okay, so i have finally set everything up to make the big move - to a more inclusive blog address that is now that mason is here. i will not be posting to this address any more so change your bookmarks.
here is the new address: http://allaboutmlg.blogspot.com/
and don't worry, all your favorite posts from the past have made the move too. love.
not only did i not get much in the way of sleep last night, but today was an adventure in bodily fluids. i will try not to be too graphic.
i don't know what i was thinking, but i had left way too much to do for nana's arrival this afternoon. between the dogs and the kids there was a lot of up and down the stairs trying to prepare the guestroom and basement for house guests.
after feeding mason i thought that it would be a good idea to put him into my moby wrap so that there would be one less person/animal to keep track of as i went about my chores. mason does spit up a lot so i was just reaching for the burp cloth when i saw the first of the spit up coming up. as i was wiping that off his face i had to quickly turn my head to keep from getting projectile milk from hitting me in the face. instead i got it all over my neck, shirt, wrap, leg, and foot. not to mention that mason was choking and it was coming out of his nose. yuck!
the experience did give me another reason to love my wrap - it took me about half a second to lift him up and out so that i could turn him over to help him breathe and stop choking. the good news is that mason was fine. now what should i do next?
i haven't mentioned that madelyn had finished her snack and was crying for more as i was putting mason in the wrap and while i was standing their covered in a belly's worth of spit up she started whining about needing more water. thankfully she accepted my explanation about having to wait just a minute and settled herself down to wait.
i striped mason down to his diaper and laid him on the floor on his belly - in case he had anything else in him. then i went to strip myself down in the shower for a quick rinse off before getting back to work cleaning up the rest of the mess. but wait, there is more!
madelyn came to get me saying that mason was pooping. i didn't rush right over because he most likely just had some gas (his belly was pretty empty at this point). when i got to wear madelyn was sitting with him i found her holding his diaper and mason laying naked on the ground. and, yes, it was poopie. madelyn had managed to get poop on mason's belly and foot in the process of taking off his diaper too.
so here was more to clean up. remember, i am trying to get the house cleaned before matt's mom got here. i got mason cleaned up and dressed, got myself dressed again, and got madelyn cleaned up. i was really glad when madelyn's nap time came around!
thankfully, i was able to get everything, including me, cleaned up before nana arrived this afternoon.
we have been running a daily gentle cycle around here. between diaper's leaking in the swing, nursing bras, and stuffed animals there have been a lot of gentle cycle items to get clean. i did three gentle cycle loads today alone! i also did four or five other loads today in preparation for our guests. i am worn out today and very ready for bed. hopefully i will have a much more restful night tonight.
now just to mix things up a little, and include a picture, here is a madelyn story. yesterday madelyn decided that watching dinner preparation and occasionally pouring or stirring something for me wasn't enough. now she wants to "cut something too." it was her idea to use her little toddler knife to do the cutting, but i got her the cutting board and something to 'cut'. granted her knife isn't nearly sharp enough to cut any produce, but she is more than happy to help 'cut' green onions for me and it keeps her away from where i am using a real knife. and she is so proud of it! she kept telling daddy that she was cutting and tonight she happily told nana that she was "cutting onions". whatever it takes to keep dinner preparation happy and tantrum free. love.
sometimes i hesitate to post when something is going well because it always seems to go poorly as soon as i post to the blog about it and last night was no exception.
i posted about mason sleeping so well and getting close to sleeping through the night - then the blog effect... last night mason got up every 2-1/2 to 3 hours. to make it worse, i had gone to bed early because i had a migraine coming on and needed to work double time to get the house ready for nana's arrival today.
i just love how kids keep life interesting! love.
after church we went to check out a new target and grocery store that were having grand openings in a brand new shopping center near our house. 
i never expected that i would become such a fanatic about shopping carts, but these are the kinds of things that make my life easier. and i didn't mention how thrilled madelyn was to have the option ride versus walking. she told us several times that she was very happy to be riding in the cart and that she really "likes this cart".
madelyn is such a good helper! sometime she 'helps' a little too much, but overall she really is a help to me. and not just getting me things either. she can get him to take a pacifier better than i can! she usually offers to put it back in his mouth before i can even ask. i do have to ask her not to give it to him when he is already sleeping though.
she helps set the table for dinner by putting out napkins for all of us and then picking out three forks from the drawer to put on the table for us to use. she has been picking out her own spoon and fork for several months now, but letting her pick out forks for matt and i is new. she does a really good job of it too.
