Ohh my.....

Did you hear the news?

I just can't hardly believe it.....

"I'm 10 months old!"

So now that I have officially freaked out all three people that actually read this blog into thinking I am pregnant....hahaha! I am sick.... (I'm not pregnant) I do, however have baby fever, but am not so sure I am ready to do the whole newborn thing again. I would be pregnant again in a heartbeat. Its no secret I loved every second of it. The newborn stage...like hours old to about 6-8 weeks, I can wait on. Although, I must say. The second time around I am going to be a lot more relaxed. There are some things I would do differently and some things I would do the same. Either way, my next baby is going to be perfect. All the mistakes were made on Mady. Haha. Just kidding.
A lot of my friend are already starting on their second. I cannot believe it. I don't know where they found this money tree, but I'd like to shake a few of those branches...I'd like my kids to be close in age, so I see why they are trying again...but I still feel like I had Mady yesterday. I guess I am not emotionally ready to do it all again. Good for them though :)....but seriously, the money tree...where is it? Ha.
Just a small update... Mady had her follow up appointment with her eye doctor today. Everything looks awesome. Her prescription remained the same...which is good news. I was a little afraid it may go up, because of how the doctor explain that sometimes that happens as they develop so quickly at this age. On the first appointment he told me she would need to wear them her whole life. On this appointment he examined her and said not to be surprised if her prescription goes down in strength and if she does not need the glasses by age 10 or so. Very re-assuring. I was kind of shocked. Well, actually not that shocked. God can heal anything.

I am not actually focusing on praying that He would heal Mady. I'd rather him heal babies to be born that will not survive outside of the womb, like my friend Brooke's little guy, Briar. Read her story here and pray with me for a miracle and God's glory shown. Regardless the outcome, His glory will be shown and is shown in Brooke's surrender and compassion for her son. So healing, yes He can do this. I have prayed this for Mady, but mainly I am thankful for this small little inconvenience. It has taught me a lot and will teach Mady a great deal as well. With that being said. You can understand I was a little bit excited when it seemed her vision did not get worse! Its stayed the same, which to me (in my limited experience) says she probably will grow out of this.

Good news.

That is all...good night.

By the way, my 100th post is coming soon. What should I do, any ideas?

My favorite Month

9 Months is the best!

Tomorrow, Mady will be 10 months! Crazy how time is flying by us. So much development has happened this month that it makes me think this may be my favorite month of her "babyhood".

Just so I don't forget, here are the things that make me love this month so much:

One day Mady woke up and started to understand English. Lol. Not that she understood Spanish or Russian before, but she just started to acknowledge things we were saying to her. Especially "No, No". She likes to look back at you when you say this and give you a look that could kill! Then she goes immediately back to what we said "No" to and try to touch it....but before she does she looks back to us again! I think its hilarious. Discipline here we come. She seems to be receptive to it.

We definitely have a major talker on our hands.

From the time she wakes to the time she sleeps she is talking, talking, talking. Especially in her crib or when I read scripture to her. Don't ask me why, but she likes to be read to, but she must feel like she needs to add to the story. She can also mimic the sounds we make to her. Especially while she's eating. We say: "Momma" or "Dadda" or "mumm", so funny.

She also says the word "Ball". When we say "Where is the ball?" she looks at it! She also says it when she sees a ball. She may or may not be saying "Buck" too. She will wake up saying "Buck" in her crib. It sounds a lot like "Ball", but I'm pretty sure she is calling for Calvin. We call Calvin "Buck", as a nickname and its easy for a baby to say...so it works out. When she was little I would nurse her in the mornings and when we were done we would call for Buck-Buck to say good morning to him. So I think this pattern has stuck. She LOVES Calvin. She squeals and laughs for him. He loves her right back. Gives her endless kisses and doesn't mind when she crawls all over him and pulls his ears. What a good boy.

Mady can do "Patty Cake, Patty Cake" with her hands when we sing it to her! So precious. She's also on the verge of doing "So BIG", with her arms in the air when we say it. She's done it once. She has been waving like crazy too. No more waving back at herself, like she started a few months ago. She now does a full out beauty pageant/ queen wave. So cute. She proceeds to wave when we leave places or when we walk up to the TV or sometimes away from it. When we stand in front of the glass storm door and look outside she waves at the trees and cars driving by. I tried to teach her some sign language, but it seems she has made up her own. She slaps the table when she wants more food to eat. Hilarious.

