Quiet Toddler + Closed Doors = Big Mess

We were having a nice afternoon here at the Stockemer household. We had successfully had Claire's newborn and Melanie's 2-year pictures taken and were back home enjoying an afternoon of not having anywhere to go. I was reading the paper and Matt was downstairs floating between the computer and watching some basketball on TV. Melanie had just been upstairs and I had poured her a drink at her request, then she left to go back to playing in her playroom, OR SO I THOUGHT!

Matt came upstairs and asked where Melanie was, to which I responded that I thought she was down in her playroom.

Nope, Matt said.

First red flag - Melanie wasn't where we thought she was.

We listened and didn't hear her.

Second red flag - she was quiet.

So Matt went down the hall to look for her.

Third red flag - our bedroom door was shut.

Matt went in and when he came out this is what he had:
Melanie had found my mascara.

In the back of a drawer.

That was latched shut.

She had wiggled her skinny little arm into the tiny amount of space the latch allows the drawer to open and had fished around until she found my brush case in which I keep said mascara and extracted it. Mind you she passed over five make-up brushes to get to the slot that housed the mascara, so this was not an easy thing to find or get ahold of.

Melanie's face and shins were not the only things she decorated with my mascara. Her other victims included:

The bathroom floor

*Thank goodness for linoleum!*

And the carpet just inside our door,

She also got some mascara on the door, the pack 'n play, an oscillating fan, the faces of some bathroom drawers (wasn't the toothpaste last week enough?), a Dora book and the makeup brush you see at the bottom of the previous picture that she apparently used to dig mascara out with because it's caked in mascara now.

More spots than a leopard or is she just jealous of my freckles?

She actually succeeded in getting some on her eyelashes.

So I cleaned the messy girl and Matt set to work on the carpet. The winning cleaning product? A combination of oil-free eye-makeup remover, rubbing alcohol and OxyClean.

Today's lesson: Close doors and if your toddler is quiet, start looking!

A Week Of Pictures

No actual events going on, just some cute pictures to share!

She looks so sweet when she's asleep!

It's a baby burrito!
Or a baby in a straight jacket, depending on your perspective...

Peek!

How pitiful!

This is how Melanie amuses herself when I'm nursing Claire and can't keep her entertained

Close the door...

Here I am!

She's got a bit of Dr. Evil going on here
And no, she still isn't taking a pacifier. She was just teasing us and giving us false hope :(
Uh-oh!

I was folding laundry in our room and noticed Melanie was being too quiet for her own good, so I checked on her and found her drawing on the bathroom drawers with the toothpaste tube. I guess that's one place we don't have to worry about plaque buildup...

Another nursing-time amusement:

Climbing in the storage containers of baby clothes that are in Claire's closet...

... and then trying them on!

Dog pile on daddy!

Dad, do I need a new diaper?

Sweet baby face

Melanie has had a recent fascination with a pair of Mickey ears we have laying around. The other day she was tugging on my pant leg and saying "Bay-beee, (h)at!" and I turned around to see this.

The hat didn't seem to bother her, and she eventually turned her head and I was able to get this cute pic.

A little while later I got to see this

Claire was getting frustrated with her tummy time so Melanie sidled up right next to her and gave her a hug.
What a good big sister!

Melanie giving my cousin Sara the "PU" sign to let her know she needs a new diaper
(and did she ever!)

Picking up rocks
Not a major event, I just think the picture is cute (even if she is showing off her bloomers in all their glory), mostly because I really like her outfit - you can't beat a tiny jean jacket on the cuteness quotient! I may have to use it for her 2-year pictures.

And finally, a couple funny baby faces to wrap things up

Keepin It Clean

Melanie really likes brushing her teeth.

Unfortunately this enjoyment of toothbrushes has led to her stealing Matt's when it was left too close to the edge of the counter and using it to stir the toilet water.

Ooops! Sorry honey!

Claire recently discovered herself in the mirror while having a bath.
I think she was also fascinated by seeing Matt on her right and on her left due to the mirror.

Please ignore the not-so-clean mirror, one of the consequences of letting Melanie stand on the counter when she brushes her teeth. She's not quite tall enough for a step stool to do any good yet!

I really like the dubious look on her face

Granted having her sit like this over exaggerated her chubbiness (she's leaning forward, thus creating the rolled look), I still think it's cute!

No More Pictures - the Story Behind the Slideshow

It all started out OK. I was making a strawberry-lemon sorbet and Melanie was sitting on the counter, contentedly watching the paddle churn away in the ice cream maker. I snapped a picture. The first picture was fine with her, but it all went downhill from there!

And yes, I am laughing at her in the last few pictures. If I can't find the humor in some of the fits my kids throw I'm sure I'll go crazy, so laugh I will.

No More Pictures!

Tommy Emmanuel

Saturday night Matt's parents were nice enough to treat us to a concert by Tommy Emmanuel at the Orpheum Theater here in town. My parents watched the girls and we met up with Matt's parents, his sister and her roommate and a couple of Gordon and Stacey's friends for the concert. Tommy is a very talented guitar player, playing in a style called "fingerpicking". Matt and I left a bit early to get the girls, but it was a nice evening out all the same - definitely a new experience for us, as Gordon said.

