I am officially "that" parent

The one that stands in line for 3 hours outside in super cold and windy weather just to get her kid a spot in a preschool... that's right.... A PRESCHOOL!!!! but it's a good school and their pre-k program is great so it's definitely worth it. She will be one of the youngest going into Kindergarten at only 4 years old (since she was born in August) and I'm really hoping this preschool will make that step easier for her since I don't want to hold her back.

She is already super excited. On of the shows she watches is "Cid, the science kid" and she got so wide eyed when I told her I got her signed up for school like Cid!

She starts in September and I really hope she likes it there :)

Home Sweet Home!

We finally got the keys to our new house and can't wait for the truck to get here on Tuesday!!

Can't wait to have it all set up and finally be done!

A few cell phone pictures:

Isla at 15 months

Isla finally learned to say "No" and she likes to practice it A LOT!! I have to say it's pretty darn cute, especially when she pretends like she will give you something and when you reach out for it, she will pull it back, say "No, no, no" and run away.

I'm sure it won't be this cute much longer :)

She is doing great with not having to nurse to sleep and she will actually let me put her in her bed and leave before she falls asleep. We have a cute routine of her blowing kisses for everyone, saying "nigh, night" and cuddling with her baby and froggy.

She has a mind of her own and will definitely let you know when she disagrees... very loudly!

She adds new words to her vocabulary daily and has a pretty extensive animal sounds repertoire. She can now go like a duck, dog, cow, sheep, elephant, tiger, monkey and horse

She loves to imitate Maja in everything and wants to do everything her big sister does.

She can "shush" you but instead of putting her finger to her lips, she puts it to her nose!!

Pretty sure she will potty train at the same time Maja does. She can already tell me she needs to poop before she does and definitely once her diaper is dirty

She LOVES Kosmo. She spends her days chasing him around, holding his tail while he tries to walk away, sitting on him and giving him hugs.

When she wants to read a book she will wiggle her tushie right in your lap or in front of you when you are laying down.

She loves blowing rassberries on my belly and thinks she is being hilarious

And so it begins...

We have started looking for Maja's first school... a preschool of course :). Registrations for Fall begin now around here and given we have been out of town since the first of the year, we haven't done all the research we would have liked but so far we have one candidate that seems like a great option. It's the ONLY one I could find in the area that is non-religious and one of my friend's son goes there. She has nothing but great things to say about it but she did mention it's really hard to get a spot. I hope we do if we go ahead with it. 

They are having an open house next week so we will check it out. 

I can't believe we are going to sign her up for school!!! I even drove by what will be her Elementary school yesterday... she will be in Kindergarten in two years!! 

Back to square one

I don't know how much I've shared about Maja's health issues but we have been dismissed time and again by her old pediatrician and when she finally took us seriously and decided to refer us to a specialist it was time to move away.
We got her back in to see the new Dr here and she didn't waste time in getting tests and referrals going. That feels good... at least something is being done.

I took Maja to the hospital the other day to get poked :(. She was obviously not happy about that but the bag of M&Ms definitely helped her feel better

Let's go swim in the river

that's what Isla thought I guess... about 2 seconds after this picture was taken she walked right into the water. Didn't even stop when she got wet... just kept on going. I had to grab her by her hood and pull her out. She is a fearless

They both enjoyed throwing rocks in the water

I can't wait until this summer when they can actually go in the river and splash around :)

Hello WA

We made it back to the Tri-Cities and I was pleased to feel the 50+ degree weather :). Nice change after the freezing temps of the Midwest.

Maja missed her babies. I guess she also weaned them during her time away :)

Kid has good memory

We have always made a point of not sitting Maja in front of the TV. We figured we only have so much time before she will live happily without it so may as well take full advantage, right? IN the last few months we have let her watch a few random shows on the weekends and the occasional movie but ever since we got to Green Bay and have spent several days in a row stuck at the house, PBS has been on a lot. It pretty much saved my sanity :)

What's pretty amazing is how fast she caught up. She can name every single character and picks up other random things that I would never think she would.

She is turning into a bit of a couch potato though so we will have to make sure to go back to healthier TV habits when we are settled in our new house:

The other packers...

Just about everyone in this town has been going nuts over Packers the football team while I've been giddy about the kind that come to your house and get everything ready and into boxes for you so you don't have to do it.

I have to say that after moving cross country a few times before, it's been not having to do it all myself :)

The girls were pretty interested in the giant truck. Tomorrow come the actual moves who will load the truck and take it all to WA

Go Pack Go!

So the Packers won the Super Bowl this weekend and I got the girls each a jersey. Maja was pretty excited about hers and didn't want to take it off :)

Sometimes I don't believe they are sisters

They are soooo different!

