Duck Pond

The kids and I are in OK for a few days and one of our favorite things to do is go to the duck pond by my parents house. Lane and Marlee love to feed the ducks! Or maybe they're geese, whichever they are we call them ducks.

In the past, Lane has been a bit afraid of the ducks but not this time! He didn't mind them crowding around him for food and after they had all eaten Lane had a blast chasing them all over the park.

Marlee liked the ducks too! She fed them a few pieces of bread and was able to look at them close up. Some of them were just about at eye level with her.

My sweet girl strolling along the path by the pond.

And now for the videos!

Lane feeding the ducks.

Marlee's turn.

And Lane chasing the ducks.

Sickly

Little Lane has been sick the past few days. He had a nasty cough and runny nose all weekend and Sunday night he began running a fever. Being the Mom who takes her kids to the doctor every time they are slightly sick, because I'm paranoid, I called and made an appointment for Lane. Sure enough, Dr. Chang looked into Lane's ears and found he had infections in both of them! A really bad one in his right ear at that. When the kids are sick we let them room in with us. Lane sleeps on his old mattress from his baby bed at the foot of our bed. I love it because I can check on him every 15 seconds and Lane loves it because he's camping out. Last night I found Lane sitting up at the end of our bed sound asleep. And today at naptime I put Marlee down for her nap upstairs and came down to check on Lane. He was laying just like this! Waiting patiently for me to come down to see him wearing my glasses. I'm glad he's still got his cute little sense of humor!And on a cute note. We went to watch the HS game across the street tonight and Miss Marlee decided to bring her purse along! She wouldn't look at me for a picture but she gave me a cute pose.

Marlee's 18 Months

Marlee Grace had her 18 month well check appointment one week ago today. I'm just now getting to post it because like any good Mom, I'm just now filling out her baby book! I kept a daily calendar for her first year and with the blog I had all the info I needed to fill it out, but I just hadn't sat down to do it all. I'm finished with all that I can fill out for now, I just need to get the pictures printed and we'll be set! So... now it's back to blogging!
Marlee didn't mind being at the Doctors. I think both of my kids enjoy going and love to get attention from Dr. Chang. Marlee check out perfectly. She weighed in at 29 lbs 10 oz (98%), she is 33.25 inches (90%), and her head is in the 90% with the rest of her body. I actually think Marlee is longer than the nurse measured her but I haven't remeasured her yet.
We usually have to wait for a while once we get into our room. We took Marlee's backpack in with us just in case. Lane thought it would be fun to model it in a picture with his sister. He got Marlee to sit with him in the chair and then said "Mommy take a picture of us".

And this is what happened when I turned my back for one second! Poor Marlee, Lane has one heck of a payback coming his way.

Marlee had to get one shot at the end of our visit. We laid her down on the table and Lane and I loved on her while she got her shot and she didn't make a peep! She was a trooper. And once she was dressed she was ready to get out of there!

So ready that she took off without us. It was raining Monday so she got to wear her rain jacket and boots that Auntie & Uncle T got her for Christmas. She loved the boots!

Some things that Marlee is doing at 18 months:

- Marlee loves her brother Lane! She wants to be around him all the time.

- My sweet girl is still pretty shy. She loves attention, but once she gets it she hides her head

- Marlee loves Bananas! She will come running when she hears the word!

- She is infatuated with showing off her tummy. I am constantly pulling her shirt or dress down!

- Marlee is always making noise! She jibber jabbers, yells for attention, or talks. She says a few phrases: I want to get out, I want to get up, I love them and they come out when least expected

- Marlee has officially claimed a seat at the table with us when we eat. She does great in her little booster and insists on feeding herself. Even yogurt and things that end up all over her

- She loves bath time and makes a beeline for the tub every night

- Marlee fell in love with her pink plaid ladybug blanket after Thanksgiving. Its a receiving blanket my Mom made for her when she came home from the hospital. She carries it everywhere and loves to hide her head in it

- Marlee favorite word is NO. She says no to say yes and everything inbetween. She has also mastered shaking her head no

- Our favorite nicknames for Marlee are Mars, Boo Boo, and Pita. Lane almost always calls her Mars

- Marlee is wearing 2 T clothes and size 6 shoes. Her pants are just the right length and some of her tops are a bit snug!

- Marlee is very opinionated and it's her way or the highway. She is very good at holding her breath until she turns blue

- We are stopped by strangers all the time when we are out. I think I've been told Marlee looks like a Cabbage Patch about a million times.

- She has mastered the playground and can maneuver her way through the play scape and down the big slide all by herself

- Marlee loves to swing and has the biggest smile on her face the whole time

- She loves to ride in the passenger seat of her brother's gator

- Marlee wants to be friends with Murphy, but Murphy does not want to be friends with her

- She loves all of Lane's toys. I usually find her pushing a train or a truck along on the floor

- Marlee has some major separation anxiety.

