Ten on Tuesday (posted on Wednesday)

1. I took these pictures of Mackenzie at Michael's game tonight. In the first one, Michael was holding her after the game. I took the other two during the game. She's sitting up so well! Tonight she sat up for the longest period yet.




2. The whole getting-Mackenzie-to-sleep-through-the-night thing hasn't been going as well as I'd hoped. But Sunday night, we had a breakthrough. Mackenzie only woke up once, around 1:30 am, and I put her binky in and she went back to sleep. But then last night didn't go as well. She only drank about an ounce before going to bed. Then she woke up three times and the last time, around 3 am, I fed her. I figured she might actually be hungry. And she was. She slept until 8 am after that.

3. Emma seems to be afraid of the dark. At least when she wakes up in the middle of the night. I need to replace the bulb in her night light and she woke up and completely freaked out. I'm not sure I'd like waking up to a pitch black room either. I moved the nightlight from the bathroom into her bedroom and all was fine. The chocolate milk helped too. Although it wasn't really chocolate. She hasn't seemed to figure that out yet. She calls all milk chocolate or strawberry whether it is or it's plain.

4. Emma helped Michael cut the grass Saturday.


5. I made banana bread tonight. Michael and Emma love it. Me, not so much. Although I do enjoy how yummy it makes my house smell.

6. Some of my favorite shows were cancelled and I'm bummed. Moonlight and New Amsterdam are not coming back next year. Neither is Shark, and I liked that, too.

7. I finished reading Stephenie Meyer's new novel, The Host. Oh, is it good! If you read it, let me know what you think!

8. I finished up 3 more pages tonight! (including one about picking out Emma's first Christmas tree. Yes, that one would be about 2 years old.)The to-be-finished pile is slowly getting smaller.

9. I do not have a free Sunday until July 19th. Seriously.

10. Tomorrow I'm making on of my favorite childhood, and adulthood, dishes of my mom's. I've yet to make it so it tastes like her's. Maybe this time I'll get it right.

Mother's Day

I had a fantastic Mother's Day. It started off with cards and a present from Michael and the girls. I did the layout on the cover of the current Simple Scrapbooks and my so very thoughtful husband framed it for me. Tonight he hung it in my scrap room. I love it. It's not something I ever would have done. I love that he really thought of me. That he picked out something meaningful. That he got a gift that reflects on something -scrapbooking - so very important to me. That he knows me. I love him.

After church, Michael's parents and my mom came over and we went out for a late lunch. My sister sent a gift with my mom, a sort of charm bracelet. It's made of 4 tiny picture frames, if that makes sence. I printed out the pictures tonight and once I get them in I'll take a picture of it. I'll take a picture of the frame too.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from today.

Tomorrow (or, knowing me, Tuesday) I will post some of the humorous attempts at getting the above pictures. No surprise here, they all contain Emma making funny faces or throwing herself around. :)

Turning Blond

We've been noticing lately how blond Mackenzie's hair is. Obviously, I knew it was a lot darker when she was born but it wasn't until I pulled up this picture:


That I realized just how dark it was. That picture was from December 14th, she was about 6 weeks. This picture:


Is from Wednesday. So much lighter! Lighter than Emma's ever was. Maybe they won't look so much alike after all. :)

PS, Thanks to those who commented on my Ten on Tuesday post. Thanks to you, I don't feel like a complete idiot for asking people to leave a comment. I thought for sure I'd ask, no one would respond and I'd look stupid. That being said, I know there are a lot more of you out there who read this! For example, I wonder who's in < insert Australia, Iowa, Delaware, Connecticut and a number of other places here> and do I know you? How'd you find my blog? Do we have mutual friends? It intrigues me. Seriously, it does. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Ten on Tuesday

1. We're getting Papa Johns Pizza Thursday for dinner. Why? Because a large 1-topping is only 23 cents! Thank you
Papa Johns for making fun of LeBron.

2. Abby is back from Uganda. Marty, Abby and Claire came over Saturday night and we got to see lots of pictures of cute little Malachi.

3. We made progress with Mackenzie on the whole sleeping through the night thing. Thursday night, I didn't feed her. She fussed on and off for 20 minutes and I gave her the binky twice but she went back to sleep. That was what happened the next few nights, with her crying for 10-15 minutes each night but going back to sleep. Until last night. She was up at 1:30, 3, 3:30, 4:30 and 4:45. That's when I broke down and fed her. Hopefully tonight goes better.

