Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Another exciting Christmas is upon us!  Last year I thought Christmas was just the most wonderful thing because Maddie was finally old enough to start getting into the magic of it all.  Well, I've gotta say that this year just might top last year.  Maddie hasn't missed a single day on any of her three advent calendars!  She was counting down the days and near the end (1-4 days) she started jumping with glee over how close it was til Christmas.  Tonight we put out reindeer food that's sprinkled with glitter so the reindeer could find our house easily.  We also put out milk and cookies for Santa.  Maddie added the sprinkles to the cookies and told me she had to add lots of sprinkles because sprinkles are Santa's favorite.  Well, "Santa" sure did enjoy those cookies!!  This is the first year that Maddie will really understand what gifts are from Santa and what gifts are from Mommy and Daddy and other family members.  She had a few gifts she specifically asked Santa for, so those will be labeled from Santa.  All the others are coming from us.  We didn't really know how to handle gifts.  We want our girls to enjoy the magic of Santa, but we don't want them to think all gifts just come from elves at the North Pole.  We want them to understand that Mommy and Daddy (and other family) think about them and love them and want to pick out special presents for them.  So this year our girls are getting two gifts each from Santa and their stockings will be from Santa.  Everything else is coming from the people who love them.

I got a little sidetracked...sorry.  Let me get back to the magic of Christmas through the eyes of a 3 1/2 year old.  Maddie was so excited to do the reindeer food.  She was so antsy as soon as we got home from church this evening she wanted to put out the food.  Then we had to finish Santa's cookies.  Then The Sound of Music came on tv and she had to watch some of that (she doesn't know it yet, but she's getting that movie from Great Grandma Reese tomorrow!!!).  When I finally took her up for bed, well after 8:30, she was still so giddy and silly with the excitement of Christmas.  But then a little fear set in.  I told her if she was lucky she would get to hear Santa's sleigh bells as he flies away from our house (thinking I would jingle some bells before I headed to bed, whether or not she heard them).  Ooops...wrong thing to say, Mommy!  She started getting worried.  She didn't want to hear Santa's sleigh bells because it might wake her up and she will be scared.  I had to tell her I'd leave a note asking Santa to keep his sleigh bells quiet as he flew away from our house.  I guess that worked because we haven't heard from her yet.  But who knows, she could still be up in her bed just worrying and watching out her window in case Santa might come in her room (we had to close her door tonight so he wouldn't go in her room...we normally keep it cracked open a little).
Well, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas.  We'll take lots of pictures tomorrow and try to post some soon!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A Post all about my Sadie Mae

Sadie is 15 months, 2 weeks and 5 days old today.  She is at such a crazy age!!  She keeps me busy keeping track of her all day.  I just never know where to find her.  Some of her favorite spots are in our master closet, digging into all of our shoes, of course, playing on the treadmill in our room (hey, at least someone's using it!!), playing in the laundry room if I forget to shut the door, sitting on the bathroom floor looking at books if we've left the bathroom door open, or just sitting quietly and playing with toys or looking at books in the playroom or livingroom.  But seriously, it's those quiet times that freak me out the most!!

Sadie is much more of a visual child than a verbal child.  She really observes things to see just how they work.  She's fascinated by moving parts and wants to figure them out.  She's content to be left alone to play by herself.  She will sit quietly on the floor pressing the same buttons on a toy over and over again.  She really is just intrigued by how things work.  I love it!

Even though she's not as verbal as Maddie was at this age, her vocabulary is constantly expanding.  She now says:  Daddy, Mama, hat, juice, more, cookie, cracker, cupcake, elmo (this is her favorite, and clearest word!), diaper, quack-quack...it seems like there are more, but I can't think of them right now :)

She knows where her head is, her tongue, her ear, her head, her hair, her belly, her toesies and sometimes her nose.  Cutie pie!!

She knows what sounds ducks, cows, bears, birds, dogs, cats and pigs make.  It's so cute to hear her!  I'll try to get a video some day soon.

Unfortunately right now my little one is sick again :(  Remember last fall when she was having some breathing issues and was diagnosed with bronchiolitis?  Well, she ended up on breathing treatments with albuterol for a while until she finally started feeling better.  You guessed it, we're doing it again.  My poor baby!  She had some cold symptoms since last Wednesday or Thursday, but I just thought it was associated with teething as she was working on cutting two.  By Sunday I could feel her lungs kind of rattling (the doctor said her lungs sounded chunky).  I kept waiting for it to get better and yesterday she finally started coughing to get some of it out.  But she had a terrible time sleeping last night so we decided it was time to take her in.  I'm glad I did.  She's only had 3 breathing treatments today but I can tell she's already feeling so much better.  She's back to playing and laughing like her old self already.  YAY!!

Well, here are a few pictures of my sweet angel for you to enjoy.

A cute pose by the Christmas tree...

First time jumping at Jumpalooza...

Hanging out in the playroom...

And since I never posted pictures from Halloween, here's my little cutie in her costume...

Thursday, December 8, 2011

December Pictures

Oh my goodness!  My girls are a HANDFUL!  I wanted to get a few cute pictures of the two of them together for our Christmas cards (yes, I'm getting a late start on this...).  Sadie had a rough night of sleep last night and it definitely shows in the pictures.  I'm not going to share the ones I used for the card, but here are some of my other favorites (and favorite outtakes!!)








Monday, December 5, 2011

All about Maddie on her 1/2 Birthday

What makes you happy?  Being with Daddy.
What makes you sad?  When you give me time outs.
What is your favorite thing to do with Sadie?  Playing puzzles.
What's your favorite thing to do with Daddy?  Playing dot paint with him.
What's your favorite thing to do with Mommy?  Going to school.
What's your favorite breakfast food?  Golden Grahams.
What's your favorite lunch food?  Peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
What's your favorite snack?  Apples.
What's your favorite supper food?  Beef Stew (although she has actually never eaten it...)
What's one food you REALLY don't like?  Zucchini.
What's your favorite thing about school?  Going to chapel.
What's your favorite book?  Peek-a-who?
What's your favorite thing to watch on tv?  Team Umizoomi (no surprise there...that's what's on tv right now so it's freshest in her mind!)
What's your favorite movie?  Snow White
Who's your best friend?  Cadence and Sydney (the identical twins in her class...she has no idea which is which so she always includes them both)  :)
What do you want to be when you grow up?  A Police Officer so I can help people who are sick.
What are you best at doing?  Painting
What is your best memory?  Going to Aunt Cindy's house.
What's your favorite toy?  Books
What's something Daddy tells you a lot?  About loving me.
What's something Mommy tells you a lot?  Don't hurt Sadie.
What's your favorite song?  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
If you could change your name, what would it be?  Paggy
Can you tell me three things about yourself?  Getting boo boos, going to school and playing with Sadie
Now, tell me something funny.  Doing knock knock jokes.  How about this one, "Knock knock."  "Who's there?"  "Computer"  "Computer who?"  "Computer Elmo".  HAHAHAHA!!!!


And now, since Christmas is coming, here are some things Maddie has asked for for Christmas:

A drum set
An iPad
Puzzles
Elephant
A real tiger
A plate
A toy computer

3 1/2 years old

Maddie is exactly 3 years and 6 months old today.  After today she's closer to 4 than to 3.  Oh goodness!!  It's been a while since I've posted a "Maddie-isms" post so I thought I'd do a small collection of those for you :)

Maddie continually impresses us with her use of language.  She just seems so much smarter than the "average" 3 year old.  When I was pregnant with her, I used to sit and imagine how life would be when she was an infant, a toddler, a preschooler, etc.  I can tell you, she has FAR exceeded any expectations I had!  I didn't think I would have actual conversations with her until she started Kindergarten (if that soon!).  We talk about all sorts of things.  And it's not just, "Mommy, tell me about princesses" or things like that.  She asks me questions!  She wants to know the things I like, she wants to know about me when I was a little girl.  She wants to know about herself when she was a baby.  Her little mind just works in amazing ways.  We have a back-and-forth conversation about things on a regular basis.  I'm pretty sure she would rather sit and talk to me than to go play with friends.  She's amazing! 

Another thing I expected for quite sometime is the improper use of words.  Most kids take a while to learn the proper tense.  They say a lot of things like "sneaked, growed," (I can't think of any more examples right now).  Maddie told me, "When I go to see Santa he's going to tell me, 'My, how you've grown'".  Some mornings when she wakes up she tells me, "Mommy, I grew last night when I was sleeping!".  She blows my mind.  And one day I took a Skittle out of her little bag and fed it to Sadie.  She asked me what Sadie was eating.  When I told her it was one of her Skittles she said, "You snuck one from me?".  SNUCK?!?!  How did she learn that word??  Amazing!

Some other phrases she's been shocking us with:

"At that point".  As in, "I will stop sucking my thumb when I'm 4 because at that point I'll be too big"
"Matter of fact".  Yesterday we told her to put a music box back at the store because we weren't going to buy it.  She put it down and said, "Maybe we can get it next time we come.  Matter of fact, somebody else might buy it. But I REALLY want it!"
"Oh my gosh".  Not 100% happy with this one...but it's kind of cute. 

Some other quotes:

"I was about to say, 'Let's skip brushing teeth tonight," but then I remembered we had sugar.  I don't want to get any cavities."

Me: "Maddie, what are you going to play today?"
Maddie: "Snakes"
Me: "How will you play snakes?"
Maddie: "Well, I'll just slizzer around on the floor."

Maddie: "Mommy, you know I burned my thumb on the toaster?"
Me: "Yeah, that was a while ago. Is it still hurting?"
Maddie: *sad look* "Yeah, it's hurting morning, noon, and night."


Maddie: "Knock, knock"
Me: "Who's there?"
Maddie: "Banana"
Me: "Banana who?"
Maddie: "Banana you glad I didn't say orange?"


Maddie:  "Mommy, when I was in your belly, what did I eat?"
Me:  "You ate whatever I ate.  When you were in my belly you had an umbilical cord that was like a straw from my belly straight to yours.  So that's how you ate anything I ate."
Maddie:  "Well, you should've ate a plate so I could put my food on it."

That should do it for now...Happy Half-Birthday, my sweet girl!!

Here's a picture of my sweet girl today...all ready to head off to school :)

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Buddy Walk 2011

What a day!  We left the house around 7:30 to head down to Minute Maid Park for Houston's Buddy Walk.  Getting out of the house at that time was surprisingly easy...the girls both slept in a while so we had a chance to have ourselves completely ready to go before they even got up.  Once they were both awake, they immediately got dressed, played around in the house for a few minutes while drinking their morning milk (Mommy and Daddy had their morning coffee, of course!), then it was time to get in the van and head on our way.  The girls enjoyed watching Frosty the Snowman on the way and ate a breakfast of dry cereal.

We ended up getting to the parking lot at the stadium shortly after 8:00, maybe 8:15ish.  We met up with friends of ours in the parking lot and headed over to the meeting place for the walk shortly after.  The walk officially began at 9:00 so we had time to enjoy playing in the lot for a while.  Maddie was over the moon with excitement when she got to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse!!  Sadie was happy, well, I'll say "cautiously happy" to see Elmo.  She LOVES Elmo but seeing him in person and giant-sized was a lot for her little 15 month-old self to take in!  Mommy and Daddy were just happy the girls were having a good time, and we were SUPER happy for the PERFECT weather!  It was in the mid-60's to low 70's all day.  We were perfectly comfortable for the walk because there was a gorgeous breeze blowing with the sun shining the perfect amount.  Seriously, we couldn't have asked for a better day!!

So, I'll tell you a little about the little guy we were walking to support today.  Little Luke was born 18 months ago today!  His mom and I met through a playgroup and have known each other for just a little over two years.  We hit it off from the beginning and have always gotten along, although we haven't had all the time in the world to get together!!  It's been such a blessing knowing this family and getting to know sweet little Luke!  He has two big brothers, Jacob (6) and Brian (soon-to-be-5) who absolutely adore him and protect him already!  They're a great family, raising three incredible little guys.  It was our honor to support them and walk as part of team "Luke's Skywalkers". 

Here are some pictures from the day!

Meeting Elmo 


 All the kids in their Star Wars capes!


 The team banner


 Can you see the excitement in Maddie??  She LOVES Mickey and Minnie!


 The whole fam!


 My littlest Jedi


 Daddy and Maddie at Minute Maid

Friday, December 2, 2011

A Revival!

After taking 6 months off, I thought I'd bring the ol' blog back.  I'm not sure if anyone is still checking in, but that's ok.  If I don't know anyone is reading, I won't feel like I have to "filter" what I write.  I can be myself and not feel like I have to say certain things to "impress" or to avoid offending people.  :) 

My sweet Sadie turned 15 months old today and I feel terrible that I haven't been documenting her growth...Also I've been horrible about getting pictures out to grandmas so I thought this would be a good way for them to see the pictures.  I haven't been posting as many pictures to facebook due to security reasons, and I'm honestly thinking about deleting the facebook account altogether.  I'm a little too addicted.  Seriously.  It's bad.  I need to quit cold turkey!  But I'm just not ready yet... ;)

Anyway, I don't know how frequently I'll be updating the blog but I'll post when I can, more as a document for my girls to look back on than anything else.

Tomorrow we're doing our first Buddy Walk here in Houston.  We have some sweet friends who's 18 month old baby boy was born with Downs Syndrome.  We decided to join their team to walk as part of "Luke's Skywalkers" tomorrow.  I'm super excited and pumped to be a part of such an awesome event!  Please pray for us as we take the girls and don't really know what to expect!

Look forward to pictures of that...

Sunday, May 29, 2011

Final Blog

Just wanted to put an official end to this blog. Most people who read it are on Facebook and keep up with us that way. If you aren't friends with me on Facebook and would like to keep up with the girls and what's going on in our lives, look me up! Sarah Rexroth Below

Thanks for reading! It's been fun :)

Oh, and sorry about no birthday party pictures, blogger still isn't accepting them. But they're on Facebook :)

Bye!!