I wanted to share a couple of his videos, but I'm terrible with this computer stuff and I couldn't figure out how to post them directly on here from YouTube (if someone would like to enlighten me as to how to do this I'd appreciate the tutorial), so the links will have to be good enough. Hope you enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12P_jZVKBB0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYfdSwPCO2M

Claire's One Month Check-Up

Claire had her check-up last week and she's a very healthy baby and a very good eater (as we had suspected). She is now 21 1/4 inches long and weighs 11 pounds - up 3 pounds from her birth weight! By contrast Melanie was over 2 months old before she weighed that much (she was the same length at 1 month but only weighed 8 lb. 14 oz.) It'll be fun to see how different their growth patterns will be - it just amazes me to see a 5-week old baby that's so big!

Here are some pics of our youngest cutie:

I know these first two are basically the same, but I couldn't decide which one I liked better so you get both!

They were taken on different days (long sleeve vs. short sleeve onsie) but they look very much the same. Just goes to show that she's consistently cute!

A smile!

They're few and far between, but they're definitely directed at us.
Now we anxiously await the first giggle to go with it!

The Many Faces of Claire

For the most part Claire is still pretty non-expressive in her pictures, in that we can't get her to smile when we want. We have many "deer in the headlights" pictures, but she's starting to be more responsive to us - we think we may have even seen the starts of smiles that aren't gas-induced. Like the previous post these pictures have been loaded for over a week, so it's amazing to me to look at these and see how much she's changed already! She has her next well-baby check tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get some updated photos posted in a timely manner.

You can never have too many pictures of a baby with their tongue sticking out!

Hey! I object to the previous picture!

Our chubby bunny doing her centerfold pose
(we have an almost identical picture of Melanie doing this as a baby)

Not sure if this is a real grin yet or not...

She'll be so glad I took this picture...

The previously mentioned "deer in the headlights" look

Leaning on dad's stomach to try and help with gas

*Claire's gas, not dad's gas ;) *

All tuckered out

Hold On Just a Little Tighter Now Baby...

These pics are of the first time we let Melanie hold Claire. This actually took place a few weeks ago. I've had the pictures loaded to the blog, waiting to be captioned and posted for the world to see (ok, all 3 of you that actually read these crazy ramblings I come up with, but still...)
Here they are!

As you can see, Melanie was thrilled!

Melanie had been wanting to hold Claire since a few days after she had come home from the hospital, but we weren't quite ready to give that a try just yet... ... mostly due to how tiny Melanie is and how floppy Claire is.

But I finally decided to give it a go, putting Melanie right in the corner of the couch to support Claire since I knew she wouldn't be able to do it herself.

Now whenever she wants to hold Claire she sits in that same spot, stretches her arms out to me while doing the "gimme" hands and says "Beee (baby), mine?!?"

It's really cute, but she gets kinda insistent upon it sometimes, and doesn't understand that if Claire is crying or wanting to nurse that it isn't a good time to hold the baby. She also gets jealous sometimes if I sit in "her" spot and hold Claire, which is pretty frequent since that's one of my regular nursing perches. Oh well. I'll just take it as a sign of how much she loves her little sister!

Sisterly love at it's best!

Big sister giving little sister a loving hug...

...and little sister elbowing big sister in the face!

Maybe I only find this so amusing because I'm the 2nd child, but it really makes me laugh.
I hope that doesn't make me a bad mom... :)

Baking With Mommy

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been trying to do things that are just Melanie and me from time to time. There have been a couple short shopping trips where I feed Claire and leave her with dad so Melanie and I can quickly run off to do a couple errands before it's time to feed again, and there's always story time or playroom time. I've even given her the evening bath or put her down to sleep a few times - things that dad normally takes care of.

Baking/food preparation has become one of our "mommy and me" activities. A little while ago we made banana muffins (a favorite of Melanie's - it is a bread product after all!). She's also helped with pancakes and snack mix in recent days, and she really seems to enjoy it. She's especially fond of getting to sit on the counter - a real treat in the eyes of an almost two year old!

Here are a few pics of our muffin making activity

Wow! Mom's letting me help out in the kitchen!

Carefully stirring in the oats

Lining the muffin pan

Taste-test time!

Now to sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of our labor!

These are really tasty!
She was a bit too quick for me and started eating a muffin before I could peel back the liner paper, so she got a little something extra in her first few bites, but that didn't seem to phase her seeing as she ate almost two whole muffins, which in Melanie's world is the equivalent of a seven course meal!

She was really excited to help with the snack mix (our first cooking endeavor together) but since most of her stirring so far has occurred either in the bathtub or in a yogurt cup she was a bit more aggressive than the Chex could handle, resulting in more crumbs and broken pieces than normal. It still tasted good, or so I would assume since it seemed to be the most popular item I took to the RCIA sponsor meeting.

The other items I took to the sponsor meeting:
Caramel Shortbread Squares
Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles
Easy Salted Peanut Chews
They were all very tasty for completely different reasons, but the Caramel Shortbread Squares (triangles) are a Lenten sacrifice breaker, so if you've given up sweets or chocolate don't try these in the next few weeks - I wouldn't want to be the one that introduced you to something that made you stumble along your Lenten journey. You've been warned!