Two Little Words

Madeline and I were in my office. She was playing and coloring, and I was on the computer. All of a sudden, I heard those famous words, "OHHHH Noooooo!" I turned around and this is what I saw:
Madeline had pulled her diaper tabs apart, and the diaper fell down around her ankles. She was terribly distressed by this, and I found myself laughing so much so that I jiggled the camera as I took a picture.

Then she actually pulled it back up and redid the tabs as best she could. I offered a bit of help.

Then I turned around and saw this:

Madeline then became a ham for the camera.

Never a dull moment around here.

Spring Weekend Fun

This past Saturday was gorgeous...the warmth, the sunshine, & the 3 of us being together. We didn't do anything terribly special, but it was awesome. We enjoyed Saturday morning at the park, had a picnic lunch in our backyard, played in our backyard, opened the windows and blared our music into the yard, read books in the sunshine, and just had some good old fashioned family together time.

On Sunday, the weather was quite the opposite --- chilly, windy, rainy. However, we had a special day planned for Madeline. We took her to our friend's barn to meet the horses! Madeline loved it. She even rode on Jen's horse, Rhinestone Cowboy (with Jen of course!). The funny thing was Madeline liked to trot, not walk, but trot. Jen was taking it slow at first, but Madeline started to fuss. We gave Jen the go ahead to tighten her grip on Madeline, make Cowboy trot, and oh how Madeline bounced, squealed, and smiled! It was fun! (Unfortunately, all the pictures of this event are on Jen's fancy camera that her hubby was using to capture the event! Hopefully, we will get those soon!) While Jen took Cowboy out to the jumping/obstacle area, we roamed the grounds. Madeline loved all the dogs.

What a fun weekend for all of us!

Nineteen Months Old

What a month it has been! Madeline continues to be our sweet yet spirited little girl. Over the last month, her comprehension has really improved, and she does really well following simple directions. Her verbalization has become much more clear to us and even others who've seen her regularly over this last month. Madeline has started to string together a couple of words to make statements such as: "I fall down." "I slide. I swing." "Boo-boo. It hurts." Occasionally, she'll belt out with an "I wuv you." or "Bless you." at the appropriate time. It's really neat to watch her figure out how to communicate and be successful. She's very into having things organized: putting her books back into the basket, if the corner of a rug is flipped up, she'll bend down to make it flat again; picking up things off the floor and putting them into the trashcan; if the drawer/a door/a cabinet is slightly open, she'll walk over and shut it; if her gate is not closed at the steps, she'll shut it.

Madeline seems to have gotten over her separation anxiety for the most part. What a relief! I think she's gotten used to her Daddy's travel and my flip-flopping gyms, so she's figured out that we always come back for her regardless of our schedule.
Madeline is no longer on any bottle. Woo hoo! She dropped her nap time bottle on her own one afternoon simply because she pushed it away when I tried to give it to her before nap. I went cold turkey on nap time bottle from that day forward, and as I suspected, Madeline did just fine without it. I planned to drop the nighttime bottle after our weekend away to Greenville so my brother's family wouldn't have to listen to her cry it out at night. Well, she ate so much at each mealtimes with them that she pushed the bottle away when my sister-in-law tried to give it to her, so she just put her down for the night. After that, I just stopped giving it to her at bedtime cold turkey. Again, she did fine without it. Madeline actually seems to prefer milk to juice or water, so she gets plenty of milk calories throughout the day without those extra bottles. Madeline is a roller coaster eater --- some weeks she eats us out of house and home eating & trying anything on her plate, and some weeks she's the pickiest eater and goes on food strike. I think in the long run, she's going to be a good eater and eat what she's served. Speaking of eating, her use of a fork and a spoon are coming along quite nicely. However, if she's really hungry, she will forgo the utensil and just grub down with her hands.

