Malin Marie is 9 months old!

Malin's 9 month Stats:
     Height - 30 inches
     Weight - 21lbs, 13oz
     Head Circumference - 47cm
     Clothing size - A whopping 24 months!  (Although, to be fair, I JUST moved her into that size.)

Malin turned 9 months old on March 26th, 2013.  She is the most mellow baby and makes things so much easier on Nick and I.  She is crawling everywhere, loves to climb (stairs, on chairs, over people), and the doctor has made a bet that she will be walking before a year (we will see - he doesn't know how stubborn our girls can be when they do or don't want to do something!).  Malin is just starting to sleep through the night (usually about every third night she will).  She has 6 teeth, but there is another that looks not too far away.  We love this little girl with her big smiles!

Victoria Mae is 2 years old!

Victoria's 2 year Stats:
      Height - 36.5 Inches Tall
     Weight - 32lbs 14oz
     Head Circumference - 49.3cm
     Clothing Size - 4T
Victoria turned 2 on March 28th, 2013.  She's growing into such a beautiful little girl!  No toddler features left in this kid - she's talking up a storm and is bigger than most 3 year olds.  She still loves her baby dolls and is developing a love for stuffed animals as well (she mimics Ellie ALL of the time and has to do whatever her big sister does!).  We love you, Victoria Mae!

Another lover of books!

Emptying the kids bookshelf has been a favorite activity for Malin these days!

Rub a Dub Dub - Three Little Girls in the Tub!

Bath time in the Marcus household is always eventful...

Dress up

Our girls are spoiled - no doubt about it. So spoiled, in fact, that we can't have all their toys out at once. So every couple of months, I rotate the toys that are out in the main room. During the last rotation, I brought a bunch of dress up clothes out again for the girls' renewed interest.

Victoria has been in heaven! One evening before bed, she donned a princess dress (an oversized Easter dress I bought a couple years ago on clearance), an Easter bonnet, and her new princess shoes from her aunties and proceeded to feed her puppy the play food (also brought back out from the closet). So fun watching the girls use their imaginations!

Yummy Dessert!

Here is my littlest lovebug enjoying her dessert (a pink cupcake) after dinner one evening.  How can you not smile?!  (And no, her one front tooth STILL hasn't come in...)

Disney On Ice: Worlds of Fantasy

In lieu of a big birthday party for Victoria's second birthday and Eliana's fourth birthday this year, we decided it would be more fun to ask the aunties and grandmas to join the girls and I at Disney on Ice at the Target Center this year!  Unfortunately, Grammy was unable to make it as she was still in Florida, but the rest of us made a day of it and had a great time!

After the girls woke up from their naps on Saturday, I loaded the older two into the van (Malin got to spend the afternoon and evening with her daddy), picked up Nana, and headed toward the cities where we picked up Auntie Amanda and Auntie Heather and went out for dinner together.  The aunties had presents ready for the girls as we had our early birthday celebration, and both girls were very excited and loved their gifts!

We headed over to the Target Center after dinner and got to see a fun presentation of Disney on Ice: Worlds of Fantasy.  We had incredible seats!  Victoria wasn't sure where to look first - the stage with her fave Disney characters, or the stadium which had hundreds of kids and light-up toys flashing all around her.  It was too cute!  Eliana loved the show, but really fell in love during the second half when the Toy Story characters came out.  The show included characters from The Little Mermaid, Tinkerbelle, Cars, Toy Story, and Mickey & Minnie Mouse.  By the end of the show, both girls were exhausted and fell asleep within minutes on our way home.  It was a great night and we all loved the entire girls-only evening out!

Heather, Amanda, Ellie, Nana, and Victoria waiting for the show to begin!

Sea life from The Little Mermaid.

Victoria was just glued to the show.  She's my little princess in training (with red snowcone lips - thanks, Nana!).

Heather and Amanda have been photobombed by Eliana!

Mommy, Victoria, and Heather during intermission.

Ellie's Daddy-Daughter Date

The Willmar Middle School put on a production of The Little Mermaid Junior this year and I knew as soon as I heard about it that Eliana would LOVE it.  But since I had already planned to take the girls to Disney on Ice for their birthdays (see future post), Nick decided he wanted to take Ellie to the show, just the two of them.

Unfortunately, Ellie had been pretty sick again (some random bug) and didn't have much appetite to join Nick for dinner out on the town before the show.  But what sick kid is going to pass up ice cream?  :)  Instead, Nick took her for frozen yogurt at CherryBerry where she picked out her own toppings (sprinkles and Mike&Ikes), and then they proceeded to the show.

Ellie fell in love with the musical (which makes her mother VERY pleased!)!  Nick said she was glued to the entire play and couldn't stop talking about Ariel, Ariel's Dad (King Triton), and Ursula.  Props to the WMS for instilling a love of theater in my daughter and also for a job well done!  And props to my husband for giving our eldest daughter a great daddy-daughter date!

