No pacifier - no problem

As I wrote on Saturday, we took away Anna's pacifier after her second birthday. We told her that big girls no longer got pacifiers and the bowl in which we kept her pacifier no longer has one in it.

At the first nap on Saturday, she asked for it and didn't sleep. That night, she again asked for it. I told her that big girls didn't use pacifiers and she was a big girl now. Wanting to give her something in return, I told her that big girls got to read longer stories at night also and have read to her loner bedtime stories from bigger books each night. She asked for it again the next day, but hasn't asked for it since. The first night (Saturday) was the only night she had trouble getting to sleep. But, she hasn't napped since removing her pacifier.

The reading longer stories has worked well. A couple of nights, she has wanted to read her smaller board books that rhyme. Also, there is also the occasional night she barely wants us to read at all because she is so tired. She just says, "night night daddy, night night" and that is our hint to leave.

Anna has handled not having a pacifier extremely well. I think we took it away at the right time as she was able to make good decisions about it. That said, I am tempted to get rid of Madelyn's now so as to not deal with it in 1.5 years. :-)

Bye Bye pacifier

Heather and I are bravely attempting to rid Anna's dependency on her pacifier now that she is two years old. She was good with her pacifier, only taking it when going night night and giving it up as soon as she got out of bed. Unfortunately, breaking this sleep time dependency on it is still going to be difficult. She hasn't been sleeping well as is...without her pacifier it could get temporarily worse.

Anyway, today is the first day and I'll let you know how it goes.

So, why give it up at 2? One good reason was that the Avent pacifiers she was using only go up to 18 months. Also, she is well beyond when most experts say to get rid of it, at 6 - 12 months.

In the end, we wanted to stop it at 18 months but that is when Madelyn came around and Mommy and Daddy didn't have the will power. Instead, we made the rule that she could only have it at night time. Before that, we had it around to keep her from blowing up while out in public. In retrospect, we let her become dependent on it for our own convenience and its our responsibility to get her to stop, even if its inconvenient for us because she cries a lot.

Maybe we should stop Maddie now before she gets attached..she is 6 months..

While you were out...

I took a couple trips in the last week, one to Philly and another to Austin. During those trips I came home to some changes in my girls. Maddie started saying Dadadada as recorded here by Heather and Anna is now able to go through her whole color book and name all of the colors. Previously, Anna could only name "pink", which is fitting since that is what she wears everyday.

Its tough being away from home and missing these little milestones...but thanks to email and video recorders, I have at least been able to keep up to date on what they can do. That doesn't make it completely better..just not quite as bad. I have a trip to Fairfield CT and Hartford CT in the next two weeks...but those at least should just be day trips.

Moments with my little girls

I thought I would show a couple short clips of my little girls from the past week which were just some of the moments which I like to remember with my girls. After my post yesterday, I felt it was appropriate to share some of those Cinderella moments with my girls.

First, from last weekend we set out a sprinkler and Anna played in it for the first time. It was getting late and neither Heather or I felt like going to the pool...so the sprinkler seemed like a fun option to beat the heat. Here she is in a photo and video. I took the video from the deck while holding Maddie, you can hear Maddie talking the whole time:




Last night, I was on the ground playing with Anna and Maddie. When Maddie finished her tummy time, I put her in the Bumbo seat and she was thrilled by the Bunny to the point she was laughing. Here is a picture of Anna and Madelyn in their matching outfits and a video of Madelyn laughing at the bunny.



Note, Maddie still has her little Wubbanub that Lori sent us...its with her pretty much all the time.

I danced with Cinderella

I have been hearing a song often on the radio that just has been breaking me down. I think its lyrics are powerful for any father who has a little girl who may be struggling with the realization that their little girl is growing up so fast they will be dancing away from us so quick. I don't have a boy to know if its similar, but now that Anna is growing up I just realize how much more they need their daddy especially if you have a girl with a very sensitive spirit like Anna.

Back to the song..it makes me desire to cherish the moments I have with my girl more than I do now. It also reminds me to take a step away from what I am doing and hug her when I am busy with something else whether it be work or a chore around the house. The song is even more bittersweet knowing that the artist lost one of his daughters in May at 5 years old.

So, the song is called Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman. Here is a youtube video of his song with the story of the song at the end of the video...and of course what I stated above were the intentions behind the song:


Here are some of the lyrics:

So I will dance with Cinderella
While she is here in my arms
'Cause I know something the prince never knew
Oooooh, I will dance with Cinderella
I don't wanna miss even one song
'Cause all too soon the clock will strike midnight
And she'll be gone...

Monkey See, Monkey Do

Anna plays with Madelyn more and more since Madelyn reacts.




Here is a fun picture of them playing and it looks like Madelyn copied Anna's facial expression:

Anna's hair

Anna finally has enough hair that she doesn't look like as much of a toddler. Her hair is past her shoulders in length and because we decided to not give her bangs, we have been letting it all grow and have to be fairly diligent about keeping her hair out of her face using barrettes and bows. This has been a large learning curve for Daddy, who never had to put barrettes in a girls hair before. Also, Anna has very fine hair, making it difficult to gather u and get into a barrette. Anyway, you can see in the picture below how long her hair has gotten, even with those big curls.

