Turning Two!

Macy's birthday was filled with snowy days, bumped heads, traveling relatives, tons of gifts and laughs, and a split fat lip. She hit 2 running!
On the first night, Grandparents Engstrom and Grandma Dawn arrived after snowy weather. Grandma Tootie and Dawn played with the girls who showed off for hours after their long trip. I don't think my grandparents needed their hearing aids this weekend because girls screaming and talking incessantly was a constant occurrence. The downside of the evening came when Dad was at the top of the stairs and saw Macy, who after hundreds of times down the stairs had done fine, took a nasty tumble. He skipped some stairs to fly after her, yelling her name and the whole time only inches from grasping her tiny body flailing down the steps to the linoleum floor that lied below. I heard his footsteps pedaling down the stairs as fast as they could go. I thought he caught her until I got up and looked down to Macy lying flat on the floor. Jon picked her up and she appeared to be all right. Luckily, he said, she landed on her side and then rolled to her back, but he was still shaking an hour later, and what he possibly could have witnessed. She walked away with rug burn on her cheek and forehead.
We only did a family birthday for Macy and even that got cut short on Sunday from the weather. She had an excellent day, though, and enjoyed her Mickey and Minnie birthday cake!
One of her favorite toys was this real life puppy that Grandma Phyllis gave her. He barks, growls, howls and wags his tail. And now, Macy barks, growls, howls, and wags her bootie.
To finish off her birthday, Macy raced Caitlin and tripped and fell against the bottom of the couch and split her lip. Officially 2!

Princess Birthday Tea Party!

Friday started with the first people to arrive - Grandma Dawn, Grandpa Rudy and Tootie. They trudged through ice and slush and took multiple interstates to get here. And even though their usual trip of 3 1/2 hours took 7 hours, it was well worth it!
Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Don arrived on Saturday morning, and although the weather kept Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Shorty and Maxine away, I had lots of help to put on the best Princess Birthday Tea Party ever!
Guests included:

Hope

Katie

Brooke

Emalee

Anna

The menu for the tea party was:

Chocolate covered strawberries

Cheese Puffs

Pigs in a blanket

Heart shaped pb & j

Pretzels

Strawberry pop

Chicken salad

Pinkalicious cupcakes with cherries on top!

We played pin the crown on the Princess...
And musical pillows...
Blew out the candles on the Pinkalicious Cupcakes...
And decorated Princess wands... Each little princess got to take their tutu and wand with them and a little treat bag. The tutus I made by sewing tulle together similar to a stitch you'd do for making curtains, allowing a ribbon to go through and tie in back. I cut and starched strips for the skirt part of the tutu and attached more ribbon and a flower to the front. They came out really nicely and the girls had a blast getting one for the party and to take home!

Caitlin and her princess friends had a wonderful time, and so did their fairy godmothers and godfathers watching (and helping)!!! Notice the helpers and the wand decorating table...I don't how people put on birthday parties without any help because I needed EVERY hand available! A big thank you shout to my husband, who supporting my tutu making and changed practice to make it to the party. He helped in so many ways - kept the girls in line and from jumping off the back of the couches, helped with food, drinks and wand decorating. And the grandmas - what a big thank you to Grandma Dawn, Nancy, Tootie and Phyllis for food, washing TONS of dishes, decorating wands, and delaying your lunches 3 hours!!!
Caitlin had an awesome time and asked if we could do that every Saturday. I'm glad she appreciates how much we love her!

Cheer Clinic

The University of St. Mary Cheer squad put on a Jr. Cheer Clinic on Saturday and taught the little girls a dance and cheer. Caitlin was so excited to participate, she has now asked to be in "cheerleading lessons." I don't know who offers those, so we may have to just entertain her at home!!!

Bare Butted

My cousin, Heather, assured me this is normal. I sure hope it is. Macy likes to take off her own diaper and keep it off. This morning Caitlin went to get her out of her crib and the conversation over the monitor went like this:

Caitlin: "Macy, you can get up!"

Macy: "Hi Sissy!"

Caitlin: "MOM! She took her diaper off! MOM! Macy, get over here right now!"
Macy: "NO!"

Caitlin: "Macy, I can get you out or you can stay in here all night!" (It was morning)

Macy: "Diipa off. Macy do dat! NO SISSY!"

Caitlin: "You didn't potty did you? Okay, come here. You can see mommy and daddy!"

Macy: "Mommy home? Daddy home?"

Caitlin: "Yes, now come ON!"

So when they came in, I got up, put a new diaper on Macy and she promptly took it off, got on top of the chair and began her morning routine of watching iCarly. What a wonderful life!

Just Hangin' Around

I check the other blogs quite often and get bummed when my family and friends don't have recent blogs up. I love reading about them and seeing pix of them when I don't get to see them very often. Well, when I checked my own, I realized that I haven't posted for over a month! Wow! The season has not only swallowed my husband, it's swallowed us! Here are a couple pix from the last couple months and some interview questions to see what the girls are into right before they turn 2 and 6 in 2 weeks! Wow!

Who doesn't love after bath popcorn watching iCarly on mom and dad's bed?
Caitlin wanted to interview me this morning, and after she did, she wanted to be interviewed. We also tried to interview Macy, and you'll see why we quit after the first few questions:

1) What is your favorite supper?

Caitlin: "Chicken nuggets"

Macy: "Daddy"

2) What is your favorite dessert?

Caitlin: "Candy"

Macy: "Macy"

3) What is your favorite fruit?

Caitlin: "peaches"

Macy: "apple" (Caitlin helped her answer this one since her first 2 answers didn't make sense)

4) What is your favoirte vegetable?

Caitlin: "salad"

Macy: no response

5) What do you like to do with daddy?

Caitlin: "play games"

Macy: "pay"

6) What do you like to do with mommy?

Caitlin: "make cookies"

Macy: "nuddl" (interpretation: snuggle - obviously she did not come up with this one on her own either)

7) What do you like to do best with your sister?

Caitlin: "I like to race her." (wonder who wins)

Macy: "NO!"

8) Who is your best friend?

Caitlin: "All the girls in my class."

Macy: "Sissy!"

9) What is your favorite toy?

Caitlin: "iCarly remote."

Macy: "Sissy!"

10) What is your favorite school subject:

Caitlin: "Recess, okay, that doesn't count does it? Reading."

11) What is your favorite movie?

Caitlin: "Chipmunks the Squeakquel!" (I think she just likes saying SQUEAKQUEL)

12) What is your favorite game?

Caitlin: "Daddy's games!" (Suck up)

13) Who is your favorite player?

Caitlin: "Nick, and Mark. And Carvelle." Dad loves Carvelle, too - who graduated last year, darnit.

14) Who is your favorite sports team?

Caitlin: "Cyclones!"

15) Who is favorite team to hate, I mean not like?

Caitlin: "Ummm" (insert a little help from her mom): "Hawkeyes! Does dad like Hawkeyes?" I could see at this point she wasn't sure if I was being sneaky against dad and she didn't really want to hate dad's favorite team. I told her that, no, he liked the Jayhawks and hated the Hawkeyes too. :)

16) What is your favorite sport to play?
Caitlin: "Basketball and" (WHAT???????????) "soccer. We need to get me in soccer lessons again." (we don't do soccer lessons, we do soccer practice and games, but I thought her comment was funny.

17) What is the most important thing in playing sports?

Caitlin: "have fun and play hard" (She said this while rolling her eyes - great, she's got her dad's die hard attitude!)

"Sissy"

Macy calls her sister, "Sissy." She yells it, she says, "Take you, sissy" and "No, Sissy!" This is not the word I would have chosen for them to call each other, but some how, Macy chose it and it stuck. I have tried to develop a nickname for Caitlin, and I really like Cait, and Macy can say it, but she always goes back to "sissy." It's quite cute, when she says it, so we'll enjoy it while we can. Although Macy is a lot smaller than Caitlin, she packs a good punch. Macy has been known to:

• bite her sister
• hit her on the head with a hairbrush
• hit Caitlin
• throw the remote at her head when she is into a program
• jump on her back with her full body weight
• best of all - WWF drop down - landing to the side of Caitlin with her elbow crooked to land right in her stomach (I was unaware you were "Born" to be in the World Wide Wrestling Federation)

But, most of the time, these girls play together. When Caitlin has friends over, I eavesdrop and listen, especially when Macy is with them. One time I heard Caitlin tell her friend, "Macy doesn't mean to. She's just little. Sometimes you have to just be okay. Now, let's go play and Macy gets to play WITH us." I beamed with pride. Caitlin often wants to do things FOR Macy, and that gets Macy mad, but I know it's because Caitlin finds such joy in being the little babysitter for Macy. One time I paid Caitlin a dollar to watch Macy while I showered. She took it VERY seriously.

My favorite story resembles one of my childhood, so I love to tell it. If Macy gets in trouble from mom or dad, and she feels bad (which is rare because she doesn't have remorse often), but if she does, she'll pucker up her lower lip and run to her sissy. She wants Caitlin to pick her up and hold her, and Macy lays her head on Caitlin's shoulder. Caitlin LOVES that. She rubs her back and says, "It's okay, it's okay." And Caitlin would hold her like that all day long if Macy would let her. I have one memory of that in my childhood, of myself as Caitlin and my cousin, Holly, as Macy. All of us cousins were sitting in Heather and Holly's 2nd living room (which we usually didn't go into because it was cold, so it must've been summer) watching tv, except for Holly. Holly must've gotten in trouble or couldn't have something because she ran in the room and jumped on my lap crying. While sitting in their big recliner rocker, I just rocked and rocked her and told her it'd be okay, and I felt so grown up and so needed. My Aunt Sheila came in and just smiled and said, "awwww," and walked back out, probably feeling much like I do when I see Macy do this with Caitlin - that thought as a mom, that, "Oh, good. Someone else is looking out for her, too."

They both like to do the same things, like hide and seek, dance, race each other, tickle each other, run from the vacuum, and let dad flip them. Sometimes, I get to capture this with the camera, and hold onto those memories forever...

Macy's Language

Documentation of her unique language is definitely necessary. It's fun to look back and view Caitlin's first words, too, and see some differences and similarities:

"Ca-Key" - her blanket(s). It sounds like car key without the 'r.' Don't ask me how this turned into blanket
"Sissy" - how she addresses her sister
"Moose" - she wants you to move. She is very persistant and acts spoiled when you refuse.
"Mommy do dat," - she chooses a person to perform an act, like pick her up, give her a spoon, etc., and then says who can "do that." My doctor would call this, "Macy running the show," and then tell us we need to take back control.
"Mow" - more
"Boo ower" - Blue flower. One of her legos is a blue flower. I kept thinking she was telling me to take a shower. She put my face in her hands and got real close and yelled, "Boo ower!"
"Side" - Slide (as in down the stairs)
"I u" - I love you. This is so neat b/c this is EXACTLY how Caitlin used to say "I love you," also.
"Car-ee" - for her favorite show, iCarly. I know, I'm a bad mom. I never thought she'd really watch tv until about age 2 1/2, like her sister, so I let Caitlin watch iCarly in front of her. All of a sudden, Macy is asking for Car-ee (like Carly, without the L).