We tried finger-painting the other day and while Isla loved it, Maja did her best to stay as clean as possible freaking out the entire time "Oh no, isla is getting messy. Oh no, Mommy get her". She didn't want to do it and when Isla grabbed her arm... well... this happened (add a VERY loud whiny "I got messy" to it)

Monkey girl is at it again

She climbed up there all by herself... and didn't even use anything to step on. Just pulled herself all the way up until she could swing her leg around... at 15 months... yeah, we are doomed

Happy 2.5 years Maja

To celebrate I put pigtails in her hair for the first time today :)

She really liked them

Pupcakes and Bubbies

AKA Cupcakes and Bunnies.

I love this learning how to talk stage... in both of them.

Isla is obsessed with Maja's Bunny (Bubbie) and she recently started saying her name. Maja has been putting sentences together and sometimes the results are hilarious. One of her recent ones sounds just like "I'm a little horny"... yeah, you can imagine the look Jeff and I gave each other when we heard her say that... out in public! Turns out she was saying was "I'm a little hungry". And no, she wasn't actually saying horny... just her funny ways were making it sound just like it. And yes, we have been making sure she knows the proper pronunciation :)

She also has the most random outbursts. When I had this photo open on my computer, she said "Maja pooping"

They can take care of themselves :)

This morning while I was going to the bathroom, Maja dragged a chair to the counter in the kitchen, climbed up and helped herself and Isla to a bread roll. When I came out, I found them both sitting at their little table eating. Maja was very proud of herself. And then they also fed some to the dog :)

Sorry for the super blurry phone picture but that's all I had handy

Snack time

They are really enjoying rediscovering all of their toys. The new house will have a playroom for them so I'm sure they'll  be over the moon with everything in one place

you can see Maja's swollen top lip here... she was pushing a stool in the kitchen and tripped and fell head first over it. There was quite a bit of blood... I actually thought she may have lost a tooth or at least chipped it but thankfully that didn't happen. She does look so grown up here doesn't she?

Yeah... not ready

We know the end of the paci era is coming soon for Maja. For now she only takes it to sleep and usually only just to fall asleep and later spits it out but it still needs to go away for good.

Last night I decided to test the waters. I told her that all her pacis were dirty and she could have one the next day. Surprisingly she seemed somewhat ok with it since she only asked to have a couple of times but having her mouth not occupied with something, she attempted every single stalling technique she could think of:

"Mommy, I need more kisses"
"Mommy, I need a tissue"
"Mommyyyyyyy"
"I want to sleep in Mommy's bed"

and more.

Eventually she started melting down... still not asking for the paci but very unhappy that I would put her back in her bed. I tried a few different approaches and learned that Maja does not handle well the whole "put her back in bed without saying a word" thing. She didn't like that one bit. The fact that I was not talking to her put her over the edge so I shifted gears.

I put her in my bed and called it a night.

We did have a bit of a rough patch later on when I tried moving her to her own bed after she fell asleep. She still never asked for a paci but she wasn't happy that I expected her to be in her room. Finally I had another little talk and that's when she asked me to rub her head and sing the "I love you baby" song, a little something I made up and have been singing to her every since she was itty bitty baby.
Eventually she calmed down enough and I was able to leave. I'm still surprised Isla never woke up though... she was right next door and Maja got quite loud.

In the end she did spend the whole night without her paci but I don't think it was worth it. I learned a few better ways of doing it for when we are ready to take it away for good but I think for now things are fine the way they are. Maybe after we move into the new house I'll think about it again.

The Fab 8 turns 1!

Remember Isla's little friends who were all born around the same time?

We had a little playdate here tonight and took another photo of them. We are missing 2 who couldn't make it though

Oh, by the way....

We are buying this house after all...

We originally found this place months ago and loved it but once we looked at the other house we felt a little star struck I think. It was a little newer (2008 vs 2004 or something like that) and more updated obviously. Plus we really loved the exterior of the house.
But once we looked at a list of pros and cons... well it was obvious this was the house for us. It has what we need and we can always update appliances sometime down the road, right?

Bonus.. the sellers didn't even bother countering our offer so we got it for way better of a price that we were expecting. This wouldn't have happened with the other house that is still owned by the builder.

We are closing on the 23rd of February!

They start so young...

Both girls love talking on the phone... both real and pretend phone. Maja walks around with an old cell phone or pretty much any toy that she can put up to her ear and actually has a conversation with herself: "Oh yeah, Aha, No tomorrow, Ok, All right, Bye". It's too cute! She repeats a lot of what she can hear me say :). If you ask her who she is calling, she will tell you and use that person's name in her little pretend conversation. Isla does the same thing although she obviously doesn't talk that well... she just acts the same.

I have a feeling long and expensive phone bills are in our future.