That's What She Said

Wait...weren't you just born?

2010-09-08T12:10:00.000-07:00

Maddie had her first day of SCHOOL yesterday! Ok, ok, it's actually MMO (Mother's Morning Out), but they have an actual curriculum- we're talking shape and color of the month, and letter of the week- so it feels very school-like to me. She's in the "Frog" class and goes every Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30-1:15. That's right, I now have almost 8 hours a week to do whatever I want! Pretty awesome.

We went to open house last week, and it went very smoothly. Mads was pretty stoked about the toy selection in her classroom, and would probably have preferred if I had just left her there that day. Unfortunately for her, that wasn't an option, so we came home and decorated her official tote bag. Alright, technically I decorated it and told her not to touch it until it was dry, but I decided to say that she helped me b/c I have the art skills of a 4 year old.

I hardly slept at all Monday night, but luckily Maddie slept like a champ, as usual, and was excited to start the day off right with some yummy pancakes and blueberries for breakfast.

I packed my first school lunch (which my mom gleefully reminded me that I would be doing for the next 16 years), but I guess Mads needs to get used to eating at school b/c everything came home except the oranges and juice box. She gobbled down the rest of it the second we walked through the door!

After refusing to cooperate for first day of school pictures, we drove to the church (less than a mile away, awesome!) and I dropped her off without a hitch. Miss Independent stayed true to herself, and although she definitely looked a little hesitant (it was utter chaos in the preschool hall), she told me bye and marched right in and sat down to start coloring with all of her classmates.

I really wasn't expecting to get emotional about her starting school- after all, we've spent time apart before (and way more than 4 hours, lol), and it's not even REAL school. But she just looked SO grown up sitting at that little table, and for the first time I left her, knowing that I wouldn't know everything that went on while I was gone, and knowing that she was in great hands but wouldn't be getting one on one attention while she was there. So I run/walked back to the car and burst into tears.

And then I enjoyed the heck out of my almost 4 hours alone :). When I picked her up, Maddie was happy to see me(yay!), but not crying like many of her classmates. She was very excited to show me the picture she colored, and then she came home, devoured her lunch while watching Yo Gabba Gabba, and then crashed for a full 3 hour nap. So I'd say day 1 was a huge success! I'm hopeful that she'll be excited to go back tomorrow!

And just for fun

2010-09-05T13:03:00.000-07:00

Some pictures of Mads enjoying the summer!

Rockin' the cowgirl style:

And playing in her baby pool

Even happy when she wakes up!

Loving on Mia

Playing dress up

And enjoying the first cool September afternoon with Mommy and Daddy

And that pretty much sums up our last couple of weeks!

Happy Happy Birthday...and then some

2010-09-05T12:34:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm behind in blogging- what else is new? But I wanted to report back to share some pictures from Maddie's birthday party! It was a lot of fun, even if we did forget half of the food and cupcakes at home....oops!

The kiddos played on the playground for a little while first- it was fun, but OH so hot! Guess we have that to look forward to every year since Mad's birthday is at the beginning of August. After that, we went inside and enjoyed some food and drinks, then watched Maddie's 2 year video as we ate cupcakes.

This is how Maddie blows out candles, lol!

Yoooo Gabba Gabba!

Maddie and I went back to SC with my family for a few days after her party, and we did the 2nd part of her 2 year pictures there- Urban Toddler Style, haha! Here's a link to all, but I'll post a few of my faves.

One day, I'll be a year...then I'll be TWO, then three, then four

2010-08-05T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, amazingly enough it is almost Maddie's 2nd birthday! I swear, you blink and a year passes by.

Maddie had her 2 year appt today and she was SO good. She turns into such a little velcro baby when we're at the doctor, which is so unlike her. But once I convinced her I wasn't going anywhere, she sat perfectly still while the doctor listened to her heart/chest, she opened her mouth wide for him to look at her teeth, and she even giggled a little when he looked in her ears (I guess it tickled!). She had to get one shot (last one for a long time, yay!), and she was such a big girl. She didn't even cry, and got to pick a toy out of the toy chest for being such a great patient.

The doctor wasn't overly concerned about her speech, but agreed that it's probably time to get her evaluated, so we will be setting that up soon. I had a feeling that Mads has been doing a lot of growing in the last few months, and I was right- she is not so petite anymore!!! I guess her Daddy's genes are finally kicking in a little. She jumped from about the 20th% to 40th% in height, and from about 17th% to 30th% in weight!

Official stats:
Height: 33.5" 40th%
Weight: 25lb, 5 oz 30th%

Other than the speech thing, Maddie is doing great! She continues to be a great listener, and an all around happy, sweet little girl. We are seeing more and more of the terrible 2's (June was pretty much an entire month of awful behavior), but for the most part Mads is still a fantastic little toddler! Baby dolls/stuffed animals are still her favorite thing to play with, and Yo Gabba Gabba continues to be her favorite show/obsession. I will be updating again soon with pics from her Yo Gabba Gabba 2nd birthday bash!

In the meantime, these are some two year pictures that I took a couple of nights ago at Duke Gardens. The lighting was beautiful, the gardens were beautiful, and Maddie was somewhat cooperative and devastatingly cute. Here's a link to all of them!!

Beach week!

2010-06-20T05:25:00.000-07:00

Some of my favorite memories growing up are from the week we spent every summer at Holden Beach. Now, I'm not exactly a beach person (as you may have guessed based on the transparency of my skin), but I still love the ocean and hanging out with my family for the week. And I was really looking forward to taking Maddie for her first official beach week!

She had a GREAT time. This child loooooves the water, and she was actually pretty chill on the beach. She knew exactly how far she could go into the ocean before the waves would start knocking her over, and she never crossed that line. She loved throwing her toys in the ocean and watching the waves wash them back up on the beach. We got a little baby pool and put it under our canopy, which was great so we could sit in the shade and Maddie could still play in the water. My little girly girl didn't like her hands being sandy, so much of her beach time was spent falling, getting hands dirty, then running to the water to wash them off.

Mads was a little bit of a handful at the beach- she has recently hit the terrible (almost) 2's, and her 'tude was in full force. She actually has been a bit better since we've been home, so I think it was partly just b/c she was so overstimulated and overtired (she woke up around 6:30 every day at the beach-ack!). But we still had a great time.

It was a much different beach experience, having my own kiddo there! I was expecting it to be exhausting, and it pretty much was, although honestly it wasn't that much more tiring than watching her at home, and we had built in entertainment a la grandparents and aunties, so it wasn't too bad. Overall, I think actually enjoyed being a parent at the beach more than being a kid at the beach-maybe not as carefree and relaxing, but it was so much fun to see Maddie enjoying herself so much. Plus, as an adult I got to enjoy a delicious strawberry daiquiri before dinner each night- can't beat that!

And now some pictures! You know I couldn't do a beach post without a plethora of pictures! Link to all of our beach pics here.

Walking with Momo and Papa on the beach

Tired and wet after playing on the beach

Strolling through the ocean

We can use our OUTSIDE VOICE on the beach!

Mom and Dad on their 30th wedding anniversary!

My pretty girl

Sisters!

Gathering some shells

Headed out to wash her hands

Walking backwards on the beach, lol

Hanging out with the Humphries fam

A day in the life of Miss Mads

2010-05-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

Every morning, we go somewhere to play and deplete some of that crazed toddler energy so that Maddie will take a nice long afternoon nap. This morning, we went to Durant Nature Park and went on a little expedition. So, without further ado, a morning with Maddie:

First, the most important lesson learned today: How to splash in puddles!
Guess it's time to buy some rain boots, huh?

Wandering off into the woods

Running as fast as she can towards the water. This is where
those good listening skills come in to play, lol!

Uh-oh, maybe we're going the wrong way?

Definitely time to stop for a snack break

So tired, she can't even hold her cup. Maybe time to head home?

Oh wait- a squirrel! Let's see if it wants to play...

It didn't. To the car we go! So what do we have to show for our morning of adventure?
One wet and dirty bottom,

two VERY wet and dirty shoes/socks/pant legs

and one happy, tired little girl!

Double whammy

2010-05-17T13:40:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty sure it's uncool to tweet (yup, I joined Twitter!) and update your Facebook status regarding peeing in the potty, so I will do it here! We recently got a potty for Maddie, and although I don't think she is ready for full time potty training, she is definitely starting to show some interest and I'm really proud of her b/c she's already gone twice in her potty today.

When she pees, her potty sings a song, and then she gets to wash her hands and eat 1 Reece's Pieces, which is very exciting. For her. Ok, for me too. I don't want to rush potty training b/c I know it will be harder if she isn't ready, but I would really love to have her potty trained by fall since it's so much easier to do in the summer time. I guess we'll see!

Maddie continues to be a wonderful, sweet little girl. Her vocabulary has started expanding, and her current favorite words are "uh-oh (which she says whenever she sees or hears another kid crying), " "wow" and "off." She's one of the most social little toddlers I've ever seen- she will walk right up to a group of kids and sit down in the middle and start playing. She is still a great listener and honestly, the tantrums are few and far between. Still a good eater too, which is awesome.

She LOVES to be outside, so we usually go to either a park or a playground every morning and wear ourselves out. She's finally down to one nap, but it's a GOOD nap- usually 2.5-3.5 hours in the afternoon. Being a SAHM to a toddler is physically tiring for sure, but I really adore this age. She is so funny and happy and SO sweet! I think I have it easy with her- she's pretty independent and likes to play on her own a lot (unless there are other kids around), and she's very flexible. I know the "terrible 2's" are approaching, so I'm soaking in the sweetness now!

Here are just some random pics that I've taken during playtime over the last couple of weeks!

Playing in the yard in her inflatable pool- this girl LOVES water!

Playing peek-a-boo at the playground

Taking a rest on a park bench-I know I'm biased but isn't she just the cutest kid ever??

Riding around with her BFF Jack at a playdate!

Update time!

2010-05-17T13:28:00.000-07:00

We've been busy lately (what else is new?)! Sarah graduated from App State on May 9th, so Maddie and I drove up to the mountains to celebrate with my family. We had a GREAT time, we stayed in a fabulous house, ate at some great restaurants and had a lot of fun.

And there was a closet big enough for Mads to sleep in, so as usual she was a good little traveler. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend! Along with all of my favorite jokes- my family is so strange and funny.

Last weekend, Mike and Maddie joined me and a few of my friends in the Great Strides walk to raise money for CF. I was a little apprehensive when I found out the walk was a 5k- it's been a long time since I've walked that far, especially up and down hills in the hot sun! But with Mike pushing Maddie, we all made it to the finish line and my awesome team raised a lot of money for CF.
Here's a picture of all of us right after we finished- kind of a goofy edit, but I like it.

On Sunday we got to meet up with Laura and Daniel and their two adorable pugs, Zeus and Zoey. Maddie had a blast, as she got to play with dogs AND eat ice cream- two of her most favorite things ever.
Here's Maddie kissing Zeus, who was oh-so-patient with her zealous loving.

And here is a pic of my wonderful friend Laura, who will no doubt always be a special part of Maddie's life!

So we've had some crazy busy, but fun weekends lately! I think this weekend it might be nice just to relax and do nothing :).

My little mermaid

2010-04-27T08:23:00.000-07:00

Last week, a large group of the Humphries/Crosby/Hoover women decided to take a little girls weekend trip to Charleston. It was a blast! I am blessed to have a hilarious group of women in my family and it couldn't have been a better trip.

On Thursday morning, my mom, Maddie and I arrived, picked up Kat (she is a sophomore at the College of Charleston) and headed to the aquarium. It was pretty cool- it's been years since I've been to an aquarium and obviously it was Maddie's first time. Her eyes got huge when we walked into the room with the 2-story tank. After about 20 minutes she was more interested in climbing the stairs than looking at the fish, but we still had a good time.

On Thursday night, Nancy, Cyndi, Kelly and Sarah joined the party and we celebrated Mom's birthday! On Friday Haven and Louise rolled in and we all hung out on the beach and at the house. It was very relaxing. This was Maddie's first time seeing the beach/ocean! It was so much fun- she loved it! She got so excited when she saw the ocean, and ran straight in and started playing. We weren't able to stay out too long, b/c it was only in the 70's and the water was a little chilly, so Mads was blue and shivering before long (although it didn't seem to bother her!). On Friday night, some extended family that lives in Charleston joined us for wine and snacks- yum! It was great to see most of the Charleston crew. We stayed up late with board games, drinks and a LOT of laughing.

On Saturday we checked out a local festival and ended up eating at a FABULOUS restaurant called Taco Boy for lunch. If you're ever in Folly Beach, you need to eat there. It was SO GOOD! Then we hung out at the beach some more that afternoon. Saturday night we met up with our Charleston family again and went out to dinner at a yummy seafood restaurant on the pier.

Sunday we visited the GORGEOUS new residence of my great-aunt and uncle, Jane and Mason, and said our goodbyes. Mom had a sorority luncheon to attend with Kat, so Maddie and I toured downtown Charleston, which was lots of fun. We ate lunch, played on the Cistern and saw lots of horses walk by (very exciting for Mads).

All in all it was a fabulous trip, and hopefully it we will do it again someday! Here are some of my favorite pics from the weekend, and a link to all of them!

Maddie checking out the fish at the aquarium:

Looking at jellyfish with aunt Kat:

Maddie sees the ocean for the first time!

This is cool!

The waves kept knocking her over, but she didn't mind- just kept licking her lips wondering what that salty taste was!

Had no interest in the shells- just wanted to play in the water!

Sarah and Mom at our dinner on the pier

Kat hanging out with Mads at her house

In your Easter bonnet...

2010-04-11T15:55:00.000-07:00

I'm a little late, but Happy Easter! We had a low key Easter this year, we just went to church and let Mads discover her Easter basket- which she was totally unimpressed with. A week before, Mike took her to an Easter egg hunt at the WRAL gardens, so she got to see the Easter bunny there. She was pretty unimpressed with him too- really, unless you are a Yo Gabba Gabba character, this baby is tough to wow.

Here are some of my favorite Easter pics!

Obligatory Easter bunny pic

Clearly she is an awesome Easter egg finder

A few from our Easter photoshoot- Maddie was SO not
in the mood for pictures that morning!

Easter morning, checking out her loot

The whole fam in front of the flower cross at church

And finally, a couple of the crazy girl in her cute
Easter attire

1.5 going on 17

2010-03-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

I put Maddie's hair in a ponytail today, and besides being ridiculously cute, it made her look so grown up!!! My fancy new camera had a dead battery (oops!) but I had to whip out the old camera since she was looking cuter than a puppy kissing a kitten.

Not too much new to report! Maddie is still a model of good behavior most of the time. For a toddler, she really amazes me. She eats food even if she doesn't love it, she says "please (pees or tees)" and "thank you (ta ta)" most of the time with no prompting, and she is just the sweetest girl in town giving hugs and kisses all day long. We are SO glad the weather is warm- Mads loves playing outside anywhere. We go to the park weekly and Maddie has an awesome new climber/slide on the screened in porch that we play on every day.

That's it for now! Easter pics to come next week :).

Fancy Schmancy Pants

2010-03-25T19:44:00.000-07:00

Thanks to my AMAZING camera that my darling husband gave me for my birthday, the number of Maddie pictures have risen to new heights. Since Shutterfly tends to mess pictures up by cropping them weird, I've switched to Flickr for hosting my photos. I mean, I'm a photographer now that I have a fancy schmancy (that's a technical term there, don't worry if it's over your head) camera, so I can't have Shutterfly ruin my art, right? Ok, ok- I really just like Flickr b/c it lets me look at pictures of my sweet baby really big.

