Cowgirl Madeleine

In honor of the letter "C," Monday was Cowboy (girl) day at preschool. Madeleine was so excited to be close up to a real horse for the first time! Since her school is small the kids got to take a ride and spend a lot of time with the horses. The owner talked to them about how to take care of a horse, what they like to eat, horseshoes, etc. They all got to feed them and walk them around the lot. It was such fun to watch her loving all of this!

Feeding the horse

Listening with her class -- doesn't she look so sweet
Happy happy
First horse ride
Leading the horses around the lot

I still am struggling to believe how fast she's growing! There are so many thing she can do on her own now -- get dressed, brush her teeth (and do a good job), make her bed, cut/color/glue. It seems like my kitchen table has become Crafting Central -- there's always some project or another being worked on there! :)

Harrison is 21 Months!

I know I'm a little late on this post this month -- Harrison was actually 21 months on Monday! He's still quite a growing boy! He eats ALL THE TIME! I'm starting to fear what my grocery bill's gonna be in about 10 years. :)

Changes this month:

*He's finally talking A LOT! His new words this week are "turtle" "diego" "book" and "backpack." I'm still the only one that can understand a lot of his words; however, they are becoming more and more clear all the time.

*He loves to read. He will sit in my lap and let me read to him for 30 minutes. He just keeps bringing me books and he sits so still and quiet while I read -- except for pointing to pictures of things he knows and telling me those words.

*He is always wanting to go outside. This boy is a climber! He brings me his shoes and sits by the backdoor wanting to go outside to play. He has NO FEAR when it comes to the outside. He loves to slide and yell "weeeeee" and he goes down. And yep, he goes down that slide feet first, head first, backwards.....he's tried it all.

*He's still a good eater -- he's even found a love for steamed broccoli -- yummy! He loves all fruits and most meats. Bacon is his favorite. He'll stand under the microwave and cry until it's ready -- then cry until I give him a piece. Saturday he ate 4 pieces of bacon for breakfast -- more than Matt!!

*He has discovered crayons and markers! He loves to sit and color. And, he's discovered that markers DON'T fit up his nose -- but they do make a mess. At least they're washable. :) He's dying to get his hands on the scissors, too -- but not yet.

*He's gotten pretty mischevious lately. Twice I've been unable to find him -- searched the house in a PANIC -- only to have him come out from behind a curtain or out from under a table laughing at me!

*He's not doing as great in the sleeping department. He's been waking up a lot a night, crying -- I think he might be getting those 2 year molars (he's also started chewing on everything) . He's always been a champion sleeper -- and still takes a good 3 hour nap. yee-haw. .

*My little guy loves life. I've never met someone so laid back (generally). Seriously -- he just goes around the house laughing. He laughs when he come down the slide and claps for himself. He laughs in the stroller. He laughs at the dinner table when there's a lull in conversation. And he has this outrageous, LOUD laugh. It cracks all of us up!

Picture Update

We've been LOVING this beautiful cool fall weather up here in NWA! It means we can spend lots of time outside -- which is great!! Here are a few pics from earlier this week when it was very, very cool! It's getting harder to take pictures of them playing 'cause they're so FAST!!

Quick snack before heading outside.

Madeleine's always picking these weeds and making "bouquets."
Harrison's learned to swing on a big swing -- and thinks he's such hot stuff, too.
On a side note....Madeleine's loving preschool! She's got the nicest teacher and she's learning so much. She's learning some basic sight words (yeah, I know phonics is the new thing, but she's 4.....whatever) she can read "I am" and "I see" as well as "red" "blue" "green" and "yellow." I have to say that watching her read to me stirs the most overwhelming emotions inside me. It's amazing to see her learning and growing and getting SO BIG! Some days, I love it......some days, I want her to stay little, little forever.

Things I Have Dug Out of Harrison's Nose This Week.....

1. Piece of fuzz
2. Strand of carpet
3. Part of a crayon
4. Mini Cheeze-it
5. Piece of a poptart.
6. Banana (yeah, that was messy)

Harrison sticks stuff up his nose ALL THE TIME! He will come to me, point to his nose, and say "uh-oh." Anybody have any suggestions for how to stop this madness??????????

