We Are Home!! And, we had FUN!!

Stay tuned for a Bahamas post and a Madeline at Grandma's post! Grandma took lots of pictures as directed! :)

And, we're OFF!

That's right, Eric and I are off to the Bahamas --- warm weather, sunshine, water slides, making new friends, Atlantis, poolside beverages, sleeping in past 7 AM, relaxing, and clear blue water. Well, Eric will have a little bit of "work" to attend to, but I will be relaxing at all times with the other wives! A study group, a group of oral surgeons, dentists, etc. that meet to learn about new/latest & greatest in the dental implant/teeth world, uses Eric's products and expert speakers at their meetings. This group takes an annual trip, and Eric is always able to attend. I am lucky enough to be able to attend as well. The boys do actually attend meetings and talk shop for part of the trip!

Last year, they went to a resort in Cancun, but I was unable to go since it was our PACT testing time at school, and I needed to be there for my kids. Plus, I was preggars... Not this year -- I am able to go, and I am EXCITED! We are heading to Jacksonville on Thursday morning and catching our Carnival Fascination for a glorious 3 days with stops at Freeport and Nassau. We will get back to Columbia late Monday night.

Seriously, I only packed for one baby for a few days! Geez, I hope I didn't forget anything!


Miss Madeline will be bunking up with Grandma and Grandpa McCarthy for a week, and I'm sure she will have a blast. I fondly call it "Grandma Boot Camp" because my mom just knows things and has a knack for babies, so she just takes liberties with Madeline and tells me that's what I should be doing. Only a mother and daughter can have that kind of relationship! I love it. I guess that's what being an experienced mom is all about. My mom also works out at Gold's, so that will continue to be part of Madeline's day. I'm sure Grandma has lined up all kinds of "dates" to show Madeline off, and since Madeline plays so well independently, Grandma will be able to do her chores around the house. I have given my mom the go ahead in experimenting with finger foods with Madeline. By the end of "Grandma Boot Camp", Madeline will probably be eating finger foods, drinking out of a sippy cup, and crawling! Maybe she'll cut her second tooth so I don't have to endure that fussiness again! :) Oh, and if she starts to cut that second tooth with the McCarthy Grandparents, you can bet there will be bourbon on the gums! :) What happens in Grandma-Vegas, stays in Grandma-Vegas!

Madeline: "Yes! Going to Grandma's house!"

Grandma has strict orders to keep the camera charged and nearby to capture any and everything! While I will miss my sweet girl, it's time for Mama and Daddy to have some fun together. I'll be back in a week with Bahamas and Madeline pictures! And, yes, I did cry when I left her with my mom! Motherhood has turned me into a sap! :)

On the Market

We've done it! We have officially put our little home on the market in hopes of selling it by the fall. As I think about our little home, I get a little weepy thinking about leaving it behind. Afterall, this is the house that Eric and I picked out together, decorated together, and made our home together. This was our newlywed, no children, entertaining home. This is the home that we began our own family traditions -- carving pumpkins from the pumpkin patch, decorating every surface with a Christmas decoration, spring cleaning of the garage, and so many more little traditions that are special to us. And, when we moved to Columbia our priorities were a home that: we could entertain our friends, have a few friends spend the night on occasion, grill out on the back deck, putz around in the reasonable-sized yard to get our feet wet in the whole "landscaping and taking care of it" part of having a yard, has enough space so that we wouldn't be on top of each other when we were both home, and was convenient to our respective jobs. It was perfect for us and our needs at that point.

Now, we have a child, and our little newlywed home is littered with rattles, baby equipment, and all the "stuff" we've acquired in our almost 5 years of marriage. We're getting a little cramped, and our priorities are changing in our vision of a home and neighborhood. Don't get me wrong -- our neighborhood is nice, but everyone keeps to themselves. We have a great neighbor, and we can count on him to watch our house if we're gone or get our mail. But, we still want more...

