19 months

Madi is 19 months old today. While this stage is often VERY exhausting and quite trying on my patience, there always seems to be something new going on in Madi's head and something new that she's learning- making it hard not to LOVE being a mom!

A few things to note from this past month include:

* Madilyn LOVES us and FINALLY told us so!! With everything that Madi can say, Spencer and I have been so annoyed that she won't say "I love you" back to us. Then a couple of nights ago, Spencer was leaving and said, "Love you, bye bye. " Then Madi says, "love you!" Spencer had to come back upstairs and hear her say it one more time just so he could believe it! So, it's official- Madi has now admitted to loving her parents!! We love you Madilyn!

* It was last month that Madi said her first sentence, "What's Daddy doin'?", but now she's added several more simple sentences to her vocabulary such as:
"Where'd _______ go?" (she'll fill this in with whatever it is she's looking for).
"What's ________ doing?" (again, filled in with various names).
"I feed baby!"
"Here ya go baby." (This is actually her very favorite sentence which she says a hundred times a day. It started when she'd be giving her baby a bottle or wrapping it in a blanket, but now she'll even say it to me!)

* Nursery has been a major issue! When I'm in there with her, she hardly pays any attention to me. Sometimes I think she would never even notice if I left. But sure enough, within 10 seconds of me leaving, she becomes completely hysterical and NOTHING seems to calm her down. She's not the type of kid who likes to be held or cuddled by anyone else. If you invade her space, she instantly become unglued! I really hopes it's not too long before we can beat this thing.

* Her favorite movie is Charlotte's Web (BEST Christmas present we got her)! Up until now, Madi wouldn't sit in front of the TV for longer than 10 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to encourage television watching, but it is nice when there is a movie that can keep her entertained while I'm on my elliptical in the morning.

*She now counts to 10 (well, with skipping a few numbers at the end). Her counting is: "one, two free, four, five six, nine, TEN!"

*According to my mom, I was potty trained at 18 months. So naturally I've been very interested to see how Madi would react to using the potty. She talks about it alot and will sit on it and even try to go. However, it's not until AFTER she's gone "poopy" that she decides to tell me. Wanting to run to the potty BEFORE is what we gotta work on. I'm not planning on starting the potty training until her 2nd birthday, so I figure the next 5 months is for getting her excited about the whole idea!!

* Aside from drawing and reading, another one of Madi's favorite hobbies is building! And she's become quite the builder too! We probably ought to get her some more blocks, but she usually just wants to make one tower- over and over again. She especially loves building with her daddy. Once they've finished a tower or plane/boat contraption, she always insists on showing me. I think she just loves seeing my reaction to what she's built. It always leaves her beaming with delight, getting me like 5 or 6 BIG hugs, and LOTS more towers!


*Madi's starting to become the queen of excuses. She knows the things that make mommy and daddy worried and the things that we'll baby her more for. For example, when she doesn't want to be in her highchair, but knows that she's supposed to, she'll make a yucky face and say, "I poopy." A month ago it might have worked and we'd get her out to check her bum. But NOT anymore! Luckily Spencer and I have quickly caught on to her sneaky excuses and no longer put up with it. Yes, there's nights where she screams a little harder and pouts a little more, but in the end she knows her behavior is not acceptable! It was just the other night when Spencer had to hold her with her arms folded throughout the prayer while she screamed to read more stories (and this was AFTER reading at least 10 stories)! After the prayer and a forced "amen" on Madi's part, she cuddled against Spencer's chest to sing a few songs before bed. In the middle of one of the songs, Madi lifts her head off Spencer's shoulder and says, "I sorry dad, I sorry." She kept insisting that she was sorry, with Spencer reassuring her it was ok. At least she knew her behavior was unacceptable!

* We still struggle with getting Madi to eat. She eats so little that we often wonder how she's even growing. Consequently we find ourselves feeding her alot (or should I say shoving food into her month). This is not something I pictured myself having to do with my 19 month old, but I don't know what else to do. I'm starting to believe the whole "what goes around comes around" saying. I was the pickiest eater growing up, which I know HAD to be frustrating for my mom. Now I feel like I'm getting a taste of my own medicine!

With all that we deal with on a daily basis I am still surprised at how I rarely want a break away from Madi. The nights that Spencer does bedtime routine and puts Madi to bed (whether I'm gone to mutual, visiting teaching, book club, or whatever it might be) I always find myself missing Madi and wanting to go into her room to give her a big hug when I get home! My favorite things are still the dozens of random hugs and kisses that I get during the day- just because. Love you baby girl!

