Winter is here!

A week ago we were playing outside comfortably in the afternoon without hats or gloves. Then, on Thursday, we got the first real snow of the year and we've been out playing in it almost every day since :) We got another couple of inches overnight last night and then a big storm is predicted for this week ... 8-12 inches ... hooray! ... followed by really cold temperatures ... yuck!


It turns out that the little hill going down into the ditch in our front yard provides perfect sledding opportunities for a two year old, and even a 6-month old. Plus, after several days of trial and error, we've finally come up with a combination of clothes for Anna that keep her warm, stay on, and allow her to move (we hadn't quite figured it out yet in the picture below). Bring on the snow!


I'm not sure how Kate feels about the snow, though. Today was the first day I bundled her up to take her out with Anna and me. She seemed to enjoy it, but then had a conniption fit when we came in. Who knows if that was because it was a bit overwhelming when we were outside, or because she wanted to stay out.

Whether or not Kate enjoys the snow, we do know what two of her favorite toys are these days ... a toy knife and a Veggietales carrot girl. For some reason she LOVES to explore both of them with her mouth, often at the same time. Sometimes it's simply hilarious the kinds of faces and poses she gets with both of those toys :)


The other big news in our family this past week was Anna's transition to her "big girl bed" ... a.k.a. a toddler bed. After our hotel stay at Thanksgiving, we realized that since Anna no longer fits comfortably in a pack and play, we needed to transition her out of a contained sleeping space before our next overnight trip at Christmas. So, she helped Matt take down her crib on Friday morning, then set up the toddler bed with Matt, and has successfully taken a nap and slept at night in her bed since. We're realizing more and more what a unique kid Anna is in that we can sell her ideas like the big girl bed without too much stress on anyone's part. She absolutely LOVES the bed and has wanted to show it off to both Matt and I whenever we get back home from going anywhere. She also likes to play around with it and even put her stuffed animals down for nap on it.

Life is certainly different with her new freedom, however. Sunday morning she came stumbling out of her room at 6:15 saying she needed to go potty. Sure enough, she pooped, but then was up for good ... a bit earlier than normal for her. Oh, well. I'd rather take the successful potty experience than an added 40 minutes of sleep for her.

Our Thanksgiving Trip

We packed up last Wednesday and left early on Thursday to meet up with Matt's family in Waterloo, Iowa, for Thanksgiving. All in all, things went well and it was definitely worth any hassle to be able to spend the time with the family.


We spent Thursday afternoon at a local church with Matt's parents, his aunt Mary and her family, Matt's grandparents, and the late-arriving Needham family (including 2-month old Ruth, seen here with Kate who is trying to either grab her or eat her blanket, we weren't quite sure which one she wanted).


Both Anna and Kate did well on Thursday, with Anna surviving a no-nap day and Kate taking a nap in her pack-n-play in the sanctuary of the church. In the evening we all played around in the hotel pool for a bit before putting the girls to bed so we could go back downstairs and visit with family. Thank goodness for far-reaching monitors!


Friday we spent the morning at Matt's grandparents' house, had lunch at Panera, took alternating naps in the afternoon at the hotel, and enjoyed some time with Matt's parents in the evening. Anna, surprisingly, took a nap at the hotel, albeit not a long one, so while Matt and Kate were sleeping, Anna and I headed out to Target to kill some time and then went back for another dip in the pool, or the "cool pool" as Anna calls it ;)

Friday evening Anna wowed her grandparents with her Memory Game skills, as well as her good sportsmanship. Matt and I both remember having hard times as kids (and adults?) with losing so I'm getting Anna started early on how to be a good player. At the end of any game, she shakes hands and says "good game!" and she would (almost) always congratulate someone else on their match.





Kate wowed everyone the whole time with how much she smiles and how expressive her face is. Matt and I tend to get a bit spoiled by the frequency of her smiles and laughs so it's nice to have this kind of reality check every once in awhile.



After we got home and were looking at our pictures, we realized that in just about every shot of Kate, she either has something in her mouth or is trying to put something in her mouth (toys, blankets, boxes, silverware, you name it). I'm glad she's not really moving yet because if she were, I'd be in BIG trouble with all of the things she'd find around the house to stick in that silly mouth!


By Saturday morning we were all ready to go home. This final shot was taken at about 6:15 a.m. We were all awake by this point (and some of us had been for at least 1/2 hour), but I think Kate was the only one who was happy about being up. Surprisingly, Anna did not sleep at all on the 3 hour drive home on Saturday! Poor girl just missed her own bed!