Madeline has finally cut all of her teeth --- these last two lower canines have been terribly painful for her. I actually think the canines have been the worst teeth of all as far as making her wake up in the middle of the night crying out in pain, the buckets of drool and runny nose, the cranky disposition, and the gnawing on anything. Phew, I'm glad to be done with teeth for now, and I'm sure Madeline is excited too!

Madeline is happiest when she can "read" her books, color, play outside, and just wander around chatting to me, her babies, or her stuffed animals. I marvel at how independent she really is to be so young. Of course, I play with her, but I let her come to me when she wants a story to be read to her, etc. because sometimes she'll push me away if I try to play with her as if to say, "I'll let you know when I need/want you to play with me." I love her independence, and I know in the long run her ability to play by herself will come in handy. Her little mind certainly knows what she wants, and when she doesn't get her way, she's sure to let us know. However, she's simmered down in the testing of boundaries and limits this past month (thank goodness!). I guess this consistent Mama made those limits very clear. Madeline has really started to respond to a "firm, teacher voice" because she will stop dead in her tracks and look at me when I call her name in my teacher voice. I am happy for that not just for discipline reasons, but also for safety reasons if she's about to get herself in a dangerous situation (being near the open oven door when I'm making dinner, getting too close to the curb when we are outside, not holding my hand walking to the car, etc.). Madeline is quite curious about everything around her, so I have to keep tabs on her.

Madeline's sleep habits continue to be awesome and like clockwork. She goes down for her nap around 1 PM and will sleep until about 3 or 4 PM. Her bedtime remains between 7-8 PM even with the time change, and she gets up between 7-8 AM. I can't complain about her sleep. She has had to "cry it out" more before nap and bed lately simply because she's in a new routine. Madeline is having to learn how to calm herself down instead of relying on the 8 oz. bottle to relax her. We do read her a couple of stories, but sometimes that is just not enough to fully relax her. Her crying it out usually lasts less than 5 minutes, but there have been a few times that she's let us know for about 15-20 minutes that she's angry about being in the bed. Unfortunately for her, we don't give into the crying --- no rocking, no back rubs, & no going back into the room once she's down. (Of course, I like to sneak a peek well after she's asleep to make sure she's okay.) Luckily for us, the times we've had sitters or relatives keep her for us recently, they have followed our strict orders to let her cry it out, so that has helped us to remain consistent in the new routine.

Madeline's little life is zipping right along (sometimes just entirely too fast!), and I am so happy that I get to be home with her to experience it all with her.

We love you sweet girl!

Tagged

My friend, Nancy, tagged me for this, and what fun! The instructions were to post the tenth picture in my first picture folder. So here is the picture...

Wow, this picture was taken one month before Madeline's birth---July, 2008. Eric and I were at my brother's house --- my oldest brother, Pat, and his wife, Kim, LIVE on their deck in the summertime. They invited us over for cocktails and dinner. Well, I enjoyed ice cold, refreshing tap water while my husband enjoyed cocktails. Kim was so excited to have a niece that she showered me with presents ALL THE TIME. It was pretty awesome!

In this picture, I am opening a sweet little picture frame that she had "stolen" a 3D ultrasound picture from us and framed. I came across that picture and frame in our move, and I just marveled at the fact that our sweet Madeline really did look like that when she was born. Technology is amazing.

I also look back at this picture and am reminded of how easy my pregnancy was --- no sickness ever, no complications, hardly any weight gain (only 15 lbs.), no swelling, easy labor and delivery, no crazy aversions or unusual sensory issues, no nothing, and we were blessed with a beautiful, "easy" child. I think about little Madeline now, and yes, she tests boundaries, but she is just a sweet and easy going as can be. I am also reminded of how I used to get my nails done every two weeks in a French manicure (look closely), and NOW I am lucky to even notice that I have nails. :)

I enjoyed this little "tag" because I ended up looking back through pictures that I had not looked at for the longest time. It was a lovely trip down memory lane.

Wahoo! Mama and Daddy Alone Time!