So if you were a previous stalker of Maddie's Shutterfly site, feel free to stalk my new Flickr site. I've divided it up into nice little categories so that you can only look at what you want- or just check out my photostream to see all of my latest pictures. I am the first to admit that I take WAY too many, but I'm getting to know my camera and trying to learn to take a decent picture here and there. So here ya go, let's link this baby up:

My photostream
Maddie Pictures (only Mads in these)
Non-moving subjects (so much easier to photograph btw)
Sweet doggies
My peeps (Maddie will appear in these too, but so will some other cool people)

There are RSS feeds if you're a lazy stalker and want to subscribe to a particular set (Mom, I'll show you how to do it :P). That's all for now!

That's More Like It

2010-03-09T14:12:00.000-08:00

After a particularly cold and yucky winter, we have been enjoying a rather fabulous first week of March. Maddie and I are both so sick of being cooped up inside, so we've been spending a lot of time outside this week.

Maddie continues to get better at walking/running outside, although she still falls quite a bit at this point. She's got bruises and scrapes all over from various playgrounds and yards, but it doesn't slow her down one bit! Here are some of my favorite pictures from our outdoor fun.

New play area on the porch- will have a fun slide up soon!

Mom, I found a pine cone in here!

On a nature walk at Buffaloe Rd Park

So happy to be outside!

King of the world! Notice Daddy- he is a helicopter
parent at the park, lol.

Snack break!

Practicing those running skills

Oops, fell down. Hi Mom!

And my fave- relaxing with (on) Ginger after a long day of playing!

Yadda yadda yadda

2010-03-03T17:05:00.000-08:00

After conquering the major task of learning to walk, I think Mads has decided to talk next. In the last few days, her vocab has expanded by several new words, including "bye," "baby," "papa" and "six." She has to make a fish face when she says baby.

I'm really not sure why she says six, but sometimes when she says it she holds up 6 fingers. And if I hold up 6 fingers, she says six. Sooo, I think it's safe to say she's a genius. I mean, any regular kid can learn 1-5. Maddie skipped straight to six.

Here are a couple of short videos of Mads trying out her new words:
#1
#2

Other than that, nothing much is new. We're still trying to stay happy with playing indoors- blah! Can't wait for that warm weather next week. I've never been a huge fan of snow, and at this point I don't care if I ever see it again!

1.5 years old!

2010-02-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Go Heels! Beat Duke!

Maddie's stats from her 18 month appt:
Height: 30.5"
Weight: 22 lbs
She has gained a pound and grown an inch in the last 2 months! She's continuing to follow her 15% growth curve perfectly. The appointment went well, she didn't like her shots but seems to be over her fear of anything touching her ears, so that was a relief. The pediatrician was not concerned that she isn't talking yet, he said she seems to understand plenty for her age, and we won't worry about actual words unless she hasn't made any progress by her next appointment when she is 2.

Her words right now are: dada- meaning Daddy, and often said in her "monster voice," which her Daddy thinks is hilarious and encourages, mama- meaning please or I want something, dat- meaning what/who is that, doe- meaning where did that/they go, hi/hey- meaning hey look at me, and yay- meaning yay. I took a little video of her words- the only ones she will say on command are dada and mama. Although it kind of sounds like she is trying to say please for real in this clip! Sorry it's sideways...for some reason I just held it the wrong way.

We went to the kid's museum with some of Maddie's friends yesterday, and she got to play dress up a lot there, which she loved. She also colored her first picture (markers are much more fun than crayons I guess) and groomed some dogs in the brand new pet shop.

Maddie's favorite things to do this week are play with the dogs and sit on the couch like a big girl. She and Ginger are hilarious together- they have started playing a game where Ginger licks Maddie and knocks her over, Maddie buries her face in the floor while laughing hysterically, and Ginger noses her head underneath Maddie's body until Maddie stands up and the whole thing starts all over. Mia doesn't love Maddie quite as much, but she is very tolerant of Maddie's incessant hugs and kisses.

Snow, snow, go away...

2010-02-02T13:59:00.000-08:00

I am still in NC, right? Because I'm sitting in my house with about 5 layers of clothing on and the heat cranked up and I'm still freezing. And there is snow covering my backyard- AND it's been there since Saturday. Bizarre.

I know a lot of people were very excited to take their kiddos out into the winter wonderland last weekend, but me, not so much. I'm not feeling too hot (quite the opposite actually!), and it takes a good 30 minutes of prep to stuff Maddie into the 43 layers of warmth required to brave the snow for all of 10 minutes until we decide it's just too cold to be outside. I was a tiny bit excited about taking her "sledding" for the first time, but she was very unimpressed by it all so I'm really quite ready for the snow to make it's exit now.

So enough of that- on to the good stuff. Maddie is really turning into a big girl lately! I can officially call her a toddler now that she is walking for real. She took her first steps a couple of days before Christmas, and by early January she was a walking pro. She rarely crawls anymore, and although she does fall frequently, it's usually because she is trying to run. We took a "tumbling tinies" class in January through our local parks and rec department, and she had a blast. It seems like she has pretty much caught up in the gross motor skill department.

Along with her new skillz comes the fabulous toddler attitude. Sometimes a "no, you can't have that right now" is met with a scream and meltdown so loud that you'd think I kicked her puppy. Other times, it is met with a mischievous smile as she grabs for the item anyway. But as far as toddlers go, I think that so far she's a pretty well behaved one (I'm sure my opinion of that will change as she gets closer and closer to the terrible 2's). Maddie has long outgrown hair pulling and for the most part she is extremely gentle with everyone (and everything- the dogs are relieved) around her, giving lots of hugs and kisses all day long.

She's also turning into quite the girly girl. She hasn't touched the cars that she got for Christmas, preferring to spend her days chatting it up with her massive stuffed animal collection. She also loves to carry around her little pocketbooks and tries to play dress up with any stray piece of clothing that she finds. Her fave dress up item is her stethoscope, which I'm pretty sure she would wear to bed if I let her. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her wearing that thing. She also LOVES to "read" and be read to, which makes her Mommy very happy, even if she has entered the phase of wanting Mommy to read one book 87 times in a row.

And, of course....Her name is Maddie....she likes to DANCE! Maddie looooves the show Yo Gabba Gabba, which is most likely written by people on some serious drugs. But it's fun, funny and teaches good lessons, and nothing can cheer Mads up faster than a little YGG.

I guess that's a pretty good summary of what Miss Maddie is doing at (gasp!) almost 18 months (that's 1.5 for the non-parents). I feel so lucky to be her mom- she is just a very happy, social, sweet, gentle, funny girl. Speaking of social, I've decided to register her for Mother's Morning Out in the fall! She'll go 2 (half) days a week, and I think she will love it. And I probably won't mind having a few hours to myself each week either :).

15 month-ish checkup and Santa

2009-12-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

Maddie had her 15 month appt today- although she will be 16 months in 4 days. Mommy got a little behind there. It went as well as a pediatrician's appointment can go with a toddler. Meaning she had a great time until the doctor wanted to look at her. For some reason, Maddie absolutely HATES when a doctor tries to look in her ears, and pitches a big old fit over it.

She had to get 2 shots today too, so there were lots of tears. She's usually just fine once Mommy picks her up though, and all was forgiven by the time we were back in the lobby. She played (meaning, she tried to eat) her sticker the whole way home.

She is sticking right onto her growth curve, right arount 18% for height and weight. Today she was 21 lbs and 29.5 inches.

My mom is in town, so we met up with Mike at the mall after lunch to get Maddie's picture taken with Santa Claus. I wasn't quite sure what to expect- Maddie is very friendly, but I know Santa scares a lot of toddlers. And last year she wasn't really old enough to know what was going on. She did great though! She thought Santa was really funny, and gave his beard a couple of good tugs to make sure he was the real deal.

Here's her picture, I have to apologize for the quality. It cost eleventy billion dollars to buy the digital copy, so I just got a couple of prints and took pictures of those. Apparently $20 does not equal good printing quality nowadays. But she had fun and it was fun for us too!

Tata-giving *

2009-12-03T12:57:00.000-08:00

Maddie's first Thanksgiving was a blur of crying and tired parents, but this year was much different! My parents decided to rent a house in the mountains for a family Thanksgiving vacation. We had SO much fun! Anyone that knows my family won't be surprised to hear that there was lots of ridiculousness and laughter. I have a seriously goofy family- and Maddie has definitely got the goofy gene!

We drove up on Wednesday and unpacked, relaxed and started making preparations for the big turkey day meal. Well ok, it was mostly mom doing that last part. On Thursday we hung out all day until it was time for the big meal at around 5 pm. It was absolutely delish, as usual, and it was extra special b/c there were crazy snow flurries the whole time we were eating! It's like the mountains knew that we were there for a special Thanksgiving dinner (gosh, those mountains are smart).

Where's my turkey?

On Friday, my sisters and I went to see New Moon (yup, I'm one of those- I LOVED it! So much better than Twilight). Then on Saturday morning we woke up and went to the tree farm to cut down a Christmas tree! This is one of my all time favorite Christmas traditions. It's fun going to a tree lot too, but nothing beats picking your own and having it cut down fresh! It will be more fun when Maddie can walk though, b/c she wasn't too keen on being carried around for that long. Luckily the tree farm had a friendly dog, so Mads got to play with him for a little bit. Later that day we got to walk around Boone and do a little shopping while Mike and my dad went to see an App football game.

Maddie sized tree

Hey mom I want to get down and crawl in the dirt!

Awwww!

Maddie thoroughly enjoyed all of the extra attention she got from her aunts and grandparents over the holiday. She is such a social little bug, and she loved being passed around and begging everyone for a bite of their snacks. And of course she entertained everyone with all of her "tricks-" pointing to body parts, giving hugs and kisses, dancing and making monster noises. She was also fascinated by the fire, but was a good girl and never got too close.

Ready for some cold weather

It was such a wonderful long weekend, and it's a Thanksgiving that we won't soon forget.

*My mom keeps trying to make Maddie say "ta ta" for "thank you" and it drives me crazy. I'd rather us say "thank you" and if it comes out "ta ta" when she says it, that's fine. But I don't want my child to grow up thinking "ta ta" is an appropriate way of saying thanks, lol. For the record, Maddie loves saying "ta ta."

Poop Bites, Ketchup and Halloween Costumes

2009-10-26T11:51:00.001-07:00

We had a fun time at a Halloween party this weekend- some friends and I rented a shelter at Raleigh's big park downtown and we all brought our families to the kids could show off their cute costumes! It was an awesome park, it has a carousel, train and multiple playgrounds. Maddie had a great time with everyone, and Mike and I had fun talking to the other parents while we took turns chasing Maddie down.

My apologies to any of the babies that Maddie stole snacks and/or toys from- her lack of nap seemed to make her super hyper yesterday! I still don't understand how the child crawls across pavement like it's a soft mat. Maddie was giving kisses like they were going out of style yesterday- even to her friend Holly's bunny tail, lol!

Maddie had a great time on the carousel, although we had to wait about 5 minutes for it to start after we got on, so she was kind of over it before it began. Here is a video of her waiting on the carousel to start and one of her during the ride. I was hoping we'd be able to go on a train ride too, but it was late afternoon and Miss Mads was ready to head home.

In other news, I had a total cooking FAIL when I tried to make a toddler snack called broccoli bites for the party. I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong, but they came out looking like piles of mushy dog poop and Maddie almost barfed when I let her try one. The dogs seemed to like them ok.

I had planned on using those broccoli bites a few times this week for Maddie's meals, but since they were nothing short of disgusting, I bought some frozen organic broccoli mini quiches instead. Even though it looked much more appetizing than my poop bites, the smell almost made me vomit when I took it out of the microwave- probably should've guessed at that point that Maddie wasn't going to like it!

Of course, she didn't, but they were kind of expensive and I didn't want to waste it so I broke out the ketchup. That's right, I'm already bribing my 14.5 month old to eat with ketchup. But hey- it worked! She loved the ketchup and ate every single bite of that broccoli quiche. I'll just think of it as a broccoli quiche with a side of tomatoes (and sugar).

Daily dose of Vitamin D

2009-10-23T12:27:00.000-07:00

There is a great kid's park in Cary that we've been to a couple of times now, and we went this afternoon to enjoy this lovely warm October weather. Maddie decided to skip her morning nap completely, so I was a little apprehensive about taking her, but she actually did really well and had a lot of fun playing with her friends. We will be sad when it's too cold to go to the park every week!

Playing in the sand outside the little playhouse

Trying to figure out if she could climb up the slide
(the answer was no, thank goodness)

Hangin' out with Miss Holly. This was Holly's first time
playing in sand and she thought it was pretty gross!

Climbing the big hill as fast as she could

Look how far I made it Mom!

Trying to climb up the dragon (the child can't walk
yet, but she wants to climb everything!)

A Whole Lotta Happy

2009-10-22T17:48:00.001-07:00

We've had such a busy week! Now that Maddie is feeling good again, we have been out and about. On Tuesday we went to Marbles, which is an awesome kid's museum in Raleigh. I liked it so much the first time we visited that we bought a membership. It's great to have something we can always do on a rainy or cold day, and Marbles is so cool that it can easily keep a toddler entertained for 2 hours- and anyone that has spent any time with a 15 month old knows that's no easy feat!

On Tuesday we went with Maddie's BFF Jack. They always have fun playing together (or at least beside each other) and Jack's mom Ashley and I enjoy having some adult interaction! Here's a cute picture of the two of them playing in a space chair. They loved pushing the buttons and making things light up and talk. And yes, they are wearing capes. What else would an astronaut be wearing?

They also really loved the water table,
although they are a tiny bit too short to reach. Maddie managed
to get herself pretty wet splashing anyway.
Enjoying the dress up clothes- don't tell Jack's dad that he loved his tutu!

On Wednesday we went to the NC State Fair. It's a pretty big deal in Raleigh. At the state fair, you can buy anything in the world deep fat fried. Oreos, pickles, cheeseburgers- you name it, they deep fat fry it. That's my kind of fair.

But we mainly went to let the kiddos have some fun- which they did! Maddie was a trooper, as we were there from 12-5 and this baby does NOT nap in her stroller like most normal babies. She was SO SO tired by the end of the day, as was her mommy- it's a big fair, and I did a lot of stroller pushing and baby holding.

It was worth it though, we had so much fun. We got to go on 5 rides, and Maddie absolutley loved them. Even when she was cranky later on in the day, she would get so excited and giddy the moment each ride started. I think her favorite ride was a fire truck that swung around in a big circle. She had fun playing with her friends Henry and Jack, and she even got to hang out with another Maddie for a while.

We met up with our friends at a water fountain-
Maddie was immediately impressed, she just loves water!

Along the path was a kid-sized talking horse. All the
kiddos thought this was super cool. His name was Horace.

Enjoying the rides! It was hard to hold on to her
and take pictures at the same time!

Trying Mommy's cotton candy- hey, it's the fair, anything goes!
Needless to say, she LOVED the cotton candy.
Hence the blue stains all over her face!

Mommy and Maddie on the Ferris Wheel! Maddie
insisted on standing up the whole time. She very smartly
clung to the wheel in the middle though- not that
Mommy let go of her for a second!

It was a long day, but one I will remember for a long time. I think we'll have to make it a yearly tradition, and I'm sure I'll look back on this year longingly when Maddie was too young to beg for more ride tickets or stuffed animal prizes. Maybe they should change the state fair motto from "a whole lotta happy" to "a whole lotta exhaustion!"

Zoo again!

