Bunny Hop

For the weeks leading up to Easter, Madelyn carried around her "Here Comes Peter Cotton Tale" book (that played the song) and would "read" it to me while she bopped her head back and forth.  She used those head bopping maneuvers at church on Easter Sunday.

After having read the book over (and over and over and over and over) again, imagine her excitement when she actually got to hunt for those Easter eggs!  Though this is her third (!) Easter, its the first that she was actually aware of what was going on.  She had a taste of Easter egg hunting at her daycare providers house on the Thursday before Easter.  She could not be separated by that darned purple plastic egg for love nor money.

For me?!?  More eggs?!?!

On the Saturday before Easter Sunday, not only did Madelyn "help" make cupcakes, we had a bar-b-que with a couple of close friends and their children.  It was sunny and beautiful and Madelyn LOVED hunting for those eggs.  She also loved the candy she found in them and now walks around saying "cannee, cannnee".

What, you mean you're not supposed to eat the batter off the counter, Mama?

Easter Sunday was not as lovely - but we braved the chilly cold to go Easter egg hunting with her Clark cousins.  She *loved* it.

What she did not love was having Mama remind her that William's Easter basket was William's.  Not hers.

Turns out William doesn't like to share much either.  He does, however, love new soft things.  Especially if Mama lets him eat them.

Mama is a lame Mama and did not have her camera during any of the Easter egg hunting.  So, we'll have to wait for pictures from our friends and family to share those bits of fun.

Thankful Thursday

 I'm so thankful....

For all of the folks below, including the ones that weren't yet a part of the family because they yet graced us with their presence (I mean that sincerely, it is by God's grace that they are here)

For this little guy, even when he falls asleep before storytime



That these two are starting to have fun together




For this little gal, especially when she's figured out something new...like sunglasses



For this big guy

 

Who is also this guy when he's all cleaned up in spiffy duds

To these gals, who'll always have my back, no matter how long it's been since we've talked



That this is who is watching out for me from upstairs




That this is what flies over my home



That the husband and I both have one of these

Certain peeps from here (you know who you are) that keep me sane in all this mommyhoodness

Miss Chomper

Speaking of teeth...

We've had our first biting incident.

When I picked Madelyn up from daycare last night, I was informed by one of the little boys that Madelyn had bitten him.  After talking to her daycare provider, it turns out that Madelyn has an admirer.  This same little boy is obessed with loves to play with our beautiful little miss and follows her around constantly torturing trying to pick her up or hold her hand.

Apparently our VIG (very independent girl) had enough and turned around and bit him yesterday.

The mature, responsible parent in me is not happy that my daughter bit someone else.
 
The educating parent in me spent time explaining to her that teeth are not for biting (though I am not sure if the message reached her or just sounded like the teacher on Charlie Brown).

The insecure parent in me is a little afraid she'll turn into "that child" that other parents complain about.

The vain parent in me thinks it's pretty darn cute that this little boy is so taken with Madelyn....she is pretty adorable if I do say so myself.

The mama bear in me says "that's right, little dude, mess with my daughter and she'll chomp on you".

Teeth are not for biting...and they sure are cute.

Lovin' This

File this in the "Things I Love" Category....

I love to watch Madelyn run to people when she's excited to see them.   Her face is all aglow, her eyes are wide and excited and if she can say your name, she'll call it over and over again.

She does this when I pick her up from daycare.
She does this when Jim comes downstairs after waking up in the afternoon.
She does this when people she knows come to the front door.

She'll take your hand and drag you back to whatever you're doing at the moment.

I just love it and all the innocence and youth it represents.

Pearly Whites

My girl has a healthy fear of our pediatrician, much to my pediatricians understandable dismay.  We have a wonderful doctor - she's patient with my many questions, my "worry wartedness" and completely understanding and supportive of working moms since she is one herself.  She's funny and very gentle with our children.  You can't blame Madelyn though, every time she goes, she's getting a shot or her ears are being scraped.  It's so bad that at our last visit, Madelyn cried when William was getting shots!

So, you can imagine my trepidation for Madelyn's first dental appointment.  I didn't want to be the mother with "that" child....  The child with nasty teeth and numerous cavities because said child flipped a lid every time her mother came near her with a tooth brush.  We do brush.  Every night.  And every night Madelyn flips a lid.  I try to be as nonchalant about it as I can be.  While Madelyn has "her turn" with her Piglet toothbrush and apple flavored trainer paste, I lotion her up.  Then, it's "Mama's turn".

Queue screaming child soundtrack here.

Every night.

So, imagine my delight when not only does it turn out that Madelyn's teeth are in "better shape than most", but that she actually liked riding up and down the dental chair (even if she had to be coaxed the first time by having Mama and William ride with her).  She thought "Mr. Thirsty" was pretty cool the way he sucked water out of her mouth.   She wasn't so sure about the little mirror, but she sure did like the part where she got to pick out a new tooth brush, 5 stickers ("more, Mama?") and a little toy.

She has a new best friend, Holly, whom she talks about nightly ("Mama, go Holly and up, down?") and I have a new phrase to help coax her...."let's brush the sugar bugs off your teeth, darlin!"

Brothers & Sisters

(Okay, maybe a few words this Wednesday.  It's long, but there are cute baby giggles :) )

Name Games

Madelyn - A woman of magdala, High Tower

I never set out to give my child a biblical name.  I'm not opposed to it, it's just not what I set out to do when I suggested Madelyn as a first name.  What I really wanted was to be able to call my little girl "Maddy" as a child and allow her to have a very professional, yet feminine name as an adult.  The funny thing is, Jim and I almost exclusively call her Madelyn, not Maddy.

For months we've been trying to get her to say "Madelyn".  So, imagine my "aha" moment last night when we were going through our nighttime routine and I realized she's been trying to say "Maddy" for quite sometime.  Mama just didn't understand Madelynese.

Mama: Can you say Madelyn?
Mads:  Mah-ee
Mama:  Yes, you... (Mama is thinking she's saying "me" in a southernish accent)
Mads:  Mah-ee (Mama thinks she's saying Mommy now)
Mama:  Who's Mommy?  (Mads points to me)
Mama:  Who are you?
Mads:  Mah-ee (points to herself)  Mah-ee (points to herself again) Mah-mee (points to me)
Mama:  Ohhhh!!!  Are you saying "Maddy!?!?

At this point, she wrinkles up her forehead, looks at me like I'm completely dense and says:  Yeah, Mama, Mah-ee.

It only took her 24 months and the kid is already smarter than me.

My Girl

Where do you start when you're so far behind in updating your blog? There's so much to say about my babies that I don't even know where to begin!


I've been reading through entries where I've talked about Madelyn and I look at pictures from a year ago, much less from when she was born….she has changed so very much and grown so very much, it's just amazing to me and I just don't know where to start in telling stories or talking about her. She is such a little firecracker. She's got so much going on in that little head of hers.

So, I'll just do a brain dump of all the things I love about Madelyn or think, I need to remember this forever. Sit down, this is going to take you awhile…..

Every little thing she does is magic

Her independent streak grows daily (if I say stubborn, then I'm also calling myself stubborn since I'm the same darn way). Maybe I don't love this, and yet I do. It's constantly "Mama, me…me..me" and that's cute, unless it's bed time and I'm really trying to get her into her jammies because Will is losing it and I'm all alone. Then I don't love it so much.

She alternates between Mama and Mommy since she's started daycare. I love hearing Mommy, but I love it when older little girls say "Daddy and Mama" like a southern belle….so I can't decide which I want her to call me.

Daycare outside of the family has been a new adventure for her. The first week was TOUGH. She'd cry hysterically when I left. Stasha has been awesome though – on those first mornings, she'd call me later in the day to tell me that Madelyn was doing okay and had stopped crying pretty quickly. Now, a month later, she asks me in the morning if we're going to Stashas and when we get there, goes right to her. The other night, when both Jim and I were reprimanding her, she says, "Mama, Stasha GO!" Hmph!

We're getting closer and closer to potty training. She's very curious and talks about pee pee all the time. She'll tell me after she goes. She wants to sit on her potty chair but she's yet to make anything happen. We've had a few accidents if she's running around like a jay bird – and she'll announce it after the fact if I didn't catch her in the act.

When the moon hits your eye like a big peeeeeza pie, that's amore

She's still such a darn picky eater. She's no longer a teeny weensy thing –she's up to the 50th percentile, but it's still worrisome to me (me, worry? Nahhh) mainly because I really, really want to raise a healthy eater. I know, I know….it's my job to provide her a healthy meal, it's her job to eat it – but I still have a hard time sending a 2 year old to bed hungry. That having been said, she'll be up for 2 hours in the morning before she'll indicate she's hungry. If I try and get her into the highchair any sooner than 30 – 45 minutes after she's gotten up she'll revolt.

Her favorites include:

• PB&J sandwiches

• pasta and marinara sauce

• black olives

• cheese (cheddar particularly)

• apples (she says this all day long… apwuls pweese, apwuls pweese and now…Mama, mama, apwulsaaaas)

• bananas

• bread of any kind

• cereal (and particularly cereal with raisins or dried strawberries)

• turkey sausage

• green beans

• raisins

• cranberries

• mac and cheese

• hotdogs

• grilled cheese and tomato soup (for dunking)

• pears

• meatloaf (but not hamburgers or ground beef…weird!)

• ham (she also asks for this often…)

• black beans

• waffles and pancakes

• tuna fish on crackers (actually, she'll just eat the tuna fish off the cracker and ask for more)

• grapes

• chicken nuggets

• pizza (but pepperoni or Canadian bacon – hold the pineapple, she'll pick that off)

She loves to dunk things. We'll do French dips and she won't eat the sandwich so much as she'll dip the big sourdough bun in the sauce. If she sees ketchup or ranch sauce, it's game over until she gets some. She'll dip anything in them. Apples in ketchup. Pears in ranch sauce. You name it, she'll dip it. If it's food she doesn't like, she'll keep dipping and licking.

She drinks her milk out of her bowl (like her Daddy).

She is a water drinker! I don't even bother with juice. All day long it's "waa waa, Mama, waa waa".

We try really hard to just feed her what we're eating for dinner without offering her other options if she doesn't like it – but if it's something really out of the norm, I will give her a "back up" meal. That having been said, we now do "One bite of this for one taste of that". I'll set her meal before her with portions of everything and she doesn't get more of her favorites still she's tried everything or at least had a bite of her veggies.

She can climb into her own highchair and buckle herself in. I keep thinking we need to move her to the table. Not all of the adults in the house agree on that move just yet…she's rather messy still.

She's getting better and better with her fork and her spoon. She can spoon feed herself cereal and soup if she really, really concentrates. She still prefers her hands for most everything. I just don't know at what point I start cracking down on that.

She loves her hippo bib best. Seriously. A hippo. "Mama, no raaah (her word for lion…she has a lion bib), hippo, hippo!"



And she'll have fun, fun, fun till her Daddy takes her t-bird away

Watching Madelyn play is just good for the soul. I love to watch her figure things out and see what her imagination will come up with.

She loves to dance. She always wants to dance. She got a Dora the Explorer microphone that plays music for Christmas and she'll turn that on and hold it to her mouth like she's singing and march around and around. She holds her babies and dances them around. She *really* likes to dance with Mama and Daddy, which consists of taking our hands and spinning around in circles. She's always asking me to dance and I always oblige her. Jim always says, "You're a fly girl, you're a fly girl" (hello, does that date us or what?) and she'll shake her little tushie.

She has a new found fascination with being dizzy. She'll spin herself around and around (typically in her bed) and say, "Mama, dizzy!"

She loves to jump, which she can now do properly. She'll try to jump off of anything and everything.

She loves her legos and will build a single pile of them as high as she can get them to go and then knock them down.

She got a kitchen for Christmas and *loves* it. She's really starting to pretend, so she'll make us "dinner" and set plates and bowls in front of us and try to feed us. If you ask her what she's making, it's always "Peeda" (pizza). I think that's become her "go to" word for food. Everything is "peeda". Or pie. She's ever even had pie.

Along the pretending line of things, she likes to put her babies to bed, try to diaper them and swaddle them like I do Will. She'll put them into her baby stroller or her baby pram (she has both) and will say, "Bye Mama" and take off for a "walk" with her babies.

She loves play do and wishes we would play with that all.day.long. I've had to hide it because inevitably she'll ask for it five minutes before dinner. Or five minutes before bath time.

She loves to color. This is one of her favorite activities at day care. Thus far it's just scribbles but more and more the scribbles aren't just random chicken scratches across the paper, she'll actually color over something. She won't draw a circle if you tell her "draw a circle", but she does draw circles frequently. If you ask her what the same circle is over and over, she'll give you a different answer every time.

Madelyn loves to go on walks. She constantly asks to go on walks – whether it's pouring rain or sunny. She loves to be outdoors. She loves to walk to the park. She loves to walk up the steps at the end of our neighborhood. She wants to walk everywhere we go. Problem is, she doesn't want to stay with Mama and Daddy. We're working on that.

Madelyn is a total water baby – she absolutely loves to swim. We're in week 3 of her second round of swim lessons. She'll let me dunk her under water now. She likes to jump into the water and wants to do it without Mama catching her. She hasn't figured out yet that she can't quite swim. We've been to the King County Aquatic center a couple of times and we've been to the Federal Way Rec Center pool. The Rec Center pool is *awesome*. It's got a slide that is just Madelyn's size and she LOVES it. I've yet to be bold enough to take William and Madelyn at the same time by myself – I really want her to go as often as she wants to and I want Will to be a water baby too….but I'm nervous I couldn't keep them both safe.

My Little Bookworm

She loves to read. I could read for hours to her at night. Lately, she'll take a book for herself and look through it and grab a book and hand it to me for me to read to her. During the day, she'll pull book after book out and "read" through them (babbling to us). She also likes to read to William.

When books have big letters printed out on them she likes to point to them and say "twooo twooo twoo" while I say the actual letter name.

She loves all of her books – but these books she asks for over and over:

• Good Night Gorilla

• Just in Case You Ever Wondered

• Elmo Loves You

• I'm a Big Sister

• Gossie and Friends books

• The Please and Thank You Book

• Anything by Sandra Boynton – but specifically Moo, Baa, Lalala, The Going to Bed Book, Pajama Time, But Not the Hippopotamus, Horns to Toes and In between, Bob and Bath Time

• The Christmas Carol (seriously….she'll have me read this over and over. And who knew that in the original poem the reindeer's name was "Donder" and not "Donner". I thought it was a misprint at first)

Gibber Jabber

Madelyn doesn't talk as much as I'd like for her to – for her 2 year appointment I think I counted 60 – 75 words that she had said, but not all the time. That's on the low end of the scale….and I am sure it's due to her binky. We're working on that…

She does a lot of two word sentences and I know she understands much more than she says. I can give her pretty complicated instructions and she'll follow them (if she's in the mood  ).

In addition to those 60 – 75, she says:

1. One

2. Two

3. Three

4. Ouch (it comes out ahhch)

5. Owee (she uses this a lot lately)

6. Cow

7. On

8. Why

9. Pie

10. Rock

11. Whee

12. Water (wa wa)

13. Home

14. Help (Help please!)

15. Apple

16. Applesauce

17. Cat

18. Dog

19. Hot (she'll say this even if it's just a little warm)

20. Good Good Girl (it comes out gu gu girl)

21. Hippo

22. Now

23. Up

24. Go (this is often "Mama, Go Now!" "Mama, Go Walk!" "Mama, Go Stasha?")

25. Shoe

26. Sock

27. Cheese

28. Yellow

29. Airplane

30. Soup

31. Bowl

32. Ice Cream

33. Caillou

34. Eat

35. Pizza (Peeda)

36. Freda (Her Grandma Freda)

37. GiGi (Grandma Griffitts)

38. Guy (this is her word for anyone that seems scary to her. If she sees a witch in a book, she'll say "guy! Guy!". Lately she's taken to pointing at our front door and saying "Guy! Guy!". I didn't figure it out until we were looking at her Aladdin book and she pointed to the character Jafar and said, "Guy!")

39. Stasha (this is her daycare provider)

40. Purple

41. Green

42. Key

43. Pee Pee

44. Poop

45. Amen (it comes out Aaaa-meee)

46. Me

47. I fly (And she'll run around with her arms out saying "I fly, I fly")

48. Bee (for a bee)

49. Bee (for her Aunt Bree)

50. Drew (her uncle – only it's more like Dew)

51. Santa Claus

If you ask her what a cow says, she'll moo. If you ask her what a monkey says, she'll tickler her armpits and say "ooh ooh ohh". If you ask her what a lizard says, she'll stick out her tongue. She'll roar for a tiger and a lion. For all other animals, it's "eeeh eeeh".

Along the same lines as talking, she loves to sing. She'll follow me and do the actions for the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, I'm a Little Teapot. She loves when I sing the ABCs – if I start up, she'll go over to her ABC refrigerator magnet and push the button so it starts singing. When we're playing in the bathtub at night, she'll make her little fishy swim if I start to sing "Three Little Fishies".

Rock a bye baby

She's such a good sleeper! She rarely, rarely wakes up in the middle of the night. Now that we have a video monitor, I can see that sometimes it takes her a long time to fall asleep, but for the most part, she goes right down. Especially now that Will is here, she no longer wants or needs to be rocked. In fact, if he's being really fussy and we're alone, she'll ask to just be put directly to bed by saying "Mama, ni, ni" and pointing at her bed.

As of late, she pretends to go "ni ni" or she'll put her babies "ni ni". If we're alone and rocking, we go through the list of names she knows and she asks me if they're going "ni ni" (Mama ni ni? Yes Madelyn, Mama is going to go to bed when we're done rocking. Baby ni ni? Yes, Madelyn, Will is going to bed too. Daddy ni ni? Daddy is at work, sweetie. Nana ni ni? Yes, Nana is in bed. Gigi ni ni? Yes, Gigi is in bed. Papa ni ni? Yes, Papa is in bed. ) In our world, when it's her bed, everyone has gone ni ni ;)

Naps are a different story. At home she'll generally nap from 2 pm to 5 pm. I tell her its nap time, we go up to her room, straight into her bed and not a peep until I go in and wake her up at 5. At day care she rarely naps. I'm hoping that's just part of an adjustment. At daycare she's either on the couch or on a mat on the floor in the open. She still really does need that nap. "No nap" days are no fun by bedtime.

She's a night owl and does not like to be woken up early in the morning. If left to her own devices, she'd go down between 8:30 – 9 pm, be up at 8:30 – 9 am, eat lunch around 1 pm and down for a nap at 2. That was our schedule when Will was first born and I was home. If I have to actually wake her up instead of just going in when I notice that she's up (and she won't call out for me…she just hangs out in her bed), she's pretty darn cranky. The first 15 – 20 minutes of being up are always a good snuggle time. She's not too interested in doing anything but that and watch some TV.

She can climb into her crib, but she has yet to try to climb out. She just calls for me till I come.

By the end of February, she's stopped doing bottles altogether at night…we do a sippy cup of water that she'll hold as we rock and read. Then she'll say "All done" and put it on her night stand. Part of me is glad – but part of me hates to see the last of these baby things go.

When I rock her, she'll lay her head on my shoulder and run her little hand up and down my arm. I just love that.

She'll say her prayers with me at night by either folding her little hands into a prayer or holding my cheeks in her hands and trying to mimic what I'm saying. She finishes by saying "Ahhhmeee".

Brothers and Sisters

Madelyn loves her little brother. She is constantly stroking his head, giving him kisses, bringing him his binkie. Lately she wants to change his diaper.

Funny story: One day she decided *she* was going to change his diaper. So, she sat between my legs while I took his diaper off and started to wipe him off. She looks at his boy parts and then up at me like, "what the heck, Mom?!?!". So, I said, "those are Will's boy parts because he's a boy." She looks back down at him and back at me, then back at him and pokes him. This made Will giggle, so she pokes him again and he giggles again…. It doesn't phase her now – but at first she was pretty darn curious.

When we took William for his 4 month check up and she for her 2 year check up, Madelyn had her shots first.  She cried and we calmed her and wiped her eyes.  When it came time for William's shots, she looked over and him and saw what was about to happen and big tears sprung to her eyes and she leaned over and started trying to shush him before he even uttered a peep.  My baby was crying because my baby was crying...how sad and sweet that is!

Sometimes Madelyn doesn't love Will. When she's really needing some love she'll pat the swing and say, "Mama, BABY!" and want me to put him down so we can play (typically it's when she wants to dance). When I was on maternity leave, she really had a hard time of things in the morning. I always tried to get her up before I got Will up so we could have time together. If he woke up and started crying, she'd grab my hand and just hold it tight in her lap while staring at the TV as if to will me not to move. She really doesn't like it when Will cries, particularly at bedtime if we're reading a story. She'll try to shush him and give him his binky. She doesn't understand it when he doesn't calm down and she'll start crying. Those are the times that break my heart because I know that she really, really wants her Mama and she's not going to get as much time as she used to.

She doesn't like it if we get into the car. She'll say, "Mama, baby!! Baby!!" as if to say, "Hey lady, aren't you forgetting someone?"

She's always talking to him in her little gibberish and trying to make him laugh.

Now that he giggles, she tries to tickle him.

He watches her constantly – and it's just amazing when they look at each other and start interacting. I just love those moments.

That Face

Madelyn is just like her Mama – her emotions are written all over her face. She'll give me the side eye when she's trying to avoid me. She and I get into some serious locked eye battle of wills. I'm still winning. For now.

She has an infectious laughter and she now tries to mimic our smiles and sing songy voice when we talk to Will.

She will try to bat her eyes and tilt her head and grin when she wants us to do something.

Zoning

This is where I admit my kid watches way more TV than I thought I'd ever let her. Every time I see another parent talk about a movie their 2 year old has seen or a character they love, I don't feel like I'm scaring her for life quite so much.

But she does – she loves TV. And I do my best to always interact with her – we talk about what we're seeing and I try to pick shows that include dancing or doing things (i.e. The Wiggles, Monkey See, Monkey Do). Her favorites include:

• The Wiggles

• Monkey See, Monkey Do

• Caillou

• Sesame Street

• Chuggington

• A Bee Movie (During the movie she'll say, "mama, Go, Bee, GO!")

