Like Father . . .

Things I'm not sure were at the Manger - Part 3

It's a little hard to see, but it's candy. Gold, frankensense, and mints!

Slippin' through my fingers

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I can't believe I'm not still in the hospital with my newborn baby girl.

Freaky Friday

This can't possibly be my little baby Madeline?? Who took my little newborn baby and replaced her with a 37 inch toddler??

She's sporting her new outfit from Gramma Ellie, and I think she looks like she's ready to start helping me bake!

Things I'm not sure were at the Manger - Part 2

Late Night Playdate

Emily and Gabby came over for an evening playdate last night. It was LOTS of fun. Madeline hadn't seen Gabby in so long that Mommy let her stay up until 8:00!! Gabby arranging the doll house.

Looks like this early Christmas present paid off!!

Like two little Whack-a-Moles!

We loved the nighttime playdate and hope there's LOTS more in the future!

My little Scrivner

Madeline hasn't been herself lately. I don't know if she's just honestly changing personality, or if she's in a funk, or doesn't like the cold or what, but it's been a hard few weeks on me trying to figure out my child all over again.

She's always been very even tempered, not rude, doesn't bite, doesn't kick, doesn't hit, doesn't scream. I really - I mean REALLY lucked out...or so I thought.

Lately she's gotten a little more bold. When I tell her to do something (pick up the stickers she just dumped on the floor for the 235 th time today, wait until I'm done putting away groceries) she's responding with a "no." That's it. Not a "NO!" Just a "no" sort of like "I'd prefer not to Mom" and goes on her way. That makes it a bit harder to deal with. I mean, I don't want her to think that she can tell me "no" and that is acceptable. (Unless I am asking her if she wants to do something. "Do you want to jump in the nest?") I mean, when I tell her to do something and she says "No." Sometimes I really feel like she's testing me to see if I'll follow through or not.

Today I heard her whining in the grocery store so I ducked back to see what was going on. (My Mother in Law keeps her in her cart, so grocery shopping is like a little vacation for me!) My MIL told me that Madeline kept standing up, and when she told her to sit down she said. "no." Madeline could tell that Grandma was telling me the story - her head hung down and she got embarrassed. I picked her up out of the cart (she was in the back part of the cart just for a minute or two) and told her that if Grandma tells her to do something, she needs to do it. She needs to obey and make the right choice. I said "If Gramma tells you to sit down on your bottom-" and got cut off with a sweet little "no." I was flabbergasted. I started again to the same effect. I finally put her down on the ground, crouched down beside her and said more sternly "If Gramma tells you to sit down, you. sit. down." Then she said "Oooooooooooookkkkkkkkkk" all drawn out which is ALSO something new.

A polite, yet still disrespectful "no." Who knew?

American Beauty

The next time you feel like a bad mom....

Don't.

I left two styrafoam blocks within an arms reach of my daughter's crib. You wouldn't believe the mess... the pictures don't begin to do it justice....we will be picking this out of places for months. good job Mom!

Things I'm not sure were at the Manger - Part 1

A little Nightmusic

We were on our way home about a month ago after dinner out with some friends... Madda has mastered this song now, but it's awful cute to hear her stumble through it.... Sorry it's all Blair Witch.

Writer's Block

I don't consider myself a "writer" while I do enjoy the past time. I think one of the things I look for in a "good" writer, is for him to say something that I have wanted to say but haven't found the words for. Sometimes it's simple phrases like describing the snow as if "the inner dome of heaven had fallen" or love "I shall do one thing in this life, one thing certain. And that is love you and long for you and keep wanting you until I die." But let's leap into this century...

Reading is of course my all time favourite hobby and it allows me a short escape into my very own private time every night before bed. Recently I started reading a book called "Waiting" which was supposed to be the inside scoop on the restaurant business. I found most of the book a letdown as it wasn't the gossip and scandal about waiter's spitting in food and the like that I was hoping for. However, the writer talks about the point she realized that she wanted to quite waitressing and devote all of time to writing. But this was at the exact same time as the birth of her first son and she found herself struggling at her 2 loves pulling her apart. She says,

"From the first moments of his existence, I knew that my son was not a project to be worked on sporadically or when I felt inspired. He could not be gone back to later, and I couldn't edit my mistakes. I could never rewrite my part in his life. He was, therefore, my work. Everything else would have to wait."

