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.

Vacation Recap

It's hard to believe my week off has finally ended and I must say that I am struggling greatly with the thought of getting back into the every day routine of work :( Monday I got to spend some time with baby Aiden and hold him some.  We went out to eat at Olive Garden and got ourselves in trouble because we got to laughing so hard I think the waiter's thought we were drunk, but we weren't drinking alcohol. I wanted to tell them oh yes we are drunk, but drunk off sleep deprivation and stress. Tuesday I spent watching a little tv and then went to go get my phone fixed. Luckily my phone's software just needed to be upgraded and a new battery. Then I had to meet up with Maddy's dad for a little bit and while I waited I looked around at the mall. I was able to get Maddy started a little bit on her fall wardrobe. I generally only buy clothes that are on sale unless it is an emergency situation or it comes from WalMart.  My favorite store to shop for Maddy is JcPenny.  They have the cutest clothes for a great price. After JcPenny I end up at the OshKosh store in Calhoun, GA. Sometimes they have really good sales and other times it's not so great. I think the key is if it is in between seasons or fixing to change seasons it's hard to find a good bargain. My favorite store whether it is on sale or not is The Children's Place. They have some of the cutest clothes, but considering Maddy is growing so fast I just don't see the need to pay full price there, except for a time when I have a little extra money. Here are some of her outfits I got at Penny's.

The pants are purple to match the hearts and says "love" on the top.

I also got her a pair of khaki's and some black leggings and pink leggings. Wednesday I was supposed to hang out at the pool all day because I can't "get my tan on" with an active toddler but I also had to clean out my car and get my school done so I could enjoy this weekend, so I opted out of going to the pool and stayed home all day. Thursday me and Maddy played all day and went to the store to get a few things such as food for that day and me a camera bag for my camcorder that I hardly used on this trip lol. Friday we also stayed home and played except for when she needed a nap. She helped me mop the kitchen floor and unload the dishwasher and pack for our Pigeon Forge weekend. After Maddy went to bed I stayed up the rest of the night (after a quick 20 min. nap) packing us for the weekend and attempting to get the kitchen clean...I did not manage to do the last part but got a head start on it anyways. Here are some pictures of Maddy playing:

Ok so this isn't Maddy playing but I wanted to show her appetite. There is no getting a kids meal with Maddy because her metabolism is so high she can eat a big girls meal. She normally gets a beefy cheesy burrito from Taco Bell and can eat a good 3/4 of it by herself. Here she is eating a burrito supreme.

 Yes, I realize St. Patty's day is over but it's a waste of money to only use the bib one day so I use them year round :)

There were actually cheerio's in the bucket and she loves to eat food like she is right here. She is so silly!

I went to bed around 2:00 a.m. Saturday morning was back up at 6 a.m. to finish getting everything ready before Maddy woke up to go to Dollywood. My weekend was actually kinda bad with some good in it lol. It seems everything I touched this weekend or did was completely wrong. I was following my sister up to Dollywood and we got separated so I was relying on my mom's old GPS to get me there. It would tell me to turn down a street and then it would show I was in oblivion land and would have to "recalculate." I finally called my mom to tell her I was close but Samantha, the GPS could not figure out what she was doing. Right as my step-dad was telling me something I saw a sign that said Dollywood next left. Once I got into Dollywood I couldn't figure out the parking thing. I figured they would have someone direct cars where to go like Lake Winnie did so I was just following the road and wound up in the handicap parking. I was like ok this isn't right. So I back track and end up going down a one way section and I was going the wrong way. I finally decided to just go back towards the entrance and find parking there but then I was worried how I was going to get all my stuff on the tram with Maddy, who is very active and very "me do it" right now, by myself. I was banking on having my sister's help but it was up to me to get it done. I must admit as I was getting stuff out of the car (Maddy was sound asleep) I had a mini melt down moment where I got my crying out because I just felt like everything I touched was falling apart...there is a little more to this story than what I'm saying. I think my main problem was I was just too tired and my brain was literally just on strike lol. On one ride they said to exit left and I clearly went right, for whatever reason I attempted to put Maddy's stroller on the tram with Maddy in it and they had to tell me otherwise which was embarrassing cause it was a "duh" moment. I did enjoy getting to see Maddy ride the rides and take everything in. She only had a 15 minute nap the entire day and did a lot of walking and she really held up extremely well. I def. want to take her back when she grows some more and go watch all the shows that we couldn't watch cause she just is too young to sit for that  length of time. She did get to see her first movie though, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs in 4D except she had a non motion chair. She did watch some of it and then attempted to try to get down lol. My mom stayed with her and my youngest niece Abby, who Maddy just loves and looks up to. Some of the pics didn't turn out too well cause I had my zoom all the way and when that happens the pics turn out grainy.

