Saturday, December 27, 2008

Monday, December 22, 2008

A New Kitchen

My husband and father-in-law spent the weekend putting together Anna and Maddie's Christmas present - a kitchen. It has been a hit! Anna enjoys making food for me and washing her baby doll's clothes; Maddie just likes pulling up and looking around.

Happy with their Christmas kitchen

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I highly recommend this Little Tykes wooden kitchen and laundry center. It includes a stove, oven, sink, dishwasher, refrigerator, washing machine, microwave and some additional storage space. It is very sturdy and it is absolutely adorable.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

My new purple phone

A few week ago I jumped into the texting world. I'm not really sure why I thought this, but to me texting was something teenagers and college students did - not "grown ups". Then I had a friend who started texting to keep in touch with her husband during the day; then I had a conversation with someone my mom's age who started texting to keep in touch with son who was in college. My stereotype was being dismantled as weekly I was talking with someone "my age" who had their own reasons for texting. Hmmmm.

One day I was telling my husband about all of the conversations I was having with people about text messaging and he asked me if I was interested in joining the ranks. Well, I did it. I bought the coolest, purplest phone there was and upgraded my cell package and I absolutely love it. I can text my husband during the day where as before I resisted calling his cell phone in case he was in a work meeting. I can send him pictures of things the girls and I are doing during the day so that he can better "experience it with us". I am even keeping in better touch with my college-age brother which is a huge plus; we now text almost daily. I get alerts on my phone whenever I get an email which actually keeps me off my computer (which is probably another reason why I'm not blogging as much). Needless to say I love it!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Update

A week and a half since my last post, this may be a new record for me. All is well here at the Burckart house - we've been busy visiting with friends and family and busy with everything else that goes along with the Christmas season. I love the age the girls are - everything is new and exciting.

Anna has become quite the chatterbox. Whenever we are in the car we talk about where we are going and what we will do. We name our friends and count the cars going by. There are times we will have a short conversation and my eyes almost fill up with tears because of her sweet and sensitive spirit. The other night we were going to bed and saying our prayers. As usual I asked Anna who she wanted to pray for - tonight she wanted to include the puppy. I asked her why and she said 'ears hurt, ears hurt' as she pointed to her own ears (she had seen my husband clean the dogs ears and thought they hurt). How sweet! Anna is continuing to fight naptime but I still try to make her stay in her room for at least 30 minutes. I think this time in her room by herself is really bringing out her imagination. Anna's favorite things to do these days are to feed and play with her baby doll and to have a tea party. I can't wait to give her the kitchen we bought her for Christmas!

Maddie is EVERYWHERE! This is a new experience for me since Anna would just sit and quietly play after she learned to crawl. Maddie on the other hand is the fastest crawler I have ever seen. She is very good at finding the things she should not have (such as computer power cords) and trying to put them in her mouth before I see her. There is no telling the amount of day old cheerios Maddie has consumed that Anna has left lying around. Maddie has also found the stairs and can climb up the first one (yikes!). All of this activity has helped Maddie's sleeping. Maddie is back to sleeping through the night on a somewhat consistent basis and has extended her naps so that they now last an hour or longer rather than the 30 minute cat naps (praise!!). We are moving on from pureed baby foods to more finger foods such as peas and green beans. I did not enjoy trying to turn either of these vegetables into pureed baby food so at last my daughter is eating something green. Maddie has the cutest personality - she smiles at just the right time to melt your heart. She has also a "battle cry" of sorts that she does whenever she is about to attack something or someone (especially something furry such as the dog); it reminds me of Xena the tv warrior princess. Well, there she goes off to the other room following her sister. Perhaps I haven't been blogging because those moments of sitting down are fewer and farther between :).

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

My New Seat

Anna's New Carseat

Here is Anna hanging out in her new Cosco Deluxe Summit High Back Booster. This now makes five carseats that we have in our possession which is a little excessive but each one has served its purpose well.

Infant carseats:
I still stick by the Chicco Cortina travel system as being a wonderful infant carseat. Thanks to the removable padding, Anna stayed in it comfortably for almost eight months and Maddie is still riding around in it. I will be sad to "retire" this carseat in the next month or two but I'm excited to pass it along to my sister-in-law.

Then there was the infant carseat we used with our double jogging stroller and in the second car which has never been a favorite of mine.

Convertible carseats:
We have two of these as well. An Evenflo Titan 5 which quickly got moved to the second car in favor of the Britax Roundabout (my reasons were listed in a previous blog). Anna has enjoyed the Britax but as she has hit this last growth spurt she seemed gigantic in it (the weight goes up to 40 pounds). The Britax also sat up rather high which helped Anna push and kick the driver seat in front of her. In hindsight, maybe we should have spent the extra $50 to get the Britax Marathon convertible carseat which goes up to 60 pounds. Oh well.

Sooo, off we went to find a new carseat for Anna. We looked at the Alpha Sport Vantage, the Evenflo Chase and the Britax Frontier at Babies R Us. Anna enjoyed sitting in them and trying out the cupholders. The Frontier was by far the coolest but I couldn't figure out what made it $150 more than any other seat in its division. We went home to do a little research and check with Consumer Reports and ended up ordering the Summit. As you can see, Anna is happy in it.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Maddie turns 7 Months

This past month has flown! So, what has Maddie been up to for the past month?

Mastering eating (finger foods and sippy cups)

Trying out the puffs

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Enjoying the sippy cup

Playing with Anna's toys (Little People house, puzzles and the LeapFrog music table are her favorites)

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Cutting teeth (which leads to lots of snot and sleepless nights)

Closeup of first two teeth

Following her sister everywhere!

"Playing with Cassie