- Girlfriend is becoming quite the dancer. She even bops her head and shakes her shoulders in the shopping chart

- She is our little sweetheart

Marlee is a little ray of sunshine. We are so blessed by her sweet smile and her funny little personality. She is growing and becoming more of a toddler every day. I love that she is still a baby in so many ways, but I also love all the new things she is doing and learning to become her own little person. Marlee and Lane are still working on their relationship. Marlee cannot get enough of her big brother, but Lane on the other hand would rather she leave him alone. If they go into a room away from me I can guarantee that Marlee with be crying within a minute thanks to something her big brother has done to her. Lane wants to help Marlee and he doesn't get that pushing, pulling, or dragging her isn't going to work. Marlee is beginning to assert herself more with Lane, and successfully sank her teeth into his check the other day when he was pushing her out of his way. I pray for their relationship daily and for me to have patience with their antics. I am sure one day we will laugh at this time, and I will be grateful!

Fun at the Park

The weather here has been so nice that Lane drove himself and Marlee to the neighborhood park for some fun. Murphy and I got to tag along but we had to walk behind Lane & his little passenger. Marlee has really started to enjoy the park, and not just putting the pea gravel in her mouth, but actually climbing up on the jungle gym and sliding down the slides. Lane loves having his sister to play with. He is always ready to help her get up the big steps and he's even been caught encouraging her to go down the big curly slide with him, what a sweet guy.

Mr. Sandman

This morning I was in my bathroom getting glamourus (I wish) when I heard Lane clomp by in his cowboy boots. In my mind I thought "Wow! Lane got himself ready today". I was impressed! I waited a little bit and went out to check on him in the family room, I expected to find him dressed and playing with his trains. That was not what I found. He wasn't in the family room and the back door to the yard was open. I went to the door to look out and Lane was in his sandbox completely naked! I ran to get my camera to get some pictures. You can see he took his jeans off and put them on the table and his sock and boots were flung out in the yard behind the sandbox. Apparently he did not wear a shirt out. I'm not sure what he was thinking, I can only assume he intended to get naked once he got outside. It must be a boy thing?

Lane stood up to look for something in the yard. He looks like a little wild animal. I sent this picture to Clint to edit at work and he called my dying laughing. He told me I better not get him arrested for sending him Child Pornography at work. So, you can thank me for proctecting all of us with the addition of the maple leaf.

Lane was as happy as a little clam outside. Thankfully it is an exceptionally warm day here!

Mr. Bike

Laners got a big boy bike from Santa for Christmas. Lane's been wanting one for a while. When we would go to a store with bikes he would want to go get one to ride around the store. Now, suddenly that he actually has a bike he's not so interested. He fell a couple of times the first time he rode it and I think he's scared. So... we're working on being brave.
Lane and Dad getting the bike just right.

After some convincing we are finally pedaling.

I took a turn working with my boy. He would do great when he pedaled, but then suddenly he would want to quit. I had so much fun encouraging my little dude to try to work through it. Lane HAD to park his bike in the bike racks at the school where we practiced. He gave us two tumbs up, but you can see he wasn't very happy about it.

And now for the videos, I can't mix the videos and the pictures for some reason, so here goes.

Dad working with Lane as we left our house. Lane would pedal a second and think he was going too fast and just stop. Clint agreed to pull Lane on the bike for a little while so he could get used to being on the bike.

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Lane and I practicing. He did great and then suddenly stopped and wanted to quit.

We got him back on, can you guess his reward? Getting to ride his bike to an orange traffic cone! Lane was a nervous Nellie! He didn't realize I was barely touching him or not touching him at all. Now that I've posted all this I think I need to do some research to boost my Laners confidence.

Bed Check

I did a bed check and Lane's light was on. I looked around the corner of his room and he wasn't there. I checked the playroom and he wasn't there either. I went back in his room one more time and found him asleep on the floor.
He had a huge pile of books on his bed.All those books must have pushed Lane & his best bud EE out of their bed.

NYE 2011

The Musslewhites lived it up for NYE! We planned to go to a fun family place to dinner, only to get there and find it was closed for the night. Next place we thought to go to was also closed! We finally got smart and called ahead to see if our next restaurant option was open. Pei Wei was open and we had the whole place to ourselves - except for one other family. It was actually really nice to eat and not worry about the kids being loud! When your alone in the restaurant who cares?
The girl side of the table.And the silly boys.After dinner we went home to pop confetti poppers. And try to get a cute picture of Lane and Marlee together. I could get one smiling and looking but not both. So, I settled on this one. Sweet Lane gave his Sister a New Year's kiss. We celebrated on East Coast time and got the kids to bed so Clint and I could officially celebrate in our time zone.

Lane's New Year's Eve interview.

Happy 2012!