Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Phil and I spent the evening downstairs in our basement tonight after eating our traditional meal of bagna cauda, the italian fondu delicacy that we have loved and looked forward to every New Year’s Eve for, oh, we’ll just say that it’s been a looooong time. We lounged, watching our tv show while Maddie played in the enclosed space that we created for her. ABCs and 123s and lots of colors in a large square on the ground for our little “Gobby” to run around on.

Oh, what a year it has been! I wasn’t really sentimental about it until Phil asked me what my favorite moment of 2013 was and I immediately answered: Madelynn’s birthday! I think back upon her first birthday party with so much happiness. My heart is filled with joy when I remember being surrounded by our friends and family and remembering Maddie’s reaction to us all singing to her in unison. It was just such a special moment! 

But, while that was THE moment of 2013 for me, I can’t forget the other milestones that I witnessed. Maddie’s babbling, crawling, WALKING (AH!!!), first tooth, the slow and steady growth of her hair, clapping, “gobble gobble”-ing, the excitement in her eyes as she sees our beloved dog, says his name, “Luka!”, and smiles when she sees the excitement in her parents’ eyes, the clapping while yelling, “ahhhhhh!”, so many wonderful times at the library, touching snow, visiting parks, dipping in the water, crying when feeling sand for the first time, chasing the kitty-cats….. How can I capture every moment in my mind? How can I ensure that I will remember it? 

Madelynn comes to me singing her favorite library-time song and I can’t help but think how timely it is….

“Tick, tock, tick tock…” she sings while rocking from side to side. 

I scoop her up into my arms (because I still can), rock her back and forth and finish the song, “I’m a little cuckoo clock. Tick tock, tick tock, now it’s almost TWELVE* o-clock.” 

Cuckoo! 

Happy New Year! 

*No lifting-of-the-baby-twelve-times was done during the writing of this blog. 

Sitting, Eating, Enjoying

Friday, December 6, 2013

We have had such a fun time the past couple of weeks! First of all, Thanksgiving was a blast! We had two Thanksgivings: what more could you ask for? 

The first one, was hosted at our house and my sister, Laura and her family, and my mom came over.  I made a bouquet of flowers for the table and filled the vase with some food-colored rice. I also made some homemade napkin holders from some pretty ribbon that I found at the dollar store.  I think the table turned out nice! 

We took some before and after pictures, too to illustrate just how full we were.  

Before.....

After. 

The food was so good! Laura made some yummy sweet potatoes and brought lots of other sides.  Her apple cheesecake strudel pie was a hit! My mom brought pies, too, and I only wish I had room to try them after the feast I ate for dinner: mac and cheese, turkey, stuffing with homemade sausage…. well, I guess I don’t have to list everything.  You know what’s served for thanksgiving.  

Before our second Thanksgiving, Friday and Saturday came.  Friday, Phil and I went to a few stores to shop around and we bought a couple of things.  I hit it big at Jo-Ann fabric, though, and can’t wait to sew with all of my new flannel and fleece! So exciting!!! We also put up and decorated the tree and got the decorations up outside, too.  Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas! 

Saturday was fun, too! We had Phil’s mom over and spent time sorting through some things in our garage.  I also dipped into some of the fleece that I bought and made some Christmas stockings.  Phil and his mom helped me decorate them with little embellishments and they turned out beautifully.  We had such a nice time.

Maddie and her Grandma ready for some fun!

Our homemade stockings. 

Thanksgiving #2 was at my parent’s house up in Highwood.  We missed Rich and Heather, who is due with their first baby in 10 days, but laughed our heads off with Danielle and her family, Meagan, Grandma and my parents.  I always find myself cracking up whenever I’m with them.  My dad, hands-down, makes the best stuffing in the world and his turkey turns our so good, too.  And his pumpkin pie, complete with sugar, was the perfect ending to a perfect meal (Maddie couldn’t get enough of it). My mom had so many amazing appetizers out for us to eat, including some homemade donut holes and Danielle’s Banana Chocolate Chip bread.  No wonder I have gained a couple of pounds! 

All-in-all, we’ve been busy but happy.  

Maddie, Uncle Taylor and Cousin Charlotte celebrating Cousin Sammie's (not pictured) birthday with pizza and the  best rice-krispy treat cake ever! 

Maddie learned that snow feels cold and wet. 

Maddie is learning so much recently, too.  

“Maddie, where’s mama’s nose?” 

“Buhs,” she responds, pointing to my nose with her index finger.  She also points to mouth and eyes, but we are working on ears, still.  

