XC Skiing

Finn getting ready to go skiing.

Mal just got some new boots, so we had to go break them in.

I don't mind the cold winter, so the adjustment to living in Maine has been an easy one. Madie has enjoyed it as well too. She had fun skiing....I mean sitting on my back while I ski. I'm just glad they enjoy being outside, I'll be their mule anytime!

I couldn't help myself in taking this shot. I love his little legs poking out.

Fast asleep on the way home.

A few weeks ago I skied to the top of Mt. Cadillac for sunrise. It was so beautiful! Two hours to get up, 20 minutes to get down. It doesn't get any better than that.

Poetic

I remember once my youngest brother standing before me on a Sunday morning while I brushed his hair for church. I had just celebrated my 18th birthday and a friend gave me some Bath and Body Works lotion--I can't remember the name of it now--that had a very sweet smell to it. Ezra sniffed the air and said, "Do you have candy in here?" "No," I replied, very confused. "Why would I have candy in my bedroom?" "Well, somethin' smells like candy." A minute later it occurred to me what it might be so I held out my arm for him to smell. He gasped, "You smell like lollipops!"

One of my favorite things about young children is that, due to their limited experiences and command of their language, they are forced to describe things in ways we wouldn't have thought. It's rare, but once in a while even the brightest kid (feel free to read that as, "Madie") comes up with an incredible simile that just inspires the poet within the listener.

I've taken to sometimes wearing a headscarf again, now that my hair has definitely hit an awkward stage. This morning I wrapped it and braided the left-overs instead of winding them. Madie is always after me to wear them long so I thought she'd like it. I turned to her and said, "There! How's that?" 

How would you describe it?

A better shot from the side.

She considered for a second then said, "It looks like braided ice cream!"

Who wants to beat that?

Parenting

Let me start this post out by saying that Mal and I have learned a lot since we have become parents. A lot of what we have learned was adopted from our own parents, a small percent from what we read somewhere, and then there's the trial and error. When all else fails, we fall back onto the latter.

Finnegan and The Ray Lamontagne Method

Finn eating his fingers with a side of cereal.

You guys have all heard of the different methods for putting children down to sleep, there are so many out there. People swear by these methods with accolades of immediate effectiveness. I'd say we gave each method a fair shot, and even tried mixing a few...to no avail. I guess we were blessed with Madie being such an easy baby. We would literally feed & burp her, then lay her down in a dark room and she would fall asleep for at least two hours, easily. Then when 8:00 pm rolled around, we would lay her down with some music (Ray Lamontagne...that's all we had at the time!) and she would fall right asleep, and typically wouldn't wake up until 5:30 or 6:00 am. It was so easy. We really did not have to fiddle with any sleeping methods.

Finn is a different story. When he was initially born, we tried putting him to sleep to the sounds of rain (http://www.rainymood.com), and that seemed to work alright. Plus, it was a noise that we wouldn't really get sick of. He was a typical newborn and didn't sleep through the night for a couple of months. By August or September, he was sleeping until 5 or 6 am. But, then we moved to Maine and all hell broke loose. The driving, flying, sleeping in different houses, and changing three time zones rocked his world and we were back to square one. To get him back on track, we resorted to recommended sleeping methods. I have never really been a believer in raising children according to conventional parenting books and literature, but I was willing to give it a shot. We were desperate to get some sleep.

From the Ray Lamontagne concert we went to in 2011

I'll cut to the chase, none of them really worked as we had hoped. There were no immediate or revelatory methods that worked "within days" as many had promised. Based on our 'clinical trials', Mal and I came to a simple conclusion: lets stick with the Ray Lamontagne Method, and let the kid chomp on his fingers. And that's what we've been doing for the past couple of months. A touch of Ray and ditch the pacifier. It's by far the most successful method we have tried so far. He still struggles taking naps at times or wakes up because his diaper is so full that it's leaking, but he will sleep until 5 or 6 am 85% of the time now, which we'll take over 10% any day.

Madie Movies

Madie has always loved movies, especially if it involves a princess (that includes watching herself, of course). When she was two, we could hardly record her doing anything for more than 3 seconds before she would stop what she was doing to come over and watch the video that...due to it's 3 second duration...hadn't really recorded anything notable to that point. It was frustrating, believe me. Mal and I have had to go KGB on her and hide ourselves except the camera facing her. Luckily, we were able to capture at least some of her childhood.

