yea, daddy!

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.

madelyn's 2-year plus check-up

and back to the doctor we go... madelyn was looking forward to laying down to be measured like mason had been on friday. i think that she was a little disappointed to have to stand on the scale and then be measured against the wall. she even asked to be weighed on the baby scale in the room. as was expected, her vocabulary got rave reviews and so did her coordination. i guess balancing on one leg for a second is a three-year-old skill and madelyn could do it on each leg - who knew?

here are her stats:

height - 37-1/2 inches (99th percentile)
weight - 32.2 lbs. (93rd percentile)
bmi (they start tracking body mass index at 2) - 44th percentile

basically, she is really tall and the perfect weight for her height. the whole appointment consisted of the doctor having a conversation with madelyn about her favorite things. apparently her favorite food is peanut butter and jelly - again, who knew? and when the doctor asked about her favorite vegetables she told her about the squash she and daddy were growing in their garden.

madelyn did a wonderful job with the shots too. they were never referred to as "shots" during the appointment, but on the way to the car she told me that she had gotten "pinched on the leg" and then told me that she got "two shots". after telling this to matt he mentioned that they have been reading a book about elmo going to the doctor that talks about shots so that is probably where she got the correct word from. she was not phased by the shots at all. i mean, she cried because it hurt, but she got over it as soon as the band aids were on. i was impressed.

as i was getting everyone ready to go before the appointment, mason gave me his first real smile! he looked me straight in the eye when i said, "hi, mason," and smiled his big smile. i guess the doctor was right about him smiling early.

we often call madelyn "maddie-mad" so tonight she was calling daddy "daddy-dad". i thought that it was funny enough to share with you all. love.

batter up!

we had a pretty quiet day around here today. we went to church and then down to the "riverwalk" for a leisurely stroll with a stop at the playground for madelyn since it was once again on the cool side out.

after a long nap (without eating lunch first) madelyn went to help daddy in the yard. with their work done, and popsicles eaten, they decided to take out the bat and tee big pop and grandma gave her during their visit (we didn't have the time to use it while they were here). being as independent and stubborn as her parents, madelyn refused to let daddy show her how to properly hold a bat so here is her interpretation of playing baseball. (it might make you a little seasick because i was up on our deck with the camera and had it zoomed in to them.)

she was never as exciting when i had the camera on as when i was just watching - of course. she would say "ready, daddy, ready?" and then hit the ball while matt pretended to 'field' it for her. i guess she announced that she needed a hat (you need to wear a baseball hat to play baseball after all) and matt offered her his (you can see it in the first part of the video) and then when i came out to watch again she asked me to go and get "maddie's hat" so that it would fit better. she is the one that put it on her head backwards after first wearing it correctly. when she was telling her grandparents about playing baseball she brought up that mommy had to go and get her hat for her - it was that big of a deal.

daddy sent her in to get ready for dinner so after getting washed up she got her milk out of the refrigerator for a drink. she took a big gulp from her cup and then said, "it sure is hot today!" this made me laugh for two reasons - one - where did she come up with that, and - two - it wasn't hot today.

side note - madelyn gives mason and hug and kiss good-night without us having ever asked her. she just hugs and kisses me and then runs over to hug and kiss mason in the swing. such a loving big sister!

big pop and grandma go to the zoo

what trip to milwaukee would be complete without joining madelyn at the zoo? and big pop and grandma wouldn't have it any other way! madelyn is always finding new things to explore and she got to do two very special things with big pop and grandma.

(she is finally tall enough to get her eye up to the eye piece and i thought that it was cute to see her on such extreme tippy-toes.)

we had to return the double stroller we ordered (it arrived damaged) so madelyn was expected to walk the entire time. she asked for the stroller when we first pulled in to the parking lot, but then she never mentioned it again. she did get a few rides from big pop and grandma though.

first on our new zoo activities was a trip to the seal and sea lion show. we just happen to be walking by three minutes before the next show started so we got our tickets and headed in to find seats. i think that madelyn was more interested in her snack than in the show, but she did seem to enjoy the parts she watched. the show was nice and short but still entertaining. i think that was the first time i had ever seen a seal jump up in the air like a dolphin.

next we went to a temporary exhibit that i knew would be right up grandma's alley. it is called "wings down under" and it is where you get some seeds glued to a stick and then go into a big cage with parakeets, cockatiels, and small parrots (i think that is what they were - they were red, blue, and green). madelyn was a little taken back when she tried to pet a parakeet and got bit, but before long she wanted to get the birds herself, without big pop's help. we were lucky to have big pop with us because the birds were up so high almost no one could reach them. big pop was getting them down for other kids too because he was the tallest in the room. i felt bad for the shorter parents who couldn't reach the birds to touch their sticks to the bird's chest (making it step onto the stick). they were just walking around with their sticks in the air hoping that a bird would show mercy and come land on it.

grandma and madelyn looking for more birds while grandma holds the small parrot on her popsicle stick.

big pop giving madelyn a parakeet to hold.