She can crawl all over and has discovered that she can get from one room to another when we leave. She pulls up constantly. Even on flat surfaces like walls (with nothing to really grab to pull her self up), she must have her Momma's leg muscles! She'll be doing squats before we know it! Ha. She also takes steps when you hold her hands. She can stand while holding on to things with one hand, but not alone yet (yet).

She started to DANCE TO MUSIC this month! When she hears a beat, she bounces a little bit or moves her head from side to side. This is really adorable! She isn't full out doing it yet, but she is close. It just started. She also sings to the music. Sometimes even when I sing to her. She'll make her attempt in a high pitched, long drawn out yell. I love it.

Mady has been my little sleeper from day one. We were blessed to be able to just lay her down awake (from about 4 months on) and she'd soothe herself to sleep with no crying. I, by no means want to interfere with this amazing autonomous behavior...but I still want to snuggle her and be able to let her know its ok to fall asleep/ be soothed in Mommy and Daddy's arms when your tired. So at night time we have been rocking her longer (even after her feeding) to let her fall asleep in our arms. This is such a sweet time to pray for her and gently rub her little head and back. She lays her head on our shoulder or rest in the cradle of our arms. I love it. Not every night. Like I said, I want her to continue to be comfortable on her own to sleep....but most nights. Bryan and I now fight over who can put her to bed. We love this time.

I am sure I forgot some stuff....but she is changing so much, daily its hard to keep up.

She is a blessing and I continue to praise the Lord for her life and lay her down to Him; because without Him she would not be here, nor would we have the strength to love and raise her as we ought. She is His first, we are thankful for this gift. With all of her many milestone with this life, we pray, the greatest would be to bring Him Glory.

Swinging

Sweet Baby Girl,

You went swinging today!
You loved it.
You are a little small for the swing, but you'll grow into in.

You smiled as you went far away from Momma and then close.
You kicked your little legs with excitement and couldn't figure out where the wind on your back was coming from. You'd turn to see and smile again as the breeze hit your face.

And then all of the sudden a plastic bag floated by.
The wind took it for a ride and you watched in amazement.
The world is filled with new and exciting things.
Everyday you make a new discovery and learn something for the first time.
I love to watch and wonder what you'll become with everything you're learning....


but, for now.
I am content to have you on my lap,
swinging
and
swinging.

Love you Mady Girl.

Dora the Explorer

I hate cartoon/ kid characters on children's clothing. I don't know why...I just think its tacky.

Please no Pooh, Elmo or Dora the Explorer shirts, shoes or bags (if I can help it). I know one day this fight will truly be a fight. Especially since I have a girl who will eventually prefer to dress herself and have an opinion about what she wears....but until that day, we say NO to characters.

Well....we thought we could say no, but turns out Dora makes glasses.

It has been super hard to find infant glasses for Mady. You wouldn't think this would be hard for a someone in the Optical Industry, but it is. Only three places in Louisville, that I know of carry infant eye glasses (and I promise you, I looked every where). The place I bought Mady's original (and only) pair had the best selection, but really high prices. Her glasses (just the glasses, not the lenses) cost $115!! I wouldn't mind spending a decent amount on a good pair for her, but she is going to out grow them in a blink of an eye (no pun intended). Here we are two and a half months later and she's outgrown them. Not to mention she goes back to the doctor soon and will most likely go down in her prescription.

All the other infant glasses (from the two other stores) that I have been able to find have designs with characters on them!! All Nickelodeon cartoon characters! They have a corner on this market.

So here I am, buying Mady Dora the Explorer glasses because they are $58 instead of the $115 we had to pay a month and a half ago. I told Bryan I was going to scratch off the "Dora" written on the temple....(I did, don't judge me).

The whole reason we are in this predicament is my fault. Now, Mady really did out grow her first pair....but they could make it until her eye appointment on the 31st, which I am pretty sure she will get her prescription changed....so you can see why I wanted to wait to get new ones.