My little bookworm

I'd like to share some of the books that Madeline can't get enough of right now. Pat the Bunny is a book I think meant for younger children, but she asks for it by name and follows the directions on every page. I love watching her smell the flowers, especially since the book was mine as a child and I'm pretty sure they don't smell anymore.

Madeline calls this one "Elmo book" even though I tell her every time it's Grover. This is also a book from my childhood and she loves turning the pages in this one to get to the "monster" at the end. She loves exclaiming "ME!" on the last page.

Yet....another book from my childhood. I LOVED this book. It was at my dentist's office and so I only got to read it a few times a year. A little bear is left at home by his parents on Halloween and so he has some of his bear friends over and they all bring popcorn! They decide to pop it and they make so much it fills up the entire house! There is one page that is filled with popcorn and little captions that say "What happened?" "HELP!" "Who turned off the lights?" Which she yells every time we get to that page. The next page is a picture of the kids eating all the popcorn and it says "crunch munch crunch" and then GULP! She loves the GULP!

We read a host of other books, but we read these at least 10 times a day. What books are your kids into right now??

Big Girl Room!

I know that eventually - probably sooner rather than later, Madeline will be moving out of her nursery into a big girl room. Her nursery is an Alice in Wonderland Theme which I have loved. I wanted to find something equally unique and wonderful that she would like and could use for a while.

I stumbled upon this design by accident and I love it!! What do you think??

Lake Michigan with the fam...

A few weeks ago we joined my sister Joy and her two children as well as my parents to camp out at Lake Michigan! It was Madeline's first experiance in an RV and she did great!
I think I see a fish...

Where to start digging?

Um - someone? Hint hint?

Finally! Sam and Madeline get a ride!

And of course Mickey wasn't too far behind...

We all had a great time and decided we wanted to make it a yearly event!

Yes we are alive....

Madeline's early birthday present - a bouncy house!!! She calls it her "nest."
We went into check on her and in addition to all of her stuff being thrown all over the floor, we found her little tiny legs sticking out. Don't you just want to kiss those feet?

My little sleepyhead....not quite awake.

YUM COOKIES! And I Helped!
Are they ready yet?

All Around Town

Madeline LOVED being on Momma's scooter. I only went up the driveway once and was too afraid to go any further without her having a helmet!

Madeline loved watching the dogs jump for frisbees at the fair. If you look closely you can see the dog catching the frisbee on the right.

Madeline LOVED petting the "pony." He repaid her by nipping her hands. The State Fair is a rite of passage and this is one momma who is GLAD that passage is done for this year! She did get to ride her first "ride" and try for a goldfish, but those are on Daddy's camera so they'll have to wait!

Weekend Update

Madeline - chillin' at ChiMu.

Steve said that my demure little girl climbed this wall almost by herself! Can you believe she hasn't climbed out of her crib yet?

Anywho who knows Madeline knows she is a hoarder. She LOVES the little garden at the Museum where you can plant flowers. But more than that she just loves to gather up all the flowers and hold them.

This is Madeline wiping her sandy hands on herself. I said, "Didn't you use the dryer to blow dry her hands?" But Daddy said that was for wimps so she let her go STRAIGHT to the sand from the water. (hee hee) I'll bet that was a fun bath night!

Bad Daddy!

While Mommy was away Daddy braved the Childrens Museum for the first time with Madeline! They had a BLAST together and I'll have to upload more pictures to show all of their fun times.

But Daddy did a bad bad thing.

Mommy specifically told him NOT to let Madeline ride on one of the horses on the Carousel. I did this for 2 reasons:

1. I wanted to be the first to do it.

2. ChiMu specifically says that no one under 2 can be on an up and down horse.

SO - Daddy sneaked her on anyway and it looks like she was just takin' it all in!

Rock a bye your baby

I know, I know...

I know I haven't posted in a loooooooooong time. So I just spent a googleplex time trying to upload a video and pics and Blogger shot me down.

HISSSSS!

I'll try again soon....I have some adorable video of Madda and her friend Gabby.

You wouldn't believe it if you didn't see it!