My brother, Greg, and his wife, Angela, gave us THE.BEST.2009 BIRTHDAY.PRESENTS.EVER --- an adults only night away! We cashed in on our gift the first weekend in March.

Greg and Angela live in Greenville, and there is an amazing fine dining restaurant in downtown Greenville that they gave us a gracious gift card to use for ourselves while they keep Madeline for the whole day, night, and "come back whenever you feel like it next day"! If you've never been to downtown Greenville, I highly recommend it. It's a fun, family oriented, dog friendly, & less granola Asheville type place. Anyways, the weekend was so refreshing and fabulous.

Eric, Madeline, and I headed up to Greenville on Friday afternoon to hang out with Greg, Angela, and their 6 year old, Drew. We had a wonderful dinner with them while Madeline and Drew played so wonderfully together. That little Drew is just a dear child with Madeline, and he just loved playing with her. Of course, Madeline was very charmed with him.

We woke up on Saturday morning, got ready, and headed out the door for our adults only adventure. We had nothing really planned except to explore the downtown area & our dinner reservations that evening. The weather was gorgeous, the adults only conversation was carefree and chit-chatty, and the beverages were fantastic.

Meanwhile, back at Greg and Angela's on Saturday, Madeline was having the time of her life --- being a spectator at Drew's basketball game clapping wildly for both teams, going out to lunch for pizza, snatching Uncle Greg's sweet tea and sucking most of it down, taking a 4 hour nap making Uncle Greg and Aunt Angela question whether Madeline was breathing or not, eating hot dogs & french fries with ketchup for dinner, sharing a pound of blueberries with Drew, going to the park to feed the ducks in which Madeline didn't get the whole throw the bread in the water thing & ended up eating her piece of bread, sharing a pound of strawberries with Drew, playing hard, DROPPING the nighttime bottle because she was STUFFED to the gills, and sleeping until NINE the next morning causing Uncle Greg and Aunt Angela to miss church.

While we were roaming the downtown area, we stumbled upon this, and we feel sure that Madeline would approve of this establishment!
On Saturday night, Eric and I got dressed up, had a wonderful dinner, more lovely "just us" time, and an evening out post dinner. We had so.much.fun!

On Sunday, we didn't race back to Greg and Angela's since they suggested we come back whenever we felt like it, so we did. We had brunch, shopped, and took our time heading back to get our sweet girl.

The weekend was a blast for all of us --- Eric and I obviously loved our alone time exploring Greenville, Madeline got a glowing report from her cousin, aunt, and uncle, and my brother, his wife, and son enjoyed having another child in the house for a weekend. Win-win for all!

It's Official...

Madeline is officially enrolled in the two year old program at our church preschool. Wow, is she old enough to be thinking about this already?

She will attend on Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 9 AM - Noon. Eric and I never intended for her to start out with a three day/week program, but it just so happens that the 3 day/week program has some "extras" in the curriculum that Madeline will love --- music movement and library. So, after much deliberation (I know...we're first time parents, so this was a big deal for us!!), we decided to go with the 3 day program. From talking extensively with the director, the "extras" were just how the schedule worked out with the teacher's fall schedule more so than the number of days/week. At any rate, I know Madeline will love library and music movement, so that is all that matters to me.

We'll love it, and more importantly, I know she'll love it. Now that we are comfortable with our preschool choice, I'm on the look-out for a super cute satchel for our sweet girl! :)

Let It Snow Again

I don't mean to be ungrateful, being a gal from South Carolina and all, but really a second snow?! C'mon Mother Nature!? It was wonderful and beautiful the first time, but this time, in March, this Southern gal is ready for SPRING or at the very least, some SUN!

I actually didn't even know it was snowing until I logged into Facebook and looked outside to see what all the hub-bub & status updates were about. (When the hubby travels, I am a complete hermit at night! No lights, no windows, no TV, no nothing...just me, the bed, a lamp, and a book! And, of course, the usual computer time!)

If the gym is on a snow delay tomorrow, I might be a little bit mad. :)