2009-10-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

Last week was a rough week for Miss Mads, she was the sickest that she has ever been. 2 weekends ago we ended up at Urgent Care after she had a fever that wasn't coming down with Tylenol and all sorts of gross stuff was coming out both ends. They treated her for the flu, although I'm not convinced that she didn't just have a stomach virus- she was also congested and coughing, but the stomach issues seemed to be giving her the most trouble. She was quite pitiful and only wanted to sit on Mommy's lap and cuddle for a few days- poor baby! I thoroughly enjoyed the cuddling, but not so much the sickness.

Here she is getting some diaper free time b/c of her awful rash-
but all she wanted to do was lay down! So sad.

After a week of cuddles and medicine though, she was back up and running- well at least crawling very fast :). So we went ahead with our planned trip to the NC Zoo! Unfortunately Maddie chose to skip her morning nap instead of taking it in the car on the way to the zoo. So she was quite cranky, and since the animals weren't being particularly interesting (what, is it too much to ask that the elk do a little musical number for the kids?) she didn't have a great time.

Are we having fun yet?

Unimpressed with the animals

One thing she loved, though, was her first ride on a carousel. We wisely chose to skip the stationary animals and put Maddie on a polar bear. She's a daredevil. Her face lit up like it was Christmas morning when the carousel started up, and she cried when it stopped and we took her off. Mike and I are very hopeful that this is a sign that Maddie is a future roller coaster lover.

Yay!

After meandering through the North America side of the zoo, we met up with some friends for a picnic lunch, which was fun. Maddie was pretty good until we wouldn't let her play with goose poop or ant hills, and she remembered that she was absolutely exhausted. So we made a quick exit and she slept the whole way home!

Sorry the pictures are such a crappy quality. Bad Mommy forgot both cameras so we had to stop and get a disposable on the way to the zoo. We have a busy schedule this week, including Maddie's first trip to the State Fair, so be on the lookout for updates!

Pumpkin pickin' 2009

2009-10-09T17:43:00.000-07:00

We went to Hill Ridge Farms for the 3rd year in a row to go for a nice fall hay ride and pick out some lovely pumpkins. Although when you're taking a 1 year old to a pumpkin patch, it's really all about the photo ops. There is a TON of stuff to do at Hill Ridge Farms (if you're in the Raleigh area, you should go- they are Mike's client!), most of which is too old for Mads, but she had a blast anyway. I mean, she definitely enjoyed it more than last year :P.

I thought it would be fun to see how much she's changed in a year, so here are two comparison pics- she looks like such a BIG girl now!

We did not intentionally push her head down onto a pumpkin for the sake of comparison, she fell over...however my mom did take the opportunity to snap a pic before she helped her up, lol!

Daddy and Maddie- what a difference! And I swear it was a REALLY hot day in October last year- these pictures of my 2 month old wearing nothing but a onesie are driving the judgmental mom in me crazy.

Onto this year! The first thing we did was check out the animals. There were lots of goats, some chickens and a llama. They were all quite friendly and vocal, so Maddie thought that was pretty cool. She starts squeaking whenever she sees a live animal- guess she thinks she's speaking their language.

Next Daddy took her down the giiiiiant slide. She liked it, but was pretty nonchalant- she's ready to move onto something scarier like a roller coaster. Here's a link to the video.

Next we saw some bunnies, which were cute but a little scary- the sign said if you stuck your fingers in, the bunnies would think they were carrots and bite them. So we didn't stay there for too long. While we were waiting for the tractor, we played in the hay jump, which Maddie thought was pretty fun. And she posed for a picture- although she had to look directly at the sun, so maybe not the best time of day for that photo op.

Then we went on the hay ride, where Maddie flirted and talked to anyone that would look at her- she is such a friendly girl! At the end of the ride we arrived at the pumpkin patch and each picked out a pumpkin- well ok, we took a ton of pictures, made Maddie mad by trying to make her smile instead of just letting her crawl around, and then quickly grabbed some pumpkins before the hay ride left without us.

All in all it was a really fun day! It was so nice out and we were glad that Momo was in Raleigh to join us.

If you really love me...

2009-09-27T14:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, no making fun for being one of "those" parents, but the fan favorite of this contest gets a really awesome vacation. And while Mike and I are super excited about spending our 5th anniversary in Raleigh next year, we wouldn't mind spending it in Jamaica either :). You can vote every day through Nov. 17th! Click on the cuteness to vote.
So yes, I am basically pimping out my kid's cuteness to try and get a free vacation. What's your point?

First haircut!

2009-09-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Maddie got her first haircut today! I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about it yet (that's :) or :( in the blog world I guess). I think it will look a lot better once it grows out now, b/c it's all even. But I miss my baby's long hair!

Maddie did great. She got to sit in a tractor, and they had a huge video collection (that's right- video! they are old school) that we got to pick from so she could have a distraction. We chose an Elmo sing along tape, which may not have been the best option b/c Maddie really likes to dance and wiggle her head to music. But the stylist has clearly cut a 13 month old's hair before and was done in 2 minutes flat, so it wasn't too big of a deal that Maddie had trouble sitting still.

We decided not to touch her bangs, b/c we want those to grow out, but the back was a hot mess and most of the time it looked like she had a rat tail. So the stylist evened it out and made it into a little bob, which is pretty adorable.

After the haircut, Maddie got to taste her first lollipop. But then Mommy realized she didn't want Maddie to have it in the car, where she'd probably either choke on it or stick it in her hair. So Mommy took it away and that made Maddie veeeery sad. At least she had fun during the haircut! And her mean, mean Mommy thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the grape lollipop on the way home. Hey- I deserve it for being such an awesome blog updater, right?

I'm learning that quiet usually equals trouble...

2009-09-21T17:36:00.001-07:00

Maddie loves to crawl around and explore the house now, and we are *usually* right with her all the time. But the house is child-proofed, and we keep all of the doors closed, so if she crawls out of sight for a few seconds, it's usually not a big deal.

On Sunday, Maddie pitter pattered off into the hallway, where we assumed all the doors were closed as usual. Guess one wasn't closed all the way though, and after a minute or so I noticed that the house was suspiciously babble-free. Since it was unlikely that Maddie was playing quietly in the hall by herself, we jumped up and there she was- sitting in the bathroom pulling toilet paper off the roll!

She's been eyeing that toilet paper a lot lately, I bet she was thrilled to find a way in and check it out. Luckily we got to her before she made too much of a mess! I imagine we're in for many more "surprises" around here in the next few years :).

No way is this kid one year old already...

2009-09-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

1 year picture from Hammett Photography-
check out the rest of these adorable pics here! If you
click on this picture to make it big, you can just baaaarely
see her first little tooth poking out :).

Ok, ok. I'm a lame blog updater- to say the least. I noticed myself looking back at old posts lately, trying to remember specific dates and ages of milestones that have already faded from my memory. This has inspired me to try once again to get back into blogging. I know I'll be glad I did it- Maddie is growing so fast and it's hard to remember the day to day stuff for very long.

SO! Miss Maddie Grace is 13.5 months old- for you non parents, that means she's 1. I never understood until recently why parents insisted on using months instead of years after 12 months- but I guess it's b/c a 13 month old is totally different from a 15 month old, a 15 month old is totally different from an 18 month old, etc. The point being, they are still changing so fast at this age!

Maddie decided to start crawling about 4 days before her first birthday. Guess she heard she was almost one and decided she wanted to be a mobile one year old! She is a little speed demon now. Just in the last week or two she has started pulling up on everything in sight, which has been a huge detriment to her naps, but she's having a blast. I was dreading having a mobile baby, but it's actually awesome. We've childproofed, and Maddie is so much happier now that she can crawl around and explore things. She plays much better independently now, although she still likes when Mommy and Daddy play on the floor with her better.

She switched over to table food around 11 months, and although she STILL doesn't have any teeth to speak of (her first one appeared at about 13 months but it's taking it's time growing all the way out), she is a GREAT eater. She has clearly inherited her Daddy's taste buds, hallelujah, and we are doing all we can to encourage that. Other than occasional slips into toddler "picky mode," she will generally eat absolutely anything we put in front of her. And we've now tried eggs, peanut butter, shell fish and strawberries- not allergic to any of them! Hooray! When she turned one, we switched from bottles of formula to sippy cups of milk- and Maddie LOVES her milk.

Maddie has been a BUSY little bee for the last few months. She was Christened by her Uncle Jim in Charlotte in a wonderful ceremony with lots of family and friends. We travelled to Richmond for Laura and Daniel's wedding, where Maddie stayed with a "stranger" babysitter for the first time- she did great! She has been to the Greenville Zoo a couple of times, which she loved (girl loves animals- especially dogs!). She took 6 weeks of swim lessons and she's a total fish- even likes being dunked underwater. We've been to 2 super fun kids museums and she even visited the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte. And a couple of weeks ago, Maddie had her first vacation- a week at the grandparent's house in SC (and Mommy got to relax! woohoo!).

So I think that's all the major stuff that's happened in the last few months! Maddie had a great birthday party in SC on 8/8/09, and she even got to meet her sweet cousin Faith, my Uncle Dan's new baby. It is SO much fun to see more and more personality emerge from her each day. She is absolutely HILARIOUS and I rarely go more than a few minutes without cracking up from her latest antics. She isn't talking yet, but babbles up a storm. She also understands a lot, and communicates her needs pretty well too. I'm finding late babyhood/early toddlerhood to be much easier as a parent than infancy. Maybe a little more physically tiring, but not nearly as emotionally tiring or frustrating. Plus, there's a lot to be said for sleeping all the way through the night!

Maddie gives hugs and kisses when we ask, and even sweeter is when she gives kisses unprompted- usually while she is sitting in my lap while we watch tv, read a book, or sing songs. She is very friendly and loves when anyone gives her attention- whether it's family or a stranger in the Target line. She loves music and dancing (My name is Maddie! I like to dance!), and will stop whatever she is doing if a Stanley Steamer or Empire commercial comes on. Her favorite songs are "You Are My Sunshine," "Twinkle Twinkle," "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Jesus Loves Me." Her favorite books right now are "Goodnight Moon," "Moo Baa La La La" and "Daddy and Maddie (a book I made Mike for Father's day with their pictures in it)."

Her most recent "stats" from her 12 month appointment show that she's still a shrimp- although my aching arms and back make it hard for me to think of her as a little baby anymore! She was about 18.5 lbs and 28.5". We'll be going back Monday for her first flu shot- poor kid!

9.5 month picture- Laura Brett Photography

Thus begins attempt #532 at being a regular blogger!

First trip to the zoo!

2009-05-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago we took Maddie for her first trip to the zoo. The Asheboro Zoo is split up into 2 parts- North America and Africa. It's a very spread out zoo, so we decided to do Africa in the morning and then see what happened after lunch. It was the end of April, but the high was over 90 degrees that day! So needless to say, we got moving early and were at the zoo (about 2 hours away) a little before 10.

There were lots of animals out, and the zoo wasn't too crowded, so that was nice. However, Maddie didn't care a thing about looking at the animals. She thought the viewing machines were extra cool though- she wanted to eat them, which is high praise in Maddie's book. She also enjoyed looking around at all the people. We were amazed at how well behaved she was, b/c we were strapping her in and out of her stroller every 5 minutes, and she skipped her morning nap.

After we were done looking through Africa, we met up with some friends and their babies for a picnic lunch just outside the zoo gates, and it was a lot of fun! There were scary geese trying to get our food, and those suckers were aggressive, but we managed to keep them from eating Maddie.

We headed back into the park after lunch with the intentions of taking a tram over to the North America side to see the polar bears, but the tram line was at least 50 people deep. The walk to the other side was estimated at 40 minutes, and Maddie had already passed out asleep in her stroller, so we decided Africa was probably enough for her first visit and headed out. I can't wait for next year when she will be excited to see all the animals!

National Champs 2009!

2009-05-13T07:57:00.000-07:00

I think we know who the Tarheels really have to thank for their phenomenal season. I'm just sayin'....Maddie was born, then they had an awesome year. We're waiting on our thank you card, Mr. Hansbrough.

Bow ties are better than chocolate

2009-05-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

Maddie had a fun first Easter. We went to church, where she continued her usual pattern of hating being left in the nursery. This time we were not "beeped" to come check on her, but it turns out they tried and our beeper just didn't work. Poor Mads. She is just not too sure about this nursery thing.

The week before Easter we attended an Easter Egg Hunt (Maddie was just SO excited to look for Easter eggs), mainly for the photo ops. What good is a baby if you can't take lots of silly pictures that they won't remember? We had fun though, it was a nice day and Maddie was very well behaved. Here are some of my faves:

I'm ready for some fun Dad!

Rockstar

Hey look, I found an egg all by myself. With no
help from my parents at all.
This bunny thing is kinda creepy looking- guess
I'll just taste his bow tie.
Easter is fun!!!

Sitting up!

2009-05-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

I think the last time I posted, I was lamenting about Maddie still not sitting up. Of course, as soon as I wrote that, she started sitting a few days later. I guess maybe she reads the blog and wanted to prove me wrong. Here's her first official sitting picture, when she was a few days shy of 8 months:

It's taken her a while, but now at 9 months she's a pretty good sitter. She was still tipping over quite a bit for that first month, but she's getting the hang of balancing now. Although we do still usually have a pillow behind her, just in case!

Now that Maddie is sitting well, she's graduated to a "big girl" bathub (it even quacks!) and a portable high chair that is great for when we're eating out. She loves her new bathtub and also loves sitting right at the table with her mom and dad.

I won't lie though, I miss those days when we'd take her in her carseat and she'd fall asleep mid-meal. Or if she got hungry, I could just feed her a bottle and be done. Now she wants to be entertained and gets quite indignant if we even think about eating our food without sharing some with her. This girl LOVES to eat! (I swear she isn't drunk in this pic)

So we've conquered sitting, and although she was on the late side, she was still in the normal range. I'm really enjoying having a sitting, but non-mobile baby. I know that crawling, standing and cruising are coming up, but I'm in no hurry!

WAY behind!

2009-05-13T07:33:00.001-07:00

Once again, I find myself behind in my attempts to blog all our latest happenings. So instead of doing one big mega post, I'm going to try and do a few posts to catch up on the last few weeks. Here goes!

Etsy Easter Egg Hunt

2009-04-04T11:28:00.001-07:00

As many of you know, I am slightly addicted to the site etsy.com. It's a website that sells homemade goods, crafts, toys, clothing- pretty much anything you can think of. It's a wonderful place to go for unique gifts and purchases, and the coolest thing about etsy is that you are in direct contact with the person making the item you're buying- so in most cases you can completely customize anything you buy. Good for a control freak such as myself.

Anyway, the ACE team on etsy is having an Easter Egg Hunt contest. 21 local NC shops are participating, you just visit their stores online and try and find the hidden eggs. If you can find at least 10 of the 21 eggs, you can enter to win some fun prizes from the shops. And it's a great way just to check out some local etsy shops. Here's the link to the contest: ACE Blog. Happy Hunting! I'll let you know if I win anything :).

Time for an update!

2009-03-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

It's been awhile! My port surgery went well, I was pretty sore for a few days but it was actually much easier recovery than I remembered. My mom was a huge help, she came up and stayed with us here for a few days, and then Maddie and I travelled to SC to stay with her and my dad for a week so I could have a little break from full time baby duty while I recovered. Mike missed us both, but luckily he had March Madness to distract him.

