Melissa & Doug Deals!

Some of you know how much we love Melissa & Doug toys. A friend just alerted me that Amazon.com currently has their play kitchen at a significant discount! It's usually $250, but right now it's almost $100 off, and you get free shipping! There's no telling how long Amazon will keep it at this low price, so if you are thinking of getting one of these for Christmas and can swing the purchase now, I'd go for it!

If you're going to buy these or other items on Amazon, it helps me if you start shopping from one of my links!
This play kitchen doesn't come with accessories, but you can add your own play food and accessories from M&D or whomever you like. The pots and pans are pretty cute, but I'm really a fan of the sandwich-making set. Maybe this year Santa will get that for Violet...she's played with it at a store and loves it!

Ooh, Amazon seems to have almost everything M&D on sale right now! Including these magnetic dress-up dolls that I hadn't seen before. Violet LOVES the one she has, and this includes two girls to mix and match. I wonder if I could use these as a potty-training bribe. One more piece of clothing for each time she uses the potty? Or would it be yet another failed bribe that got her interest but didn't produce results...

Two dolls in one set! And our beloved "Joey Man"
P.S. Not a M&D fan or just looking for something else? I love the look of this red play kitchen, and it's currently $25 less than the M&D, and seems to come with accessories. Please read the description and reviews more carefully than I just did before making your final decision ;) KidKraft Red Vintage Kitchen

Oh, the Places You'll Go

We've been busy the last few weeks. One of the the reasons is Gator being on the move! He isn't doing the traditional hands and knees coordinated crawl, but he is increasingly efficient with his modified inchworm crawl. He spends more and more time on his hands and knees...or hands and toetips!...and I'm sure it's only a matter of time before he is zooming around.

Gator is chomping everything he can get his hands on. Newspapers, mail, my shoes, and sometimes even the cat's tail have all been gnawed on. His favorite teething surface is my knuckles. I try very hard to keep inappropriate teething surfaces away from the baby, but it's very hard when I'm the only one in the house making that effort...and one of the people in the house is two years old. And sometimes I just forget and leave my shoes out. I never dreamed I'd have to worry about this before he was five months old.

Violet is still obsessed with lining things up and arranging them in various ways. In this picture, she's arranged her "friends" to watch her sippy cup. Those Little People figures and other toys enact all sorts of scenarios, day after day. They go to sleep, get put in time out, play with things, etc.

Sibling rivalry is better some days than others. Sometimes big sis is thrilled with her little brother...whom she calls "Big Sister" these days...and other times she flips out because he dares to touch one of "her" toys. Even if it's a baby toy that was never hers. One day she threw half the contents of her room on her bed to keep him away. And that's a lot of stuff.

Recent gems from my little girl...

"What's wrong, little guy? Hey little guy! Hey little buddy..."

"What's the matter?" (to her little brother)

"He looks cute! That's a nice outfit."

"No no no no no no no no no no no no..."

"No way."

"Yaa" (Yeah)

"That's cute! That's cute!" (as she goes through clothing on a rack at the store)

"I want to watch set treet (Sesame Street). I want to I want to I want to!!!"

"I don't want to watch the animals and I don't like the animals." (whine as I watch something other than Sesame Street)

"YOU do it." (when she wants to be a baby)

"I do it allll by myself!" (when she wants to be a big girl)

"One, two, three, four, five, sex, seven..." (I know it's just her pronunciation, but it still makes me laugh a little to hear her saying that word all the time in such an innocent way...)

My big little guy's 4 month stats

15 pounds exactly

25.75 inches

Impressed the doc with his strength and locomotion abilities.

Why are both of my kids so fascinated by my wallet??

Crackberry

The hubster was quickly hooked on his Blackberry Storm. And today, my 30-month old quickly figured out how to browse photos...a skill that took her father slightly longer to perfect.

To my little boy at almost four months old...

Gator, you're growing up so very fast. You're almost four months old. You've been able to roll over from your belly to your back for about a month, and from your back to your belly for a couple of weeks.

Being able to roll over at will opened up a whole new world to you. We put you down for anything and you immediately work on getting into a position you like. It's great when we want you to sleep, not so great when we want you on your back for a diaper change.

Finding new sleeping positions that you think are oh so comfortable, and being able to shift your way around to play with cribside toys means you've been been sleeping through the night sometimes. I am THRILLED with this development of the past week. You don't necessarily sleep that whole time, but I'm very happy that you wake up, play with your aquarium toy or shift positions, stuff your thumb in your mouth, and soothe yourself back to sleep. (Could you give your sister a few tips on this self-soothing back to sleep thing??)

You've been pushing yourself up on your elbows and knees with your belly off the ground. You can do an inchworm crawl around and do a remarkable job of rolling, flipping, and inching your way toward your target. Your hand-eye coordination has improved a lot in the past week or two and you're delighted to capture toys and even bring them to your mouth to chew. The world is full of new things to discover when you can twist and roll into all sorts of positions with different views and things to reach for.

Your newest skill is attempting to pull your back up off the ground, like you're about to do a sit-up. You are so very strong. Which is good, because your sister sometimes wants to treat you like an interactive baby doll, and she only weighs ten pounds or so more than you do and her embraces worry your mother.

It just doesn't seem possible that this big boy was in my belly four months ago. Or that my boy who keeps filling his infant car seat more and more was dwarfed by it when we brought him home from the hospital.

How did he get so big so fast??

A light in the darkness of insanity...

Every now and then, Violet says something incredibly sweet. I changed a stinky diaper and got her dressed for the day when out of nowhere, she announced, "Mommy, you need hugs. And kisses!" and proceeded to give me what she thought I needed. 

Usually, two and a half is a really frustrating age for both of us. But this extra verbal ability leads to some really nice exchanges sometimes.

She tells me about her days, and it's always interesting to learn what sticks out most in the filter of her young mind. Events like her grandparents getting a new vacuum cleaner (red!) can be incredibly exciting. 

She's just recently started to tell me that she loves me, and this morning was the first spontaneous "you need a hug." I appreciated it so much. 

Sometimes she's very caring and motherly. She gets concerned when I'm tired or upset...sometimes. Other times, she's completely oblivious. She also wants to comfort her baby brother, but she's not so great at holding him and soothing him yet. Like in the photo here, from when he was five weeks old. She still likes to touch his eyes and tries to manually open and close the lids, like she can with some baby dolls. He's not a fan of that. He does love to watch her play and try to entertain him in other ways.

I'm looking forward to many more sweet moments as they grow up. And my babies are growing up so very fast...