3 Months Old!

I'm a bit late on posting this, but not by too much. My little sister, Marin, turned 3 Months old on Nov. 14. She's getting really big and Mommy spends a lot of time making weird faces at her but she seems to enjoy it. I don't really have time for that kind of play, I prefer getting into absolutely everything and hiding random things around the house. You know me, I've got to keep Mommy & Daddy on their toes.

Mommy has been putting me on a training program for the flight to Hawaii next week. We started working on the portable DVD player and I confess, it didn't go so well. After a couple of practice rounds though, Mommy and I worked things out. I'm willing to bet Mommy would probably give up a limb in an effort to avoid an in-air version of the massive tantrum I threw yesterday.

Here are some pictures of Marin being cute. The last one is of her in the Bumbo seat. It's really funny when Mommy puts her in there because she looks like a Bobble-Head. We really need to get that on video. Stay tuned...

Happy Halloween!

Mommy & Daddy have been trying to teach me a lot of things lately, but last night on Halloween, I taught them several things that they won't forget anytime soon...

1. I'm old enough to pick my own costume. Just because I have a sister now doesn't mean that you can pick costumes that go with each other and that I'll buy in on the idea. I never, ever said that I wanted to be a Monkey so that Marin could be a Banana. Unfortunately, I had to pitch a HUGE fit because it took a long time for this one to sink in. In the end, I was perfectly happy being a Princess/Ballerina/Rock Star with sensible warm clothing and squeaky shoes. And EVERYONE thought I was absolutely adorable.

2. A nap is essential for Halloween success. I've gone three days in the past week without a nap and yesterday was one of those days. I haven't given up naps completely, I'm just testing the waters to see what it's like if I don't take them. Great for me, not so great for everyone else. It looks like naps will stay for the time being.

3. We've been working on "Please" and "Thank You" and although I have to be constantly reminded to say these words, I know exactly when I need to say them. For instance, when I saw my Halloween dress in Target, I looked up at Mommy, clasped my hands together under my chin and said, "Please, please, please, please, please!"

All in all though, it was a fun night. I feel kind of bad for Marin, she kind of looked like a paranoid Banana. Super cute, but a little paranoid. Maybe she'll like Halloween a bit more next year. It's a lot more fun if you can walk (and run into people's houses when they open the door)!

I'm already looking forward to next Halloween!

PS - For some reason, Daddy wanted me to mention that as soon as we got home last night, I decided that I really wanted my Monkey costume after all and tried it on!

10 Weeks Old!

Marin here! I'm 10 weeks old today and figured that it was time for my very own blog post. I'm healthy and thriving and everybody has been taking good care of me since my arrival here. I am still trying to find my own voice, but I can tell you that so far, I've proven myself to be pretty different from my big sister. Some have called me 'demanding', but I see it this way ~ I really don't have that many needs so there's really no reason why the few that I have can't be taken care of in a timely manner.

In honor of my family, who does keep me happy even if I cry a lot, I have been working on a new reward for them. You know, something a little special to let them know that I love them and that's they're doing a good job... here it is... my smile!

M & M October Photo Session

Although I'm sure it will happen more often the older that Marin and I get, we currently only have two matching outfits. And my Sissy is growing so fast (outgrowing clothes faster than I did) that even though these rompers are a little weather-inappropriate, I got a real kick out of wearing the same thing as Marin so Mommy did a little photoshoot this morning. Of course there is no perfect picture, but there were so many cute ones, I had a hard time choosing just a few!

I especially like the last two where I realize that Marin's outfit has the exact same flower as mine!

Lost & Found

This morning Mommy was using Photo Booth to take a picture of Marin looking cute and peaceful (after grunting for a couple of hours ~ Marin, not Mommy)... and she stumbled upon some older pictures of me. Here goes... first Marin, then me...

Sissy It Is, And She's (gasp!) Six Weeks Old!

Mommy and Daddy really didn't want me to call Marin 'Sissy', but they keep referring to her as 'Sister', and for the record, Sissy just sounds so cute when I say it. It's hard to believe that we've already had her for six weeks and so far, my life hasn't changed at all! I really like Marin, even though she still doesn't do much although she's awake a bit more often now. She did smile at Mommy the other day which was apparently very exciting. But other than that, she's just eating, sleeping, relieving herself and growing really fast!

