we had a fun morning at the zoo with some friends from bmg! malloy was happy to have her pal, brooke, there! they were so cute walking around hand in hand!!! those two are so sweet together it gives me a bit of a toothache! ;) rex had a great time watching the animals and eating his snacks! he loves to ride around in the wagon - unless we're stopped for too long! and they stayed awake on the ride home, which i did NOT think was going to happen! rex got up at 5:10 this morning (he took a short nap at 7:30) and malloy got up at 5:30. what is happening with my kids?! why don't they want to sleep!!!?????!!!!
on a totally different topic - rex stood up on his own and took a step today!! he looked like he knew exactly what he was going to do! his socks were on and falling off of him and he slipped. he'll be walking in no time!!!!! ahhh!!!

malloy's first french braid!!! 

malloy had a great time at school as usual! she came home and as she was getting in her chair to eat she said "i'm so proud of myself!" it was out of the blue - i'm guessing it had something to do with the "all about me" theme at school.
malloy's been pretty bossy and yelling a lot at home, i made a sign with a happy face side and a sad face sign. when she's yelling, being impolite, or whiny, i hold up the sad side. it cues her to correct herself and be polite. it worked almost immediately and saves me from verbally reminding her every time she's being nasty.
rex has mastered feeding himself with a fork! the spoon is harder because the bowl moves around. he gets so proud of himself and will show me every time he's speared something with his fork.
for dinner we went to the pizza and wing fling with uncle paddy and auntie andi. the kids were so excited to see them!! malloy at a whole piece of pizza on her own! she was very well behaved! of course, there was gelato and she know that if she ate well then she could get some. she sat and ate her chocolate gelato for about a half hour. rex got lemon sorbet and had so much fun eating it himself. what a mess!!!  neal's coworker gave the kids balloons before we left - they were so excited!! oh, the joy a balloon brings to a child!

malloy had a good night last night at finally got her squinkies!!! hopefully her bed time habits have changed and she won't need anymore charts - at least for a while! she played with them for a long time both this morning and this afternoon.
this morning, we had friends over for a play date. after nap, we did art and listened to music. malloy wanted to stay at the table and play with her squinkies, so rex and i read books in the living room. he really loves his books right now! he'll spend a good hour pulling books off the shelf and looking at them.
after dinner, neal and i had rex "walking" in between us. he would hold onto one of my hands or onto neal's legs and go back and forth between us. he's getting pretty close!! he will stand without holding anything for a few seconds and he's so proud of himself!! i predict he'll be walking by the end of the month!!! so exciting!

we had a fun afternoon playing with uncle ryan, kari, and bella! we watched football, ate pizza and cannoli cheesecake, and played hard! malloy did great going to bed tonight and we're trying to put rex to bed later so that he'll sleep in a little longer. he got up this morning at 5:15!!!! i'm hoping it's just teeth and it will stop very soon!!!! he was also soaked through his clothes again. i just bought the biggest nighttime diaper they have and he's still wetting through them!! i put a poise pad in his diaper tonight to see if that makes any difference!

 this random memory popped into my head while i was washing rex's lion lovey the other day!! i had totally forgotten that when rex was a baby and he was ready to fall asleep, i would hold him in my arms and place the lion over his entire face. he would immediately relax and was ready for bed! at times, he would sleep with a blanket over his face! he still loves his lion and now sleeps with his face buried in a soft microfleece blanket.

 

these two are best buddies and are forever cracking each other up!  love when malloy starts singing her nonsense song and rex is jammin' along to it! i know i say it all the time, but there really never is a dull moment!!

yesterday, rex woke up at 5:10am. today, he slept until a whopping 5:50!!! i really hope he gets back on track and starts sleeping just a tad later - it's not fun!!! malloy's doing a bit better with her bedtime - we gave her a book last night and tonight and that seems to curb the excuses to stay up later. so if she's up, she's occupying herself and not yelling down to us that she's awake, needs to go potty, needs a blanket, etc!
we had friends over on friday morning for a playdate. it was so much fun!!! malloy hadn't seen her buddy, lena, in a while and when she saw her out the window she yelled, "mom, look who's here! lena's here!!" she was so excited! they played great together even though they haven't seen each other in a while. it's so nice that she has a few pals who she just clicks with and they genuinely enjoy playing with each other! malloy and rex loved playing with gigi. she's rex's age and is SUCH a sweetie pie!!! and rex had another buddy, ben, to play with. all the kids had a blast!!
friday afternoon, we just hung out at home and played. malloy sat and played with pipe cleaners and a colander for about an hour!!
today, uncle ryan, kari, and bella came over to play and then we all went out to lunch. malloy and bella were so cute at lunch - coloring on the same paper together! bella was a little tired and feeling down - malloy looks over, rubs her back and asks if she was ok!!! she's so cute! and it's nice that she got some empathy budding already!! 
we spent the afternoon playing in malloy's room while neal took the ac out of our room, shut all the storm windows, and took the futon out of rex's room.