messy monday

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.

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.

38 / 39 weeks

i will be 39 weeks tomorrow, but just got around to my 38 week appointment yesterday (i was scheduling around matt's work schedule). baby's heart rate was good, my stomach measures 39 weeks, i was down one pound, and i was almost 2 cm dilated. i am scheduled to be back in next thursday and we will pick a date for inducing at that point.

the picture is a quick one before i headed off to my book club. i really need to try and get a nice picture at some point...

madelyn was playing with her doctor kit before nap time yesterday. after 'listening' to brother's heartbeat in my belly for a while she laid down and listened to her own belly. i tried to get her to recreate our conversation and that is why it is not as spontaneous in the video. maybe she doesn't get the whole baby in my belly thing after all. love.

mommy has a name

we ran up to sam's tonight and madelyn dropped her elmo toy somewhere. matt and i split up looking for it and matt was calling out my name from time to time. of course madelyn had to join in and was calling out, "michelle, where are you? michelle!". i asked matt if she was saying what i thought she was and he was happy to report, "yes." (you might remember that matt hated it when she called him, "matt".) love.

"happy easter day!"

yes, that is how madelyn wished me a happy mother's day this morning - "happy easter day". easter must have made quite an impression because she has wished me happy easter a few times now. she was able to say "happy mother's day" a few times, but mainly it was "happy easter day".

when i told her that it was time to get dressed this morning she replied "yea church! God loves, God loves!". she must have decided that we were headed to church because i was already dressed - i didn't say that we were going to church. it made me so happy for her new association with "church" - "God loves"!

after church we went to get breakfast, but it turned into lunch after we waited over an hour and a half! madelyn was starting to melt down, but then recovered after a book of stickers, some crayons and paper, and running around with some other kids. the other kids were hopping on one leg and madelyn was trying to imitate them. i love the original pancake house! it is always worth the wait.

matt finally woke madelyn up from her nap at 5:00pm (more than 4 hours of napping). plus, i think that he was excited to give me my mother's day gift - a netbook! i have been shopping them around a little because i thought that it would be better for me than our desktop computer. (a netbook is a low cost, super-small laptop style computer that is primarily for email and internet use.) i am using it to blog tonight and could not be happier with it! i was going to use my birthday money to get one, but matt totally surprised me! it will be nice not to have to run downstairs every time i need to look something up real quick.

i also got lots of surprise hugs and smiles from madelyn today. i am a lucky mommy (and wife). love.

31 weeks, 1 day

after many requests, here is an updated belly shot from this morning. if you look really, really closely, you can see my little outie bellybutton that i have had since early in the pregnancy. looking at the picture it looks like i am carrying pretty high, but this one is actually much lower than madelyn.

he is such a mover! where madelyn was a kicker and jabber, this boy is a stretcher and pusher. lately it seems like he is just dragging his knee or elbow up and down the inside of my rib cage like someone would drag their finger along a keyboard - ouch! he is definitely running out of room and is making sure that i know it.

it is also becoming increasingly uncomfortable to sit and work at the computer during the day - baby just doesn't have enough room when i bend over the keyboard. with maddie i would lay on the couch and work in the last month, but madelyn doesn't like when i do that now. so instead i just take more breaks and do more work at night.

the good news is that i have been able to sleep through the night for pretty much the first time this entire pregnancy! i am not dragging quite as much when madelyn comes to get me at 6am. i am hoping that this won't be short lived (i think it has been three nights now) because i need all the energy i can to make it through the day and a good night's sleep makes a big difference. 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.

video day

i got a few videos to share today. madelyn isn't really cooperative about me using the camera these days because she just wants to watch herself on it.

i was able to catch her "measurin'" in "brother's room" this afternoon. that is how she helps daddy while he is painting. she doesn't really say or do much past the very beginning, but here it is:

and here is a sampling of what 75% of my pictures and videos are these days:

she spent a lot of time "drumming" today. she really enjoyed testing out the sounds the different sized metal bowls made when she hit them with a wooden spoon. i normally would not have had taken video (because it was so noisy), but she was singing softly to herself while playing her 'drums'. of course she stopped once i got the camera, but she sings for like half a second at one point of the video.

lastly, i got a little bit of her singing "happy birthday" tonight after dinner. on my birthday she actually sang the "to mommy" verse too. and actually, i just heard her sing that version to daddy right now as they are getting ready for bed and i am posting. she used to just say "happy day" and now she actually says "birthday" (sort of "birffday").

so after all the diaper drama last night, we were so excited when madelyn peed her her potty twice today! not that i count it as 'potty-training', but at least i know that she isn't afraid to go in it. 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.

