Gilmore Girls

This past week I pulled out my Gilmore Girls dvd that brought up a lot of memories. I was first introduced to the Gilmore Girls when I was in high school by a fellow orchestra member. I remember watching the show soon after he told me and my mom and I was hooked ever since. How Lorelai and Rory behave is very similar to who I really am. Most people don't know who I really am because I am very shy and quiet. My mom became a single mom toward the end of my seventh grade year. We were just like Lorelai and Rory on the Gilmore Girls...almost to a tee. For those who don't watch the show, or didn't should I say, Lorelai was also a single mom and was from the time Rory was born up until she graduated college. Lorelai did date and even got married, but ended up divorced soon after. When my mom started dating I struggled greatly and did not handle it well at all. Then came the day she told me she was getting married...we won't even talk about my emotions on THAT day. Bottom line is it can be rough on kids when their mom or dad start dating or even marry someone other than their real mom or dad. I have always said I will be sensitive to my child's feelings on this subject because their opinion and feelings are extremely important on such a big decision. Here I am today, a single mom to my beautiful Maddy. I said throughout my pregnancy that I would never date because I didn't want Maddy to get hurt in any way. I picture me and Maddy being like my mom and I were and of coarse how Lorelai and Rory were. Over the past two years I have had a few offers that would put me back in the dating scene, but I always blew them off. Recently I was given an opportunity that could potentially jump start the dating scene for me. I had to think long and hard about it and to be honest I don't quite know how I feel about dating just yet. I realized that I tend to seclude myself from people and would really like to change that. I do hope me and Maddy can have a Lorelai and Rory type of relationship, but I still need to have my own life for when she grows up on me and is ready to conquer the world. I've decided to have a more open mind on the whole dating thing and will push myself to at least try when the opportunity arises, instead of automatically saying no. Maddy will always be my number one priority and I will not have men come in and out of her life. As she gets older I will listen to how she feels and hopefully we can find a compromise. Lorelai was very protective of Rory when it came to her dating life and that's how I plan to be with Maddy. I hope once Maddy graduates college people in our life can say the exact same thing that Lorelai's dad told her on the final episode...basically...she was an amazing person and she deserved to have a "proper" goodbye party for the daughter she did such a good job raising. I would love to live in a little town like Stars Hollow where everybody knows each other, but that is not our world. I have made plenty of mistakes with Maddy already in the short two years she has been alive...I'm not perfect, but I am proud of the accomplishments we have achieved and am proud of the person she is becoming. I hope to someday find my "Luke" but for now I am really enjoying being single and just focusing on Maddy. I love my life as a mom and I am so thankful I wouldn't rather be out partying or out with friends like some parents these days wish...I love taking Maddy with me everywhere and the time we spend. I firmly believe in being a good example for her and I will only do things she can do as well. One thing we have started doing is have family dinners in the evening where we all sit at the table, pray for our food, then dig in. Maddy loves to say the prayer and it just makes my heart so happy. I think she was unsure of the whole family dinner thing on the first night, but she learned quickly and now she just follows the routine. I take the opportunity to work on table manners with her and I think we are at least making small progressions lol. That is pretty much the end of my Gilmore Girl ramblings for tonight.

Trick-or-Treat

For Halloween this year I gave Maddy a couple of choices as to what she wanted to be. She chose to be a bee out of the choices I gave her. I ended up buying two costumes for her because the day I bought her first costume she was melting down in the store so I chose not to try it on her. Of coarse I also wasn't paying attention to the size and realized later instead of it being solely 24 months it was 12-24 months. I knew it would be too small, so I went back and got the 2T bee costume. People had a hard time knowing exactly what she was with the 2T costume and I felt bad because I should have gotten her the yellow and black stripe tights but didn't have time to go back to the store to buy them and had already bought plain black tights. I still think it was the cutest costume of the night :) She wasn't too sure what was going on...she thought we were going outside to play and started to get upset when I wouldn't open the door. I told her we were going for a walk and then she decided she wanted to walk in the grass. Finally she realized I meant in the street, which she isn't allowed to do normally, so she put her strut on and walked in the street like a big girl. She was walking so proud...it was really cute! She didn't say trick or treat to the people but knew they would put candy or "chocolate" in her bucket and she did tell them thank you and bye. I am very proud of her, she did exceptionally well! Here are pics of both costumes...

Maddy got to go trick-or-treating at her school on Friday. I'm assuming it was a success for her because she came home with a bag full of candy :) She is growing up too fast!

Then vs. Now Part 1

What I really want to talk about I can't so earlier today I had the bright idea to post pics of Maddy from when she was first born and compare them to now. I recently found her newborn pics (they were lost for a while) and thought it would be neat to see the difference, although a tad bit sad for me lol. Here we go...

In this picture we were celebrating my niece's 7th birthday at Ichiban. I had recently found out I was pregnant and was approximately one month along.

Here I am on my 26th birthday and I am almost three months pregnant.

In Florida and five months pregnant

August 2009 eight months pregnant

September 23, 2009 nine months pregnant. I had a 14 hour labor and spent seven hours of it at home and the other seven in the hospital.

Here are her newborn, one year, and two year pics. It is amazing how much she has grown over the years!

 

First Halloween vs. Second Halloween...third one has yet to come.

I will have to finish this tomorrow or throughout the week as my battery is dying and I need to get in bed. Good night everybody!

News Alert!!!

I wasn't going to post today, but I have some exciting news. During bath tonight Maddy kept saying she had to go #2 in the potty so we would let her sit on the potty. We thought it was just a game she was playing and originally said no to the last time but she acted as if she was really about to go potty and she did not want to potty in the tub so we let her go and what do ya know...i look down and see stuff in the potty. I was so excited. This is the first official time for me that she has said she had to potty and actually went. She is backwards in her potty training though. She will not pee in the potty...she holds it until she gets in the tub but she is all about going #2 in there. I know that is ok and in a lot of ways better because that is the hardest part. I just know we are starting this potty training thing full force and I'm hoping this means she will start going in the potty more frequently.
Our day primarily consisted of finishing up our shopping. I will have to go back a little later in the season because OshKosh for the first time did not have much available in her size. It was as if someone came and took all the 2T's out. I got her some adorable blue jeans from the Old Navy outlet that I can't wait to get pics of. Today she did not ask for paci as much...she only asked approximately two times. She even took a nap in the car along the way, instead of waiting until she is exhausted. Maddy really is the best baby (i will always call her my baby) I have ever seen. Yes, we go through the fits just like every other toddler but that is part of life and part of learning. Her school said she is trying hard to say her bible verse and I was working with her on saying it and she ended up saying the last word. The verse is, "When I am afraid I will trust in God." I must admit I got very emotional because it is so important to me that she learn about God and Jesus while she is growing. She is becoming a little girl more and more everyday and she is just an amazing person.

Paci Blues and Such

Today was a big day at our house. I decided last weekend that this weekend I would start taking paci away from Maddy. I have always believed in not rushing things like taking paci away, but lately Maddy just has it 24/7, whereas she used to only want it when she got tired or hurt. I decided I needed to go ahead and start weaning her now before it became extremely difficult. I must say I was really nervous over how today would go and was scared I might give in and give it to her but that was not the case. We had a birthday party to go to today so we packed up the car with no paci and off we went. She did ask for her paci but she got over it pretty quickly. As we were driving down the road all of a sudden she just starts whining. I looked back and saw the door to her cd player was on her hand so I told her to open it. Next thing I know she is just boo hooing and I realized something was really wrong with her hand. I pulled over and sure enough she had her finger stuck up in the opening of the slot where the cd's go through and to make matters worse the cd was helping to pin her finger down. Anytime I touched her toy she just screamed in pain and it just broke my heart. I finally figured out that if I turned the cd player upside down her hand would not be twisted and then I could get the cd out and then her finger would be released and it worked like a charm. When I first saw her finger I was so scared it was broke because it looked funky. I quickly rubbed her hand and she just looked at me but instantly calmed down. I was shaking so bad and believe me I about just swooped her up and ran into bi-lo to buy her a paci but I knew I had to stay strong and I was proud of both of us for getting through that incident without paci. After the birthday party we went shopping and got some cute clothes for Maddy.

These are just a few of the things we bought. Tomorrow we are headed down to Calhoun, GA to the outlet mall to go to OshKosh, Carters, Old Navy, and the children's place. Maddy is sound asleep in her room...and so happy to have paci might I add lol.