madelyn showing me the bird she is holding all by herself. you can tell that she isn't 100% about this. i wasn't really sure how this exhibit was going to go. it was a little overwhelming to be in a cage with so many birds - even for me. and, yes, mason came in too.

after a nap at home it was time for madelyn to head to swimming class with daddy so we all piled in the cars to watch. madelyn is very comfortable in the water and likes going under and jumping to daddy from the side of the pool. she often comes home from class to tell me that she jumped to daddy and its okay because he caught her. tonight is their last class for the summer and i think that madelyn will be a little sad. although daddy will appreciate not having to rush home from work everyday to make it to the 5:30pm classes. i think he will miss swimming with madelyn though. love.

adventures in big sister-ing

madelyn seems to enjoy being a big sister. yesterday she took on the task of 'reading' to mason while he relaxed in his swing. she came up to "touch mason" (a new favorite activity) and then said, "i'll read to you, okay?" she picked her new happy birthday, maisy! book and told mason "this is maisy" while showing him the book cover before sitting down to read.

she told him about all the pictures and then sang him the "happy birthday" song when she got to that part of the book. this book has flaps and pulls so it was cute to see her trying to tell him about what he couldn't see.

she has also become very interested in her (and mason's) diapers. she has been telling us about what is going on in her diaper, sometimes before it even happens, and demanding a "clean diaper". she has mainly done this while we are out running errands. i was going to wait a few more weeks, but i think that i might think about starting to potty train her in the next week or so. she starts preschool next week so i might wait until she gets settled there but i would hate to miss this window of interest. right now it is just funny to see her pulling on her diapers while telling me that she needs to go pee-pee and needs her "wet diaper changed".

as part of her diaper interest, she has been watching and 'helping' with mason's diaper changes. we haven't used the changing table for madelyn's diapers in a long time - at least 6 months. we just change her on the floor because she got too big for the changing table to be worth using. not to mention that she was just too heavy for me to be lifting while pregnant. anyway, she has been asking to be changed on the changing table every now and then since mason came home. i guess she didn't want to wait and climbed up on top of it in mason's room and laid down for daddy to change her diaper yesterday! i missed it, but it doesn't surprise me that she could get up there on her own.

in non-mason news, madelyn has been doing more art-and-craft type projects. last week we made paper bag puppets with markers, googlie-eyes, and pom-poms. yesterday daddy helped madelyn use stencils and paint to decorate a bird house kit she received as a big sister gift. today they are going to hang the bird house and hope that something moves in soon.

madelyn and daddy finished up this session of swimming lessons the night we were admitted to have mason. they had been working on "dunking" and matt said that madelyn would jump in from the side of the pool and happily go under water before being 'caught' by daddy and brought back up to call out "again!" happily. i was a little surprised by this since she has always been really careful to keep her face out of the water in the tub and wading pools. but we have come to expect this type of fearlessness from our little adventurer. love.

delivery pictures

here are just a few pictures from the delivery. i promise that more will come once we are all up and cleaned up this morning!

one last belly shot after being admitted.

measuring mason's big ole head. i don't know how big it was, but i can pretty much guess that it was bigger than madelyn's.

mason meeting his daddy for the first time.

seeing mommy after getting cleaned up a little and checked out. i thought that he looked a lot like madelyn when i first saw him, but now i am not as sure. i think he looks like matt... love.

welcoming mason lynn

mason lynn joined our family at 12:27am on june 26. he was 22 inches long and weighed 8lbs. 12 oz. (one ounce less than madelyn did at birth). he has blue eyes and dark blond hair (i think - i haven't really gotten to see him in full light after his bath). i will post more pictures later today, we didn't really get many good ones of his face and he is sleeping right now.

we could not have planned his delivery better. i went in for my appointment at 3:40pm yesterday afternoon and my blood pressure was on the high side - 130/80 (not really high, but pretty high for me). my doctor couldn't even reach my cervix during the office visit, but the blood pressure was enough for her to want me to go to the hospital. there was no rush so matt and madelyn went to swimming lesson at 5:30 while i went home to clean up a little and get a few things together.

by 7:00pm madelyn was with our neighbors for the night and matt and i were in our room at the hospital. amazingly, as they got me hooked up to the monitor i started to have very regular contractions on my own (i had contractions at 7 minutes apart all day on wednesday, but not really any on thursday until getting to the hospital). then my doctor came in to check me - still 2cm - and broke my water at 8:15pm. by 10:45 the contractions were too close together for me and i started to get lightheaded and nauseous so it was time for the epidural. i got a little rest then (and so did matt). we started pushing at 11:45pm and had to stop for a little bit so that my doctor could get there from a c-section. and mason was born at 12:27am!

i guess he came out face up and eyes open (he has been amazingly alert)! i can't believe how much faster things went this time and they never even had to put me on pitosin (sp?). i also can't believe how night and day different i feel now compared to madelyn's delivery. i am barely sore at all and it looks like we might be released tomorrow.

matt is going to bring madelyn over this morning and i can't wait for her to meet her little brother! love.