Love her smile

Madelyn is at an age where I the thing that brightens my day the most is her smile. As she grows up, I look forward to the little hugs and holding hands I get with Anna, but for now I just am enjoying this beautiful little smile. Here it is in big version...

Anna taking pictures

Anna is either getting more imaginative or we notice it more because she has been amazing lately. One thing she did while I was in Phoenix was start using her Lego window as a camera. So, Daddy helped her fashion more of a substantial camera and she began taking pictures of Dadda, Momma, Sissy, Woof Woof, Elmo, and more. Such a cute little girl. Here is a picture of her with her camera:

Two Month old smiles

They look alike in my head, but in the photos I can't find one where they look alike. Here are some photos

Madelyn:



Anna:

Time flies faster than ever

People often complain that their kids grow up too fast so I am guessing this isn't news to most people. But, while Anna grew up pretty fast we are seeing Madelyn grow up even faster because Anna's growth was not as noticeable. Anna is a ton of fun to be around, play with, feed, talk to, cuddle to, and everything else. This of course means that Anna gets a lot of attention, so much so that we almost don't dwell on Madelyn's stages as much. I think this picture from before church this morning shows what fun and therefore distracting our little Anna can be:


Madelyn has been great lately. She is sleeping periodically through the night, she went from 10 PM to 7 AM yesterday night. This morning at church I played with her while she sat on my lap. Everytime I looked at her she would get a big toothless smile often with her tongue sticking out. Its sad to think that I haven't had nearly as many of those times with Madelyn as I have had with Anna. But, I think what it has done is make me appreciate the changes in Madelyn more. With Anna we spent a lot of time watching the grass grow. With Madelyn, I get less time but notice more the little changes. Whether its the smiles or the fact she now kicks the fish on her bouncer.


Even while capturing that cute Maddie moment on camera, Anna jumps in with a "Cheese" and a smile:


I am thankful for these two wonderful little girls and what fun they bring us.

Thoughts when away

Its mental images captured like these that I recall when I am away from my family and missing them. These precious times, like Heather playing paddy-cake with Anna and Madelyn, happen consistently around the house but we don't often get the opportunity to capture the fun. I think you can see the fun in Madelyn's expression and see why images like this stick out in my mind as special times I hold on to when away. I know things are not always this fun, but this is what I like to picture my family doing when I am away.



Lately I have had a lot of day trips leading me to run through books like crazy, spend long hours in airports, and be exhausted from the stress of traveling. Most of these trips have me leaving before 8 AM and getting back late the same day or the next day. Its definitely tiring...but I like to look at pictures of my wonderful girls when away and imagine them having a blast :-)

Peekaboo

Yes, even at 20 months Peekaboo at dinner is still fun







But it spreads the food out more... especially when Daddy makes something messy like sweet and sour chicken:

Today's matching outfit

Its a repeat, but still cute

Today's matching outfit

Another day another matching outfit..Here is today's selection on Maddie's two month birthday, Anna is 20 months old.

Today's matching outfit

Of all things, I missed today's matching outfit in my last blog. So we had a photo shoot and came up with this as the best shot:

Matching outfits

Heather joked the other day that Madelyn has two types of clothes, hand-me-downs from Anna or clothes that match Anna. I thought I would display some of the cute matching outfits they have had over time :-)

Sisters

Working at home today I was able to get a rare glimpse of Anna and Madelyn playing with one another. Since Madelyn is normally either sleeping, being held, or laying down fairly still it is not often that Anna takes time to spend time with her. She did for about 10-15 minutes yesterday, some of which I captured on camera. As you can see from the beginning, Anna becomes a ham for the camera right when it is on and says "Cheese!" She also takes care of her sister by covering up her belly. I didn't take the time to cut/clean up this movie, but figured I would drop it out here for your viewing pleasure.

Pool time is about the slide

Anna and I have been spending a lot of time at the pool lately. We go a couple weeknights and on the weekends, probably all together 4-5 times a week. Most of the time with Mommy and Madelyn, but sometimes its just Anna and I.


I have said in the past that Anna is a slide-girl...and fortunately for her, the slide at our neighborhood pool meets all expectations. Here is a picture of it:


I imagine Anna won't find the ocean as amusing since it doesn't have a big slide :-) I think next year Anna may be able to start doing the slide herself with us catching her. Its about 3.5' at the bottom, so right now we just hold her above the water when we go off the slide. Don't worry though, Daddy still gets enough speed up going down the slide....causing Anna to yell "Whee!" all the way down! Here Anna and I are sliding off the pool together:

Stonyfield Yogurt Picture Contest

Anna loves Stonyfield Yo-Baby yogurt, so we decided yesterday to enter their photo contest. Here is our submission to the contest:


Here was the runner up: