GoGoGo!!!!!

No mistaking it, this word, "GoGoGo!!!", has become Maddy's favorite.  It's popular on the weekends when I'm around.  She'll yell "GoGoGo" and round up her boots and coat and it's off to the Aquarium or a children's museum for some fun.  Her other favorite word is "Mummumdahdah", it's either a city in India or her word for the both of us.  Normally used when she wants both of us to head upstairs at night for bath, books and bed.

The water table at the museum is always a big wet hit.

Look closely and you'll find Brooks in this picture :)

All of this gogogo, make for one tired Dad.

Check that off the list.....

Its the thing that as a Mother I've dreaded. One of the things on that list in my head that I knew would hit us one day eventually...all moms go through it....and on Thursday it hit me. Well actually it hit all over my friend's home. We got the stomach flu. And its not pretty.

Maddy got sick all over a friend's house at a play-date with many other kids. I never saw it coming and sat there for a moment in shock. And then the Mom in me kicked in and I was trying to contain it and her and the mess....uggghh. Unfortunately then Mom got it on Friday and not to be left out, Dad on Saturday. We've been a mess. But, were recovering and food is starting to look appealing again.

We'll have a new more positive post soon with pics! I was pretty sure no one wanted pics on this post. The stomach flu raging through a family is just not pretty.

We are going to have a .......

It's the question of the day! Boy or Girl? Everyone wants to know, but no one more than Michael and I. I can never relate to those couples who decided to wait and keep the surprise of it till the birth. I just couldn't do it.  So, without too much more rambling, here it is!

What? Hard to tell? Not used to interpreting a 20 week baby ultrasound? Or maybe you can tell and you've seen a few of these pics before!

We are having another GIRL!!!

Open Hand

Foot

Madelyn will be 18 months on Wed, Jan 8th and we can hardly believe she is a year and half. She's running and chatting up a storm and giggling with delight most days. Of course we have plenty of whining, a few temper-tantrums, and lots of tears to go with her struggles. Today I distinctly thought I heard her say "Hi Dai Dai" when dad walked in. Its all a mumble of sound, but I swear I heard it. She calls Dad "Dai Dai" as she can't quite say Daddy quite yet.   Karin is 20 weeks pregnant, halfway there and the time has flown by. She isfeeling better but still exhausted all the time, which definitely has more to do with the little monkey that she chases around all day.

Santa

We Really did get a picture taken with Santa this year, however he was smart and snuck up on her from behind.

X-Mas

It took Maddy a few minutes to get into the swing of things on Christmas morning.  But after she figured things out, she was more than happy to unwrap her presents and help out with Mom & Dad's as well.  We had the whitest x-mas that Seattle has seen in our lifetimes, about a foot of snow at our house and closer to two feet at Meme and Pepe's.  We've lost power twice in the last few days, but luckly it was back on in a few hours.

Puzzles were a big hit.

Delivering a present to Mom.

Another book about dogs.

Getting into the Stocking stuffers.

This has to be my favorite picture of the day, Madelyn will play a good game of "watch me stick my finger in your mouth", if you let her.

Who is this child?

New surprises come day by day for us now.  We can get Maddy to wear hats, mittens and even boots now.  Just three weeks ago if we tried to put a pair of boots on her you would have led to a huge crying fit.  Now she'll round up her boots and a jacket, drag them over to you and tell you GO-GO.  It really does not matter where you go, it's just her way of saying I'm tired of being cooped up in this house.  Still lots of snow on the ground to play in and more on the way.

We have whittled down the bedtime book readings to 4-5.  We were up to 10 for about a week and it was just too many.  She's not much into giving out good night kisses, but would rather nibble on your nose a few times instead.

This is Fred, a gift to Mom and Dad from Grammie.  He's about the size of a toddler.

X-mas Tree farm

Yes that's the pumpkin hat that our kid refused to wear for Halloween.

Last Saturday afternoon found us up at Farmer Brown's tree lot hunting for a tree. Madelyn somehow decided that her pink-kitty boots were 'OK' to wear now and came in handy for walking around in the mud. We have been trying to get them on her feet for about 5 weeks now and she's finally warmed up to them. At this rate we are going to have to start buying next summers sandals next month she she'll be used to them when the time comes. After much deliberating we found a tree and headed on home.

New words this past week have been 'Bbball' and 'brd (bird)' and what sounds like 'this' and 'kitty cat'. She loves the word 'ball' and will chase the big yoga ball all over the house while yelling 'BbbALL', it's great fun to watch. She can pick out a reindeer in the x-mas books, but she's not picking up on what/who Santa is yet. She ate everything in sight this weekend so she's either over her cold from last week or tanking up for a growth spurt.

She's running quite well now, she'll sometimes take off and get going so fast that she crashes, but she's defiantly getting the hang of it all. Walking up the stairs like a big person is a hit and we can coax her to go down them on her tummy most days. Not having to carry her down the stairs is just one of the little things that makes things a little easier.

Kids at this age seem to understand far more than we think they do. I gave Maddy the full trash bag from the kitchen garbage yesterday and told her to take it out to the garage, and off she went. Dragging the bag behind her, it was hard not to laugh too much at the sight. Heck if she wants to keep that up I'll start paying her an allowance. She'll also help drag the dirty clothes from our bedroom upstairs to the laundry chute and want to toss the clothes down.