happy daddy's day

poor, daddy. today was his day, but he spent it doing physical labor outside. he had to finish putting down mulch on his new landscaping and then had the regular mowing and weeding to do. i still think that he had a nice day.

i had tried to get a picture of madelyn with daddy before and after church but madelyn would have none of it. this was the best picture with attitude i was able to get and couldn't resist sharing. she was lovely and chatty at church this morning though. she was telling everyone about her dress with flowers and a heart necklace of mine that she was wearing. it makes us so happy to see how excited she is to go to church every week.

madelyn didn't really take a nap yesterday and only napped for an hour today leaving us with a crabby girl at times. thankfully, she would get over these moods pretty quickly and had a major second wind this evening after dinner that was fun for all of us.

even though it was "daddy's day" (madelyn didn't really understand "father" so she would say "daddy's day"), madelyn got the biggest present. today we surprised her with a sandbox that papa and nana sent for her birthday. when i told her that there was a birthday present outside for her, she replied, "i am so excited!" and she was, too. madelyn asks to use the neighbor's sandbox at least once a week and she loves to use her shovels (even just to carry them around with her). i think that the sandbox will see a lot of play this summer. and to make it even better it fit perfectly under the stairs of the deck so that she is in the shade and it isn't in the way. matt and i couldn't believe how perfectly it fit! she was already asking to go back and play in it during dinner tonight. between the sandbox and the pool we won't need to leave the house this summer - although i plan to be out and about as much as possible while on leave. love.

we're still waiting

we might still be waiting on brother, but the weather has been great (until today that is - more in a minute) and madelyn has been itching to be outside. her desire to be outside has dramatically increased after one of her birthday presents arrived late last week - a new pool from big pop and grandma.

matt set the pool up on sunday while madelyn was napping and she could hardly contain her excitement when she saw it in the front yard! she was looking out to see daddy working in the yard and then saw her surprise. she could hardly get into her "swimming suit" fast enough!

and then she spent monday morning 'swimming' again. in fact, she was in her suit and outside by 8:30am! it was all i could do to get my computer and stuff together so that i could supervise. she even ate her snack out on the deck because i couldn't get her any farther away from the pool. she played in the pool and with the dogs until lunch time. she really had fun teasing lady by taking all the dog toys into the pool. when lady would dip her head in and snag one of the balls out, madelyn would say/yell, "lady, knock-it-off!" and then get out to try and get the ball back. she would play tug-of-war with lady, but lady usually won. madelyn would even refuse to let go and get drug across the yard by lady a little bit on her belly.

we only played in the pool before nap time because she was going to have her first swimming lesson later monday night. it isn't so much a 'lesson' as it is parents paying to play with their kids

in a community pool with minimal instruction from a lifeguard. the good (or the bad) part is that it is every night so she can easily build on what they did the night before. i went with them last night and tried to take pictures, but there were just too many parents standing around. you can see her happy face as she is coming down this fun frog slide - if you look closely that is.

today was cooler and overcast. i thought for sure that her class would be cancelled, but to my surprise ours was one of the few pools not closed. so i dressed madelyn in her swimming suit and put a fleece over it so that she would be warm enough. matt said that it wasn't actually that bad although there were some concerning warm spots in the pool tonight...

madelyn has been in the most wonderful mood for the past week and she cracks me up daily; we just love her. here are some points that i thought i would share here:

- madelyn's birthday is june 22 or as she says "june snack it"

- matt's co-workers threw him a baby shower and he was going through the gifts this weekend to write the thank yous. madelyn came across a toy that she was interested in claiming. when we told her that it was brother's toy she explained that "brother sharing and it's maddie's turn".

- since matt was working on thank yous madelyn got her crayons and some paper to "draw a card for grandma and big pop for pool". i was impressed that she equated a thank you note with having received a gift.

- when we got to the pool on monday matt was already there (he had a late meeting that required us to bring him his swimming gear to change there) and madelyn ran up to him for a "big hug". while hugging him she said sadly "i missed you, daddy!" she said this several times while hugging and kissing him. i got to hear it for me after class was over since i didn't do the class with her. it is just so sweet and sincere when she says it.

- after madelyn woke me up this morning she asked me, "where'd friend go?" to which i said, "i don't know where is friend?" after thinking for a minute madelyn replied, "um... friend is still sleeping." and sure enough when i went to her room later friend was tucked neatly in the bed as if he was still sleeping. now, if only she would let me sleep in.

- i have taught madelyn how to get her own milk out of the refrigerator when she wants it and then put it back in when she is done.

- tonight she was doing somersaults and kept asking us "how do that?" with her hands and shoulders shrugged as a question. when we would ask her to show us how she would happily reply, "okay", and do it again - with the same question.

- madelyn was shy for the first time ever at music class this morning. we haven't been in few weeks while waiting for the new session to start so i think that might have been some of it. there were also lots of new kids and we were meeting at a new neighbor's house. she was just really clingy and quiet. that is until the end of class when she felt like chatting with miss sarah, the teacher. at last she was acting like matt and my child - not the social butterfly she seems to be the majority of the time.

