we had a playdate at our house this morning. we haven't had one in a while - malloy was very excited to have friends over! she played so nice with lena and safina. they were playing in bed. malloy was reading to safina and putting her to sleep while lena took pictures. then they played restaurant. malloy took orders and cooked for safina and lena. they're at such a fun age! rex was pretty whiny and not comfortable having so many people in the house. instead of playing with the boys his age, he went off to play with the older girls.

playing with his shadow

eating a VERY big strawberry

crying because he had to spit it out and i threw it away

rex loves puzzles right now!!!

bella and kari came over this morning for a visit. malloy and bella had a great time playing classroom and dress-up and putting on shows. they love to go in the bedroom, shut the door, get all dressed up and come up with a plan for a show. then they parade out into the living room and sing and dance for us. it's so funny!!! while the girls were playing, rex went missing. i called all over for him - malloy finally saw him laying under his crib. he was just happy laying there - little stinker!
i made pizzelles for the first time today. they were delicious!!! the kids loved them! we had some before dinner and some after dinner - YUM! 

being quiet under his crib

pizzelles!

having one last pizzelle before bed

another teething day! rex was pretty whiny and clingy today, but you can't blame him. he cries and begs for medicine, poor thing. the big excitement of the day was taking the van to get an oil change and the kids got to ride in daddy's car!!! it was a special treat!
malloy was playing classroom today and she told neal "i'm mrs. malloy and that's mrs. rex and you can be mrs. daddy, but you're not a teacher." oh, the things she comes up with!

malloy was "pricking" my fingers and toes

cuddling

riding in daddy's car!

haircut day!

crazy day! rex was up around 5:30am screaming. he woke malloy up. everyone was up way too early. rex was super clingy and whiny all morning. i saw that one of his bottom teeth was starting to surface - that explains a lot!! i gave him ibuprofen before we went to the gym and he was fine. both kids went down for a nap at 11 when we got back from the store! they were tired and cranky kids!!! after a quick nap, we went to visit neal at work and had lunch with him and his coworkers. the kids LOVE visiting daddy at work!! after lunch, we stopped at target and then petsmart.the kids had never been in petsmart before - they loved all the animals! malloy really wanted to get a pet. i told her when she's older and can take care of it then we can get a pet. we spent the rest of the afternoon playing. malloy made up a game called "playdate". she put a hula hoop in her bed and then put toys in the middle. she sat in it and had a playdate. she was trying so hard to get rex to participate, but he wanted to do his own thing. sometimes they play very nice together and sometimes they yell at each other. today was a yelling day. since their naps were so early, they were in bed by 6:30. they were alseep before 8! it's been months since that's happened!!!!

being silly with her bagel

rex's 2 favorite books got left outside yesterday and were rained on!! so sad. we had to throw the star wars one away.

having a treat at daddy's work

checking out the rats

nothing too exciting to report today. malloy had school - another safari day! she was super excited that the playroom was still converted into a jungle! rex went to the gym with me. he brought his star wars book (he calls it star burst) and his toy story book. it seemed to help him forget that i was leaving him for a little while! he's been crying when i leave again, but gets over it pretty quickly. after i put him in his seat in the van, i stretched for a minute. rex was wriggling around and told me "i want get down. i want get stretch" :)
rex decided that he did not want to nap today. he cried and yelled in his crib for 2 hrs!! i went in every so often to tell him to lay down, put his blanket on, and left. 30 seconds later he'd be crying and yelling "i want get out!" malloy slept through the entire thing and then for another hour after that! she was a tired girl!!!

rex LOVES playing with his toy story squinkies! he could care less that all of the squinkie toys he plays with are pink!!

we had a busy morning starting with the gym and then running a few errands. we went to michael's and got some supplies to make art to hang in the kids' room, target, and wegmans. malloy went in the wkids playroom for the first time. she was so excited to go in - all she wanted to do was play video games. they have a wii and some other game system there. the woman was telling malloy that they have a bunch of toys and malloy struts right in like she owns the place and announces that she'd like to play video games! i am so proud of her for being so independent!
after nap, we made some art!!!! it pretty much turned into fingerpainting the entire canvas one color, but they had fun!!! we're going to put some finishing touches on them before we hang them up!!
uncle ryan came over and had dinner with us. while we were eating rex says "unkyan, i baby" and grins. ryan said "no you're not! you're a big boy." rex replied "no, unkyan big boy." he comes up with the funniest stuff sometimes!

