Partners in Crime

It's no secret that my girls are busy.  Mia is at a stage of life that she's in to just about everything, and is quite a handful!  Lex has always been good at finding ways to entertain herself.  Put them together, and craziness ensues!  

A few days ago I was doing school work and looked over to my kitchen to see this:

Super cute, right?  I don't generally mind when my girls pull stuff out of the cupboards-- I want to cultivate a love of cooking in them, and I believe exploring in the kitchen is part of that!  I went into the living room for a few minutes, and when I came to check on them, I found this:

Lex exclaimed, "Mama!  It's a BEAN TOWER!!!"  I complimented her stacking skills, took a few pictures, then took the towers down.  I explained to her that they could potentially fall over and injure her or Mia, and she didn't try to build any more towers after that.

The girls then decided to tag-team and pull out a good chunk of the food I keep in my upstairs food storage cupboard.  Quite frankly, I was just happy to have them playing nicely together!  Messes can be cleaned.  I loved that they were enjoying each being with each other!

They took a small break to share a pumpkin cookie...

Mia then decided to find out what was in the drawers.  (Just hand towels... nothing too exciting!)

And then they went back to work, emptying the baking cupboard together and pretending to mix things up.

The aftermath of playtime in the kitchen:

Lex then made her way to her bedroom, where she started emptying out all the drawers and trying on all the clothes (both hers AND Mia's-- crazy girl).

And then she gave me a fashion show.  A few highlights were a pair of backwards shorts (under her skirt, of course):

A single sock:

And her reindeer PJ's:

Meanwhile, Mia was thrilled to death to find her little Mickey figurine and play with him!

At the end of the day, these girls are a couple of crazies, but they're MY crazies.  I adore them.  I am so so blessed to be home with them all day, every day.  All the messes, the antics, the sassiness, the funny things they say and do, the tears, the laughs... I get to be there for all of it, and it is SUCH a blessing.  I'm so grateful to be their mama!  There's nothing in the world I'd rather be!

11 Months!

My baby is less than a month away from being a year old.  HOW DID THIS HAPPEN???  Time is moving far too quickly for my liking!

- Mia is no longer terrified of animals.  Hooray!  At least, she likes our dog now, and that's a step in the right direction!  If she ever hears Cosmo bark, Mia immediately looks toward the back yard and exclaims, "Cah!  Cah!"  She has also learned to say "puppy" in her own way-- "Buh-puh."  So cute!  I love her little baby talk!

- Suddenly, Mia is sleeping through the night! {Knock on wood!}  She goes to bed between 6-6:30pm and wakes between 5-5:30am to eat, then goes back to sleep til between 7-7:30am and is ready to get up for the day.  And by "for the day," I mean until about 9am when she takes a 2-hour nap.  Ha!

- She is no longer nursing except at night before bedtime.  I had already cut back to only nursing her before naps, before bed at night and during the night once she started eating table food, but I felt like she wasn't getting enough milk to keep her full at night.  I'm confident that's the case-- she's obviously sleeping better now!  So now she gets an 8 ounce bottle at nap times, and before bed time I nurse her and then give her an 8 ounce bottle.  She's drinking cow's milk and it's been awesome for us!

- Since both my girls have been pretty early talkers, I never did as much baby sign language as I planned on.  Mia only does one sign-- "all done."  Of course, she does it in her own baby way, and just waves one arm around wildly.  It does the trick, though-- I know what she's telling me!

- Mia has been trying to say Lexsi's name the past few days-- she calls her "Kee" or "Ksee."  It's adorable! She adores her big sister so so much, and always lights up when Lex is around.

- She has been incredibly grumpy this past week.  I think it's a combination of having a cold and growing (she's eating SO MUCH).  She wants me to hold her every second, and if I ever set her down she's immediately crying, "Mama! Mama! Mama!"  It's been a rough week.  

- She is loving all the new, fresh fruits and vegetables she's getting to try now that it's harvest time!  She is pretty much obsessed with peaches.  She'll eat an entire peach all by herself-- and not some puny little thing.  BIG peaches.  She also loves carrot sticks and apple slices.  

- Mia has decided that she loves climbing stairs.  I've been trying to teach her how to go down stairs without hurting herself, but she hasn't gotten that yet.  Hooray for baby gates!

- Pretzel sticks and cheese cubes are a must in this house right now-- Mia loves them!  Also, never underestimate the power of a Dum-Dum sucker.

- She has been more interested in reading books lately.  She's getting better at turning pages, and definitely enjoys seeing the pictures!

I can hardly remember my life without this little sweetheart.  In some ways it seems like I've always had my two girls with me!  In other ways, I can't even believe that she's almost a year old!  I'm kind of in denial.  Part of the issue, I'm sure, is that when Lex was almost a year old, I got pregnant with Mia.  It was easier for me to deal with Lexsi getting bigger because I knew I'd have a tiny new baby soon.  I always hoped that I'd be pregnant before Mia was a year old, because I really love the spacing between my girls.  But-- I'm not.  So the fact that my baby is growing up is harder on me this time!  I'm trying so hard to enjoy all the little things with her at each age and stage.  She is an absolute joy in my life!

Outside Daddy's work waiting for him to come play!

 Daddy and his girls

Lex riding on Mia... cause not only little boys do this kind of stuff!

Mia was so tired at the store and tried to suck her new binkies through the 

package-- a little sad, but way cute and funny!

For some reason, she's obsessed with my owl pillow case.  Whenever she sees it she crawl over to it, lays her head down and says, "Cuh!  Cuh!"-- trying to say "cozy."   (When I type it, it looks like the same way she says "Cosmo,"-- but in real life there's a difference!"

The fam on game day!  I love my little cheerleaders!

The bathroom is Mia's favorite hangout.  I have to keep the door closed or

 she's in there drumming on the toilet lid and unrolling toilet paper!

Mia loves going to the park... mostly because she loves to 

eat wood chips.  Pretty gross.

I let her use crayons and color a picture one day, and she loved it!  

Talking on the phone.

11 months old with her zebra.

Munching on peaches and carrot sticks.

My sweet baby girls!!!