Ear infection…again!

We had to take Maddie to the doctor on Saturday morning (another weekend visit). She had a fever of almost 103, on Saturday morning so Gabe looked in her ears and sure enough...another ear infection. She just finished her last antibiotic about a week and a half ago for her previous ear infection. We don't know if the ear infection just never went away or she has a new one. Regardless, our baby is sick again and cutting her canines on top of it. This makes for a not so happy toddler and a grumpy mommy!!
On Sunday after Maddie woke up from a three hour nap, we took her a neighbor's pool for a little bit. Gabe said it would be good for her to get out of the house and take her mind off any pain she might be in. He was right. Maddie had a fun time wading around with us and it was the happiest I have seen her in almost two days. Maddie was cheezin’ big time when we would ask her to SMILE! She is so stinkin’ funny.

Hopefully she is on the road to recovery, because we are headed to Omi and Pop-Pop’s house here in a couple of days!

Up, Up, Away!

After Gabe got home from work on Memorial day we headed on over to Freedom Weekend Aloft to see the hot air balloon launch. FWA is an annual event held Memorial Day weekend in Simpsonville. It is the first year that I have been to the festival in several years, so I was excited!

We packed our little munchkin up with plenty of snacks and a full sippy of water for her and headed over to Heritage Park. When we got there I realized that I had forgot to put the valve on the cup, so by the time we got out of the car it was all over her. Needless to say, she was already refreshed, but we then had to dish out $3 to refill her cup with water—mommy FAIL!

We first headed over to see the disk dog competition. For the short amount of time that we got to see the dogs in action, Maddie was so intrigued. I wish we could have seen them longer. We then strolled through all the rides and games. Maddie was a little alarmed by some of the screams coming from kids riding on the seemingly not so safe rides. After that we headed over the amphitheater to grab a bite to eat and a spot on the grass to watch the balloons. Two very tiny cheeseburgers, order of fries, two bottles of water and $20 later the balloons were ready to launch! Maddie watched the balloons and seemed fascinated by them. She pointed to the sky and did her famous grunting—so we knew she was excited. She also enjoyed the band that was playing. She got up and started to dance. Our girl has got some moves…much more rhythm than me and her daddy combined! I wish we would have got it on video, because although this picture is cute, it doesn’t give her moves much justice!

This was Gabe’s first time at Freedom Weekend Aloft and I kid you not he would not shut up about how he wants to own a hot air balloon one day. Ummm…??? They are neat to watch, but I don’t think I would want to own one. I would go for our own house, couple of nice cars, and maybe a boat for starters!

We had such a nice little family outing…Maddie stayed up way past her bedtime…but it was so worth it to see her have fun and discover new things in life…

Ahhh sweet, sweet summertime…these are the days that I love the most. It truly doesn’t get any better than this!

Baptism

Gosh, I am way behind in my posts. I guess there is just not enough time in the days...
Our little girl was baptized in the Catholic church on May 21st. It was a hectic ceremony trying to hold an almost 29 pounder on your hip for almost an hour (I was sore for about a week) She did well considering she is a 16 month old toddler wanting to be on the move all the time. We went through lots of gummy snacks and juice to keep her occupied. I'm so glad that she is finally baptized. It was something looming over our heads for a while now. Trying to get our schedules to work was harder than we expected it to be. Maddie's Godparents are Natalie and Ryan and Gabe's cousin, John. I know all three of them will guide Maddie spiritually and always be there for her. Most of you know Gabe was raised in the Catholic Church. We decided together that is what are children will be raised as. I'm looking forward to learning a little bit along the way, too.
Maddie is now a princess of God and she sure did look like a princess on her special day. Thank you to everyone who made her day so great!