Birthday Party!

Even though Maddie's birthday isn't until June 5th, we decided to have her birthday party early so Daddy could be there (aka set up, tear down, clean up!!).  Maddie had decided on a dog party a while back so we stuck with that (after some debate as to whether we should change it to Olivia) and had a blast planning her party.  It was supposed to be a small get together and nothing fancy, just let the kids play in the backyard and have cake.  Well, it didn't exactly happen that way.  It was still a small get together.  There were 3 of Maddie's friends, Maddie, 3 younger siblings and 6 adults...just enough to fill the seats in the livingroom and all the seats in the backyard! 

Maddie wore a headband with dog ears and a dog collar for her party.  I had the table set with a dog bowl for each kid with some cocoa puffs to look like dog food, a bone shaped crayon holder with each kid's name on it (filled with bone shaped crayons) and a noise maker.  For food we had Li'l Smokies, Chex Mix puppy chow, dog shaped cookies, some chips and cheetos, and watermelon.  Kids drank Capri Suns and adults had iced tea.  Maddie's cake was made out of cupcakes arranged into the shape of a dog's head.  After she blew out the candles we just gave each kid a cupcake and there was no need for forks!

The kids played and played and played in the kiddie pool and with the three water sprinkler toys we had set up in the yard.  They had so much fun!!  We let them play for about an hour and 15 minutes then had them come in, dry off and had Maddie open presents.  She did so great!  She was gracious and thanked her friends after she opened their presents.  The only embarrassing part was when she opened something she already had and she said, "Another one?!?!  Oh...this isn't what I wanted."  I was so embarrassed, but everyone laughed and the mom said that's why she put a gift receipt in the card :)  I tried to make her feel better by letting her know that, yes, Maddie does already have one and it's one of her favorite toys so it was a good idea. 

After gifts were opened, we had everyone come to the kitchen to sing to Maddie.  She got embarrassed and had to hold onto my leg to be shy.  It was sweet :)  We had a few minor issues with friends trying to blow out her candles but I kept relighting them and she got to blow them out!  The kids loved their cupcakes, Maddie loved the frosting so we kept refreshing the frosting on top so she could lick it off :)

All-in-all it was a really nice day and turned out to be a lot of fun.  I think I'll always keep her birthday parties small.  I only sent out 8 invitations and 3 friends came...it worked out really well!

Here are some pictures from the day:

never mind...for some reason the server is rejecting my pictures.  I'll try again later.  Maybe blogger is just having some issues right now.  :)

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Still Here

Just wanted to pop in and say hi!  It's been crazy around our house lately.  We haven't even had wireless internet for the entire month of May and who uses a desktop anymore??  :)  I'm behind on the blog, and WAY behind on printing pictures to send to grandmas and aunts.  I haven't even loaded them to be printed yet.  Hopefully I'll get that done soon so I don't have 3 months to catch up on!!

So, we got our new internet provider today so everything's good in that department.  Hopefully we're happier with Century Link and Direct TV than we were with Comcast/Xfinity.  Time will tell.

Other things going on in our lives...
Maddie finished her first full year of school.  She'll be turning three in less than two weeks!  I'm so not ready for that.  :(
Sadie's almost 9 months old already.  She's so sweet and fun and I can't get enough of snuggling with her!  I want to hold her and kiss her all day and savor the time when she loves me unconditionally.  I know this sweet innocence will be gone before I'm ready so I'm trying to really enjoy it now!
Eric's home on vacation.  This is his last vacation before returning to Houston permanently!!!!  He leaves to go back to Nigeria on June 1st and will return home around the 4th of July.  YAY!!  He's been working in Nigeria since April 2009.  27 months of living without him is long enough...it's time to get back to "normal".  Of course it will take a lot of adjustment getting into a good routine but it's going to be so nice having Daddy home for dinner every night and having him here for school activities and weekend picnics at the park.  We're so blessed!

Well, I guess that's it for now. 

Oh, and we went to the beach yesterday for the first time this year.  I had Eric take a picture of me with my girls.  Maddie had a blast...Sadie will probably have a blast next year :)


Thursday, April 28, 2011

Fun in the Sun!

Today was such a BEAUTIFUL day!  It's been really warm here for a while now but it's been a little more humid than I like for being out playing.  Well, today was a perfect weather kind of day.  The day started out cool and dry so I enjoyed a cup of coffee on the back patio.  Maddie was out there with me, but at least we were outside before 8 am :)  I had to stop by the dentist's office this morning then we were off to the zoo.  It was a gorgeous day and you could tell by the full parking lot at the zoo!  Everyone wanted to take advantage of the nice weather.  Even though it was busy, it was still a really nice day.   We invited one of Maddie's classmates along with us (and her mom and baby sister) so we all had a more enjoyable time...Maddie had a little friend to keep her interest and I had some adult conversation along the way.  How nice!  Maddie and her friend (Caley) held hands most of the way around the zoo (until they started getting tired and grumpy with each other).  They were super excited about the animals together but even more excited to find sticks!  They kept finding bigger and bigger sticks for each other to carry around.  It was funny...they lost interest in the animals faster than I expected them to.  Even though they paid less attention to than animals, they had so much fun together.  I think Maddie came home with more dirt on her than I've ever seen in her life.  Oh well, it was still a fun day!  We got to the zoo right around 11am and didn't leave until after 4pm.  Leaving that late was definitely a bad idea...we didn't get home until around 5:30.  Traffic was pretty crazy.  It was ok though because both girls were asleep and I just took my time and was patient getting through the traffic and we made it home in one piece :)

So, I want to revisit Maddie being into sticks...she is so funny!  Every morning when it's time to get dressed, Maddie tells me she wants to wear a "pretty and frilly dress so I can spin and dance".  But then when she gets outside she wants to chase bugs, pick up sticks, dig in the dirt, etc.  She's such a tomboy and girly girl all in one!  I LOVE it!  I can just picture her when she's older going out camping and shooting guns with her dad then coming home and getting all dressed up to go out with her girlfriends (no dates with boys, though!!)  :)

Oh!  One more thing I wanted to mention today (but don't really know how to fit it in, so I'll just make a separate note).  Sadie held her own bottle to have her milk today!!  What an exciting time that was!  I always hated it when I had to stop everything to sit down and feed her a bottle.  Now those days are over.  YAY!!  Ok...it's the little things that make me happy.  It wasn't a big deal with Maddie because she was my only child, but now with Sadie, Maddie doesn't understand when we have to stop everything just because Sadie's hungry.  Now we don't have to stop and everyone can be happy!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Cover Model

I entered Sadie in the Parents Magazine Cover Contest!!  Please, please, please go to this link and vote for her!  Unfortunately the initial round is purely a popularity contest and has nothing to do with how cute the kids are.  That's why I really need your votes!!  Parents have to ask for votes from friends and family.  Please post this link to your facebook page, email it to your friends and family and tell them that this is the cutest baby you've ever seen!!  (sorry if you've also entered your child, then I will excuse you from voting for mine)  :)  If Sadie happens to be one of the top 10 babies from this week, she'll be entered into the semi-finals and then the voting will actually be based on cover model potential!  Maybe it's just because she's my baby, but I think she has the potential to go all the way :)

You can go on and vote every day this week so PLEASE vote for my baby girl!!  We would LOVE a trip to NY City to get her a photo shoot :)

Thanks for your help! 