Maddie had her first cold while I was recovering- it was so pitiful! She didn't actually get that sick, she just had a really stuffy nose for about a week. She did have a little fever one night, but it went down quickly with some Tylenol. Even though it (thankfully) did not develop into anything serious, we did have to endure many days of saline drops and the nasal aspirator to keep her clear enough to eat- and that was not a fun task. Maddie is NOT a fan and doesn't hesitate to let you know. On what was probably the worst night, she ended up sleeping in her carseat in her crib to keep her head elevated so she could breathe. Hey, whatever works!

But that's over now, we're home and life is back to normal! Maddie took a little break from solids when she was sick (and immediately got constipated again) but now she's back on track. She is proving to be way too much like her mommy when it comes to veggies. So far the only vegetable she will consistently eat is a sweet potato. We will keep trying them and hopefully she will get used to them, but right now she tends to spit them in my face. She's a bit more adventurous with fruits (although she doesn't really like apples- what a weirdo!). Pears are by far her fave, although she won't hesitate to gobble down some blueberries or banana.

She also loves pretty much anything you put in her mesh feeder, so far I've tried ice, green apples, red apples, blueberries and black beans. For snacking, and practicing feeding herself, she loves puffs and Mum-mums. I let her feed herself some table foods if I think she won't choke on them, and so far she seems to like that- although WOW what a mess! Baths are becoming more and more frequent.

Maddie still isn't sitting up unsupported, but I think she's getting really close now. I haven't gotten a pic or video of it yet, I'll have to do that soon. I think she's going to be really late to walk too, b/c she still doesn't put any weight on her feet if you try to stand her up. But I've decided that it's fine with me- just means I'll be able to enjoy having a non-mobile baby a little bit longer than most people!

Here are some new videos I took recently:
Eating a pickle at Bruggers- eeewww (she liked it, I thought it was gross)!
Eating a slice of avocado- she loved it! And officially become a professional mess maker

When I was in SC, my mom and I had a dress making competition to see who could make Maddie the cutest dress. We went the easy route (good for me b/c I've never made any clothing before!) and bought t-shirts at Target. Then we just made the skirts and ironed on a cut out design. I think mom won the contest, but I'm very proud of my first dress too :). We both made them a little too short, so the search is on for matching bloomers I guess!

Mom's dress

My dress

Videos galore!

2009-03-04T18:03:00.000-08:00

Mike got me this for my birthday (well, birthday/Valentine's day, that's why I already have it!) and I've been going crazy making videos of Miss Mads. I'm going to include some links for the videos I've uploaded to You Tube (see end of post for links).

Maddie has gotten so much better in the last couple of weeks with her head/body control. She still isn't sitting up on her own, but she's getting close and she can sit up well enough for us to put her in shopping carts and high chairs when we go out.

She figured out how to make a "buh" sound in the last couple days, and she can't seem to get enough of it. It is SO cute! I can't believe my little tiny baby is on her way to talking. I have a feeling she's going to be quite the chatterbox :).

We had another snow (pretty, but I am SO ready for warm weather!) and Maddie was much happier about being outside in the cold this time. Here's my favorite pic of her in the snow this time, plus I'm including the picture of last time for contrast, lol! I also have to include the picture of her wearing this same hat the day after she was born- she has finally grown into it!

Mike and I took her to the doctor last Saturday b/c she was being very fussy, screaming when we put her in her crib (very unlike her), letting me rock her to sleep (also very unlike her) and pulling on her ear a lot, so we thought she might have an ear infection. Turns out she did not, but they weighed her and she was 14 lb 7 oz! That's only 2 weeks after her 6 month appointment when she weighed 13 lb 10 oz. Quite the gain in 2 weeks! Guess those solids are packing on the pounds.

Speaking of solids, feeding them to Maddie has been nothing short of hilarious. So far we've given her oatmeal (likes it), sweet potatoes (loves them- her favorite food), avocados (hates them), carrots (likes them), peas (doesn't like them), pears (loves them), apples (likes them) and green beans (hates them). We've got to work on those green veggies, it looks like she's got her mommy's taste buds right now.

I am having surgery to replace my portacath on Tuesday, so my mom will be coming up to Raleigh to help me take care of Maddie for the rest of that week (I don't think I'll be able to pick her up for a while b/c of soreness). Then Maddie and I will be headed back down to Greenville with mom for about a week and a half, so she can continue to help while I heal. Mike is already so sad about spending such a long time away from Mads (and me....but mostly Mads, lol!), but I think he will enjoy watching the ACC tourney in peace and he will be coming down to Greenville for my birthday weekend. And since we'll be in Greenville on the 22nd, we'll have free babysitters and can go out for my birthday! Then mom and I will be seeing Legally Blonde (SO EXCITED!) on the 24th before I head back up to Raleigh.

Guess that's enough info for one update! Enjoy the pics and videos and I'll be sure to update when Maddie has her 7 month appt next week with her gigantic height and weight!

Video links:
Maddie laughing/being silly this is my fave!

Watching Baby Einstein #1 she LOVES the puppets on these videos

Watching Baby Einstein #2 gets very excited when watching this

Trying to eat non-pureed apple FAIL

In the snow she loved the snowflakes hitting her face!

In her jumper this was after she had been in it for about 10 minutes, so she was starting to lean, lol

Sweet potatoes for my sweet potato!

2009-02-18T09:31:00.000-08:00

Maddie tried her first "real" food today- homemade organic sweet potatoes! Or technically, yams, b/c I couldn't find any organic sweet potatoes at the store. And I thought yams were the same thing. Google says they are not, but wholesomebabyfood.com says that they are the same thing in the US. So we're pretty sure she ate sweet potatoes.

Whatever they were- she loved them!

6 months old!

2009-02-09T12:50:00.000-08:00

HOW IN THE WORLD CAN MY LITTLE BABY BE 6 MONTHS OLD ALREADY?!?!

6 month stats:
Height: 24.75 inches, 25th%
Weight: 13 lb 9.5 oz, 10th%
Head: 41.5 cm, 25th %

Mom and I took Maddie for her 6 month appt today! All in all, it went very well. The pedi is a little concerned about her gross motor skills (sitting up, rolling both ways, putting weight on feet, etc), but said that we'll give her until her 9 month appt to catch up before she'll want to do anything about it. If she's still struggling with these skills at 9 months, we'll probably be starting some physical therapy to work on her strength. She's meeting all of her language, behavioral/emotional and fine motor skills just fine.

We also got a referral to see a cranial something or other specialist in Chapel Hill to see if she needs to wear one of these beautiful helmets. B/c Maddie only liked to look to the left for the first few months of her life, the left side of her head is quite flat in the back. The pedi said it's not the worst she's seen, but it was bad enough that she thinks we should get a specialist's opinion about it. Mommy has heard that these helmets are quite pricey, so she's thinking we might just pray that Maddie gets her Daddy's thick hair to cover up that flat spot. But if we have to end up getting one, let's just hope they come in pink!

She did well with her shot and we got the green light to do solids! The pedi said she only needs to oatmeal for 1 week before she starts trying solids since we waited til 6 months. She wants Maddie to have no more than 2 solid meals a day until her 9 month appt though, b/c she already drinks the bare minimum of formula and she doesn't want her losing any more calories.

We did give her oatmeal yesterday on her half-birthday, and it was pretty funny! Here's a video for the die-hard Maddie fans (it's over 3 minutes long) and some pictures if you're short on time :). As you can probably tell from the pics, she was very sleepy! She probably only ate a half teaspoon of oatmeal, but she seemed to like it ok.

I'm sure I'll have more entertaining pics to come when we try sweet potatoes next week!

UNC vs. Maryland, part 1

2009-02-03T18:54:00.000-08:00

Final score: UNC-108, MD-91

Sorry Maryland...

Don't mess with the Tarheels!

This is such a cute picture of Maddie that I'm going to ignore my giant nostril. Such are the sacrifices of a mother.

Tag, You're It!

2009-01-28T13:41:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by my hilarious friend Sonya, so here goes!

I am: looking forward to eating at Hibachi Express for dinner tonight. Double chicken special- $4.75, regularly $8.50!!! Man, I lead an exciting life.

I know: that I'm such a typical first time mom. I still ride in the backseat with Maddie, my parents are the only ones who have ever babysat her, I can't sleep at night if there is something soft in her crib, I am going to make all of her baby food. But you know what- I am a first time mom! So I will worry and be overly cautious as much as I want :P.

I won:a Goosebumps t-shirt from a bookstore when I was in middle school. It's kind of sad that I remember that, but I think it's seriously the only thing I've ever won. Now that I think about it, I really need to start playing the lottery. I'm totally due for a big win.

I have: the most perfect family! I have a great husband who is always willing to help me, no matter how tired he is, a perfect little daughter who cracks me up every day, and two sweet dogs who have patiently adjusted to not being the center of attention anymore. I couldn't ask for anything better!

I hate: vegetables. I really really hate them. I WANT to like them. People think you're weird when you won't eat a salad. But they really truly make me gag, and I just really hope that I can trick Mads into liking them before she notices that Mommy never eats them.

I miss: my parents. I hate living so far away from them, especially now that I have a baby. As soon as I win the aforementioned lottery, we are so moving in next door.

I feel: a little sleepy. We tried letting Maddie go to sleep last night when she wanted to- which was at 6:30. We were hoping it would help her sleep better, but it didn't. And then she wanted to wake up for the day at 5 am. Bleh.

I hear: rain and wind. Holy crap, a monsoon just started outside. I'm a little worried about our house being blown down! Ok not really. But it does make me wonder what people did during monsoons back in like the 1700s. I mean their houses had to be pretty crappy back then, right? Did they have to rebuild stuff after every major storm? That would be so annoying.

I smell: a delicious cupcake. B/c that is what I'm eating right now, a red velvet cupcake with almond buttercream frosting. Jealous, aren't you?

I crave: Hibachi Express! And who wouldn't, on double chicken special night?

I search: with Google. Isn't it funny that our kids won't remember a life without Google? Not funny haha....you know what I mean.

I love: my baby girl's smile! It is physically impossible not to smile back at her when she flashes that big gummy grin.

I care: a lot less about what other people think than I used to. I guess that's a good thing. I mean not to be rude, but there are a lot of idiots out there! Sheesh.

I always: chew my food with even amounts on both sides of my mouth. How's that for random?

I believe: that people shouldn't be so easily offended by strangers or people they don't know well. Who cares?

I sing: to Maddie all day long- girl LOVES when people sing to her. I'm pretty sure she's going to be the season 35 American Idol winner. I can tell from her screeching that she's going to be a fabulous soprano.

I write: things down in little notebooks all the time. I know that is probably very behind the times, but I enjoy my little notebooks and have no desire for a blackberry or similar electronic note keeping device.

I lose: Maddie's socks almost every day. Girl will not keep a sock on her foot.

I never: understand how someone can hate or judge a whole group of people. I realize that there's usually some truth behind negative stereotypes, but why not look for the exception rather than assuming the worst?

I listen: to Michael Buble and it makes me happy. That man has an amazing voice!

I am scared of: Maddie growing up and losing her innocence. Realizing that the world isn't perfect and knowing that she will be hurt, both physically and emotionally at some point in her life.

I need: SOME HIBACHI EXPRESS! Is it 7 yet?

I am happy: even when I'm grumpy and tired. Life is pretty great.

I'll tag my friend Christina. I love reading her blog about her sweet little girl who is a year older than Maddie. I'll refrain from putting a link here though unless she's ok with it!

But I'm a big girl!

2009-01-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Despite Maddie being a lot more tolerant of being held lately, she is still an independent little thing. She really likes to hold her own bottle- I mean gosh mom, I'm 5.5 months old, do you really think I need help feeding myself??

If she's awake when we are eating dinner, she sits in her highchair and mimics us chewing food. I think someone is ready to start solids! We are going to wait until at least 6 months though- Maddie has had lots of stomach issues so we want to make sure her little digestive system is ready for big girl food!

Disclaimer: This picture was taken for entertainment purposes only. Despite Maddie being ready to feed herself most of the time, Mommy is not ready for this quite yet. We still hold her and feed her 100% of the time!

Snow Day!

2009-01-20T06:47:00.000-08:00

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning- for once the NC weathermen (or should I say weatherpeople? I can't think of any female weather people in our market though) were correct! It's rare for snow to cover the grass around here, much less the roads.

We couldn't miss the opportunity to take Maddie outside to see her first snow. She doesn't have any kind of snowsuit, so instead I dressed her in leggings, a long sleeved onesie, socks, footed fleece pajamas, fleece lined jeans, fleece jacket and a hat. She wasn't too pleased that getting dressed took so long- and she really wasn't happy when we took her out of the warm house and let snow fall on her face! Maddie isn't a fan of anything bright or cold- so we probably could've predicted her reaction to the snow. Here's a quick video of the first time we took her outside. And the two pictures we managed to take before she completely arched herself out of her Bumbo seat. Oh well, hopefully we'll have snow again in the next couple of years when she'll be able to play and enjoy it!

As for the rest of the family, Mike did have to go into work, and said the roads were actually a little worse than he was expecting. There was some definite sliding going on. The snow isn't supposed to melt until tomorrow, so we're hoping he'll get to come home a little early. Ginger loves the snow- she likes to eat it, and will stay outside all day if we let her, munching on her own personal all you can eat snow buffet. Mia had to be "convinced (pushed)" to go out in the snow, but once she got out there she decided that it didn't taste too bad, so they've had a fun morning frolicking and getting nice and wet and stinky. As for me, I'm staying inside, drinking hot chocolate and enjoying the pretty view from the window!

Adventures at Harris Teeter

2009-01-15T11:59:00.001-08:00

I decided to try taking Maddie to the grocery store today. This is only the 2nd time I've taken her. The first time, she was so little that she slept in the sling the whole time. After that, she was too colicky to ever consider taking her again, but I decided that she's been so great lately that I'd try it today.

There is no good answer on what to do with a baby that can't sit up in the grocery store. If you put them in a carrier, there's the chance that they'll get squirmy and start screaming/crying (that chance might be a little higher when the baby in question is Maddie). If you put their carseat in the main part of the buggy (that's right, buggy...I'm from NC), there is no room for groceries. If you snap the carseat onto the top of the buggy, it looks very precarious and if you're short like me you won't be able to see over it at all. However, last time I was at HT I noticed that they have buggies with built in infant seats. Genius! So I decided that was the perfect solution.

I bundled Maddie up in fleece foot pj's and a sweatsuit (it's COLD out there!) and when we got to the store, I parked far away so that I was right next to a buggy return to make it easy after shopping. I got Maddie out of her carseat and dashed to the front of the store with Maddie, her blanket, my cloth grocery bags, and my diaper bag all in tow. When I reached the store however, I realized that there were only about 6 of the aforementioned buggies, and they were all buried in lines of carts about 15 deep. Sigh.

I grabbed a nearby employee, and explained to him that I needed a buggy for the baby, letting my full arms indicate that I couldn't get one out myself. He shot me a confused look and reached for a nearby regular buggy. I stopped him, and let him know that Maddie can't sit up alone yet, and that I needed a cart from across the way, one with a carseat built in. He then walked across to another row of buggies, and again tried to offer me a regular one. At this point, I am wondering if he speaks English, as he has still not uttered one word, looks very confused, and continues to offer me the wrong thing. He finally understood that I needed a special buggy, and looked very annoyed as he started pulling out other buggies to get to it.

10 minutes later (and yes, we are still outside in the cold and sun- it is a true miracle that Maddie is not screaming her head off at this point), we have a buggy with a built in infant seat. I slung a blanket over it for germs and we were good to go. Maddie did pretty well in the store, until Mommy couldn't find the wine she was looking for. I guess I was taking too long, b/c she started shrieking. And these were good ones too, I'm surprised no bottles shattered. You know in a horror movie, when the bad guy pops out of the dark? That's the kind of scream I'm talking about here. So we decided that wine was something that Daddy could pick up later, and headed for the checkout.