• Santa Clause is Coming to Town

• Happy Feet (with a LOT of fast forwards over the scary parts)

• Madagascar 2 (with a LOT of fast forwards – and I have to say, this is a favorite for Jim and I…we quote it all the time)

• Merry Madagascar

• All 3 Tinkerbell Movies

Catching Up

It's a good thing the people that read my blog (if there's anyone still left....) are actually  my friends, since I haven't posted since March and it's now October and things have changed around our house.

Namely, we had a baby.

Our son, William Warren, arrived about a quarter to one in the afternoon on Thursday, October 21st.

So much has happened in the last 7 months, I don't even know where to start!

Madelyn is definately a toddler.  She is completely my child and knows her own mind.  She loves to climb and play with her blocks and her puzzles and she especially loves to read.  She's getting to the point that she wants to read to me, even though she has no idea what she's actually reading, she tells me all about it.

She loves to play outside.  LOVES it.  She always wants to be on the go (except for the car seat part...she doesn't like it when she has to hang out in her car seat on the way to being on the go).

She just recently started saying a few phrases and doesn't talk a ton.  I take that back, she does talk a ton, just in her own Madelynese.

She LOVES her baby brother.  All she wants to do is kiss him.  And give him bear hugs.  Big bear hugs.  That usually send Mama's heart racing because she hasn't figured out how to be gentle.

And our dear baby William, whom his sister affectionately calls "dub-a-dub-a-dubya" ("W").  He's sweet and quiet and finally gaining some weight.  He was a little on the smaller side and has a posterior tongue tie, which makes it really challenging for him to feed at the breast.  So he's not for now.  For now, I'm pumping.  We're going to see if we can overcome this situation with the help of our doctors and our lactation consultant.  If not, then we have to make some hard decisions, because being an exclusive pumper isn't in the cards this time around.  It's too much for me and not fair to my daughter or my son - they need a happy mama who has time to love and play on them.  Not a mama stuck on a pump for 5 - 7 hours a day.

But thus far, he loves his car seat (unlike his sister), he is content to sit and be cuddled (unlike his sister....even when she was his age), so we're hoping he's our C  A  L  M baby.  I spell it out because I don't want to jinx myself.....

And for now, I hear him calling.  It's dinner time, for both of my kids.

Wow.  Did I just say that?  I have kids.  Plural.

My kids.  Those are two little words I wasn't sure I'd ever say.

Show Off

I have to show off some photos of my girl....

We won a nusery photo contest and had a wonderful photoshoot....here's the outcome:
http://www.whimsicalphotodesign.com/1310

Big Sissy!

It's hard to believe it's been 8 months since we've seen Jordan....time flies when you're busy raising a toddler!  Big sister came home this weekend, one of her best friends (also named Jordan...go figure!), is moving in with Jordan and her boyfriend in Florida.

What an exiting time for them...to be young, with your whole life ahead of you and a world of opportunities.  They're excited and it's fun to watch them be excited and remember those first years of young adulthood....the sense of adventure and freedom.

So - Jordan and Jordan are heading out this morning, driving cross country to Florida (all in one drive, because at 20, neither of them can rent a hotel room.  They can get married, have babies and be drafted for war....but don't let them rent a hotel room!).  What an adventure!

On Saturday, we had the family over to see Jordan and spend time together.  Madelyn was too busy running around like a chicken, following her big cousins round and round and round the pool table (literally....we had a stream of children playing chase around the pool table....Madelyn didn't get the "tag, you're it part", but she did get the "chase" part and she thought it was great fun), to really make much notice of Jordan.  Jordan was notice worthy, however.  She just keeps getting more and more beautiful - as if that's even possible.

We're so proud of her - she's working so hard, doing well in school and just got a promotion at work.  Smart, smart kid, but we've always believed that of her :)

We have pictures - but they'll have to wait since they're still in the camera.  I know I've said that alot lately....but we've had some busy times in our house.  We're catching the moments, just not having the time to upload them.

We have a good reason for being busy - we're busy cleaning out our spare bedroom for a new house guest.  My mom is moving to Washington!  We're all so excited, we just can't stand it.  Okay, Madelyn doesn't really understand what's going on, but she sure does love running around Nana's now empty room.  Mom has talked about moving in the past and the timing was just right for her to make the move.  So, she'll be staying with us until she figures out where she wants to live.  I think it's going to be fantastic to have Mom be able to spend some quality time with Madelyn and it sure is going to be nice having an extra set of hands in the evenings when I'm alone.

The other noteworthy item....this weekend missy had her first professional photo shoot!  We won a photography contest and the prize was a photoshoot with the photographer, Susan Berman, that was holding the contest!  We know Madelyn is adorable, but it's sure fun to hear others say they think so too.  More on that to come when the photos are available.

Oral Explosion

Boy....when my girl decides to do something, she does it!

Tonight she really started talking up a storm!

She said:

bye bye
ball
Papa

All for the first time that I've ever recognized!  And we all know that it doesn't count unless Mama says it counts.

Bye Bye
When we were leaving my Sister in Law's house, Jenni and I kept saying, "bye bye" in an attempt to get her to wave.  As Mads and I walked down the porch, she said, almost in a whisper, "bye bye".  I went running back to Jenni's to tell her that she'd said "bye bye".  We tried it again...and of course she didn't say it until Jeni was out of ear-shot.  Then, in the car, she starts screamin at the top of her little lungs, "bye! bye! bye!"

Ball
Once we were home, she started playing her ball.  It rolled away from her and I asked her "where's your ball?"  And she pointed at it and said, "ball!"

