Even though it's Wednesday ...

... here is my A-Z on Mondays entry. And I am only on S to boot.

S is for sprinkled cheese.

Katie and Maddie have very different appetites. Maddie eats (besides fruit and some veggies): french toast, peanut butter and jelly on Ritz crackers, waffles, spaghetti, and chicken McNuggets. She will not try anything new - not even one teensy bite. Katie eats so much more, thank goodness. And she will try just about anything, too - especially if her Daddy is eating it. So I am always offering her new things and adding to her menu little by little.

Spaghetti night occurs here about three times a week mainly because it is a stress free meal for us all. Maddie just does not like to eat and most meals are just torturous for Andy and me. But for some reason she eats the spaghetti here without a fuss, and if I follow it with broccoli she is even more pleased. A few months ago I was watching them eat spaghetti and I had the idea of seeing if they wanted parmesan cheese on it. (I almost can't eat pasta without it.)

Maddie said "no thank you!" quite loudly. Katie looked at it and slowly shook her head yes with big wide eyes. I sprinkled just a little amount. She loved it! Score! She dubbed it sprinkled cheese, or sometimes just "sprinkes." She is really going to be confused in an ice cream shop one day.

So the sprinkled cheese became a fixture on the table on spaghetti nights, and even though Maddie doesn't like it - let me tell you she still likes to hold that bottle! They FIGHT over it quite passionately. I have to time turns for them.

Here are some pictures of Katie and Maddie with their "preeeeciouuus ...."

(The top two pictures are Maddie and the bottom two are Katie. Katie is actually eating Ramen noodles here, which she also loves, in case you were wondering why it doesn't look like spaghetti.)

For more "A-Z on Mondays" visit Jen over at Unglazed!

A-Z on Mondays: R is for Rules

OK ... so I think that the A-Z gang is onto V at this point - but I love my "R" idea and I wanted to post about it!


R is for Rules. Around February I noticed that things were getting out of control. Correction: things were already out of control. The girls had officially entered the "two-going-on-three" phase and were testing their limits. I was at my friend Michelle's house (a fellow twin mommy) and she had a nice set of rules hanging up in her playroom. While I didn't copy HER rules, I did copy the idea and hung them on the wall right next to the kitchen table.

The first four rules were first. Maddie had entered a complete shrieking and screaming stage where anytime she was upset - anytime at all - she just lost it and shrieked at the top of her lungs. Ear piercing. So I made rule number one "No Yelling." Well, apparantly yelling does not equate to screaming (or crying for that matter) and I had to add the last two rules.

Maddie (who is already reading - long story ...) read the rules over and over and over and over out loud that first day - and that was that. She had them memorized. Mind you, she didn't follow them. She just knew them.

A few weeks ago we were taking the girls out of the bath and Maddie was getting impatient that we-just-weren't-moving-along-fast-enough. She started fussing and whining and twisting and kicking. It was driving me nuts.

I yelled , "Maddie - no kicking! Number one rule!"

She looked at me - and in the same whining tone of voice said, "No, Mommy! Number one is "No Yelling!"

And continued her tantrum.

A-Z on Mondays: N, O, P, and Q!

Oh geesh - I am a bad blogger. I need to catch up on my "A-Z on Mondays" posts - sorry, Jen!!!

So let's gooooooooooooooooo .... :)

N is for New Header! Is that a cheat? But it's true - just check out the top of my page and you can see it!

O is for Organic Oranges! Andy's boss owns an organic orange grove in Florida - which means we get a nice pick of whatever he has in season. The girls love all things orange - and they loved these oranges, too ... (Katie is in the top picture and Maddie in the other three)

P is for Poppy! Andy's dad, who Katie and Maddie call Poppy, is hysterical with the girls. He will do anything to make them smile and laugh - and he gets rewarded with giggles everytime. Remember the Boppies from my "B" post? Well ... I like to call this composition "Boppy Poppy" ...

(Don't hate me, Dad!)

And finally ...

Q is for Quote. Here are two of my favorite quotes that my little girls have ever said ...

From Maddie ... about 6 months ago ... with a small little forlorn look on her face ... "I'm scared of afraid." Oh, it just about broke my heart. "Why are you afraid, honey?" Then she looks at me like I'm nuts: "I'm not afraid!" And cracks up.

From Katie ... last summer ... out of the blue one day when we we're looking out into the backyard ... squinting her eyes and tilting her head to the side with a smile on her face ... "Oh, look at that bunny. Oh, he's soooo cute!" She had never said anything like that before - something that was her own original thought about something else. Up until that point she (and Maddie for that matter) would agree with us, repeat us, say simple things. It was amazing to see her put two sentences like that together. We made her say it OVER AND OVER all summer long!

Have a great Monday everyone ... and for more "A-Z on Mondays" visit Jen over at Unglazed!

A-Z on Mondays: M is for Maddie! AND .... Happy Birthday to My Girls!!!

Lots of business today!