She loves to climb on things all of the sudden and wouldn’t stop going up and down the slide when I took her to the play area at the mall.  She also likes to sit on things. 

Maddie backing up, trying to sit on cousin Dylan

Maddie proud in her achievement of overtaking cousin Dylan's chair

Maddie sitting in my make-up box

Maddie trying to sit on the Christmas lights

Maddie sitting in her own detached high chair

And she officially has been sat on.  When we  were at the mall, this week, Maddie was crawling around (I guess she was tired from running), and a 3 or 4 year old girl walked up to her and, without hesitation, straddled Maddie’s back and sat on top of her like a horse.  Never a dull moment.  Maddie is fine.  

We discovered a fun little place called Safety Town down the street from us, which is perfect for Maddie. She just loves a big area in which to run around, so Maddie sized streets, sidewalks, houses and stop signs are right up her alley (shameless pun intended). 

Where's Maddie? 

Maddie Loves Safety Town

And, let the imitating begin! I absolutely loved this last week when Maddie, after watching me get ready for the day, picked up my hair brush and tried to brush her own hair! I then leaned my head down, so my hair was draped in front of her and she brushed my hair for me.  Just a reminder that she is watching and learning from everything I do.  

Lady Bug, Guns, Lots of Food and the big "Three-Oh"!

Friday, November 22, 2013

It has been so long since I have updated this! Wow! I have been meaning to write a post every day this week and every time, the day just seems to get away from me. Well, I can’t possibly cover everything that has happened in the past month, but there are a few highlights. 

Phil turned 30! What a milestone! We had a really nice birthday weekend together a couple of weeks ago. Phil took a half day off the Friday before his birthday and on the following monday, which was his actual birthday. We celebrated with family walks, trips to the store together, cuddling up and watching tv on the couch…nothing remarkable leading up to the big day, which I think was nice and relaxing for both of us.  I bought three gifts for Phil and allowed him to open one each day starting on Saturday and he seemed to love them all: a pewter mug for drinking his nice, cold Arnold Palmers, a couple new shirts, and a personalized Cardinals jersey with “Jones - 11” on the back.  Monday was a day of cooking. We made a turkey stew topped with   fried oysters and crunchy, fried leeks, which required days of prep work. Instead of a cake, I baked rye bread and we feasted. YUM! I think it was memorable and a perfect way to spend the day, since we both love cooking together so much. 

  

Phil's birthday gifts

Chilling at the park

Out on a birthday-weekend walk!

Phil and Loyal Luka

The following weekend, I put together what Phil called his birthday “play date”. I got his closest friends, Andres, Andy and Zack, to meet at our house and drive together to a shooting range, where they proceeded to rent guns, ammo, targets…etc…and, well…shoot! Phil was really excited about it and seemed surprised when I told him what he would be doing later that day, although he did guess that it’s what I had planned the week leading up to the big day. How did he know?!?!  Phil said afterwards that the gun was louder than he expected. The experience was fun and intense. Now I want to go! 

Phil looks so cool shooting the revolver!

Meanwhile, I prepared a bunch of food for when the guys came back: caprese skewers with prosciutto, homemade meatballs, shrimp cocktail, olive cheese bread, artichoke cheese bread, blue cheese topped with walnuts and honey, a couple of cocktails and a homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream cake to end the night.  Everything went off without a hitch and it seemed like Phil and the guys had a great time.  Yay! 

Yummy cake!

Let’s see. Maddie-wise, she is growing like a weed! I feel like she’s an inch taller every time I look at her. She runs now and she is F.A.S.T.  It makes me happy.  She also talks sooooo much! She says all kinds of words now including “kitty cat,” “cuckoo clock,” “what?,” “Luka,” “tickle tickle,” and she answers questions “yes,” and “no.” Her sweet voice melts my heart.  

She loves to pretend to talk on the phone

Memorization-wise, I finished memorizing the first 2 chapters of the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5-6, and I just started Matthew 7 this week. Praise God! 

My running has been great. I’m not training for anything, but I have been going out on the weekends by myself and my pace seems to have improved out of nowhere.  I did 10 miles recently with a 9:25 per mile average pace! I couldn’t believe it! 

Maddie moves fast, too! She loved spending the day at Safety Town in Streamwood and having her own roads, sidewalks and miniature houses to run around. PS: This is one of the sets of pants I made for her recently. 

Let’s see, the only other big event was Halloween: Maddie was a lady bug and I made her costume.  She hated it. Haha.  

Cutie Patootie.
"What is this thing on my head?!?!?!"

Well, Hopefully I will get around to updating this a little more often, especially with the holidays coming up. I can’t wait to see our family and friends in the coming months.  I LOVE CHRISTMAS! =) 

Honky Tonk Half Marathon Weekend

Saturday, October 26, 2013

I meant to write this post earlier, but life got in the way. This week was busy! Aren’t they all?

Well, I had a great time hanging out with my great friend, Erica Husted, in Wisconsin Dells this past weekend. We met there to run the Honky Tonk Half Marathon. It was small, but not too small and very hilly! Eek! We found ourselves declaring names over the hills as we ran them: “I hereby name you, ‘sucky hill’!” Boy o  boy, were they tough, but in the end, we finished.  Woohoo! Our time wasn’t great, but our real reason for taking the trip wasn’t only to run the race, but to have a fin time together.

It was a particularly cold day, but as we got going, it felt nice. We were happy that it was overcast so the sun wasn't in our eyes and we could take in all the beautiful, scenic views. The trees were beautiful and we saw some gorgeous lakes. 

And so, the fun began on Friday! We went out for some drinks and pizza that a local guy recommended to us.  It was fun and the crowd was….interesting and diverse.

 

The last picture taken with my phone before it decided to die.  I love big chairs but I love Erica more! 

Saturday was the best, though. We spent the majority of the day at the indoor waterpark and rode all of the slides.  My favorite one was the creepy “clown slide” which isn’t actually what it was named, but it reminded me of a carnival. The waterpark was definitely the highlight of the trip! We finished the day at a haunted house, which really terrified me with it’s man-eating rat machine and the puffs of air that randomly blew into your face.  The sad thing is, I’m not being sarcastic here…. I screamed a lot throughout the haunted house. Later, Erica realized that she had dropped her credit card inside the attraction, though, so we went back again the next day. I am such a wuss that, even though I knew what to expect when walking through the house the second time around with a flashlight, I still screamed. Haha! I’m such a baby. 

 

AHHHHHHH!!!!

We finished the weekend with our tradition of running around town with our medals and finding fun things to take pictures in front of.  I always have so much fun with Erica!

 

We did it! This is my favorite picture from the whole weekend. I can't believe we could get that high in the air after running 13.1 miles! 

The drive home was awful due to the construction and traffic.  All I wanted to do was get home to see Phil and Maddie; I missed them so much! My phone broke over the weekend, so I barely spoke to them at all. This was my first time being away from Mads overnight, so the cars in front of me couldn’t move fast enough. I finally made it home and Phil surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of congratulatory flowers. 

 

Phil = best husband EVER

Maddie and Daddy had some fun bonding time over the weekend. They played with grandma on Friday and Saturday, did lots of snuggling and even more playing.  But, according to Phil, Maddie wasn’t quite herself and had a few awful nights.  Phil was exhausted and I wish that I could have been there to help him (kinda). 

"Get this off of my head!" 

Maddie checking out my medal. 

But Maddie is back to being all smiles and wonderful. I suspect that her tummy was bothering her because she didn’t want to eat and later in the week, Phil and I both came down with the stomach flu.  Welcome home, Nikki! But, we are cleared up and good to go! I’m really looking forward to this weekend and spending time with my family. As much fun as I had on the trip, there’s no place better than home.

Home Sweet Home. 

You are the You-est You; Your Little Personality is Shining Through

Friday, October 11, 2013

The things that melt your heart.  Oh, how blessed I am to watch this precious girl grow up.  I just have to mention a few things that little Maddie does that express her cute personality and that I just absolutely adore.

Maddie’s kisses: Well, Mads loves to give kisses of the open-mouth variety. I really look forward to the day when she learns to close her mouth instead of slobbering all over my face when I try to give her a little peck.  But, all babies do this for some time. There is a different “kiss” that Maddie has learned that I want to highlight here. Well, for a couple of weeks, Maddie had a really runny nose and the idea of not only kissing Maddie’s drool, but having her snot drip into my mouth….well, needless to say, it didn’t seem too appealing. So, for a few weeks I was giving her kisses in abundance on her forehead.  So, now, when she hears the sound “mmmmm-mah!”, she will press her forehead to my lips.  And she will continue to do this as though head-banging until I stop her or put her down.  I’m not going to lie; there have been a couple of times when I feared that she would knock my teeth out with the force of her so-called “kisses”.  Ha! But, I love it: every morning when I walk into her room after she wakes up, Maddie asks for a head-banging kiss and this goes on all throughout the day.

 

Boo! 