Papa
Every night when I'm getting Madelyn ready for bed, we look at her "Who Loves Baby Book".  It's a plastic book that has pictures of my family inserted in it so that she can learn to recongize their faces, even though she doesn't see them as often.  She started paging through it tonight while we were putting on her jammies and while she was on a picture of my sister Bree, I said, "where's Papa (my Dad)"?  Sure enough if she didn't page through the book and find a picture of my Dad and say "Papa, Papa".  I tried it again, turned to my brother Drew's picture and asked her "Where's Papa?"  She did the same darned thing.

We're on our way now.... walking, talking little Miss!  Next thing you know, she'll be reading and writing!

365 Days

It's been a lot longer than 365 days since our little munchkin came into this world....but all I could think of leading up to her birthday and since was that she's been with us for 365 days.

For 365 days, I've been someone's mom
I've rocked her to sleep at night 365 times
Either she's woken me up or I've woken her up 365 mornings
And in that time, I must have kissed her a half a million times, because I kiss her 1000s of times a day
For 365 days, I've worried and sweated and laughed and cried and giggled and snuggled something more important than myself, something bigger than I've ever been a part of -

And it's been nervewracking
And overwhelming
And tiring
And joyful
And silly
And touched me so deep in my soul that, at the molecular level, I feel different.

For 365 days I've been someone's Mom and I thank the Lord that he's given me that opportunity because it's been the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me.

Ever.

Things in our neck of the woods have been the same, but different.  Every day, we get up, go to work, come home, make dinner, play with our girl for the precious moments we have with her, then we go to bed.  Rinse. Repeat.

The weekends pass quicker than I can even say.  The more independent Miss becomes, the easier it is to get things done around the house....but I still have a hard time doing "things" when she's awake.  When she's awake, I want to be playing with her and enjoying the time we have, not doing laundry and cleaning rooms.  So...the house stays a bit on the cluttered side and the list of projects grows.  Such is the life of parents of a toddler, I guess.

Madelyn's baby book stops doing a month to month check in at 12 months...which is really sad, I think, because she changes so much month! Now she's *really* beginning to make new discoveries and learn new "baby babbles".  Her firsts are far from over!  I'll continue to fill it in as we go for the things there are left - but I'll have to start keeping track here of the things that she's done.

At the end of February, she got four more teeth, all on the top.  They've just broken the skin, but I can tell when they're still bothering her, because she gets so very cranky.  She drools so much, I'm amazed she's not completely dehydrated all of the time.

She's also started Hi-5ing.  Actually, she likes to smack both Mom and Dad on the head - and we've tried to teach her to do Hi-5 on the hand instead.  We also take her hands and run them gently on our face and say "gentle, gentle"....which works for a few minutes, but then she goes back to smacking and giggling.  We've got to keep working on that.

On the 11th of February, she waved "bye bye" for the first time.  She hasn't done it much since, but recently started doing it again.  Never unprompted, but she's getting there.  She's always a little too late.  Today, we visited her Grandma Freda and we told her to wave "bye bye".  She did wave bye, but not until we were out of the house and out of Grandma's line of site.  Oh well....she's getting there.

On the food front, she's definately getting better.  She can now eat strips of toast instead of tinsey weensy pieces.  She's not a fan of meat, yet, but she did eat some turkey sausage this morning and seemed to like it.  She's now eating scrambled eggs (yea!) and has had bits of very lightly spread PB&J sandwhiches.  Sometimes she likes those, sometimes she doesn't.  Her absolute favorite foods are still green beans (go figure!), cheese, any fruit (but bananas most of all) and pasta.  Pasta, pasta, pasta.  When in doubt, feed the girl some elbow macaroni in marina sauce and she's a happy child.  She's tried a bit of breaded halibut and liked that.  She likes tater tots and has had bit of all beef, kocher hotdogs.  We keep trying avocados, but she's not a fan yet.  She's eating Kix cereal as a snack from time to time and love Pirate's Booty, veggie flavor.  Her absolute favorite breakfast is waffles.  She could eat those for every mean, I'm quite certain.

She doesn't drink much from a bottle anymore - some in the morning, some at night and when I put her down for a nap.  She's become an expert at the sippy cup and has started grabbing our cups and trying to drink from them.  She has a little cup she plays with in the bathtub and is constantly trying to drink her bathwater.  You'd think she was dehydrated, but she's drinking water or milk all day long.

At the end of January, I started putting hard soled shoes on her - and it was quite a site to see.  At our cousin Si's wedding on the 31st of January, we put little patent Mary Janes on her and let her walk around for the first time outside of the house (any house, really...we don't carry her that much...we'd just never let her run around in public).  She had a blast dancing the night away with her cousin Kaycee.

Since then, we've started taking her for walks - and that's now her favorite thing to do with her Daddy on weeknights, before I get home from work - and on the weekends.  If the weather is nice, we go for a walk.  Generally, we just walk around the block since the County built a water wall separating us from the River (hallelujah...they finally caved and built a wall surrounding our entire neighborhood!!!).  It makes getting to the park and greenbelt along the River a whole lot more dangerous, since we'd have to walk along the River road for quite a ways.  So, for now, we keep it to the neighborhood unless we drive down the road, past the wall, to the parking lot for the park and get out and walk there

She's quite the daredevil when she's walking.  She often go full steam ahead running down the sidewalk, which makes her Mama *very* nervous.  She's taken a bit of a tumble, not much - just enought to have to catch herself on the sidewalk...but it's going to happen, she's going to take a header at somepoint. I just hope I can keep it together when she does.

She *loves* to play chase with her Daddy.  With me too, but Daddy is so much better at tumbling around with her than I am.  She'll start chasing us, then we'll turn around and chase her back and she giggles and runs as far as her little legs can take her.  All it takes to get her started is peeking at her around a chair or a corner and she's off chasing us.  She loves to try and tickle our feet if she can catch them and if either of us is laying on the ground, she's trying and climb on top of us, giggle the entire way.