FIRST ... Happy Birthday to my little girls!!! Katie and Maddie are three years old today! It is a crappy rainy day here - but we are celebrating inside. We had a kiddie party Saturday night with their cousins and I'll post all about it tomorrow!


SECOND ... We are at M in our A-Z journey - and of course today is all about Maddie.

Today was Maddie's first day of school. I always knew that I would separate the girls once they started school - and I even went so far as to find different schools for them. Their needs are so different and I wanted to make sure that they would each be in the best environment for them.

Maddie likes small groups. She really gets absorbed in her tasks and doesn't flit from one activity to the next. Her memory is amazing - she can recite whole books from beginning to end after only reading them once or twice!

So I found a school for her that has a very small student/teacher ratio - in fact there are only 5 other kids in her class. Perfect for Maddie! They take the kids for preschool when they turn three (not just in September - Katie won't start until then) and she didn't have to be potty trained - BONUS! I'll do a more detailed post later this week - but she LOVED it today. Her smiles do not lie! :)

My heart was breaking when I left her at school today - but I am so excited to see her blossom. I have always said that Katie is my "big girl" and Maddie is my "baby" - and my baby is growing up. I am totally crying again.

From birth to today ... Maddie ...

This last picture was taken this just this afternoon as she was getting off the bus!

I love you forever, baby.


(For more A-Z on Mondays, visit Jen over at Unglazed!)

A-Z on Mondays: L is for Laugh

Katie and Maddie laugh all the time. They are just little boxes of giggles with bows on top. They are getting much better at posing for me for pictures - except when they start cracking up!

Their newest "thing" is to take all their plush into the living room and line them up in the picture window and play store. It was so cute I wanted to take some pictures.

Then I decided since I was getting such a shadow, I'd stick them on the other wall and take some closeups. Mayhem ensued.

They were laughing. I was laughing. It was awesome.

Come back next week for "M" - and for more "A-Z on Mondays" visit Jen over at Unglazed!

A-Z on Mondays: K is for Katie

K is for Katie.

I picked out the name Katherine when I was just a little girl. I always knew it would be the name of my first daughter.

Katie is like me in so many ways - and so different from me at the same time. I love her spirit and independence, although I know that means she will one day want to leave me and explore the world. She has curiosity. She has will and determination. She wants to do it all - and all by herself. I am so proud of her and I can't wait to see the woman she will become. I am totally crying right now.

From birth to today ... Katie ...

I love you forever, kid.

(For more "A-Z on Mondays" visit Jen over at Unglazed!)

A-Z on Mondays: J is for Jumping for Joy

(Hi everyone. I always feel this need to explain where I've been when I haven't blogged in a while, and the answer is usually: just plain busy. Busy with the girls, busy with Twin Club, busy with the house. I get such a feeling of guilt when I don't blog or make comments on your blogs - like I am letting you guys down or something - which I know is just silly. Blogging should be fun! So, if I go through busy times when I don't blog, please know that I am thinking of you all and I'll be back when I can!)

This week, J stands for Jumping for Joy! I won a giveaway! A cool giveaway! A big thanks to Tiffany over at Songbirdtiff! Lots of exclamation points!!!

Through Tiffany, I won a 16x20 poster print from www.onlineposterprinting.com - now all I have to do is decide which of my pictures I should get blown up! I am thinking it should be something from the past year with my new camera, since the resolution is sharper than my old camera, but we shall see.

Have a great day everyone - I plan on doing lots of reading today and making lots of comments.

A-Z on Mondays: I is for "It's a Small World" (and a winner!)

A big congratulations to Liz (TidBits from Liz) who made the first correct guess! You won the surprise prize! Send me your address (to madkatblog@yahoo.com) and I'll get it out to you ASAP. Honorable mention goes to Safire - right ride, wrong park! :)

These pictures were from our Honeymoon in Disneyworld in July 2003. I worked for Disney for almost 5 years (before I knew Andy) and had fabulous discounts and perks (which no longer exist to the same extent, I hear). We would get 2 free tickets a year, close to 50% off our hotels, and 30% off all food and shopping. It was hard not to go - and "go" I went - about 3 or 4 times a year. Andy, however, had not been there since he was a little kid. He was just as excited to go as I was ... and I think he had the most fun out of the two of us.

It rained almost everyday we were there, but you expect that in Disney - it usually last about 15-20 minutes in the middle of the day and then it's over. All the weaklings leave and you get a nice empty park for a couple of hours. But it rained HARD for us - and two days it rained almost the whole day. We were troopers, though, and just got wet. I even got my hair cut off at the Grand Floridian so I didn't have to worry about the humidity.

One night it poured, and Andy wanted to ride It's a Small World over and over and over and over ... and over. He loved it, and I loved him - so I went along for the ride. He had me adjust the setting on our camera and take picture after picture of him making this face. He is a crack.

(The third picture was with the flash - no fun.)

We were there for 10 days and had a great time. We always look at our honeymoon pictures and smile.

Congratulations, Liz!