Cupcake picnic

Who needs hotdogs and hamburgers when you can have a cupcake and ice cream picnic?

YUMMY!

Decisions, decisions, there are just too many to pick from.

Helping herself

Lindsey is content to let you feed her with her arms down to the side. I love the snuggle time but we are going to be using these bottles for awhile I would like for her to get the idea of self feeding some how. I have been trying to get her to help us hold her bottle during feedings. With a couple ounces left the bottle is just right for holding.

Everyone else is doing the big girl bed

After a long time contemplating what may happen if we let Brooke have a big girl bed we gave in. I just have this fear of terrible bedtimes and nonexistent nap times. We have been moving some things around the house and decided to put her toy table up in her room to free up some space downstairs. Every room in out house has turned in to a storage room for Brooke and Lindsey's toys. Anyway, the toy table is right next to Brooke's crib and we soon realized that she could in fact climb out of her crib if she really wanted. So we thought, well maybe just maybe she will stay in her bed. We hyped it all up, making it seem like the best thing ever. Most importantly for me, telling her big girls can't get out of bed for naps and bedtime or we have to put the baby rail back up.

Tonight, Brooke helped Tim take apart the crib front and now my little girl is asleep in her big girl bed.

Nala was looking on and trying to get in on it. I know what she is thinking, hmmm that looks like a great height for me to jump in and sleep. Another place we are going to have to yell at her to get off. She thinks every piece of furniture is her bed and leaves the dog hair behind a s proof.

Night, Night my big girl!

Raw or baked?

I am pretty sure Brooke had so much raw cookie dough she didn't even want one when they came out of the oven. Just like her mama! Tim was the only one that couldn't wait for them to cook. I know my mom is flinching and would love to lecture me like she has done every time I eat raw cookie dough which is every time I make cookies....or cake....or brownies. Who wouldn't like to lick the bowl or beaters?

Random thoughts

Thanks to Amanda from Team Chack I had a few good laughs this morning and wanted to share
Random thoughts from people 25-35 years old..
-I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.-More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.
-Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.-I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink tohave fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?
-Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.
-That's enough, Nickelback.
-I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.
-Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on Facebook people that I do know, but I deliberately choose not to be friends with?
-Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.
-There is a great need for sarcasm font.
-Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f was going on when I first saw it.
-I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.
-How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
-I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
- I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.-The only time I look forward to a red light is when I’m trying to finish a text.
- A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.
- LOL has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say"
.- I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.
- Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a scantron test is absolutely petrifying.
- Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".
- How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?
- I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!
- Every time I have to spell a word o ver the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. For example, spelling your boss’ last name over the phone and saying "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"
-What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?
- While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.
- MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
- I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.
-Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty,and you can wear them forever.-
I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."
-I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
- Bad decisions make good stories.
-Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!
- Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?
-If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.
-Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....
-You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.
-Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.
-There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
-I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.
- "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.
-I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?
'-I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?
- I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
-When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.
-I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.
-Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...- As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
-Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.
-It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.
-I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not toanswer when they call.-Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.
-Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I’d bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...
-My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?
-It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.
-I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.
-I think the freezer deserves a light as well.
-I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.
-The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimated that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

Dr. appointment

I know, I know, a little late, slacker blogger.
Lindsey is 10 months and a few days old. I can't believe how fast the times flies. Some days I don't know where the time went and it is already time to get the girls ready for bed.
Lindsey had a well visit Monday and everything is going along smoothly.

Stats:
16 lbs 14 oz-just look at those rolls :)
26 inches long

Hib Vaccine

Pneumococal Vaccine

Her dose of Prevacid was increased from 7.5mg to 15mg daily. We did see some improvement over time with the 7.5 mg but not enough so we are hoping the increased dose will help out.
Happy as always until the dreaded 2 nurses walked in. Those darn mean nurses :) As many of you know 2 nurses=2 pokes. I'm just glad they do tag team and get it all over with a once. A few cries, 2 strawberry shortcake bandaids, and she still smiled at the nurses on her way out.
Here came the tricky part for both Tim and I. We are going out to pay the copay and set up the next appointment. The receptionist is talking to Lindsey and making googly eyes at her and the questions start.
R-How old is she?
Me-10months
R-Oh wow, I bet she is crawling all over the place
Me-nope not yet
insert: I have been pretty good about not feeling the need to tell every person we see out in public Lindsey's life story so I leave it at that. Now we are getting more and more comments about her size and milestones and I know it is only going to get worse when they expect that she should be walking. I usually can just let it go and it doesn't bother me.
As we walk from paying the copay to the woman who schedules the appointments I hear a patient say
P-Babies these days just don't do things as fast as they used to because they are never on the floor. How are they supposed to do anything when they are constantly in some sort of contraption? My kids, blah, blah.....
Once again with my back towards them I tried to just ignore the comment I just heard when really I had a million lines going through my head of what I wanted to say. I kept my mouth shut until we got out of the door, looked at Tim, and he immediately said, "I know, I heard it". Ugh, people!