I like to give her kisses and occasionally hold her, but not for very long. The first time I 'held' her, I literally chucked her right back to Daddy who is, fortunately, a very good catch. I'm getting a lot better.

Mommy is working on a list of differences between us as babies. The differences aren't that major, for instance, Marin doesn't like a dirty diaper and I couldn't care less. When I was Marin's age, I spit up ALL the time and although Marin spits up too, she doesn't do it all that often. At first, I wasn't crazy about bathtime, but Marin really enjoys it.

Here are some pictures of Sissy, and if you're wondering why her diaper looks so big on her, that's because Mommy thought it would be funny to put her in one of my diapers. And it was funny.

My First Real Haircut

In exactly 26 months of life, Mommy has cut my bangs TWICE but I've never had an actual, go to the hair-cutter haircut. Even though the fact remains that I basically had a toddler-mullet, she just couldn't cut off any of my curls. She and Daddy also expected that I would get into a chair to get my haircut and end up screaming my head off. If only they had known...

I was PERFECT. I sat in this ok little airplane seat with a steering wheel (yes, a steering wheel for an airplane), I got treated to a Mango flavored Dum-Dum lollipop, Winnie the Pooh was on tv, and about 7 minutes later (that's how long the video is - which is too big to post and really not all that exciting since I don't do anything dramatic), I walked out with a super-cute new 'do.

No Real News To Report

It's hard to believe that my little sister Marin is already 3 weeks old! She's still not doing much, just sleeping, eating, some other bodily functions and oh yeah, grunting. She grunts A LOT. All the time. Grunt here, grunt there, she's very noisy and none of us can figure out why she grunts. It's become the mystery of the house.

I, on the other hand, am much more exciting. I've gotten some new awesome toys, mainly a cool sleeping bag (I got to go on a road trip with Oma & Opa to a wedding last weekend), a tent and a crawly tunnel. Nothing will ever replace Giraffe, of course, but these could easily be the most exciting toys I've ever had. Oh! And I also got my very own table and chairs set so I can have tea parties all the time.

Here are a couple of pictures, one of me and Oma playing with my sleeping bag and the other of Marin working on her head/neck control. She's doing a pretty good job!

My First Full Sentence...

So there I was, having fun playing hide and seek with Daddy when I, well, I let out a pretty loud fart. For some juvenile reason, Mommy, Daddy and Oma Debbie thought this was the most hilarious thing ever, especially since it even woke Marin up.

I took serious offense to their laughing at me so I stormed out of the room, down the hallway and into Mommy & Daddy's bedroom. Right before slamming the door in protest of their behavior, I said "Go away! I don't like you!"

Mommy is just glad that this wasn't directed at my new baby sister (who was totally on my side as she was the only person in the room NOT laughing at me). I love her so much already!

Faster Than A Speeding Bullet... My Baby Sister Marin Is Born!

I am happy to announce that I am officially a big sister! My baby sister Marin Leigh made a super-quick entry into the world at 4:38am on Friday, August 14. I was at home, sound asleep with Giraffe (sweetly dreaming of having Mommy and Daddy all to myself) through the entire event but Mommy filled me in later on everything that happened. I don't understand a lot of the technicalities of how everything happened, so Mommy helped me write this too. (There she goes again, trying to garner some sympathy for her experience.)

It all started at 1:15am when Mommy's water broke (I always knew she drank a lot of water but I wasn't aware that it could break her). She and Daddy got ready as quickly as they could and got to the hospital around 2:30am. Apparently Mommy could only talk about something called and ep-i-dur-al or something like that because she can't handle pain all that well.

When the doctor did the first check on Mommy around 3am, she was 5cm dilated and a half an hour later, another doctor came to give Mommy her medicine. Over the next 30 minutes, the doctor tried to put the medicine in Mommy's back, but she was in so much pain she couldn't sit still like she was supposed to. He tried four times to put the medicine in and all Mommy got was a nasty bruise.

Around 4:30am (and against Mommy's better judgment), Mommy said, "I think I have to push." (By the way, I don't know what she needed to push right then, especially when it seems she had all of this other stuff going on, but oh well.) The nurse had Mommy lay down and said, "Well, I can't see the baby's head...oh...wait...there she is...she's crowning..." and then a few short minutes later, my sister Marin (these are Daddy's words) came "...shooting out like a bullet out of a gun. If the nurse hadn't have been sitting where she was, Marin would have flown across the room and hit the wall. The doctor wasn't even in the room, he was next door delivering another baby."