4. Happy belated National Scrapbook Day. I didn't scrap much but I did buy 92 pieces of Bazzill. They were 4/1.00 at my lss. This made me extra happy since I scrap 8.5x11 and have to buy 12x12 and cut it down. Paying .25 cents a sheet makes me feel a bit better about wasting so much cardstock. I think I'm good for a while now.

5. Have you guys tried Stumble Upon. One of the coolest sites ever. Basically what it does is finds sites that interest you that you might never find yourself. You select your interests, download the toolbar and then start exploring. It's so fun. If anyone wants to try it, my username is esweeney. You can see what your friends like, recommend sites, rate them, etc. It's addicting. Some of the things I've seen so far: a dollar bill folded into a shirt, a sandstorm in Iraq,and a google-ish site for the Bible. Plus...

6. Bembo's Zoo It creates animals out the letters in its name. Tomorrow I'm going to bring Emma down so we can play. You have to try it out. It's amazing.

7. Gave Mackenzie Zwieback toast for the first time yesterday. She definitely liked it.

8. Found her turned around in her crib after her nap today.


9. For those who took the poll in yesterday's post, Mackenzie is on the left, Emma is on the right. Almost everyone got it right. I know they're not exactly alike, but it amazes me how similar they look. I wish I could put my finger on what it is that's different. But I can't. If anyone knows, please share.

10. I'd love for those of you who read but don't post comments to leave one here. I know you're out there! (See, you voted in the poll so now I know you exsist.) I'd really love to know who you are and check out your blogs if you have one. So, please, please, please leave a comment! Not to leave out those that do usually leave comments - please leave a comment, too. :)


Happy Tuesday!

Who's who?

Can you tell? One of these was taken Thursday and the other back in August 2006.


Cast your vote:

Half a year already

Mackenzie is 6 months old today! She had her check-up this morning and she's 15lbs, 9 oz and 25 1/4 inches long. She's grown about 3 pounds and 1 1/2 inches since her 4 month check-up. She's on a pretty good schedule, now. Sleeping 12 hours at night, usually going down without a fuss, eating 4 times a day and napping twice a day. The only negative is she's still waking up to eat at least once in the night, usually between 1 and 2 am. Her pediatrician said today I really need to break that habit, since she doesn't need to eat at night. Eastier said than down when breaking said habit requires letting her cry herself back to sleep and Emma's room is right next door. We're going to try tonight, though.

She doesn't have any teeth yet, but with the way she's drooling and chewing on things, they've got to be coming soon! She's getting closer to sitting up, can roll both ways and still loves her feet. She likes to be in her exersaucer and we just tried the jumper the other day. Once she figured out what to do she loved it.

Took some pictures today. Although she wouldn't smile for any of them. Could be those 3 shots she got today - they made her a tad fussy.

(The pictures that were here will be back in a few days.)

Ten on Tuesday

(I decided to steal Marie and Missy's Ten on Tuesday idea. Hopefully it'll get me to blog more. Thanks girls!)


1. Have you seen that Pediasure commercial where a mom and her daughter are in the grocery store and the little girls says, “But I don’t like ____” at everything the mom picks up? That was Emma today. She loves green beans. Yet this morning at Giant Eagle when I said I was going to get some she immediately said, “I don’t like green beans.” Well, yes you do, I'm getting them and you'll eat them. I'm certainly not buying Pediasure! She eats what I make and that's that. So far it's worked. She's a fabulous eater.

2. Emma was playing with her chunky animal puzzle Saturday and I suggested she line them up and take them for a “walk”. She looked at me and quite seriously said, “Good idea, Mommy”.

3. I finished 6 scrapbook pages last night. I have a bad habit of starting pages and not finishing them. Sometimes all I get done is putting the picture down, other times I complete it except for the journaling. I probably have 20 – 30 pages like this. But last night, I finished 6 of them. One going back almost 2 years! (I added some of them to the slide show on the left.)

4. Mackenzie can sit up on her own (leaning forward quite a bit) for up to minute at a time before she flops over. We’re practicing though.