26 Random Things

I was tagged on Facebook today (thanks Candis :)! However, I NEVER use facebook (I only get on to confirm someone as a friend and then I get right back off), so I am breaking the rules a bit (I hope that's ok)! Below are the rules I was given. And just so you know, if you are reading this, you are now tagged to do this post as well! Enjoy!

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 26 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 26 people to be tagged (or cheat like I did:). Oh, and please leave me a comment if you are planning on completing this tag! I always think these are so much fun to read!

1. I strongly dislike the cold!
2. I am happiest when I'm outside in the WARM sun, relaxing (preferably with some type of body of water nearby)!
3. I LOVE the mornings.
4. I like getting up before everyone else. If Spencer wakes up earlier than me to give me a morning to sleep in, I usually canNOT sleep knowing that he and Madi are already awake.
5. If I could, I'd love to be able to spend at least an hour at the gym everyday.
6. I am NOT a crafty person.
7. I wish I was though.
8. I CRAVE sweets- mostly chewy types of candy (licorice, Mike-n-Ikes, skittles, Swedish fish, etc.)
9. I'm not a big fan of chocolate.
10. I'm a clean freak!
11. I'm a loner. If I don't get any alone time in a day I'm not a happy camper (this became a bit of an issue when Spencer and I were dating)!
12. Large groups of people stress me out.
13. I LOVE teaching and miss being able to on a regular basis.
14. I do not enjoy shopping.
15. I'm trying to become a better cook.
16. I care a LOT about what Spencer thinks- sometimes too much.
17. I'm a homebody.
18. I'm excited to someday have a house with a backyard.
19. I've always wanted a lot of kids.
20. I'm looking forward to February 20th, when we find out if we're having a boy or a girl!!
21. I thrive on being organized and knowing exactly where everything is.
22. I can sleep anywhere.
23. I love going to bed early.
24. I'm super tired of my never ending pregnancy break-outs!
25. I'm loving my growing belly though!
26. I love living in a place that I never ever thought I'd live (even if it is a little colder than I'd like)!

One of those weekends!

Yep, it's been one of those weekends! It started on Friday- which was definitely the nicest day of the entire MONTH. I'm pretty sure it broke 50 degrees!! I can't tell you for sure though because we never did get outside to enjoy it. The day can pretty much be summed up with Madi having a fever, a trip to the doctor's office, another ear infection, and then running to CVS to pick up more antibiotics. After a cranky Saturday, Madi was finally feeling better this morning. Thank goodness!! Lately, it has seemed as if Madi just waits for Sunday to roll around to get sick or just be cranky! Needless to say, I was relieved to have a happy child at church!

It was lucky that we got to church a little early this morning because as soon as we sat down, one of the bishopric members approached Spencer, asking if he'd be sitting on the stand today!! The confusion on Spencer's face said it all and right away the 2nd counselor knew that Spencer hadn't been informed of his speaking assignment. Oops! Luckily, Spencer's a great "winger". He accepted the speaking assignment, and gave a GREAT talk 30 minutes later!

The whole incident ended up being a blessing because Spencer didn't have to stress about a talk all week. Instead, he spent his weekend putting together his new fly fishing rod (which he's become completely obsessed about). He was up until 1:30am trying knots! According to Spencer, rigging up a fly rod is a complicated process requiring several, complex knots that they don't teach you in Boy Scouts, which have to be learned staring at an illustrated how-to manual. Actually, his knot tying experience made for a good intro to his talk (about overcoming adversity) and now Spencer's got a whole gang of friends at church who want to go fishing with him. Lovely!

First SNOW!!

This morning while I was on my elliptical and Madi was being entertained by Charlotte's Web, I glanced out the window and saw it SNOWING!! That's right, after months of dealing with the bitter cold, we finally got something to get excited about! I know those of you that have plenty of snow probably think I'm crazy for wanting it, but I have been so sick of this cold weather and needing something to make it a little more enjoyable! What better than the first real snowfall of the season! Luckily Madi was a good sport about it and let me shove her into her snowsuit to go stomp around outside!


While the above picture was taken just as the snow started to fall, we got plenty more this afternoon! This picture was taken from our front door while I tried waiting very patiently for Madi to wake up from her nap as I excitedly watched the snow come down!