Maddie’s way of saying “Hi”: Maddie and Dada clearly have a special bond.  While I receive a shriek and a smile when I walk into her room after a nap, when dad walks in to get her instead, Maddie immediately stands up, smiles and gives him her backwards wave while chanting “bah bah. Bah bah” or “bah da da.” She hasn’t quite figured out that there is a difference between “bye bye” and “hi”, but she’ll get there (and….come on, it’s adorable). Dad and Mads have another special thing that they share and watching it as a third party has given me the opportunity to try to interpret it’s meaning based on their body language and facial expressions. They simply point their index finger at each other and then touch the tips together signifying, “Hi Dada/Maddie, I love you and all of your silliness.” Maddie’s smile and scrunched up nose in this moment are clearly expressing, “Dada, you are goofy and so am I and I like YOU.” As a mother and wife, I will never tire of watching these moments.

 

Maddie and Daddy at the Pumpkin Patch last weekend

Maddie’s love of feet: Mads loves feet. Period. If you are around Maddie, you should never be surprised to look down and find a baby holding your foot and shrieking in enjoyment. Oh, the simple things.  Mads also loves socks for some reason. Let me explain; she doesn’t like to have socks on her feet, but rather, in her mouth.  If Mads finds one of her socks on the floor, she will pick it up, stuff it in her mouth and walk around the house. Whatever floats your boat, Mads.

 

We took these pictures months ago, but just added the talking and thinking bubbles to Maddie's scrap book.  This is Maddie's friend, Elizabeth, who is about 2 weeks younger. 

Maddie’s dance: Ok, so we are horrible parents.  I used to laugh about the fact that I apparently watched “The Terminator” with my dad at a very young age because it is clearly inappropriate for a child to see all of the violence. So, it shames me to admit that Phil and I love to watch Law and Order. And, when you have a baby that doesn’t go to sleep until 10PM, this means that any and all TV that you watch is also watched with said baby. She doesn’t really watch the show, but plays, rather, while we have it on in the background.  And, she is soooo young that she couldn’t possibly be understanding the violence and everything (a mother’s rationalization). But,we did start to notice something a while back. It started when the credits would come on and the Law and Order theme song would start to play.  A smile would appear on Maddie’s face. So, we started paying attention and watching her reaction every time we watch the show and, without fail, she gets excited every time! Now that she can walk, watching this moment play out is the highlight of my day.  Maddie stops whatever she is doing when she hears the music and then starts singing “dah dah dah dah dah dah dah” and dancing around the room, moving her hands up and down. It is so funny to watch that we have often rewound and replayed just the theme song so that she can dance a little longer. 

 

Learning to walk outside with her shoes on

Maddie’s compassion and love for other people: Maddie clearly has a loving heart.  She loves people and will run up to anyone to give them a hug (she leans her head towards people) or a pat on the leg.  She does so well in the nursery at church and loves to play with others at the library, too.  I have noticed, also, that Maddie understands emotions at a high level. If I am sad or crying, she looks at me with a sad expression as if she wants to try to make me happy again. And when I am happy, silly and laughing, she smiles really big, laughs and runs to me for hugs. So, it didn’t surprise me too much when Phil told me that one of the women in the nursery at church reported, “Maddie did great (again). She was consoling the other babies when they were crying.” I never got a clear explanation of what exactly happened, but I imagine that Maddie crawled to the other baby and sat next to him while he cried. And isn’t this exactly what we all want when we are sad? Another person’s presence to remind us that we are not alone in our suffering?

 

14 months old. 

My sweet girl is going to make such an impact on this world.  She has a shining personality already and I know it is going to take her far. 

She's Talking the Talk AND Walking the Walk

Friday, October 4, 2013

I now understand what people mean when they say, “It happens all of the sudden” when talking about babies mastering the ability to walk and/or crawl. I have heard this from so many other people, but have always thought they were wrong. My little Maddie’s journey on her way to proficiency in the gross motor skills-area has not been easy. I watched every millimeter of progress occur and it took a long time.  Now, I understand that it’s not the lead-up to the actual event that is instantaneous, but the improvement in the skill thereafter.  Maddie started walking earlier this week (YAY!!!!!) and in no time at all, she is a pro! She wants nothing to do with her toys or anything else we have to offer her, but would rather circle her exersaucer and walk back and forth between the couch and coffee table repeatedly. 

 

It's blurry because she's moving so fast! :)

If that weren’t enough progress for one little girl in a week’s time, she has been a little Chatty-Cathy, too.  I am always shocked when I hear her say new words, so I felt like I lived with my jaw permanently dropped to the floor for the past 7 days.

 

"Help! Somebody get me outta here!"  

Her new favorite word is “tickle-tickle” and she even walked towards me one time, rubbing her belly and repeating the word as though she were tickling herself.  I just about died. 

Another time, I was telling her not to take my phone and she made a sound and looked at me as though asking, “why?” So, I responded, as any mom would, “because I said.” The next thing I know, Maddie is repeating over and over the word, “said, said, said.” If she didn’t understand my reasoning, at least she was distracted from trying to play with my phone by reciting a new word.

 

"Mama, you're hilarious!" (My little one cracking up after a particularly unrestful night)

Finally, we came home one day from the store, and Maddie reached out her hands to the dogs that were circling near our legs and said. “dog.” Later, she was trying to pet Luka while he was lying on the couch and repeated, “dog” again. This is so exciting to me because, not only is she able to say the words, but she seemingly understands what some of them mean, too.

 

We started using a blanket at night and Maddie accepted it better than I thought she would. 

Oh, and Maddie’s moving and grooving to music now.  She loves to dance and I love to watch her.  It is so so so so so so cute to see her tiny little body bouncing around.

 

Our weekly trip together to the grocery store. 

In other news, Phil and I had a big day yesterday; we celebrated our 15-year dating anniversary. Every year we say we aren’t going to celebrate; it’s not our wedding anniversary, after all (we’ve been married for 8 years).  But Phil said that he thought 15 years was significant and surprised me with a beautiful gift. He truly is a romantic and knows exactly what I like!

 

My new pandora bracelet: personal, meaningful and special.
1.  green bead, because it's my favorite color and the purple because green and purple were the theme-colors for Maddie's first birthday.
2. The shoe for my running.
3. The cupcake for my love of baking. 

There are so many more updates to report, but I’m going to cut this post short. But, just know that I am sewing a lot and loving it, I have a race (half marathon) coming up in a few weeks in WI with my friend Erica (I can’t wait for our girl’s weekend getaway) and I am continually working on memorizing Matthew 6 (the second of three chapters of the sermon on the mount). More on all of these things later. Ciao! 

Wobbly Walker

Monday, September 23, 3013

"Who you looking at?"
"Want to say that again to my face?"
LOL. Oh, the many expressions of Maddie. 

Well, it’s been a fun couple of weeks, aside from the continued fussiness, although that has diminished considerably.  Maddie still has no molars, but is chewing on her hands and pacifier a lot.  We shall see if they pop through anytime soon. 

Look at all of those teeth. Oh, and those overalls are pretty cute, too, if I do say so myself (sewn together by mom earlier this week).   :) 

Speaking of teeth, my tooth saga continues. I went to the dentist again on Friday to have a post and core put in now that the root canal is finally done and found out that now I need to have gum surgery before I can get my permanent crown done.  AHHHH!! Will it never end?!?!?!

Maddie met Mr. Andy for the first time last weekend,and they got along like they were the best of friends.  We only wish that Mrs. Susan could have come, too, so Maddie could meet her and say "hi" to the developing friend inside Mrs. Susan's tummy. A new playmate for Maddie is coming soon.  YAY! 

Well, back to Maddie: this little girl is making some major strides (pun intended) towards walking! I think she is going to be running around this house within the next couple of weeks. She is becoming more and more brave and will let go of the couch and just start walking on her own now….towards nothing.  Ha! She used to only come to me or Phil, but now she just takes off.  She’s learning to catch herself with her hands when she falls now, so that’s good.  This weekend, though, it was amazing! I was around the corner in Maddie’s bedroom and she was at the baby gate at the top of the stairs. The next thing I know, she is walking around the corner and coming straight towards me.  Way to go, little girl! She is still wobbly, but balances herself out on her long journeys across the room. 

She is finally learning to tip that sippy cup up all on her own. 

Other important milestones to note in the life of a developing child: banga cauda.  Yes, it is official! Maddie had banga cauda for the first time (aside from the time when we dipped her pacifier in it when she was only a couple months old) and liked it a lot! Hahaha. She is her parents’ child. 

Maddie eating banga cauda. Yum!  

Phil and I joined a community group at church, which has been a huge blessing in our lives already. I also have started going to the women’s ministry Bible study on Wednesday mornings and can’t wait to go again this week.  Maddie loves going, too, because she, on both occasions, gets to play in the church nursery with all of her adult and baby friends.  It’s a win-win-win all around. 

Ah, a refreshing day spent with our dear family. We really enjoyed going to church together yesterday and fellowshipping afterwards with some delicious pizza.