malloy was SUPER excited to go back to school today! she was jumping up and down in the kitchen this morning yelling "i get to see mrs. messina and mrs. mcgrath and all of my friends!" when i picked her up from school, mrs. messina said that malloy talked a mile a minute non-stop the entire time she was at school! that's my girl! :)
rex and i went to the gym, as usual. he is so fun to watch now! he interacts with the other kids and is talking so much more! every time i go in to get him one of the girls mentions how much he's talking now! today he was playing with one of his favorite little playmates. her name is maygan (probably spelled wrong but i know it's not the "normal" way to spell it). she around rex's age and both kids lover her. i peeked in and rex was crawling around, on top of and off a bunch of different toys and maygan was crawling right behind him doing the same thing. it was really cute to see him playing games with someone other than malloy. when i asked him about it later, his little eyes lit up and he grinned when he heard maygan's name. i think he's smitten!
both kids took a nice loooong, much needed nap this afternoon. rex woke up at 4 crying and i'm pretty sure neither one of them went back to sleep. the downfall of having them share a room...but it rarely happens. the rest of the afternoon is in the pictures!

helping with laundry

we took an extra long bath this afternoon - we love water!!!

lotion!

"fingers funny" he said after examining his pruney fingers

rex LOVES applying lotion to his belly!

instead of tacos, malloy now requests taco salad :)

we went to the gym for the first time in a few days. the kids were excited to go. we were on the way there and stopped at a red light. rex could see the gym from where he was sitting and started straining against his car seat straps yelling "gyyyyyym! gyyyyyyym!!!!"
malloy's been noticing earrings a lot lately. especially when men are wearing them. a dad was dropping his kid off in the playroom and malloy yells out "look, mommy! he has earrings!" we had a talk about how both girls and boys can wear earrings. another guy walked by with big hoops in his ears and she yells "he's wearing earrings, too!" earrings are so exciting!! one of the personal trainers overheard malloy talking and she turned around and was telling malloy about her earrings. she told her that she wears her earrings all time time and sleeps with them in. malloy was very interested in what she had to say and then replied "when i go to bed i always read my valentine book that i got from my grandma and grandpa." oh, the random thoughts of a two year old!
after the gym, malloy and i went through all of bella's old clothes and picked out all of the summer clothes. malloy has been wanting to wear only dresses lately. all of her dresses from last summer are way too short, so i had to go through and find ones that covered her bottom! she had a blast trying on all of the clothes! i'm so happy that she wanted to try them on - most of the clothes fit!!! i can't believe my baby is wearing mostly size 4!!! 
we took a trip to target after naps. the kids were great! although, there's something about target that makes them want to eat throughout the whole store! "squeezy fruit" is a must when we're at target. what can i say, i've got quirky kids! we stopped quick at old navy (in search of tights). malloy loved the little kid mannequins without heads. she thought that they were hilarious! the highlight of the trip was getting to touch the mannequins in the front of the store, especially the dog!

the favorite game of the moment. malloy calls it "making a patterin"

rex thinks dinosaurs are much more fun to out in the basketball net!

we had another low key sunday. after nap, we all bundled up and went to the playground. it was a bit colder than the last time we went, but the kids still had a great time! malloy loves going down the twirly slide all by herself. rex was more interested in what he could get to stick to his mittens. he'd hold his hands up covered with snow and wood chips and say "dirty!" and wait for me to brush them off. when he was on the playground, he could see malloy through the holes in the grate. he dropped to him belly and started yelling "moy, moy, moy! hi moy!" through the holes. it was really cute. we had fun playing restaurant with snow. malloy would take out order and then give us the "food". neal took her order and she told him she wanted "ketchup and mustard on a sandwich. with chocolate milk." then she went and sat on a little stool to wait for her food. rex was in on it too, giving us balls of snow and calling them juice. we love playing pretend!

rubbing daddy's head while he takes a little snooze

malloy discovered eating peanut butter off a spoon!

we bought giant marshmallows at the store - rex  LOVED them!

 

we had another sick day at home. the kids are getting better, but neal and i now have their colds! the kids played with their toys most of the day. they love having their toys organized as much as i do! one of the most popular toys of the day were the stacking cups! i finally found all of them when i was cleaning. malloy loved stacking them up and taking them down over and over. rex pretended to bring "juice" to daddy over and over. he'd give neal a cup and say "here. juice. drink it?" and then go get another cup and repeat. i know i've said it before, but he is SO cute right now! he's doing a few new things a day and i love it! he's using a lot of 2 or 3 word combinations. one of his favorites is "hi, moy!" he now calls malloy "moy" and i LOVE it!!! she does too, but only he can call her that. if i call her moy she says "NO! i'm MALLOY!" rex is all about being "silly" and "funny". he'll be reading a book and start laughing and say "funny!" or he'll do something and then say "i silly". SO CUTE! and poor malloy (who still comes up with new stuff daily!) sees the attention that rex gets and copies exactly what he did to get us to laugh again. and we humor her and laugh again :)

we had a day of organization today! the kids thought it was a game to put their toys in the correct spot! we even made labels (with pictures!) and put them on the boxes and bins so that we can put everything back where it belongs. after everything was clean, they had a blast playing with their "new" toys!!