Here's the link again... http://photos.parents.com/parents-cover-contest-2011/17/2011/6197

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Planting Caterpillars

Today our family got 5 news pets...5 little "cow-a-pidders" (caterpillars).  Maddie was so excited to "plant" them in their little cups so they could "grow into butterflies".  After we put them in their little cups we decided to name them.  The first one Maddie wanted to name Toodee.  The second is Foofa.  The third is Muno (do you see a theme here??).  The fourth is Plex and the fifth is Brobee.  Yes, we have the whole cast of Yo Gabba Gabba growing in our house!  The caterpillars will live in their little cups for 1-2 weeks, eating almost constantly and spinning little bits of silk here and there, then they will form their chrysalises attached to the lid of the cup.  At that point we'll take the lid, tape it into their little butterfly habitat and wait for the beautiful butterflies to emerge!  That stage will take about another week.  What a fun process!  And what a long process for a (almost) three year old.  I hope she stays excited about it.

Tonight Maddie was so into her little caterpillars.  She brought her musical instruments to play music for them.  She laid on the floor talking to them, then singing to them.  She was giving them little pep talks and saying things like "I hope you grow into a beautiful butterfly" and "I hope you like your food, little cowapidder".  She was looking inside their cups to see if there was any poop that needed to be cleaned out.  She even went outside and found a few little sticks to put in their habitat for when they grow into butterflies so the butterflies can rest on sticks.  She's so into it!

I'm hoping to keep a butterfly long enough so it will lay some eggs so we will get to start this process all over again :)  And...I might need Eric to get around to planting a butterfly garden when he's home in May.  It would be cool if some of the butterflies decided to stick around in our yard instead of flying off somewhere else.  Eric should be home just in time to see a butterfly emerge.  Hopefully at least one of them will hold off long enough for him to see!  He's coming home in 3 weeks!!

Here's a picture of one of the little guys. 
Brobee sure is a handsome little guy, isn't he? 

I was sure to label all of the cups with their names so as not to confuse them :)  I also wrote their first inital on the lids so when we transfer them to the habitat we can keep track of which one we see coming out!  It's the science nerd in me...

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Terrible Twos

As Maddie nears the end of her 'terrible twos', I fear what's to come...Over the past week she has begun trying my patience in so many new ways.  I'm tired exhausted.  I can't leave her unattended for 5 minutes without her doing something that's going to get her in trouble.  She's bitten me, hit her sister with toys, colored on the walls with crayons (thanks to the zoo for giving out non-washable crayons!!!), spit on Sadie's highchair, spit on the floor, discovered that sidewalk chalk is more paint-like when dipped in water (or submerged in water), decided Murphy's head is a good place to color with paint-like chalk, finger painted all over the table, a little on the wall, on the bathroom door (although this has been done in the past, I still need to include it so you see how "nice" my week has been).  In addition to those things, she has been very argumentative about E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.  If she asks for juice and I tell her, "No, you already had juice today." She replies with, "NO I DIDN'T".  If I tell her it's time to go upstairs for nap time she tells me, "NO IT'S NOT".  You get the idea...and what a negotiator she's turning into!!  Yesterday I she wanted to watch TV.  I said yes, but she could only watch two shows all day.  So she had the choice of watching one show now and one later or just watching both shows right then.  She wanted to watch both shows right away (which didn't surprise me...toddlers are all about instant gratification, right?)  Well, after she watched two shows then she asked for another.  Of course I told her we already watched two so now it's time to play.  She said, "Ok.  But after I play I want to watch two more shows."  I reminded her that she made the choice to watch both of her shows for the day first thing in the morning.  So she gets a smart smile on her face and says, "Ok. But I really want to watch one show now AND two shows later.".  Uhhh.......no.  Little smarty pants!! 

You see, all this time I've been bragging about how smart Maddie is.  And, yes, she is VERY smart.  Almost too smart for her age.  I've been outsmarted by her a few times.  She's quick to think.  And she thinks outside the box.  She's amazing.  This is one little girl who's going to be keeping me on my toes!  If she can outsmart me before she's even three years old, I'm saying I'm in BIG trouble when she's a teenage!  Oh goodness...

Lessons learned from my first-born that I will be practicing with my second-born:  DON'T ENCOURAGE YOUR BABY TO TALK EARLY!!  I will be keeping Sadie quiet until she's at least 5.  I'm not kidding. 

Goodnight for now...I'm off to have a glass of wine.  I've been needing that since I woke up Friday morning!  :)

Saturday, April 2, 2011

7 Months

Sadie is 7 months old today!  I can't believe it.

We've fallen into a pretty good routine with the girls now.  It's about time, huh?  The bad news is that I can't really be out of the house past 5:30pm or it throws us way off and it turns into a bad night for all of us.  I have to feed Sadie her dinner by 5:30 then nurse her around 6.  If it's bath night for her then she gets her bath after she's fed then I get her dressed for bed, read a book and put her down.  As soon as she's down, it's time to get Maddie ready for bed.  I'm continuing to give the girls baths on opposite nights.  Some nights they both need a bath so I'll get Maddie washed, then let her play in the tub while I give Sadie her bath.  This gives Maddie enough time to play and gives me something productive to do while she's playing :)

Sadie's has tried a pretty wide variety of foods now.  Not as much as Maddie had by this age, but Sadie's different...Sadie has more of a gag reflex so I've been cautious on giving her anything that isn't pureed.  She did have some of those baby puffs (and LOVED them) and last night I have her really small bites of flounder.  She did fine with both without choking so that's good!  So far her favorite foods are pears (pureed with oatmeal or in the mesh bag feeder thing) and pureed sweet potatoes mixed with oatmeal and apple juice.  YUM!  I'm planning on mixing up some different foods for her to try soon. 

Sadie has been quite the active little girl.  She loves to sit up now and plays for long periods of time.  However, if she notices something she wants to get her hands (and mouth) on, she'll topple over and start squirming to try to get to it.  She wiggles her body from side to side, then pulls her knees up (to the side), goes up on her toes and pushes forward.  She's making progress, but moving at a VERY slow pace.  I'm happy with that!  I'm in no hurry for her to get mobile. The girls already keep me busy enough without having two of them to keep track of!

Sadie is absolutely in love with her big sister.  When she hears Maddie's voice she stops whatever she's doing and looks for her.  When Maddie laughs, Sadie giggles right along.  They are so sweet to watch together.  I only hope I can help foster the love between them and keep them from getting into any major fights as they grow up.  Maddie has shown some aggression toward Sadie over the past week.  She pushed her over when we were all in the playroom one day.  Then another day Maddie picked up one of her (super cute) cowboy boots and started hitting Sadie with it!  I was so mad!  Since that she hasn't done anything mean to Sadie so I'm hoping she was just checking to see what she could get away with and when she didn't get away with it she's giving up. 

