Bubbles

This girl still gets a kick out of bubbles. Especially when the wind blows hard and you don't have to actually blow them. She squeals with delight... so very exciting!

As I type this I am hoping my mother is home from the hospital. She was admitted Friday for pancreantitis. Then they said it was diverticulitis. Then it was gallstones and preparations were made to remove her gall bladder. Then , they said it was none of those things- it was a big ulcer, so they were treating it and would release her. Wait, they said, its actually all of those things. And she is recovering from knee replacement surgery which seems to be giving her the least trouble out of everything. Go figure. When I spoke to her this morning, she was waiting to hear if she could go home today. They have to let the ulcer heal before they can tackle the gall bladder. (**update- she just called- she's home- yay!**)

We had a nice low key Memorial day. Steve , Debbie and the kids came over ('Sammyemma" as Maddie calls them) we went to the park and stopped for pizza. When we got there, I decided Maddie was in no condition to be out in public, waiting for food... so they got the pizza while I drove back to the house. Oh my god, all I heard on the way home was " Sammyemmasammyemmasammyemmasammyemma". Screaming it, tears everywhere, the poor girl. Finally they arrived back at the house and all was well in Maddies world.

Pizza and cousins... does it get any better?

Lucky

Every once in a while, during an American Idol commercial break, I'll flip to the Supernanny. Usually the kids are older, the Dad works a lot and the mom has discipline issues with the children. Jo Frost sets them straight within a few days, they see the light and she flies back to the UK with her umbrella and plum colored suit. Last week, I truned it on and it really got to me( disclaimer: I'm pretty sure I'm PMSing, so that would explain the emotional investment and the tears). There was a two year old girl, same age as Madeline, and the mother 'put her to bed' I use quotes because the bedtime routine consisted of;

-putting the girl on the parents bed, lights on

-giving her a sleeve of crackers and a can ( yes a can!) of cheese

-turning on the TV to a program about gang violence

Jojo had a fit of course, and promised to give the 'pair of them(the parents)' the business the next day. Where was the bathtime? Where was her own bed? Why was she watching a show about gang violence? Why wasn't she reading her a book ?

By the time she left a few days later, said toddler was in a bed, mom was reading her a book and snuggling... but I wonder if it lasted when the cameras packed up and went home.

Now, granted I don't have 6 kids like this family did. I've got one, so its pretty manageable to give her a bath, brush teeth and sit in a rocking chair and read her Curious George and the Bunny. But it really made me sad- like really sad for all the kids in the world that don't have a mother who snuggles and reads them a book, or a daddy that checks in on them when he gets home from work. Or parents that don't think everything their kids do is wonderful- like Greg and I both did and like we do about Madeline. I hate to use this word because it doesn't seem fitting - but we were lucky, Madeline is lucky, all my nieces and nephews are LUCKY to have such great , loving parents. It shouldn't be luck, it should be a given, but its not. So Happy Belated Mothers day to you Mom, Maryann, Debbie and Christina. Thank you all for being so wonderful to my family. We're all very lucky.

Speaking of Mother's Day, we spent it at the Planting Felids Arboretum. I wanted to get a few shots of Madeline ,but man, is she active. There was a little of this :

Some of this:And a whole lotta this...But I did manage to capture some Essence of Maddie pictures
And one of me and my girl, Mother's Day 2008

Elephant in the Room

Its funny, I started this new blog because I wanted to write more about our life- which obviously Madeline is a big part of - but I wanted it to be more inclusive of us as a family, not just Maddie Happenings. Yet it seems like every entry is about Madeline- which is OK, but it kind of brings up a few things for me.
Motherhood hit me hard. Everyone says it changes you, your life is never the same, blah blah blah, but of course no one can prepare you for even 1/10th of what it is actually like. I stopped one life on a Friday and by Monday I began an entirely new one, a stay at home mother. I am thankful to be able to spend so much time with my daughter, but I really feel as if I've lost myself in the past two years. Physically, I don't even recognize myself when I look in the mirror. Carrying around some extra pounds, dark hair, wrinkles. My mind has lost some brain cells, I am forgetful, slow thinking and stumble over words. I am unorganized and it drives me crazy. I am more socially awkward than ever, not feeling like I have anything to contribute to a conversation- Bascially I've been pretty hard on myself, and maybe I should be, maybe I shouldn't. Its just what has been going on. My problem is I think too much and overanalyze every.little. thing.

I haven't posted in a while, I've been having sort of Bloggers Block , if you will. I felt a little funny just posting pictures, of which I have a million, without getting this out. It was like ignoring the elephant in the room, and even though most of you have no idea there's an elephant in the room, I do. I'm kind of getting this out to push him out , to acknowledge an imperfection and a struggle I'm having. I'm not sure how to get 'back' to where I was, or even if thats possible.
I'm sure I'm not the only one to have ever felt this way, and there have been plenty of times in my life where I've been unsure of myself, I guess its just disheartening to have it happen at my age.
So thats me and where I am. For those of you that came here for Madeline pictures, I've got a ton of them, stay tuned.

mimipapas

Thats how Madeline refers to her grandparents. One word-mimipapa. Not only did she get to see Mimipapa D this past weekend, she gets to see Mimipapa L at the end of this week. Very exciting! I took lots and lots of pictures this week, so if you've got Maddie Fever, you're at the right place.