Well. Today I went for a walk around Cherokee Park with some girl friends and our kiddos. Mady has been battling allergies all week which has robbed her of some restful naps....so she fell asleep during our walk. I usually always take her glasses off when she sleeps and / or is going to get very sweaty....which both happened to be true. I took them off and placed them in my side pocket of my jogging stroller, with my cell phone, car keys and water bottle.

I cannot remember if the glasses were amongst the objects that I took out of the stroller when I put it away to go home. Needless to say....I cannot find the glasses anywhere! I even drove back to the park, drove our walking route and searched around my parking spot (thinking they must have fallen out of the stroller as I collapsed it). NO where to be found. I checked my diaper bag sixteen different times and still NO where to be found! I was so bummed....I wanted to save these for her, so she could see how cute her first glasses were when she gets older. Not going to happen. Now I will only have the glasses formerly known as Dora the Explorer to show her. Its all in good timing, thankfully. She was only going to be in her old glasses for another week or so.

In all actuality. The Dora glasses are very cute (we just won't admit they were ever Dora the Explorer). Pictures are coming soon!

Batty the Bat

Picture it. (anyone remember when Sofia, from Golden Girls would say that every time she was about to tell as story from her days in Sicily)...anyway....

So there I am. Laying on the couch watching some TV. Mady has been asleep for about 30 minutes, Calvin is already snoring, drolling and farting....needless to say a pretty normal night; we were in relaxation mode. I will add, Bryan was not home from work yet. It was just me and the Buck when all of the sudden something black flies (rather swoops) over my head. I FREAK OUT! To say that I freaked out is putting it mildly. I may or may not have used several expletives as I screamed and ran out of the house!

At this point I wasn't sure if Batty was a bird or a bat. All I knew was it was flying furiously through my living room. In my frantic flight out of my house the dog followed and thought it was a game. He was ready to play. So I thought, well, he's a dog, a predator of smaller animals (?) ...so why not send Calvin in to attack the winged beast. So I sent him in...he hardly noticed Batty and I think he may have been just as scared as I was. So I begin to scream at him through the glass storm door to attack Batty. He was confused.

"What am I going to do? My dog is useless and I am scared of every living thing that crawls or flies and belongs in dark places." I think, as I have the bright idea to keep my storm door open to lure the bat (by this time I could tell it was a bat by the wings) out of my house, into the black of the night. There was NO WAY I was going to go in there and lure it out....which is what smart people would do. No, No, I decide to stand with my front door wide open and glass storm door open, which I safely stood behind, screaming. I continued this for about three LONG minutes...watching Batty swoop and circle my living room eight thousand times........FINALLY Batty gets the point and flies out of my house, via the front door and right by the glass storm door, which I was still standing behind, screaming.

Thank God, its gone. But now....how did it get in? I call Bryan, my mom, dad and father in law to help empathize in my situation and figure out how this thing got into my house. The only thing Bryan and I could think of (by this time he was home from work, but did miss all the action) was our chimney. We have an older home with an old chimney. Bryan and I were both freaked out to shine the flash light up into our chimney (we were on the verge of doing paper, rock, sissors to see who would actually do it) . I think we both thought the rest of Batty's family would swoop down and seek revenge...but they did not...and we closed the only thing we found to be open. We still are not sure if it went all the way up to an open sky....either way we slept a little better knowing we closed an opening to a dark obis.

The best part of this story is how my father in law just laughed at me and explained that he had mice that ran across his floors as a child. "Well, I didn't!" The only bugs I came in counter with were the occasional water bugs in bath tubs (and even they still freaked me out). Like I said, I hate bugs and flying things!

I hope this is our last encounter with Batty. Fly away Batty, please never return...you over stayed your UN-welcome.

3

Can you believe it?

Our Nephew, Layton is 3!!

On August 13th, 2007 our lives were forever changed as the sweetest little blonde haired, blue eyed boy entered our family.

With singing songs and lots of laughter.
Trips and holidays.
Growing and GROWING.....

Three years later, here we are!