Conversations with Strangers

I had to take Eliana to the doctor's office yesterday - Yes.  Sick again.  Thankfully, she has still been in pretty good spirits as was evidenced by a conversation that took place in the waiting room, hence, the reason for this post.

There is a play area in the pediatric office that my children have to play on every time we go to see the doctor.  The room really gives me the heebie-jeebies when I think about all the germs floating around on everything.  However, any opportunity to get a few minutes to myself is always appreciated, so after we had already been waiting to see the doctor the second time for almost an hour (we were sent down to radiology for a chest x-ray and when we came back up, they didn't have any rooms available for us to wait), I happily let Ellie run over to the play area and even decided to place Malin on the floor in there to play with the weird beads-on-a-wire box.

So as they are playing, a couple other kids went into the room and I noticed one of them, maybe 2.5 years old, really studying Malin.  Ellie apparently noticed as well, because she decided to strike up a conversation with the child.  The other kids' mother and I were both sitting just outside the playroom watching through the glass window as the conversation took place.  It went something like this:

"My name is Eliana.  I am almost four years old.  My birthday is in April.  April 22.  That's my sister, Lynn-Marie.  I call her Limmer sometimes.  She's in the baby room.  And I'm in the preschool room.  And Toria is in the toddler room.  She's my other sister.  I have two sisters!  I like them both, and I like to give Lynn-Marie kisses on her head because she's soft.  But my mom and dad, they go to work in the office.  They have to work to make money so we can go to Florida again, cause we don't have no money.  Right, mom?"

Ummm, yeah...  I glance over at the other mom who has indeed heard this whole "conversation" take place and she is smiling ear-to-ear.  So, I sheepishly explain to the mom that we just got back from a vacation to Florida, as if that should explain everything.  A million thoughts are going through my head.  How much of Ellie's monologue did she hear?  When did my oldest child become so chatty?  Usually she's shy and whiney around new people!  Did she really just share pretty much every personal detail about herself to this poor child (who, by the way, got bored of Ellie's talking and went to play with her own sibling)?  My daughter is telling people we have no money!  Agh!

But once all these thoughts finished going through my head, I smiled because I am very proud of this 3.5 year old!  It amazes me how grown up she is and how she is overcoming some of shyness.  Plus, her vocabulary is amazing!  She could maybe use a little more discretion around strangers, but at least it was another child instead of some random man at the grocery store, or something, right?  ...And that's when they called us back into the room.

Family Recoup Time: Florida 2013!

After all the illness that our family dealt with during January and the first part of February, we were TOTALLY looking forward to our family vacation in Florida again this year!  And it absolutely did not disappoint!  We stayed at Grandma Margaret's condo in Naples again this year, and spent the week there with Grammy and Papa Marcus as they were down there for the whole month.  The weather was a bit cooler for Florida, but it was still between 50-80 degrees warmer than in Minnesota, so we certainly didn't mind a bit.  We got to hit all the same highlights that we enjoyed on vacation last year, with a couple new ones as well.  The airplane rides, the beach, the zoo, feeding the giraffes, riding a camel, visits with family members living in Florida, pool time, evening dance parties, feeding the ducks, walks around the lake, date night for us and pajama/pizza party for the kids, good seafood restaurants, family nap times, and time, attention, and treats showered upon the kids by the grandparents.  What more could you want on a family vacation???

We all had a great time and everything went so smoothly!  We were anticipating a few meltdowns, especially on the travel days, but we were pleasantly surprised to find that all three did amazingly well for the entire week.  We are really hoping to be able to continue our vacations down there for the next few years as everything was just so convenient for a family with small children.  But I suppose, eventually, the kids will realize that Disney World is also in Florida, so once they are old enough (potty-trained and can get by without naps), I'm sure we will have to change our vacation destination a bit.  Until then, THANK YOU Grandma Margaret for sharing your condo with us!

Daddy and his oldest two girls watching the waves at the beach.

Malin's first experience playing in the sand.  We found a nice shady spot next to the pier and though the Red Tide was annoying, the girls still enjoyed their time at the beach.

Malin's first time in the Atlantic Ocean!  It was the Gulf of Mexico, but still...  She wasn't quite sure what to think about the waves rushing over her legs, but we still got a few smiles out of her!

All three girls had fun playing in the sand.  We were all pretty covered with it by the time we were done!

The older two girls enjoyed chasing some of the birds along the beach.  Victoria, especially, would run after them, no matter where they went.  Funny kid...

Nap time for Malin.  The waves were just too soothing to stay awake any longer.

Ellie slept in Grammy and Papa's room again this year on an air mattress.  Her favorite part about her bed?  It was located right by the tv so she could watch tv in bed.  She even shared her bed and cuddled Victoria a few evenings while watching Sprout.

We tried to stick to their normal sleep routines as much as possible, but the days were just filled with so many fun activities, that Victoria didn't always make it until nap time.  This day she found a great cuddle spot in Papa's arms.

Even Ellie would pass out during her naps.  I can't really blame her - with all the swimming and jumping she did in the pool, she burned probably 2-3 times her normal calories everyday.