- lately when she wants matt and i to come with her somewhere she pats her leg and says, "come," like she does when calling one of the dogs!

- she likes to say "oh my goodness!" when something exciting or surprising happens. i don't know if it is how she says it or that i realize how silly i must sound using this super clean expression all the time, but it always makes me smile.

as you can see there is never a dull moment with madelyn around. love.

where there's dirt, there's madelyn

tonight madelyn got to go to her first softball game because daddy had his first early one of the season (aka before bedtime). she had so much fun cheering and looking for daddy. by the 6th inning she found some dirt to play in on the ground and all but forgot about the game.

i was impressed by how well she knew when to clap - often before i had started cheering. she even got that daddy was playing "first base".

madelyn ran up to matt after the game and said, "good job, daddy," while giving him a big hug and then a kiss. she must have heard the other 'fans' saying "good job" after the game and wanted to tell her daddy the same thing. in fact, she kept telling him "good job" quite happily all the way out.

after the game she was excited to try out the playground at the ball park. daddy was impressed by how strong her climbing has gotten. i mean madelyn was always a good climber, but now she actually thinks about which foot or hand to use. if she can't find a foothold with her right foot, she will put it back and try with her left foot. it makes me nervous when she is climbing up so high wearing flip-flops, but she never slips. she definitely uses her height to her advantage. love.

apparently tuesdays are busy

another busy day for madelyn and i. since i have tuesday mornings off i feel the need to spend every second possible away from the house. today we went grocery shopping, attended music class, went to my 34 week check-up, and had lunch with daddy before getting madelyn down for her nap. i was a slow draw will the camera today so the videos are the worst sample of what she was actually doing, but i think that the visuals will help make sense of my explanations.

madelyn likes to close doors behind her so hearing a door open and close is not that concerning - until today. i was getting ready for the morning and i heard a door open and then close. i had a moment of "gee, that really sounded like an exterior door" but i wrote it off because we have baby proof covers on the doorknobs. well, i heard a door open and close again before there was some crying. she had pinched her fingers when closing the door again. and, yes, it was the front door! she had gone out and come back in again. so we will be installing a chain catch at the top of the door this weekend as backup.

madelyn has never really paid much attention to the candle arrangement in the fireplace which is odd because she always notices candles other places (she loves to smell them) and spends a lot of time playing next to the fireplace. anyway, today she noticed them and exclaimed, "candles!", and then clasped her hands together, looked at me, and with a huge smile said, "i love it/them!" (i can't remember whether she said "it" or "them".) she did it more than once so i thought i would be able to catch it with the camera, but by the time i got back she was trying to get the candles out and was wining about it. here is what i got:

later we were getting ready to get in the car and she insisted on getting her "case" (a CD case she found somewhere this morning) to take with her. she had to bring her "case" because daddy brings a "case" to work with him (madelyn used to call it his purse, but we convinced her that it was a briefcase not a purse). as we were stepping down into the garage she told me that she was taking her case to work. and then that she was going to work with daddy. i didn't really get her to say it again, but you can see her case and hear her say "work".

i was changing madelyn's diaper before her nap and she was singing to herself. it took me a minute to realize that she was singing one of our music class songs. here are the actual lyrics:

i'm a piece of popcorn, rolling in the pan
shake me, shake me
as fast as you can.
ready, set, go!
pop, pop, pop, pop
popcorn!

she sang it trough correctly a few times for daddy before i got the camera and again it wasn't her best rendition.

and here are a few more notes that i wanted to include:

- somewhere (we think church) madelyn learned the term "jumping bean" and she asks for it often. matt snacks on trail mix most days when he first gets home from work. madelyn can hear him open that bag from anywhere in the house and comes running asking for a "jumping bean, please, daddy." matt has taken it to mean an m&m and madelyn could not be happier about the interpretation. as of last night though she asks for an "m&m".

- anytime i get my computer going upstairs madelyn asks to "skype" with her grandparents. she asks for them in pairs and then sometimes one at a time. it is just funny to me that she uses "skype" as a verb.

- madelyn can now walk up a flight of stairs without using a handrail. she can even have her arms full of toys and just walks right up the middle of the stairs without any support and will have no loss of balance.

she is so expressive and it is disappointing that i can't capture it on camera to share. basically, take what you see and amplify it by 2 or 3. love.

the cons of marathon napping

so madelyn stayed up past bedtime on friday and saturday nights. she still wakes up at the same time though -6:00 or 6:30. so what do we have? a very cranky girl all morning who takes a 4 hour nap in the afternoon! normally a 4 hour nap would be good, but these are not worth having a cranky girl all morning. i mean, she is fine for the most part. she just gets to fussing a lot sooner than she normally would and it made running errands a lot more difficult. i am going to give her a few more days to get this straightened out on her own before i start waking her up after 2-1/2 hours of napping.