Unfortunately, Madi wasn't as excited about the snow in the afternoon as she was in the morning. I made her help me make a little snowman before we went back inside though!

Weekend with Papa

This weekend Spencer, Madi and I had the privilege of having my dad here for a visit. He'd been in Florida on business all week and then flew in on Thursday to join us for the weekend. While we wish that we'd been able to fly to Florida to stay with him, we braved the cold weather here in DC and ended up having a GREAT time! Dad put his handy-man skills to use and helped Spencer put up some new curtains in our dining room bay window (energy efficient to keep out those cold drafts), change the the furnace air filter, fix the bathtub faucet, and sand down Spencer's office down so it would close!! For those of you have stayed at our place, you can now open and close the guest room door PERFECTLY! Thanks Dad! Aside from all the projects Spencer and Dad had going on, we had lots of fun relaxing, watching movies, and going on outings like to the Air and Space Museum in Virginia! Madi had a blast checking out all the airplanes!







Thanks Dad for the AWESOME weekend! Come back SOON! We love you!

I DID IT!

I finally finished my first blog book! This was a project I started back in September when I got home from California and I'd just never got around to finishing. When I heard from my sister that Blurb no longer supports blogger, and that she was having trouble uploading her blog, I freaked out and got my book finished that weekend. Luckily it worked for me since I had started my book months ago. Madi's super excited to have her "First Year Book" finished! Now I gotta started working on our family book for 2008. We'll see how long it takes me to do that one!

Back to School

Back to school. . . back to school. . . to prove to Anie that he's no fool!! Just kidding- we already know that Spencer's no dummy! Today was Spencer's first day of classes (or should I say, just one class this afternoon- ya, we're going to like Mondays)! While it's going to be good to get back to our regular schedule and actually feeling productive during the day, I have to say that I'm definitely going to miss lazy afternoons hanging out with Spencer. I'm going to miss our daily naps, game playing in the evenings, and staying up late just because we can!! Best of Luck this semester babe!

13 Weeks

One thing I wish I would have been better at while pregnant with Madi is taking belly pictures each month and noting how I was feeling at each stage. Several times I've found myself wondering, "What did I look like when I was this far along with Madi?" or "How did I feel at this stage with Madi?" So, my monthly posts of belly pictures begin today!! For me this is the stage that I dislike the most. While it's still a little too early to tell that I'm really pregnant, my belly is definitely bigger. My pants are feeling snug around the waist. Standing up is fine, but when I sit down I feel like I've eaten too much and need to unbutton the top button. My shirts are getting pretty snug and when I sit down it just looks like I have a big gut! It's the stage that you don't look pregnant- everyone just thinks you've put on some weight. Plus, my stomach isn't the cute, hard, round belly- it's just pudgy!


Biggest complaints: Being tired and having achy legs. You should see my varicose veins (ya, not the most attractive things)! They've gotten progressively worse each week. I'm going to have to buy compression stockings this time around. My doctor gave me a prescription and when I went to buy them they were $86! Wow! I decided to wait a bit!

She's BACK!!!

After a week of being on Amoxicillin, Madi is officially back to her old self again! Makes me feel a little bad for getting after her about being so cranky! She really had been in a lot of pain! She is now back to eating in her high chair (and actually eating a decent amount of food). We haven't experienced any tantrums since starting on the antibiotics, and she's super sweet and pleasant during the day! YAY!! Welcome Back Madi!!

Happy New Year!

To ring in the New Year, we got together with some friends to PARTY! Thanks Stacie and Scott for providing the venue! We had a great time! After Madi was fast asleep, we kicked off the party playing Scott's new "Guitar Hero" game on his Nintendo Wii. Carl showed off his well-honed rocker skills, Scott demonstrated his huge rocker potential, and Spencer...well he's not quite "Guitar Hero material" (but there is always hope!). Afterwards, we played some intense games (Catch Phrase and Pictionary Man)- pitting the girls against the guys. According to Spencer, "While the girls had their moments where victory was within their grasp, the guys delivered decisive victories in both games!" I'm not so sure about that, but he insists I must have been drinking too much bubbly (Martinelli's Apple Cider) to remember things clearly. Whatever! To top the night off, we joined the always clever and comedic Anderson Cooper on CNN to watch the apple drop in Times Square!! What a whirlwind night it was! Well, maybe not whirlwind, but we sure had a good time just hanging out with our friends. Here's to 2009!!