Hook-ups

Today, Mackenzie and I were relaxing on the couch and she had a little case of the hiccups. She informed me, "Mommy, I have the hook-ups.". I didn't correct her because I thought it was so cute :)

Mackenzie-isms

So, I think these were from my non-blogging period a couple months ago, but I wanted to record them here on the blog....

Mackenzie to Mommy, "You're the BEST Mommy in the Whole Wide HOUSE!!". (Hmm, I think that was a compliment? But I am the ONLY mommy in the whole wide house, so not much of a competition there!)

During story time before bed, we were reading her children's Bible:
Mack: "Mommy is that Ikeas?"
Me: "Yes, that is Zaccheus."
Mack: "Just like the store!"
Me: "What??"
Mack: "You know, the store called Ikea!"

While playing together on the floor in their playroom, Mackenzie walks up to me, looks at me and says: "Mommy, when I grow up can I have wrinkles like you??" while pointing at my forehead." Thanks Kid!

The Fun Side

Because there is so much difficulty in the two year old years, I hope I manage to also to record the fun side of being two - because there is plenty of that too! Brannon loves to tell Mackenzie stories, particularly at bedtime, though now she asks for them from him all day long whenever he is home! She'll say "tell me a story BOUT....." and list something that she is currently into. As soon as he starts to end his story, she comes right in with "one more story BOUT....." when the last one of the story is told.

Anyways, today in the car she said "Mommy, I wanna tell you a story BOUT....." then she mumbled something - she'll use random syllables & sort of mumble when she doesn't know what she wants to say. I guess she knew she wanted to tell me a story but didn't know what it should be about. So I said, "okay, tell me your story". And then she said "Once upon a time.....I BURPED". I asked is that it & she laughed & said yes. I replied with "Good story!" and a laugh!

Mackenzie-isms: Conversations edition

The other day, she calls out to me saying "Look at me mom, I'm side-up down" while laying upside down on the couch. Pretty close, kid.

She is really into taking her vitamins & the occasional medicine (which is her allergy pill when spring is in full force). She doesn't get the medicine everyday, but she asks for it everyday when she gets her vitamins. The other day she informed me that she "needed to take her allergy medicine to help her poop come out." I couldn't help but laugh at that one! (And I secretly wished I could give her it to her & she'd go right on the potty!)

One night at dinner, I was encouraging her to try eggplant for the first time. She told me, "I can't eat egg-pwant....it makes my teef (teeth) hurt!". Hmm. Okay. Likely story.

2 Going on 10? Why? And Other Thoughts.....

Mackenzie is developing quite the personality. She totally cracks us up so often these days, especially with her stories & such that she comes up with. Like when Daddy comes home from work each day & asks her what she did - she doesn't always tell him the truth...... Maybe she tells him what she wishes she had done that day? It's pretty funny though to hear what she might say we've done that day & how far it is from the truth!

She is also HEAVILY into asking us "Why?". To EVERYTHING! Seriously. I thought we had until she was 3 to get into the why phase, but nope, not even 2 1/2 yet, and already it starts. For instance, today we went out to eat with her grandparents. As we were trying to get her into the car, she bent over and started picking up rocks (another favorite pastime), and my mom realized she was starting to pick up some glass from the parking lot. My mom, of course, tells her not to pick up the glass. "Why?". Because it will hurt you. "Why?". Because it is sharp. "Why?". Because sharp things can cut you. "Why?". (I'm not exaggerating!). Enter her father. Because when sharp things break your skin, it sends a message to your brain that says that is painful. "Why?". Just because!!

Another favorite thing she does sometimes is over-extend her age by a few years. I'll ask her how old she is, and sometimes I get the correct answer, 'TWO!". Other times, it has been "SIX!". And every now & then, I get a "TEN!". Oh boy, she's two going on ten. Sounds about right.

The Perfect Use for our Backyard!

When we moved into this house, we were in love with the big backyard. It's so big & open, but it's only drawback is that is a bit hilly. However, we said it would be the perfect place to sled. Little did we know when we said that back in the fall that we would actually get enough snow to really put that hill in our backyard to its best use! We got an old plastic storage container to use as our georgia ghetto sled! BUT it worked pretty well as you can see (and when you hear our friend Ashley saying it won't work, she isn't referring to the sled, just telling Mackenzie if she didn't sit in the back that it won't work :) :

Terribly Wonderful Twos :)

I wanted to record some of the fun that Mackenzie provides us with these days. I hope, despite the challenges of the two year old year, that I remember how truly fun this age can be. I heard someone else call them the terribly wonderful two instead of the other famous name for the twos :P. And I think that is good to think of it that way, instead of dwelling on the difficulties of parenting an emerging little person full of their own opinions!

