My Favorite

This is my favorite picture from our trip back to the East Coast.  Thanks, Dad, for this great shot of Maddie!!

We're Home!!

Just wanted to stop by and say hi to everyone :)  Maddie and I spent a great 9 days with my mom (she came to Houston) then 13 days back in Maryland and Pennsylvania visiting with my family.  It's been fun and also a little tiring.  We got home last night and this morning we're getting right back into the swing of things.  Maddie will be heading to Mother's Day out in less than an hour, I will go grocery shopping then come home, get it all put away, put on my bathing suit and head to the pool to relax without a toddler.  If only I could enjoy a margarita...  :)

I'll work on getting some pictures together over the next couple of days to share our vacation with you all.  Maddie was such a trooper on our trip.  She LOVED the plane taking off and she LOVED showing off for our family.  She met a lot of cousins on this trip (most she had met before but was way too young to remember).  She enjoyed playing outside with my sister's boys for about 3 hours on Sunday afternoon and has been asking me "Where Jon go?" or "Where Jon went?" ever since.  She took to him right away!

Ok, I better go get Maddie up and ready for school.  Hope everyone's enjoying their summer vacations!

7 more weeks til baby #2 arrives :)  :)  :)

Quotes by Maddie

"I have a baby in my belly"

"Oh, Mommy, you give me best milk ever"

"I sorry 'bout that, Momma"

"I eat bologna all day.  I can't get enough"

"That's a hard word." (when I asked her if she could say "Josh and Amy")

"Look!  My baby sister moving too!" (while sucking her belly in and out...we had just watched my belly moving while baby sister was rolling/kicking)

"Momma, you give me energy."

"Momma, you my best friend."

"It's lunch time.  Stop cleaning Momma."

"Pray Jesus make Maddie stop crying."

"Mommy, you like bananas and hold banana peels?" (I let her hold the whole banana with the peel for the first time so it was a pretty big deal.)

These are a few...

...of my favorite things!  Just thought I'd take a minute to share some of my simple, every day pleasures with you :)

Ok, for anyone who isn't a fan of cleaning, this product is for you!  I'm not even kidding.  When I bought this for the first time I was looking for things to clean.  I quickly used up the whole bottle and didn't let myself buy anymore until I used up the Sam's Club size bottle of Lemon Mr. Clean I had in the closet.  I was so happy to finish that bottle over the weekend!  I immediately added Mr. Clean to my shopping list for Monday and I knew I was getting the purple one :)  I've been keeping my kitchen and bathrooms much cleaner since I bought it...and I even used it to clean Maddie's kiddie pool the other day!  This stuff is AMAZING!  The best part?  The price tag of $2.97 at Walmart.  Seriously!

This is my morning juice to take my vitamins with.  I was a little skeptical of the 50% less thing just because it obviously isn't 100% orange juice not from concentrate like the original Tropicana.  However, I was pleasantly surprised and now when I have "regular" orange juice it's too sweet for me.  This stuff rocks!

This is my newest favorite Yankee Candle.  It's pretty hot most days so I don't burn it but I still keep it out on the counter so I can pick it up and take a big whiff :)  This scent reminds me of Orange Blossom, one of the Straweberry Shortcake dolls I used to have when I was little.  (I still have it but she doesn't smell so much anymore)  Also, this is one of the double wick candles.  Ever since I tried the double wick I won't go back to the single!  These burn so much more evenly and you can start smelling it within 5 minutes of lighting it. 

These delicious fruit bars are something I just picked up today on a whim.  I was in the mood for something sweet and I had seen a commercial for them recently and couldn't wait to try them.  Oh my goodness!  I wish Blue Bell was available in all parts of the country just so everyone could experience this.  It's heaven on a stick...speaking of the stick, why do they have to use wooden sticks?  Why not plastic?  I can't stand that ice cream bars (or fruit bars) taste like a tongue depresser when you get to the end.  Is there a reason for that? 

Do you see this nutrition label?!?!  Only 70 calories and 0 fat?!?!  I'm pretty sure that's better than Weight Watchers ice cream, and it certainly tastes better too.  Seriously, if you can get Blue Bell in your area, you HAVE to try these!

