Turkey Day

Karin cooked up a Thanksgiving dinner and Andy, Meme and Pepe came over.  She outdid herself this year.  Madelyn loved having everybody over and got to play a good game of chase with Pepe and spent the afternoon running all over the house.

Sitting in a "big-girl" chair is a big hit now, it's funny how kids always want to do what they see the older kids doing.

Kicking back and watching some TV, sometimes you just have to let things slide :)

Ok, I'll go back to sleep....

Somebody asked about PEPs, so here is the link. It's been great for us to connect with other parents who are going though all of the fun that we are going though, rather than stay at home and go crazy by ourselves.

http://www.pepsgroup.org/

Thankfully it seems like Madelyn's latest round of teething is just about over and we are back to our normal sleep routine. She'll still wake up here and there screaming (like there is a snake or something in her bed), but just having us walk into the room seems to be enough for her to go back to sleep.

Whenever she wants to go outside now she will round up her coat and shoes and bring them over to you and insist that you put them on. She won't take "No" for an answer, I guess she just wants to see what's going on in the neighborhood or get the mail, how could you resist that?

Walking upright up the stairs (with us holding her hands) is a big hit now. She's not terrible content to crawl up the stairs like she used to do, she would rather hold your hand and try to do it herself. Our only new food this past week has been avocado, it takes her a few bites to get started but she seems to like it. She also ate a piece of Pizza the other day while at PEPS. This is a huge deal for us, most of the time she's just not up for new foods.

Big Sisters Rock???

What's this on Maddy's T-shirt........"Big Sisters Rock".

Hmmmmmm......


Yep, that's correct! Madelyn will get the chance to be a big sister when our newest addition arrives in late May. Karin is 14 weeks pregnant with Madelyn's sibling! It took Meme and Pepe a few minutes to decipher the t-shirt but their reaction was worth the wait. And the look of surprise on their faces says it all!


We are excited about having another child and nervous all at the same time. It seems like just yesterday that we brought Madelyn home and into our lives and now were doing it all over again! Wish us luck with two little screamers. :)

Just go back to Sleep!

We've had a near perfect sleep record for the past 6 months, at least 12 hours or more, for so long that we have forgotten what's it's like to have sleep issues at all. That all came to a screeching halt about 10 days ago. Madelyn has discovered that there are monsters under her bed trying to eat her judging from the amount crying and the fight that she puts up at bedtime and when she wakes up in the middle of the night. The latest round of teething must not be helping but it's most likely a case of separation anxiety that kids go though around this age, or is it the gas that she's been passing lately? We basically had a three day/night train wreck earlier this week, with one parent being sick and Madelyn fighting us every time she got close to her crib. We've both caught the other parent standing at Madelyn's door at 2:00am, telling her off in a stern voice and trying to reason with her on why she should go back to sleep. This normally does not work and it takes one of us hanging out in her room rubbing her back for a few minutes to calm her down enough to go back to sleep. We are exhausted like we were in the first few weeks of parenthood and so ready for this phase to be over. Lucky for us everything at this age comes in phases, so if things got worse, things can get better with a little bit of TLC.

Autumn

The sugar maple has dropped it's red leaves again and it was time to take another fall picture in the front yard.  What a difference a year makes, same bumbo, same weekend and alot more hair on her head this time around.

Big grins can be had by doing anything unexpected, like covering Wyatt in leaves.  We had so much fun at the Aquarium last weekend that we went back for another visit, we skipped the fish&chips this time around but ate goldfish crackers instead.

Aquarium

We bought a family membership to the Aquarium and decided to go check it out today. Madelyn had tons of fun checking out all the fish and just as much fun checking out the other kids.

Her favorite part was the touch tanks where she stuck her hands in and splashed up a storm. All the other kids are gently toughing sea stars and our kid is busy trying to splash all the water out of the tank.

So how hard can it be to take a picture of a toddler? Out of the 15 frames above we got one good picture. Madelyn had her tongue hanging out in a few shots, her eyes closed in another and a booger got picked somewhere along the way. It seems the harder we try to pose a shot the more that we fail. She decided to try some of our Fish&Chips at lunch, I always feel bad eating fish at the Aquarium but we split an order anyhow. She also drank milk this week for the first time in months.

But wait, wasn't Halloween the other day, where are the cute costume pictures? Umm Madelyn decided that she she was not going to wear one this year, we must have missed the memo that she sent to us. We tried a few different costumes last week including this pumpkin one, every time we got close to her with it she shook her head -no-no-no. At some point you cut your losses wipe up the tears and decide to try for next year. Madelyn was a bit wigged out by her friends in costumes at her playgroup this week, as well!