All in all, a decent visit! By the time we got home, she was tuckered out from the adventure. I think next time I may try her Baby Bjorn if there are no buggies with infant seats readily available. Or perhaps I'll just continue shopping on the weekends until she can sit up!

Everything else is going well. Maddie was 12 lb 11 oz at her 5 month shots appt! She's getting some chunky little thighs, it's very adorable. We have switched to all formula, and unfortunately that's caused some major constipation, resulting in much crying, straining, and not sleeping. But we're trying ever remedy in the book to get that cleared up quickly so we can enjoy our happy little girl!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Maddie is almost 5 months old! This past month flew by, as we were busy with Christmas and family fun. Maddie got to meet a lot of her extended family over Christmas, and she did really well despite all the noise and excitement. The Humphries family gathering is always one of my favorite days of the year, and this year didn't disappoint. Everyone kindly travelled down to Greenville so that Mike and I wouldn't have to make an extra trip (we were already in Greenville for the week). Lots of delish food, catching up and a very funny giftcard exchange. Everyone marvelled at Mom's awesome thousand foot tree, and Maddie had her picture taken a lot.

After just one too many pictures, lol!!!

The rest of the week was spent hanging out with my family, and it was great. Mike and I never understand how such a long trip goes by so quickly! Sarah got Rock Band for Christmas, and knew she was getting it, so we instituted a new "open a present on Christmas Eve" tradition, and all got to play Rock Band together on Christmas Eve, lol! Mike's pretty sure he's going to become a professional drummer now. We opened presents Christmas morning, and Maddie got lots of cute presents and books. She especially loved her Sophie Giraffe, although look how suprised she was to get stacking rings, lol!

After opening presents, we loaded up the car and headed to Lumberton to see Mike's extended family. Then we brought his mom back to Raleigh for a few days, and she loved spending time with the baby.

This past month, Maddie has really grown up a lot! The difference in her temperament is just amazing. She now pretty much only cries if she's hungry or tired, and we no longer have long afternoons of screaming inconsolably. She's almost always happy and grinning and squealing when she's awake. We can even go in the car and run errands without expecting a meltdown! Her new favorite noise to make is squealing/shrieking/screaming. For about a week, it was the only noise she'd make. Now, fortunately for our ears and glassware, she only does it a couple dozen times a day. Here's a video of her favorite noise....although this really doesn't do it justice. It's much more shrill in person, lol.

We finally took the infant headrest out of her carseat today! It made me sad, she looked like such a big girl in there! But I can't say I'll miss those first 3 months. I have some great memories, sure, but colicky baby= one stressed out mommy. I'm loving this stage we're in now though- she's still not mobile, but she's happy and very interactive. I'm looking forward to crawling, walking, etc, but I know I'll definitely miss these days!

We had some family pictures done right before Christmas by Lux Photography, and it was such a great experience! We had a great time and although I think Maddie only smiled twice the entire two hours, they still got some great pictures. Here's my fave- it's the only one of Maddie crying but it's just so her, lol! And a link to all of my favorites- sorry, I had a lot of favorites.

We have our 5 month shots appt next Thursday, so I can't wait to see how much my little peanut weighs now!

4 months old!

2008-12-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

Stats:
Weight: 11 lbs 12 oz (10th %)
Height: 23.25 in (20th %)
Head: 39.5 cm (15th %)
Loves:
Monkey rattle
Activity mat
Bouncy seat
TV (Yikes! Taking after mom and dad already... trying not to let her watch it yet)
Minky blanket
Eating
People singing to her
Hates:
Swing
Tummy time
Getting out of the bath
Being strapped into the carseat
Riding in the car
Being held for a long time (she's getting better, but is still not a cuddly baby- very independent!)
Cold hands

I chose to put loves and hates instead of likes and dislikes b/c Maddie is very opinionated. She is generally either very happy or very mad (or very sleepy which leads to very mad).

Time for a much overdue blog update. Today my little girl is 4 months old!!! I can't believe 4 months have already gone by...and at the same time, I feel like I've been a mom forever now. Maddie is really starting to interact with us a lot, which is so rewarding. And the colic seems to be starting to go away too, which makes Mom and Dad VERY happy! She still has her days, and by no means is a laid back baby, but she now has entire days without meltdown hours long screaming fests- so there's improvement :). She's even started enjoying sitting in her bouncer some, which is nice- still no luck with the swing though.

She is just the smiliest little girl in town in the mornings, and loves to smile almost as much as she loves to cry- sometimes doing both at the same time! She's on the verge of laughing, she's got the motions down and just needs to add the sound. She is grabbing toys with both hands and shoving everything she can in her mouth, which I think makes her look like a very grown up baby :). Tummy time is still quite hated in our house, so she doesn't have the strongest head or arms yet, but she's working on it.

At 3 months, breastfeeding was still very painful, so I decided to switch to exclusively pumping. Unfortunately, my supply doesn't quite match up with her demand while pumping, so we have had to supplement with formula more than I would like. But she is still getting mostly breastmilk, which is important to me, as much as I hate pumping! We will try breastfeeding again in a couple of weeks. If successful, I plan to nurse until she weans or 2 years, whichever comes first. If unsuccessful though, I will probably start weaning at 6 months when we start solids.

Maddie continues to be a great sleeper, hooray! We had a few weird weeks where she was wanting to go to bed at 5pm, and waking up 2-3 times a night after that, but for the past week has switched back to once a night again. She sleeps from about 9/10pm to 5/6am, and then goes back to sleep until 8-8:30. Not bad at all! She usually takes a long nap in the late morning and then a couple of shorter naps in the afternoon too.

I've recently joined a playgroup so Maddie can start socializing a bit (and me too!) now that she's more aware of her surroundings. Obviously she can't really play with other babies yet, but she loves to sit on my lap or lay on the floor and watch the older babies play. And it's always nice to spend some time out of the house where a crying fit doesn't mean we have to leave :).

I'm really going to try and update this thing more often, I'll aim for once a week. But as always, I am pretty good about putting pictures on her shutterfly site on a regular basis. That's it for now- Mom needs to eat some lunch before Maddie's morning nap is over!

First Halloween!

2008-10-31T18:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we couldn't find any costumes small enough to fit Maddie, but here are pics of her first Halloween anyway!

Her "little monster" t-shirt

Doing her best little monster impression

Time to go out for dinner!

Eh?

Alright, Halloween is pretty boring, I'm going to sleep!

Notice the My First Halloween rattle...we weren't going to get it, but then she smiled when we handed it to her....this little girl isn't going to be spoiled at all!!!

2 month appointment!

2008-10-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

Maddie turned the big .17 on Wednesday! We celebrated by taking her to the pediatrician for her first vaccinations. She got DTaP, HepB, and Polio, but they were all combined in one shot, so she just got one stick. I'm one of those crazy granola moms who insists on spacing out baby vaccinations, so we'll be going back next month for two more shots. In fact, she'll be getting shots every month for about the next 7 months :(. She screamed when she got the shot (although I think she was mostly just mad that the nurse had to straighten her leg out), but immediately settled down after I picked her up, so it wasn't too bad.

Speaking of granola, I'm happy to announce that we are switching to cloth diapers! I'm really excited about it, and I'll be posting pictures of her in her very adorable diapers once we get the hang of them. And for those of you that haven't seen/heard of/used a cloth diaper in 10+ years, I promise I'm not crazy! They've come a long way and are much easier to use than the old fashioned cloth options.

Here are the 2 month stats!
Weight: 9 lbs 1.5 oz (10th percentile)
Height: 21.75 inches (25th percentile)
Head: 36.4 cm (5th percentile- pea head)
Her growth has slowed down since that first month, but she was still below the 5th percentile at 2 weeks, so we're happy with her growing!

Maddie has also started almost sleeping through the night! She now sleeps from about 10pm-4am, and then from about 4:30am-8am. Not bad at all for such a little monkey! Her mommy is thrilled to be getting such a long stretch of sleep, but her Daddy is missing that 2 am feeding a little bit. But I have a sneaking suspicion that he doesn't mind sleeping through the whole night again.

We are in Greenville for the weekend, and Kat is home so lots of pictures will be forthcoming!

It's October...where's my candy?

2008-10-02T12:09:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog! Turns out this whole "having a baby" thing keeps a person really really busy. And tired. Go figure! Maddie is doing great. She is gaining weight like a champ- she's even starting to outgrow some of her newborn sized clothes (those preemie clothes are soo last month). She is still a hungry hungry hippo, but this week she has dropped a nighttime feeding, much to the delight of her mom and dad. Her nighttime "schedule" is now to nap from about 6:30-9 (very convenient for when we go out to dinner), wake up, bath, eat, then to bed for the night. She wakes up around 1am and 5 am to eat, but quickly falls back asleep after these feedings. Then she either sleeps until about 6:30 or 8 (Mommy prefers the 8am wake up call).

Breastfeeding is still pretty hard and we haven't quite got it down pat yet, but it's certainly gotten a lot better and hopefully will just get easier from here. Maddie recognizes our voices now and smiles when we come to pick her up after a nap or when Daddy comes home from work. She is also smiling at her favorite toys- a pink poodle, a mirror and of course her #1 fave- the ceiling fan. She has a little activity mat that she loves to lay on and look at all the pretty animals and colors. She's fascinated by faces and likes to practice imitating all the expressions she sees.

We think (and hope and pray) that we've gotten through the worst of the colic...this week she has pretty much been crying from about 3-6:30, but other than that she tends to be pretty well behaved. It's 3:15 now, so I better hurry up and finish this update! I think that's about it...her 2 month check up and first vaccinations are next Friday, so we'll find out how much she weighs/has grown then. And although this blog has been sadly lacking, I do post updated pictures to her picture site pretty regularly, so check there for your Maddie fix!

Hungry Hungry Hippo

2008-09-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

I have a feeling I'll be seeing this face a lot in about 13 years.

I took Maddie to the pediatrician today to get her checked out b/c she's been acting a little fussy lately (and by fussy, I mean screaming and writhing in pain after every feeding). The bad news is the doctor thinks she has reflux. The good news is she may not be possessed by the devil after all. We have some meds to try, so hopefully she'll be feeling better soon. She weighed 7lbs today!!! This is great progress. Average weight gain for her age is around 1 oz/day. She has gained 21 oz in 13 days, so she really is trying to catch up to all the other babies! She gets the competitiveness from her daddy.

That's pretty much the only new news. She is having more awake periods during the day, and I can tell that she is getting a lot more interested in the world around her. I will catch one of her big grins on camera soon- they are ridiculously cute! In the meantime, if anyone has some extra sleep laying around, send it our way!

Couple of cute pictures!

2008-08-29T16:59:00.000-07:00

Grandmother, house cleaner, laundry folder, bottle feeder, diaper changer and cook extraordinaire!

Look at that fat little face! She's bound and determined
to catch up with all the other babies in weight.

That hat is still too darn big...one day she will grow into it!

Tummy time!

Nursery is finished!

2008-08-23T11:53:00.001-07:00

In honor of Maddie's supposed due date, the nursery is done! Well, actually I still have a few more frames to buy for the flash cards, and I need to order some pictures of Maddie to replace the generic photos on her hutch....but other than that it's done! She's still sleeping with in our room right now, but we spend a lot of time in the nursery rocking her, so I'm happy to have it done.

Pics!

Adorable wall letters!!! Made by the very talented Pami. I just
sent her some pics of the nursery and she came up with this!
She is just starting up her own business and her
website is www.bypami.com- she is awesome!artistic shot from Kat

This sign is not a joke.

She's huuuuge

2008-08-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

Happy 2 weeks to Maddie! She had a doctor's appointment today and it went really well! Well, actually she started screaming to be fed on the way there (even though I fed her right before we left), and even though I fed her in the car before going inside, she still cried the whole time we were in the waiting room. Then she peed on my hand/all over the floor when I was putting her on the scale to be weighed. And then had to be fed again before the doctor came in. But it was our first trip out alone, so I guess overall it went well!

She is up to 5 lbs 11 oz today! And is almost 19 inches long. So all that eating she's been doing (and let me just tell you- this child is exactly like her mommy...if she's awake, she needs to be eating to be happy) has done a lot of good. I guess that makes me sacrificing my sleep worth it! She's been eating pretty much every 1-2 hours most of the day and night, with a couple of 3 hour stretches thrown in there (and sometimes one of those even happens at night!). She's kind of a slow eater too (again, just like mommy) so she's somewhat of a permanent fixture on my chest. I guess she's got a little catching up to do. Breastfeeding has been our biggest challenge so far, with the frequent feeding and some latching issues it's been painful. But I'm hoping it will be second nature soon, and I think we are getting the hang of it.

Everything is going well! Mom was here for the first week and half and cleaned the house from top to bottom and kept us full of delicious meals (and she changed just a few stinky diapers too). Dad and Kat came back up last weekend and Dad did a ton of yard work and Kat took more great pictures! So we had lots of help during that first tough week. I am feeling really good though, much better than I thought I would so soon after the c-section, so we are now figuring out how to take care of the baby (and ourselves) on our own. So far so good, although I'm sure I'll be wanting mom to come back and visit soon- with all the cooking she does it's easy to keep this weight on! Mike and I are definitely missing that thing called sleep, but I think we're just going to have to wait a few months (or maybe years!) to sleep through the night again. I'm just looking forward to the night when 2 hours of sleep in a row is no longer so exciting.

Maddie is just the cutest and sweetest little baby around! We love just sitting and watching her make funny faces in her sleep. She's getting more and more alert and I know she is going to change so much in the next few weeks! I will try and keep the blog updated as much as I can. I am also trying to upload pictures every few days so I can show off her adorableness! I have put all of her pictures on a website- http://mgbbabypictures.shutterfly.com and the password is maddiegrace.

Thank you SO much to everyone for the calls and cards and gifts and words of encouragement and congratulations. Maddie is such a blessing and we can't wait to introduce her to everyone!

Maddie has left the uterus!

2008-08-14T07:22:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard yet, Madeline Grace was born at 11:20 am on August 8th! My water broke in the middle of the night, and we got to the hospital about 7am that morning. They confirmed that labor had actually started and then checked to see if Maddie was still breech- she was! So they put me on the fast track to a c-section and she was born a few hours later. The actual c/s wasn't too bad. Mike was in the operating room with me and when they took Maddie out they moved the scale/warmer so that we could see her the whole time she was being weighed and checked out. She weighed 4 lb 10 oz (although they weighed her twice to make sure b/c she didn't look quite that small). Then Mike got to sit beside me and hold her for the remainder of the surgery.

She came with us into the recovery room, where I was able to start breastfeeding and eating right away. They took her to the nursery about an hour later for her bath and pictures. My parents and Kat arrived and went up to the nursery with Mike to see her! When she came back from the nursery, they reported that she was 18 inches long and in the nursery she weighed 5 lb 4 oz, so her real birth weight is likely in between those two numbers.

We were lucky to be able to leave the hospital on Sunday afternoon, which we were really happy about b/c hospitals are not fun! Of course we are still not getting much sleep at home, but I'd rather not sleep in my own bed.

Maddie is just perfect! She is so adorable and it's easy just to sit around all day watching her sleep. I never put my camera down! We are working on getting her to sleep at night too- right now she has her days and nights a bit mixed up. Breastfeeding has been a bit of a challenge, but we had a lactation consultant come out and that's helped a lot. I was feeling really good the first couple of days after the surgery, but I think I did too much too soon and I'm paying for it now. Luckily my health seems to be doing pretty good, which will hopefully stay true for a while b/c coughing has been the most painful part of recovery so far.

