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...

Mother's Day Out, Take Two

I was hopeful that today would go better since Maddie got the "unknowns" out of the way yesterday.  When she woke up this morning she was saying "my mommy always come back" and seemed in a good mood.  I brought her downstairs for breakfast and she told me "I have good nap at school" and was just talking about all the good things about school yesterday.  I asked her if she wanted to go to school today and without hesitation she told me "no".  I told her today is a school day so we needed to get all her stuff ready for school.  We talked about how Mommy always comes back and she seemed ok.  When we pulled into the parking lot of the church she started crying and saying "I not like this park" (there's a playground in the front of the church) and "I not like this school".  I reminded her how nice her teachers are and that Mommy would come back after naptime.  She stopped crying and rolled her backpack into the school all by herself.  That was the end of the "happy" time...as we headed back the hall toward the classroom she started to cry.  When we walked into the room, the cry turned to a scream.  I knew I was going to have a hard time leaving her today.  I just wanted to stay and hold her!  I did stay longer than I should've today.  I know I'm supposed to say my goodbyes, then head out the door.  But I couldn't today.  I held her and sang to her while she sucked her thumb.  Then I gave her one last hug and told her Mommy had to go.  She started screaming and tensing up her body.  I put her on the floor, hugged her and kissed her and told her I would see her soon and to be a good girl at school and have fun.  Of course I cried...again...her teachers are so sweet!  One picked her up and held her as I left and the other reassured me that it would get better :)

Around 11:30 my cell phone rang and I didn't recognize the number.  I usually don't answer those phone calls, but something made me wonder if it was about Maddie.  I thought they might be calling to tell me she was just having a break down and they couldn't soothe her.  I answered and it was Ms. Kristy (Maddie's teacher).  I immediately asked if Maddie was ok.  She said Maddie stopped crying on the way to chapel (they go at 9:45...first thing after being dropped off) and she seemed to be enjoying herself.  At 11:30 they were at the playground and Maddie was playing and having a much better day.  Again...I cried :)  I was SO RELIEVED to hear that she was having a better day today.  Ms. Kristy said every once in a while Maddie would say "my mommy always come back" then went back to playing.

I couldn't wait to go pick Maddie up this afternoon just because I was so excited to see how she was doing.  When I went to get her, she was just walking around playing in the room, not even holding snuggly.  When she saw me she smiled and came running.  She gave me a big hug and said "I miss you so much Mommy!".  I told her I missed her so much too and she just hugged me so tight :)  She had some tears come to her eyes but she didn't cry!  Then she told me "look this BIG MESS" as we looked around at all the blocks on the floor.  She was proud to show me her backpack and nap mat and told me she had fun at school today.  It was so nice going to pick her up knowing she had a much better day today!

Today her "report card" showed that she was happy today, ate most of her lunch (which I found to NOT be true...she ate 1 cucumber round, 5 mini pretzels and 5 raspberries...didn't touch her sandwich), she didn't nap today!!  This is the first time in Maddie's life that she went all day without a nap.  They said she was very quiet and just rested on her nap mat but she never fell asleep.  Looks like we get to have an early bedtime tonight.  Woo hoo!!

After school I took her to McDonald's to have a hot fudge sundae to celebrate a good day at school.  Then I let her play in the play area for a little while.  She was so much more confident.  She talked to some of the kids that were playing and was just really sweet.  I can already see a boost in her confidence.  Let's pray this continues!!  I'm SO PROUD of my big girl :)  :)  :)

Day 1 Down

Whew!  We survived day 1!  When I went in to get Maddie she was still on her nap mat.  All the other nap mats were rolled up and put away, all the other kids were playing around Maddie and there she was, just chillin' on her mat, sucking her thumb.  She didn't even seem to notice when I came in to pick her up.  When she did see me (after I had already knelt down on the floor in front of her) she sat up, started crying and hugged me.  I asked her if she had fun at school today and she said "yes" while crying.  Her teachers had a good laugh at that one!  Then I asked if she wanted to come back to school again tomorrow and she said "yes" again.  Both good things!  The teacher said she had a pretty rough day.  She needed to be held a lot and one of the teachers even held her to go to sleep.  (I'm so glad they were willing to do that!)

Here's a picture of the form they sent home with her to let me know how her day went...

After school we went to Tutti Frutti, a self-serve frozen yogurt place, as a special "I'm so proud of my big girl" treat.  Maddie seemed happy to get ice cream.  Tomorrow we're going to buy new shoes after school.  She's had the sneakers she wore today since February and when she ran through the kitchen after school today she said ouch, then bent down and grabbed at her toes.  Yeah, I think she needs new ones! 

So, Maddie wouldn't let me take any "first day of school" pictures before school so after school I asked if I could take some pictures of her now.  She HAD to stand in front of the tv for me to take pictures, but at least she let me take some!  Here they are...

after the FIRST picture she told me "I just need take a break" and went to get a drink of water.

and then the posing began!  You can even see her mouth forming the word "cheese" in some of the pictures :)

in this picture she was very concerned because Murphy started chewing on a toy.  Funny girl!