Clearly, life with a toddler keeps you busy!!! Over the past few months, in addition to normal day-to-day stuff, we've made another trip to Clifton for a wedding, a trip to Bryan for Madison's great-granny's bday party, Halloween festivities, and unfortunately have also had a bad few months of sicknesses around this house! Madison has had pink eye twice, an ear infection, and recently viral pharangitis (spelling? Essentially a bad sore throat) that caused a fever up to 104 at one point last weekend! I think she's finally back to normal so hopefully this weekend will be better :)
I've included a bunch of pics in this post and will comment on them later, but generally speaking I don't have any major updates to report with Madison. We took her to a pediatric dentist and they were not concerned about her lack of teeth. They could feel there was certainly something there and suspect that her top left tooth will probably be the first to pop out, although they didn't say they expected that to happen soon necessarily! They will come when they are ready I suppose! :) November/December are busy months in the family for birthdays, and we've all been wishing for a tooth. So far Danny and Mary have not had their wish come true. My Dad's is next week - maybe we will get lucky then! :)
She's doing well in day care and will be moving up to the next class within the next week most likely (18-24 months, 1 teacher : 9 kids). She spent most of the day in there on Weds, visiting, and did really well, although I personally feel like 9 kids of that age would be really difficult for 1 teacher! I asked her current teacher if she felt Madison was ready to move on and although she loves Madison and would love to continue being her teacher, she said Madison really is too smart for her current class :) I have to remind myself how much she grew when she moved in to her current class and know this is a positive thing for her. She will adjust to less attention and become more independent (which is scary as well, LOL!)
I've lost track of the number of words she can say but I'd say we are probably getting closer to 10+?? She is clearly smart and able to communicate what she wants fairly well, and definitely throws tantrums when she either doesn't get her way or we aren't understanding what she wants. "Terrible two's," we are definitely there already! She never wants to sit still long, making eating out and traveling more difficult again. We gave in to turning her car seat around a few months ago and it's definitely better now (although still challenging on longer trips). She was really too tall to still be sitting backwards. It was fine when she was asleep but when awake her legs were squished up and she got bored fast! We are somewhat dreading the holidays (traveling) and will most likely try to arrange most of our driving at night. Although we usually hate driving at night, it's the easiest thing with her at this age. As far as eating out, I'm contemplating trying a booster seat at restaurants instead of a high chair...when do most kids start that?? She really is good at restaurants but has a limit of 30-45 minutes!
Madison's favorite things right now (no particular order):
1. crayons/coloring
2. play-doh
3. bubbles
4. wagon rides
5. Sesame street (Abby is still her favorite)
6. our iPhone/iPad
*(5&6 - I know "screen time" is frowned upon at this age but it's limited and I try to show her the most educational things and never leave her alone with it - always interacting with it/her - so it's not "baby-sitting" her. But anyone who has a toddler knows that sometimes you just need a little break!!! And we are a technology driven house-hold/world, so it's inevitable)
7. cottage cheese/cheese in general
8. Mio "juice" - I personally hate water and she doesn't seem too fond of it either. In an attempt to get her to drink more, I started using that Mio Liquid that you see in commercials - just a little squirt. And now I've created a Monster!! God forbid you forget to put the Mio in there she throws a fit. She now prefers this to milk. But it's sugar free and zero calories, so better than regular juice, in my opinion!
9. HER CUP! Some kids "security object" is a blanket, doll, I had my "pi-wo" (pillow), and she has her cup. I have tried desperately to get her to attach to something else but have had zero luck so far! She usually just wants to hold on to it and gum on the straw. I keep a straw sippy cup of water in the corner of her crib because she wakes up so thirsty. She will usually grab it in the mornings, take a few sips, and lay back down for a while. Now, she actually wants to fall asleep with it! I went in last night to move it back in to the corner (so it wouldn't spill) and she had her arm wrapped around it so tight that she woke up when I tried moving it. When I looked at the video monitor again around 6am it was back under her arm and had apparently leaked all over her and saturated the top of her diaper so much that it literally exploded - causing these little beads of - who know's what - whatever fills the diaper - to go all over!! I guess I will have to give her an empty one at bed time and sneak back in at some point to put the full one in for her to have in the morning. Crazy girl :)
10. Music and dancing
11. Her sunglasses - especially now that she can put them on herself
Now on to some photos from the past month!
One of Danny's friends from Clifton (the bride in the bottom pic) got married in Clifton towards the end of October. The ceremony was about half an hour and we sat in the back row. I didn't see a thing in my attempts to keep her quiet with crayons, play doh, crackers - whatever I could think of at the time. She was happy, but just didn't want to stay still! It was quite amusing really :) Because most of the people that we were hoping to introduce Madison to were in the wedding party, we were hoping Madison would make it through at least the beginning of the reception before her Mimi picked her up so Danny and I could enjoy the rest of the evening and she could go to bed at a reasonable time. Well we were only at the reception about 10 minutes before we called Mary to come get her, LOL! The wedding party arrived about 30 seconds before Mary did, so there wasn't much time for introductions! She was just too much of a handful. Although she was adorable out on the dance floor she was drawn to the bride/groom table which had a long table cloth and candles on top and I kept picturing her yanking it down! And she refused to hold my hand or let us hold her!!! It was a fun night though :)
PS - the pic with Danny looking like a PIMP among a bunch of women is actually him among all the Clifton HS kids that were there, LOL!
PUMPKIN PATCH!
Same pumpkin patch - 1 year apart!! She definitely had a blast there this year. We were going to try having her in her costume but it was too hot and I'm actually really happy we didn't because I love this picture and I feel like I can display it any time without immediately thinking Halloween :) At first she started drumming on all the pumpkins, then she found the small ones and thought they were balls, so she started throwing them! We went home with SEVERAL pumpkins that day! I don't personally know the little girl that is handing her the pumpkin but she was SO sweet to Madison, wanting to share :) She had apparently just turned 2!
HALLOWEEN!
The top 2 pics are from her day care's Fall Festival. The one on the left is her current teacher, whom she LOVES - Ms. Kristina. The 2nd pic is with one of her classmates, and birthday buddy, Mason! The bottom pics are from Halloween night when we took her trick or treating. We walked to our neighbor's first and she was a little unsure but once Mama showed her how to do it, she was game! We went to probably 15 houses up/down our street. We had her in the wagon between houses and then she would walk up to the door herself. She would then point to the next house and say "more!" She seemed most interested in the lollipops but would only lick them a few times then just hold on to them. I offered her some of the other candy she collected but I guess she's not too in to sweets yet (good for her, bad for mommy and daddy since we were FORCED to eat her candy)!
Her hair is really starting to come in now! These pics really don't even do it justice, but let's just say she definitely has a party going on in the back, with some business in the front :) HAHA! Not sure if you can see in the bottom left pic - she has a little cupie-doll look going on!
Modeling her shades at the park!
The rest are just some misc shots I've taken recently. She's playing in a puddle in the bottom center one - right of passage for any kid, right!?!?
As far as Danny and I are concerned, life outside of Madison has been busy as well! I'm proud to say I've had my best year to date at work. Working from home has its' ups/downs but I guess I can now saw that it's not hindering my productivity :) I've been spending a lot of my free time taking some online photography classes and just absorbing as much as I can through this great online forum specifically geared towards mom photographers - whether they are just hobbyists or professionals (www.clickinmoms.com). I discovered it through the photographer that took Madison's 6 month photos and although it's taken me some time to realize what a valuable resource it is, I am now hooked and loving every minute of it! I've always been an artistic, creative person but photography is really one of the first things I've discovered that I literally CRAVE knowledge about! If I had time, I would read every resource out there and take 1000 photos a day! I really just want to capture memories of MY family but we'll see where this road goes in the future. For now, I'm just happy to have found a hobby that I truly enjoy!
Danny has been busy in felony court. He's tried a BUNCH of cases over the past few months (I've lost track). He also just started as a member of the VAT team - Vehicular Accident Team - where he is on a monthly rotation where he is on call 24/7 (one week at a time) to respond to vehicular accidents that could have a criminal element to them, in order to ensure that evidence is properly (and completely) collected. It's something you have to be recommended, and go through training for and should help him to continue growing in his career within the office! Plus, he gets an unmarked police car (including lights and sirens) when he's first on call, so he get's to play cop for a 1 week/month (live out his boy-hood dreams)! :) I like to tease that this is the only reason he wanted to do this VAT thing to begin with, LOL!
I could go on for days but we will leave it at that! Hopefully I will get a chance to update again during the holidays or else it will be another long post afterwards! :) Thanks to anyone who cared enough to get to the end of this LOOONG post!!! :)
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