able to do this year.  We had planned to do landscape our front and back yards last summer, but, well, again, I got pregnant.  And since I generally spend the first 12-14 weeks of pregnancy lying on the couch trying to make everyone around me as miserable as I am, summer just flew right by and no landscaping happened. 

This year Luke and I did the front yard while I was on maternity leave (I have NO idea how we managed to get that done.  It's pretty impressive I think.), and then my mom and dad did the backyard when they came to visit in June.  We have really enjoyed both this summer.  I planted all my favorite things in front...roses [3 kinds!], columbines, rose of sharon, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, gerber daisies, you name it.  In June I bought a packet of sunflower seeds and planted them in my front flower beds, not expecting much.  Well of course the $3 seed packet produced the most thriving plants in my garden...some of them are over 8 feet tall, and right now I'm estimating I have about 50 blooms that have opened already, and about 25 that are almost there.  They are in all different colors and I just LOVE them!  The great thing is that if you cut the blooms and put them in water, they last for about 2 weeks.  Anyways, I know this post is a real thrillride for all of you.  But I want to remember my sunflowers someday when I am relaxing on a beach chair in Jamaica with Luke, so I took some pictures and I'm posting them...so there.

These are my favorite of all the sunflowers we have this year.

Sunflowers attract A LOT of bees.  Our wonderful neighbor, Mary, thinks this is great for all of our plants (Mary gardens, too).  I am just thinking of bee stings myself!

Yup, you guessed it.  Another sunflower.

My beautiful Columbine flowers. 

Aaaand a random rainbow shot.  Do you know I've seen more rainbows this summer than in my entire life combined?  It's kind of wierd!  We have them almost every day here this summer.  On the way back from the mountains last weekend Luke and I saw like 10!  I know I know, amazing stuff.  My blog really keeps you coming back for more, doesn't it?

Maddie's going to work.

Well I have a lot of things to post this weekend if I can get around to it.  It's hard to find time to blog during the week with work, keeping up with the kids (and this includes Luke:)), going to the gym to try and burn off the pregnancy weight, and trying to figure out what to do about Maddie's exciting and creative temper tantrums.  But what I am really noticing about the blogging is that it really encourages me to take pictures of the kids with a real camera (not my iPhone).  So I have some great stuff to post.  Lucy continues to show her funny personality more and more each day, and while Maddie really does have her bad days, she also has days where she is just as good-natured as she has always been.  Those days are the best, because we really get to enjoy what a funny little person she is becoming. 

So this post is about that funny little person.  Maddie really likes to put on Luke's work badge and his sunglasses, grab the car keys, and "go to work".  About 20 times a day.  This generally involves her saying (forcefully), "I go to work.  Bye, see ya later!  I love you.  I miss you!"  She then runs to the door, the gate, wherever, waits about 5 seconds, and then "comes home".  If you do not respond with a level of excitement akin to Jesus Himself walking through your door, well, that is unacceptable.  When she gets back into the living room she looks at whoever is there with great expectation and says "I home!".  And then the fireworks are expected to begin.  Once she has soaked up the required amount of adulation, the process repeats.  She's been doing this since she was about 16 months old, and doesn't seem to be tired of it just yet.  So here are a few photos of one of Maddie's departures last Sunday. 

The workday begins.

The work day ends.

I home!  I home from work! (Insert slamming door here.  Then insert Lucy immediately beginning to cry, having been woken up from her nap for the 80th time that day.)

Mimi, Maddie has something to tell you...

That's right, America.  Maddie went poop on the potty.  Twice!  It was pretty exciting.  I look forward to the day when she's 16 and gasps in horror when she realizes that I posted this on the internet.  Should be pretty sweet.  Way to go Maddie!

Lucy has taken to growling.

Here are a few videos we took this weekend of Lucy, who, as the title of this entry would suggest, has taken to growling. A lot.  Mostly at Luke.  Here at the Poppish house, we are pret-ty excited about this.  We initially took just the one video, but then she kept going for like 20 minutes, and also started doing this thing where she deliberately fell over on the couch about 30 consecutive times.  So we took 2 more videos.  Unless you are related to us, this probably isn't going to be a real thrill ride for you.  But I probably watched these 5 times last night laughing at Lucy!  The second video is for sure the funniest, but towards the end of the first one and third one she really gets going.  Maddie was not amused by Lucy getting all of the attention.  We told her, start doing something supercool like growling and we'll video you instead.  But she didn't respond and so Lucy got all of the spotlight.  Enjoy!

Luke and I both agree that Lucy looks very much like Scott and my Dad, but I can't figure out why Lucy falling over on the couch reminded Luke of Scott.  Maybe it stems from something he saw that time they went to Hooters, I don't know.

Older photos from when Lucy had colic and I was too tired to do things like blog.