Now, we find ourselves longing for holiday family gatherings at our house, neighborhood friends with kids close to our kids' ages, summer days at the neighborhood pool meeting other stay at home moms and their children, entertaining our friends AND their children, Easter egg hunts and birthday parties in our backyard, and having a playroom for the kids and their toys. Plus a quiet place that Eric can use as his office since he doesn't have "an office" to go to each day. It's funny how things change. We always knew we would move from this house, and while we are saddened by the thought of leaving behind our first home, we are so eagerly awaiting the new memories we will make in our new home/neighborhood fit for a growing family!

We have found THAT neighborhood, The Mill, in Lexington, SC. It's a wonderful community not too far from our current home, so the day to day things will not change as far as the gym, our church, errands, etc. are concerned. However, the home will be built to our specifications and the space (oh the space!) that we will have. It's going to have so much storage space, a playroom on the 3rd floor, an office for Eric to work in peace, a dining room, a living room, and an enormous backyard for our future backyard bar-b-ques! The neighborhood is well kept, has a pool, and backs up to woods that will not be developed in the future. We will be in a growing part of Lexington, so the whole area should just continue to grow.

(A sample picture of the house we chose to build. The outside of our house will look a little different than this one.)

As with all new construction, I am sure we will have some bumps along the way, and I know that I will be venting them on this blog. However, I am staying optimistic that we won't run into any major glitches with the construction of our house. I will keep updates and pictures on our progress of our home adventure! Let the selling and building begin!

Bathtime!

Madeline loves her bath...here are some pictures with our NEW camera to show off bathtime!

Madeline has no cares in the world about all this water falling on her face. From day one, she's always had water poured over her head. Never once has she cried about it. I hope this means I have a water baby on my hands!
"Hey Mama!"

Bathtime is so fun. I must slap my belly!

Just a cute bath photo!

"There is nothing like a clean baby!" said my Mama.

I LOVE the bath!

YES!!!

We have a new camera! It was decided that the cost of the new camera with a 4 GB memory card & 10.2 megapix vs. the cost to fix the old one with a much lesser GB card & less megapix was a no brainer. We tested it out during bathtime this evening, and we've decided we LOVE the new camera! Bathtime post to follow!

Madeline is 8 Months Old! (Please excuse the "I'm 8 Months Old Today!" photographs...our camera is on the blink, and I couldn't miss an 8 month photo shoot even if it is poor quality. The pictures in the pink dress are from Easter Sunday, 2009. The beach pictures are from Fripp Island taken by our good friend, Jennifer St. John. Lots of pictures this month! Too many to choose from!!)
Well, another month has whizzed by, and our little sweetheart is 8 months old. She remains to be one of the happiest babies I have ever seen. I have so many strangers walk by to say "Hello" to her, and they always remark, "What a happy baby! Is she always this happy?" As a matter of fact, she is that happy most of the time. Madeline flashes that little smile to everyone she meets, and she meets quite a few people with her porcupine hair! So many people just can't resist touching it. She rarely fusses, so when she does, I know that something is wrong. She loves to give big hugs and wet, sloppy kisses, and as she hugs, a pat on the back comes along with it. It's so endearing! Everytime I pick her up from the gym nursery, she stretches her arms for me and greets me with a hug and a pat! Is there any better feeling than that?

Madeline continues to be a fantastic eater with some clear favorites -- peas, green beans, oatmeal, blueberries, and squash. Her little pincers are developing nicely, so she loves to grab at the Gerber puffs. Her schedule and napping are holding steady. She's slowly but surely warming up to the idea that naps are a good thing. The morning nap continues to be a "power nap" while the afternoon nap is slowly being stretched out. One afternoon, she slept until 5 PM!! Madeline is pretty flexible during the daytime, but dinner/bath/bedtime routine cannot be disrupted. (We have learned that the hard way!)

