Puff Pastry, Puzzle, and Playing Babies

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Happy Tuesday, everyone! The past few nights have been great in terms of Maddie’s sleep (and ours!), thank God.  We had a rough couple of nights culminating to Saturday when Maddie woke every hour.  At around 3, she woke and I was able to shush her back to sleep. I tried to go back to sleep, myself, but I couldn’t drift off.  My mind was just waiting for the next whimper and it finally did come again at around 4:30.  I got up again and couldn’t get Maddie back to sleep this time around (I think she could sense that I was stressed/tense), so Phil got up and took over.  I went into our guest room sans monitor or any other distractions and finally was able to fall back to sleep after a few minutes. It was just awful.

Daddy and Tigger! My parents brought this back from Disney World for Maddie.  Tigger was always my favorite character. 

Thankfully, the past two nights have been wonderful.  We have been putting Maddie to bed later, again (at around 10-ish), and I think it is working better for all of us.  She has woken up once or twice the past 2 days, but always before midnight.  I have to give Phil props here. He is so much better at waking at night to take care of Maddie and he really takes charge in this regard.  For some reason, I am really bothered by nighttime wakings - - they just seem to effect me very poorly, but Phil can withstand it more.  He has been so wonderful in taking care of Maddie at night and I am so grateful for him. 

Our weekend was really nice.  I spent all day baking on Saturday, making my so so so delicious rye bread again for our lunches this week. I also gave puff pastry a shot.  It didn’t turn out exactly as I had hoped, but it was still delicious. 

I didn't get a picture of the puff pastry cheese danishes, but here's some french bread I made the previous weekend.  I am going to gain so much weight.....  Haha! 

I got up at 6:30am to start on the dough for both and had them both packed in the oven at around 3:30pm.  What a long day of baking! Then, Phil smelled burning….. my poor cheese danishes were charring.  It was such a disappointment to see something that you spent so much time working on ruined in an instant.  Thankfully, I was able to salvage half of them and we had them for breakfast on Sunday.  I think I am going to try this again with a different recipe.  Maybe I didn’t get the yeast right, but they didn’t seem to puff as much as I had hoped and were a little flatter than expected.  Still yummy, though!

Shortly after that fiasco, I walked into the living room to find our dog, Maybe, eating my puzzle.  Seriously? She has a weird obsession with paper towels, napkins, and apparently puzzle pieces.  This was, yet again, another huge disappointment since Phil and I apparently chose the hardest puzzle EVER to try to put together. I was committed to finishing it, though, and I would say that we had done probably about 75%. Well, not knowing how many of the pieces ended up in my dog’s digestive tract, I decided it was time to throw in the towel.

Puzzle discarded.  Most of it has been tossed in the trash, the rest is, well, fertilizing my backyard.  Hehehe.

Sunday morning went smoothly after a restless night and Phil and I made it to church on time.  Woohoo! Afterwards, we headed to Phil’s mom’s house and spent a couple of pleasant hours with her.  We chatted the time away and then had to leave to visit my parents.  We were celebrating my sister, Laura’s, birthday and had a great time. Maddie was fussy because she hadn’t had a good nap with all of the travelling, but after a quick 20 minute cat nap, she was ready to play with her cousin, Dylan! It was so cute seeing them interacting. 

10 1/2 month old Dylan and 6 1/2 month old Maddie. 

The library program is over for about a month, so I am disappointed that I have to wait a while before getting Maddie back around the other babies.  She is changing so much! She actually reached out to touch the birdie hand puppet that sings the name song and she seems so interested in the books.  She let Miss Wendy hug her goodbye, too! I am looking forward to hearing from one of the moms who apparently has a monthly play-date with a bunch of her mom friends.  I guess that is coming up in early March, so we’ll see.  She is 8 months pregnant, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets cancelled. 

Grandma Jones and Baby enjoying each other's company. 

OK: quick running and Bible memorization updates: Running is great! I have increased my speed to 6.3 mph on the treadmill (~9:30 per mile), which is crazy fast for me.  I have been doing 4 miles at that speed a few times a week.  YAY! I know I’ll probably slow down when I get outside finally, but I am happy with my progress, nonetheless.  I also will be done memorizing Titus 2 today. I only have one verse left and then I’ll be onto the final chapter. I am hoping to have the full book memorized by the middle of March.  Praise God!

I just have to add this picture from the previous weekend when we visited my family. My dad made sub sandwiches and Maddie showed off her stylish zebra print dress.  Maddie just loves her Auntie Meagan (left) and Nonna (middle). 

Well, I am going to go jump on the exercise bike and put in my 10 before sleeping beauty wakes up.  Have a great day, everyone! 

Somebody can Sit!

Friday, February 15, 13

Today has been a pretty good day so far, despite the exhaustion.  Boy, do I need some coffee! Maddie has really regressed sleep-wise and has been waking every 2-3 hours every night for weeks and it is beginning to wear on us.  Thankfully, we normally can get her back to sleep after about 15 minutes or so, but sometimes it takes a lot longer and we will have to get up to relieve each other from the rocking.  When I can, I try to get Maddie to go back to sleep by just putting my hand on her face and holding down her feet, which seem to kick uncontrollably, but sometimes she is just so wired that she can’t relax on her own.  I’m not sure if this is because of her teething (still no chompers, yet), a growth spurt or because she is developing mentally so much right now.  It’s really hard to say. 

Maddie's first Valentine's Day!

Anyway, with the sleep problems aside, we had our weekly trip to the library today and had a great time.  Maddie did great and gave us a few smiles here and there.  Afterwards, I was talking to a mom and it turns out that she goes to Willow Creek and leads a home group for some of the youth in the Streamwood area.  Cool! As we were talking, it turns out that she is the sister-in-law of someone I used to know from my previous small group. Small world! Anyway, she seems really nice and I am excited to get to know her better as time goes on. 

She's been climbing up onto her knees during tummy time.  Crawling, here we come!

Miss Wendy was so impressed with Maddie’s sitting when she saw her today at the Mommy and Me group.  It seemed to happen overnight, but Maddie’s back and neck muscles have really improved.  She actually sat up all by herself for the first time on Wednesday, 2/13! I was so excited.  She will be able to hold her balance for about 30 seconds or so and will play with toys while she’s at it.  YAY!

My little princess tried some mac and cheese this week.  Yum.  Well, yum for me. I’m not sure she was as impressed with it as Phil and I were.  Haha! She also didn’t really care for the chicken noodle soup that we pureed, either.  I think the flavors are so complex that they overwhelm her. 

Baking expeditions continue: I made some rye bread this week.  It was EXCELLENT! 

Maddie had her first valentine’s day yesterday! She looked so adorable in her red and pink outfit! I bought a card for her and wrote a little note in it. I made sure to leave room so that Phil could write in it, too, but when he got home from work, he presented Maddie with a card too! It’s so funny that we both got her one.  They will be going in her scrapbook, for sure!

Phil was his romantic self, as always.  He bought me a corsage for valentine’s day, a beautiful card with some very sweet words and some delicious, delicious chocolates!

Me and my Valentine Corsage

Well, little miss grumpy pants is fussing away, so I think this will be it for my update for now.  Have a great weekend, everyone! 

Six months, but it feels like just yesterday...

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Today, Maddie is 6 months old! It’s hard to believe that 6 months ago I was laying in a hospital bed giving birth to my now 13 ½ pound baby.  Thank God she wasn’t 13 ½ pounds then! Hahaha.

We celebrated her first half birthday by bringing her to the doctor for her 6-month check-up.  

Maddie is a healthy little peanut: she’s in the 7^th percentile for weight and 17^th for length, but all 25 inches of her are developing perfectly. Phil had taken the day off from work, so we were both able to ask the doctor questions and hear about next steps food-wise, so that was great.  Maddie got her routine vaccines and she took them like a champ. She cried, of course, but within a few minutes, she was calm and nursing away her troubles.

Happy Half-Birthday, little girl!

We came home after a quick stop at Target to pick up some baby yogurt (breakfast tomorrow for Mads—first dairy product) and everything was fine until around 5PM.  Maddie became hysterical.  He legs are super sore from the shots and she just wouldn’t stop screaming. She’s in bed now (9PM), thankfully, and we are hoping that she sleeps through the night.  I celebrated her zzzzzz’s by treating myself to some much needed coffee ice cream with peanut M&Ms on top. Yummy.

Well, other than Maddie’s age, I do have a few updates to report: Maddie’s bedtime, tummy time updates, standing, staring at her hand and her first snow experience.  I’ll try to keep each topic brief.

First, we have been gradually moving Maddie’s bedtime forward and she now has been going to bed between 8:30 and 9:00.  This has been great for us as Phil and I now have a little bit of time to unwind before hitting the sack ourselves.  One night this week, without realizing what I was doing, I put Maddie in her crib and began my bedtime routine. I found myself lying in bed at 8:30 ready to go to sleep. I am just so accustomed to Maddie going to bed so late (11:00) that I normally go to sleep immediately after.  Hahaha! I think 8:30 might be a little early, even for us old-timers.

I can't get enough of this precious baby. She is just way too cuddly. 

Maddie’s also been tolerating tummy time for longer periods of time.  She even got up on her knees a couple of times this week! It’s scary to think about her becoming mobile and crawling, but exciting, too.

Maddie is also standing so much more and will actually hold herself up now.  I set her against her exersaucer and she stood for a long time and played with the toys a little bit.  I’m seeing her play with things a lot more. She loves hitting her V-tech ball!

My two favorite people in the whole world! Don't they look identical! 

So, the one thing that has me really cracking up this week is the way Mads stares at her hand.  It is so funny! She holds it in front of her face and turns it front to back repeatedly.  I imagine her saying to herself, “Whoa. Psychedelic, man.” She is just mesmerized.

Finally, Phil and I dressed Maddie in her little cubby bear coat (coat courtesy of Jacelya and Taylor Jones – Thank you!) and brought her outside this week to watch the snowfall.  She didn’t really seem to care that white flakes were falling from the sky, but it sure looked pretty to us. 

Let's go see the snow!

Other than the Maddie updates, the only thing worth really mentioning from the past couple of weeks was that Phil and I are both healthy again.  Thank God.  Last Wednesday, I came down with a horrific case of food poisoning (or possibly the stomach flu). I was violently ill and so grateful to my friend, Sandy, who saved the day and took care of Maddie for a few hours until Phil got home from work.  She is a lifesaver: so reliable and wonderful.  Phil caught a bug 5 days later and took a day off of work to heal and rest. I am just so grateful that Maddie didn’t catch either of our illnesses and also that Phil and I both weren’t sick at the same time.  That would have been awful.

Phil has the day off from work again tomorrow, so we are heading into a nice, long weekend. Here’s hoping that Maddie’s legs aren’t still bothering her and that she is back to her smiley, happy self in the morning. 

Uh oh….she’s awake.  Here we go……