Never Grow Up

This morning Maddy was not ready to get up, which caused her to be quite moody. I completely understand how she feels on these mornings. I realized later on today that I felt sad and as I sat there trying to figure out what was wrong with me it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had just watched Maddy's slideshow I made and the song by Taylor Swift-Never Grow Up really got to me lol. I then realized or I think this is the case anyways that me and Maddy didn't really get any cuddle time in this morning. I started missing Maddy like crazy today and that is the only logical explanation I could figure out. I am beginning to realize just how much she is growing up and it does make me a little sad as it does most moms, but I'm not so sure if most moms feel sad about their kids growing up at THIS age lol. For some reason I feel like a lot is changing in life and in a way I am ready to throw on the brakes and say whoa horsey! There isn't really a whole lot changing per say...there is...but there isn't. It amazes me just how much Maddy is growing and how much of an independent little girl she is becoming. She drinks from cups without lids now...no I don't let her do this in the car or when we are eating out. I am working still on passy. Tonight just happened to be a blessing because her passy clip hurt her foot real bad...I really don't know what happened. I know she stepped on it but what I'm unsure of is if it pinched her foot closed in it or if she just stepped on something sharp. Either way she was not very happy with her passy afterwards and I used that to my advantage. I told her passy just needed to be thrown away. It was funny the look she gave me because she wanted to throw passy but at the same time she just wasn't sure about giving it up. She made sure to tell it no several times and then she finally decided to throw it in the trash. Her version of throwing passy...and only passy...in the trash is sitting it on top of the lid. She is in bed without passy and so far is doing great. She not once asked for it. I would so love to just take passy now while she is mad at it but I don't think taking passy in the middle of a school week is very good for her. I was going to start taking it this weekend and instead of throwing it away I plan to only let her use it for nap and bed time. Anyways, that should have been a different post. Bottom line is I really missed Maddy a whole bunch today and and this song is a song I will sing to her a bunch because I don't want her to grow up too fast even though she already is. Before I do I have to say it was very exciting tonight because Maddy finally used the potty at home tonight for the first time. She has gone at school a couple of times but never at home (and that is my fault) but tonight I caught her just at the right time and voila. I had mini m&m's for her which she really enjoys but she decided she would rather eat a whole apple instead of chocolate lol. This child will sit and eat an apple as if she has done it all her life. She ate one starting last year and she just sinks her teeth into it, peel and all, and just eats it like an adult would. She amazes me everyday.

iPhone 4s

This doesn't have much to do with my blog in general, but it kinda does lol. This blog is about life as Maddy's mommy and part of my life includes my entertainment...my phone. For those who do not know, I previously had a HTC EVO. When I first bought that phone I absolutely loved it. It had an amazing camera and let me do so much more than my Blackberry ever did. I primarily bought it because it was the closest thing Sprint had at the time to the iPhone. I quickly realized the battery life was horrible and then recently I started having problems with it to where sometimes it would work and other times it would not. The first time it stopped working the dude said it just needed the update. I went with what he said up until this last time. It started acting just like it did the first time and I knew this time it was not the battery and I feel quite certain it wasn't the update either. If there was an update, it didn't tell me there was one like it normally does. To cut to the chase, with the help of my mom I was finally able to get the iPhone 4s today. There are pros and cons to it, but so far I am really excited to have it. The main con for me is the screen size is smaller than my evo was. The evo has a crisp, clear, and huge screen whereas the iPhone is smaller and not as wow with the clarity. The biggest pro for me is the battery life. Right now battery life is more important, especially with a toddler. The camera is not as easy to use on the iPhone as it was the evo but it is 8 mp and has front and rear camera like my evo. I really like how the iPhone fits in my hand, whereas the evo was more bulky and harder to carry. The other functions are pretty much the same. Yes, the evo has 4g (not mine because my area does not have 4g) and is a tad bit faster but again that does not matter so much to me right now. I would buy another HTC, but I would do some research on the battery life prior to buying as I really need my phone to be available when I need it. At this point I would buy another iPhone as well...especially if they would make the screen bigger which I hear they will on the next one. Once my 2 years is up with this phone I have no idea whether I will go with the newer iPhone or get something else. I will just have to weigh the pros and cons of each phone available. I just wanted to do a mini review between the two phones and to say I am very excited to finally have an iPhone in my hands and also to have a working phone in my hands again. I feel much safer while traveling :)