thankfully, she had a wonderful day with daddy on friday. i am not totally sure what all they did, but daddy reported that they had a great time! i was so thankful - that they had a good time and that i had a day to work totally uninterrupted. well, at least not interrupted by madelyn. i had forgotten how working at the computer really gets the baby going. madelyn was the same way when i would type all day. i must get my adrenaline up or something when i am focused like that because both kids have had the same reaction.

on saturday matt worked on his landscaping in the backyard - all day! he is doing such a great job back there! he finished filling the two vegetable garden boxes with their dirt and then put in the cutout landscaping behind them (all the bald spots in the grass are the joys of having dogs - that will become a project later). the cutout was a lot of work. he hand shovelled up all the sod and then used it to build up the mounds before adding the plants and more soil. he has plans for a larger one on the other side of the yard. he plans to get the vegetable seedlings in the ground later this week too. some of the neighbors have been joking that he is 'nesting' by racing through his projects outside. speaking of nesting...

i have definitely kicked into 'nesting' mode. i made a real dinner for the first time in a very long time (poor matt), cleaned out the car, put madelyn's outgrown clothes into storage, pulled the rest of the baby stuff out of storage, dusted and deep cleaned both kids rooms, did all the laundry, and cleaned both bathrooms. madelyn came to check out what i was doing while i was scrubbing her tub and wanted to help (she had helped me wipe down all the furniture in brother's room too). so i had her come with me to clean the shower in our bathroom.

i don't think that i have raved about shaklee get clean products yet, so here is my product endorsement. not only are the products great for cleaning, they are chemical free and affordable. my favorite by far is the "scour off" paste. this stuff is so powerful, smells great, and has gentle enough scrubbers to use it on our ceramic top stove (by far the best stuff i have ever used to clean it - so easy). anyway, since there are no chemicals madelyn was able to actually help me. she enjoyed dipping her scrubbing pad in the scour off and then in her cup of water before 'scrubbing' the shower. she was using a scrub brush too when i went to get the camera. she kept telling me that "cleaning is fun" and "helping scrub", but of course she clams up as soon as the camera comes out. as soon as i turned it off after this video she handed me one of the scrubber pads and told me that it was "mommy's turn to help scrub."

it was nice to feel like getting more done than the everyday tasks! i am hoping it lasts. i have the feeling that there is going to be a large goodwill drop in my future because i have the urge to purge... love.

fun in the backyard

after madelyn was kind enough to sleep in until 7:30 this morning, i headed off to an hour long massage at a local spa. it was a baby shower gift from some neighbors and it was wonderful! the masseuse was a little surprised by how much tension there was in my neck and back - actually so was i. i couldn't believe how many knots there were and how long it took her to work them out. i feel so much better!

while i was out this morning, madelyn and daddy had a morning out of their own. the went to their breakfast place (einstein bagels) and a few hardware stores. they were on the hunt for gardening tools. the idea was that they could get some maddie-sized tools so that she can help daddy with their gardening this summer. unfortunately every store was out of stock.

after madelyn's nap she went looking for daddy so that she could get to work. of course she had her red snow shovel to help with, but she also liked helping with daddy's tools. i was particularly impressed with her ability to control a full-sized hammer. and now construction is complete on their two vegetable garden boxes. next will come the planting soil and a few more warm weeks before the seedlings are planted outside. matt and madelyn have been lovingly sprouting their seeds inside the house preparing for their impressive summer garden plans.

in addition to helping daddy, madelyn had some fun playing with our dogs. maggie will hold still long enough for madelyn to pet her, but lady gets way too excited about the attention and tends to knock her down. madelyn has mastered most of their commands - "drop it", "no", "sit". she has also figured out that they are bringing her the ball so that she will throw it. when she is just on the deck they bring it up the stairs and she pulls it through the gate before dropping it over the side of the deck or just down the stairs for them to chase.

while daddy finished up the second box, madelyn used it as a sandbox. maybe that will be one of his next outdoor projects... love.

"go brewers!"

last night madelyn took in her first 'tailgate' and brewers game of the season (unfortunately they lost). madelyn had a wonderful time and didn't go to bed until 9:45pm! (her normal bedtime is 8:00.) as an extra bonus, she slept until 7:30am this morning! i felt so pampered to still be in bed that late.


so we went to pick up our location balloons (balloons you tie to the car so the rest of your group can find you - in our case 80 people) on thursday night and madelyn could not have been more excited to bring home some balloons. all day yesterday when ever i would mention the baseball game she would shout "balloons!" and run up to see them where we had tied them to a dining room chair. the picture is from our trip to the game where she got to hold the two stars and "smile face" balloons.



tailgating with matt's co-workers madelyn got to learn several new words, but her favorite was "grill" or "grilling". i think that it helped that daddy was the grill master of the tailgate. she also got spoiled with more junk and sugar foods than she has ever had before. she really liked this huge rice crispy treat (with blue food coloring for the brewers). i don't think she has had so much sugar in a single sitting before. she was also really excited to run over and give daddy a bite at the grills. the first time she went to share was my idea, but she decided that she needed to go back later and give him another bite. she must have gotten her fill of sweets because she turned down a juice box in favor of water when we got into the stadium for the game.



