Weekend

There was nothing super special happening at our house this weekend.  I had finals to prepare for so me and Maddy pretty much stayed close to home.  We did get out Saturday to go to Babies R Us and a few other places. I had been wanting Olive Garden and was planning on waiting until I got paid and attempting to take Maddy by ourselves, or invite her dad along for the company and low and behold my family decided to celebrate all the August birthday's for dinner and went to....Olive Garden! I got this

and Maddy got this: 
In case it's hard to tell I got chicken alfredo and Maddy got the kids cheese ravioli. She actually pointed to the menu to tell me what she wanted to eat this time. I was just going to let her share off mine but I couldn't resist letting her choose what she wanted. She ate very well and had a grand ol time. We had lots of babies (lots for my family anyways). We had baby Aria who is no longer a baby anymore. She is 15 months now and is walking. That is such a miracle! Maddy was very fascinated by her. Then we also had my new nephew Aiden. He was sporting his "My aunt is awesome" onesie and I loved it! We also had Maddy of coarse and then my youngest niece Abby. Her sister Sara was at a friend's house. This was the first time in a long time since me and Maddy had visited with the entire family and we had a great time! I stayed up most of the night Saturday to try to finish my final project, but I came no where close.  We spent Sunday with Maddy's dad and they played while I worked. I ended up having to ask for his help with my project because I was just completely confused on what needed to be done. Compared to most broken home situations I have to say Maddy lucked out because we have always decided to put Maddy first and try our best to be friends. We have our ups and downs with each other, but never anything serious. He was willing to stay and help me until I finished, which btw wasn't until 2:15 a.m. I hope you all had a great weekend as well!!

Hooray for Maddy!!!

Maddy began her new classroom on Monday, August 22.  I have been kind of leary of this room from things I had heard. When I picked her up Monday afternoon and saw everything they do in that room I was simply amazed. This class writes out what they do each day and on her first day they talked about colors and talked about salty and sweet stuff and got to eat food that was salty and sweet. Maddy absolutely loved eating the lemon according to her teacher. This class also works with them on potty training, which I was so thankful for. Every day I got her I would check her sheet to see if she went "potty" and for the first three days she did not. Yesterday, August 24 (I am putting dates in for my future reference ) I almost forgot to check her sheet because I was so blown away at the Spanish words she was being taught. I finally remembered to look just as I was fixing to pull out and saw YAY!! near her diapering section. I looked over and sure enough at 2:05 my baby went pee pee in the potty and then she told them she had to go pee pee at 4:50, but she had already gone in her diaper. I was soooo excited! I really don't mind changing diapers and I never have, but I was worried I might have introduced her to the potty at a time she wasn't ready and had ruined her potty training experience. I bought her potty back when she was approximately 18 months. I let her explore with it and see if she would "potty" while I pottied. She never seemed interested in doing that up until recently. She does not like sitting on her potty, but I think it's because she is a very active person and having to sit still for even one second is hard for her. So when I saw that she actuallly pottied I was just so thankful that I didn't mess up potty training lol. I don't have any pics of her on her potty (I don't think and if I do it'd be nothing inappropriate) but I did get some black and white pics of her playing in the tub on Tuesday :)

Cruisin in style :)

I'm so excited because the two things I wanted to get Maddy specifically for the cruise and one is for daycare have all arrived.  Maddy has her first luggage set that contains a rolling suitcase and a backpack.  Both are personalized and for the price I think it was a really good deal. The suitcase I wanted to get her was $100 from Pottery Barn Kids and this mama does not have that kind of cash to spend on luggage she will outgrow. Instead I found just a plain one at One Step Ahead and I am thrilled.

The picture makes it look really big but it is specifically for a child.  I'm pretty sure this was not intended for a two year old because it is a little big for her, but she can roll it around just fine.  She already knows how the handle works, but does not have the coordination to hold the button down while pulling up just yet ;). I forgot to take pics of the backpack. It looks just like this though and is definitely to big for her right now, but she will grow into it. I believe Maddy is all set for her birthday cruise now...she has the luggage, the carry on, and tons of clothes...what more could a girl ask for lol. The second thing that I ordered for Maddy is her first backpack. It is actually the same print as I wanted her suitcase to be and is personalized as well. I just love Pottery Barn Kids even though I really can't afford it. 

 Her backpack is brown with pink polka dots as you can see. This is a preschool size backpack and obviously will not hold a whole lot. They said it goes up to when your child is 42" tall I believe. I originally was going to get this as her carry on for the plane to hold her food and drink and toys, but her luggage came with a bigger backpack so I decided to use that one.  I wasn't going to get this backpack because for the size it is pricey in my opinion. Maddy's daycare diaper bag is really filthy and I wanted something a little cuter so I bit the bullet and got this and found out the shipping was free, which made it a little more reasonable to me:) The straps in the front are perfect for putting their coat in so it will help take up less room on her hook. They have the hooks crammed together so this will be just perfect!

 The inside of the backpack is just empty space. I was very impressed with the zippers though because they have attached a string thing for them to pull that is stretchy. I didn't test her zipping skills out, but I bet she will be able to open and close it herself. I had to snap pictures of her sporting her first backpack as any mom would do. Today I have felt like she was going to her first day of school because she started a new class today and with her having been home a full week and us having special mommy-Maddy moments I was scared she would have a rough time adjusting. You add the new backpack to it and I think that is how I will feel when she does start school, but with a lot more tears lol. 
I just had to share the excitement with everybody as I really enjoy finding cute things for Maddy!

Our Weekend

Me and Maddy had a pretty good weekend, nothing real exciting. I kept my word and as soon as she got up and ready and I got ready we flew out the door. I felt like I was seeing the world for the first time because it had been so long since I had gone anywhere. I was originally going to go to the outlet malls in Dalton, GA to see if any fall clothes were on sale, but my funds are limited so I decided to stay in town. We went back to Factory Card Outlet to get the invitations to her birthday party and to get the last bit of decorations. We need to go back and get the party favors, but that is not a top priority lol. I got worried because she saw Elmo at the store and just lit up. I got the dogs and Elmo and asked her what she wanted and she still pointed to the dogs so I am sticking to the dog theme. Here is what the invitations look like:

After Factory Card we went over to Target to get her a new passy clip. I know I know, the passy needs to be gone by now but I am not that kind ofparent to be strict on those rules. Her passy days are probably coming to an end because her new class that she starts today does not allow passy's. She has slept one time without her passy here at home so I'm sure I will start getting rid of it soon. I've always wanted leggings because I like the look of them with a long shirt and flip flops or flats. Target had plenty of full length of capri ones but I was really wanting the below the knee ones. I ended up getting the capri ones for now. After Target we headed on over to Kohl's to and ended up getting $110 worth of clothes for $49. Talk about a huge saving! I will not shop Kohl's very often for Maddy because out of that we only came home with one complete outfit for her and three shirts and then I got me some below the knee leggings. I'm very excited today because Maddy should be getting her preschool backpack this afternoon. Once it comes I will post pics of that and her 2 piece suitcase I got for the cruise. After shopping we had lunch and headed down to a local park and played. Sunday we stayed home for most of the day and played outside. We tried getting some shoes at the mall, but I didn't like what they had so we will try a little closer to fall. We had dinner at cracker barrel and came home and collapsed lol. I hope you all had a fantastic weekend!

Ramblings

• Maddy is finally a lot better! Her ulcers are not near as big and she is showing no signs of dehydration finally! I'm so happy my baby is feeling a lot better :)
• Iron Man 2 is an awesome movie! I have had this movie all week, but did not plan on Maddy getting sick so I waited until she got better. I got to watch it today and I will def be getting that one on DVD. I know nothing about the logic behind iron man and all, but I found myself wondering why we didn't try to make an iron man suit for combat. Am I showing my stupidity? 
• I have been very excited today for a complete stranger. I follow her blog and today she had her twin babies! Everytime I saw a new tweet go up I hoped it would be from her showing off her new babies. It took a little while, but she finally posted and they seem to be doing really great. I must admit I'm a little anxious for her to do her first "twins" blog post but I know that will probably take some time as she is recovering from a c-section on top of trying to figure out how to take care of two babies at once lol. I am always looking for new blogs to follow just because I think they are neat. If you know of any send them my way and I will check them out :)
• This week has been really rough. Seeing Maddy in so much pain and not feeling well just left me feeling so bad for her. She barely got any sleep and the only way she would sleep is if I laid in bed with her. I will admit there have been times in her life I wish she would cuddle up with me, but that is just not Maddy. The one time she wants to cuddle up with me is a bad time because I can't sleep with her every night because of school. Also, her bed is a little too small for me to sleep in comfortably. I did enjoy feeling her next to me the nights I did sleep in her room, but I was also scared she would get in a habit of sleeping that way. On top of taking care of Maddy, me and her dad had a miscommunication over who was keeping her Monday. I thought he was taking the day off and I ended up with no help until he got off work. That made my work extremely hard because Maddy was so very clingy and fussy. I ended up falling way behind in production, which I will have to answer to next week. I would have gotten caught up but on Wednesday everything just fell apart at work and I'll be honest and say I had a big heart to heart with God lol. 
• That is all my ramblings for tonight. Before I go start school I will post a few random pictures of Maddy :)

Ok, that isn't a pic...I forgot I had this on my camera lol. As you can see Maddy knows her animal sounds. She has really taken off with her vocabulary. She started coloring and looked at me and said, "boat." When she was done she would say, "More boat!" She also said, "More heart" and "More bee." She started a three word sentence, but I forgot now what she said. I can tell she has to think about what she is saying when she talks in sentences, but she is doing really well!

 Maddy LOVES to have her back scratched. You can ask if she wants her back scratched and she will instantly curl up like this and pull up her shirt. It blows my mind that a 1 (almost 2) year old knows the meaning of having her back scratched!

Maddy loves this ball popper toy. Right now she likes to try to get the ball out with her hand or she will stand over where they pop out because of the wind. I would suggest this toy to every mom but would also warn them that the balls literally pop out everywhere sometimes so you are constantly chasing them to keep them in their designated space. We've lost a couple of the balls but she still has fun with it :)

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Maddy's Party Theme

I have decided that I absolutely LOVE planning Maddy's birthday parties.  I have really enjoyed trying to think of things she will enjoy and this year I finally found it. Originally I was going to do a pink and brown theme since that was her nursery theme, but at the last minute I found this:
A doggy birthday! Maddy just LOVES dogs...she kinda had no choice seeing that we have three inside dogs and six outside dogs lol. We went shopping last weekend and I asked her if she wanted the doggy and of coarse the answer was yes. I am so excited for her that they have all these cute things. I am trying to make reservations for a pavilion at our local state park, but with her being sick this week I haven't gotten a chance to call and am worried it might get/be booked.

Hand Foot Mouth Disease

My poor Maddy has the awful hand foot mouth disease.  I had never heard of this until it showed up in her daycare. When I told her daycare last week that she couldn't walk they told me to check her for blisters because hand foot mouth was spreading. I looked up online what this disease was and I knew right then and there this is one disease I did NOT want to see my baby go through; not that I want to see her go through any disease, but a cold is a lot better than this yucky stuff. This disease causes ulcers all in the mouth and also cause blisters to pop up on the hands and feet.  I told Maddy God had watched out for her because the blisters on her feet are on top so she can still walk thank goodness and she only has a few blisters on her hand.  The worst is in her mouth but she is tolerating it pretty well.  This is what it looks like, her blisters are mostly under her tongue and are pretty big but she did have some outside her mouth just as this picture.

Today was a hard day for and she was pretty clingy and wanted to eat, but everything hurt.  I without thinking about the ramifications helped her take naps today by sleeping in her bed with her.  It hit me as soon as I was walking her to her room that she was going to expect me to sleep in her bed with her this time just as I did the other two times today...I was right.  I feel so bad that I did not think about this earlier today when I took naps with her. She is finally asleep after a few attempts of rocking her and rubbing her face and back. I hate this illness and hate it even more that Maddy has it...it's horrible!!!

Maddy's I can...

On August 23 my baby girl will be 23 months. I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I can remember a lot of what I was doing this time last year, gearing up for her first birthday. If I had the money I definitely would have gone overboard for her first party, but not because I think I have to or that "material" stuff makes her happy. I would have because I really enjoy being a festive person and decorating as much as possible for anything. I haven't been in too much of a hurry to plan her birthday this year. I was originally going to go with a pink and brown theme because those were her nursery colors, but I have since found a dog theme. That is just perfect for her because she is a huge dog lover. I wanted to write about all the things Maddy can do before her 2nd birthday, so here we go.  Before I start, when Maddy went to the doctor on Monday she weighed 22 lbs. I am actually concerned she has lost a little weight because that was with clothes and shoes and everything else on. When they weigh her for her normal check-up she has nothing on and last time she went she weighed 22 lbs. Her 2 year check-up is on September 28 so I am hoping she will have gained some weight by then.
Maddy can:

1. walk/run
2. feed herself
3. drink from a cup
4. use a straw
5. tell me when she is "dirty"
6. can sometimes put her own shirt on
7. stack blocks
8. say hi, bye, no, i love you, teeth, dirty, baby, doggy, passy, bottle, drink, bite bite, nose, eye, mouth, knee, feet, toes, bath, duck, horse, cow, pig, bird, neigh, meow, ruff ruff, moo, quack quack, tweet tweet, bird, tv, elmo, book, fork, mommy, daddy, nana, pops, misty, manny, toaby, treat, outside, car, blankie, shoe, sock, up, help, off, sit, please, thank you, bed, light, couch, bubble, boat, bus, truck, head, knee, row, merrily, happy, sad, mad, shy, yuck, chocolate, more, hat, diaper, belly...I'm sure I'm forgetting a few words but this is all I can remember
9. point to animals and make the appropriate sounds
10. she can almost count to 3
11. use a touchscreen phone to look at pictures on mommy's phone
12. say a two word sentence such as pop's hat

These are the main things Maddy does. She is an extremely active child and is beyond smart. I am in some serious trouble when she gets a little older because I think she will be able to out smart me lol.

Maddy is a great mom to her baby. She has been from the day she picked a baby up. She recently decided she needed to start changing her baby's diapers like mommy does to her. I thought this was so cute and had to snap a picture. It looks like Maddy will be getting some baby accessories for her birthday this year :)

Here she is today. Can you tell she had been eating? She has had this toy ever since she tried walking. I recently showed her that she can sit on it or push it so now I am constantly lowering and rising it lol.

Maddy absolutely loves books. I bought her this puppy book because I thought she would really enjoy getting to feel the things inside. She was so excited when she first saw it, but now it is old news so it's not AS exciting lol. Maddy is getting good at remembering how the stories go because she knows what is coming before we turn the page on at least one of her books, Dora.
I think I will save the rest of the pictures for another post so this doesn't become way too long like many of my posts do :)

Maddy's Adventure

I knew coming into this week it was going to be a rough one because I had a rough draft due Wednesday that had to be 2,000 words on top of working my normal overtime, which by the way is mandatory. I did not know, however, just how bad it was going to get. I went to wake Maddy up at 7:30 on Monday morning as I do every other week day morning. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to me other than the fact that she was taking a little longer to get out of bed. I didn't think anything of it because when I went to get her she was fixing to go back to sleep. I always climb in her bed and lay down because invariably she will tell me to "get up." I climbed in her bed as I do almost every morning and she decided to get down. I heard her fall, but she is usually a little unsteady in the morning. I heard her get up and saw her try to walk and then saw her fall again. This time when she fell she started crying, which I was unsure as to why she was crying because she didn't hit anything. I walked over to her and hugged her and then picked her up to get her clothes for the day.  By this time I had a funny feeling about her, but I decided I was just being paranoid and figured she'd get up and walk just fine once she got dressed.  I wanted to relieve my fears so I stood her up and noticed she was unable to walk...when she tried she would fall.  The way she would move her leg made me immediately think it was something neurological.  I carried her into the kitchen to finish getting her ready and saw my mom walk by so I decided to tell her I thought something was wrong. I sat Maddy down and my mom saw what I was talking about. By this time Maddy was limping so I decided to call the doctor. I had so many thoughts going through my head and it was all I could to keep from breaking down because she was struggling and I was scared it was something serious. All morning she couldn't walk. I tried getting her too but she just couldn't do it. By the time we were ready to go to the doctor's that little stinker started walking. I was glad to see her walk but was unsure if I should continue to go to the doctor. I decided to keep her appointment because she was still limping here and there. The doctor checked her out and then wanted to see her walk. She ran just fine and the doctor was like she's running fine. Then we tried one more time and this time Maddy started limping. I was relieved the doctor saw this and didn't think I was just crazy. Her doctor decided she needed to have an x-ray to make sure there were no fractures because toddler fractures are common. Hearing Maddy needed an x-ray made me want to cry all over again because I expected to come in and hear she was fine and go home. After spending what seemed like an eternity in the x-ray waiting room it was finally Maddy's turn. They had an arm bracelet for her that I have kept and will put in her scrapbook. She laid on a table like this

They took x-rays of both hips, legs, and feet and she laid perfectly still throughout the entire thing. She was curious about the light and the sounds she heard but I was so proud of her. I didn't find out the results until the next day but they came back just fine. The nurse told me they were going to send her for a MRI but since she was putting weight on it and seemed to be just fine they decided not to. If Maddy has anymore problems similar to this episode her doctor will more than likely refer her to an orthopedic.  She did limp a little on Tuesday at daycare, but since then she has been just fine. I want to say thank you to everybody who prayed for her because I feel everybody's prayers made her better.    

Half Week Rewind

This week I went back to work after having a whole week off and I must admit I started to regret my week of vacation. I came back to a huge mess at work and almost got in some serious trouble for not responding to my manager even though I was off. My manager did come back and apologize to me and admitted she forgot I was off work, but I still wasn't too very happy lol. Luckily we are on the downhill side and the weekend will be here soon!
Maddy's vocabulary has just taken off this week and it just came out of no where. I was holding her and she looked at the coffee table and pointed to a hat and said, "Pops.....hat." My mouth fell open and I got so excited and told her she did a good job, "yay for Maddy." I don't think she knew what to think about my reaction, but she did end up laughing. She says a lot of things about Pops..."Pops truck" "Pops drink" "Pops bite bite." I worked with her yesterday on the way home to get her to start saying "Mommy's car," but that seems to be harder for her to say.
On top of work being horrible, I also found out Monday that I missed my attendance in school the week I was off on vacation. I seriously just wanted to cry but what good would that do? I'm still a little confused as to what this means exactly. If I miss either one or two more times, then I will automatically be dropped and I think I will have to pay to retake. If my grade goes down a letter then I will be doing good to pass with a C and that scares me because I've worked so hard in school and if I have to pay out of pocket then I have to drop out and then I have to start paying loans back, which has lead me to my next decision. I am trying to find a part time daycare job. The whole reason I started school again was to get started in a daycare career anyways. Since school may not be around much longer I needed a back up plan. The only way I can work in an assistant director's job is if I have experience in the classroom. Right now my only option is my daughter's daycare, but I really don't think they'd hire me because I don't think they like me too much after there were some problems that came up in how they handled Maddy. I could always turn in an application and see if they would let me work there, but I don't want to deal with the rejection lol.
I purchased season six of The Office at Target last week because it was on sale for $14.99. They are normally around $35 so I was sold. I took the last one they had and I was so thankful they still had at least one. I am sad that Steve Carell is no longer on the show, but I understand his decision and think he did a fantastic job while on the show. This show helps me cope with my job but it also makes me wish Michael Scott was my boss lol.