Not so good about taking pictures off the camera lately

Kaden climbing the stairs at Fort Williams Park. We went to Portland Head Light after dinner one night. As I looked around at all the out of state license plates in the parking lot, I felt overwhelmingly lucky to live here and be able to just stop by for a little while after dinner. I love it there.
Kaden was obsessed with the Light House. He kept pointing and shouting, like "do you guys see that?!?"
Mackinna and I on the path to the light house.

I can't help it, every time we are at Portland Head Light, I have to take a picture. I've got a ton of them. I think I've even posted one on the blog before. Its just so beautiful. This is my favorite spot.
Thanks to the 12 passes I got from various stations at work, we went to Funtown/Splashtown again. Here is Mackinna in my sunglasses at Splashtown.

Mackinna went on the Frog Hopper probably 15 times. She'd get off the ride and get right back in line- many times with no waiting.

Both kids on rides at Funtown. I was pleasantly surprised that Kaden did try to jump out of the car while the ride was moving.

Kaden at the beach last week. He's thinking about eating the rocks. I talked him out of it.

Mark climbed Kathadin last weekend with the guys, so my Mom, the kids and I climbed Bradbury Mountain. Its not quite the same, but don't tell Mackinna. She did such a good job!

Mackinna conquered the mountain!

Lucky

The kids got a package filled with tons of orange Tennessee stuff from Grandma Campbell today.  Mackinna loved it all, but was especially excited about the hat.  Her exact quote was, "Holy Cow an orange hat!  Oh my God, I'm so lucky!"

My byself

When I got out of the shower this morning, a very excited Mackinna met me in the hallway.  "Mommy look I got dressed all my byself!" she beamed.  She put put on new undies and didn't even put her shirt on backwards, she did great, except for the whole matching thing...

Mackina's Tattoo

Mackinna got some Sea Dogs tattoos at a game we went to a couple weeks ago as a prize for throwing more than 10 mph.  Initially she was afraid it would hurt to put one on, so Mommy & Daddy put them on first.  We looked great!  A couple days later when Mackinna's tattoo started to come off, she referred to the tattoo remnants as "crumbs."  She was pleasantly surprised when she discovered after she showered they were gone.  She exclaimed, "Daddy look my crumbs came off in the shower!"

Who needs sleep?

Today Kaden slept till 6:00!  He's still not sleeping thru the night regularly but at least once a week we've been making it till 4:30 or 5:00, with the occasional 5:30.  Then he comes into bed with us and sleeps for a while longer.  But today... straight thru till 6:00!  It would have been amazing expect his sister came into our room at 4:15 and wedged her way between us, then hit me in the face on three different occasions and kicked me numerous times.

Pretty Girls

lots of lip gloss

A pedicure

posing like models

Katie came over today with Nicholas, which is something that usually delights Mackinna, but it was extra special today because she brought her niece with her- who Mackinna knows from toddler time at the library.  The girls played dress up.  It was just adorable!

Summer Camp

Mackinna had a great day at summer camp today! Drop off was a breeze. I am so proud of her.
She asked me to stay with her until Mrs. Coleman came back from bringing kids to the bathroom. So I hung out on the playground for a little while. Then Mrs. Coleman came back, Mackinna reached for me and I prepared for her to be climbing up me crying and clinging to me, but she simply gave me a hug and a kiss, then reached for her brother and gave him a hug and a kiss. She took Mrs. Coleman's hand and waved to us with the other, while yelling, "Bye!" at the top of her lungs as she walked away. When I picked her up she was talking up a storm and even gave Mrs. Coleman a hug goodbye. It was amazing.
I think the break through was a combination of a couple of things- a little bit of bribery on my part, it being time number three and of course, her new "pack pack" from Grandma and Grandpa. She loves that thing. We sometimes have a problem getting her to take it off to get in her car seat or go to sleep!