Here are some pictures! Here's a link to some from the hospital: http://tinyurl.com/5sb37g.
And if you're friends with Kat on facebook, she took a ton of great pictures that she has posted there.

Here are a couple of my faves!:

goofy baby

baby burrito!

sporting the cool hair after her first bath!

first bath!

streeeeetch

teeny fingers

One more thing...

2008-08-06T14:58:00.000-07:00

Mike and I have officially placed our bets on how much Maddie will size, so feel free to "weigh" in (hardee har har) with your guesses!

Me: 6 lbs 14 oz, 18.5 inches
Mike: 7lbs 4oz, 18 inches

37.5 weeks!

2008-08-05T17:36:00.000-07:00

Update time! I had my external version last Tuesday and I think "sucky" really sums it up. How's that for showing off my vocabulary? We got to the hospital at 9 and they couldn't find my chart, so I wasn't even hooked up to the monitors until about 10. It took the doctors another hour and a half to make their way into the room to do the version. I was surprised by how much it hurt. It definitely surpassed uncomfortable and was quite painful, but it helped that it wasn't indefinite pain. They took a break after a couple of minutes b/c Maddie's heartbeat was dropping. It bounced back quickly, so they tried for a little bit longer. They weren't able to get her all the way turned though, just halfway. They were hoping she'd stay sideways and then go head down once I went into labor, but no such luck. She turned back up in less than an hour!

They continued to monitor both of us for another couple of hours. Maddie's heartbeat was fine almost immediately after it was over, but they were a little concerned b/c mine was really fast (it stayed in the 120's-140's the whole time we were there) and I was having a few contractions. I grew increasingly cranky b/c I hadn't eaten anything since the night before and they wouldn't let me have anything to eat/drink until they were sure I wasn't going into labor. So all in all it was not a good experience, but I don't regret trying it. I'm sure I would've felt a lot differently about it if it had worked!

So at my appointment yesterday we went ahead and scheduled my c-section for Tuesday, August 19th. It's scheduled for 11:30, but obviously women who are in labor and/or need an emergency c/s will be more of a priority, so there is no telling what time it'll actually happen. Based on my other experiences at UNC, we should expect to have her by Friday.

And of course there is still a chance that she could flip and I will be able to go into labor...fingers are crossed! But she sure does seem to like the position she is in. I can't say I blame her. I'm not a big fan of being upside down either.

But at least we have a real end in sight! I know my mom is laughing at me now, but I was just sure that I was going to have her in early August. I am glad we were prepared for her to be early though, b/c I am not at all stressed out and I'm enjoying the last few weeks b/c everything is done and ready to go. As long as I spend most of the day resting I am feeling really great! So she can hang out in there as long as she wants (especially if she is just waiting to flip!). My nesting instinct has come and gone. I'm hoping it'll make at least one more appearance so I can get the house nice and clean before I never have time ever again :P.

I also know that a few people have asked about good hotel options for coming to visit the baby, so here are a couple of options. Raleigh actually has a surprising lack of good hotels, but either of these would be a good choice.
Brier Creek Hampton Inn- brand new, supposed to be really nice. It's in a great area with lots of restaurants and shopping. It's on the way to our house if you're coming from 85N/40E, but it's about 20-25 minutes away.
Capital Blvd Hampton Inn- a little older, but we've driven past it and it looks pretty nice. Near lots of restaurants and shopping and less than 10 minutes from our house.

My homage to the 50's housewife

2008-07-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Updated belly pic, which I like to call "Barefoot and Pregnant in the Kitchen."
Also- I got so excited when I saw this on the scale tonight that I had to whip my camera out....woohoo! That means I've now gained 15 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight, but almost 25 since 1st trimester! My original goal was to hit 140, and I might not make that but I'm really happy with my progress in the last couple of weeks. I can be seen outside of various Triangle Chick-fil-a's shooting up insulin before heading in for a delicious, chock full of awesome calories chocolate shake.
The moxibustion hasn't worked yet- but luckily for me no neighbors have called the police reporting their pregnant neighbor outside smoking pot. My acupuncturist gave me his number for them to call in case that happened- guess it's a common occurrence! Luckily I have my handy dandy mini fan to keep all the gross smoke away from my lungs.

That's it for now. For the first time since I've been pregnant, I allowed myself a half glass of wine with dinner(no worries, it's doctor approved) and it's got me ready for bed! And can I just say that wine seems to be much more effective than Tylenol for relieving that back pain. I'm already looking forward to my first post-delivery martini! Or maybe they'll serve one up in the hospital before my version on Tuesday morning? One can only dream....

Tuesday update!

2008-07-22T11:07:00.000-07:00

I went for my weekly appointment this morning. I had another growth ultrasound, and everything looks really good. Maddie weighs about 5 lbs 2 oz now, and is in the 18th percentile for growth. Assuming the measurements are correct (they can be off by about a pound in either direction), she should be about a 7 -7.5 lb baby, which is a perfect size! She again refused to show her face or privates, so for all we know she's a boy with 2 noses, but at least her measurements look good. And they love to tell me about all the hair she has- at this point I'll be disappointed if she has anything less than an afro!

She is still breech though- booo! I will be starting moxibustion today or tomorrow, after I meet with an acupuncturist to learn how it works. It seems a little far fetched to me, but my doctor recommended it and I'll try anything at this point! I mean really- right now I am laying upside down a few times a day with a bag of frozen veggies on my fundus and a heating pad plus music set up at my cervix- can't get much crazier than that. If that doesn't work, they have me scheduled for an external version next Tuesday morning, which I'm a tad nervous about. But I'm sure UNC does them every day, and both Maddie and I will be closely monitored the whole time.

Pictures!

2008-07-17T18:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the nursery! I am so close to being done. Just waiting on three things-

1.crib skirt and bumpers to be finished (you can see a preview of the bumpers though!)
2. my wall words to arrive and be put up
3. my cute flashcards to come to decorate the wall shelves-

and I will be able to say that I'm finished. I made a little dog bed for the dogs- the rule in the nursery is that if they want to be in there, they have to be laying down on the bed. No playing, only calm napping allowed :). So far they are doing really well with that, they are good girls!

Here are some pictures of the nursery! I am so close to being done. Just waiting on three things-
1.crib skirt and bumpers to be finished (you can see a preview of the bumpers though!)
2. my wall words to arrive and be put up
3. my cute flashcards to come to decorate the wall shelves-
and I will be able to say that I'm finished. I made a little dog bed for the dogs- the rule in the nursery is that if they want to be in there, they have to be laying down on the bed. No playing, only calm napping allowed :). So far they are doing really well with that.

101 uses for an ironing board

2008-07-15T14:30:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't had any updates lately! Not too much has been going on since we got back from the mountains. I have started insulin shots, and while they are a bit of a pain in the butt (literally, ha!), it's not so bad. I finally got the hang of how much to use with what meals, and so my glucose levels have been very stable lately. I'm still crossing my fingers that it goes away after I give birth though- I certainly wouldn't miss it! My endocrinologist said that my numbers will probably stay low for as long as I breastfeed, so we'll re-evaluate after that.

Because of the GD, I started going to weekly appointments this week. I get a non-stress test, which is where they hook me up to 2 monitors- one records the baby's heartbeat and response to movement, and the other records contractions (but I'm not having any of those yet). I'm also getting my amniotic fluid levels checked and seeing the doctor to check on weight and all that good stuff. Maddie has passed all of the NST's with flying colors, she is a very active baby who likes to try and kick the monitor off my stomach. My fluid was a little lower this week, but still within normal range so they're just going to keep an eye on that. And my weight hasn't increased at all since I was diagnosed with GD, but at least it's not going down! My favorite weight gain food (CFA chocolate shake) has over 100 carbs, so it makes me a bit nervous to drink too many. Lots and lots of trips to Chapel Hill, which isn't too much fun b/c of the distance (and the gas prices!!!), but it is nice to check on everything so often.

She is still breech, so I am trying all sorts of crazy solutions to get her to turn. The most common suggestion is to prop an ironing board against the couch and lay on it upside down a couple of times a day. In case you were wondering, it is neither comfortable nor easy to breathe when laying upside down on an ironing board. If she still hasn't flipped by next week, my doctor is going to send me to an acupuncturist (maybe they'll poke her and convince her to turn). If that doesn't work, we will try an external version where the doctor tries to manually turn her. It's supposed to be pretty painful, so she said if it hurts too much, she just stops and we'll schedule a c-section. I am really hoping to avoid that b/c I know my recovery will be a lot harder, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!

The nursery is almost done! Mom made some really cute valances and she is finishing up the bumpers (which are SO cute). All our furniture is put together and it looks so great. I am finishing up wall decor and little finishing touches, so I will post finished pictures soon! All of Maddie's clothes/sheets/blankets/everything else have been washed and are ready to go, so as soon as she's ready hopefully she'll come on out! I've been thinking this whole pregnancy that I would go early, but now that I'm getting closer I'm getting nervous that it might not happen. I am quite uncomfortable and not sleeping too well, so I still have my fingers crossed for early to mid August!

That's all for now folks! I'll post new belly pictures (here's a preview- it's huge!) and nursery pictures later this week.

Summer Vacation

2008-06-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a week long trip to the mountains and it was awesome. The weather was just so perfect the whole time we were there and it was very relaxing. The house we stayed in was so cool! Beach houses have got to step it up a notch if they want to compare with mountain houses. This house had a pool table, foosball table, hot tub, satellite tv in every room and even wireless internet (we are not a family that likes to rough it on vacay). Plus it had an awesome deck that was gated so our adventure dogs could hang out while we were gone without wandering off.

We stayed about 10 minutes from downtown Boone, which was nice for Sarah, who is staying in her apartment there for the summer. We did lots of shopping in Boone and Blowing Rock (I racked up at the Baby Gap and Osh Gosh outlets!), a tiny bit of hiking and ate at some yummy restaurants in Boone. Note to other carnivores- might want to stay away from Melanie's on King St- especially if the word "soysage" scares you as much as it scares me. However, if you are a normal person who enjoys healthful eating, I hear it is quite delish. Mike, Dad, Sarah and Kat had a lot of fun white water rafting on Monday, and although no one stayed dry, they all made it down the river with sunburn being the only problem (and really only for Mike, who still hasn't mastered the art of proper sunscreen application).

All in all, it was a great time- good for me and Mike since it will likely be the last vacation we take for a long time! Here are a few of our pics from the trip. I miss you mountain weather!!!

Dad, Kat and Mom at Howard's Knob

Me and Mike at Howard's Knob- such a pretty view!

On King St (at least he has a Carolina shirt on!)

Me and Kat at the Mast Store- we're thinking
of bringing back the bonnet.

Mom up to no good in the woods

Dad, me and Mom at Howard's Knob

I didn't take any pics of Sarah in the mtns (she
was working when I was taking the other pics!) so
here's one just for her :P.

New Pictures!

2008-06-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

Well, we tried for a 2nd time at Prenatal Peek today, and once again Maddie was quite insistent on not having her picture taken. The ultrasound tech jiggled and prodded and pushed, but apparently she was comfortable and didn't want to move! We decided that this means that she is going to be a very laid back, hard to phase child (instead of difficult and stubborn, which is the other possibility!).

But we did get 3 pretty good pictures. We also got to see her yawning on the video, which was really cool! She looks like a real baby in the now! She is still switching positions a lot, but only likes to lay sideways, not up and down. And she also likes to cover her face with both hands and feet. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks she'll decided that up and down is more comfy so we don't have to worry about her being breech. The ultrasound tech did say that she has a ton of hair already!

Step away from the Dr. Pepper!

2008-06-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

Well, the results are in and I do have gestational diabetes. My numbers weren't super high, but definitely high enough for them to want to monitor my sugars. I met with the CF dietitian today and got my glucose monitor, so I'll be checking my glucose levels about 5 times a day. I am also meeting with an endocrinologist that specializes in CF related diabetes next week, b/c they automatically put people with CF on insulin so that we don't have to alter our high-cal diets. I'm very relieved that I don't have to give up my milk, ice cream or ketchup. I was advised to stay away from soft drinks though, so we'll see how that goes!

It really isn't as bad as I thought it might be. I think that with a few small changes it can be easily controlled, especially since my numbers from the 3-hour test weren't crazy high. Lots of sticks, but the finger pricks don't hurt at all, and I don't mind shots so hopefully the insulin won't be a big deal either. The only downside is that my doctor mentioned that when most people with CF get gestational diabetes, it doesn't go away after the baby is born. So it might be more of a permanent adjustment.

We went to Prenatal Peek today for our exciting 4-d ultrasound, but unfortunately Miss Maddie decided that she wasn't in the mood for pictures. The ultrasound tech tried all kinds of things to get her to move (she was facing backwards and had her arms and feet covering her face), but every time she did move she managed to get in an even worse position. So we will try again tomorrow. Hopefully this is not foreshadowing her post natal disposition!

In the meantime, I have some pictures of the fun stuff that we got at the shower and have put together! We're trying to get the dogs used to all the things that vibrate, play music/sounds or just plain move.

Pack'n'play with cute little bassinet and changing table!

Swing, Boppy bouncer, Diaper Champ and cradle (Mike's
grandfather made it for him! It'll be going in our bedroom
as soon as we can figure out where to put it)

Infant stroller and carseat!

Maclaren stroller- isn't it sexy?!? We also discovered
the safety reflectors when using the flash, haha. Maddie will
be safe on our midnight strolls!

And we didn't have to put these together, but
they are just too cute not to show!!!

Baby shower fun!

2008-06-08T16:48:00.000-07:00

I had my baby shower on Saturday and it was so much fun!!! Everything was decorated in pink and black, and there was a ton of delish food. I got SO MANY amazing gifts- I still can't believe how much great stuff we got! In addition to the presents, everyone brought their favorite books to start out Maddie's library. Let me tell you- she got quite the collection! I got so many of my own childhood favorites, and I can't wait to read them all again. Here's a link to all the shower pics that Kat took for me.

I found out on Friday that I failed my 1 hour glucose test, so I am a little bummed about that. I'll be going on Tuesday for my 3 hour test to determine whether or not I have gestational diabetes, so prayers are appreciated on Tuesday morning! I'm hoping for the best, but my test results from last week were on the high side, so it definitely won't be a surprise if I fail Tuesday's test.

Mike and I (well, mostly Mike!) spent all of today putting things together, and it is so exciting! It feels like we really might be ready for her to come in a couple of months :). I'll add some pictures of what the room is looking like now once I clean out all the boxes/packing materials. I also got all of my bedding fabrics on Saturday (Mary Jo's in Charlotte is the mac daddy of fabric stores!), so hopefully that will be done soon!

Here's a pic of all of Maddie's books in my big pink chair!!!

Welcome to the home stretch...

2008-06-03T14:16:00.000-07:00

Today marks 28 weeks and 2 days, so I'm officially in the 3rd trimester! I am feeling really good, although my body is starting to ache a little with the added weight and I do get tired pretty easily. Mike and I can't believe that we are less than 3 months away from meeting Miss Maddie! The nursery hasn't changed much yet, but I will definitely post picture updates when it has. The furniture should all be in the room before the first week of July is over. That stuff sure does take forever to come in! The slow delivery has prompted several nightmares of the baby arriving and us having no nursery for her. I am also having recurring nightmares that we've been at home with the baby for 3-4 days and I realize that no one has ever changed her diaper. Something tells me that one isn't likely to come true!