With another year behind you....
may the Lord guide you into your next year with joy and love.

Your Uncle Bryan and Aunt Danielle have watched you grow from the beginning....

and we're happy to join with your Daddy and Mommy in praying and loving you all the days of our lives.

Welcome to 3 Lay, Lay. We love you!

"Dadda"

Sometimes the world can be a scary place......
But not when your in Daddy's warm embrace.

Sometimes you can feel all alone....
But not when you have Daddy's hand to hold.

Sometimes you may tremble and fear.....
But not when Daddy's arms are near.

Sometimes you may need to stop and rest....
that's when you discover Daddy's lap is best.

To the Greatest Dad I know.
Love,
Mady

Movin' and Shakin'....

Well, its official.

Mady is on the move.

It all started with the army/ roll crawl at 7 1/2-8 months.

Now at 9 months, she's figured it out.

and she's excited about it!

Watch out world, Mady's on the MOVE!

We are so proud of each of your milestones Mady, but we are a little sad at the same time....

mainly because that means your getting older!

Love you in each stage and age!!

Mady's 9th Month

"Hey Momm-mma...how could you forget to blog about my 9th month milestones?!"

That is a true story. I almost forgot, but here we are. About two weeks into your 9th month of life, Madelyn Joan. You are becoming more and more beautiful by the day. Those big blue eyes sparkle and your long eyelashes flutter looks that could kill. You flash that look at the camera every time I try to capture a picture of you smiling, but secretly....I love that look! The one where you bite your lip and stare me down with your serious, inquisitive glance. Its precious.

In fact, we think you are precious from head to toe. And speaking of your head...look at all these beautiful curls that have sprouted up recently! We love them. These hot summer days seem to bring those ringlets out!



This month has been a big month. You have officially started to crawl. You mastered the army crawl, but now your up on all fours moving. Sometimes you drag one leg and do a "scoot-crawl", but you get where you want to go. Your not really all that into crawling, you are content to sit and play with whatever toy you grab first. I'm not sure you've even figured out that you can move from room to room without Mommy or Daddy carrying you. Your not in a huge rush to explore the house, which is fine by me!



You'd rather stand than crawl. Usually you crawl over to me and grab on to stand up. You like to hold on to the couch and then switch to my arms and then back to the couch, its a fun game. You haven't stood alone yet, but you have let go with one arm. Balance isn't all there, but you land on your bottom and seem to not mind. You started to pull up on the sides of your crib too. Its time to lower your mattress.

You said "Da-da" and "Da-ddy" this month too. Well, actually....this was really at the end of your 8th month. You also say: "Momm-ma", "Ba-Ba" (which I think means "Buck-Buck", for Calvin), "Na Na", "Ya Ya" and some other renditions of these babbles. Its precious and warms our hearts to hear your voice. You haven't quite associated them with people or objects, but that is next. Daddy thinks you know "Momm-ma" though....I hope he's right.....I just love that! We also think the "Na-Na" sound means hungry. You do know how to tell you me you want something. You put your hand out, palm up and flex your fingers back and forth and lunge forward. When your eating your veggie straws (which you love), if your out you smack the table to let me know!

Your eating has pretty much remained the same. Maybe a few more veggies and fruits, but nothing too crazy. We are introducing more table foods to you. Like crackers, veggie straws, avocados, real cooked carrots and you even had a few bites of ice cream this month. You loved it!



Sleeping is the same too. 12 hours a night. 8:30pm to 8:30 am...with a snack at 5am. You nap twice a day. Once at 11ish and another time at 3 or 4. You're a great sleeper, no crying it out for you. You grab your blankey and passey and roll over, close your eyes and your out. I am thankful for this. You have become a tummy sleeper. When I check on you, before I go to bed, I can usually find you on your tummy!



You are wearing size 9-12 month clothing and size 1-2 shoes!! You weigh 16 lbs and 4 oz. You are 25 and 3/4 inches long! Size 3 diapers. You are pleasantly petite! Pint size in body, but BIG in love!! Your precious, little girly hands hold my heart!



We love you Baby Girl. You are such a joy to raise and we are so happy the Lord has blessed us with you. What a wonderful gift!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy