Roth Randoms - March

We had an insanely busy month of March, but it was so crazy that I didn't really get a chance to make notes as the month went along like I usually do for these posts. And since I have a horrible memory, this month's happenings will be short and sweet :)

McKinley
- Still growing like crazy and driving all of us crazy :)
- Wearing all 24 month or 2T clothes
- Still has to have duct tape on her diapers. Funny story (well, it's funny now; there was a moment when it wasn't so funny): We went to the zoo with some friends one day, and she pooped while we were there so I had to change her. I didn't have any duct tape with me, but I figured I'd just add a strip when we got home. However, she fell asleep in the car on the way home so I just carried her inside to her bed, forgetting all about the duct tape. About an hour and a half later, I heard her wake up and start talking to herself. I was in the middle of doing something and she wasn't crying so I decided to just leave her in bed for a few minutes until I finished. When I walked in her room, I immediately smelled poop. I looked over at her to find her standing in her crib with no pants on and both of her diaper tabs undone, reaching down to yank off her diaper. Mercifully, the poop had made the diaper stick to her bum instead of just falling off when she ripped the tabs off and I was just in time to prevent her from pulling it off herself. Crisis averted. But we are definitely dependent on the duct tape! And I've decided I better stop holding her back and give her a chance to potty train. Next month. When Dad's home :)
- Her favorite food by far is yogurt, specifically the yogurt tubes. She's become much more picky at meal times, though. As soon as we hand her a plate of food, she hands it back to us and says "all done." But she's constantly asking for snacks
- And I do really mean asking. Her language development is off the charts this month. She now speaks in full sentences, which is so fun to hear!!! We get things like, "I want some yogurt right now Mommy please" and "I want to watch more Caillou, okay?" She usually adds "Okay?" or "right?" at the end of sentences. And she's really good at saying please, which I think is funny because we've never said anything to her about saying please but have been working a lot with Madison on it. So I guess McKinley has just picked it up from that. She still says "You're Welcome" instead of thank you, though, which is also totally cute! I don't have these type of updates from when Madison was this age, unfortunately, but I really feel like McKinley's language has developed faster than Madison's, probably just from having Madison around! I love that she's such a big smart girl now!
- She figured out how to open the fridge. TROUBLE. Now she can get her own yogurt tubes and bring them to us begging us to open them. I'm constantly telling her to get out of the fridge!!
- LOVES being outside. Like seriously loves it. She could spend every waking moment outside if we'd let her. Thankfully the weather is starting to warm up and make that a little more possible. She's okay playing in the backyard but prefers to go on walks, sometimes with her stroller or bike, but sometimes just by herself down the block :)
- Speaking of her bike, she does this really funny thing that we can't figure out. If we're playing with bikes out front, she likes to ride her bike to our neighbor's house two doors down, pull right up to her front door (she's a really sweet single older lady) and then just leave her bike and walk back to our house. We don't know why she likes to do this, but she does!
- Can count to 4 completely on her own. We actually discovered this by accident when we were counting to three to make Madison do something and as soon as Jordan said 1, McKinley chimed in with 2, 3, 4! I've tried to add 5, but for some reason, all she does after 4 is throw in one of our names, like 1, 2, 3, 4 Madison! or 1, 2, 3, 4, Daddy! I have no idea where she got that, but it's cute :)

Madison (whose update isn't as long this time since I wrote it all for her birthday post!)
- Turned 4. I can't even type that without feeling, I don't know, weird somehow! I can't believe she's four!! She grows up more every single day. Crazy
- Had her very first friend birthday party, which turned out pretty fun!
- Has enjoyed many play dates this month, like the kind where I just take her to a friend's house and drop her off for a few hours. Another sign that she's getting bigger!
- Still loves to do projects and begs for them all the time
- LOVES riding her bike! She's really good at it now and often rides it to the park when we go. I'm so glad she figured it out and enjoys riding! I would really love to get Jordan and I bikes one day so we can go for family bike rides.
- She loves the idea that she's getting more grown up. She recently told me that she can't wait until she's all grown up and is a mommy so she can do all the "fun mommy things" like helping her kids cross the street, baking in the oven, driving and using knives. I didn't know using knives was such a privilege but I guess I had better start appreciating all the fun mommy things I can do a little more :)
- Is getting more and more confident reading! She likes to read her Bob books with me and has started trying to figure out words on her own in her library books. I'm starting to think I might not worry about putting her in preschool next year (it's been tough trying to find something good but cheap). She definitely won't need it academically, and we already plan to have her do lots of activities to get the social aspect. We'll see.

The Rest of Us
- Jordan took his first and hardest national board exam!!!!! We're all so glad it's over! He studied for hours and hours and hours over the last three months. He really worked hard preparing for it. Ironically, I came down really sick the day before he was supposed to take the test (it was actually a two-day test so the day before day one!), and I was so worried that I was going to get him sick and he wouldn't be at his best during the test. I tried hard to stay away, even sleeping on the couch, and he thankfully managed to escape serious illness :)  He won't know his score for a couple more weeks, but I'm confident he did great!
- With March in the books, Jordan only has one more month of actual school left!!!! He takes finals for the very last time at the end of April. Then his last year of optometry school is just working in the clinic and at his extern sites. This is totally crazy to me! When I met Jordan, he had only done one year of college. And let's be honest, it was his pre-mission freshman year when he spent one semester in Nauvoo and the other semester taking classes like Social Problems and Career Development. When we started dating, he still had four more years of undergrad plus optometry school to finish. So the entire 6.5 years we've been together, he's been going to school. And now we're so close to the finish line! Hooray!!!
- And as long as we're counting down, we now have less than five months until the move. Jordan still has trouble grasping this. Just three days ago, I said something relating to the move and he said something back about dealing with that in 6 or 7 months when we were actually moving. Um, no honey, try less than five months.
- I had the opportunity to work the American Athletic Conference and NCAA Regional men's basketball tournaments this month! It was a lot of fun to be back working and Jordan was awesome in picking up the slack at home, but I've definitely decided that I'm not cut out to be a working Mom. Juggling everything was really stressful! But I'm glad I got to do it :)

Date night!! (actually it was an afternoon :) )

A friend in our ward gave us tickets to see Memphis' final home game, against Louisville. Both teams were ranked and Memphis ended up winning. It was a lot of fun! There was a group of Louisville fans sitting close to us, and they were CRAZY!

A friend needed to borrow our car seat and bouncy seat when her daughter and new grandson came into town, so I got them out of the closet. McKinley made herself right at home :)

McKinley, in one of my favorite dresses, age 21 months (being ornery about getting her picture taken, as usual!)

 Madison, in the same dress, age 2.5 or 30 months (photo from Sept. 2012)

Nana sent a surprise package with new princess dresses and regular dresses for both girls! They were so excited to model :)

These are the regular dresses

Making popcorn trees as one of our projects! McKinley knows all the words and actions to the popcorn song now, although "Hello" remains her favorite

Madison convinced Dad to make no-bake cookies one day. Then she insisted on doing the dishes! A win-win for me :)

 When the bouncy seat was returned from my friend, McKinley refused to let us put it away! She laid like this to read and watch tv often until I finally packed it in a moving box one night after she went to bed!