So in case you never noticed from my endless complaining on Facebook, Lucy had the worst colic ever.  I mean, it was shortlived--by 6 weeks we were through the worst of it, but while it lasted it was insane.  For the first 6 weeks of her life Lucy refused to sleep without being held.  And the person doing the holding had to be sitting in an upright position.  This was so uncool.  It was, in fact, the most uncool thing a baby has every done to me.  Luckily she had very chubby cheeks and legs, which worked in her favor to counterbalance this disturbing personality trait, and she also just loved being held.  You've never seen a baby who liked to cuddle so much--if you could just hold Lucy 24 hours a day, she would be *mostly* fine (there still would have been about 6 hours of grunting and crying in there). 

The funny thing about Lucy was that she was kind of intense in both directions.  She cried about 8,000 times than Maddie did (Maddie was a pretty easy baby), but she smiled (really) for the first time when she was 3 weeks old.  Maddie was always a big sleeper--she slept for most of the day until she was at least 6 months old, and even after that, she still slept a ton.  Lucy just didn't really feel like the whole thing was very necessary.  She was quite happy to stay awake and cry, thank you very much. 

Anyways, right about 6 weeks she just gradually started sleeping.  We went from having to sleep in shifts on the couch downstairs (we realized after about 3 weeks that it didn't make any sense to have the bassinett and rocker in our bedroom, because that kept both of us awake) to being able to sleep in our bed with Lucy in her crib down the hall.  It's still rough going with Lucy at night, but it's nothing like that first month and a half, and she's really easygoing during the day.  So the point of all of this rambling is a) to get it all down on record so I have something to make Lucy feel guilty about someday.  I have a friend whose mother still talks about her infant colic in a very accusatory tone, 33 years later, and b) to explain why I have so few pictures of the kids during the first 2 months.  It was also hard adjusting from 1 kid to 2.  And that is the biggest understatement EVER!  Maddie was so accepting of Lucy after the first for weeks, and really was just confused by her at first.  But by the time Lucy was a week old Maddie was hugging and kissing her and calling her sister--right after she finished trying to poke her finger through her fontanel...whatever, it was a learning process.  We still had a tough time learning to juggle the two of them.  So ANYWAYS, here are a bunch of photos that I finally uploaded today.  Enjoy, and thank you for listening to me complain about colic as though I were the only person in the world to give birth to a cranky child (and also as though it was a fascinating read).

Here is Lucy the one of the only times she ever lasted 5 minutes in the swing without crying.  She later explained to me that she felt the swing was nothing more than a sophisticated baby torture device.  She's so tiny, and she always looked so serious.  Look at those cheeks!

Lucy was born just before Maddie started learning about "sharing" and "wait your turn".  So she used to like to "share" things with Lucy.  This was generally a very uncomfortable process for our Lucy, but she was a good sport.

Lucy enjoying a few balls and a mixing bowl during one particularly uncomfortable sharing session.

Lucy was not happy about this.  Not happy at all.

Did you know that Kodak EasyShare has a "facial touch-up" option?  I'll be employing it on all of my face shots.  If you don't look too closely, you can't really see the thinly-veiled hysteria and panic lurking just behind my eyes.  Amazing!   I'm going to say this was about week 2, when we were really starting to understand that Lucy would not in fact "have to sleep eventually."

Just keeping an eye on things in the living room. 

I LOVE this picture.  Maddie was just like, "Yeah, whatever, she's crying like always, let's take some face shots!"  See how Lucy's fists are bunched up by her face?  That was one of her signature moves when she was feeling especially dissatisfied with things.

LOOK at them.  Our children are ridiculously cute.

Luke and his sidekick, Baby Dr. Evil (Look at those hands--she's clearly scheming her plan to avoid sleep.).  I think she was about 4 weeks here.  Poor Luke was so tired--back at work already for 2 weeks, and never with more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep--usually 3. 

This was during Christie's visit, right before we took the whole fam to dinner at La Loma.  This was not a successful venture if I recall.  It's all a little hazy.  I was very, very tired:)

Lucy at about 7 weeks in my favorite baby towel ever.  Mark and Jen Belanger sent it to us and we use it all the time because, as you can see, it is clearly very flattering to little Lucy.  She was about 7 weeks old here, the colic was gradually getting better, and she was for sure sleeping more.  Thanks mark and Jen for all the great gifts you sent--we used them all, it was pretty clear you had 2 little girls too and knew just what we would need:)

Maddie went through a stage where she always had to lay with Lucy when was Lucy was on her play mat.  Like most of their really early interactions, this generally did not end well for Lucy, but she always thought it was funny when Maddie would plop down next to her.  I have truly never seen Maddie intentionally hurt Lucy.  She just makes no effort to control her constantly flailing limbs, and Lucy's reflexes are not yet lightning-quick.  She assures me that they will be soon, and that "when her day comes" Maddie will have some explaining to do.

 

The colic is over, only to be replaced by constant sibling tension over decisions between "Yo Gabba Gabba" and Dora.  On this particular morning they both agreed that some distance was a good idea.

So that's it for today!  I have some hilarious videos we took over the weekend that I was going to post today, but I have a date with Don Draper.  And I am just not the kind of woman who keeps Don Draper waiting.