a little more museum

Eric took the day off so we could all go to the Children's Museum together (we're gonna get our money's worth out of this membership!).The highlights this time were that Madilyn found her Super Why glasses again,
and she got to be an octopus in the ocean. She's watching herself on a tv screen that looks like she's under water with real fish.
Abby was a really good sport the whole time we were there, but I forgot to bring some solid food to feed her while we ate lunch. She started making this face that looks like an ornery old man chomping his mouth without his dentures.

who do you think has more eating experience?

Sometimes it's really hard to tell. Madilyn is such a mess with her food! Eric says I shouldn't worry about it because she'll eventually grow out of it; it's not likely that she's going to dig into her food with both hands when she's on her first date. However, it'd be really nice not to have to hose her down after each meal. In Madilyn's defense, she can be quite clean when she wants to be, she just usually doesn't want to be.

george at the museum

After living here for over a year and a half we finally got a pass to the Children's Museum. The last time we went was the day before Abby was born (in July) so it was fun to see all the new exhibits. Madilyn especially loved the Curious George area because she got to do a lot of the things George does in the show.She played golf...
...played in the rocket...
...helped George wash windows...
...greeted the firemen in the elevator...
...and tried on the doorman's hat. Good times!

diggin' for bones

Madilyn's other favorite thing in the museum was digging for dinosaur bones. She loved wearing the goggles because she thought it made her look like Super Why. I let her stay in there until Abby couldn't take it anymore, then she cried and cried when I made her get out. Maybe she'll become a paleontologist!

what is it about kids and tv?!

We had some kids in our ward over and everyone was playing great until one of them decided they wanted to lay down and watch tv. Of course, the others thought that was a great idea and this is how they all ended up:I only managed to drag them away from the tv by having them help me make cookies. I just don't get why tv is the preferred activity when there are other kids and other funner things to do!

storytime

While I finished organizing and putting away all the toys in our newly created toy room I overheard Madilyn reading a book in the tv room. I didn't recognize the phrases I heard so I went to see which book she was reading and found that she was "reading" a birthday card. She told me, "I'm reading to Abby!"

when will I learn?!

We've lived in our current house for 7 1/2 months so I finally decided it was time to clean out our junk room and turn it into the playroom. I gave Madilyn a snack, turned on Finding Nemo, and got to work. Just as I was feeling really pleased with my progress, I came out of the room and discovered a whole new junk room:I made the mistake of leaving all our games in a place where Madilyn could reach them. By the time I realized my mistake she had at least 6 different games mixed up. I'm still looking for the last 2 dominoes.

french braid

I got Madilyn to sit still long enough to braid her hair and I was so excited that thought it deserved to be posted on here. I hoped that she would appreciate all the effort I put into her hairdo and leave it in, but she had the braid completely undone within a half hour. Oh well, at least I got to see her cute face for that half hour before it disappeared behind her oh-so-crazy hair.

so much energy!

Madilyn's limitless energy never ceases to amaze me. The following video clips show a few minutes of her daily activity. Keep in mind that on both of these occasions she had been active for at least 5-10 minutes before I even pulled out the camera.
Madilyn likes to play with the rug in our tv room. She folds it on herself like a blanket, rolls it up and crawls through it, and flips it upside down to dance on. On this day she was dancing on it for such a long time that I grabbed the camera to see how long she could keep it up. I ended up getting 6 videos just like this one before she finally slowed down.
Another thing Madilyn loves to do is run around in circles. Before I pulled out the camera this time she was running up to Abby to make her laugh, then running away, but by the time I started recording her she was stuck in circles.

Shhh Mommy!

Yesterday, the mood struck me to work from home. As such, I was able to watch what goes on at home when I am usually at work. There was one thing that struck me as really funny...

Madilyn was playing house with her dolls. She put the baby into its crib and said that it was sleeping. Then she asked Jeannette to scream. Jeannette gave a feeble attempt to scream, and Madilyn said, "No, No, scream mommy." Finally, Jeannette screamed.

"Shhh, Mommy. Oh no, Mommy, you woke the baby!"

The funniest thing is that this often happens in reverse.

Hinckley Challenge

After receiving about 5 different forwards about it, I've decided to take the Hinckley Challenge. It's been a while since I have read the Book of Mormon straight through, so I thought this would be a good way to do that and honor the memory of President Hinckley. Also, just to help keep me accountable, I'm posting a graph of my progress in the sidebar. That's right, as of right now I haven't read anything yet, but that soon will change! My friend Tammy created a blog to discuss what we're reading, so if anyone is interested you can check it out here.

P.S. On a totally unrelated note, we can't seem to find our camera. My guess is that either I put it somewhere out of the way so Madilyn wouldn't get it, or she did get it and put it where I can't find it. That is the reason you may not see new pictures for a little while, not because my girls are any less cute and wonderful.