5. It’s a busy week. We had a play date with my friend Lisa and her two girls yesterday morning then visited my friend Mary and her daughter last night. For the rest of the week, we’ve got baseball games, a luncheon for me, my niece’s confirmation, Mackenzie’s 6-month check-up/visit from my mom and trips to the library and fitness center.

6. I’m reading The Strong-Willed Child (And in case you wondered, the strong-willed child in question is not Mackenzie.) If anyone has any parenting book suggestions, please pass them on.

7. Emma (speaking of strong-willed child) is getting quite bossy. As in “Mommy, stop talking.” “Mommy, don’t sit there!” “ Mommy, don’t sing.” Another common thing I hear all day long is “I don’t want to _____.” Could be anything from taking a nap to putting on her shoes.

8. I’m trying really hard to not drink pop during the week. Too bad I already failed and drank one last night while complete those 6 layouts. But so far so good today!

9. I want this IKEA bookcase in black/brown for the playroom side of our family room. It can hold Emma’s books, our books, toys, my scrapbook albums, photo albums and some picture frame while also cleaning up that space. Love it.

10. Michael hung this up last night for me. An early-birthday present from my in-laws that I picked out a couple weeks ago. Our daily reminder to pray more often. Something I definitely need to do. Also a reminder to start praying with Emma, teaching her a simple prayer for dinner and bedtime.

rolling the other way

This little one rolled over from back to front Friday. And I missed it. My mom was in Mackenzie's room with her when she rolled over. She's been coming so close lately, just always got her arm stuck. But Friday she did it. I couldn't believe it. Michael came in and put her on her back and she did it again. Yay, Mackenzie! (Picture from Saturday, she's being held by Grandma Sweeney. We were at Michael's game.)

Friday in pictures

My mom came over today. We went to the outlets this morning, lunch then Kohls. Got Emma the cutest pajamas as well as some play clothes. Including the perfect shirt - it's from Osh Kosh and says "Catch me if you can." Between that and the "Chatterbox" shirt, you know all there is to know about her. She talks non stop and is always on the go.

When we got back this afternoon, we took the girls out on the deck. Emma went immediately for the bubbles of course.

Notice Mackenzie's face. She doesn't seem particularly interested or excited about the bubbles.

This is the face Emma made after she tasted the bubbles. This was not the first time she tasted them. Nor was it the last this afternoon. She kept doing it! Over and over and over.

Cute butterfly sandals, courtesy of Target.

Oh, I forgot, there's one more shirt required for a complete Emma description:

She was very proud of the bubble pile she made using her new hippo bubble blower, a gift from my friend Stephanie. She stomped all over them and then created a new pile.

Blowing bubbles in my face. This amused her to no end.

First we have the hippo bubble blower in action. (Again, Mackenzie wasn't all that into the bubble blowing.)

Decapitation

For Christmas Michael got me a necklace with two birthstone charms representing Emma and Mackenzie. I loved it. It was the perfect gift for me. I'd always wanted something like this but I'd actually never told him before. He knows me well. I treasure it.

This is what Emma did to said necklace Monday while I was cutting her bangs. I had her sitting on the bathroom counter and since she was having a hard time looking straight at me, I told her to look at my necklace. Big mistake. She pulled on the charms. I told her to stop. She pulled again. And decapitated it. Or would it be a reverse decapitation since the body came off and the head stayed on? Either way, the charm is dead.



I was really upset. And Emma picked up on it. When I "yelled" at her in a very quiet and serious voice she burst into tears. Never has that happened. Usually when she's in trouble she's laughs. Really, she does. But this time she cried and cried. So we sat on the bathroom floor and were sad together. Don't be too concerned though, after about 2 minutes she was up to no good again. Little stinker.

Meet Matt

He's the one with the orange arrow pointing towards him. Apparently Matt reads this blog. Still haven't figured out what he finds so interesting.

Hi Matt. And Scott. And Maggie.


Maggie and Mackenzie. Maggie's graduating this spring and as I already told her, I'm very sad. Happy for her, of course, but sad.


After the game.

A Rainbow

Emma saw her first rainbow Friday afternoon. She was absolutely fascinated by it. And not too happy when it faded away. She's been talking about it every since.



In case you didn't see it in the first picture, it was actually a double rainbow. :)

Double-Header

Michael's team had a double-header Saturday. They played at Kent State, something they were able to do last year as well. And they won them both. :)

And now, the day in pictures.