i wish that i had been able to get video of her cheering on the brewers and clapping along with all the stadium chants/cheers but it was a difficult angle and so, so loud where we were sitting. she loved all the organ songs and would get out of her seat to dance. she did so much better than last season! i am sure that being older helped, but she also had her own seat this time and the game went by much faster (three-up, three-down pace).


she particularly liked the pitching. she would see the guy wind up and say "the pitch!" as he would throw it. i think she was able to follow the hits, but can't be totally sure. she did look in the right place the whole path of the ball and said that she could see it, but who knows.


after the sausage race (another high point for madelyn) we sat through one more inning before calling it a night. she was still doing great, but we knew that we were on borrowed time and

needed to get her (and me) home and in bed. plus the profanity in the college groups sitting around us was increasing as their beer counts did. (matt and maddie's creepy glasses were supplied by one of matt's co-workers and everyone wore them for pictures - even maddie.)


she called out "go brewers" several times on the way to the car and was marching to her own chant of "march, march, march" that was entertaining those walking around us. she did stop and look back towards the stadium when the crowd would let out a big cheer. i think she did so well because she was just feeding on the energy of everyone around her and expected her to crash in the car, but she stayed awake the whole ride home.


once we were home and ready for bed, she almost passed on a book but realized what she had said no to and quickly changed her mind. however, she only let me read it once before rolling over and saying good night. love.



p.s. the first of her 2-year molars has made its official appearance - at least it was the first time i got to see it.

zoo buddies

i worked all day yesterday so that madelyn and i could go to the zoo with some friends this morning. we actually met up with 5 other families and had a very nice morning. some of the other moms had the great idea to take pictures of some of the kids sitting together. i couldn't believe how well everyone sat still! it was a little difficult to get them all to look the same way and smile, but they were pretty cute. (the only good one i got with them all looking at me came out blurry.)

today was the first day at 80 degrees since last september and we were very excited to be outside! the zoo was busy, but not so bad that it couldn't be enjoyed. madelyn loved having her friends with her! she also liked having all their moms there too. she kept taking their hands (the moms') and telling them to come and see the animals. she just loves to share everything - food, experiences, information, etc.

there is a map in the ape house that madelyn just loves. i think she likes it more than the primates. today she was counting the number of monkey markers on the map.

she fell asleep on the way home - as expected, but did not sleep an extra hour like she normally does after a trip to the zoo (not that i am complaining because she still slept for 2 hours). she woke up just before one of my meetings this afternoon, but she quietly watched a few cartoons while i took care of some work. then she ate her lunch. i had packed lunch in her veggietales lunch box for the zoo, but we left without eating it because it was getting late. she doesn't normally eat lunch on days we go to the zoo, so it wasn't a big deal. she really liked getting to eat out of a lunch box. i will definitely have to pack her up a lunch again - just for fun.

after spending the rest of the afternoon sitting at the dining room table 'reading' brochures about gardening plants and telling me about the seeds that she and daddy are growing (there will be another post about that later), we decided to take her friend ava up on a swimming invitation. ava had the coolest pool! there was a slide in the middle of it and madelyn had a wonderful time playing with ava - i think ava enjoyed having madelyn to play with too. here is one of her first trips down the slide and the only time she didn't sit on her way down. i should have gotten more video but was too busy chatting with ava's family.

and just in case madelyn's day wasn't full enough already, she got to eat her first dinner sitting outside (since being in a highchair). daddy grilled some turkey burgers and madelyn thought it was so exciting to be able to eat outside. and since we were outside we let her have an ice cream cone 'treat'. the thought was that we could go messy because we could just let the dogs up on the deck to lick everything up after she was done and she could head straight to the bathtub. while waiting for the burgers to cook madelyn was singing an original "mickey mouse dance" song and jamming by herself. once i took the video madelyn realized that this was a good show. she then demanded that mommy and daddy come and watch - over and over. enjoy her show!

on last note - yesterday, madelyn discovered that my belly button is an outtie now. she thought that it was so funny and kept trying to pinch it - which tickled me. she was then "kissing brother" over and over (aka kissing my belly).

as you can see she had a really full day! hopefully, this means that she will sleep later than 6am for once! love.

shorts and tank tops!

i am so excited to report that madelyn has worn her first shorts of the year! (me too!) it was decent on thurday afternoon (the short sleeves and skirt), warmer on friday (blue outfit), and saturday was warm enough for a tank top! i was so happy to open up the house and enjoy the warm sunshine outside for a little while. unfortunately, today was back to cold and wet. oh well, at least there are starting to be more and more signs of spring...

one such sign of spring is the weekly testing of the tornado sirens. every friday morning at 9:30am the sirens run for various lengths of time and since it is located at the end of our block, very loud. i was worried that madelyn would be scared by them, but she just tells me that she heard a noise. she does like for me to be near her when it goes off, but at least she doesn't cry.