Today we had a big appointment- an ultrasound to check growth and my gestational diabetes test. The GD solution was pretty gross, but I managed to get it down without any coming back up (just barely!). I'm waiting on pins and needles to get the results back. I've heard that I will need to stay away from ketchup if I do have it- yikes! My meat will be so lonely on the plate!

The ultrasound was great, although we didn't get to see her in 3-D this time (I've gotten spoiled by those clear images), so we couldn't see too much. She's definitely plumper and less alien like though, and she's estimated to weigh about 2 lbs 10 oz as of today, which puts her in the 48th percentile. So she is doing great! And my weight is up again too, so we are pleased with that. Thank you Chick-fil-a milkshakes....and let the waddling begin!

I am very excited to be headed down to SC tomorrow for Kat's graduation and then to Charlotte for my baby shower on Saturday!!! I will be sure and post pics of that when I get back to Raleigh. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from the ultrasound today. We will be headed back to Prenatal Peek (my Mother's Day gift from Mike!) sometime in the next few weeks, so I'll have lots of good 3-d pictures to show off after that.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-11T18:02:00.001-07:00

Happy Mom's day to my great mom!

I'm 25 weeks and finally the strangers are commenting away- so I guess I officially look quite pregnant :). Not much to update, we are just enjoying feeling all the kicks/punches/flips and waiting for our next ultrasound! Doctors visits have been going well, and I am happy to say that I now weigh more than I ever have in my life. Yay!

Shelfari

2008-05-08T13:18:00.000-07:00

I have to share my excitement about a site I discovered (thanks to some nesties!) today. It's www.shelfari.com and it's like a virtual bookshelf. What's the point of having a virtual bookshelf, you may ask? Well, you can rate all of your books, mark your favorites, and browse the site for reviews, popular books, etc. You can browse other people's bookshelves to see what they have read/liked, which is particularly helpful if that person has similar tastes to you in books. And I like that you have a shelf for books that you are planning on buying/renting/reading. So when it's time to go on vacation, you can jot down a list to take with you instead of wandering aimlessly around the bookstore/library like I usually do.

So my sample bookshelf (containing some of my favorite books) is now on the right hand side of my blog. Sign up yourself, it's addictive! And make sure to add me as your friend so that I can get more good book recommendations :).

Mini update!

2008-04-19T19:18:00.000-07:00

Not a lot to report, but I wanted to show off my growing belly! Maddie is getting stronger and has several "dance parties" every day. Feeling her move is definitely the best part of being pregnant. She was even kind enough to wake me up when I overslept the other day :P. Mike has felt her several times now and says she's a DDR champ in the making.I also have a couple of nursery additions! I went down to Greenville and picked out my glider at USA Baby, and it is awesome! It is soooo comfy and cute. Here's the chair:

And here's the fabric we ordered it in. It's hot pink (of course!) microfiber.

Last but not least, an adorable picture that I found at a cute shop in Greenville. It couldn't be any more perfect! Madeline picture for little Madeline :).

That's it for now! Next appointment won't be 'til early May, so until then I'll just be enjoying the dance parties and stuffing my face trying to gain more weight!

We're almost halfway!

2008-03-31T18:34:00.001-07:00

We're now at 19 weeks, almost halfway done! The pregnancy seems to by flying by- especially now that I like food again. I'm happy to report that I'm gaining weight and now have a definite baby belly. These pictures weren't even taken during my post-dinner bloat, so this is genuine bump :). I'm still waiting for a stranger to ask if I'm pregnant though.

I had my "big" ultrasound this morning. Even though we already knew the sex, this ultrasound was important because they took a lot of measurements and checked out the baby's heart and brain to make sure everything looks normal. I'm happy to report that she is looking and measuring exactly where she is supposed to!

She seems to be happiest curled up in a ball, but she isn't hesitating to kick and flip around a few times a day. I can feel her everyday now, and I think Mike will be able to feel her too if we can just get his hand on my stomach at the right time! I only got a couple of pictures from this ultrasound, but here they are:

Nursery Sneak Peek!

2008-03-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

My mom was up last week and we were painting fools. We repainted the office and turned it into the new guest bedroom, and transformed the guest bedroom into the nursery! Well, to be honest she did most of it, but I helped a little :). Dad, Sarah and Kat came up for the weekend too for my birthday and we all had a great time! It was a full house with 6 people and 3 dogs, but I was so happy to have everyone here for my birthday and Easter. And I am in love with the nursery so far!

First off, here is the new guest bedroom:

And here is the nursery! I might do some sort of design in the white stripe, that is still undecided, but I already love the way it looks! Dad and Mike installed the cute chandalier and a dimmer switch so that we can check on the baby without lighting up the whole room. Yay!

Kat took this last picture, which is why it looks
a lot better than the rest, lol. The colors in this pic
are a lot more accurate than the first two (at
least they are on my computer)

The rooms look even better in person than in the pictures. I am planning on ordering furniture, bedding and a glider in the next couple of weeks. Here's a picture of our furniture. I haven't decided on bedding, but I'm pretty sure it'll be black and white. And I am going down to Greenville to pick out my glider, which was one of my birthday gifts from my parents! So everything is coming together and I will of course update with more pictures as things arrive!

It's been a while...

2008-03-24T07:55:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted any doggie pictures lately, and Kat took some really good ones while the family was in Raleigh for Easter. So, here's a quick break from your regularly scheduled baby posts.

Sweet Ginger

Flying Monkey

Mia's Favorite Pose

Very Ladylike

Mmm, Beer (btw, Kat took those out there for artistic
purposes...we don't have beer just laying around everywhere)

LOL!

Update!

2008-03-13T10:45:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd go ahead and do an update because I finally feel like a human again! After 2 months of feeling nauseous and 3 weeks of a lung infection/IV's, I finally feel great. I'm ready to eat, gain some weight, and most importantly- shop for baby stuff! So if you haven't heard from me in a while I apologize, but I am finally ready to re-enter the world :).

I will include a couple of belly shots, but as you can see I am still pretty small! I can definitely tell, but I think it's still too risky for strangers to ask if I'm pregnant. I stick it out as far as I can though, especially after a big meal when I really look pregnant, so I'm hopeful that people will start noticing soon! I'll be 17 weeks on Sunday.

The whole family is coming up Easter weekend to celebrate my birthday with me, and I'm ready to put them to work. We are moving the guest room into the office, so my mom and I will be painting that and the nursery, and I'll update with pictures as soon as I can! I'm in the process of picking out cribs/dressers/changing tables and will probably order those soon, so I'm really excited about that. And Mike will be excited to have it ordered too- he just loooves shopping for baby furniture :P.

I think I felt the baby kick for the first time last night. For the past couple of weeks, I've been lying in bed trying to feel something before sleep every night, and I felt something last night that was definitely new. I felt it about 3 times in 10 minutes, it was really cool!

Last but not least, since a lot of people have been asking about names, we are *pretty* sure that her name will be Madeline Grace, and we'll call her Maddie. That's been our favorite name for a while, so unless we hear a name that we like more, that will be it!

GO HEELS!

Drumroll please.....

2008-03-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

IT'S A GIRL!
Here are some pics! We got 30 wonderful pictures today, but a lot of them are kind of creepy looking (they look like a melting alien baby) so I tried to put the most normal ones in here!!! It was so cool to see her on screen for 20 minutes. She is little wiggle worm and wouldn't sit still for a second. I'm in for lots of kicks and punches in a few weeks!

Regular 2-D profile shot

Working hard towards washboard abs

Oops! Kicked herself in the eye!

Sucking her thumb

Already posing for pictures, haha

Bring on the pink paint!!!!

Weekend Warrior

2008-02-26T07:41:00.000-08:00

So, I caught a little bug and got sick, so the powers that be in Chapel Hill decided it was time for me to do 2 weeks of IV's. Fun! At least I have yet to get that nasty flu that's going around. Anyway, since I'm sick my mom, aka Mary Poppins, decided to pack up her bag of magical remedies (which of course included lots of beef and cheese) and fly on up to Raleigh to take care of me for a few days. The magical bag must've worked, because my house is now clean, I'm feeling better and I think I even gained a couple of pounds!

But since my mom is the energizer bunny and can never sit still (unless of course there's an ACC basketball game on), she also decided to paint our hallway and guest bathroom, so our house got a mini-makeover too! Here's a pic of the "before" bathroom:

You can't really see it, but the walls were a tan color with kind of a greenish tint, and weren't painted well at all. Very streaky. And my pink/white stuff didn't really match the walls at all.

But noooow ::drumroll please:: here's the new bathroom!So those that come visit, be prepared for a much sexier bathroom.

Screening results are in!

2008-02-15T11:01:00.001-08:00

The genetic counselor called me today with our official results. Since I'm 25 (well, almost), my risk starts out at about 1/750 for our child to have Downs or Trisomy 13. With the results of the ultrasound and blood test, that risk was lowered to 1/1000+. So good news!

On an unrelated note, let me tell you about our very romantic Valentine's day. I made steaks and twice baked potatoes, and riiight before we were finished with dinner I got nauseous and threw it all up. Guess we won't soon forget that one :). Good thing we decided not to go out and do an expensive meal!

Pictures!

2008-02-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

Mike and I went yesterday to have first trimester screening for chromosomal abnormalities like Downs Syndrom and Trisomy13. They just do an ultrasound and bloodwork to determine if you are at a higher risk for these, and if you are then you can do further testing. We went to the Raleigh UNC office, which is at Rex Hospital, and liked it sooo much better than the Chapel Hill UNC office. Just a lot newer, nicer, and so much easier to get in and out of- not to mention it's 30 minutes closer to our house. Since it is the same group, we are thinking that I might switch permanently to Rex.

We met with a genetic counselor, then went in for the ultrasound (my first abdominal one, yay!). They had the fancy shmancy machine that does the 3-D (or is it 4-D? I can never remember) pictures, so that was awesome!!! I'm so glad that Mike decided to come b/c it was definitely the best appointment yet. The ultrasound took about 30 minutes, b/c the technician kept trying to get the baby to roll over, and the baby refused. Already stubborn! Lots of kicking and waving of the fists though, in protest to all the jiggling. We'll get official results in about a week, but the ultrasound looked really good and way below the higher risk category.

So here are my pictures!!! I carry them around everywhere with me, I can't stop looking at them! I wasn't sure if I wanted to see the 3-D pics, b/c it's so detailed that you can really see what the baby looks like, and I didn't want to ruin any surprises. But I'm SO glad they did it, I love them :). If the baby had flipped over or stretched a bit, we might have gotten a guess at the gender yesterday, but since it was stubborn we'll have to wait until next month.

Sorry for the bad quality, we don't have a scanner so I just took pictures of the pictures. Oh, and the updated due date is August 23rd...Mike's birthday, LOL!

Appointment Numero Dos

2008-02-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

Second appointment today! It was a quickie, they basically just checked on how I was feeling and used the doppler to listen to the baby's heartbeat. It was in the 150's and sounded great! I was excited to get to hear it again. My weight is down a bit, I've been losing weight since I still hate pretty much all food. But the doctor said that food aversion is fairly common and it should go away in the next couple of weeks. I sure hope so! I mean, not that I don't love force feeding myself at every meal. Mike and I did decide to forgo the traditional nice Valentine's meal out, since I will most likely only take 3 bites and not really enjoy those. Maybe next year (ha!).

So that was it for this week! I swear I'll add in pictures of myself once I start to show, but right now I only look a tiny bit chubby, and really only after I eat a meal. I can't wait for the baby bump to start, b/c I am ready to start maternity clothes shopping! To be honest, I've already bought a few things and wear them on a regular basis. Jeans with stretchy panels are a fabulous idea, pregnant or not.

I have an appointment to in Raleigh on Feb 11th to get screened for Down's syndrome and other chromosomal abnormalities. Just an ultrasound and some bloodwork. And then we will do another ultrasound at my next appointment, on March 3rd, and will hopefully be able to determine the sex then! I am SO excited to find out. I am trying to do equal opportunity gender shopping when I'm browsing online for baby stuff :).

Bun in the oven

2008-01-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

Time for the official blog announcement I guess- I am pregnant! I am 8 weeks along as of yesterday. So far being pregnant has been pretty great. I am one of the lucky few who doesn't seem to be getting any morning sickness, so I'm really happy about that. Now, I've never been more tired in my life and (TMI alert) my boobs are killing me, but I'm not throwing up, so I can't complain.

I took 5 pregnancy tests the morning of December 14th, and I was thrilled to find them all positive! I think my count is up to 11 tests right now. Still all positive :). Here's a picture of the dinner I made Mike that night:

Get it? Baby carrots, baby back ribs, baby peas, baby corn....any Full House fan will of course get the Becky/Jesse reference. Mike did not get it (not surprisingly, I didn't marry him for his observational abilities), but was very happy when I explained what it meant!

We told all of the grandparents over Christmas/New Years visits. All are excited, and I'm currently trying to convince my mom that she needs to move in with us for about a year. That's not asking too much, right?

Here's a picture of the first ultrasound taken at 6.5 weeks. We were able to hear the heartbeat then too, which was awesome! We had another ultrasound done at 8 weeks, but the quality wasn't great and I don't have it scanned in. The good news is the baby looks slightly less like an alien in the 8 week picture. There are two sacs in the ultrasound, meaning I probably started out with twins, but the doctors don't know for sure.

So that's that! I'll try and update every few weeks, especially when I start getting a cute little belly :). Right now it's just fat I think!

You put WHAT on your pizza?!?!?

2007-12-21T14:44:00.000-08:00

So, anyone that knows me is probably shocked that I put spinach on a pizza- but it was actually delish! I was pleasantly surprised :). I took pictures, but I haven't downloaded them yet, and honestly, they kind of make the pizza look like cat throw-up, so I might not ever add them, lol.

Jenni's (not me, a fabulous nestie that shared this great recipe!) Whole Wheat Herb Pizza Dough:

Ingredients

1 package dry yeast

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1 1/2 cups warm water

2 1/2 to 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour, divided

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon garlic powder

2 tablespoons pizza seasoning

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Cooking Spray

______________________

Directions

1. Dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water in a large bowl; let stand 5 minutes.

2. Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Add 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, oil, garlic powder, pizza seasonings and salt to yeast mixture, stirring until well-blended.

3. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic (about 10 minutes); add enough of remaining flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to prevent dough from sticking to hands (dough will feel tacky).

4. Place dough in a large bowl coated with cooking spray, turning to coat top. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 45 minutes or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Punch dough down; cover and let rest 5 minutes.

5. Divide dough in half; roll each half into a 12-inch circle on a floured surface. Top and bake according to recipe directions.

Note: You can prepare this in a stand mixer using the dough hook. Add all the ingredients and let the hook knead the dough for approximately 5 minutes. This is how I made mine and it was soooo easy! Don't be afraid, yeast is your friend!

Also, this dough may be frozen. Follow directions for kneading dough, and shape dough into 2 balls. Coat balls with cooking spray and place into a ziptop plastic freezer bag. Thaw overnight in a refrigerator. Cover and let rise in a warm place (85'), free from drafts' 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size. (Press two fingers into dough. If Indentation remains, the dough has risen enough.) Shape as instructed.

And now, for the fabulous White Spinach Pizza:
Serving: 8
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes

1 (10-oz) can refrigerated pizza crust
1 cup skim milk
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
Salt and pepper to taste
½ lb mushrooms, sliced
½ tsp minced garlic
3 cups fresh spinach, washed and stemmed
½ tsp dried basil
¼ cup crumbled feta
½ cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Pat crust into a round 12-inch pizza pan coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake for 7 minutes or until crust begins to brown.

