Adios April!

Can you believe it's nearly the end of April? Before we now it, we can stop complaining about the "cold" temps and whining about the heat and humidity of summer.

I took Mack to her bi-annual dentist check-up. Aside from a few tears at the start of the exam, she did a great job! The treat bag at the end made up for any hard feelings. Mack came out with a great report and a new tooth brush! Even better, this was her first diaper free doctor's visit and it was a great success ( as well as the trip to Target afterwords). With any luck, we won't have to see Dr. Cullen until October!

Speaking of diaper free- we've made it a full week with only one accident. Mack's doing great and even tells me when she needs to get out of the bath tub to use the potty. Life with out diapers takes some getting used to. For instance, I no longer have to carry a " diaper bag" so does that mean this mommy can bring her old purse out of retirement? Only time will tell....

Grammy has been reading "Smelly books" ( scratch and sniff books) to Mackenzie for the past 6 months. For the past 3 months, the smelly books have had no smell. Grammy has set out to replenish the smelly book collection. This book " Scratch and sniff:Party" was the first to arrive.
Here's one last picture of Mackenzie painting a rainbow. When you're a toddler, your rainbows can consistent of all the usual colors plus brown and black, too! It's been fun to watch Mack's fine motor skills progress. She can now draw little tiny circles and instead of plastering a page full of scribbles, she carefully colors in coloring books attempting to color inside the lines!

Dare I say it?

I think Mackenzie is well on her way to being diaper free! On Thursday she decided she would rather wear underwear than her diaper and she has been diaper free ( except while sleeping) ever since! That's three whole days with no accidents at all! When she goes to the bathroom she gets a " little treat" ( a Hershey's kiss- I tried giving her just a regular kiss but she's more motivated by chocolate). She has even been waking up from nap dry so I am hoping to be down to just one diaper at night with in the next week.

We are so proud of her and she is proud of herself! She has always liked privacy when going #2 . I wondered how this would effect her potty training. Much to my relief, she seems happier to use the potty than to go in her diaper she just pretends that I am not there:
Along with potty training, Mackenzie has been blossoming in other areas, too. She's been learning how to play on her own for longer periods of time which sometimes makes for a lonely mommy but is a good sign for her developing independence. Her room was eerily quiet a few days ago and this is how I found her:

She "read" every book on the shelf and played in her room for nearly an hour! She is back in book mode, something that I noticed had been lacking over the last few weeks. Here she is reading her favorite book with her favorite guy:
Monkey see monkey...try to do. Mack trying to use chop sticks like her daddy:

Chloe in real life!

If Mack sees a picture of any baby, she automatically thinks it's her cousin, Chloe so it was so much fun to finally get to see Chloe and Marie in person again! We hadn't seen either of them since last July and, as you can imagine, Chloe has sure changed.

Aunt Meg, Chloe and Marie pick up Mack and me for a trip to the Toledo zoo. What a fun day! The weather was perfect and the zoo wasn't too busy. Here are a few pictures from our day:


Mack was so excited to go to the zoo with Chloe, Marie and Aunt Meg. She even asked me to make up a song about it at bedtime the night before.
Aunt Meg , Chloe and Mack checkin' out the seals. It was so much fun for Mack to be able to see the animals we have been reading about in our books. Her favorite was the penguin exhibit and she liked being able to walk around like the big kids:
Mack and Chloe just after lunch. Chloe is fascinated by big kids so this was the prime place for a sighting:
After lunch we scoped out the primates and then checked out the playground before heading for home.The hour long ride home was just what was needed for a cat nap. Notice poor Marie sitting between the car seats:
Mack slept the whole way home with the blanket over her head.
On Friday, we celebrated Chloe's Birthday late as well as my birthday. Chloe turned one on March 22nd but we didn't wanna miss out on celebrating with her.

Aunt Meg lives across from a preschool playground. It's a popular place with Mackenzie who asks to go there just about every day. Chloe and Mack had fun. And so did we( I warned Marie that I am constantly on the look out for " bloggable" momments so she gave me one):
Nature girl on the hunt for something new to explore:
The next time Chloe is here, I think she'll be taking those steps two at a time!
Just look at those sweet faces!
Here's a picture from Leif, Marie and Chloe's visit last year:

And this year( we all look a little paler in April than we did in July!):

The girls had fun playing together on this blanket. Both LOVED to swing, hammock style!

It's always so much fun to spend time with Leif, Marie and Chloe and we look forward to their visit later this summer!

Nature girl

With Spring in the air, Mackenzie and I have been taking walks nearly every day after nap. I snapped this picture of her getting up close and personal with an ant:
We've put the snow flake projects behind us and have moved on to flowers and butterflies:

Mike's trip to Florida

Mike is back from Florida and , though he's a little sun burnt, he is refreshed and ready to practice what he learned at the STN conference. Too bad there weren't enough patience for him to actually work this week! But I digress...