uncle paddy came over this morning for a nice visit! he played with the kids for a few hours, the kids had a blast and i actually got to clean up around the house a bit!
malloy was being a nut today! she chose to wear a santa dress this morning and took it off when she had to go potty. after that the dress was gone. she slept with no shirt on for nap! after nap, we compromised and she wore her bikini top. notice that rex is wearing a sweat suit!!! it's not so warm at the moment! i suppose she's warm because she never stops moving!
the kids had popcorn this afternoon. i look over and rex is slowly and methodically picking out kernels from the bowl and sticking them into the bristles of a brush. when he felt there were enough kernels, he raised the brush to his head and brushed his hair. kernels went everywhere!! that also amused him! sometimes i'd really like to know what's going on in their heads when they do stuff like that!!
tonight before bed, malloy ran the dust buster all around the house, vacuuming the dirt up! she had a great time and i was happy to have the help!!!

quickly - i need to write this down or i know i'll forget! rex's language has taken off, but he still has some words that he's hanging on to and i LOVE it. he says "sigh-doh" instead of dinosaur. i don't know why he's flipped the two sounds around, but it's so cute!!
also, malloy was running around the house yelling "i'm BIG years old!!" over and over. she's so funny.  later, she came running into the kitchen telling me that she's three years old and that her birthday was april 6th. smartie pants! (except that she's not three yet...)

this was rex's game this morning. take all the footwear and dump it on the couch. then put them all back and repeat! 

another outfit picked by malloy!

we did gym and wegman's this morning and then the van was taken to the shop.  the afternoon went by quick - the kids skyped with grandma val for a bit and then played while i made dinner. rex was very whiny and didn't have an appetite at all this afternoon. he had juice and a popsicle for dinner - poor little guy. i'm hoping that it's just teeth or his cold and not his stomach! time will tell...

working hard on their handprint mardi gras masks

playing at the park!

rolling around on the ground



we had a very busy morning! at 7am, when i realized today was mardi gras, we got out the art supplies and made some handprint mardis gras masks! malloy loved hers. rex loved decorating his but ripped it when i tried to put it on him.
after breakfast, we all got ready to go to the gym. everyone was bundled and in the van and it wouldn't start! (i got it started later - don't worry! just needs a new battery) so we decided since it wasn't freezing out that we would go for a walk and play at the playground. the kids had a BLAST running around. they were so happy to be FREE!!!!! they basically just went up the stairs (or ladder for malloy) and down the slide for the entire we were there. rex passed out in the stroller on the way home. he woke up quickly after we got inside and since i did get the van running, we decided to go to the gym! malloy was very shy when we got to the gym b/c there was a new girl at the gym that she hadn't met yet. i told her that her name was miss sara and i had talked about her before b/c rexie loves her. she seemed to be ok, but was clinging to miss alyssa for a bit. when i went to get them, malloy was coloring with sara and she said
"i'm so happy now because i like her!" it was cute! malloy passed out as soon as she laid down for nap and slept through rex talking for an hour in his crib b/c he wasn't as tired since he had a little snooze earlier.




cuddling/eating breakfast with daddy!

it was a sunny day today!!!

dancing in the gym!

broken vase :(

we had playgroup at our house this morning. both kids had a blast wreaking havoc all over the house. there's something about adding a few more playmates that leads to destructrion and repeated life endangerment. more little minds to come up with very bad ideas. they were jumping from the shelf next to malloy's bed onto the bed. another fun activity was jumping from the toy box onto the pile of dress up clothes. these kids really need the warmer weather so they can run around outside!!
while i was cleaning for playgroup, rex knocked over a vase and it cracked in half. apparently he had slowly been filling it with little toys - when it split toys went flying everywhere. malloy was so excited and ran over to it yelling "TOYS!" it may as well have been a pinata!! they were thrilled. what can you do but smile and throw the vase away?! i'm amazed that nothing else has been broken in nearly 3 years!

malloy had a birthday party for her classmate, mark, today at the science museum. it was a bubble theme party. the kids got to paint with bubbles, play with bubbles, and stand inside big bubbles! malloy had a blast! her favorite part of the party was a toss-up between just running back and forth in the big room with her friends or "washing" her hands and arms with all of the bubbles.

after nap, uncle ryan and kari came over and we went out to dinner at glen park tavern. it was so much fun! we got to listen to live music and had some great food!!