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!