This week Sadie experienced the kiddie pool for the first time.  I think she would've liked it if the water had been a little warmer.  I'm sure by late summer the two girls will be having a great time "swimming" together!  I can't wait!!  Speaking of swimming...I need to get the girls on a trip to the beach before Sadie starts crawling.  I'd much rather go when I know one of them will be sitting still :)  It'll be fun when Eric's home in May and we can take both girls swimming and to the beach without me being responsible for both of them!

Well, both girls are down for afternoon naps (Yay!!) so I'm going to catch up on a little laundry and cleaning (boo!!).

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

email subscribers

If you receive my blog via email, you'll actually have to go to the blog site to view the videos...

click here to go to the March video post

Sorry about that.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

March

I can't believe March has come and (almost) gone already.  We had a great month and I've got the bags under my eyes to prove it!  :)

I didn't want to let the month end without having at least one more post, so I thought I'd give you a few videos to watch. 

Enjoy!

While Eric and Maddie were outside playing, I kept being the nagging wife/mom and saying, "DON'T hit Sadie with the ball!".  Well...turns out that's exactly what happened but it turned out to be a good thing :)

Maddie wanted to plant flowers for spring :)  She's such a big girl!!

Sadie growls when she sees her food but I'm not putting it in her mouth.  Yes, the girl LOVES to eat! On this particular day she did her usual spit/growl routine then I got an extra surprise...  :)

We've been having the most beautiful weather!  Maddie's been playing outside just about every day.  She's especially having fun with her "worm toy" and playing in her pool :)  YAY for spring!! (with apologies to my friends and family...or random readers...who are getting snowed on right now)

Just a video to show you how cute and squeezable Sadie is :)

Check out THIS hand-eye coordination!  I was shocked when she started catching the ball at such a young age.  I don't know what's "normal", but I know Maddie never did this this early.

And another new trick Sadie learned within the past 3 days :)  She's growing up so fast!!

And, for the final video of the night (thank God because this is taking F.O.R.E.V.E.R.)...

I have such a little tomboy on my hands!  I was REALLY impressed when Maddie wanted to hold the Roly Poly bug.  Not only did she want to hold him, she wanted to play with him all day.  Poor little thing.  I finally told Maddie we needed to leave him alone because he was trying to get home to be with his family.  She's really big into family so all I had to do was explain that his family missed him like we miss our daddy and then she left him alone so he could go home.  She said he had to hurry so he could eat supper with his family and then watch Nick, Jr.  :)

Well, I hope you enjoyed the videos.  I have a few others that I would LOVE to share, but they involve Maddie not wearing any clothes and I'm not willing to risk any kind of legal issues to share them.  But Maddie has been enjoying being naked lately and she's so funny!!  The other day after she went swimming in her clothes I took the wet clothes off outside and she told me she was a doggy and she had to go pee in the grass.  She ran over to the corner of the house and stood there peeing!  Then tonight after she got out of the bathtub she was running around upstairs with no clothes on then came back into the bathroom wearing nothing but rain boots.  Silly goose :)  I didn't get video of that, but definitely snapped a few pictures to show to any future boyfriends!  HA!  She's going to hate me.  And I'm pretty sure Sadie will hate me for the video I shared above.  But at least she has clothes on!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

BUSY!

Here are a few things that have happened since my last post:

Uncle Guy came to visit
Daddy came home
Sadie turned 6 months old
Aunt Renee came to visit
We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Parade
We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo
Sadie started sitting up
Aunt Catherine came to visit
Aunt Jennifer, cousins Mary, Joseph, Michael, Joshua and Amy came to visit
We celebrated Sadie's baptism
We went to the Butterfly museum
Sadie had her 6 month check up...17lbs 7oz (75th percentile), 25 1/4 inches (27th percentile)...4 shots :(
We went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (again)

It's been a busy couple of weeks but so much fun!  Will catch up soon and post pictures...but for now it's time to go to bed and recouperate from our busy, busy day...

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Blog Break

It's been a while since my last post, and it will probably be a while until my next post.  There's always so much going on that I want to share with everyone, but I just don't have time to sit down and compose my thoughts and form it into a sensible blog post.  So, once again I'll give you some bullets :)  Sorry...but I figure you'd prefer that over a wordy play-by-play, right? 

-Sadie is such a bundle of joy.  I know I say this a lot, but she really does brighten up my days!  A sweet snuggle with her takes away and bad feelings I'm having :)

-Sadie saw her first zoo animals today!  I held her a lot when I took the girls to the zoo and she noticed any animals that were moving quickly enough to grab her attention.  The first one she noticed was the sea lion.  These are Maddie's favorite so it was exciting for Sadie to see them too!

-Maddie bought herself a stuffed sea lion the last time we went to the zoo.  I let her take along some of her own money (she chose to take $8) and she picked out an animal all by herself.  The animal was $7.99 and we get a 15% discount by being zoo members so she even got to bring change home to put in her piggy bank!  What a fun experience that was!

-The stuffed sea lion's name is "Hackseek".  Another interesting name that she came up with and I have no idea what made her think of that.  She hasn't forgotten his name since the first time she said it.  Hackseek enjoyed the sea lion show with us today as well.

-Maddie is growing up so fast!  Her 3T shirts that I bought her at the beginning of fall/winter are getting snug.  They look like they fit her just fine but we're beginning to really struggle to get them on and off.  It's not fun.  It's about time to start shopping for spring/summer and I don't know if I should buy her 3T or just skip straight to the 4T so we'll be sure she'll fit in them all summer.  I can't believe she'll be 3 in June and is already outgrowing 3T clothes! 

-Maddie is really getting social.  We invited some of her classmates over to play after school yesterday and she had so much fun with them.  Only 2 we able to make it and I think that turned out to be the perfect number. She was happy to show her friends her playroom and then asked me to turn on music so they could dance together.  (sidenote:  one of her favorite songs to dance to is Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and she was SO EXCITED when they played that song before the sea lion show started today!!)

-Next week is a crazy week for us!  My brother comes in for a visit on Monday, Eric comes home on Thursday and my sister comes in on Friday.  Saturday ther Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Parade is taking place so we plan on going downtown to enjoy seeing all the trail riders coming into Houston for the rodeo!!!  I've been wanting to go to this parade since we moved down here so I'm thrilled that we're going this year.  Maddie's going to have a blast!  It might be a little cold first thing in the morning but I'm sure she'll enjoy lots of snuggle time with Daddy to stay warm :)

-I am super tired and even though I have a lot to do tonight, I'm going to take a Tylenol PM at 7:30 then head to bed.  I figure a few nights in a row of getting 10 hours of sleep should help me feel better...I just can't get energy.  Tomorrow's another busy day starting with taking Murphy to get a bath before we even drop Maddie off at school so it'll be good to get a lot of sleep tonight!!

