Merry Christmas!

Christmas with two toddlers=magic! We had an absolutely wonderful Christmas and I hope you did too! This year, Meredith really started to get what Christmas is about and whenever Mere is excited about something, it rubs off on Jack. We started off Christmas Eve at Grandma Rooney's house with dinner and presents. These pictures are from before we left to go have some of Uncle Mike's awesome low country boil and play with cousin Dylan:

And a family picture in front of the tree

When we got home, it was time to get cookies out for Santa and to spread the reindeer food that Meredith made for Santa's reindeer to eat while they waited for him on our deck. She picked the ingredients: rainbow goldfish crackers, oatmeal, pixie dust to help them fly (red glitter--Mia's poop should be interesting for the next few days, considering she ate a large amount of reindeer food) and snow (powdered sugar). The reindeer must've liked it, because everything was gone the next morning.

Christmas morning with Mimi, Papa and Sandy
Jack picked up the camera at one point, handed it to my mom and said, "Jack, Papa, Dada" and pointed for her to take their picture
Meredith asked Santa for one thing: a purple rabbit. He must've gotten her letter!

Jack and Daddy putting together his new workbench

One of Jack's many tractor presents. At last count, Jack had gotten five tractors (including a replica of my dad's lawnmower, which Jack conned him into taking him out for a ride on when we were at their house Christmas night), a fire engine, helicopter, front loader and multiple tractor books.

On Christmas night, we went to Mimi and Papa's to celebrate with our family. Mimi has those pictures--we'll post them soon. Between Mimi, Aunt Kathy and Grammy, Mere was in Hello Kitty heaven. The kids got to Skype with cousin Skyler and had lots of fun.

And then, the bottom fell out.

When we got home, we noticed that Jack wasn't quite himself and Mere had a terrible cough. Long story short, we spent the day after Christmas with two very sick kids. Somehow, they still managed to play with their new toys though! Their last Christmas presents were two matching prescriptions for Augmentin and a whole bunch of Tylenol. Today has been a better day, thank goodness.

We've been talking a lot about the new baby too. Last week, the last of Jack's "big boy" furniture came in, so he and Meredith took a nap in his new crib and he never left. It was a pretty seamless transition to his new room and he's never slept better. The best part of the room, in my opinion, is that we left the double bed there. Both kids will eventually transition to those as their beds, but for now, it makes it much easier for me to have a place to crash besides their rocking chairs! The bedding for the new baby's room just came, so now we start the decorating/washing baby clothes/getting ready transition. I'm 20 weeks and finally feeling her move around a lot. Mere was asking questions about the baby this morning. She wanted to know how big she's going to be when she's born and wanted to know if she can hold her. She said that's a big sister's job and since she's already a big sister, she's pretty sure she can handle it! We think her name is going to be Claire and the kids were pretty excited to open baby Claire's Christmas presents. She'll be here before we know it!

Christmas is Coming!

I have a new appreciation for people who send Christmas cards with adorable photos of their toddlers. A few weeks ago, I thought I'd put the kids in their Christmas jammies, snap a few photos and be all set. Boy, did I underestimate this project! I think Meredith and Jack have been dressed up and photographed in front of every Christmas tree in town. Finally, we ended up with this:
Not the exact photo I was hoping for, but good enough! I really was tempted to send out these two though--they capture the kids' personalities!

We've had lots of fun getting ready for Christmas. Christopher Pop-In-Kins, our resident Christmas elf, has moved in for the season and I love to hear the kids squeal when they find him. At first, we weren't sure Jack would be old enough, but he definitely gets that finding the little green guy hiding somewhere new is a big deal. Meredith reminds us every morning to put another ornament on our Advent calendar and has taken it as her job to make sure we're up to date. I have a feeling this is going to be our most magical Christmas so far!

I had my official 18 week ultrasound last week. It looks like we'll be welcoming a healthy baby girl this spring! Good thing Jack is a tough guy. It's not every man who can handle being the middle child between two sisters! I have no doubts he's up for the challenge. I'm starting to finally feel better and definitely have a belly--amazing how much faster that happens the third time around :)

Okay, so it's been a while...

I know it's been a while since I've updated our blog. I promise I have a good excuse! I'm learning that two toddlers plus normal life is a lot of work, but when you add in morning sickness, life becomes downright exhausting! We're having another baby :) I'm due in May, which makes me just over 12 weeks. I feel exactly like I did when I was pregnant with Meredith, but we're trying not to read too much into it just yet. We've had Meredith's third birthday, Halloween and lots of everyday fun since I updated the blog last, so here are some very overdue pictures.

Mere and Daddy at her birthday party. He had just finished mowing the grass--I promise this wasn't his outfit for the party!

Our birthday girl

Mimi was taking pictures of the kids playing in the playroom before the party. Jack obviously wasn't impressed.

Grandma Rooney came over the weekend before Meredith's birthday to play and decorate a special cake. It turned out pretty cute!