Victoria and Ellie enjoyed taking walks around the lake with Grammy to feed the ducks and birds.  This is them throwing bread out to them.

Oh, Miss V... you melt my heart!  I can't believe she's almost two, and yet at the same time, I can't believe that she's ONLY almost two!

Out for another walk around the lake!

Papa, Grammy, and Malin watching the birds by the lake.

Victoria became quite the little daredevil in the pool this year.  Ellie, who has always been our waterbug, was trying all kinds of new tricks in the pool this year.  So of course, that means Victoria has to do them too!  She didn't even hesitate to jump into the pool on her own a couple times while Nick and I were still getting our sandals off!  We thought for sure the first time she did it, that would have been the end of the pool experience for her.  But not even 2 minutes later, she jumped in again!  Thank goodness we were close at hand!

Eliana - the biggest waterbug I know!  Here she is being thrown into the water by Nick.

This kid loves her daddy!

Malin was able to join us in the pool the first day and she really seemed to like it!  It was hot and humid the first day and the pool is heated, so it felt like getting in bathwater.  But the next few days started getting cooler.  At first the water was warm, but the air was cold and I didn't want her to freeze getting out.  Then the air was warm, but the pool had cooled down quite a bit.  No matter - she was more than content hanging out on the side of the pool, playing with the floaties, and eating snacks while the rest of us swam!

One of our evening dance parties.  :)

On the monkey cruise at the zoo: The different species of monkeys and apes are separated and living on their own little islands at the zoo.  So in order to see them, you get to take this little boat ride around the islands.  Papa and Nick missed the boat, but Grammy, the three girls, and I all got to go.

One of the biggest highlights of Florida for Ellie last year was feeding the giraffes at the zoo.  So, of course, we had to do that again this year...

And if Ellie got to feed the giraffes, then Victoria had to do it as well!

After feeding the giraffes, why not ride a camel?  This was something new for the girls (and Nick) this year, but they had fun!

Having dinner on the water one evening.  What's a family vacation, without a family photo?  This was the closest we could come to getting all three to look at the same time.

Papa and Grammy with their three little munchkins.

Yet another dance party.  Surprisingly, Victoria has got some moves and is actually quite graceful.

Not surprisingly, Eliana is our drama queen.  :)  She stubbed her toe (barely) while showing us one of her dance "tricks".

For those that remember, we had a family photo taken at this exact same spot last year at Pelican Bend, standing in this same spot.  Victoria was even wearing the exact same outfit that Malin now has on.  So here is our family again: One year later, plus one more member!

Had to get a photo of Grammy and Papa on vacation as well!  We had a WONDERFUL time with them and love them so much!

On one of our last days at the condo, we had plans to go swimming after naps.  Well, Victoria pretty much passed out that afternoon.  There was no waking her, no matter how hard I tried.  So everyone else went ahead of us to swim and after about a 3 hour nap, I carried Victoria down to the pool, where she finally woke up and got in.

Ellie giving her daddy the best kiss.

After the rain, Victoria and Ellie are notorious for finding the leftover puddles.  Springtime is going to be fun at our house this year!

The playground at the zoo - these two were all over the place.

Malin at the zoo - every girl needs to nap with a zoo purse, right?

We were able to see the lion roaring at the zoo for about 5 minutes - it was pretty cool!

Victoria slept on an air mattress in Nick's and my room, but there were several times that she would wiggle off the mattress into the corner between the dresser and nightstand.  She slept very well on the mattress for the most part, but I think she's just so used to the surroundings of her crib that she liked the coziness this provided.  :)

Feeding the ducks and birds with Grammy at the lake again.

Our last morning with Grammy and Papa in Florida, just before leaving for the airport.

The airplane ride home: Even though Victoria could still qualify to be a lap child (under age 2), we knew that would be a nightmare for both Nick and I to have a lap child in an already tight space.  So we purchased four tickets for this vacation and figured that Nick would sit with the older two girls on his side, and I would have Malin as a lap child on the other side.  On our flight home, Nick was bummed that we were placed in the last row as we hate being by the bathrooms, but it turned out to be a good thing as the two seats on my side were the only open seats on the plane.  So the girls ended up having more room to wiggle, and Malin got to stretch out on her own seat for some of the flight.  Here you can see her toothy grin - she's been sporting three teeth on top for a couple weeks now - we are still waiting for her other front tooth to come in!

Victoria was pretty much in heaven being able to watch movies the whole flight.  She controlled the portable DVD player most of the flight, and Ellie kept busy playing iPad games with Daddy.  And since we had a good stash of snacks for the girls, and they each had their own carry-on bag filled with books and toys, we didn't have any trouble on either of the 3.5 hour flights.  Even Malin did great - she played and smiled at the lady behind me on the whole flight down there, and stretched out and played on the spare seats on the flight back to MN.  Couldn't have asked for better behaving kids on these flights!  Now if only they were like that all the time...