Meadow's 1st year of school

First day versus last day. The difference is astonishing to me. Year one of Meadow being a student is complete!

          

First Day of School

(1 baby= real camera)

                                                                  Last Day of School
                                                            (2 babies= real life= iphone)

3 Months, Giggles and Grins

Guess who is 3 months old? Milan turned 3 months on the 17th of May and I can genuinely say at this age, she is all about giggles and grins. She is such a smiler.....it amazes me! Very different from Meadow at this stage....who was much more serious and occasionally did a sweet little grin. She was shy and did not "turn it on" for the camera. Milan though, it's like she can't control it. She looks at you and boom...she starts laughing. When I find more time I'll expand on all of the details of Milan at this stage, but overall, she's eating well, sleeping well (still up once or twice for a snack), and absolutely loves to be engaged. She has gotten better about taking her pacifiers, but does not enjoy them nearly as much as her hands. She sleeps through just about anything except one little thing. If you are holding her and she is snoozing, under no circumstances do you sneeze. I can do just about anything else (same with Meadow) and Milan is just fine. So, keep the sneezing to a minimum please! ;) Here is my sweet baby doodlebug at 3 months...(most of these photos came off of my phone as I'm sure you can tell).

A little late for the cinco de mayo party

Oh so much fun with her big sister

Magenta is a new and favorite color

Giggle, giggle, then giggle some more

Our little cupcake

Wishing daddy good luck on his Oral Boards!

More to come soon on Milan's baptism and Mother's Day!

Sisterly love

Every morning now, Meadow wants to hold Milan. She holds her, holds her hand, lies next to her and of course then gives her a big hug. She insists she can do it on her own, and slowly but surely she is. She really is embracing her role as a big sister these days.

                                      

Some of the things I hear Meadow say to Milan as I'm putting my makeup on (she doesn't think I'm listening)...
"Good morning Milan, did you have sweet dreams and a happy sleep?"
"What do you want to do today? You want to wear a beautiful dress?"
"Are you ok, you need bottle? You need pacifier? Here, Milan, here..." (and then proceeds to try and make that pacifier stay in Milan's mouth)
"Milan, you're my baby sister. Did you know that?"
"I so proud of you."

                                     

Meadow is 2 1/2!

At 2 1/2, Meadow definitely acts like a very grown up little girl. She is an absolute doll and makes me laugh every day. I find myself constantly smiling back at her in my rearview mirror and asking, "Wait, what did you say?" just to make sure I heard her right. I just love her little expressions right now, so that is the focus of this post.

First, I must do a comparison of Meadow one year ago at 18 months and this year at 2 1/2, because I just happened to get this shot on Palm Sunday, twice now! 

Now on to the signature little things. She definitely has her own way of speaking now, carrying on her own conversations with us and her "friends" around the house. Her favorite friends right now include her baby sister doll, baby "Belle" doll, Snoopy (big and little), Winnie the Pooh (big and little), and her Cinderella doll (big and little). It's all about the "Mommy" version and the "Meadow" version of just about every doll she has. So naturally, she is most interested in those that she has two of, one being bigger than the other. We like to build a pretend Starbucks with our green floral ottoman and set up her friends for their tea party. Everyone gets a cup of tea, a pink birthday cake pop, and a chapstick.

Meadow is really into pretending in general right now. Every doll or stuffed animal friend has an assigned role in whatever we are doing. In the bath, she has named each of her rubber ducks to be the friends she met in swim class recently. The big duck is the teacher, of course. The two Ariel swimming dolls are the "Mama Ariel" and the "Meadow Ariel"- one significantly bigger than the other.

Speaking of Ariel, we took Meadow to Disney on Ice this year. The picture quality isn't the best, but she did indeed love her magical day with the princesses.

                                        

Accessorizing is a another new thing. She took a while to become interested in it. It's always been an off and on sort of thing. And even now, it's not that consistent, but she definitely has her favorite items. 

You will notice that in the grocery cart picture, she accessorized with socks on her hands. She has this thing about wearing her "mittens" around, pretty frequently, even though there is only one picture to show for it. I think she likes to be "warm and cozy" or "nice and toasty" as she says. I consider her relationship with the mittens similar (but not nearly as serious) as that with her beloved purple blanky. Both keep her warm- and she loves it. Today it was about 85 degrees and she wore her pumpkin socks as mittens. She tells me they are her favorite because they are the biggest and coziest (tall socks, that is, offering greater coverage). And I wonder why she makes me smile? :)

I've been making notes of some of the cute things she says....

Meadow: (bringing me the yellow and green jelly beans) "Mommy, I can't like yellow and green, I can't, I just can't." She says "can't" for "don't" and I'm intentionally not correcting her because it actually sounds nicer. After all, she isn't saying she doesn't like it.....but rather, she would if she could, she just can't. Haha. ;)

Typical conversations....

Me: "Meadow, mommy's car is way too small, should I get a new, bigger car?"

Meadow: "Noooo, not a big car. A tiny car. They're so cute."

Me: (walking too quickly around the house for Meadow to keep up)

Meadow: "Mommy, wait a minute! Now wait just a minute!"

Me: "Meadow, would you like some yogurt?:

Meadow: "Yes. It's my favorite, I like it, it's the best. I want boo berry. Booberry please mommy."

Me: "Uh oh Meadow, Milan is crying..."

Meadow: "It's ok Mawan, we'll get you your bottle. Don't be sad. Be happy!"

Some kind of accident happens (i.e. water spills on the floor)....

Meadow: "Oh no, that's very terrible, what are we going to do?"

