Brian is great for...

I was thinking about this today and these are my thoughts.
1. To play all crazy like with my kids...He plays differently with Madison and Abby than I do or ever would. How would I ever know that Madison loves to be thrown 10 feet in the air, thrown on the bed, scared out of her mind, drive the car 'all by herself'. No, it takes Brian to do that.
2. To bounce ideas off of. He just sits and listens as I sort everything out by rambling on and on and on and on late into the night. He never tells me he is tired and needs to go to bed, he just falls asleep:-)
3. To instill in the kids a love of books and of reading among other things. Example...when I put Madison to bed, I read 1, maybe 2 books if she cries for it, sing her one song, say her prayers, brush her teeth (if she's not too against it) and put her to bed. Brian on the other hand likes to get her to scream in delight or laugh for about 20 minutes straight before he even attempts to brush her teeth, change her diaper, put her in PJ's, read her anywhere from 5-20 books, sing her every song she requests, help her say her prayers, and...ok, so that's about it. You can see why when given the choice of daddy or mommy to put her to bed it is always a resounding 'daddy', aka Brian.
4. Guessing...I never know where we will end up in a year or two or three. He is the master at gathering data and then making a decision (Abby didn't have a name for the first 7 weeks of her life). What does he want to be when he grows up? That's the big question on everyone's mind.
5. I need a break every once in a while and what better baby sitter is there than dear old dad. He's free, I don't have to worry if I get back to late, and he can usually figure out where the diapers, bottle, PJ's, snacks, etc. are. Did I mention he's FREE!
6. He is a great emotional support with photography, being a mom, wife, and whatever else comes my way.
Random thoughts I know, but I just thought I would write them down for posterity...ok, so maybe just blog stalkers:-)

May of 2006

Dan and Clare (and Mesia in utero) came to visit us and we loved it. This video brought back so many good memories. Thanks for coming to see us!!!! We love visitors.

Memories...

This was when Madison was a day or two old. where does time go?

Mosquito Bite...

Today Madison was scratching a mosquito bite on her face so I said, "Don't itch it."
M: "Why"
S: "Because if you itch it it might bleed."
M: "Take it off."

We have now come to the time when Madison says 'why' to everything instead of the now missed phrase 'oh'. It used to be as if I was all knowing and every answer was fact. Now I get 'why' after each explanation. Gone are the days of 'oh'. I look forward to when Abby accepts all my explanations before she gets to the 'why' stage.

Funny Day

One day this will be embarasing to Madison...but for now she was not embarassed at all. She demanded to have my pump right in front of my friends we were having a play date with. She pulled up her shirt, put the pump on, and sat there for about 5 minutes pumping. She got upset that no milk came out, but she wouldn't stop. It made us all laugh. She copies all I do.

A. was smiling at her mom. She is so adorable and looks like a good mix of her mom and dad. She is two months younger than Abby, so they will be good friends until they leave:-)

Madison fed Abby her entire bottle and kept saying, "I a big siser." She loves to feed Abby, change her diaper, and sing to her. She wanted to drink Abby's milk so she kept telling me "Abby not hungry." She asks me while I am feeding if it's her turn. I have to explain to her that she is a big girl and doesn't drink from mommy anymore. She keeps me laughing.

Who's on the phone?

Today Madison handed me the cell phone and said, "It's God." I was a bit caught off guard and said, "God called you?" She answered matter-of-factly, "yes." It was cute.

Play Date

My photography friend took these pictures. We were practicing in the back yard with our kiddos. It was fun and we got some good shots. Aren't they beautiful girls?

Fun on the Bed...

I love to capture Abby's smile. She has two dimples that show now. She is so happy (when she isn't teething:-)

Madison is a character. Today she told me, "come here." I asked her why and she said, "I need to talk to you." When I went over she was standing behind the fan and then pretended to take my order and she went to the piano and got an imaginary something and gave it to me. I promptly paid for it and she was happy.

Madison loves to do everything I do so she has to put deodorant "in her pits" as she calls them every time she sees me do it.

What's going on?

Abby is almost five months...boy, time flies when you are having fun!

Sisters

Madison loves Abby and has to see her and give her a hug every morning. She loves to get right up in her face and say "smile Abby. Are you happy? Hi, Abby."

She was so hyper and funny during these shots.

This is a face Madison pulls often and it's been tough to catch it on camera until today!!!!!

Abby Experiencing Grass for the First Time!

She loved to stick her tongue and touch the grass, but once it hit her nose or other parts of her face she made the face you see next:-) It was so funny to watch!

Heavysides Barn...

Isn't she a doll. She was actually excited to get her picture taken in front of the barn...I think because it had animals in it.

Here is Madison being silly. It was fun for her to show her personality in front of Carol. She was making the face at her:-)

Here she is looking at Doug and smiling. He has a soft spot in his heart for our girls and always shows Madison the animals when she visits.

Piano Pro!!!

You can see how old our piano is in these pictures. We are so grateful to have one in our house so Brian can play and bring so much joy into our home. Madison first danced to the music and then she wanted to play too...

Piano Jammin'

How fun is this? Brian pulled up Madison's chair to play the piano with him since she insisted on playing with him! It was so fun. I don't know if you can tell, but she is closing her eyes and moving her head and body around like Brian is. They are playing piano man. I wish we could have video taped it, but our camera died that has that feature. It was adorable.

She kept looking over at her daddy to see what he was doing so he could copy it. She loved it!


I love taking pictures of her hands. They are so cute and chubby:-) She just loved playing...have I said that enough. I hope she wants to take lessons one day. Maybe I could take with her and learn again. It's been a while:-)

Hampton Beach

We went with a bunch of friends to the beach...all were doctors or wanna be doctors and their wives. It was a blast. Abby cut her first tooth there. She wasn't very happy the entire time.