Bibs

Kaden has recently started pulling his bib off when he's done eating.  He then throws it on the ground and grunts a lot.  If you take too long to take him out of the highchair, he'll start to try to pull his shirt off.  at first I found this kind of cute, but in the past couple of days he's decided to boycott the bib all together.  He doesn't even wait till he's done eating now.  He just immediately pulls the bib off and tosses it.  So today, Mackinna and I bought him a couple of new bibs without velcro.  My thought process was if I put one of the pull over bibs on him, he wouldn't be able to get it off.  I was very very wrong though.  At dinner tonight, I put his new pull over Elmo bib on him, and almost immediately he pulls it right up over his head.  I couldn't believe the speed!  I thought it would take him at least a couple of days before he figured out how to get out of it.  Guess I wasted my money on those bibs!  I never had this problem with Mackinna.  In fact she still asks for bibs when she's eating popsicles.  She just stopped using them in the passed couple of months!

Excerise?

Mackinna was just sorting through some of my work papers that were out on the table. When I asked her to leave them alone, she replied, "I'm just exercising them." I was puzzled by this statement at first, but after a moment, it occurred to me that she might be "organizing" them. When I asked she denied it, but I'm pretty sure that is what she meant- much like how she confuses serious and curious. She'll say, "Are you curious?" when she's in disbelief.

Photo shoot

When Mackinna was younger, I'd pretty regularly dress her up and do entire photo shoots. That is the glory of digital. I'd take so many pictures that I was bound to get a really good, frame-able one. I haven't done that much since Kaden was born, so when I had the kids dressed up for Aunt Dolly's birthday party, I attempted to do a big photo shoot in the yard. I did not have very cooperative kids though...






We did get a decent one of the four of us with the timer on the camera, so I was pleased.
This one is clearly not from the photo shoot. At first I was irritated with Mark for taking it, but after I got over it, I noticed how darn cute it is. I love Kaden's leg on Mackinna's head and arm up on my shoulder.

News

Kaden took 4 steps on Monday and 6 steps today. He is no where near ready to give up crawling and switch to walking as his sole mode of transportation, but he's getting there. If he's standing somewhere and we call him to us, he doesn't immediately drop down on all fours anymore. He stands there and waves his arms and thinks and sometimes yells, while he considers whether or not to take a couple of steps. If we encourage/bug him enough he'll eventually pick his feet up slowly and work his way toward us.

And in Mackinna news- today was her second day of summer camp. Departure was worse than day one to the point where she actually had to be peeled off of me and was probably scaring the other children. There was screaming, "Take me to get my bag, then take me home! I want to go home! Lets go to the car!" She was frantic and it was terrible, but when Mark picked her up she said she had fun and made friends and plans on returning next week.

Pictures

We drove to the Cape to see Rebecca last week. Mackinna and Rebecca looked like twins in their nearly matching bathing suits!
Mackinna and Kaden at Aunt Dolly's 90th birthday party.
Daddy, Mackinna and Kaden at Aunt Dolly's
Kaden is really putting those two teeth to work. He loves corn on the cob.
We saw a rainbow on our way home from Aunt Dolly's. The picture doesn't even come close to doing it justice. It was amazing.

First Haircut

My little baby had his first hair cut today. His daddy couldn't handle the hair covering his ears. He sat so still and was just perfect, but it made me sad because now he looks like a grown up boy!

Summer camp

Mackinna started "summer camp" today. Her nursery school is doing a program one day a week that we signed her up for in Aug to get ready for school in Sept. Departure was a little bit dificult and there wer some tears involved, but she said she had fun and she made a friend!

Mt Washington Auto Road

Here's a little video I took as we drove down the Mt Washington auto road.

Storyland and Mount Washington

We took a little overnight vacation to Storyland- "where fantasy lives." Mackinna has been talking about it since we left last year. They really know how to do it for families with young kids- from reasonably priced and healthy snacks in the park, to little potty toilets, "mama's house with rocking chairs for nursing and napping and changing tables. Even Kaden was able to go on all but 4 rides this year. We had a great time. We had rain on the second day, but that resulted in no lines, so it was actually pretty great. And this year we were actually able to see our hands in front of our faces at Mt Washington.

A day at the beach

We woke up on Saturday and went for a run at Pine Point, then went back to the car and unloaded our wagon of stuff for a nice day at the beach. I told Mark it felt like we were on vacation, except that we slept at our own house. Funtown, then the beach the next day and out on the boat with my parents the following day. I love living in "Vacationland"- this is what we wait all winter for!