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.

the great circus parade

after church we piled in the cars and went to downtown milwaukee to stake out a spot to watch the great circus parade. madelyn had learned about the circus this past week in pre-school so she was super excited to see a circus and a parade in one. we were very early for the parade and it was going to be a two hour parade. i think that we were there a little over 5 hours in all and madelyn missed her nap so that we could be there. none of us had ever been to a circus parade and i think that i was as excited as madelyn was to see it (well maybe she was a little more excited).

this post is going to be mainly pictures and comments in an effort to make posting it as quick as possible - i am worn out.

daddy and big pop took madelyn to go and look for lunch while grandma, mason, and i stayed to watch our chairs and spot on the sidewalk. they found a hot dog place that was open and we were all just happy for something to eat. madelyn wasn't crazy about her corndog though.

madelyn got a bubble gun from big pop and grandma to help pass the time we had to wait for the parade to start. madelyn loved it. i am not so sure about everyone sitting around us having bubbles pop on them...

and mason was sleeping.

once the parade got going (it started a block over from where we were) madelyn kept saying "i heard something. listen." she could cup her hand over her cheek/mouth instead of her ear to 'listen'. it was pretty cute. i wanted to get video, but it was just too loud and you can't hear her in it.

once they closed off the street to traffic all sorts of people, not just kids, went out into the street and started drawing circles with sidewalk chalk. after grandma talked to some people sitting next to us we learned that it is a circus parade tradition. you are trying to draw a circle where you think that a horse will drop some poo. whatever makes it interesting for you.

there were all kinds of animal wagons. i really liked this one with the giraffe because of the little sun shade.

there were some amazing wagons in the parade. some of them are a century old and have been refurbished just for the parade. there were organ wagons too.

and mason kept sleeping.

and towards the end were the elephants walking in groups of three with their tails held by the elephant behind it. i thought that it was neat to be that close to them. i think madelyn liked them too.

we were all exhausted by the time the parade ended and madelyn fell asleep shortly after getting into the car. she even stayed asleep while i held her in the restaurant we stopped at on the way home for an early dinner. i think that we will all sleep well tonight! love.

please give me a diaper!

tonight while i was preparing madelyn for bath time she started to do a little dance and demanding a diaper. she has been sitting on her potty reading a book while the tub is filling and we were doing just that tonight. once the tub was full, i put her in and she started crying for a diaper and crisscrossing her legs. i asked her if she had to go potty and she said yes. i took her out and she sat on the potty crying for a diaper and doing a little dance. after a few minutes of this i decided to go put a diaper on her. once she had the diaper on she ran back to sit on the potty and read her book. after a few minutes i told her that it was time to take her bath. when i took off her diaper is was very wet!

while i don't think this is a great sign about what we have to come with potty training, i do see two positives - one - she knows when she has to go - two - she can hold it successfully. she also came to get me after lights out because she had gone "potty" and wanted a new diaper. again, her diaper was very wet. this is really exciting for me because i normally have to beg madelyn to change her diaper. she usually couldn't care less about her diaper being dirty and it has been several months since she was consistently asking to be changed at dinner time so i am taking this as progress towards the possibility of potty training.

we also said good-bye to grandma this evening. madelyn gets a little nervous when we go to the airport with me in the car. she worries that it means that i am leaving. she was sad to see grandma go, but was happy to see that i was getting back in the car and leaving with her.

before we left the house for the airport, grandma reminded us that we needed to get a picture of her with madelyn. madelyn had just woken up from her nap and was not in a hugging (or touching) and smiling mood. it took a while to get her to come sit on grandma's lap for a quick picture, but we got one.

and - for the record - i am not ignoring the fact that i turned thirty yesterday. i haven't posted about my day because i want to get some video of the most beautiful version of "happy birthday" i have ever heard on my birthday. not only that but she has a wonderful answer when i ask her about how old i am. i love her. love.

easter bunny

we were at the mall today and while we were walking upstairs madelyn looked down and saw the easter bunny set up for pictures. she was really excited! she kept saying "hi, easter bunny" and waving. luckily, the bunny looked up and waved at her too. she just kept talking about that the easter bunny waved at her and she wanted to hug him. so grandma suggested that we go down to say "hi".

we had a little fight about what madelyn was going to wear this morning and she ended up wearing jeans and her pajama top. i didn't think that she was exactly dressed for bought pictures and that we should come back another day. but grandma had another idea - why don't we dress madelyn in one of the spring dresses we just bought for the picture. okay. i gave in. we striped her down in the mall and put her in dress.

as excited as she was to see the bunny, she froze up once she was on his lap. it actually looked like she might cry one or two times. thankfully, there was no one waiting behind us and the staff worked really hard to get her to smile and didn't rush us. here one of the pictures i was able to take with my camera:

surprisingly, the real photo came out pretty well (different from the one shown here) and overall it went better than santa did at christmas time. and madelyn got off his lap and waved "bye, easter bunny!" like the whole experience had been great.

not only did she enjoy the experience enough to talk about it the whole way home, but grandma told me that it was her first time getting to do holiday pictures with a grandchild at the mall. i am glad that i gave in to the impromptu photo shoot. love.

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.

packers saturday

so on the day when everyone is glued to their t.v.s around here, i decide to host a pampered chef party. i wasn't thinking about the playoffs and i should have been - oh well. we even went to church tonight instead of tomorrow morning. i was seriously worried that we would be the only people in wisconsin not watching the packers game, but surprisingly there was a fairly decent turnout - not great, but decent.

we spent the whole morning cleaning up the house, then the party went from around 12:30 to 4:00 and after that we were at church by 5:00. not a lot accomplished today, but we did get a lot of fun maddie pictures for your viewing enjoyment. love.

maddie riding on her new toy lion from grandma and big pop. we tried to have her walk with it first, but she didn't like when it moved. when we sat her on it she was accidentally rolling herself backwards.

here she is standing in her crib for the first time. well the first time she was able to stand herself up in her crib anyway.

just hanging around with daddy.

my little volleyball baby.

standing in her church dress from grandma and big pop. she is getting to be such a big girl!

madelyn and grandma

on a side note, the pampered chef party was a gluten-free one because a few of the kids in the neighborhood have allergies and i wanted to know more about cooking snacks for them when i hosted playgroup. i have a whole new level of respect for anyone who has to prepare meals around allergies. one of the mom's even got a little teary-eyed talking about it - granted she is pregnant with baby #2 - because her daughter is 16 months and has some severe allergies.