our first wegmans wkids bracelets

monday recap

we had a fun playdate at gianna and kenadee's! the kids had a blast playing with squinkies and running around with their friends. rex is going through a "mine" phase and we are trying very hard to encourage sharing!!! he does ok, but can't help but yell "mine" every time someone gets near him! after nap, we did a fun experiment with food coloring, baking soda, and vinegar. malloy had a blast!! rex made a huge mess and then quickly moved onto something else!! neal worked late and wasn't home for dinner or bedtime. last week i used the phrase "stuck at work". when neal went in to say goodnight, malloy jumped in his arms and said "we were so worried about you! were you stuck?!" she must picture him stuck somewhere! so now every time that neal's working late, she'll ask "is he stuck?!"
rex peed on the potty tonight after bath!!!!!! we'll start actually training over the summer, but it's still exciting!

snow!!

rex and kenadee were reading books so nicely

 malloy had a fun safari day at school today! she got to bring her stuffed lion in and all the kids went on a safari hunt. we rearranged some more toys today and the kids had a great time playing with  "new toys" all afternoon!
malloy's behavior has been excellent over the past few days! she's been very agreeable and listens the first time. she's been getting a lot of stones in her happy jar lately! rex is just rex - a 20 month old boy with typical 20 month old boy behaviors. he's no where near terrible - just very trying at times! good thing he's so cute!

malloy's lion

one of my favorite hairstyles on malloy

cheese!

we had a nice relaxing weekend at home. the kids got a lot of quality time with daddy!

trying out the new bath colors!

lining up his toys :) the toy story obsession has not slowed down! rex was playing for quite a while with these toy story toys in the playroom today. i could hear him talking away. he was making the characters interact - i was impressed!! at one point he just kept repeating "snake in boot, snake in boot, snake in boot" 

after unsuccessfully trying to fix malloy's twilight turtle, we had to say goodbye to it this weekend. she's had it since she was born. sad days :(

rex was playing so nice with his toys today!! he had a lot of time to play by himself because malloy was upstairs hanging out with daddy for a while. i was tidying the kitchen and rex was being a little too quiet, which usually means trouble!! i peeked in the living room and he was just playing. he had found a piece of pvc pipe that is usually in the couch an was   dropping his squinkies down into the pipe, picking the pipe up and doing it all over again. he was occupied for a very long time!

malloy loves playing minecraft with daddy! she playing with him for quite a while this morning and was so excited to tell me about and show me all of the stuff she built.

sleepy face

sitting on the daddy couch

rex crossing his feet when he's reading, just like mommy and daddy :)

rex was being so silly at dinner. he was being to random! for example:

rex: hot dog boy! (giggles)
neal: who's a hot dog boy?
rex: rec
rex: poo poo boy! (yes already with the poop jokes at 20 months)

and that's when i started filming. most of his talking had died down but i did finally get him saying "mo lloy" instead of malloy. SO CUTE!

malloy learned this song at school a few weeks ago. we had to sing it a LOT and very loudly today to make the bees go away! it worked!

books are a hit in our house!!! malloy loves to read stories and rex loves to hear them - it's a perfect fit!

it was a beautiful day today! after the gym, we came home and played on the deck. we put together the net for the new games malloy got for her birthday! now we can play soccer, hockey, and lacrosse! while we were outside, malloy was grooming her horse and talking to it very softly and sweetly - very nurturing.  she kept hugging it too - i was quietly watching her, i t was so stinkin' cute!!  while she was eating lunch, she told me "i have a sister,too" i said "you do?!" and she said "yeah, her name is gianna." she was so serious. i love her!!

 i also just have to mention that there was no yelling at bedtime tonight. i may have bribed her with a few happy stones to put in her jar...but there was no yelling! no asking to go potty again, etc. we did take the starlight turtle away for bedtime - new rule is that i'll bring the turtle in her room before i go to bed. seems to have worked! that plus all the fresh air!!!

squinkies!

loving her horse!

having a quick smoothie

rex LOVES to color and gets so into it!