First, I give you Miss Olivia. Its hard to believe she's five. I remember so well when she was the only baby in our family and how we doted on her. Now she's the big cousin ( and soon to be Big Sister again, so I learned this weekend!) I may be biased, because she is my neice and I think everything all my neices do is wonderful- but she is quite an artist. She drew me a picture of Curious George and the man with the yellow hat that is now on my fridge. Really, it blows me away what this five year old can draw. Maddie helping Papa in the backyardThe garbage can had no destination, but Maddie felt quite important helping Papa drag it all over the backyardMadeline and her cousin Jack. As Christina stated in her blog, its really become evident how close in age these two are. I mean, duh- they've always been about 9 months apart, but now that she is 2 plus and he's just turning three, they seem to share similar interests( cars, bikes, swings- ha ha). This picture looks timeless to me, it seems to catch their 'toddler-hood' quite perfectly- Maddie in a box, and cousin Jack trying to push herGiving the flower a bath

And this I have to throw in there to illustrate the State of Curliness that is Madeline's hair. I get compliments all the time on it, apparently it comes from Greg's side of the family. Look at how beautiful and curly it is. This means Maddie will spend most of her life trying to straighten it, of course. We girls are never happy with what we are given.

Saturday , we went to the Japanese gardens at Roger Williams Park- it was beautiful

Maddie loved running over the bridges. Swings were a big part of the weekend... at the park......and at mimipapa's house. She kept saying' Close-a-eyes!" while she was swingingI love how she scrunches up her whole face just to close her eyes.We had lots of fun !

Spring has Sprung!

What a Spring-y day we had today. We also had a no-napping day and Madeline was out for the night at 6:49pm. This will be a picture heavy post.

Aunts Kim and Donna bought Madeline a tricycle for her 2nd birthday. She. LOVES. It. She loves the helmet too. After she's done with the bike, she won't take her helmet off. It must make her feel official or something- who knows?

Daddy taught her how to use the 'pretzels' to move- lol thats what she calls the pedals!Actually those pictures were taken yesterday. This morning the scene went like this. 8:30 am. Ready to Roll. Mom, whats taking you so long???

We discovered the streamers ...And then it was time for some slide action...Then Maddie's new favorite game of "UP.......DOWN"Greg got home early from work and we went to the park, Land of a Thousand Slides( thats not actually the name, but there are a lot of slides there.) Because Maddie was overtired with a capital O, she was like a maniac and flew down every one of them. Then because she was overtired, she started getting loopy, so we decided to go before she hurt herself.
No better way to end a day than with bubbles in the backyard before dinner.

Busy Busy Day in a Busy Busy Town

*First, an apology for the typos . I type too fast and have no figured out how to go back and edit my blog. So hopefully everyone gets the gist of what i'm trying to say. And now....

Ok, Busy Busy day in a Busy Busy Town. Yeah, we had a busy day today. Busy Busy Town by Richard Scarry is Madeline's new favorite book. She calls it the cat book because there are cats in it. I think its pretty cool b/c I used to love those books when I was little. I took it out from the library, but I'm going to have to get her her own copy.
So our day... I took her to the library this morning for some train table action. There was quite a few kids there for one of the library programs. At 10 o'clock, they all left to go into the room, and Maddie yelled " Bye! See you soon! Have fun!" All the librarians were laughing.
Then she fell in love with a little blond haired boy at the train table. She kept trying to show 'boy' (as she called him , ha ha,) her trains, or get him to do a firetruck puzzle or do building blocks with her. When he showed little to no interest in her, she upped her game. She followed him around, trying to hug him. I was dying ! She really has never done that before- usually she could take or leave ( mostly leave) most other kids there-she took a liking to Boy and that was that. It was so funny to watch.
Then we had to rush home to eat lunch. I joined a Mothers group and I had signed her up for an art project today. It took place during her disappearing nap time, so I wanted her to eat and then have her fall asleep in the car. That would suffice as her nap. She was interested in the art project for about 7 minutes( impressive!), and then wanted to go next door and play with toys. She would not let me leave though... she's really having bad separation anxiety.( if anyone can give me tips on how to help me with this, I'd appreciate it). So we finished up her art project and left.

Nexy stop: Target. It had been a day and a half since I was there last.

Then when we got home, she and Greg played outside with sidewalk chalk, the soccer ball, she helped him pull weeds, blew some bubbles, and she played in the shed- (which she thinks is her house). She spent a good two hours out there. I LOVE SPRING!!!! Actually, I really don't, but I am loving the longer days and the warmish , non rainy weather. The winter, though not really cold here anymore is l...o...n...g, so yay !!!! for spring.

The best part of a busy busy day ? Now Maddie is a sleepy sleepy girl. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Its Official - She Likes Dirt

Madeline and I visited Samantha and Emma on Saturday. Or, as they are known in my house"sammyemma'. One word. The three of them got in the wagon and asked me to pull them( !!!) I tired, really I did, but even Maddie was saying " faster!". I'm no Uncle Greg, I just pulled them around in a circle once or twice. And then sat down because I was about to have a heart attack. Note to self: get.in.shape.

So what i discovered, although its not too hard to figure out, what I discovered is Maddie likes dirt. She likes playing with a shovel in dirt. She likes pouring dirt on her pants. She likes getting dirt on her hands. And I'm pretty sure she likes eating dirt. She also was digging (pun intended-ha ha) the baby worms. When it finally stops raining here , I'm going to embark on my first season as a gardener. I think it will be something I like, it kind of runs in the had a nice garden already set up. Basically, all greg and I were to do last fall was cut everything down, and then this spring we wait for it to grow again. Sounds easy enough right? Well, yesterday he was raking up leaves and pulling some weeds, when he calls me outside. " uh, i think I just pulled out the flowers. Weeds don't have bulbs at the end of them right? " So the score for those of you keeping track at home: Greg and Jessica as Green Thumbers- zero. There is no competition, we're going to beat ourselves, I'm sure. Maybe Maddie can save us...