Madison got completely covered in sand. It was everywhere. She loved the beach and went wave jumping with Brian. She loves water!!!! She couldn't wait to go to the beach today.

Brian was building a sand castle with Madison and when the tide would come in it would wash away some of the castle and Madison would squeal in delight. She would then copy Brian in trying to get all the water out of the moat around the castle (sand hill really).

Here is Madison squealing in delight. She loves being with her daddy and doing whatever he is doing. She tried to take her boogie board in the water and surf the waves with Brian. She is fearless when it comes to water. We had fun and it was a beautiful sunny day. I am so grateful for Brian taking Madison in the freezing water and playing with her. He is such a good father and playmate:-)

Did I just eat that?????

Last night Brian and I were watching John Adams and I got up to get some graham crackers and milk...a favorite snack of ours. I opened a new package and set it on my knee and put the cup of milk between my legs. After eating two flats, I looked down and noticed honey brown tiny moving things all over my graham cracker. They were ants folks...the bag was covered in them and so was my knee. I immediately brushed off the ants and ran the bag to the trash. I then looked in my cup of milk and there were about 7 or so dead ants floating at the top. I freaked out of course and pictured ant crawling up and down my esophagus for the rest of the night. I still can't get over that I ate ants!!!! Not just a few either! The lesson to this story is to never eat graham crackers and milk while watching TV and if you insist, just check for insects:-)

Feet, Feet, and more feet!!!

I don't know what it is but I love feet. I love to capture moments of feet. So, Madison was trying to climb the playground equipment all the way to the top since she saw mommy do it. It was fun to watch her accomplish it even though it was a bit high.



This is Madison using body language and all to express her desire for me to push her on the swings...She is saying, "pweeeeease."

Madison still loves this car and pretends to go places in it. She usually just plays in our real cars and now knows how to open and close the doors and she just loves to drive.

Precious Moments

We had our friend over and he was so sweet with Abby. He sat down next to her and asked, "I put my arm around her?" I said yes and he did. He sat that way for a good 10 minutes. He is so cute with Abby. He always asks "Where your baby?"


Madison had fun with her friend today. Isn't he adorable? I just had to catch some play time moments and practice with my camera. I just loved the lighting for these ones. Their eyes say so much.

Frosty?

Today madison was sitting at the table and asked, "I want frosty on my cookie please." We just taught her the word frosting and she thought it was frosty. We just laughed and gave her some:-)

Brian the Mechanic!!!!

Brian and I worked so hard on the car yesterday and today and we got it all put back together. Brian pounded out the fender (I'll have to take some pictures so you can compare) and I did the headlight. Brian now knows how to change a tire and could join a pit crew if he wanted to. Who would have thought there were so many different thingamajigs that go on a car to keep it together. I have a new respect for VML (vulum) as we call him. It was what was on the license plate and since there are so many Honda Accords that look like ours, we looked at the lisence plate to avoided going up to someone else's car and setting off an alarm or be accused of breaking and entering:-)

6 hours later and bodies covered in bruises, mosquito bites, burns, cuts, and scrapes we can officially say we are done. What we do to save a buck or thousand:-)

"Trailer Park Trash"

Just add a few more cars, overgrown lawn, kids with shirts off and cut off shorts, and we would be the definition of white trash:-) We thought we would save a few bucks and fix our car that a deer jumped into. Not such a good idea with kids around. Between the gravel throwing in Abby's eyes, Madison locking herself in the car, dinner on the grass, and melt downs, we were able to get the car apart...

What someone might have heard if listening...

"Madison don't touch that. Get out of the car. Don't throw that at Abby. She's fine. Don't shake her."
"Where does this go? Are you sure it came out of that hole? Oh, that's what that tool is for. Can we take that off again? I forgot a bolt. What is this duck tape doing there? Pass me that thing..."

I wish I could say it was marriage bonding time/ FHE, but I think it did the opposite of bond if you know what I mean. I now see why some surgeons get upset at medical students or residents when working on a patient...ours was a 1999 Honda Accord with no feelings or life really and I got upset at Madison, Brian, the tools, the poor guy at the parts store, and if we had a dog I would have been mad at it too. Abby was the only one who escaped my wrath...She's just too cute and innocent (It helps that she can't talk or move and get into things:-)


If you look really close you will see the duck tape holding on the styrofoam bumper. We discovered this when we took the front bumper off...we just took the old duck tape off and put some new stuff on...great minds think alike:-)



Abby was the super-intendent and oversaw all the work. She's giving Brian a thumbs up:-)

Duck Taped Pants

Funny story...Madison always wants to do what Brian and I do. So this yesterday I wanted to wear my favorite pants, but they have holes in them, so I just duck taped them. Madison threw a fit insisting that she have duck tape on her shorts too. I finally gave in and put some on the back where I put mine. I totally forgot about it until that night when we had both taken off our pants and I saw the duck tape on both...it just made me smile and I had to take a picture of it.



Some of Madison's new quotes are:

M: "I go on a date."
S: "Who are you going to go on a date with?"
M: "Carter, Sister, Abby."
S: "What are you going to do."
M: shrugs shoulders and says, "play with Carter."

"I ride in an airplane yeserday (yesterday). It's a BIG one." (her eyes always get big when talking about airplanes)

Abigail 4 Mo.

While Madison was taking a nap today I decided to break out the camera with all the bells and whistles and try and get some cute ones of Abby. She is growing so fast...it goes by so much faster on the second one!

Madison at Birth

Abigail at Birth

SAME OR DIFFERENT?

Two Months Old!

This is Madison at two months old.

This is Abby at two months old. Do they look the same?