Snow on 11/12/13 !!!

Today we woke up to everything covered in SNOW!

Madilynn was so excited - she was yelling - "Snow Mommy Snow - come see the snow!"

She was so excited when Meredith woke up - she couldn't wait to show her the snow!

 

Matt and I were both off - so we bundled the girls up and took them out to play in it for awhile.

 

Madilynn kept trying to "throw" the snow on Matt - not quite a snowball - more like a bunch of dust! 

 

    

 

After we came in the girls enjoyed some hot (warm) chocolate!

 

 

Meredith is 15 months old!

Hard to believe but little Miss Meredith is getting so big, and is already 15 months old!

She went to her 15 month Dr appointment just before our trip south.

Everything looks good - she has been gaining weight a lot better than before she had her tubes...she is now up to 19 lbs 10 oz (somewhere around the 10th percentile) and is 32 inches long (90th percentile). Same height as Madilynn was, but just over a pound lighter.

She wears a wide range of clothes...mostly 12 or 18 month shirts, 18 month sleepers, but pants are anywhere from 9 to 18 months depending on the waistband. I think I'm going to have to add elastic to a lot of her pants...it's the only way she can keep them up (unless the band is already entirely elastic) - because of course the 9 month ones are looking like crop leggings and it's getting a bit too cold out for that! She currently wears size 3 shoes, though I think we are on the last days of this size...

She does fairly well eating. I've tried to let her use utensils - but mainly she just bangs those around. She does pretty good with them if I put the food on it first - she can get it in her mouth pretty well.

Yogurt seems to be her favorite - she also does fairly well eating her meat options (hot dogs, meatballs, chicken) and fruit - but vegetables are not one of her favorites  (though she does seem to eat them better than Madilynn). She loves milk - and it is nice to not have to flavor it with chocolate like we still have to do for her sister!

She has 6 teeth - 2 on the bottom, and 4 on the top. All gums top and bottom are super swollen - looks like it won't be too long before some molars make their debut.

She does so great sleeping!! (Who would have ever guessed I would be able to say that about Meredith!!) Ever since she got her ear tubes in July she has slept all night long! (And so far she's only had one more ear infection- which was back in September!) She goes to bed by 8pm and sometimes doesn't even wake till after 9am! (Though on work days we are at daycare by 6am - luckily for all of us that is only Monday, Wednesday, Friday.) She still takes 2 naps, usually the first is only an hour or 2 after she wakes in the morning, and then she takes her 2nd after lunch. They are both usually around an hour...but even if she wakes she usually just entertains herself in her crib - sometimes I don't even know she's awake until I see her playing on the monitor!

Meredith doesn't really say too much. The one thing she does say consistently is "Bye!!!" and will wave bye. She sort of says "ma-ma" and "da-da"...she certainly points and grunts a lot, about the only sign she really does is "please" but usually only if we ask her to do it.

She still sucks on her first two fingers of her left hand.

 She knows where her belly is and would love to show it off to anyone that wants to see it (regardless if we are in the middle of a restaurant or not)!

Her hair is still brown  - but is definitely much lighter than it was - it is also generally straight, but curls up when it is humid out. Her eyes are still brown, and she is full of smiles!

 

Here are some recent photos of Miss Meredith....

 

She LOVES baby dolls - just today I found her feeding her baby a bottle...

 

She loves doing things with her sister....just so long as Madilynn isn't trying to put her hood up, or put her hair into a ponytail...or taking her toys away from her!

 

Madilynn pulling her in the wagon...

 

These girls LOVE the squeeze applesauce! They both know where it is in the fridge, and now Madilynn can even get them out of the fridge - so now their applesauce snack isn't limited to just before bed!

 

 

The other thing Meredith loves to do is CLIMB!! She climbs on everything - just the other day she even climbed up onto the couch all by herself! Thank goodness she hasn't climbed out of her crib. Perhaps sleeping in her sleep sack is limiting her climbing ability - we'll see soon enough - I think her favorite blue doggie fleece sleep sack is getting too small for her to fit into!

 

 

This girls is FAST! I don't know how many times I've turned around and she is just sitting up on top of the table! Always into something!

 

Found one of her in her Halloween costume I forgot to share earlier...so big!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mammoth Cave National Park

On our way home we stopped in Kentucky at Mammoth Cave National Park

We were fortunate enough to find a tour that was approved for small children.

The girls did pretty good - though we had to carry both of them most of the way.

You weren't allowed to use flash in the caves - so I was only able to get a couple photos.

 

Madilynn's favorite part was the bus ride to and from the cave!

Meredith was happy to be back on the bus after the tour - she fell right to sleep!

 

The girls did such a great job on our mini-vacation - can't wait to go on another adventure!

Huntsville US Space and Rocket Center

Our 2nd day in Huntsville was spent at the US Space and Rocket Center.

 

They had a DaVinci exhibit with several of his inventions. Madilynn of course liked the ones she could touch....

 

Anything else she could touch she was a fan of.... 

 

Much like the gardens we pretty much had the place to ourselves... 

Look closely and you will see Madilynn in her yellow coat running underneath this...shows just how huge it is!

 

This submarine is suppose to hold 2 people!

I was going to have Madilynn stand close to me and hold up her hands to it looked like she was holding up the rocket - but instead she ran over to it and stood under it...not quite the same effect I was hoping for....

 

Then I turned around and saw that Meredith was holding her hands up too... 

 

How the astronauts sit atop the rocket...Ready for take off! 

 

Madilynn absolutely loved the play area - I loved that she had it all to herself! 

 

She kept saying "come on Mommy - let's go to space"

 

I had fixed these so each was a different picture - came back later and she had changed it to this! 

 

Meredith - still got in her morning nap... 

 

Will definitely be something to do once the girls are older so we can actually take some time to stop and read about what we are seeing! All in all a great day though!

Huntsville Botanical Garden

Our first day in Huntsville was spent at the Huntsville Botanical Garden.

We were so surprised at all of the things they had there for the kids. They both absolutely loved it!

We could have easily spent the entire day there, and then some!

 

Of course Madilynn loved it from the first thing we saw....a giant PURPLE flower pot!

 

They had scarecrows all along the paths...this one was a Sheldon Cooper scarecrow - from The Big Bang theory. I pointed out the little kitty he had - and Madilynn started singing - "Soft Kitty"... 

 

They really enjoyed all the giant garden things... 

 

A giant sprinkler... 

 

Giant checker board... 

 

 

 

Statue with a dog - noticed the bottom photo with Matt and Madilynn joining in the tug-of-war, and Meredith trying to kiss the dog.... 

 

Had to get photos of us in our favorite color chairs!

                                    

 

She kept taking the bones out and taking them over to the dog... 

 

We pretty much had the gardens all to ourselves - allowing for us to take our time and enjoy each thing for as long as the girls wanted. What a wonderful day we had!