another sign of spring is the return of the door to door solicitors. our neighborhood gets an obscenely high number of solicitors. it makes me hate, hate, hate that we have a glass panel in our front door. people who come to the door can see us sitting on the couch in the evening. matt has suggested that we start relaxing downstairs to avoid having to answer the door., but i hate having to 'hide' in our own house. hopefully, there won't be as many this year, but i think that there will be more since businesses are slower.

i had put off packing up madelyn's summer wardrobe from last year in the hope that some might be able to fit this year. as you can see both her shirts and shorts are not really long enough, but for around the house they will work for a few weeks anyway. saturday morning i was trying all her shorts on her and she would tell me if it was "too big", "too small", or "it fits". she kept it going as we headed out to a local church's rummage sale. when i would hold something up to her she would tell me whether it would fit or not - the vendors thought that it was pretty funny.

later in the afternoon, matt started working on his much anticipated vegetable garden. he only had time to pull of the sod and build the frame for one of the two 6x12 feet boxes. (i will add pictures when he has them completed.) madelyn woke up from her nap and went looking for daddy. i told her that he was outside. as soon as she saw him shoveling she called out "maddie help shovel!" i managed to slow her down long enough to get socks and shoes on.

we went out through the garage and as soon as we got to the driveway to head around to the side of the house, she called out "my shovel!" and ran back to grab her red snow shovel. and then she got to work with daddy. even looking at this picture tonight she gets so excited that she is using a shovel and daddy is using a shovel. she just loves helping him!

here are a few more recent notes:

- when eating her cracker snacks (bunnies, fish, or others) she identifies which ones are "broken" or "whole". she will also push her bowl across the table to share some with mommy - she is so sweet to share her snacks.

- madelyn now asks to feel "brother in mommy's belly". and she really is patient waiting for him to move. when she feel him she tells me and puts my hand on my belly too.

- wearing fleece on the slides at the park generates a lot of static electricity. not only does her hair stand on end, but the shocks can be really loud (and painful). she now tells us that she "heard it" or calls out "shock" whenever she hears the zap mommy or daddy gets when we touch the equipment again. (yes, you can hear it. it is really loud and it can really hurt! at least it hurts daddy and me, not madelyn as far as i can tell.)

- baby boy has outgrown the room i have to offer him and i don't think he is happy about his cramped quarters. i am 30 weeks plus now and i am not sure that i am going to make it another 10 weeks. i can't believe how much more difficult this pregnancy is on my body. i think that i just need to make more of an effort to take a break and put my feet up for a while during madelyn's naps. i was spoiled while pregnant with madelyn because i was comfortable for the most part and didn't have any swelling (i wore my wedding ring the entire time - and could take it off). i truly believe that my life will be easier once my maternity leave starts - don't think i am crazy (those of you with two or more kids) - the mental break from work makes a really big difference in my days!

- madelyn remembers things without any triggers more and more often. when we are riding in the car she will remember something and start talking about it. i am usually a few steps behind trying to figure out what she is talking about. it is particularly difficult when she is talking about an obscure toy that we haven't seen in a long time.

more later. love.

lotsa fun day

after seeing pictures of her friend lorelai in a ball pit and some old pictures of herself in a ball pit, madelyn has been asking to be "in the balls", so today we headed back to the lotsa fun room because i knew that she would be able to get into a ball pit there. as soon as she saw it she ran over and jumped in! she was so excited to be there. and she really loved 'hiding' in the pit. i would help bury her in the balls and she would just giggle and hold very still to 'hide'.

we played for about an hour and a half and then we went to pick up daddy for a lunch date. he had called while we were there because he had some room in his schedule to eat with us and we haven't been able to do that in a really long time. we had a wonderful lunch at a restaurant we had never been to before. it wasn't really a child friendly place. we sat at a bar table and madelyn did really well sitting at the table. some older ladies even commented about how well she did sitting at the table (we were there for over an hour). and the waitress asked if she could have a treat for doing such a good job; she brought out a little hot fudge sundae for maddie. madelyn was so hyped up on the sugar by the time that we got home that i was worried she wouldn't take a nap (she had dozed in the car for 20-30 minutes on the way to get daddy for lunch). it took two tries, but the day caught up with her and she napped for 2-1/2 hours.

here is my video capture of her saying "happy easter" yesterday. as you can see she wasn't dressed. she spent the day in just a diaper - i wore a fleece all day. she wouldn't sit down for the video until i told her to say "happy easter, lorelai" that is...

i also remembered my other video mission - her climbing the rock wall at the park. she gets up that wall so fast! she doesn't even really need me to spot her any more - not that i would risk stepping away yet. i keep my hand on her back the whole way. mainly because she climbs so fast i worry that she will slip. the wall is at least 7 feet high. maybe i can get some video this weekend when matt can go with us. love.

happy easter!

we had a lovely easter and hope that you all did too. as promised, we took a few pictures of our family this morning. since we don't have a tripod it is always a game of where can we set the camera and not cut off the top of our heads. this morning it was the mantel. madelyn even looked at the camera because of the timer blinking - these days that is a major accomplishment and i might use that trick in the future. i also managed to get a picture of her with each of us looking at the camera. she even smiled for her picture with daddy! we are so rarely all showered and dressed nicely that we have to plan to take pictures when we are.