Goodnight all...hopefully you'll hear from me before the end of the month :)

Sadie 5 months old, Maddie 2 years 8 months

I took a break from sorting baby clothes to change a diaper...Maddie took the opportunity to make herself a seesaw out of a basket :)

The Houston Deep Freeze of 2011...this picture was taken at 4:00pm!

A close up of our poor frozen van.

Super Bowl baby!  Sadly we didn't win :(  But Daddy's team won so it's ok!

My supermodel-in-the-making.  She was really posing for pictures :)

Go Steelers!!

Last Friday after school Maddie rested in a laundry hamper.  She was pretending to be a dog and this was her cage.  She stayed in it for about 20 minutes while watching tv :)

The top view.  What an imagination!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

5 Months

Today my Sadie Mae turned 5 months old!  Seriously?!?!  I'm noticing her growing up so fast already and I really wish I could slow time down so I could savor all her cuteness and chubbiness.  I told her yesterday that she was growing up so fast and soon she would be a big girl.  Maddie didn't like hearing that and told me, in the whiniest voice, "But I don't want Sadie to grow up and be a big girl.  I always want her to be my baby sister."  I tried to explain to her that Sadie would always be her little sister no matter how old they get.  She acted like she understood but I'm not sure she really did :)

Sadie's been staying awake a lot more during the day now.  If we're home she'll take good naps, usually 3 a day and they're ranging from 1 hour to 3 hours.  If we're away from home she sleeps when we're in the car but is awake while we're out and about.  She'll doze in the stroller or shopping cart, but doesn't really sleep.  I find myself (at home) trying to put her down for more frequent naps than what she wants now.  I just got into such a habit of doing what I had to do with her and then putting her down to sleep again.  Now I have to find ways to keep her entertained while she's awake. 

Sadie started using her exersaucer.  She seems to enjoy it a lot but gets frustrated that she can't pull all the toys to her mouth yet.  She also gets frustrated when one of her arms gets down in the seat with her and she can't figure out how to get it out.  She has already figured out how to make some of the toys spin.  Well, there are only two that spin so she has those figured out.  And she'll just stare at the one while it's spinning around, absolutely amazed by it.

Sadie is starting to get more and more excited about Murphy when she sees her.  It's so cute to see her get excited when Murphy starts coming close to her.  She's no where near as excited as Maddie used to get over Murphy, but I can tell she's interested. 

Sadie still hasn't rolled over from her back to her belly.  She's a back sleeper and is just so content to be on her back most of the time so she doesn't have any motivation to roll to her belly.  She resists tummy time with every thing she has.  She lasts about 5 minutes then we've all had enough of trying to make her be on her belly.  At least she doesn't have a flat head...I'm cool with her not being on her belly as long as she's not getting a deformed head from spending too much time on it.  I guess that's where the exersaucer and bumbo come in handy :)

Today Sadie got to meet her Pap Pa (her great grandpa-my dad's dad).  Pap Pa is her only living great grandpa so I'm so glad she got to meet him today!  She looked into his eyes and gave him several super sweet smiles!  They have the same beautiful blue eyes :)  I'm looking forward to Maddie and Sadie spending more time with their great grandparents while they're visiting from PA over the next month.

So, that's what's new with my littlest one :)  Life is SO GOOD!

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Smart Phones?

I have had my iPhone for almost 16 months.  I've loved it from the first day but I'm finally starting to get annoyed by it.  Well, I'm really more annoyed with my addiction to it but I like to pass the blame off on the phone.  I mean, if it wasn't so amazing I wouldn't be so addicted, right?  I've always known I was addicted to the phone but I kind of joked around about it and didn't take it seriously.  Last night I came out of denial and am finally on the road to recovery! 

Every night at bedtime I read a book to Maddie, then she takes a turn and reads it to me.  Every night the iPhone (aka my window to the outside world) is right there with us.  Last night when it was Maddie's turn to read the book, I picked up the phone to check in with facebook (I had just heard that a friend had her baby and I wanted to congratulate her).  Maddie looked at me and said, "Mommy, don't type on your phone.  Listen to me read to you."  OUCH.  The truth hurts.  She's been noticing that I'm on the phone more than I'm paying attention to her.  I guess part of my denial was also denying that she even noticed.  Of course she noticed that I was paying more attention to the phone than I was to her!  She's not stupid. 

Today is day one of my recovery.  Tomorrow starts actual rehab.  I will have my phone with me for emergency purposes when I'm outside of the house.  I will still use my phone when I need to and when my girls are napping or in bed for the night.  When my girls are awake I need to be present for them.  I am their mom and we're blessed that I get to stay home and raise them.  They need my attention and need to know that I'm there for them when I need them. 

Ok, I'm probably making my phone addiction sound a lot worse than it really is, but I have to make a more conscious effort to put the phone down!

So, with that being said, if you need to reach me when my girls are awake, please call my home phone as the iPhone will be on silent :)  However, I'm not promising I'll answer the home phone either.  I spend a lot of time feeding Sadie and changing diapers and doing chores around the house.  I'm trying really hard not to rush to the phone as soon as it rings.  It causes me to get distracted from what I'm doing and causes neck and back pain from holding the phone with my head and shoulder :)  It's really hard to not run for the phone, though, because I know there's an adult on the other end and I'm usually dying for some adult conversation!!

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sorry

Aparently the last post was a little too much and left some ugly images in the minds of some readers.  For that, I apologize and give you these...











I'm in Love

Today I officially fell in love.  I fell in love with cloth diapers.  Nope, I'm not even kidding.  Today the cloth diapers proved themselves to me and there's no going back to disposables now.  You couldn't PAY me to use disposables, that's how much I love cloth.  You're thinking wow...this lady's lost her mind!  But, no, I haven't lost my mind, I promise.  :)

If you've ever breastfed a baby, or have spent a lot of time around a breastfed baby, you know the consistency of their poop.  Maddie described it best when she said, "Sadie's poo poos are snotty, like when I have a runny nose."  Normally when a baby poops while they're in a sitting position, the poop can only go to the front of the diaper or to the back of the diaper.  For most I think it goes up the back.  Today Sadie was sitting in her Bumbo seat and she started pooping.  It was a full force grunt, scrunch up her red face kind of poop.  I sighed and started dreading the diaper change that was to come.  Certainly it would be more than a simple diaper change.  It sounded like the kind of blow out we stay at home moms like to call a "poop-splosion".  I thought for sure I was about to change not only her diaper, but also her outfit AND give her a bath.  I let her finish before I went through all the cleanup work.  When she was FINALLY done, I picked her up (very cautiously) and didn't see ANY poop on her clothes!  I placed her very carefully on the changing table (sometimes with Maddie's diapers at this age, just laying her on her back would force the poop out of the diaper).  I opened up the diaper and found all the poop (and there was A LOT OF IT!) all neatly contained within the diaper.  YAY!  I have never been so happy to change a dirty diaper!

