Madie Likes to Party!

Madie's birthday party was this past Saturday at Gymboree Play & Music. She had a great time!

She keeps asking to "party."

Here is a picture of the party crew!

The Birthday Girl!

Answered Prayers

After what seems like an eternity, we are back home. My Dad's surgery went very well. They ended up having to do a quadruple by-pass and cleaning out his corartid artery. He was in the SICU for one day and then moved to a regular room. It looks as if he will be discharged today and sent home to continue his recovery. He has been in pain, which is understandable after having your chest cracked open--but he is doing extremely well, considering. The miracle of modern medicine. I have never been so anxious in my life. Thank you God for answered prayers.

My Reality Check

My Dad is going to have heart by-pass surgery tomorrow. I can hardly wrap my head around it. This past week has been crazy and Madie's birthday party is this Saturday and my brother's wedding is next weekend. Where there is a will, there is a way----we'll make it through it.

To my Dad, I pray that God is with you to comfort and take care of you during your surgery. You are my Dad, my hero, my friend and I love you more than you will ever know. Be strong and know that we are all here for you. You'll be back fishing again before you know it.

We are heading to my parents house tonight so we will be at the hospital bright and early in the morning. I'll be out of pocket for a while---but my next post will tell of how well my Dad is doing.

Thought and prayers are appreciated!

Madie Bounce!

An early birthday present for our princess!

Learning To Fly...But You Ain't Got Wings

Hubby has started this thing with Madie, where he holds her up so that she can pretend like she is flying and fly her all over the house and he has her bump into things and lets her fly upside down. She laughs hysterically and absolutely loves it! And I love it too, as long as Hubby is home to fly her all over the house. I am not fit nor strong enough to hold her up, run through the house, have her bump into things and continue all the loud noises and sounds that go along with it for the amount of time that she wants to do it.

I guess I am more like a crop duster plane, spittering and sputtering...oh and gasping and panting. While hubby is a sure enough 747. Hubby is going to be out of town for a few days. I've heard they are having trouble at the airport and that all flights have been grounded until further notice. I wonder if Madie will understand this? If not, I guess the 'ol crop duster will be making another flight. Ugh!

Finding Treasure

This weekend Madie and I went to my parents house to visit. I was hosting a bridal tea for my future sister-in-law and JB went for a hunting/fishing marothon weekend with the boys.

My parents were so helpful to me by watching Madie while I did all of the running around and picking things up for the shower. Madie really enjoys our visits to Nana & Paw-paw's. She is the queen of the house and all the things my mom didn't let us do when my brother and I were kids, she now lets Madie do. I think it is so funny.


While we were there for our visit, Madie did a lot of exploring outside with Paw-paw. I thought I would share her treasure finds.
She collected sticks, flowers of many kinds (some wild and some out of Nana's flower pots), rocks and I think the green thing is a "jack"--where she got that I have no idea. She was very proud of the things she found and put them on display for all to see.

Inspired By The Last Lecture

Last night I watched the ABC Primetime special on The Last Lecture: A Love Story For Your Life. It is about Randy Pausch and his fight with pancreatic cancer and his determination to live life to its fullest and make everyday count. He is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and he gave his "last lecture" to a group of his students. He ended the lecture by saying that the lecture was not for those who were in the audience but for his 3 young children to hear his life lessons after he is gone. I don't usually get wrapped up in this sort of thing but this man has truly inspired me to try and be a better person and be thankful for each day and each person who is in my life.

Diane Sawyer interviewed him and asked him what the best part of his day was? He replied by saying, I don't know. The day is not over yet and the best thing of the day might still happen. That's how I want to be....anticipating the best part of a day.

He said that he is most upset, not by the fact that he is dyeing, but the fact that when it happens, his family would feel like they were thrown off a cliff. He said that he could lay down and feel sorry for himself and do nothing OR he could start building nets for his family for after he is gone. I aspire to be a net builder.

For those interested, here is the link to his lecture: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LastLecture/
If you have the time to listen or read, please do. I hope he inspires you as much as he has me.

Juice Box Envy

Madie has just recently mastered drinking out of a juice box. It took a while for her to figure out that if you squeeze the juice box that juice comes out all over the place. She usually only drinks milk, water and the occasional sips of sweet tea and every once in a while she has juice so it is a really big deal when she gets it. She usually drinks it all at one time without hardly stopping to take a breath.