We're pretty well recovered by this point and I even managed to get up most of our Christmas decorations on Sunday and Monday. Already today, Anna has asked almost exclusively for the Christmas books that we keep packed up for the rest of the year. I just hope we don't get sick of them in the coming weeks!

A few of our favorite things ...

Kate has some interesting favorites these days. She LOVES Shadow, more than Mommy, Daddy, and Anna. Shadow, surprisingly, puts up with a lot of pulled fur these days ;)


Kate also enjoys sleeping through the night (again ... finally), only to wake up at 5:30 to start her day. Her favorite thing to do from 5:30 until about 6 is to screech happily in her crib. Anna hasn't seemed to enjoy that too much ...

Another favorite of Kate recently is solid food. After several weeks of just being "okay" with cereals, eating from a spoon finally clicked for her last week. Now she eats cereals, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, green beans, peas, apples, and bananas. I think the pumpkin and fruit are her favorites right now.




Anna still loves being outside whenever she can. On Sunday afternoon we decided to burn our brush pile so Anna could watch/participate. Amazingly we didn't need hat or coats for the experience. Fun times.





Anna also loves her books and her sister, often together. One of our morning rituals is picking out clothes/getting Anna dressed after breakfast. Kate often comes along into Anna's room and plays with some of her toys. Lately, Kate hangs out in Anna's room for a bit while I finish getting ready myself. This morning I "caught" Anna reading some books to Kate.


One of my favorites right now is that Anna is officially wearing underwear (except for naps and nighttime). Hooray! She's usually really good about using the potty, too, even in public now ... as long as we bring along our own potty seat. However, the process still takes a long time ... she just likes to make the most of it ;)



Matt's favorite right now is that we realized he still had a handful of vacation days left this year so he's taking a few Fridays off from now until the end of the year. This past Friday he used the time to go out and cut firewood. Fun times for him :)

A good day ...

You may be wondering what makes a good day in the Mischnick home. Well, here's how it went:

Matt stayed home long enough in the morning to have breakfast with us.

Anna, Kate, and I left the house on time.

Anna and I managed to make it to the post office and the grocery store before music class.

Anna had two, that's right ... TWO, successful potty experiences at music class.

Kate took a good nap and bottle at the neighbor's while we were away.

Anna pooped on the potty at home.

Both girls were napping at the same time this afternoon so I had time to clean up the kitchen, mop the kitchen floor, clean the bathroom, send a few emails, pay a few bills, and a couple other random things.

Kate and I delivered a meal to some church members before Kate's 6-month check-up.

The 6-month check-up went well (16 lbs. 5 oz. - 57%; 26.5" - 77%; 44.5 cm - 94%) and the shot trauma didn't last too long, although the waiting for the appointment was long.

And then, Matt and Anna had home-made pizza waiting for us when we got home.

All in all, a good day.

Ready to leave the house?

Potty training a sensitive perfectionist who loves her routines turned out to be a bit more emotional than I thought.

Everything started out so well! By Tuesday night, Matt and I were wondering if potty training could really be this easy ... then Wednesday came. Without going into all the details, it turns out that Anna has some major anxiety about public bathrooms, which I probably should have guessed. Anyway, leaving the house Wednesday for errands and music class caused some pretty big setbacks in the whole process, but we worked through things slowly but surely, and finally seem to be back on track. We're going to try doing our normal activities this week, but will definitely bring along our own potty seat ;)

Although it's very exciting for Anna to be using the toilet instead of diapers for many reasons, there are a few down sides to having a potty trained toddler. First, I feel like I need to clean the bathroom a lot more frequently ... who said girls don't need to aim? Anna is still working on "sooting (scooting) back" on the seat. Also, the phrase "I need to go to the potty" usually means that we need to drop everything and have a 10-15 break to go through the whole process. And finally, we no longer have the luxury of letting Anna hang out in her crib for awhile right after she wakes up. She's always been slow at waking up so even after we'd hear her wake up, she'd usually be quiet for another 15 minutes or so ... no more of that ;)


Kate is usually up before Anna anyway in the morning and is often a good motivator for getting Anna moving after she wakes up. Anna likes to have Kate come into her crib to say hi and Kate likes to grab whatever she can ... blankets, hair, face, etc. Both girls end up laughing pretty heartily ... a good way for everyone to start the day.