So, there's the story on how I became hooked on cloth diapers.  Seriously, I want to have more babies just so I can use cloth diapers.  :)

Sunday, January 23, 2011

A Few Updates

I'm going to give you a few bullet-style updates while I watch the Steelers beat the Jets :)  Sorry, I can't really concentrate to form full thoughts to blog while I'm watching this game...it's just SO GOOD!

  • Cloth diapering is interesting.  We've had several leaky diapers but several that haven't leaked as well.  We'll get used to it with time...
  • Maddie continues asking for Daddy every day.  She asks if Daddy is coming home when she wakes up from her nap, she says, "if Daddy comes in the garage door, I will say, 'hi Daddy'".  She took her daddy doll (thanks Aunt Sarah!) to school on Friday and had a MUCH better day.
  • Maddie deliberately peed on the couch. She knew she had to pee, but didn't feel like going to the bathroom so she told me she peed on the couch.  Nice.
  • Sadie is officially in size 6 month clothing.  Her cloth diapers are a lot bulkier than disposable diapers so she'll probably be in 9 month by the time she's 7 months old!
  • Ewww...I just saw a commercial for "Survivor:  Redemption Island".  I LOVE Survivor but I might have to skip next season with Boston Rob and Houston Russell.  Yuck.
  • Sorry for getting sidetracked...
  • Sadie is starting to laugh a lot more.  She laughs at me when I'm being silly now.  I love it :)  She's just so sweet and precious, I can't get enough of her!
  • The past two days Sadie has taken only two nice, long naps.  She had been napping 3-4 times a day only 45 minutes to an hour and a half at a time.  But yesterday and today she had two naps each day that were over 2 hours each!  I think her heiny likes the cloth diapers :)
  • Weight Watchers continues to go well.  I lost 3 pounds last week so I got my 5 pound star this week!!  It's the little things...and if you know me, you know I like my stickers!  My total weight loss so far is 5.8 pounds. Go me!
Thanks for bearing with me while I watch the game and blog simultaneously :)  GO STEELERS!!  (it should be interesting to see my Steelers in the Super Bowl with Eric's Packers.  Too bad Eric won't be home for the Super Bowl)

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Diapers

Well, I did it.  I bought cloth diapers.  The liners are in the dryer now and the diapers are on their first wash cycle.  I'm excited about changing Sadie from disposables to cloth in hopes that she'll finally remain rash-free.  She's had diaper rashes off and on since she was less than 2 weeks old (today she's 20 weeks!!).  Maddie never had rashes until she started on solid foods and her body was trying to adjust to the different foods she was eating.  I tried all different things with Sadie to try to keep the rashes away, even leaving her without a diaper for 30 minutes at a time, 3 times a day.  That's not pleasant with an infant, especially a breastfed infant!

I'm concerned about cloth diapering just because of a "fear of the unknown".  All the people I know who cloth diapered used the old cloth diapers, complete with pins and plastic pants.  I don't know anyone personally who uses "new" cloth diapers.  I'm entering a whole new world.  I've researched and researched (my research on cloth diapers initially began before Maddie was born...) and hope I've made the right decision for Sadie.  Overall I'm feeling good about the benefits of cloth diapering, just not sure of all the work involved!

Wish me luck :)  I'll keep you posted...

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Mommyhood

I've been reading several "mom" blogs lately and they're making me feel better about me and my parenting skills.  I'm always so hard on myself wanting to keep my house clean.  I know it's unrealistic to have everything in it's place all the time, but I feel like my house should look better than it usually does.  On any given day you'll find random piles of laundry on the floor outside of the laundry room, folded laundry on the couch waiting to be put away, shoes in any room of the house and on the stairs to be taken upstairs, toys from the front of the house to the back of my closet, pillows strewn about the furniture, toddler art supplies all over the kitchen, about 10 books on the bathroom floor (to keep Maddie entertained while she uses the potty), burp clothes EVERYWHERE, etc.  This list could go on and on but I'm sure by now my husband is thinking, "why is she telling people how bad our house looks?"  I tell you because I'm not the only person who's house looks this way :)  Anyone who has or had kids can tell you that.

I'm trying hard not to let myself stress over the way my house looks.  I'm trying to stop apologizing for the condition of my house if/when people come over.  The house looks the way it does because we LIVE here.  Maddie and I are eating about 18 hot meals a week which keeps my kitchen looking well loved.  We enjoy playing with games and puzzles in the playroom and Maddie enjoys cooking me "gourmet" meals in there too!  We like to snuggle under a blanket on the couch and watch a tv show.  We like to snuggle on the couch and read books.  Maddie is very creative and artistic in the kitchen with her crayons, markers and paints.  We are really enjoying life in our house.  Tonight Maddie and I had a dance party in the playroom that was SO MUCH FUN for both of us!  It only lasted about 20 minutes, but I felt like I had done a full hour of aerobics when we were done :)  These are the memories I want to keep of Maddie when she was a toddler.  I have been finding myself telling her "not right now" and "maybe later" so many times lately just so I could wash a dish or put away some towels.  I couldn't remember the last time I sat down to read her a book that didn't involve bedtime. 

I'll have plenty of time to keep things "perfect" when both girls are in school full time.  For now, I'm going to enjoy them and build a good foundation for a great mother-daughter relationship with both of my babies!!

Friday, January 14, 2011

Random Ramblings

I've got a lot going on in my head (as usual) and I don't really know how to form it into a sensible blog post so I'm going to do random thoughts as they come to me :)

1.  I started back to Weight Watchers last week.  I told myself before Sadie was born that I would allow myself the remainder of 2010 to eat whatever I wanted, as much as I wanted but as soon as Sadie turned 4 months old I would get back on track and lose whatever remaining baby weight I had to lose.  I didn't want to start "dieting" too soon after she was born because I wanted to make sure my milk supply was well established.  And I honestly thought that the breastfeeding would help me burn enough calories that I wouldn't have any problem losing the baby weight.  Well...I was W.R.O.N.G.  I lost 24 pounds of the 40 I had gained, then I gained back 5 of those pounds during the holidays.  :(  I still have 21 pounds to go.  Although I feel like I can't call all that "baby weight" now!  When Maddie was born I lost all 30 pregnancy pounds in just 2 weeks.  It was so easy.  I didn't watch what I ate, I just ate when I felt hungry and had no problems losing the weight.  I guess being 31 instead of 29 really affected me :(  Anyway...back to Weight Watchers.  I'm proud to announce that I lost 2.8 pounds this week!  YAY!  I'm hoping to be able to lose about 2 pounds per week but if my milk supply starts to decrease then I'll have to lose weight at a slower rate.  1 pound per week is recommended for breastfeeding mothers.  Blah...