I did bring her pack n play this trip, but we didn't get back to the cabin until close to midnight and after only 4 hours sleep the night before on top of an extremely hot day at the park all day I was too exhausted to even unpack my car. Maddy did extremely well sleeping with me in the bed this time and I loved every minute of her sleeping on top of me. The first time she went straight to sleep but she woke up some time in the middle of the night wanting to play around. I finally decided the bathroom light being left on was making her think it was morning so I turned it off and told her it was "night night" time and after 30 minutes to an hour later she finally went back to sleep. She was actually laying a little bit on me before I got up, but she looked so cute so I just had to take a pic, sorry it kinda blurred. I also forgot to talk about the cabin. I did not think to get pics of it, but this was mine and Maddy's first time staying in a cabin in pigeon forge and oh my goodness was it nice. I love the open layout and the view was so amazing! My mom and step-dad stayed up there from Thursday until today. Next time I stay up there I will def be getting a cabin!
Today we went to Splash Country. I don't have a lot of pics because there is only one of me and I like to say there is at least two of Maddy's and I didn't want to risk my camera getting broken due to it getting wet. I also am including Maddy's breakfast pics, which she wasn't too interested in her breakfast this morning. She is starting to not eat breakfast very well like she used too so anything she eats I am thankful for.

Countdown!

So this song has nothing to do with what I am talking about tonight, I just needed something besides words on this post lol.  As the week is coming to an end, thank goodness, I find myself getting more and more excited. I am off next week and have some fun things planned. Normally when I take a week off from work Maddy takes the week off from school, but I've arranged it a little differently this week. My sister just had her third baby on July 7 and for the first half of this week I am going to spend with her and her newest addition. Maddy is extremely jealous as to be expected so I am taking this opportunity to love on baby Aiden while she is in daycare on Monday and probably Tuesday.  Wednesday it is my hope to relax at the pool, something else I do not get to do with an active toddler around. I don't get "mommy" time at all unless you consider doing school work "mommy" time, which I do not because it is stressful sometimes. I must admit I do feel guilty sending Maddy to daycare the first half of the week, but I am telling myself it is no different then other parents who send their kids to grandma's so they can have a "date night." Thursday and Friday I am keeping Maddy home and there is really no telling what all we do. I would like to take her to the pool one of those days because she seems to have a good time, but it is supposed to rain every day next week, with the exception of Wednesday. Saturday morning we are waking up early to begin a weekend getaway. I'm not exactly thrilled at having to wake up at 6 a.m. on a saturday when I go to bed so late due to school, but we need to be leaving by 7:30 am to make it to pigeon forge by 10 am to hit Dollywood the minute they open. This will be Maddy's first trip to Dollywood and I think she will have a good time. I looked up the rides they have because it's been so long since I have been and it's pretty much just like Lake Winnie...they even have the bees which is her favorite lol. My sister and her family will be coming as well and my mom and step-dad will already be in gatlinburg starting Thursday (those lucky dogs don't have to wake up as early since they are already there.) Sunday we are going to Splash Country which is a waterpark. That will be Maddy's first waterpark and I know she will love it. I have a feeling me, my sister, Maddy, and Aiden will be by ourselves a good bit of the day since our kids can't ride the rides. I originally took this week off because July 27 was my sister's due date and well...Aiden decided to come 20 days early. This vacation seems like it will be a pretty fun one considering I originally had nothing planned.  After this week off me and Maddy have a real vacation we are looking forward to and that is a cruise to the Bahama's on her actual birthday, September 23. It's only a 3 day, but we will take what we can get. This week has been a tough week on me and I'm ready to relax.