Our living room is now home to the cozy coupe and cozy truck. Our cozy coupe has long been a favorite of both kids (usually at the same time). The above picture is what happens when they both decide to drive the car--lots of car"jack"ings in the living room these days (not to mention an occasional greyhound being run over). To preserve the peace, we added a new vehicle.

As you can see, it's a hit!

Mere and Jack working at the easel (Meredith's birthday present from Mimi and Papa)


We also went to Boo at the Akron Zoo this weekend. It was cold, but so much fun!

By the end, they were exhausted!

Jack at the end of Boo at the Zoo. Meredith refused to get in the picture--she was "too exhausted"!

From our visit to see Papa at the fire station

My grandfather made me this baby cradle. Baby Susie, Meredith's favorite doll, sleeps in it now. Jack discovered the other day that he fits in it too! What you can't see from this picture is that he crawled in with his blankie and the remote control so he could watch TV.

Hope everyone has a great week!

These Boots Are Made For Walkin'...Finally!

On Saturday morning, we were all playing in the playroom when, out of nowhere, Jack decided to take his first solo steps! Strangely enough, he was in the exact same spot where Meredith took her first steps. It was wonderful because Chris, Meredith and I were all standing there, looking at him with our mouths hanging open. He was pretty excited when we started cheering for him once the we got past the shock! I've decided what the hold up was: he's afraid to fall! Now, he's desperate to walk everywhere (crawling is so last month!), so he wants to hold on to your hand with two tiny fingers just so he feels secure even though he knows he doesn't need the help. I can't believe we finally have two kids who are both walkers. Welcome to official toddler-hood, Baby Jack!

Jam-Packed July!

Thought I'd start off with my favorite picture of the month. I never intend for blog posts to be so far apart, but it seems like the days disappear without me realizing it! I guess two kids, a husband, a high-maintenance dog and a job are good excuses, right? I'm starting to understand that the calm weeks are the ones that should stand out, since "hectic" seems like our baseline these days.


It's been a great few weeks at the Rooney house. We officially now have only one child in diapers. Meredith's teacher at daycare told me on a Thursday that she thought we should just put her in big girl underwear over the weekend and go for it. We started out on a Friday morning and after two quick accidents, our girl got it! She hasn't looked back since. Well, she did poop on the bathroom floor at Mimi and Papa's once, but at least she made it into the bathroom!

Remember our little garden in the back yard? It has exploded with all sorts of veggies and flowers. This is a picture from Meredith's first harvest. She was so proud that she made us keep everything on the kitchen table for two days before we were allowed to eat anything.


Mere and Jack have gotten to go to the library on Wednesdays with Mimi, Sandy and Papa. Here's Mere returning her first library book.

Jack got his first big boy haircut last weekend. He did great with the clippers, but hated it when she got out the scissors. That prompted him to use one of his favorite phrases--no, no,no--complete with finger wag. Other common words these days include drink (definitely his favorite), down, door, that, dog and bite. He says "Dada" and Papa (comes out "BaPa") all the time, but seems to reserve "Mama" for when he's sad, hurt or tired. That pitiful "Mama" gets me every time!

Meredith's newest obsession is everything princess. We watch princess movies, we wear princess clothes, we play princess games. She suggested the other day that she should be a princess for Halloween and Jack should be a frog. The girl knows her accessories. She's often seen in her tutu, tiara, every necklace she can find and, of course, her purple princess shoes.

The "snoot face" is Meredith's signature look. Not to be outdone, Jack started his own look recently...

The "Jack face" involves squeezing your fists (bonus points if they're holding something squishy, like watermelon), grunting, and making this crazy face.

Not walking yet, but he's getting really close. I know this is one of those things that I can't wait for him to start doing so I can start regretting being anxious about it and start wishing he'd stop! He loves this thing (Meredith did too and it has a song that really gets stuck in your head), but his favorite thing to walk behind is our Cozy Coupe with Mere inside. It goes about as well as you'd think it would. Lots of screaming.

My favorite guys

Uncle Patrick, Aunt Vero and Ian got Jack a water table for his birthday. It's a huge hit with both kids. It seems like these water table pictures are a good example of most sibling interactions at our house these days.

Not pictured: the screaming, hitting, hair pulling and occasional biting followed 5 seconds later by the hugging, giggling and do-it-again look they give each other. Repeat this sequence every 15 minutes and you'd have a typical day at our house.

We did have a very scary, sad event last week. Clarence, our new greyhound, had been doing really well until last Monday. Our neighbor came over to let the dogs out while we were at work and found Mia in our dining room, bleeding. We think he was trying to play with her and forgot she's old and fragile. Thank God Sandy was there to take her to the vet. She ended up with emergency surgery to close all three wounds and had a drain until Saturday morning. The vet said we were very lucky. Had the largest bite been a few more millimeters to the right, we would've lost her. Clarence is now in a new home that's a better fit for him and we're working on getting Mia back to normal. Mere yelled from the living room yesterday, "Mommy, come quick. Mia is rubbing her bloody head on the cozy chair!" Guess she must be feeling better already!