Me: "It's ok, we just have to clean it up!"

Meadow: (Enthusiastically) "OKAY!! Let's do it. (Begins singing) Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!"

At school one morning saying bye bye...

A little girl in Meadow's class approaching Milan: "Oh, that's a baby."

Meadow, more quickly approaching: "Yes, that's my baby. Her name is Milan."

Meadow has a keen sense of smell. She is constantly making comparisons about how things smell.....

"Smells like....barbecue, raisins (?), cherries, oranges, mommy's perfume" etc etc

If Meadow is upset, she likes to find a mirror and watch the tears. Wherever she is though, she always says this:

"I've got peer drops mommy, I've got peer drops. I've got to tell (daddy, gigi...someone)" Once we have cleared up the situation, she exclaims, "It's ok, I'm not sad aaannymore! My happy!"

For some reason, she sometimes says "my" for "I'm". Most of the time she's gets it right, but she says "my" pretty regularly in this instance: "My coming (someone's name). Don't worry, my coming right now!"

Cars....

- Whenever we see a convertible car driving down the road, Meadow says, "Oh no, where's its lid at? It flew away in the sky!"

- Today Meadow exclaimed, "Look, that car has a button!" It was an SUV with a tire on the back. I love the way she interprets the world. 

- "Hey, it's a taxi car. I like taxi cars. I'm going to ride in a taxi car. A yellow one. I like yellow. It's my favorite. It's the best." haha... 

Manners....

"Excuse me Mr. Door" (when the door is not opened enough for her to walk through)

"Thank you bubbles for making me all clean" (after a bath)

"Oh mommy, thanks so much for my bandaid. It's perfect, just perfect."

"Please don't touch my arm or back" (to a little kid at the playground who crept too far into her personal space).

"Please don't talk to me, please don't look at me." She said this to a stranger at the grocery store....a man, of course (she has a big guard up against any man, no matter how nice/normal he is). I hardly knew how to react to this one. I mean after all, she said it nicely, right? Hmmm.

The manners are really interesting. We've worked on them for quite a while, and they seem to have stuck fairly well, so far. I'm sure proud of my sweet little lady, who enjoys dolling up just as much as playing outdoors.

Some more random little sayings...

"There's the flag. The flag has 50 stars! Oh wow, that's beautiful."

"I hear an ambulance. Oh no, they are hurt and are going to the doctor. Daddy's a doctor. I've got to tell daddy. Hurry daddy, help!"

“Aww Murray (our yorkie), are you tired? He’s tired. It’s ok. Just take yourself a little rest, Murray."

Meadow loves to quote things. Her current favorite is when Ursula (Little Mermaid) says, "My poor little poopsies" right after her evil little friends shrink down to fit into the palms of her hands. Meadow says it exactly like her....inflection, emotion, the whole bit. We certainly have to watch what we say, how we say it, and what we watch on tv, as she clearly absorbs and mimics it to the fullest.

Very recently and on occasion, Meadow has begun a little game of calling me "Misty"- and I honestly don't know where this comes from, as hardly anyone she is around refers to me by my actual name. She hears either "babe" or "Mist"....so who really knows...

Meadow recently got a tiny splinter in her toe, right when she stepped out of these high heels onto our wood floor.

Poor little thing. And no, I'm not one bit happy about the wood floor issue either (good thing we won't be here too much longer for any other random surprises). So, when Adam and I attempted to get the splinter out (as painlessly as possible of course), she insisted, "No, it's fine, please just leave it alone. It's hiding under the bandaid. It's just fine, mmm hmm, just fine." Clever little girl.

And my favorite, she has started interacting quite a bit with her baby sister. Here she is trying to play patty cake with Milan....

                  

Love my precious baby girls!

Easter 2012

The littlest chick

Snoozing with daddy

The bunny princess

Easter Egg Hunt

And later...

Loving "Easter Lily"

Pure Joy

Very proud big sister

A few nights ago, Sunday I believe, Meadow held Milan for the first time. It was totally her idea and seemed to come out of nowhere. I was holding Milan, and Adam was holding Meadow, about to head to bed. Suddenly Meadow said, "Wait, I want to hold my baby." I looked around wondering, to which doll is she referring? She then pointed to Milan and said again, "I want to hold my baby please." So Adam and I looked at each other and said, "Ok, let's do it," as now was as good of time as any. If she was finally ready, so were we!

So Meadow quickly ran to the couch and put her arms out, she was ready to go! We laid Milan down in her lap, and she said, "My baby sister, you are beautiful." It was without a doubt the sweetest thing I have ever seen her do. She held her for about three minutes and kept repeating herself, "You're my baby sister. I'm your big sister. You're so beautiful." She is such a sweetheart. Since then Meadow has continued to be as loving and nurturing as ever. She tells me how "beautiful" Milan is and that she really loves her hair.

I think we've been blessed with one very proud big sister.

6 weeks!

Well may I just say that Milan has grown a lot between weeks 4 and 6. She is so much more alert, following us with her eyes and making her own little noises (which typically resemble something like, "hey!"). She is already different from Meadow as a newborn. Milan likes to be held upright facing you and Meadow liked to be held like a baby and patted. Milan would much rather be rocked up and down rather than side to side. She also is not a fan of the pacifier, which is totally unlike Meadow. She does a "grin" type of smile, where one side goes up, creating a very obvious dimple on her right cheek. In case you missed her 1 month picture, here is the famous smile (taken at about 3 1/2 weeks old)...

And here is Miss Milan at 6 weeks old.

How 'bout that?