After the conference,Mike visited lots of places he had hoped to and even got to drive a Dodge Charger! Now THAT's a rental car!

Mack and I missed him so much. We were both more than ready when it came time to retrieve him from the airport. When Mack caught a view of him waiting for us, she tried to get out of her car seat to get to him saying " Daddy! Daddy! My daddy!".

Here's Mack eating a Mickey Mouse shaped rice crispy treat. Notice the Mickey mouse necklace that says " Mackenzie".
Mack's happy to have her daddy back
Here's what Mike brought me...pretty perfect I'd say! lol

Ride 'em Cowgirl!

And in case you aren't sure of the proper attire of a ladybug riding cowgirl, here's a close up:

G.G!

With Mike in Florida and Mary being off of school for the week, it was the perfect time for a trip to Ludington to see G.G. We had a great time. Mackenzie found lots to do at Grandma's and , though she didn't sleep well, she did a very good job the entire time. This was only the second time that she has stayed in a bed that wasn't her own ( apart from when we go do Colorado, of course) so I am proud of her. Here are a few pictures of our trip:

Mack playing with GG's little piano
Grandma and me
GG trying to trick Mackenzie into believing that red puppy was blue. Nice try, GG!
An artsy pick I couldn't pass up:
Grandma, or shall I say Co-Captain Veronica Taylor, took flying lessons and learned to fly. A stranger who saw a story about her in the local paper sent this to her and I think it's too cute! Mary and I insisted that she put it out for all to see.

Easter day

Whew! Our extended Easter celebration concluded today after a busy day!

To get started, here's our customary "this year vs. last year" shot:

Mackenzie before church last year:
And this year( too chilly for a pretty dress):


( If you're really bored, you can look back at last years Easter post and see Mackenzie three Easters ago as a newborn)

Our day started out earlier than normal since Mackenzie and I were meeting Grammy at church for breakfast before service. As soon as Mack swallowed her last bit of sausage, she was ready to go to the nursery to play with her Sunday morning friends. After church, we stopped by Grammy's. She had a special surprise for Mackenzie- a cool Elmo video about birthdays, two outfits, leggings and socks!

After nap we headed back to Grammy's for Easter dinner. Aunt Janet brought her good friend Anna and Doris and Aunt Meg also came. It was a ladies event! We all commented on how wonderful the food ( and the company) was. Aunt Meg and I took Mack out for a short walk where Mackenzie rounded up nearly ever pine cone she found along the way. Thank goodness Aunt Meg was there to help carry of them!

It was a very relaxing afternoon. Thanks to Grammy for hosting.


And since I last posted a picture of Janet playing with the kids in the bathroom, I promised I'd post a picture of her doing something normal. This is Aunt Janet in her element:
Mackenzie was chasing after Aunt Janet with this book and they had such fun reading together.

Here's Mackenzie riding off into the sunset...

43.75 loooong days

Mike and I gave up candy for Lent. It really was an eye opening experience and I'm glad I did it. We ended up ending Lent just a few hours early and both indulged our sweet tooth at around 9:30 pm.


Mike with his bounty:
Can't have chocolate without ice cold milk:

Sadly, after eating just a few pieces, I got horrible heartburn which kept me up all night. Chocolate,old friend, how could you betray me?

A girl after my own heart...

My Chocoholic:

A short video of Mack exploring her basket:

E.B

The Easter Bunny came early because Mike has to work on Easter. He dropped his basket full of goodies off to Grammy's since we'd all be eating dinner there.

That silly bunny left his tracks:

Mack followed those tracks to this:

Before we could really blink an eye, she had the foil wrapper off the chocolate bunny and a mouthful of ears!
Sharing her bounty with Grammy and Aunt Meg:

Egg dying

I don't think Mackenzie really understood what all this egg dying business was about but she had fun none the less:



And, at long last, a taste test:

On the hunt

Grammy threw an Easter egg hunt for Mackenzie and her friends! The Wilson's came and so did Ben and Hal. It was so much fun that I hope it will become an annual event. Thanks again, Grammy!

Let me explain this picture...Mary has a nightlight that flashes different colors. Ben really loves it. He likes to shout out the colors as they appear. Since it was daylight, the nightlight would only work in the bathroom. So here you have a truly strange picture:



And they're off! Grammy color coded the egg hunt. Olivia fittingly looked for pink eggs, Mack yellow and Ben purple:
Mackenzie found one of Ben's eggs so Grammy told her to hide it from him. Here's what she did:
The eggs were filled with little goodies like Goldfish crackers and Raisinettes. One egg contained a slip of paper for one goody bag. The bags were filled with fun spring treats like bubbles, a stuffed toy and a fun bendy straw! Afterwords we all enjoyed spring cupcakes. Some of us more than others:
Our wonderful friends, the Wilsons:
Aunt Janet with Hal and Ben ( Jeanette was working):