On the mobility front, Madeline has gotten more adventurous in her reaching out and grabbing while sitting upright. I can't count how many times I have walked away from her sitting up on the floor playing with her little toys/playmat, and when I walk back in the room, she's gotten herself all jacked up in a ridiculous position from reaching out to grab a toy. I am proud of her for this as she slowly but surely is figuring out how to use her little body to get the things she wants. There is no crawling yet, and she still manages to keep herself from rolling to her belly. Clapping her hands together is a new "trick" this month, and in Madeline's eyes, everything deserves a clap!
Madeline has just one little tooth poking through the bottom, but I think another one is on the horizon as the waterworks have started up again. It sure was nice to not continuously wipe drool from her face once that first tooth broke through. We have many teeth to go, so I guess I'll get used to the drooly face! :) If you look closely at the next couple of pictures, you can see her little tooth poking out! Madeline has such an infectious little giggle. Her tickle spots are very sensitive. Sometimes picking her up just right will elicit a silly little laugh because she is that ticklish. As you can tell from the eight month photos, nothing, I mean nothing, is safe from the Madeline grab! She will grab at anything and shove it in her mouth and just play with it. Remote controls, her hairbows, spoons, glasses, earrings, nose, ears, & buttons on your shirt (and the list goes on and on!) are not safe with Madeline around!
Madeline never ceases to amaze us with her excitement for the world around her whether it's the grocery store, Target, the parking lot, our den, or a walk to the mailbox. She LOVES to be outside even if she's just sitting on the grass looking around. She continues to LOVE the gym, and the ladies that keep her just might steal her! Not really, but Madeline apparently is the little social butterfly. On more than one occasion they have noticed her smiling from ear to ear at another little one toddling by as if to say, "Hey! Stop here and play with me!" She's becoming more interactive with the others her age in the gym, and from what I hear it is super cute. Speaking of super cute, there is nothing more adorable than the sheer excitement on Madeline's face, when she hears her Daddy's voice when he gets home from work! The "HEY BABY GIRL!" that Daddy yells out when he sees her in the evenings ALWAYS makes Madeline smile and squeal with delight.

I sometimes find myself thinking about life before Madeline, and I just can't fathom not having her here with us. She has captured our hearts over the last eight months, and she continues to make our hearts swell with each passing day!

AARRGGHH!!

Our camera is broken (we think)! The pictures are way too light, so we think something is broken with the shutter. So my vision of our first family Easter photo on a beautiful summery day did not happen. BOO HISS!

But, we did go over to my parents house for Easter dinner, and we did get a couple of photos of Madeline in her Easter dress. Once I am able to get my mom's camera & upload the photos, I will post them. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, a camera on the fritz isn't the absolute worst thing that could happen to us. As a matter of fact, Eric and I were watching The Today Show the other morning, and it mentioned that 25% of Americans are taking on second jobs to support themselves and their families. We are surviving on one income quite comfortably and well, so we feel completely blessed. We are a very thankful and lucky family this Easter season.

So, minus a cute family photo and a day late, Happy Easter to all!

I love being a Mom!

How can you resist this adorable face? I'm just so thankful to be Madeline's Mommy!

Girls' Weekend

Jenny showing the theme of the weekend: RELAX!

Madeline's daddy wanted me to leave directions for him!

What a fun weekend I just had with my monthly supper club girls! We decided it was time for a girls only getaway, and it was perfect. We left the hubbies at home to take care of the children and packed up for Lake Greenwood! We laughed, talked, cooked together, ate delicious food, enjoyed tasty beverages, sat in the sun by the lake, and gelled our friendships even more!

Our supper club is an eclectic group of girls--we all went to high school together, but we ran in different crowds. Therefore we were all acquaintances not really friends, but over the last two years the seven of us have come to be the best of friends. We are all wives, mommies, daughters, sisters, friends, and coworkers outside of our supper club, and our monthly supper club just gives us the chance to decompress from our daily lives. I am very lucky to have these girls in my life, and I am already looking forward to our next girls only getaway in July!

First of Many

Well, Miss Madeline has her first official tooth!! She's been having all the symptoms of teething since she was about 3 months old, and now a little snag has finally broken the surface on the bottom. Being the inexperienced Mama that I am, I had no idea that one day Madeline would wake up, and there it is!

This past Monday was a HORRIFIC day in Mama-Land here at the Stewart household. I even went to the doctor on Monday afternoon to make sure she didn't have an ear infection or anything like that. (I'm sure the doctor was wondering what in the world I was thinking as her little gums were throbbing, but she never cries like that.) So once all other things were ruled out, I knew that the tooth was about to break the surface. Poor Madeline, she was not a happy camper regardless of what I did to console her. Absolutely nothing helped (but now I know all about Motrin, my new best friend!). She wore her little self out by 6:30 PM and slept like a rock until Tuesday morning. At least she has a little chicklet to show for her miserable day on Monday.

