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.