bye, grandma

we took grandma to the zoo again this morning before making our way to the airport for her afternoon flight. it was colder out (27 when we left the house), but without the wind and a little sunshine it felt a lot warmer than our trip on sunday. madelyn was in a really great mood and ran around crunching leaves, laughing, squealing, and taking in all the animals with grandma. by the time we left madelyn was getting tired (she had a melt down as soon as we got into the parking lot) and we were all hungry and cold.

off we went to get some lunch before saying our final good-byes. madelyn was all sunshine, smiles, hugs, and chatter throughout lunch. i think that her little cat nap on the way over may have had something to do with that change in temperament. she was fine the entire time that we were in the zoo, but the second we got to the parking lot she slid out of her stroller and threw herself down on the pavement. she repeatedly laid herself face down and was crying. i haven't seen her ever behave like this so i was very thankful that it didn't last into our lunch since we had some time to kill before dropping grandma off.

somehow madelyn managed to stay awake long enough to say good-bye to grandma at the airport. in her normal fashion, she was a little delayed in saying her "bye" until we were driving away. she just kept looking up at the sky and waving while saying "bye" softly to herself. she must be getting the hang of the airport/airplane correlation from all of her own travel experiences. she then requested for "bob" to "sing" "please" and fell asleep before the first song was over. she must have really been worn out because she slept for a little over 3 hours!

after she woke up she had a happy snack and dinner before heading to tumbling class with daddy. then straight to bath and bed for our little sweety.

it was very nice to have grandma visit and we were even more grateful that we had no excuse not to go out for our anniversary. we went to grab a quick dinner where we were able to sit at a table next to the fireplace, then went to see fireproof (a wonderful date night flim) where we were one of three couples in the theater on a monday night, and were still home by 9 so we got a decent night's sleep too. we were both very grateful that we took the time to celebrate the marriage that we are both very grateful to have - reflecting on our past and looking forward to our future. love.

grandma z. visit

we have been busy entertaining grandma z. since she arrived on friday morning. she would say that mainly we have been eating. a lot. and maybe we have, but no more than the normal three meals a day. madelyn hadn't been eating very much over the past few weeks, but right before grandma got here her appetite returned with a vengeance! this has meant lots and lots of snacks are brought on all outings and that meals can take a while because she never seems to actually be full.

i have been working with maddie all week on saying "grandma" so that grandma can have a maddie assigned name, but all see says back is "buddy". this would work except that she wanders around and says it to herself and it seems to have no real meaning to her even though it is a real word. if you ask her to say "grandma", she will reply "buddy". it has been very funny to us all.

madelyn has enjoyed eating out because it is not something she does on a regular basis and even when we do it is just somewhere quick not where there is a waiter and utensils on the table. she has enjoyed having her own full-sized fork. here she is enjoying her macaroni and cheese on friday night while the rest of us ate some yummy bar-b-que. she was so silly with excitement over her meal and the special cup that was just for her.

besides eating (and eating) we have played, read books, gone shopping, gone to the zoo, and gone to stonefire pizza company for "mommy and me" breakfast.

we went to the zoo yesterday and it was about 33 degrees out, overcast, and sleeting/snowing off and on. needless to say, we were almost the only people there besides employees. luckily, our zoo is open 365 days a year and is therefore set up for not the most ideal outdoor weather. a lot of the exhibits are indoors year round, but now that it is cold out we got to see some indoor exhibits that we have never gone in before.

one of these exhibits was where they keep the giraffes when the temperature gets below 40. we did learn that the giraffes are given the option to go outside at least once a day because the indoor space is only a fraction of their outdoor exhibit. the neatest part was how much closer you could get to them! i don't think that i have ever seen a giraffe so closely before. it was neat and maddie enjoyed watching them eat. not to mention that it was very warm in that building which was nice too since the temperature felt like it was dropping outside.

grandma is on babysitting duty tonight so that matt and i can go out to celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary! we are both exhausted and thought about just going to bed early, but we are going to drag ourselves out for dinner and a movie instead. i couldn't even tell you the last movie i saw in the theater - it has been well over a year (or two) - and i am looking forward to some popcorn. it is going to be so nice to have some uninterrupted time with matt. we haven't had time to ourselves in at least two months. he spends his evenings working on his computer, or most recently working in the basement until after midnight. and i work on the computer after maddie goes down, clean-up, and make preparations for the next day before collapsing in bed. needless to say, i am glad that we are pushing ourselves to take this night out.

more on grandma's visit tomorrow. love.

six year anniversary

today was matt and i's sixth wedding anniversary! (he is putting maddie to sleep and that is why i have the time to blog.) we had nothing to do all day and just hung around and played with maddie. all three of us even took a nap this afternoon (maddie napped in her crib). and tonight we went out to dinner, but matt didn't feel comfortable leaving maddie with one of the neighborhood girls just yet, so she came along for the ride. given that we had to wait an hour for a table, she did really great. we got too close to bedtime at the end of the meal so matt took her out to the car while i waited for boxes and the check.

her top teeth must be just days from coming in (or at least some teeth somewhere in her mouth). her spit up has increased again, she is sucking her thumb more, chewing on our fingers more, eating less at each sitting (or at least more agitated and squirmy) and her drooling is getting out of control. these were all things that she went through two days before her first tooth broke through. and i noticed this morning that the poor girl has a rash on the underside of her chin! i think that it is just drool irritation so i have gotten her bibs back out as a part of everyday wear.

we tried bananas this morning, but she wasn't too in to them. oatmeal cereal is still her favorite! i told matt that she must have inherited my love of carbs... oh and did i rant on how DISGUSTING rice cereal is! i tasted it after she had been eating it for about a week and told matt that i wouldn't feed it to her for another day! that is when we switched to the oatmeal cereal and the difference is amazing. she can't get enough of the stuff!

she is continuing to improve at sitting on her own. she basically gets too excited after a few seconds and reaches for something or throws herself backwards. that's why i am holding her hand in the picture - its more for me than for her.

i'll close tonight with some footage of her playing in the exersaucer. (i am trying to appease my mother's demands for more and longer videos.) you might notice that she is in short sleeves - we have been keeping the house warmer than we normally would because the winter wear is limiting to her movement. the long sleeves get caught when she rolls over and she can't get her arm free. you can hear the dryer and the dogs in the background and matt is sitting on the couch watching muted football. maddie is just trying to get the toys into her mouth. sometimes she gets a little too energetic about getting them in her mouth and she ends up crying because some part of her face took the impact of her mouth's target. enjoy! love.