Speaking of Kate, last week she mastered sitting up without support. We still put pillows behind her and probably will for awhile, but she LOVES sitting and playing with toys now. One of her favorite activities is to sit next to a bin of toys, pull one out, taste it, shake it, toss it aside, and repeat the whole thing with another toy. Endless fun!




Kate has also developed this really goofy smile. She scrunches up her eyes, wrinkles her nose, and breathes in and out of her nose really fast. Being toothless just makes the whole thing more fun :)




Sunday the Packers played the late game (meaning after Anna's nap) so we camped out in front of the TV to watch. Anna really enjoys this experience and can't seem to get enough of watching the players "tumble". She also likes to play with Matt's old stuffed football when we're watching the game. She now recognizes and points out Packers paraphenalia wherever we go and knows who Aaron Rodgers and Donald Driver are :)

Stuck at home ...

We're stuck here at home these days, for good and bad reasons. Last Thursday afternoon Anna started coming down with a cold. Kate started with the same symptoms on Saturday ... of course. Thankfully, it has only be low-grade fevers, runny noses, and stuffiness; there's some pretty nasty stuff going around here in Madison these days. Last week we learned of several kids at our church who were diagnosed with H1N1, along with our music teacher who had to cancel classes due to her case of H1N1. We also learned of some kids at church who had bad ear infections in addition to a few other families who had the stomach flu go through their homes. So ... I was a bit nervous when Anna first had her fever, but, like I said, it doesn't seem to be that serious. Still, with all the stuff going around and with lowered immune systems anyway because of this cold, we've been here at home since Thursday (except for a short trip to the store on Saturday a.m. - more on that later).

It's a good thing that the weather has been surprisingly warm so that we can spend some of our home time outside instead of just being cooped up indoors. It's also been nice that Anna has been learning how to play games so that we have more to occupy our time when we are inside. Last week we taught her to play Uno, albeit without any wild cards in the deck and having us lay out all our cards. Still, she thinks it's great.

The good thing about being home is that we are in the midst of potty training "boot camp", as our friends like to call it. Anna was pretty interested in the potty back in June, but I wasn't willing to go all out at that point. Then we had a long lull in her potty interest. This past week she asked to sit on the potty a few times and when she woke up Saturday morning asking to sit I knew it was time, especially since I knew we'd be quarantined for a few days and the weather was supposed to be nicer so we could spend time outside.

So we headed out to the store, picked up some underware, and got ready for the accidents. Saturday we had three successes and three accidents. Sunday there were NO accidents, but lots of false alarms. Today we've done great so far, even starting out the day with poop in the potty! I love the fact that frozen blueberries are enough of a reward for peeing for Anna ... for the poop we told her that I'd teach her how to play Candyland. As soon as she pooped this morning she asked to play; we've spent a lot of this morning working on the rules of that game ;)

Anyway, we'll probably be stuck here for another few days until the nose gunk isn't quite so gross and I feel more confident in Anna's abilities. Wish us luck!

Halloween festivities

Anna didn't know much about Halloween until last Thursday or Friday. We didn't really see the point of telling her too much too far in advance since her concept of time is still pretty much limited to "today" and "tomorrow" :) I was trying to think of a way to explain things to her and finally just said it's a day when people dress up and go to their neighbor's houses to say "Happy Halloween". She then figured out the whole candy thing pretty quickly on Saturday evening :)


Anyway, we did our pumpkin carving on Friday evening. Anna thought it was great, especially since she usually asks me if she can help dig the seeds out when we cook up some pumpkins or some squash. Matt pulled out the jigsaw again for the actual carving ... much easier than a knife ...


Anna got to dress up as a lady bug this year. She thought it was great, especially when our neighbor, Karen, brought over a little ladybug purse for Anna to carry around. We went around to a few houses with neighbor's Carly, Blake, and parents and then headed over to Blake's house for some cupcakes.





Kate stayed home with Matt to hand out treats while Anna and I made our way down the street, but they joined us for the cupcakes. Kate was a pretty good kate-o-lantern.






Anna was pretty tired when we finally got back to our house on Saturday evening, even though we weren't out for very long. Overall, it was a fun experience.


Sunday afternoon turned out pretty well after a rough night with Kate on Saturday and a no-nap day for Anna on Sunday (not by our choice!). We set up in the basement to watch the Packers-Vikings game and Anna even got to have dinner down there (which we NEVER do ... too much of a mess normally). Anna loved looking for the "G's" on the field, watching the players get tackled, and telling me that the Packers were "taking a break" whenever there was a commercial :) Silly girl!