Mommy's Note: So in the end, Marin was born to the woman least likely to ever have a natural childbirth but everything happened so fast that even if I had gotten the epidural, it probably wouldn't have taken effect in time (this statement in no way keeps me from harboring anger towards the nurse who 'had things to do' before I could get my epidural).

Marin Leigh Schoenfeldt came into the world weighing 6lb., 5oz., and was 17" long with a head of thick dark hair. She's perfect, just like her sister. She's also a natural thumb-sucker, just like her sister. Stay tuned for many more stories and adventures in the lives of our two beautiful girls.

Birth Story Statistics:

Maggie Lynn: Water broke at 5:45am on a Tues. morning, she was delivered 31 hours later at 11:36am on a Wed., after 3.5 hours of pushing and the help of a vacuum (which has nothing to do with a Hoover, it's really a big suction cup).

Marin Leigh: Water broke at 1:15am and less than 3.5 hours later, at 4:38am she was delivered with a couple of pushes and the sheer force of a woman trying to make the pain stop!

If they came into the world so differently, what on earth are their personalities going to be like?

Today Is A Special Day!

I wanted to wish Opa Woodie a very happy birthday and Grandpa George and Grandma Ellen a very happy wedding anniversary!

Visitng Portland

Nearly 3 weeks ago, in the middle of July, Mommy took me down to Portland where Oma Debbie was visiting our family who I haven't seen in a year! We had such a good time, we promise that another year won't pass before we visit again.

Oma was staying with my Great-Grandma Maxine but Mommy and I stayed with Oma's twin sister, Sandy, or as her granddaughters call her, Mimi. For breakfast each morning she set up a special table just for myself with a tea set that when you tip the teapot over, it makes music! (Of course Mommy had to buy a set for me because I loved it so much!)

It was a busy weekend, we spent most of our time visiting with family and had a birthday BBQ to celebrate Great-Grandma Maxine's 81st Birthday! Here are some photos of our weekend: me at my special breakfast table, hanging out on Aunt Sandy's front porch (Oma said I couldn't go down the front steps so in the picture I'm trying to figure out a way around her restrictions...) and finally, me on the car ride home, clearly exhausted from all of the weekend fun.

I'm TWO!!!!

Mommy and Daddy aren't quite sure where the time has gone, but I'm TWO today! I got to go out to a special meal at the Old Spaghetti Factory where I had tons of fun with my food (and even tried to feed some to Giraffe who wasn't all that hungry). I got tons of fun toys and clothes and even got to go to my first Mariners game this week! I made it through 7 innings and althoug the Mariners were ahead when we had to go, they lost after I left. Clearly, I am a good-luck charm.




























































Two years ago...

My New Pool

Mommy decided to get me a pool especially for this summer since it's supposed to be so super-hot. Personally, I think she got it for herself too because it will be nice for her to lay in cool water during the hot summer before Marin arrives (2 more months!). Usually Daddy pulls the plug on the hot tub so it's a cold tub, but Mommy has a hard time getting herself and her big belly in and out of it. My pool is much easier. The giraffe head is supposed to shoot water onto the slide, but it doesn't quite work that way.

Anyway, we set it up on a few weekends ago and I love standing in the water and controlling the hose (even though the water is like ice). The trick is to keep Bear and Milhouse from jumping in and besides, they have a pool of their own. Even though we've filled the pool a few times, I still just stand in it. Maybe eventually I'll work up to sitting down.

So You Think You Can Dance?

First off, Mommy was shocked to realize that I haven't posted anything this month! Anyway, to make up for it, I was caught on video last night "dancing" to a song about a chicken that was on TV. Now that I think about it, maybe the song was about a chicken egg. I'm pretty sure that the song was about a chicken AND and egg, but I can't remember which one came first.

So, here's my video, and Mommy wanted me to be sure to add that comparatively, my belly looks as big as hers does now! Just a couple more months before Marin gets here!

Ducks At The Park

Mommy and Daddy were super-busy one weekend working around our house. Lucky for me, Auntie Adrienne took me up to the park to feed the ducks that live at the lake. We had so much fun! I liked to give bread to the ducks, then take a little for myself. I didn't even sit down in the water or get too wet. Well, until it was time to go home. Then I planted myself in a mud puddle to protest. I know I was being a tiny pain by doing that, but I really do hope that Auntie Adrienne takes me to feed the ducks again. It was awesome!