Books

Madelyn has been in love with her books as of late.  Big books, small books, she loves them all and if the book has pictures of dogs inside she'll want to read it again and again.  This picture is fairly common on our couch now, she'll raid her book drawer downstairs and pile them up on the couch.  Then she'll toss one leg up on the couch and struggle to get up, next if you are sitting on the couch you will be presented with a book that you may read to her.  If you're lucky you'll get past page 4, but most of the time that is where her attention span ends and it's on to the next book.  Reading books before bedtime is always fun, we must keep 10 books beside the rocking chair just so we have enough to read to her, many of them will be rejected depending on her mood. 

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!

Brooks

Lots of new stuff has been happening with Madelyn these past few weeks, but first a word about Brooks. Madelyn has known Brooks though Karin's Peps group since she was about 3 weeks old, he's a few days older than her. His mother Wendy, and their new daughter Georgia, come over to play from time to time.

These two have seem to have hit it off. Madelyn still loves to sit on whatever she can find and today it happened to be Brooks.



On to the new stuff, we must be in some sort of growth spurt. Madelyn has gained about a pound in the last month and she's weighs about 25lb 8oz now. She's not as much fun to carry around as she used to be. We also have four teeth on their way in. The first molars erupted from the gums about a week ago and have begun their decent. It's gotta hurt pushing that much out so we've been using Motrin on the rough nights. Lots of new words have begun tumbling out of her mouth. Hi! is still her favorite word to say but Dogeee, Katee, and dat(that) have also shown up, along with her first attempts at making animal sounds, panting for a dog, and trying to trumpet like an elephant. This usually ends up with her spitting all over the place. She knows what no and yes means in their general terms. Mom's tought her to nod her head yes if she wants more cheese and to wave her hands when she "All done" with her food, bath etc...

We've been doing little kids puzzles with her recently and it's amazing to watch her learn how to twist the pieces around to make everything fit. She'll clap her hands when she finishes a puzzle and expects us to do the same. The green couch in the family room has also been conquered. After tossing her leg onto the couch and trying and trying to get on it for weeks, she's finally managed to do so on her own. We put off teaching her how to climb on the furniture but it was only a matter of time. Meme has thankfully taught her what "On your belly" means in order to get off. On your belly also works at the playground with slides, I normally take her a few times a weekend and she'll flop over on her belly to go down. This has worked well for the last two months, but recently it's become obvious that I now need a spotter. I used to be able send her down and then go down the slide myself, but our last two attempts ended up with her going to fast and her flopping face first on the wood chips. Thanks to Dad she also got her first owie on her knee the other day while we were playing around outside in cute pink pants instead of her jeans. She knows the sound of an airplane now and will look up when they cruise overhead.

Food is always a challenge but she always manages to eat enough. Yogurt, bananas, pasta, cheese and raisins are her favorites. Bread, grapes, pears, and maybe peas get consumed depending on the mood. And of course she could eat her weight in Pirate's Booty if you let her.

Favorite bedtime books change from time to time but the sure winners are One Yellow Lion, Tails and Mrs Spider's tea party. Bedtime is as close to 7:00pm as we can get and most days she'll sleep into 7:30ish in the morning. One 1.5 hour nap is all we get now after lunch.

Pumpkin Time

We did some fun things this week! Madelyn, Mom, and some friends went to our first theater show at Seattle Children's Theater. So Cute! We saw 'The Green Sheep', which was a cute tale all about finding the green sheep. Parents & Kids all sat in the "sheep pen" while actors put on the show around us. Maddy was mesmerized for most of it and then madly trying to get snacks out of my diaper bag, however there was a 'no food allowed' policy, which made for a frantic mom trying to distract her persistent child. We'll definitely do this in the future, but will most certainly be leaving the diaper bag 'aka snacks' in the car!

Madelyn, Molly, & Grayden enjoying snacks after the show

Meme giving Madelyn a some good tickle time!

The weekend weather was beautiful, so we took advantage of it and headed out to Craven's Pumpkin Patch. Definitely a popular place on Saturday afternoon and the crowds of families & kids was a bit intimidating for mom! However, Maddy loved it - all the cute displays, the pumpkins, and of course tons of other kids for her to stare at. We made our way out to the Pumpkin Patch and let Maddy explore a bit. She had fun beating on some pumpkins and attempting to pick them up - quite funny! And, of course, we found a couple of them that came home with us! I guess next weekend we will have to carve them up.

"Hey what about this one, Mom?"

"Wait Dad, I can get it..."

Happy Baby

I'm not really sure what Karin gave Madelyn to eat the other morning but it sure made her happy. We have a few packs of alphabet and number cards that she is in love with lately. She will dump them all on the rug and place the cards back in their box with the animal side up, again and again and again and yet again. Hey if it makes her that happy we'll buy her a few more packs.

Wyatt is such a trooper with her, unless she's trying to sit on him he'll put up with the tail pulling and fur grabbing for some attention.

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons started this week. It usually Madelyn a few times to warm up to anything new, so she was the only kid, out of about 12 in her class, to pitch a fit. Her favorite part was learning to climb out of the pool. The poor girl thought we were done every time she got out she had a smile on her face, only to then be tossed back in again. Maybe the second lesson will be better for her.

Mobility is improving, we are seeing her run around from time to time. I think she surprises herself when doing so because it usually leads to a fall in about 10 steps after she gets going. We are down to one nap now. She let us know that the afternoon nap was no longer an option a few weeks ago. This has made bedtime easier, a dip in the bath, 2-3 books including her favorite "One Yellow Lion", into the crib and she's out like a light.

Have we mentioned how much Madelyn liks to sit? We bought her a chair the other weeks but she seems to be obsessed with walking around and sitting down on anything that she can find.

5 year anniversary photo