The last of my favorite things is our new minivan.  We never pictured ourselves as minivan people but with the second baby just months away we started thinking of a bigger vehicle.  Well, we could really do with just the Accord, but we found a GREAT deal on this practically new van and we couldn't pass up the opportunity.  Every time I drive it I fall a little bit more in love...I guess I'm destined to be a soccer mom :)

So, there you have it.  My favorite things for now...oh, and there's this other delicious juice called Cranberry Concord Grape (I forget the brand, probably Ocean Spray) that I love too, I just don't have any right now.  You can't just get Cran-Grape, it has to be the Cranberry Concord Grape.  It just tastes like grape juice but with the added benefits of the cranberry juice...I could drink a whole bottle in a day!

What are some of the things you can't live without?

MDO out and a HUGE Milestone!

Today is day #4 of Mother's Day Out (MDO).  I thought by today Maddie would be used to the routine a little more than she is.  She's just having such a rough time getting used to it all...I still feel terrible when I leave her, but I know she's in good hands and that this experience will be beneficial to both of us in the long run.  It's just so hard to walk away from my baby girl when she's screaming and reaching for me and I bolt out the door.  I feel like I'm deserting her.  She doesn't understand that this is a good thing, she only sees Mommy bring her into this place that she doesn't like that much and then I leave.  I'm surprised she doesn't hate me when I come to pick her up.  Today is the last day she'll be going until July 14th so we have a 4 week break before she goes back.  I'm so frustrated that we'll have to go through this process all over again in 4 weeks.  BLAH!

Onto the huge milestone...last night I saw Maddie in her "poopy stance" in the playroom so I asked her if she wanted to put the poo poos in the potty.  To my surprise she said "yes"!  I was floored because she normally likes to deny that she's even pooping so for her to agree to the potty was amazing :)  I took her in to the bathroom, unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts (lesson learned...we're going to ALL ELASTIC from now on) and sat her on the potty.  She sat there reading her potty book and then she told me she was all done.  She stood up to show me what she thought was her pee pees, and to her surprise there was something else in the potty!  She told me, "what that Momma?" in a very curious/excited voice and I told her what it was.  We did a big potty dance (after getting cleaned up, of course!), washed hands then she had a Hershey Kiss!  That was a huge deal for her :)  She LOVES chocolate!  I told her anytime she puts the poo poos in the potty she can have more chocolate.  Another thing I had promised her was new underwear when she did poo poos in the potty.  So off to Walmart we went...she wanted Dora underwear or Princess underwear but the only ones they had in her size were Tinkerbell.  I asked if Tinkerbell underwear was good and she said "yes" with a big smile.  She has a Tinkerbell bowl/plate/cup set at home and a placemat so she was pretty thrilled about having underwear to go with it all :)

So, I guess we're entering full force potty training the rest of this week...maybe we'll start on Friday just being in underwear and see how it goes.  I also need to work with Maddie so she can learn how to pull her own shorts down.  I've never given her the chance to undress or dress herself before because I don't like the idea that she'll undress when I don't want her to...now's the time for her to learn!!

Potty Update

Maddie started showing interest in the potty on Friday.  Saturday she peed in the potty 3 times, Sunday 4 times.  So far today she's peed 4 times (it's 5:00 pm).  When I got her up from her nap I left her diaper off and she has peed 3 times in the potty with no accidents!!  The first two times I noticed signs and/or noticed that plenty of time had passed.  The third time she TOLD ME she had to pee.  That just blew my mind!  When I ask her if she can "feel the pee pees coming" and she says "yes", she really has to go!  She hasn't sat on the potty more than 3 minutes any time I've taken her.  I think it's pretty amazing that she knows the sensation already.  Hopefully this potty training thing will be easier than I was anticipating...I'll keep you posted!

Potty Time!!

Maddie just asked me to put her on the potty!  I've asked her before if she wants to sit on the potty and she's been turning me down for the past couple of months so I stopped asking.  Tonight when I went in the bathroom she wanted to pee too.  So I took her diaper off of her, she sat down on her potty and peed!!  I'm so proud of her for doing this on her own :)  I'm still not ready to begin potty training, but she's off to a good start on her own...