Baby's First Tattoo

Brian and I clearly remember Madeline's first tattoo.  It was a painful experience for all involved.  Unckee-T and Auntie Meg came for a visit and thought it would be fun to bring their 2-year old niece a package of press-on tattoos.  After we all proceeded to apply our tats, we put one on Madeline.  She took one look at her arm and started screaming!!  I couldn't find the alcohol soon enough to prevent a full on melt-down.  Flash forward 2 years, and she has finally overcome her fear of tattoos, and now thinks they are somewhat fun.  She decided this morning that she wanted one before we went out to run errands.  Of course, Olivia noted all the commotion and decided she wanted one of her own.  We were hesitant to apply one, after our traumatic experience with Madeline, but Olivia really wanted in on the action.  She of course, had her older sister to model after and she thought her new tattoo was pretty cool.

This night at dinner Brian and Madeline were showing off their tattoos, followed by a "Boom!"  A few seconds later, Olivia starts joining in, flaunting her tattoo and "Boom" skills as well!  She had us all cracking up!  Of course, this was totally unprompted, and when we pulled out the camera we didn't get quite the same excitement level, but at least you get the picture....

Happy 2014!!

We're off to a busy year already!

We rang in the New Year at home and let Madeline stay up as late as she wanted.  She laid down on the couch around 9....

Shortly after 9 she got up and turned the lights in the family room off and declared, "I need to turn the lights out to let my eyes rest!"  She was sound asleep by 9:15....and Brian and I weren't far behind.

New Year's Day we enjoyed an outing to Del Mar and sunset at the park.

We followed that up with a special treat of cake pops and cocoa!

The following weekend, we went to the Children's Museum and lucked out as it was a special New Year's celebration, complete with balloon animals, treats and lots of arts and crafts.

Olivia was extremely proud of the hat she made and wore it during the majority of our visit.

In other news, Olivia loves the mermaid in Del Mar!

Despite all of the fun dress-up clothes and toys that they have, mom's closet has been one of their favorites.  They love prancing around in my shoes!

....and the biggest news of Jan.....we finally made due on the promise of getting them a play-set.  This is one thing we promised Madeline when we moved from Houston.  Daddy worked hard over the past week to get it all put together.  They played on it almost all day long today!!

This little one is such a daredevil.  It took her no more than 10 min to figure out how to get to the top, and she loves the slide, which is not a slow slide, and probably not suited for a 18-month old.  She shoots off the end, gets a stunned look and then runs back to the ladder to do it all again!

 Her fashionable look this evening!!

If the first few weeks are any indication, I think we are in for a great 2014!!