***I have yet to be able to capture this momentous event on camera as she covers it with her tongue every time I go near it, so a picture to share is hopefully on the way...

Slack...

Yep, that's me. I've let my blogging slip a little bit. I had Madeline's updates started and mostly completed on March 17th, but I've just gotten around to putting the final touches on them so they would be "post worthy".

What's been going on with us over the last few weeks?

• Madeline has been sick with a cold on and off --- runny nose (I thought it was teething at first, but it turned a lovely shade of green.) & a horrible cough, so needless to say, we've had some sleepless nights over the last couple of weeks.
• We've been doing lots of spring chores around the house --- raking leaves (although you wouldn't know it to look at our yard as the leaves seem to be neverending), cleaning out closets, lowering the baby girl's crib one notch, washing cars, and other random yard chores.
• On St. Patrick's Day weekend, Eric and I braved the chill and rain to go to 5 Points downtown to enjoy the Irish festivities and visit with many of our friends. Oh, how times have changed when we stand around with friends enjoying a couple of adult beverages discussing babysitters, diapers, naptimes, and how annoyingly loud the music is. Madeline stayed with my mom and dad for the weekend, so Eric and I had an entire baby-free weekend. It was wonderful, and of course, I had the best intentions of snapping some date night pictures on Friday night & St. Patty's Day pictures, but my camera never made it out of my purse the entire weekend! Boo hiss....
• While at my mom's house, Madeline enjoyed some quality time with her cousin Drew. (My brother and his wife also took my parents up on the offer to keep the grandkids for the whole weekend.) He's almost 6 years old, and he can really entertain Madeline! No one gets her belly laughing like her cousin Drew. It's so cute!
• Eric has been working A LOT, and he's had quite a few dinner programs to attend in the evenings. So we have been in survival mode so to speak the last couple of weeks.
• We are going to have a visit from Nana and Papa (Eric's parents) this upcoming weekend, so Eric and I can go to the Camden Cup (horse races). Hopefully, the weather will cooperate, and we can enjoy a nice spring day outside with friends and horses while Nana and Papa get some quality time with Madeline!
• I've been trying some new recipes to change up our dinners. Some have been great while many have been not-so-great...one dish elicited this comment from Eric, "It looks like school cafeteria beef-a-roni." Hmm, I'm not sure that is a compliment, but it gave me a good chuckle. Let's just say I've put more "X" marks by recipes in the book rather than stars.

So after re-reading this post, maybe I haven't been slack just BORING with nothing terribly noteworthy happening.

Madeline's 7 Month Photo Shoot Gone Wild!

First picture--so far so good!

I had to make a separate post regarding Madeline's 7 month photo shoot because it was just so funny. It really shows how much she has changed. Before, she would just sit there and pose throwing out the occasional smile while I snapped away. This month, however, was a little different. The sign was entirely too irresistible and her patience with my prompting her to smile wore thin very quickly. I did get some cute shots as you saw on her update post, but here is the progression of our photo session in order from beginning to end. (Keep your eyes on the sign, by the way. By the end of the session, the sign is quite mangled and slobbery!)

"OHHH, this sign looks fun!"

"Maybe I could hold it just for a second!"

"OOPS, I leaned over just a little too far. Now, I'm stuck! Let me see if I can just reach my arm out to get the sign anyways."

(Notice her little hand reached out to get the sign.)
Lots of grunting noises coming from the small person...
"Ah-ha! I got it!"

Still lots of grunting and breathing heavy...It's hard work to ruin a piece of paper.

"Mommy tried to move the sign and me elsewhere...But, I wasn't interested in doing this anymore. If I don't look at the camera, maybe she'll stop!"

Madeline finally indulged Mommy with a few smiles.

"Phew! Mom, seriously, I'm tired of this already!" (Notice her belly hanging out!)

It looks like she is rolling her eyes at me in the above picture.

"Yawn! I'm so over this!"

"If I start to fuss, this torture may end."

And, this Mommy got wise and decided to call it a day!

"YAY!!! I'm done!!!"