Friday night, as many of you know, we had a horrible horrible storm. Steve and I were trying to enjoy a little telly an and kept getting interrupted by Jude Redfield. We plugged in our weather radio and started tracking the storm. It was moving through Plainfield but then moved north into Madison County. It got really bad around 10:00 and I decided we needed to take Madeline down to the basement. So all of us including the dogs hunkered down in the theater while Steve tried to glean information from the tidbits we were getting from our satellite. All the sudden a bunch of hail hit the house and it sounded like it was raining marbles! Madeline woke up a little bit. Mostly to say "dog" when she heard the dogs barking around us and "badu" when I snuggled her up in her blankets. We stayed down there for about 20 minutes and she went back down with no fuss.

Steve and I climbed back in bed and were trying to settle in for the night when we hear this horrific crack of thunder and a bolt of lightening. Next thing we know.....the house alarm was going off....and continued to go off for close to 10 minutes. Steve called ADT and I was ready to try to soothe Madeline. (One of the alarms is right outside her room.) Except - she slept through the entire ordeal!

I knew you wouldn't believe it so I grabbed my camera to shoot some video!

Park Place

Who would have ever thought I'd be hiking, with a baby (on my back nonetheless), and a big dog!

Our little family has enjoyed a lot of fun in Falls Park latley. We went on a family hike on saturday and it was LOTS of fun! Madeline LOVES the park and so did Austin! We went on about a mile and a half hike and, though it was tiring for mama, it was a blast! Madeline was on my back like a little papoose and Steve controlled Austin.

We all had a great time and I actually think I'd like to do it again!

I need you to need me

I was getting something out of the pantry yesterday when I saw one of Madeline's old pacifiers. She has long since kicked the habit. (yay!) However, for some reason I just can't throw that one out. I have one of her newborn orange pacifiers in her baby box. (I know, it sounds gross but it's not, I sterilized it before I saved it in a little bag.) It was SO MUCH a part of her newborn life I can't imagine not saving it. But I digress.... This one in the pantry is in no way special or symbolic. It's just there. It's one of the many places we put spares so that we could always whip one out when we needed to.

Every time I get something out of the pantry I see it and every time I say the same thing to myself. "I have GOT to throw that away!" (Yes, I even use that bad grammar because I am so passionate about tossing the dummy.) And every time I close the pantry door and do nothing.

It's not that I'm lazy. It's sort of an Object Placement (OP) issue. I was talking about this with a friend recently (Emily - was that you?) about how bad I am with OP. I delude myself into thinking that if I cannot see something, it doesn't exist. If I don't acknowledge something's presence, it will not affect my life.

Yes I know this is ridiculous.

I guess I feel like if I don't move the pacifier then she can't grow up. It'll always be there - just in case. I know she'd never use it again - I know she won't have a meltdown that will require the pacifier again, she doesn't have the sucking need she did as a newborn, but - I just feel better knowing it's there. My little baby's paci.

I've got to get over this. I've got to let my little baby grow up. The other day a little child in the library said to his mom, "Hey look Mom - a toddler!" and pointed at Madeline.

I almost cried.

She is a toddler - she is actually, bonified-ly toddling! But, I ache so much for my little one. I love the age she is right now. She can communicate many of her wants and needs - we can play together - but the bubble I can keep around her gets a little smaller every day. I have no choice. It's truly heartbreaking to let go a little every day. I wonder if this feeling ever subsides, if I ever won't wish for her to be little again...

They don't put this stuff in the parenting books.

Splendour in the Grass

We had a Mothersday weekend extravaganza! (MWE) It started on Friday with flowers and pizza from daddy, a cookout with Daddy's family on Saturday and Lunch with Mamma's family on Sunday!

Grampa Jerry bought Madeline her favourite thing in the entire world. BALLOONS!

She loved roaming around in the field of dandelions behind my Brother in Law's house!

Gabby in "Lord of the Flies"

We hope you'll invite us to your luau!

We had joy, we had fun

It was such a nice day today that after church and lunch we ALL "played" outside! I cleaned out the Jeep and Steve cleaned out the entire garage! Madeline was ALL over the place enjoying the new garage treasures! Madeline in her rickshaw and every ball she could fit in!

Her new hotdog cart! Can't you just see her pushing this around selling veggiedogs?

YUM!

"I think there's more watermelon over there mom!"
Is this how you use a wagon?