on the way home from church madelyn had the random request to play soccer ball. we have never played soccer before, but we did buy a kick ball recently. after we got madelyn to eat some lunch (and she ate a lot), she finally got to play "soccer". as much as i wanted to get some video because she was so cute running around kicking and carrying the ball, it was one of those times when i just had to play too. matt and i were kicking the ball back and forth and madelyn would run after it. she was just in heaven playing outside with both of her parents! it was so much fun to see her running up to the front door and not even hesitating on the step up. she has changed so much since we were playing outside last fall and it really struck me today how much.

after her nap she work up and watched "golf" with daddy. (i was lucky enough to be napping today.) she was really into it too. she talked about the balls and clubs and was cheering for everyone who "got it" and "missed it". and then when we watched the end (after a trip to the park and more soccer) she kept saying that "mommy win" and "daddy win". she is just so sweet.

here are a few other notes:

- madelyn is already in bed or i would get video of her saying "happy easter". she says it surprisingly clearly. if i remember, i will get it tomorrow.

- she will come up and put her hand on my belly and hold very still to try and feel "brother" move. she will also put my hand on my belly and hold it there to feel. the first time she felt a big kick her eyes got huge and she slowly withdrew her hand and backed away. it took a little while before she would try feeling him again.

- madelyn wore her real cross necklace to church this morning and thought that was pretty special. it was the first time she has gotten to wear it.

easter fun

this has already been quite an easter weekend for madelyn. she got some easter goodies early from her grandparents on friday. she enjoyed getting their special surprises. she has actually associated the doorbell ringing with a "box" being delivered for her. although these days everything is "maddie's". her box from grandma and big pop had snacks and some bunny jewelry which she immediately had to open and put on.

and then her fuzzy bunny card from papa and nana came with some glittery, foam stickers in the shape of eggs, bunnies, and chicks. madelyn immediately stuck an entire sheet's worth on her forehead while daddy changed her diaper. unfortunately, she took them off before i could get a picture. she does have them all over her sweatshirt in this picture before we headed out to pick up some quick dinner. she just loves her stickers!

last night she was crying to go to the zoo with daddy (we had been talking about what we were going to do on saturday at dinner). and since i told her that she would have to wait until the morning, it was the first thing on her mind today. she didn't even want to get dressed. she was ready to just get in the car in her pajamas and head to the zoo. after a little discussion, i managed to get her to finish breakfast and get dressed before leaving the house. she called out "yea, zoo" most of the way there but really got excited when we turned onto the road where the zoo is located.

there were several easter events we were considering for today, but decided that the zoo would be best because if she wasn't into the easter activities she would still enjoy the zoo. thankfully we go there pretty early and it wasn't that crowded. madelyn could not care less about the easter bunnies or craft activities. i was really surprised that she didn't care at all about the easter bunnies (costumed characters) because she couldn't stop talking about the bunny at the mall a few weeks ago. oh well. we enjoyed seeing all the animals (it had been a while since daddy had gone with us) and walking around in the sunshine - although it was still pretty cold out.

i was able to convince her to get her face painted. she even told the lady what colors she wanted her whiskers and nose to be when she asked. later in the day she finally got to look in a mirror to see her bunny face paint and she was really excited about the "whiskers".

we wrapped up our tour of the zoo with a trip on the merry-go-round. we were planning on riding the train, but madelyn couldn't pass up the merry-go-round today. i don't know that she loved it (because she looked pretty scared), but afterwards she kept telling me about riding "up and down" so maybe she did like it.

the last thing we were going to try and do before leaving the zoo was watch a "bubbleoligist" show. we decided not to wait the half hour when we first got there, but were now going to have to wait a half hour for the second show. while we were waiting matt looked outside and saw some large bubbles. once we realized that the guy was making bubbles outside right now, we decided that would work for madelyn and then we wouldn't have to wait for the real show.

she really loved it. i don't think that you can really see it in the pictures, but she is sitting on matt's shoulders reaching out to pop the large bubbles floating by her head. every time a really large bubble would get within her reach she seemed to be looking somewhere else and would miss it. it was a great way to end our morning before heading home for her nap.

after her nap we finally got around to dying our easter eggs. i had boiled the eggs earlier in the week, but we just haven't had the time to get them dyed. we put an old shirt of matt's on her as a smock and away we went to experiment with our egg dying kit i bought at the dollar store. madelyn did a wonderful job - not that the video is very exciting. after we were done she asked to eat the eggs. i think because i had told her that the egg dying was a "treat" for her.



i am hoping and planning to get some family pictures tomorrow since we don't do that nearly enough. happy easter to you! love.

p.s. i had my 28 week check-up last week and passed my diabetes test. baby's heart rate is great and his growth is right on schedule. really uneventful. the next appointment is in 4 weeks and then we go down to every 2 weeks. madelyn asked the doctor to hear the baby's heartbeat. she was really excited about that part because she had been pretending to listen to the baby with her doctor kit during the morning.