this week for dinner she shucked all five ears of corn for me out on the deck. and she often gets her stool out of the bathroom (before i can get her kitchen stool down off the refrigerator) to help with the rest of the cooking. i try to let her do as much pouring and stirring as i can but mainly she just watches and talks to me about what i am doing. or she gives mason "magic kisses" and his pacifier to help him stop crying for me.
madelyn's manners also continue to improve. she will now say, "may i please have [blank], mommy?" i love the "may i". and she rarely has to be reminded to say please or thank you any more. she is getting very consistent about saying "thank you" for complements too.
this week we have eaten cantaloupe. madelyn has eaten most of it. she eats half a decent sized cantaloupe with dinner and/or lunch before i cut her off and switch her to another fruit. matt can't believe how she puts it away! she really likes to put the halves back together to make a circle - she pointed this out to me while i was preparing her lunch one day.
everyday when we pick her up from school she tells her teacher (and anyone else who will listen that i am her mommy and he is her brother mason. then she tells us how much she missed each of us.mason makes so many crazy noises when he is sleeping. he is way noisier that madelyn ever was! here is some video of a common sleeping sound.
he is sleeping until almost 4am now and i think that he will be making it all the way through the night (8 hours or more) very soon. he doesn't nurse longer than 10 or 15 minutes and doesn't really wake up all the way. i don't change his diaper or anything, just a quick feed and back down. so he is giving me about 5 hours, then a quick feed, and another 3-4 hours. madelyn definitely helps with his morning wake-up so he might sleep longer if he was uninterrupted.
i have been letting him nap on his belly during the day because he seems to have more gas than madelyn ever did and being on his belly obviously works it out of him. not to mention that his head is getting closer to the top of the swing already! i think after papa and nana's visit i am going to work on getting him to nap in his crib before i go back to work. it's not a huge deal at this point, but i want to make the move to a schedule as soon as possible. love.
after three weeks of 9:30pm games, matt's softball team will now have three weeks of 6:30pm games. the great part about that is that madelyn, mason, and i can go to cheer him on at the earlier games. madelyn loves to cheer for her daddy! she is particularly proud of him when he bats and tells everyone around her that her daddy is batting and is going to hit the ball.
because it was an early game everyone else on the team had their families come too. madelyn was delighted to see so many kids around her age at the game. she was particularly interested in a one year old boy (seen to her right in the picture of the kids watching matt warm up for the game - madelyn is towards the middle in the blue shirt). i think that it was sort of like, "i wish my brother could walk around and play". she tried to run around with the older girls (ages 3 and 4) but they didn't always acknowledge her - not that it stopped madelyn from trying or running around with them. one of the girls did grab her by the arm and lead her over to where she had a bag of popcorn to share. madelyn, never one to turn down food, stood there stuffing her face until i called her away because the other little girl had left a few minutes ago without madelyn even noticing.
this is a picture madelyn requested i take so that she could "show daddy" how she wears her mr.potatohead pieces. i love it when she thinks about him and misses him when he is at work.
yesterday matt was pretty tired when he got home from work and he was so lucky that the game madelyn wanted to play with him was 'put daddy to bed'. she had him get into her bed, tucked him in, got him a drink of her milk from the refrigerator, gave him a kiss, and then laid down in bed with him to read him books. i went in to check on them after a while (it was pretty quiet in there) and sure enough matt was asleep and madelyn was still reading him books. she just looked up at me and said, "come, mommy. join us." "join us" must be something she learned at school. it just sounded so formal and mature to me that i had her repeat it a few times for my amusement.
i was surprised that she was being so still and quiet because she had taken a 4 hour nap and only woke up shortly before matt got home from work. we left the room and let daddy sleep until it was bath time; at which point madelyn went storming in excitedly declaring, "wake up, daddy, its bath time!," over and over.
now this one just amazes me. matt is almost always able to get madelyn to wear shoes she normally refuses to wear. i think it might be because he is getting ready to take her out to do something she really wants to do and just wants to get her shoes on as fast as possible. like today for example. she and daddy were going on a "trip" to take pictures downtown (it is something matt is doing for work and madelyn took her camera - our old one - to help). i have been trying to get her to wear these new shoes for over a week now by pointing out the heart and bow on them with no luck - in fact the suggestion is greeted with screams of "no". today daddy suggested them and madelyn not only put them on willingly, but then she told me to look at the pretty heart on them! at least one of us can get her to try new shoes... love.