My Little Golfers

Madeleine has taken a pretty serious interest in golfing in the past few weeks. She LOVES to go to the putting green at night and putt with Daddy, and has been begging for a "real" club of her own so she can go to the range with Matt. She's been going with him to watch, but can't do anything without an actual club. So, this week, Matt took her out and bought her a set of clubs all her own! They are real clubs -- and they're pink and Barbie!! They are adorable! They came with a standing bag and visor -- and a PINK golf ball! She is so proud of them.

Of course as soon as they got home with the clubs, Madeleine couldn't wait to go to the range (and Daddy was pretty excited too). They headed off, with Madeleine fully aware of the #1 rule: No hitting the club near Harrison! She did really great for her first time out there. According to Matt, she actually hit one ball almost to the 50 yard sign! Quite the little golfer.

Harrison has now been given Madeleine's old putter & he's pretty proud of it. It's funny to see the difference in them already. Madeleine will let you coach her verbally -- but wants to do it herself. Harrison will let you hold his hands and show him how to putt. We love that the putting green is just a few steps off our back porch, so we'll just stay until we're tired then walk home. :)

Her new clubs

One more thing...As we were going to bed that night Matt told me, "I was floating today! It was so much fun having her out there with me and seeing how much fun she was having." He's thrilled that she enjoys going out there with him; it's their special time together.

Our Family is Growing.....

.......we're going to have a new UNCLE!

This weekend my sister, aka Sugar, got engaged! We're so happy for her and our future "Uncle Stewart." It's been really, really hard being just far enough away that I can't rush down there for the day to celebrate with them and share in their joy. So, today, I may be in Fayetteville, but my heart is in Little Rock with them. Congrats Sugar and Uncle Stewart -- we love you!

Yuck!

It's probably not a good thing when you've made TWO ER trips before your child's second birthday, is it? I mean, I'm still waiting on the bill from the first trip back in May! This past weekend, Harrison got into SOMETHING that he was quite allergic to and we headed to the ER. Thankfully we had lots of family here to watch Madeleine/ go with us! We still don't know what caused the breakout -- his face was swollen and covered spots and one of his eyes was swollen shut. We dosed him with benadryl before heading to the ER -- thankfully. When we got there the wait was 4-8 hours, so we ended up just coming back home, since the benadryl was helping lots! But, poor baby. He was miserable! Here's a picture of him after his second round of benadryl. His face his normal, but his eye is still swollen. I foresee a visit to a pediatric allergist in our future.....

What a difference a year makes!

Today was our first day of preschool. This time last year, Madeleine still seemed like such a baby and cried as I dropped her off at school. Well, not this year! She's been talking about school for WEEKS and bounced out of bed this morning ready to get dressed and GO! She's gotten to be such a big girl!

This year both kids are going two days a weeks -- and I'm teaching the 1 year old class. I thought it might be a good way to meet some other moms and make some friends. It's worked out wonderfully since I hadn't really planned on sending Harrison this year (he's already had a lot of transition with the move), but he's in my class & doing good! Our school this year lasts through lunch, so the kids had the fun task of choosing a lunch box. Madeleine knew INSTANTLY that she wanted a princess lunch box, of course. I'd planned on picking Harrison's for him, but he actually pointed to the football lunchbox. He's been toting it around the house for days! :)

Here's my big girl, all ready for her first day!

This is the best pic I could get of Harrison. He's trying to get to the food in the lunchbox.....and it's just after breakfast!
Another picture, mom! Can't I go already!
I asked Madeleine if she wanted me to walk her down to her room......she said, "no, thanks, I want to go by myself." WAAAAAA.
Reaching her door & waving bye. I didn't see her again until after school was over. She helped her teacher clean up and then came and found me.
I'd pretty much decided that Madeleine was going to wait until turning 6 to go to Kindergarten; however, her teacher said she did great! She can write/spell her name and has recently gotten into counting EVERYTHING! She's started asking me what two different numbers make together...."what's three and two?" and so we're working on adding! After seeing her excitement about today and how great she did, I'm starting to prepare myself for the idea that this might be my last year to have her home with me all day! :( Where did the time go?