Madie with her hooded cape that Mal made, playing as Belle

Madie just loves to watch movies. You know how kids obsess over one movie and watch it repeatedly, day after day? Madie's first movie she obsessed over was Winnie the Pooh. We actually introduced Pooh to her through YouTube, then she really caught on. We ended up buying a movie so we could just pop that in and not have to get a new episode every 10 or 15 minutes. She was allowed to watch one movie a day. It changed from Pooh, to Beauty and the Beast, to Cinderella. She was really getting into the princess movies. So much that she was quoting and re-enacting the scenes from them. I can't tell you how many times I've played as The Beast and her Belle, and we re-enact that scene when he takes Belle from the tower to her guest room. Or the scene when she runs away from the "wolfies".

This of course provided endless laughter and entertainment for us as a family. And, let's be honest, it's nice to pop on a movie to occupy the kids for an hour so that you can read, clean, or work on a project. It's just a nice break to have as a parent. In the past few months, Madie's moods have been somewhat controlled by her love for movies. When the movie was done, or if we had to turn it off to eat dinner, it would be a huge meltdown. She wanted more! Or, she was just impulsive and had a bad attitude afterwards. We tried reasoning with her to help her control herself after she watched a movie, but reasoning with a three year old isn't a reasonable task. A few weeks ago, we put our foot down and took away all movies. We all needed a long break from them until she was mature enough to be able to handle watching a movie. Madie has actually handled it well. She is to the point to where she doesn't ask to watch a movie anymore, and has been starting to entertain herself with her Lalaloopsy toys. We told her we can try watching movies again when we choose/buy/move into our new house (April/May timeframe). And although there are still meltdowns, there aren't quite as many as there used to be.

Tubby Time

Finn and Madie's first time taking a tubby together.

Madie did a really good job scraping off the food that was caked onto Finns neck. What a good big sister she is.

Sledding

We had to literally drag Madie out of the house to go sledding, she was not interested at all! We later found out she had a fever...which explains a lot. She is just so hesitant to try new things, that we often have to force her into them to make her realize "Hey, I like this!", which is the outcome 90% of the time.

After her first ride down the hill, Madie had this little smile on her face that she tried to mask...SEE WHAT I MEAN?!? The kid needs to be pushed onto the plank every once in a while! The Finn-Man even got a ride down, but didn't have much of a reaction. I guess that's good though.

Madie went down a couple more times, then called it a day.

Finn was really tired, so we just brought his car seat out and dropped him in to let him sleep.

I got to brush up on my snowskate skills...still there.

Mal even gave the snowskate a whirl.

Madie was pretty content watching, but was ready to head home. Once we got there, Madie curled up in her blanket on the couch and I don't think she left the couch until we put her to bed that night. Poor Madie, fevers are so uncomfortable. 

A FEW DAYS LATER....

 

I would say that one of Madie's favorite things to do in the snow is blaze trails by trudging through waist-deep powder. She was outside in 20 degree weather for over an hour. I even had to convince her to come in! She loves it though.

And she likes just plopping down and sitting in the snow. She may make a snow angel, or just move her mittens around in the powder. It especially helps now that Mumma made some new liners for her boots that keep her feet warm.

No more toothless grins

This little boy has a 'central incisor' coming in on his bottom row. It took Madie 11 months to get her first tooth. Finn is just trying to catch up with big sister.

Quotables

Some final 2012 quotes by Miss Madeleine:

We've been talking a lot about nutrition--mostly what has vitamins and what doesn't and why it's important to eat lots of vitamins and a good variety of them--and Madie has brought it up a few times in different funny ways that change according to what she's eating. So, while she munches on an apple, she says this: "I hear the vitamins crunch."

Upstairs she pulls a long blonde hair off herself and says, "Look! I found a hair!" Me: "Yes you did. Wow! It's long!" Madie: "Yes, I found a hair. It's from me. A blondie hair."(Yes, my little blondie-haired child. I swear, she comes up with this stuff on her own.)

It took forever to snow this year--we are loaded with it now though--but Madie was not deterred. She continued to reassure us it would indeed snow: "Maybe it will snow tomorrow. The snow is taking a sleepy time."

As we turned onto a gravel and very wooded road some very dear friends live on this little conversation ensued: Me: "Madie, you're going to go play with Anne! Fun!" Madie: "Play with Anne? At her house?" Me: "Yes, her house is right up this road." Madie: "No, Mum. This is where people camp sometimes." (Welcome to Maine.)

And finally--and you'll love this, Lex--on the way home from church I get this little gem out of the clear blue: "Mum, can I see your big, giant teeth?"