She and I took a quick trip to Idaho in February to see my folks.  We didn't spend much time with my Mom as she'd just been here for Madelyn's birthday.  We stayed at my Dad's house so she could visit her Papa and Gigi, her cousin Carson and Uncle Drew and her Auntie Bree.  She had a grand ole time - and while she was there, Gigi and Papa got her her very own table and chairs for tea.  She didn't quite get the concept of tea (but just give that time, I'd guess the next time we're there, she'll be all over the adorable tea set), but she did get the concept of crawling up into the chairs and sometimes onto the table.

Since then, she's becoming a crawling critter.  She tries to crawl up just about everything she can.  She's tried to crawl onto the coffee table, but we've successfully kept her off of that, for now.  We bought her a big soft chair for the living room and she crawls up into that and watches a few moments of Sprout TV (no lectures about screen time before 2, sometimes it's the only way I get a chance to make dinner...) or to read her books.  She crawls into her mini rocking chair in her bedroom.  She crawls onto her rocking horses and rocks herself.  She crawls up the stairs if we're not careful to close the gate.  She tries to crawl into her high chair, but it's a tad too high for her yet. 

She's also become quite the reader.  She'll sit and look at books for the longest time.  She is constantly bringing them to us to read to her.  Her favorite at the moment is "Milly Moo the Crazy Cow" (a touch and feel story about barn yard animals hiding from their friend Milly Moo in case you were dying to know).  She has always hated diaper changes, but these days if I had her a book, she'll let me change her diaper pretty smoothly while she reads.  Apparently reading on the toilet starts that young <>

When she brings a book to us and wants to sit on our lap, she does the cutest thing.  Starting about 2 feet away from us, she'll turn her back to us and back up, looking over her shoulder, till she's hit our laps, then she sits down.  I feel like I should be saying "beep beep beep" just like a semi truck backing up when she does it.

She is really starting to understand us.  If we ask her to get her ball, she'll get it.  If we tell her to throw it to someone (and she's in the mood), she'll throw it.  She'll get her babies and her binkies on command.  When we say, "Let's go for a walk!", she'll head for the door and wait for us to put her shoes on.  At night, Jim plays with her while I cook dinner.  When it's time to eat, he'll say, "Get in your chair" and most nights she'll head straight for her high chair and try to get in it.  She has started signing "More Please" and will make that sign whenever she's hungry.  She's done it a time or too when her Dad or her Grandpa Ron have been bouncing her (which she loves), but generally she does it when she's hungry and all through dinner till she's full.  Her universal sign for full is to start dropping her food on the floor, but she is starting to get "all done".  She'll sign it when we say "all done" - but she still doesn't exactly understand what it means.

A funny little story about her "more please"....  Recently her Auntie Jen (who watches her) and her Auntie Jessica took all of the Clark cousins to Walmart for some shopping.  It was getting close to Madelyn's (or, as Kaycee calls her, Mad - o - win) lunch time and nap time and she was starting to get cranky.  Jenny set her down to walk in the produce section and Madelyn ran over to the onions and started signing "more please".  This tickles me pink, since Jimmy is always teasing me about how many onions I put in food.  Looks like I've got a second vote on loving the onions!

Yes, she does understand quite a bit.  She understands that the remote is not for her and doesn't like it one bit.  She understands that the phone is not for her and doesn't like it one bit.  She does carry her little phone over her shoulder like she's talking on it and it's quite adorable.  She understands she's not supposed to bang things on the TV and that it makes her Daddy quite upset when she does (so, of course, she keeps doing it). 

She understands when we're reading at night that bedtime comes next and somestimes she wants to cut to the chase and go straight to bed.  She rarely cries when I put her down now.  Rarely - but she does get ancy when we're reading and just wants me to put her down.   She's not much for rocking and cuddling unless she doesn't feel so hot or she's super tired....which is why I still sneak into her room every night and pick her up and rock her.  I'm not quite ready to give that up just yet.  Luckily, I haven't destroyed her very wonderful sleep habits.  She is still sleeping through the night from 7:30ish to 7 am, unless she's sick.

She's still a big Daddy fan.  At night, she knows that when we come out of the bath, we look over the railing down into the main room and her Daddy will be there waving at her and throwing her kisses, so every night she calls out as we come out of the bathroom "Daaad, Daaad" - even if he's at work and not there.  If she and I are playing in the living room and he's not with us, after a while she'll go to the bottom of the stairs and call out "Daaad, Daaad".  She's always looking for him.   Last weekend, Jim was doing quite a bit of yard work and she would just sit and watch him out the back window.  Every once in awhile, he'd take a break and come talk to her at the window.  She *loved* that.  When he'd go back to work, she'd start crying - and I was never sure if it was because she missed her dad or wanted to go outside....both are some of her favorite things.

Her other current fascination is jumping and bouncing.  We still have some balloons hanging around from her birthday.  They're in a pile in ther corner.  She'll dive into them and sit on one and bounce herself up and down on them.  If there are pillows lying about, she'll move them, one by one, into one big pile in the middle of the room and jump and roll around in them.  Lately, shes' taken to putting her little yellow step stool in her room right next to her big "Lotty the Ladybug" pillow, climbing up onto the step stool and then doing her version of jumping (which is really just her squating and standing, then falling forward) into Lotty.

It's pretty funny to watch, that's for sure.

It's been a long time since I posted - and it's nearly 11 pm and I've yet to make our lunches for tomorrow and get us ready to go...and I haven't even added pictures - so this posting will have to wait until tomorrow....  That's me - always behind the 8 ball and loving every minute of it.