Mackenzie and Grandpa Sweeney.


Emma was loving the rocks and kept bringing them to Grandma Sweeney.


On our walks. They had a short walking path near the stadium. According to Emma it had mountains (hills) and rivers (small stream) and a bridge (small foot bridge across the stream) and she loved it.


See the slight pink in her cheeks? I won the Mommy-of-the-Year award Saturday by not putting sunscreen on her face. She had quite the sunburn by the end of the day.


Talking to Daddy between games. She got very excited every time she saw him.


She loves apples. How do I know this? Because the only way she could eat them was to sit. And she sat. Amazing.


On our walks, I mainly got pictures of Emma's back. So I started walking backwards to get some of her face when she decided she needed to do exactly what I was doing. Which meant I got more pictures of her back.

She took a 2 hour nap during the second game.


The coach in action.

This is how I found her

this morning. Sometime between 6 am when I fed her and 7:45 am when she woke up, she turned herself sideways in her crib. Perfectly 90 degrees from where she started. And she seemed quite proud of herself, too.

5 Months

Mackenzie is 5 months old today!

I haven't taken any pictures yet today, but here are two from this past Wednesday. Which just happened to be the day she rolled over. :) And I was able to get pictures of it. I was taking some of her holding her head up (like the one below) and was able to get shots of her rolling over when it happened. She's only rolled over a couple times since then, as it does require quite a bit of work. At least that's how she acts. She rolls over once and then acts like she's too worn out to try again.


She's really liking the exersaucer now. Her feet now touch the ground so she likes to spin around and she can reach most of the toys. Plus, she's relatively safe from Emma in there.


Some highlights of my little 5 month old munchkin:

- She's a drooler. Crazy amounts of drool come out of her mouth. We had a few really rough days last week so I thought she was teething, but so far there's nothing. Maybe soon.
- She's a talker. I fear she'll be just like her sister. A chatterbox who never shuts up. She's learned to make this trilling/gargling sound and does it over and over. Also gaa and oooh. A couple weeks ago she woke up around 4 or so and was awake for an hour talking and practicing her fun new sounds, every once in a while laughing.
- She prefers baby food over formula. Sometimes she'll refuse a bottle but then eat a whole container of baby food. She definitely doesn't drink enough during the day. Unfortunately I can't force her to drink it. And not giving her baby food doesn't make her drink more formula. She just doesn't drink it. Which leads me to...
- She is still waking up to eat in the middle of the night. I'll be honest - it's annoying. If I were still nursing, it wouldn't be so bad, but getting up at 1 and 4 to make bottles is, like I said, annoying. Thankfully, the last two nights have been slightly better. She only got up once the night before last, and while she got up twice last night, only once was to eat, the other was for her binky. So hopefully, we'll soon be over this!
- Because she's really not a great sleeper. I guess I was really lucky with Emma, she was a fantastic sleeper. Mackenzie is getting better though. She's taking longer naps in the afternoon, although her morning naps are still pretty short. And she's going to bed easier, less fussing. If we're having a good night she'll sleep from 8:30 pm - 8am or so. But that's not necessarily the norm. She's yet to sleep straight through the night. She's always up at some point either for a bottle, binky, or crying just because.
- She loves peek-a-boo. Makes her laugh every time.
- Loves her chicken..
- Loves her sister. She'll watch everything Emma does, smiling and laughing at her.
- Is getting to be a little chunk! :) At her four month appt she was 12 lbs, 11 oz and was 23 3/4 inches long. And she's got a big head, just like her sister. While she's in the 25-5-% for height and weight, she's in the 75-90% for head circumfrance! She's finally out of all her 0-3 month clothes and already some of her 3-6 are getting tight.
- Likes her binky, but likes sucking on her fingers just as much. And chewing on her arm.
- Snores. Loud.
- Being cradled and having her but patted calms her down.
- Is a very content, happy baby. Doesn't get upset all that often. Likes to watch people.
- Likes to be sitting up, whether in your lap, the highchair, exersaucer on Bumbo. Always prefers that over laying down.

And so you can experience the happieness that is Mackenzie smiling and laughing, here she is. (That lovely voice you hear playing peekaboo is mine, just ignore it.)