2.  I'm going to take the rest of January to get more established in my meal planning/weight loss efforts.  I'm hoping I feel more confident as far as knowing what I can eat and what recipes I can safely cook to maintain a healthy lifestyle by the end of January.  Of course, this will be ongoing, I just hope I'm not feeling so anxious about food and feeling self conscious about food decisions in 2 more weeks.  Then in February I want to start the Couch to 5K program.  I downloaded the app for my iPhone back in November thinking I was ready to start jogging then.  Well, c-section bellies aren't fun to run with...so I wanted to lose a little more of the belly before I started running.  I should be good to go (honk...sorry, inside joke) in February.  I'll allow myself to get established in my running program in February and then March 2nd (when Sadie turns 6 months old and the child care at the gym will keep her) I'll be gym-bound.  BLAH.  I'm not looking forward to getting back to the gym, but yet I am.  Eric will be home then so I'll just go without taking Sadie to the gym with me while he's home.  In fact...I could probably start sooner than March 2nd since I could leave Sadie home with Eric! So, anyway, that's my "get healthy in 2011" plan.

3.  I'm tired.  I'm always tired.  As I sit here trying to collect my thoughts all I can think of is how tired I am and I should go to bed right now...

4.  Sadie's laughing now!  She's got a super cute little throaty laugh with an occasional squeak in between.  It's adorable!  But she's only in a laughing mood about once per day, usually in mid-late afternoon.  I love to catch her in that mood and get my daily dose of baby giggles!

5.  Maddie's potty trained!!  Her teachers at school aren't even putting her in a diaper at naptime anymore and she's staying dry :)  YAY for my big girl!!

6.  Eric's job.  That's about all I can say about that...it's on my mind a lot lately.

And now I'll end with some conversations with a 2-year old:

Tonight I thought I'd test her with story-telling :)  It went like this:
Me:  Once upon a time there was a boy named...
Maddie:  Pooka
Me:  And one day Pooka went to....
Maddie:  a castle
Me:  When Pooka got to the castle he saw a.....
Maddie:  crab
Me:  And when Pooka saw that crab at the castle he said....
Maddie:  Kacki week
???  Not sure what "kacki week" means :)  She's just really into making up words lately.

Maddie likes to come up with rhyming words.  Here are two of my favorites that she said the other night:

Monkey.....funky
Pajama....fashama

Maddie:  Knock knock
Me:  Who's there?
Maddie:  Maddie
Me:  Maddie who?
Maddie:  Maddie cow.  mooooo
(NO idea where she learned knock knock jokes!!)

Maddie calls binoculars "nobulars".  I think it's so cute!  Most things she says correctly so when she says something the way you'd expect a 2 year old to say it, it's cute :)

"A one man band, Mommy!  Just like a band aid."

"When it gets close to another Christmas I will have new Christmas songs in my life."

"I'm Santa Claus...(walks around the room)...I'm a sucking Santa. (grabs her snuggly and starts sucking her thumb).

"Look!" as she holds her hand up to me, "I have a big Santa "claw".  I have TWO, that's why I called Santa "Claws".

Do I have the sweetest/cutest baby big girl in the world or what?!?! 

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

A Whole New Year

Sorry I left you hanging from the last post. Time just continues to get away from me. I'm trying to get to bed earlier this year so that means I have to let some stuff go...like the blog :( I'm still going to keep it, just not sure how frequently I'll be posting. Anyway, on this post I want to take a look back at the post from New Year's 2010. You can find it here.

So to check back and see how we did:

We didn't make it to Disney World. We were planning the trip but it would've been during my first trimester and we didn't want to commit to reservations not knowing if I was going to be feeling well or not. With my pregnancy with Maddie I never would've been able to walk around Disney World. With my pregnancy Sadie I probably would've been fine, but there's no telling for sure :)

Maddie DID start school (as you know from here).

Maddie DID become a big sister!! (as we told you about here and here).

Maddie started not only talking in complete sentences, but in complete paragraphs, short stories even! This kid DOES.NOT.SHUT.UP. It's sweet to hear the things that come out of her mouth, but goodness...could I get a quiet minute please?!?! :) Even if she's not talking, she's singing or at least humming. It's eerily quiet in the house when she's at school.

We almost said goodbye to diapers in 2010.  Maddie had a 2 week break from school for the holidays and she potty trained in a matter of days!  She's completely trained during the day.  No accidents for about 2 weeks now!  She isn't always dry after naps, but hasn't wet during naps at school yet, only at home.  Bed time is another story...but, hey, if I only have to use 1-2 diapers a day I'm happy!

Last year I had a list of Maddie's favorites.  So here is a list of her favorites as of the end of 2010...

Favorite TV Show(s):  Dinosaur Train, Dino Dan (she's pretty obsessed with dinosaurs lately!), Fresh Beat Band
Favorite Movie:  Thomas the Tank Engine and Laurie Berkner Band (music video for kids).  I know those aren't actually movies, but those are the only two she asks for on a regular basis.
Favorite Food:  Still cheese.  She would eat cheese every day.  Just tonight I asked her what she wants to have for breakfast in the morning.  After I said no to chocolate, she told me she wants a babybel cheese!
Favorite Book:  Hmmm...there's no specific one that she asks for more than others.  But she has been pretty taken with her potty books.  She has 4 of them in the bathroom and she goes to her potty chair, tells me she needs privacy and sits there reading her books.  She actually has them pretty much memorized so it's really sweet to hear her reciting the books :)
Favorite Toys:  She still loves her kitchen stuff!  The teapot is still played with regularly and she's more into playing with her dinosaurs now.  She also enjoys doing a lot of puzzles.  She's mastered the ones she already has so I need to look for more challenging ones soon...
Favorite non-toy activity:  Anything artistic.  Fingerpainting, coloring with markers, painting with dot paint or with paint brushes.  Basically if she can be creative, she's happy :)
Favorite song:  She has a lot of songs she sings so I can't really narrow it down to one.  She still sings Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Old MacDonald had a Farm.  Two new ones she sings are The Noble Duke of York and Skinamarinkadink (sp?)
Favorite "guilty pleasure":  Starbucks.  HA!  Yesterday we went into Target, she saw the Starbucks inside the store and said, "Oh, mommy.  I'm thirsty."  I was on to her so I said, "I'm sorry sweetie, I forgot to bring your cup.  But that's ok, let's go buy what we need and when we get home I'll get you a drink".  She said, "that's ok you forgot my cup.  We can just get cow milk at Starbucks."  (Cow milk is the Horizon organic milk they sell there...) 
Favorite place to go:  Jumpalooza, library story time ( we took Sadie last week for the first time!!) and to any grocery store with a race car shopping cart...

In 2011 we have all kinds of exciting things to look forward to!  Sadie will have a lot of firsts this year...first teeth, crawling, walking (maybe, unless she's a late walker like Maddie was), maybe first words, first solid foods, etc.  I'm honestly not sure what to expect from Maddie this year.  Maybe she'll start riding a tricycle...other than that I don't have a guess :)  I'll just look forward to all the fun things she surprises me with!  We're looking forward to a trip to San Diego this year (maybe without Daddy) and a trip to Baltimore to visit with my family.  Not sure where else we'll end up.  I'm hoping to get a little mommy get-away in when if Eric comes home permanently!

And now I'll leave you with the first picture I took of Maddie in 2010 and the last picture I took of her in 2010...