2. In a small pot, mix together milk and flour over medium-high heat until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spread white sauce over partially baked crust.

3. Meanwhile, in a skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray, sauté mushrooms and garlic until tender, about 5 minutes. Add spinach, stirring until wilted. Add basil.

4. Spread spinach mixture over white sauce. Sprinkle with feta and mozzarella cheeses. Return to oven and continue baking for 10 minutes until crust is golden brown and cheese is melted.

Based on individual serving.
Calories: 152
Total Fat: 4 g
Carbohydrates: 23 g
Protein: 8 g

I used chicken instead of mushrooms and just cooked the chicken (diced) for a few minutes before adding the garlic to make sure it was well cooked. I also used Grueyere and Parm as my cheeses, 'cause those are my faves!

Tack-ay!

2007-12-10T16:24:00.000-08:00

Had to include a couple of pics from the 2007 Nestie Tacky Sweater/Cookie Exchange Extravaganza! It was SO much fun, Dizz's house was gorgeous, everyone made delicious food, we all looked extremely tacky (especially Pami!) and most importantly, I came home with 3 dozen yummy cookies.

Here's my (well technically my mom's!) Ginger Snap recipe for those that want it. Sorry I forgot to take a picture. I was so bummed that I only had 4 leftover!

Ginger Snaps
3/4 C shortening
1 1/4 C sugar, divided
1/4 C molasses
1 egg
2 C flour
2 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t ginger

1. Cream 1 cup sugar and shortening.
2. Add molasses and egg, beat well.
3. Sift dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture and mix well.
4. Roll into small balls and dip balls in 1/4 cup sugar.
5. Place 2" apart on greased cookie sheet.
6.Bake at 350 for 12-13 minutes (chewy) or 15 minutes (crispy).

When I took mine out, they didn't look cooked all the way, but I let them sit on the cookie sheet for about 5 mintues after I took them out and the hardened up! I also sprinkled a little extra sugar over the tops right after they came out of the oven.

Mmmmmmm

2007-12-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

This is quite possibly my favorite dish that I make. That I've ever made. It is delicious. Make this one when you want to impress the heck out of someone (but don't particularly care about their arteries). It's kind of a pain to make, but after you make it once, you'll realize that it's worth 3x the effort. I only use about 2T of butter when I make it. Ya know, to make it more healthy. Kind of like ordering a diet soda with your large fries.

Caution: When this dish is baking you will most likely start drooling from the scent wafting out of your oven. Don't say I didn't warn you. Also known to cause knock down, drag out fights over the last bite.

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 pounds Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
1/2 cup grated Gruyere
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Butter a 1 1/2 quart baking dish with about 1 tablespoon of the softened butter.

Arrange a layer of potatoes in the baking dish, and sprinkle some of the cheeses over them. Continue layering potatoes and cheeses until you've used them all, ending with a layer of potatoes.*

In a small bowl, whisk the cream with the salt and pepper; pour this over the potatoes. Dot the remaining butter over the top and sprinkle with the paprika. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, or until the potatoes are tender and golden brown on top. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.

*Layer the potatoes all the way to the top. They sink a little when they bake, and trust me, you'll want as many layers of cheesy goodness as possible.

Old standby

2007-11-16T16:43:00.000-08:00

This is at least a twice monthly dinner in our house. It's pretty easy, and makes two meals, so I don't have to cook the next night! Always a plus.

Grilled Chicken:
1 bag frozen tenderloins (I like HT brand the best)
1 bottle Italian dressing
1 can crushed pineapple

Add the dressing and pineapple to the bag of chicken, and marinate for at least 6 hours (it's best if it's overnight though). Grill. Can't get easier than that!

Smashed Potatoes:
Red potatoes (I usually use about half a bag)
Milk
1/4 stick butter or margarine
Sour cream
1 cup Cheddar cheese
Garlic Salt
Bacon

1.Quarter the potatoes and boil them until they are soft.
2.Drain potatoes and add butter to hot pot.
3.Smash potatoes with a spoon (they don't need to be completely smooth, but you don't want them too chunky either. Mmm, chunky, there's an appetizing word)
4. Mix in enough milk and sour cream until they are the consistency that you want.
5. Mix in cheese, bacon (I usually use bacon bits) and a healthy sprinkling of garlic salt (to taste, I use a lot).
6. You can add cheese on top, but it's not necessary. Stick in the oven at 375 for about 10 minutes.
Enjoy! These are super yummy, and the garlic salt adds enough flavor that you don't have to use a ton of cheese if you don't want to.

And the spinach is the HT frozen variety :).

Baltimore

2007-11-13T11:34:00.000-08:00

Mike and I just got back from a very quick, but very fun trip to Baltimore. He had a meeting there on Monday, so we left Raleigh at about 8 am Sunday morning so we could have a little fun there Sunday afternoon/evening. We really wanted to go to the aquarium, but we ended up not getting there until about an hour and a half before it closed, and decided it wasn't worth $45 for that short a visit.

So we just wandered around the Inner Harbor area, which is really cool (and cold...but I guess it is November!). I discovered a store called Filene's Basement, and I probably could've spent the entire trip shopping in there. Mike decided to spend some time over at the ESPN Zone while I shopped there for a bit.

::side note::
Unlike many women, I do not care about expensive purses. Or expensive shoes. I've never bought a purse for more than $25 and my most expensive shoes are my Uggs, which I pretty much wear every day during every winter. But I do love dresses. Not just normal dresses, but fancy dresses. So I ended up trying on half a dozen at Filene's. One in particular caught my eye, it was $80, marked down from $288. Amazing deal. It was gold with sequins and a bubble skirt (sounds ugly but it was so adorable) and it fit me like a glove. Oh, and when I put it on, my favorite Michael Buble song started playing over the speakers. It was fate. But alas, I decided that even though it was an incredible deal, I just couldn't justify $80 for something I'd probably only get to wear 3-4 times. Sigh. I should've bought it. I miss that dress.
::end site note::

So then we went back to the hotel and got ready for dinner real quick. I had lots of cool suggestions for dinner, but ended up choosing a local place that Mike's client suggested, called Petit Louis . It. Was. Amazing. I had the best French Onion Soup I've ever had, including when I had it in France. The rest of the meal was very good too (I got Steak Frites, Mike got pork, we split some gratin de pomme de terre, and for dessert he got sorbet and I got a pot de chocolat), but that soup...oh man...that was some awesome soup. We split a bottle of yummy red wine, and it really was just a perfect meal. Very comfortable, intimate restaurant with wonderful service.

So all in all, it was a great trip! I really wanted to stop at Ikea on the way home, but Mike's meeting ran late and we had to be back in Raleigh by 9 to pick the pups up from boarding. Guess I'll have to wait until the Charlotte store opens! Oh, here are the pictures we took.....perhaps it was too dark, lol.

At the other end of the scale...

2007-11-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

Hehe, get it? Scale? I decided to try and make up for my Heart Attack Soup last night by making something healthy for the hubby tonight. My mom e-mailed me a Spicy Turkey Chili recipe, so I decided to try that. DH loved it! He ate two huge bowls (good thing it's healthy!). Here's the recipe:

1 lb. extra lean (99% fat free) ground turkey
1 large onion (chopped)
2 large cans of whole or diced tomatoes
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans (make sure you get chili beans, not chili with beans. Bush's makes three kinds: mild, medium and hot, and I bought the hot kind)
2 oz. Chili powder (they were out of chili powder when I went to the store, so I bought Mexican Chili Powder, and it just made it a bit spicier)
Salt, pepper to taste

Brown the ground turkey and onion together in a large pot. Add canned tomatoes, including tomato liquid. (If using cans of whole tomatoes, make sure to chop up before adding.) Add both cans of beans including liquid. Add chili powder, salt and pepper. I usually add a can or two of water to chili also depending on how much time I have for it to simmer. After bringing it all to a boil, let it simmer for a few hours.

I added 2 cans of water and it was perfect after simmering for about 5 hours. I'm not very good with a crock pot, but I'm sure you could make it in one. DH said it was spicy, which means it probably would have set my head on fire, but I did use the hot beans and extra hot chili powder! And I did take a picture, but stupidly deleted it, so I'll take another one when I unfreeze the remainder of the chili.

Best. Meal. Ever.

2007-11-09T06:45:00.000-08:00

Some nights I make a meal and I'm just like "man, I am awesome at cooking." It doesn't happen very often, but last night was one of those nights. YUM! So we had loaded potato soup (I found a recipe online that was an O'Charley's imitation), cheddar biscuits (Red Lobster imitation), "life changing chicken", and a lame mesclun salad for Mike. Everything was awesome. I could eat a thousand of those biscuits. And the soup was delish! I froze the rest to save for lunches (although I hope you can freeze potato soup...we'll see!).

So recipes:

Biscuits:
Recipe
Very quick, very easy, very delicious (That's what she said)

Soup:
Recipe
I of course omitted the chives and parsley, and I also only used 4 cups of half-and-half, and added 1 can of chicken stock. I also added some extra cheddar and some cornstarch at the end to thicken it a bit. Heart attack warning: if following the exact recipe, this soup contains 97% of your daily fat intake. Yeah. No wonder it's good, right.

Life changing chicken:
Chicken tenderloins (fresh work better than frozen with this recipe. I use 2 packages for me and DH, I use 3-4 packages for company)
1 c chopped cilantro
6 T olive oil
3 cloves minced garlic (might want to make it 2 if you are using fresh garlic)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
1/2 c lime juice

5 T brown sugar
2 T mustard (I use honey dijon)
3 T hoison sauce
1.5 T red wine vinegar

Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl. Combine last 4 ingredients in a separate bowl. Spoon all of the first bowl and about half of the second bowl into a large ziplock baggie. Add chicken, coat it well and stick in the refrigerator for 2-6 hours. Keep other half of second mixture in the fridge too (helps it thicken up a bit). Thread the chicken onto metal skewers and immediately put on a hot grill. Cook for about 8 minutes on each side, basting generously with the remaining mixture. It should be charred but not burnt when you take it off the grill. Eat and enjoy!

These are great for parties too, just take them off the skewers and stick a toothpick through each one. You can even make them ahead of time, refrigerate, then heat and add a little extra sauce. They won't be quite as good as fresh, but they'll still be delicious!

Happy Birthday, Mia Monster!

2007-11-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the double dog post, but Mia turned 1 on November 1st! And b/c she is ridiculously spoiled, she not only got presents (a tunnel and agility water bowl), but also a cake complete with candle! Unfortunately the candle really freaked her out, but she stayed long enough for a photo op. I love my little Mia, despite her being incredibly demanding and difficult. Life was much easier before we got Mia, but she brings so much joy to my life that I'm so grateful we adopted her (am I a cornball or what??). Plus we are having a blast learning the sport of agility together!

So Happy Birthday to my little Miss Priss, may she have many more!

Happy Howl-oween!

2007-10-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

We make our dogs dress up in costumes b/c we think it's funny. They are not big fans. They kind of freeze up and then start pawing frantically at their heads to get the hats off. But they'll sit still long enough for pictures as long as I have treats in my hand. Ginger is looking forward to Halloween, b/c lots of friendly strangers come to the door and most of them want to pet her. Mia's biggest fears are: children, the doorbell ringing, and people dressed strangely. So we're pretty sure Halloween will be the worst night of her life.

Steak and Parmesan Risotto

2007-10-27T18:49:00.000-07:00

There is no better dinner, IMHO, than a delicious steak and a cheesy starch. I usually throw in a salad or some asparagus for the hubby, but it didn't happen this time. I cooked the steaks on the stovetop, which is my new favorite way of cooking a good thick steak. Shocking, considering I grill out at least 4 nights a week, but I've found that a pan seared steak is hard to beat! Here are the recipes for this meal:

Steak:
Heat up an 8" skillet (I use non-stick b/c that's what I have, but I think you are supposed to sear with stainless cookware). While it's heating up, put a few sprinkles of Mrs. Dash on one side of the steaks, topped with a small sliver of butter (very small, think like 1/4 teaspoon). When the pan is hot, throw the steaks on, butter side down. While that side is searing (about 30 seconds on high), sprinkle some garlic salt on the other side of the steak. The flip and sear that side. After both sides are seared, turn the heat down to medium low and finish cooking. I cook 1" steaks for about 6 minutes total, but keep in mind that I like mine still mooing.

Parmesan risotto:

In a small saucepan, bring 2 cans of chicken broth to a simmer (you can also use 1 can broth, 1 can water). In a medium saucepan, melt 2 T butter/margerine (or you can use 3 T olive oil) and 1 clove garlic. Add 1.5 cups risotto (also known as arborrio, just in case your husband comes home empty handed from the store insisting that they don't sell risotto) and stir. Turn heat to medium and add 1.5 cups white wine. Stir continually until the liquid is gone. Then begin adding broth, about 3/4 cup at a time, stirring until liquid is gone. After about 15 minutes, taste to see if risotto is cooked. Once it is cooked, add salt, cracked black pepper, and 1 cup of freshly grated cheese. I usually use Parmesan, but Gruyere is also very good! This is one of those dishes that you'll perfect after a couple of times of making it. You can also add a little onion in with the butter and garlic if you want a little extra flavor.

Mini Pesto Pizzas

2007-10-26T12:38:00.000-07:00

I am making these for a PC show next week, so I wanted to try them out. I made them for dinner and they were delish! DH doesn't really love pesto, so I don't think he was looking forward to these, but he ended up eating 9 of them, soooo....guess he liked them! They tasted yummier than they look on the pan. I served them with soup because it was a gloomy day, but they'd go well with a salad too (if you don't hate salad of course!). Anyway, here's the recipe if you want to try them!

Ingredients:
2 plum tomatoes
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup walnuts
1 package (13.8 ounces) refrigerated pizza crust
1/3 cup prepared basil pesto or Basil-Walnut Pesto (I made my own, recipe below)
1 cup (4 ounces) grated mozzarella cheese

Basil-Walnut Pesto
1 cup lightly packed fresh basil, divided
1/4 cup toasted walnuts, divided
1 ounce grated fresh Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup olive oil
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1. Finely chop half of the basil and half of the walnuts together in cap of Food Chopper (mixture should resemble a thick paste); place into Classic Batter Bowl. Repeat with remaining basil and walnuts.
2. Using Microplane(R) Adjustable Grater, finely grate cheese. Add cheese, oil and garlic pressed with Garlic Press to batter bowl. Mix well using Small Mix 'N Scraper(R).

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Slice tomatoes using Ultimate Mandoline fitted with v-shaped blade; set aside. Grate Parmesan cheese using Microplane(R) Adjustable Grater. Coarsely chop walnuts using Food Chopper. Combine walnuts and Parmesan cheese in Prep Bowl; mix well.

2. Place dough onto Cutting Board (do not unroll dough). Using a sawing motion, slice dough into 15 disks (about 1/2 inch thick) using Utility Knife. Place disks onto Large Bar Pan; lightly press to flatten and seal seams.

3. Spread 1 teaspoon pesto over each crust with back of Easy Adjustable Measuring Spoon. Divide mozzarella cheese evenly among pizzas. Top each pizza with one tomato slice and Parmesan mixture. Bake 12-15 minutes or until crusts are golden brown. Remove pan from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Serve using Mini-Serving Spatula.

Yield: 15 servings

First Entry

2007-10-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

So I'm starting a blog because my life is just that interesting! Ok, not really. This will mostly be a cooking/dog blog. But definitely not a blog about cooking dogs. That's gross.