Madeleine makes the paper, again!

Madeleine makes the local paper again! It's accessible at The Lake Highlands People website, but here's the photo (she's the one on the left).

Presents!!

A bounce house!!!

So many blessings!

Merry Christmas!

From the Smiths!

Santa!

We put Everett into the Santa suit today! Here's a photo of Everett and then one of Madeleine from Christmas 2004!

Here's Everett in 2007


Here's Madeleine in 2004

Christmas at Mi and Pap's

We celebrated Christmas today at Mi and Pap's (Lee's parents). We had a wonderful lunch made by Aunt Rosalie (Lee's aunt) and then the present opening began! Here are Madeleine's favorite presents: (a cell phone and a tinkerbell costume)

Madeleine's famous!

Madeleine was in our local paper, The Lake Highlands People. She is in the red dress with red socks, laughing at the entertainer at a Christmas party for LHAECPTA, which stands for Lake Highlands Area Early Childhood PTA. That's a mouthful!

How do their minds work?

This morning I was snoozing in the bed and Madeleine came to cuddle.
She asked me, "Mommy, when will your tummy be little again?"
I replied, "someday..."
Then Madeleine said, "Before you die?"
I replied, "I hope so, I sure do hope so..."

He's Done It!

Sleeping through the night in crib - achieved! Naps in crib - still short, but getting better... Kids are amazingly adaptable!

Transitioning to the crib

Oh, how painful!!! Everett occassionally slept in his crib but in the middle of the night it just became easier to put him in his vibrating chair that he LOVES! Before I knew it, I was putting him in his chair anytime that he went to sleep.

So, after his two month visit and his four shots we figured this was it! I put him down for a nap in his crib after his doctor's visit and he cried until it was time to feed him again. Just so you know that we're not that mean, we do go in and do a diaper check and try to calm him down every 15 minutes but picking him up is strictly forbidden or else he gets confused (these are the Smith family rules).

Madeleine didn't sleep through the night until her two month visit. We thought that just as the four shots had made Madeleine tired, they would do the same thing for Everett. Everett has been sleeping through the night for about 2 weeks now, so this transitioning to his crib would be easy, right? WRONG! He cried nearly the whole night. After putting him in his bed at 11pm, I fed him at 2am, 5am, and 8am. After a nearly sleepless night, he didn't nap well yesterday because I kept putting in the crib (we were going cold turkey out of his chair). He only slept during the two car errands we went on (maybe 2 hours total all day of sleep).

Then, last night, a miracle occurred! He was finally exhausted. After putting him in his bed at 10:30 pm, he cried for 13 minutes and went to sleep until 6am!! We'll see how his naps today go... Right now he's still asleep in his car seat after taking Madeleine to school!

Is that funny?

Madeleine's new thing is to notice two words that sound alike and to say them both and then ask, "Is that funny?" For example, (sorry, this is the only one that I can think of because Madeleine just said this)
"Mommy, Mary is the mother of Jesus and Mary had a little lamb, is that funny, Mommy?" I say that it is funny, but maybe it is more like the English language is funny?

Our Sunday School class

One of my tasks at Lovers Lane UMC is to begin new Sunday School classes. Since there is always a need for more Sunday School classes for parents with young children, I found an amazing woman named Kimberly Shults who wanted to join with me in starting a new class. We named it Real Family and it is indeed our family at Lovers Lane UMC. Lee is there every Sunday and with my duties in worship I try to be there as much as I can. This past Sunday we had our 2nd Annual Christmas party. It has been amazing to see how God has grown this Sunday School class. For the 2nd year the children put on a nativity play. Last year Madeleine was a wise man, but this year she wanted to be an angel and when the play was over she didn't want to take her costume off! There must have been 20 children there!

Two Month Pediatrician's Visit

Everett is up to 8 pounds, 14 ounces and he is 23 inches long. While he was being measured the nurse said, "His head can't be that big, let me measure it again." She measured it again and it was that big. He has large brains I guess... He is rolling onto his side and loves to move his arms and legs all about.

How it all works

At dinner tonight Madeleine shared that she was scared of Spiderman.
Lee said, "Spiderman? But he's nice, he helps people."
Madeleine said, "I'm a little scared of Spiderman (which sounds like Piderman in Madeleine language). And she made the little motion with her hands (thumb and pointer finger close together)
Then, Madeleine got an inquisitive look on her face and asked, "Does Jesus live with Piderman?"
Lee told her no, but he couldn't remember where Piderman lived. He said that he thought it was Metropolis.

Madeleine vs. Styrofoam

The styrofoam won.


We got a new TV and new TV stand today! The CyberMonday sales drew us in... While Lee assembled the TV stand, Madeleine found the styrofoam and proceeded to tear it into tiny, tiny pieces. Upon discovering the resulting mess, I decided to vacuum the girl and all of her clothes (with the hose attachment)! It worked surprising well... I even vacuumed her hair!

Beginning to Smile

He's starting to get the hang of it...