Wordless Wednesday

Crazy over dance

Tim comes from a family full of dancers so it wasn't surprising to find out how much Brooke loves to dance. Kelly has been teaching her all sort of little kicks and dance moves. She was so excited when his mom found some cute little dance outfits and best of all, her own tap shoes. She wore one outfit all day Monday and another all day Tuesday. It is so funny to see her skinny little legs in leotards.

Tap dancing with her Grandpa

And take a bow, thank you, thank you

From pool to beach

Brooke was the girl I thought would never get used to the sand. She hated it so much last summer she didn't even touch the sand in her sand/water table. This year has been a totally different story. While at my parents we took a trip to the beach.

Loving the water, no surprise

Now that is a girl that loves the sand. I still can't believe she let me bury her.

My mom and Logan cooling off. Logan was in the water the entire time.

Christa watching on. She wasn't allowed to close her eyes or else Brooke would run up to her and yell, "surprise".

Look at those legs. You can just imagine what was up in that bathing suit and how much sand was in the bathtub.

Lindsey & Leah at Grandma's

Lindsey missed out on the beach and instead stayed at Grandma and Papa's for some napping, eating, and 1:1 Papa time even going out for a stroll.

I had to include these pics of Leah since I hardly have any of her let alone smiling :)

"Take picture me"

I am about to sound old but think of the things that our kids will never realize we didn't have. DVD players in the car for trips, cell phones, GPS, phones that were attached to cords or if you were lucky you may have had one of the stylin' cordless phone with an antenna so big you had to watch you didn't poke someone's eye out. Now lets talk about cameras. We had cameras that you had to wind the film manual, maybe you could get an instant Polaroid and watch the picture develop in your hands. I mainly remember picking up a roll of film and taking about 24 pictures letting it rewind and turning the film in at your local store for pickup in about 3 days. Some pictures you liked and others well eyes were closed, someone wasn't looking, or the down right made you look bad.
Brooke has this thing lately where she wants her picture taken all the time yelling, "take picture of me". Since I always seem to have a camera with me we have a lot of pictures. As soon as the picture is taken she is running over to see the results on the screen. I can take them over and over and delete any picture I don't want. Brooke just says over and over, "more, more, more" as I scroll through the many pictures of her and Lindsey. After the pool Saturday she wanted her picture taken with everything.

Where she thought of these poses I will never know. Some of them turned out down right cute for playing around in the backyard.

Pools and Diving Boards

I know, I know, like you haven't seen enough pool pictures for the summer. Tim likes to take the girls swimming at his Grandma's on the weekends while I work so I haven't been in the pool for awhile. Since my last swim, Brooke has found the diving board and since she has no fear couldn't wait to try it out herself.


I'm gonna do it....




























You better catch me daddy....


Lets go together






















Yikes, but oh the giggling that Brooke was doing. She was having a ball.























Lindsey's turn, minus the diving board


















Lindsey just loves to splash and kick













Or hang out in her floaty

Team Lindsey 2009

Join us October 4, 2009 at the University of Toledo for Lindsey's first Buddy Walk.

It's a day to celebrate individuals with Down syndrome and promote public awareness and advocacy. To learn more about Down syndrome and the Buddy Walk, visit ndss where you can sign up to be a part of our team. The deadline for pre registration with a discounted price is September 1.
Please help us achieve our goal through sponsoring Lindsey and donating to this wonderful cause. You can sponsor Lindsey using the pledge form or at First Giving which will remain on the sidebar.

We hope to see you October 4! Thanks for all your support.

Playdate fun

Playdates are always fun for the kids and the moms.

Lindsey playing with the other girls.

Brooke on the octopus, "spin me spin me".

Taking a plunge in the pool.

Sandbox fun.
There are definitely more boys in Brooke's age group we like to call the hurricanes. Brooke wasn't the only girl playing, Macina was there. So not me, but I was feeding Lindsey I and I just couldn't really pull my camera out until the end.

Lindsey just couldn't hang. It was her nap time, can you blame her :)

You know you have a toddler in the house when...

You know you have a toddler in the house when, you find the busy ball popper full of puffs.

You know this face, and that is never good.

That's right Brooke dumped the entire container of puffs in the ball popper. Luckily, I caught her in the act and was able to get to it before she hit the dreaded button. You know that one that would have played the music as the fan spewed puffs all over my kitchen.