24 week check-up

today i had my 24 week check-up. i am happy to report that baby boy is doing great and we are to the point that he could survive if i were to give birth so that is always nice to hear - not that i want to have him any time soon. i think i only gained 1-1/2 lbs. over the past five weeks for a total of about 12 or 13 lbs. it is hard to keep track because they don't really talk about weight or even say what it is.

matt had a work thing today and couldn't make the appointment - the first he has missed - so i had arranged for one of the neighbors to watch maddie before music class while i went to the doctor. the bad news is that about 10 minutes before i had to leave for the appointment i found out that the neighbor's son got croup overnight and she couldn't watch madelyn. normally it wouldn't be a big deal (and it wasn't really a big deal today) but madelyn slept until 8:30 and we needed to leave around 9:00. so i had to hurry her along and throw a waffle and banana in my bag for her to eat quickly while we waited for my appointment.

she has been getting up at 5:30am since the time change! luckily, i have been able to persuade her to go back to bed and the past two days she has slept until at least 8am. so this morning i let her sleep thinking that it wouldn't be a big deal to take her breakfast over to the neighbor's when i dropped her off. oh well. we got to the office and i went to give my regular urine sample. and madelyn helpfully poured it down the sink while i got the label ready for it. that would have to wait until after the appointment...

madelyn did really fantastic during the exam and told the doctor that she wanted to hear the baby's heartbeat. while we were waiting for the doctor madelyn kept saying "doctor coming". she was sitting on my lap being very snugly, hugging and kissing me sweetly. it was so nice. when she told daddy about the appointment she said that we went to the "baby doctor" - she came up with this on her own we have never said this to her.

next we had to stop by the lab to pick up the drink for my glucose test at my next appointment. i guess madelyn remembered when i gave blood there last time (which had reminded her of her own blood draw) because she would not even come through the door. she was crying to go and get in the car. she was even pulling on my hand to get me to leave. after assuring her that we weren't giving any blood just getting some drink she allowed us to go inside. i have already told matt that he has to come to the next appointment because madelyn was not going to be able to handle my blood test.

we survived. love.

weaning mommy

so i have been weaning myself off the baby monitor. madelyn can open her door and come out when she wakes up and i have decided that i don't need to hear every little noise she makes. plus, it helps me not have as many interruptions to my sleep when she coughs or first starts to wake up (i have enough interruptions of my own from being pregnant). i still use it at night but have not been using it while she naps during the day. my goal is to stop using it at night, but for now i have just turned the volume very, very low so that i can almost hear her better down the hall than over the monitor.

this morning she didn't even set off the monitor anyway (i have it set to only come on when noises are present). she just opened her door, walked down the hall, opened our door, got the tv remote off my nightstand, and climbed up in bed to lay next to me under the covers. she has never slept in our bed or spent any snuggle time there, so it was pretty special. i think that matt was a little sad that he had to go to work while maddie and i laid in bed snuggling while we watched a little of the today show.

it didn't last very long because she was ready to "eat" her "mealoat", but it was really nice that she came to me when she was ready instead of me having to go and get her. love.

freedom at last

right before i was getting ready to sit down and post tonight, matt had turned on football on t.v. as soon as madelyn heard the nfl music she turned around and shouted, "go chargers!" her daddy could not have been more proud.

yesterday, madelyn and i finally got to leave the house for the first time in almost a full week. we were heading out to her friend kyle's 2nd birthday party at 2pm. i tried to think of some errand we needed to run earlier in the day, but couldn't come up with anything so we waited until it was time to leave for our first taste of freedom.

we had a nice time at the party and kyle's mom (and dad) did a really great job with a sesame street school theme (kyle is into school buses right now - and sesame street). his mom did a school lunch for everyone that was really well thought out and delicious. madelyn liked eating all sorts of foods that she had not had before, like jello. she also enjoyed 'helping' kyle open his presents. she was doing a good job at sitting on my lap and watching at first, but there was an older boy who was 'helping' kyle open gifts and that got all the other kids 'helping' too. the main objective was to keep madelyn out of the way of the grandmas' camera angles. she actually would step back and just watch every now and then. towards the end i had her happily picking up all the torn wrapping paper and putting it in a bag while kyle got to unwrap things at his own speed.