**edited note...three days later, I still haven't had a chance to add pictures, so I'm just going to post this and try to add some pictures another night....because if I don't, I won't start blogging little fun stuff, like the fact that last night Madelyn started signing "eat" instead of "more please" when we told her to get in her high chair...***

New Year

Wow...one post in the month of December.  My head apparently wasn't in the blogging game!

So - let me give you the highlights of December:

• Madelyn is not just walking, she's running.
• She is not so into being spoon fed anymore. but doesn't have enough teeth to chew.  This makes for some interesting dinner times.
• She's very independent, unless Auntie Jenni or Mama are around...then she wants to be HELD.  That is unless we're changing her clothes or her diaper - then it's a no go.
• She is starting to put together that Mamamamama is me and Dadadadadadada is Jim - but she hasn't yet put it together that it's just Mama and Daddy.
• She loves to DANCE (thank GOD....with her father's blood running in her, I was worried....damn non-dancer.  My next husband is going to be a dancer.  And I only say this because I tell Jim when he kicks the bucket I'm marrying an cat loving, liberal, chef who loves to dance.  I really shouldn't tempt fate with comments like that...I am so blessed with such a wonderful husband.  If his worst fault is that he doesn't like to dance, I'm doing okay.).
• She's down to one long nap a day, most days.  If she naps, it's a wonderful day.  If she doesn't nap...well...notsomuch.
• Despite the waterfall of water coming out of the child's mouth all day long, she still only has two teeth.
• I was able to be off with her for three weeks - and that was a blessing and a curse, because I'm dealing with major MWS (Madelyn Withdrawl Syndrome) and MTOSD (Madelyn Turns One Soon Disease) issues.
• She points at EVERYTHING and won't stop until I tell her what it is.
• She had her first sleep over with Cousin Sydney.
• She got dressed up and went to work for the first time.  Okay...it was a baby Christmas party....but she looked professional, by damn.
• She met a kitty cat bigger than George at my Chiropractor's office.  No one was injured in the taking of these photos, for what it's worth.
• She loves to look at pictures and is starting to point people out, thus asking their names over and over again.
• I had my first Christmas in the last three years that I wasn't sick, pregnant or sick of being pregnant.
• Jim was on a wonderful route that spoiled us rotten because he was home before Madelyn got up and didn't have to leave again until my bedtime.  This month isn't panning out to be the same, unfortunately.
• Madelyn started blowing kisses, even if she has no idea what she's doing.
• Madelyn made it to midnight on New Year's Eve.  Her grandparents did not.  My how times change.
• Jordan turned 20.  Let me say that one again.  Jordan turned 20.  Holy CRAP.  I am the step-monster to a 20 year old.  When did *I* leave my 20s?!?!?
• We cheered BSU on to a BCS bowl victory over TCU.  Okay, we weren't in Arizona, but I bet they could hear Madelyn and I from the stadium.  Take THAT stupid BCS.  NCAA Football playoff system, anyone?  And yes, if my daughter gets to watch TV, it's either Rockford (blame her father for that one) or college ball.

Other than that, what can I say?  I'm in love with my daughter, I'm in love with my husband and more days than not, I'm in love with my life.  What more can one ask for?  Okay, I know...I could make a long list too...but I'll take what I got unless you have a winning Powerball ticket laying around you want to send my direction.

Now....if I could just get over the fact that my daughter is turning one in a week.....

On another note - the county has decided to put a water wall surrounding our entire neighborhood, thus separating us from the River.  Hallelujah!!!  Never say never...but it looks like this year won't be the year we flood.

I've updated our Shutterfly Site with tons of cute shots - but here are just a few teasers....

Santa, baby...

I am seriously behind (what's new?) in posting pictures from Halloween and Thanksgiving...I know...

But this last weekend Jim and I took Madelyn to visit Santa for the first time at a local nursery who'd arranged to have this fantastic photographer there for mini sessions.

I just got the shots and my heart is melted all over again....

My mom sewed the little dress that Maddy is wearing. It's amazing to have such a talented Nana...this is seriously heirloom quality. Maddy did really well with Santa - she didn't cry at all!

Walkin Gal

Welll, she's done it.  She's started walking.  Tentatively, for sure, but she's definately taking steps.

I've had a hard time capturing it on video, because everytime I go for the camera, she stops.  Add on top of it, I don't know how to get the videos off our camcorder and there's been a serious lack of footage.

This morning I was going to take her picture and thought I'd try to get her walking on my little camera video recorder...and I got it!

I can't believe she's big enough to start walking!

Funny Girl

From the day they're born, our children are interacting with us.

Madelyn has been no different. However for the first time, Madelyn tried to make me laugh.

On Monday, I was fixing dinner for she and I and she started making these growling noises from her high chair. I look over, and she's growling at me like a little dog.

Then she grins.

So I laugh.

When she realized what she did made me laugh, she started giggling, then she growled again.

And I laughed again.

And we did this for a good 20 minutes.

How cool is that? My kid was trying to make laugh.

I love being a Mom.

Our Pun'kin

Holidays are so much more fun now that we have a little one.  They're WAY more work when you're the Mama, too....but it's so worth it.

This Halloween, Missy was a little young to really understand what was going on...and obviously we didn't go door to door, just to her various Grandmas and Grandpas...but it was so much fun just because Maddy is Maddy - and an adorable doll.

Knock, Knock, It's Me...Miss Ladybug!

Who needs candy, when they have a bink!?!?

Or grandma's walker?!?  That's much tastier than candy!

On one of our last sunny weekends, before the Great Flood Prep '09 began, Jim and I took our little Miss to the local pumpkin patch.  It was so much fun to watch her experience new things - she was quite taken with all of the pumpkins.  She liked banging her fists on them...or putting them in her mouth.   We decided to wait another year or two for the hay ride and the corn maze...but we had a fun afternoon nonetheless.