Mackenzie is such a chatterbox. She talks ALL. THE. TIME. Seriously. Well, she does still go into shy mode occasionally with new people. But other than that. ALL. THE. TIME!!! And I love it. She is constant entertainment.

She often calls Keelyn "her best fwend". How sweet to know that she already truly loves her little sister. She has picked up on what I tell her & now whenever she's doing something (say eating some yogurt, for instance), and Keelyn's just chilling, she'll look at me & say "when Kee-wen gets older, she eat yogurt wiff me??". And like everything else this chatterbox says, she requires me to acknowledge what she's said (or she'll repeat it until I do!). I am so happy she loves her baby sister, I know that there are many people who struggle much more with sibling rivalry. Maybe my day will come, but for now, such love. I'll have to remember this early love to get me through any future rivalry!

She's becoming very aware of feelings & how she can create various feelings in those around her. I have many times told her when she's disobeying that she's making me sad. Now, if she disobeys (typically this is not coming/walking away when I want her to come to me!) she'll look back & say, "You sad??". Then, when I say yes, she'll often change her ways and come to me & obey. Then, she'll say, "I make you happy?". "VERY happy", I answer!

She's developed a strong sense of what music she wants to listen to on the radio in the car. She's currently enrolled in music class again with Brannon & we listen to that CD alot in the car. She'll say "Don't Like/Want this Song" repeatedly as I skip through the songs until we get to one she wants to listen to. Or if she knows exactly what she wants to listen to, she'll tell me the title to find. And sometimes, when she actually allows me to put it on the radio instead of her CDs, and a song comes on (usually a song with a male singing) she'll say, "No Man Singing Mommy!", meaning she wants me to change the song to a female singer! Or if it is on commercials, she'll say "No Man/Woman Talking!!", and of course, that means change the channel to a song I want Mommy!

And lastly, with an ever-expanding vocabulary, comes some almost correct usage of the English language & other "Mackenzie-isms". Some favorites of mine:

• When I ask her if she was good at preschool, she'll sometimes say "I no eat my fwends". This means she didn't bite her friends! Or so I think, I don't think she struggles with cannibalism :) She actually hasn't bitten anyone in quite some time, but this sticks out in her mind as something to note I guess because I harped on it for a while.
• One of her favorite songs is "The ABC's", only she calls it "ABCD's".
• I love the common mispronunciation of the letter 'L' using a 'Y' sound instead. I will miss her saying things like, "Kee-wen is so yittle" when she learns to correctly say little.

Making Brownies

Mackenzie & I made some brownies together the week before Christmas. I think the photo speaks more than I can write about how much fun she had (particularly how much fun she had licking the bowl after we were done!).

A Good Laugh

Just got a CD of the pictures that my mother-in-law took at the hospital and I really enjoyed a few of the pictures from Mackenzie's second visit. These were after they'd been there a little while and Mackenzie had lost some interest in the baby and became more interested in other novelties in the hospital room......

Nice picture, three generations of girls on my side of the family :)

Add my dad, but what are my mom & I laughing at???

Got my composure, now here's another nice one with Jan, me & Keelyn

Now I'm laughing again.....but why??

Here's a clue.....

Someone had found the buttons to take my bed up & down and was taking me on a ride!

The Love Affair Begins.....

On the day after Halloween, we took some pictures of Mackenzie enjoying her first candy bar! I think it was a Milky Way :) The beginning of a life long love affair with chocolate, if she's anything like her parents!

Birthday Fun Continues.....

We continued the 3 weeks of celebration (I had a really hard time remembering when her actual birthday was with all of the celebrating!) this weekend with her big #2 birthday party. Meemi & Poppee came in to help with the occasion. And of course, we had to open their gifts when they got here! Here she is sporting some new gifts - the nice little black mary jane shoes. It's hard to see, but they have a little silver turtle charm on them (Poppee loves turtles!). I loved these pictures because she is wearing only a diaper with her mary janes. Then, has hello kitty stickers on her chest and hello kitty bandaids on her two knee boo-boos. Then, she was carrying around her new princess purse and even hung it on her tricycle for a ride. It's quite the outfit :) Oh - and she was eating her apple during this as well!