Today we went to the Library to see/hear Mr. Mac sings songs and tell stories. Everything was going great, she was so well behaved today---when out of the corner of my eye I see a mom take out juice boxes for her 2 children, pop the straw open and hand it to them. I had only packed Madie a sippy cup and her requested goldfish and she had not noticed the juice boxes yet . Then, all of sudden she takes off across the room saying "juice box!" By the time I got to her she had already taken the juice box out of the little boys hands, but I made it to her before she could take a sip. I gave the juice box back to the little boy, told his mother I was sorry and told Madie that it wasn't hers to drink. She was devastated and began to cry. I had no idea she would get so upset over a juice box.

Note to self-next week, take a juice box!

Addicted To Bounce

My child is addicted to bounce. By bounce, I mean jumping on our neighbors trampoline. She wakes up in the morning talking about bounce and goes outside talking about bounce and goes to bed talking about bounce. Thankfully, we have wonderful neighbors who allow her to come over and get her fix almost daily. This new addiction has only been going on for a few weeks but when she got hooked, she got hooked.

JB and I were talking, and since her birthday is coming up that we might invest in a trampoline so that she can bounce until her little heart's desired. I started researching trampoline's and was pleasantly surprised that they are not as expensive as I thought they were. Trampoline's have come a long way since I was a child. We didn't have those fancy enclosures that you can get now with the net around it. We got to fall off and have the breathe knocked out of us and learn from our mis-jumps.

I've learned that they range in size from 55 inches to 16 feet, come with enclosures and no enclosures, and covers or no covers. What a decision to make. Not only that, but where in the back yard will we put it?

I guess if we do end up getting a trampoline----we will be guilty of feeding her addition and I will be made to "march" to "bounce".

The Girl's Were Back In Town

This weekend was great! I went back to my hometown, which also happens to be where I went to college and met the best friends of my life. This particular gathering was for one of our "girls" baby shower. It doesn't matter how often we see each other or how often talk, when we get back together it is as if we haven't skipped a beat.

After the shower we went to Jefferson's- one of our old hangouts (they have great wings!). I go home and visit my parents all the time but I hadn't been there in 10 years. Gosh, it doesn't seem like that long. We had a great time catching up!

Thanks for a great time Girls (and Juan too!) ---Can't wait for our next rendezvous!!!

We're All Cinderella's

My neighbor told me I should listen to this song by Steven Curtis Chapman called Cinderella. If you have a daughter or if you are a daughter yourself, grab a tissue and enjoy!

An Unsolicited I Love You

Today for the first time, Madie told me that she loves me without me asking her to say it. It was completely unsolicited.

We were sitting in the floor playing and she got up came around behind me grabbed my shoulders and leaned into me and said "hug" followed by "I loves you."

How sweet is that? I had to document it---I want to remember this forever!!!!

I loves you too, Madie!

Hissy Fit = Timeout

I have always heard parents talk about the terrible two's. I really thought that it was just an expression. Madie has always been a happy go lucky, go with the flow child and she rarely gets upset or fusses.

However, over the past few weeks she has developed quit the personality and when she doesn't get her way or doesn't like or approve of something you are doing or somewhere we are going she will loose it and have a meltdown. By this I mean grunt, whine or cry (sometimes all three) and kick her feet and make it impossible for you to wrangle her up to carry her. I have always heard that these episodes are called hissy fits. Well, she has learned to pitch one and she is not even two yet.

I don't have a manual on parenting and I pretty much learn as I go. But I knew that I was going to have to put a stop to some of these episodes before she really got good at them and they became more frequent. So, I began to remember all of those episodes of Super Nanny that I have watched.

I decided that I was going to give "timeout" a try and see what happened. I wasn't sure if she was old enough to understand the concept yet...but then I thought sure she will, she's much smarter and understands much more than I think she does. So, the next time she had a hissy fit I picked her up, put her in the spot that I had designated for "timeout", told her why I put her there and told her to sit there until I told her that she could get up. At first her fit intensified, but after a few seconds she was calm and just sat there. I walked into another room to see what she would do and she continued to just sit there. She listened, she understood, it worked! After 2 minutes I went back and told her to give me a hug and that I loved her and she was fine.

She's been in "timeout" several times in the past week but today the mere mention of it stopped her in her tracks. She wanted no part of it.

Maybe this "timeout" thing really works. But what am I going to do when we are in the car or at the grocery store and a hissy fit occurs? I guess I will figure that out later.