Sick Days

Last Tuesday night my allergies were beyond killing me. I felt like I was going to scream. All I wanted to do was dig inside my ears and scratch the heck out of them. I was so fed up I decided to take not one, but two Benedryl. I had a horrible night. I tossed and turned and was burning up all night. I woke up Wednesday morning and could barely move. Head spinning, body aching, low-grade fever, and just feeling like crap. My wonderful mom called into work and stayed home so I could just be in bed all day. And that is exactly what I did. I slept all morning until about 1:00 in the afternoon. When I got up my mom pointed out Maddie's eyes to me. We thought they looked a little goopy, but I wasn't too alarmed at the moment. About an hour later things quickly got worse...way worse. Both eyes were red and starting to get more gunked up. I called the doctor and they got us in that same afternoon. Gabe took her since I was feeling to crummy and sure enough it was the dreaded pink eye. Umm hello? Where in the world did she catch pink eye??? I take her the YMCA nursery about two times a week and that is the ONLY time she is around other kids. Apparently she got it from there. After nursing her eyes back to health they were fine by Thursday afternoon. I had fun disinfecting the entire house and washing all of Maddie's blankets, crib bedding, and toys making sure that everyone else stayed clear of getting it.
By Friday we both seemed to be doing better. Think again. Saturday morning I woke up with a sore throat and coughing. Just great. I had big plans of going to a photography class with my sister for the day. I wasn't going to miss it, so I stocked up on cough drops and headed to downtown Greenville for an all day photography class. We had a good time spending the day together and we did learn some neat stuff about our cameras. Now just to put what we learned into action. Shutter speed, aperture, ISO...confusing terms, but I think we got it.
When we got home poor Maddie was so fussy. My aunts who were visiting for the weekend said that Maddie just was acting like something was bothering her. We struggled to bath her and put her to bed because she was just not happy. She woke up about six times throughout the night. I never had to pick her up, but just had to keep going into her room and rubbing her back until she would relax again and go to sleep. All of this while struggling to sleep myself because of the cough I had developed in the past day.
By Sunday Maddie was acting extremely irritable and crying A LOT. Gabe did try and look in her ears, but he didn't have the correct tool to remove wax that was in her ear to get a good look in there to see if it was an infection. He went ahead and called Maddie's AMAZING doctor's office and the doctor on call said he would meet us up at the office to check her out. And the verdict was....Ear infection! The first one since she was about four months old.
Another antibiotic and four days later she is FINALLY back to her old self. It has been a miserable week for both of us. Now if we can only stay well for GOOD.

Mother’s Day and Our Anniversary

Gabe surprised me with a fabulous above-ground garden and trellis for my vegetables! I’m really getting into this whole gardening thing and I’m so eager to learn. On Saturday he put the garden together for me. I couldn’t wait to fill it up with dirt and start planting! I have four tomato plants, four bell pepper plants, banana pepper, cantaloupes, zucchini, cucumber, and peas. I also have two tomato plants in pots and two squash plants in pots.

On Mother’s Day we went over to Natalie and Ryan’s for a cook-out. We had a great time spending the day with them. I hardly snapped any pictures of the weekend and I didn’t even get a picture of me and Maddie together! It did remind me of last year’s mother’s day when my little baby was just that…a baby. Time goes too quickly (this seems to be a recurring statement).

Natalie’s first Mother’s Day

Mimi with her two grandbabies

Gabe building and Maddie supervising

My lovely little garden

Squash

Our Anniversary was on the 15th. I can’t believe it has been four years already!!! Brings back lots of memories of Puerto Vallarta and what a wonderful time we all had together! I would give anything to be back there again…hopefully we will get to go back. It sure would be a great five year anniversary trip (hint hint). Here are just a few snap shots of our time there. I wanted to post a few pictures of the actual wedding, but can’t seem to find them on my new computer.

15 Months Old

Our little princess is growing up. Exciting, but sad all at the same time. I had all these high hopes of writing everything down that Maddie did from birth, but those dreams quickly faded when you are exhausted, getting spit up on, changing diapers, and running after a little girl with a mind of her own. If I don’t write it down right away it will be forgotten. So that is why I am so glad we have this blog so I can look back on it one day to read about Maddie’s life. She is a little person now and man is she smart! She surprises us every day with the things she is learning to do and now say. You show her one time how to do something and she picks it up so easily. For example, my mom has this shell necklace that she wore about a month ago. She showed Maddie how to listen to the ocean by holding it up to her ear. No joke, yesterday my mom was wearing that same necklace and Maddie picks it up and puts it to her ear! Smart? I think so.

Maddie had her fifteen month well child appointment yesterday. Right before we were leaving I was walking up the driveway to check the mail and little miss was running behind me. Next thing I know I hear a thud and she had fallen on the drive way. Both knees scraped and bleeding. She screamed so I quickly ran her inside and cleaned her up the best I could. She was a trooper as I cleaned the wounds and put band-aids on. We then headed out the door (late as usual). Well it gets worse...while we were waiting in the doctor's office I noticed beneath Maddie's bangs on her forehead was a HUGE oval shaped scrape. When she had fallen she must of hit her head, too! I freaked! My poor child! At least we were at the doctor's so she was able to check it out...the doctor said that it was a pretty good bump, but she would survive! I know this is only the beginning of many more bumps and bruises, but geez this was traumatic! I am seriously stocking up on band-aids and neosporin for the summer.

As far as her well-check, everything looks great and she is right on track developmentally. The doctor asked if I had any concerns and being a normal parent I told her my only concern was Maddie’s expressive language and if she is saying enough words for age. Her doctor wants her to have about five right now…check, we are good! By eighteen months she should have 10-20 words. You would think I would remember all of this since I used to be an Early Interventionist. I guess I worry just like any other parent! She also had two shots today and did really well. She double-fisted her lollipops and she was good to go! So leaving the doctor's office Maddie had a bump on her head, four band-aids on one leg and one on the other leg, red face from crying, crusty nose from allergies, and sucker slobber all over her and me. AWESOME. I'm just glad nobody called DSS on me when I dragged her into Publix to grab some milk on the way home...Anyways, here are her stats…

28 lbs 4 oz (98%tile)

32 inches tall (91%tile)

18.9 in head circumference (94%tile)

Her head has not grown in three months…thank the lord! haha I think her body is finally catching up

At fifteen months old:

• Wears size 24 months-2T in clothes now (Honestly, I do not understand clothes sizing…really what is the difference in 24 month and 2T???)
• Wears size 6-7 in toddler shoes. Big foot for sure.
• Runs and by run I mean awkward arms in front of you like a zombie type of run. So cute though, except for what happened above.
  
• Has a total of twelve teeth now. All of the one year molars have broken through! Thank goodness for a good teether; we didn’t even know she was cutting her molars!
• Says a few words consistently, including tractor, no, more, mama, daddy, NaNa (for Natalie), nana (banana) tries to say milk & Brady. There are other things that she has randomly said such as “choo choo” and “bless you”
• Mostly points to what she wants right now
• Knows body parts-ears, nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, feet, and boobies (yes I know-blame my mother for this one)
• Sleeps between 11-12 hours a night and takes 1-2 naps a day
• favorite foods include: grilled cheese, kiwi, blueberries, pancakes and waffles, spaghetti, any type of beans, macaroni & cheese, and peanut butter & jelly sandwiches
• LOVES to be outside doing anything, playing in the dirt, running after Brady, helping pull weeds, etc.

We are so blessed to have a beautiful, healthy, and smart little girl!

Mini-Vacation…to Omi and Pop-Pop’s house!

My mom had her spring break last week and I was able to ask off too (Maddie said it was OK if I took it easy for a few days) so we headed to Omi and Pop-Pop’s house! We haven’t been down to Georgetown since Thanksgiving so we were excited to go! Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that my child is a horrible traveler (UGH!) We had the DVD player that she got for Christmas hooked up and everything, but her attention didn’t last too long on it. She only slept about an hour and the rest she just whined off and on. She rarely has to be in the car for long periods, so I guess the older she gets the better it will be…or at least that is what I am hoping for. Also, she is so used to sleeping in her big crib at home that when she has to sleep in a pack-in-play she doesn’t do too good. It worked out great for me, though, because my mom slept in the room with her and took care of her if she woke up (Yes I am spoiled and have the greatest MOM ever)

I love being at my grandparent’s house for so many reasons, but now since I have a child it means a break from motherly duties. My entire family takes over and I love it. Omi steps right in and feeds Maddie, changes diapers, and entertains her for hours on end! My aunts and cousins loved having her there and Maddie just loved all the attention. She really had a great time getting into everything and exploring the new place. Omi and Pop-Pop have an incredible garden this year. I want to learn how to have a garden and one day I hope to have one half as good as theirs! It was so much fun eating right out of the garden every day. Maddie even helped pick strawberries…mostly the the ones that were NOT ready to be picked!

We spent a couple of afternoons just soaking in some rays by the pool. It was so nice to finally have some color on my skin! A few of us were even brave enough to jump in the swimming pool! It was freezing, but refreshing after being in the sun. Maddie splashed around in a sand box that we turned into a baby pool. There is no doubt that this child loves the water—we have known this since she was born. She had a great time playing with her cousins and as long as she is outside she is one happy girl!

The last full day we were there we headed to Pawleys to have lunch and spend time with my Aunt Neesie and Aunt Teresa. After lunch, while my mom was getting her hair done, my cousin Summer and I headed to the beach with Maddie for a few beach pictures. Maddie was wearing the most adorable outfit and I could not resist snapping some pictures! She loves the sand, but she has never been in THIS much sand! She had a ball and the first chance she got she ran right into the water and plopped down. Sometimes it scares me that she has no fear whatsoever. She is not timid when it comes to anything. I guess she is her father’s child! I am looking forward to taking her to the beach “for real” this summer.

Lots of beach pictures…

While we were there, Daniel even taught Maddie how to play basketball. She is a natural, of course!

and Daniel is an all-star…

We had such a great time with our family. It was hard to leave and I know Maddie misses everyone, too!