i had worked on madelyn that morning to say "happy birthday". her version was more like "happy day" or "happy b'day" and "kyle" came out more like "color", but she could say it pretty clearly. of course i could not get her to say it to kyle when we got there. she did say "happy day" a few times, but it was too quiet for anyone to really hear her with all the party noise.

after the party, i had to stop by the mall to get my phone fixed. madelyn was so excited to be walking around somewhere other than home that she started crying and asking to "walk more" when we tried to put her coat back on to leave. i don't think that it helped that she didn't really get a nap because we had to leave for the party a half hour after we put her down. i thought that we could carry her asleep into the car and she could sleep on the ride to their house, but she wasn't really asleep when i went to get her and she never went to sleep on the ride over. and

we had one more stop to make on the way home and were later than expected. we had to put her straight to bed after a quick dinner as soon as we got home. she was exhausted, but totally pleasant all day. unfortunately for me, she decided to sleep in this morning. she always seems to want to sleep in when we actually have to wake up at a certain time. on saturday she got up at 6:30am, but today she had to be woken up at 7:30am! i know that she was just catching up from all the missed sleep yesterday.

matt and i had to go bowling with some people from his department this afternoon so we got a babysitter for madelyn. this is maybe the third time that madelyn has had a babysitter so i told her that kayla was coming over the play with her today and had her practice saying "kayla". as soon as kayla got here madelyn said "hi kayla" and started to show her all of her favorite toys. when i went to tell her that daddy and i were leaving, she said "bye" and gave me a kiss (daddy

also got a kiss). apparently she was really good and slept for 2-1/2 hours. i told matt that this means that we will just have to go out more if she is going to be this easy about it! not that i was really surprised. she never has had a problem with babysitters. i think she was really excited to have someone in the house other than matt and i.

(for the record, i beat matt - substantially - the first game and he beat me the last two.)

all in all a nice weekend but one that has left me more exhausted than rested, not the way i like to start the work week. at least it will be a little warmer and maddie and i might get out some. love.

peanut blossoms

madelyn spent all morning with daddy. matt got up with her and let me sleep in until 9:15! that was such a treat. and then he took her with him to run some errands and get some lunch. i think they went to babies-r-us and home depot before stopping for a brunch lunch at einstein's. madelyn came home sleeping and slept for more than 3 hours. daddy really wore her out! and i think that they both really enjoyed their time together. plus their outing allowed me to get some things done around the house a lot faster than normal.

after her nap i decided to have her help me make my last batch of cookies - peanut blossoms. (i didn't get them done in time for our new year's parties and already had the ingredients.) she helped unwrap the kisses for pushing into the cookies after they were finished baking. and then i let her push a few of the kisses into the warm cookies. i was very impressed with her focus unwrapping the chocolates, i tried to ask her some questions in the video, but she would only give a soft "yes". the video is long (2 minutes) so you might not want to watch it all since it isn't very exciting. she was very thorough in getting every last bit of foil off the counter and into the trash bowl.

she also got to eat one of these cookies after dinner. i am pretty sure that this is the first real chocolate she has ever had. that is probably why i didn't have any trouble with her trying to eat the kisses as she unwrapped them. love.

back home and catching up

i made it safely home on thrusday afternoon. and was really excited to see madelyn (and matt too). she obviously had a really great time playing with jason all week. she was excited to see me when i came to the door and let me pick her up for a hug. but then she wanted to get right back down and show me all the toys she was having fun with over the week.

i got to talk to madelyn a few times on the phone while i was gone. it is so nice that she can actually talk to me and answer my questions on the phone. it makes it that much easier (or is it harder) to be away. matt said that she called out for me during her bedtime routine which is a little weird since matt does bedtime, not me. anyway, i guess some night she was very sad that i wouldn't come when she called out "mommy". (she calls us "mommy" and "daddy" now. i love it!) he also had some trouble with getting her to take off her hippo pjs in the morning. something made her decide that she loves them and could not be away from them for even a moment. (she is wearing the top in the picture.)

i was so worn out and also trying to play catch up that i ran out to grab lunch so that i didn't have to figure out what was in the house (matt did the grocery shopping after i left last weekend). the closest place to the house is mcdonalds so madelyn had her very first happy meal. i went with chicken nuggets even though she almost never eats meat. for a while she just dipped them in the bbq sauce as a way of eating the sauce, but then she actually ended up eating most of them. she of course enjoyed her apple juice and a few french fries. the highlight of the happy meal, of course, was the toy. madelyn loves her my little pony figure - mainly because it came with a comb. madelyn loves that "pink comb".

here is some video matt took while i was gone of madelyn washing her hair. he puts the shampoo on her hand and lets her rub it around for a while before helping to make sure it really gets washed well. she also liked him to pour water above her so that she could put her head under the stream of water like she is in the shower but it was too much full body exposure to post to the blog.

here are a few other updates:

- madelyn says "cheese" when the camera is pointed at her. i don't know where she picked this up because i don't say it when taking her picture - or i didn't until she started doing it two weeks ago.

- i had mentioned in an earlier post that madelyn can say some of the letters in her name, well now she tries to say lots of other letters. she will say "a", "b", "c" when we get out her abc dr. suess book. and lately it has been as if she is spelling words - with random letters.

- she learned how to make kissing noises from staying with jason all week. so that was a nice treat to come home to.

- she has entered the repeating everything phase. usually i have to ask her, but it has been amazing how many words she really can say. i told matt that we really have to be on our toes now (not that we have any trouble with saying things we wouldn't want maddie to say) because you never know what she will repeat...

more to come. love.

downtown christmas parade

tonight we went to the downtown Christmas parade. i wasn't really sure what to expect, but i wasn't expecting much. and it was really nice! it started at 4pm and sunset is around 4:30 here, so it was dark for the majority of the parade. while it wasn't a very cold day, it was not close to warm - it was 39 on the bank sign when we were leaving the parade at 5:20m. i had bundled maddie up pretty well, but matt and i definitely could have used some more warmth.

we went downtown a little before 3pm and walked around for a little bit before deciding that we had better grab a place to stand on the parade route. i don't know why i didn't give any thought to where we would sit or how we would keep warm. i guess i didn't think that it would be so crowded and that we would just stand or sit on a curb somewhere. we ended up finding an open place up front where we could stand and wait for the next 45+ minutes for the parade to start. again, this was poor planning on our part. madelyn wasn't really keen on waiting for the parade to start and it didn't really help that they hadn't closed the road to traffic yet and cars were steadily going by a few feet from where we were standing. i decided to walk maddie around for a while, but then we needed to go back and join matt to keep our spot because others were closing/crowding in. the picture captured perfectly madelyn's enthusiasm for waiting until it was time for the parade to start (minus the occasional crying).

we brought the stroller with us, but madelyn spent almost no time in it. she began the parade on daddy's shoulders, then switched back and forth between "daddy" and "mommy" (our more common names these days), before finally becoming willing to stand on her own and dance along with the parade music. when she was being held she was clapping, laughing, and calling "hi" to the parade members.

it was funny how quickly madelyn went from total impatience meltdown to happy, waving, "hi" calling girl once the first of the police cars started coming down the parade route. she didn't know what to think of the first marching band, but by the third she was excited to see it coming. she also enjoyed all the dance troupes. there were lots of other things that i have never seen in parades - a man riding and walking in a huge wheel, a flame throwing float (remax hot air balloon flame) which remarkably allowed for a little thawing of my face and fingers.

we were all ready to get inside and get warm by the time the parade was over. and madelyn was getting more than ready for dinner. luckily, daddy was able to pick up some cookies for madelyn to snack on and get through the parade wait. even though i can count on one hand the number of times madelyn has had cookies, this is one word she has mastered and said repeatedly while we waited for daddy to come back with them.

some other new words that are increasing with frequency (and cuteness) are "sleeping" and "stamp". we have been finishing up on our basement work (matt's work) and recently moved our guest bed down to the new guestroom and set up a twin mattress in the old guestroom. anyway madelyn goes into the old guestroom and lays down on the twin mattress before calling out "sleeping" so that i will come in and see her. when i come in she says "sleeping" again and starts making a "shh", "shh" noise that i make when i pretend sleep for her. the only thing she doesn't do is close her eyes yet.

"stamp" is the other word making at least a daily mention. madelyn gets a stamp on her hand after each tumbling class and for the past week has been grabbing the top of her hand and requesting a "stamp". she is always disappointed when i don't give her one, but understands since i have never given her one before. it cracks me up though because it is always at the most random time that this request comes up. nothing triggers her to have the idea (at least nothing i can figure out). she asks during meals, while riding in the car, while coloring, while reading, whenever.

this last picture is from thursday. i was making breadcrumbs for the recipe i was making for dinner and had cut off all the crusts. madelyn likes to get her stool and bring it over so that she can watch me "cook". after i cut of the crusts they must have looked really good because madelyn just started chowing down! she must have eaten at least two slices worth of crusts. it was cute because she got thirsty and went to the table, got her water cup, brought it over to the counter before climbing back up on her stool to keep eating.

she is getting really good at lifting and carrying around her little wooden stool. she just follows me around the kitchen with it so that she can always see what is going on. i let her help as much as possible - pouring, mixing, stirring, throwing away trash - but she gets curious about what everything feels like and that is where she gets herself into trouble. after one warning, the stool goes up on top of the refrigerator. she gets over it quickly because she knows the rules and has to live with the choice she made not to listen. which reminds me - we have been really noticing the benefits of constantly giving her choices. she knows that she has to choose or that we will choose for her. when she doesn't like the choice (hers or ours) i have noticed that there is little or no crying because she is starting to understand how things work. i am not saying this to pat us on the back for our parenting skills, but because i have really noticed a difference over the past few weeks in the ease of getting things done. she is much more willing to choose to hold our hand when we are out because the other choice is riding in the cart or something else that she doesn't want to do. it definitely makes life easier to not have that many battles of the wills.

sorry that the posts have been so sporadic, i have been prepping for thanksgiving dinner and starting Christmas planning since i have a four-day conference the second week of the month and it always puts me way behind on my Christmas cards and shopping. papa, nana, and uncle derek are arriving tuesday night for thanksgiving so we have been trying to get everything set up and complete for guests in the basement and getting all the dinner items purchased and staged for the big dinner! tomorrow i am cooking one turkey (for "left overs") and then tuesday i will be doing all the pre-prep side-dishes. at least i have a plan and that always makes me less stressed.

anyway - the posts will most likely continue to be sporadic over the next few months. madelyn continues to develop at lightning speed it seems. she also added "read" as on of her new words over the past week. that's it for now. love.

snuggle bugs

i don't know where it came from, but maddie and i share "snuggle bugs". basically i squat down to her height and say "snuggle bugs" while spreading my arms out real wide. maddie breaks out a big smile and 'runs' into my arms where i gather her up in a great big bear hug while twisting back and forth saying "snuggle bugs, snuggle bugs, snuggle bugs". this usually makes us both laugh. i am trying to get her to do it with her daddy too, but for now this is something just for us. love.

just like mommy

i was on the phone this evening while getting dinner ready and maddie went into my office. she does this often since we spend most of the day in there and she has some of her favorite toys in the room. as soon as i saw her i ran back from my camera.

you can't really tell from the video how much it truly looked like she was working at the computer, but when i first went in she had her hands correctly on the keyboard and was 'typing' away. she was even looking up at the screen and then reaching her right hand out to move the mouse every now and then - just like mommy. by the time i took the video she had put the mouse up on the keyboard so the 'typing' wasn't as good.

while i thought it was super cute and got the camera so that i could share. i quickly closed the keyboard drawer up and took the chair away so that she wouldn't hurt anything (or think that it was okay to use mommy's computer).

the other part of this that occurred to me as i sat down to post tonight is that it is a little sad. this is how she sees mommy all day (except that i don't sit on my knees in the chair). it is difficult to keep balance in my life with work, and maddie, and matt, and everything else (not in that order at all), but i know that it is what i have to do so i do it. i love my job, but it does take me away from maddie in many ways. i am physically with her all day, but mentally i can only give her a limited amount of my attention. i think that people don't realize that part. in order to get in 40 hours - at least - a week, its not like maddie and i are just hanging out at home having a grand 'ole time. i am working, just like if i was in an office.

i am not as sad as this sounds (not that i haven't been from time to time), but looking at her imitate me like this tonight made me kind of sad and i felt the need to share. truthfully, it is impressive that she did it so well! and she didn't want to stop when i picked her up off the chair - she just kept reaching trying to get back down. well enough of that! love.