Beach Weekend and Sweet Dumpling

Matt and I returned today from a couples beach trip for the Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time with 3 other couples. Great weather and fun times. We will now spend this next 5 days recovering from our sun burn. We called Maddy twice a day and talked to her a couple of times. Most of the time she was too busy playing to pause and say hello. She has gone since Thursday now without her pacifier and doesn't seem to care. I think she's been too busy and probably too tired at night to even think about it. We are very excited about that! We've been distracted all weekend so it will be interesting to see how we do this week once we get back into our routine and our little monster isn't here. She has learned a new phrase - Nana was calling Maddy "sweet dumpling" and Maddy thinks that is very funny and was repeating it for us. She got on the phone and said "Sweet dum-pli-ng Daddy!" We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Summer Camp Update

Quick Update - I spoke to Nana this morning and found out that Maddy slept all night without her pacifier!!! Woo-hoo. Apparently Nana "lost" the pacifier at the airport and Maddy seemed to find that excuse acceptable.

Summer Camp - in TEXAS!

It's official, Maddy is gone for her 3 week summer camp in Texas. Mom (Nana) landed in Charlotte Wednesday night and took off Thursday morning with Maddy, a car seat, a stroller and a Dora suitcase! We've always known that summers would be split between North Carolina and Texas and once Maddy's school told us that we wouldn't have to pay tuition while she's away, we booked her flight :)

There are lots of exciting events planned during Grandparent summer camp and the best part is that Mommy and Daddy don't have to pay the typical summer activity fee! I'm not sure if she gets a free t-shirt though.

Matt and I have both handled this experience differently. Matt didn't look forward to it - he knows Maddy will have a blast and he's happy that my family is getting some quality time but it's still a LONG time to be without his little Monster. I, on the other hand, planned every last day of the three weeks down to the minute with all the productive things I want to accomplish! Then the time came for her to actually leave and the tables turned a little. What if she gets homesick? What if she really gets sick? What if she gets mad at us when we make her come back home? Is it possible for Nana to keep Maddy on her schedule? All these things hit me in one 24 hour period. I'm sure I was thinking them all along but blocked them out. So, yesterday was a rough day for Mommy and Daddy. Maddy was a trooper at the airport and I actually had to make her kiss me good-bye. 24 hours have past and she has yet to even ask about us. That is great news! While I would love for her to miss me - one of my biggest fears in all of this was that she would get homesick or be sad in some way - so I'm RELIEVED that at least in the short term she could care less that we're not there.

Some people look at me like I'm a horrible person when I say this but it's the truth. You always miss your kids. You don't want to be away from them for extended periods of time but when you get to sleep in an hour later, fold laundry and actually make the bed before work - it feels good! I miss my little peanut but I plan to use this time to recharge, get organized and make time for me/us!

I will continue to post while Maddy's away and update on her adventures (as I hear them) and we'll see if my tune changes over the next few weeks.

Matt and I are headed to the beach tonight with friends for the holiday weekend so I'm hoping that keeps us distracted for a few days :)

Happy Holidays!

Poop Break

Clearly by the title, this is not one of those blogs everyone will want to read. Actually nobody probably wants to read it but it's just another day with another funny moment I feel like sharing with EVERYONE :) Plus, it will make for a great thing for Matt to read to Maddy's boyfriends one day - isn't that the reason for this blog??????

Today was Wednesday so that means dance. She loves it and walked out of school on her tip toes flapping like a butterfly. We came home and I think Matt and I were both feeling a little lazy so we decided we didn't want to cook and would go out for dinner. It's great now because you can say Maddy do you want chicken or pasta and she will actually tell you what she wants! I love that! Tonight I did not give her a choice but asked her if she wanted a grilled cheese and green beans and she said, "Yes,I do - I want green beans." I also love almost complete sentences. We are past the babble talk at this point and she's stringing together many words which makes life so much easier.

Anyway, we were almost finished with dinner when she pushed her food away and started trying to stand up in the highchair. I did the normal thing which is tell her to sit on her bottom and she said, "No, I trying to poop!" Of course we're in a restaurant with like 5 people so the embarrassment was minimal but still made my face a little red. She then proceeds to grunt as she squats in her chair. It took a while of this process and the whole time she's grunting and saying she's pooping - while we're at the dinner table! Once she finished, she announces that she needs a new diaper. I told her we would get one as soon as we got home (we were like a mile down the road) and she said that she needed one now :) Needless to say, Maddy and I went to the car while Matt paid the bill (I should actually have Maddy use this trick more often :)) It was only once we were in the car with a clean diaper she started to cry because she didn't finish her dinner. Apparently the reason she pushed her food away was not because she was done but because she needed a poop break!

As strange as it is, these are the little moments I was hoping to capture on this blog. How funny that in a few short years my life has gone from Wednesday night karaoke bars to poop breaks during dinner. The best part about that - I wouldn't change one single second of it!

Until the next poop break...

Random

I don't really have anything specific to post tonight but thought I would talk about the random events from the past few days. We've been really busy and haven't had much time to talk to anyone so I may have missed cute moments to pass along.

1. Maddy is obsessed with flys. She calls them Bug Flys and follows them around the house which has to make her dizzy. She gets real quite and trys to pounce on them while their still. Not sure how long it will take for her to figure out the art of the fly swatter but once she does, it's one of two things...a really bad thing for the fly or a really bad thing for Maddy once she realizes they die.

2. She is now officially old enough that mosquito bites are a problem because I can't find a good way to keep her from itching them.

3. Had to cover her bedroom window with a blanket this weekend so the lightening wouldn't be so obvious in her room during the storms. Now every night before bed she makes us "cover up the sunshine." Made it through a weekend of storms during bedtime by explaining to her that the rain and thunder would help our strawberries grow in our garden. Now if I can just figure out what to tell her when she realizes the strawberries aren't growing :)

4. There is no denying Maddy is a two year old now. She has really tested our patience the past few days. We know we are so lucky though because 95% of the time, she's great. It's that 5% that make me need a prescription medication. She's a FIRECRACKER - don't know where she gets that. We have figured out that she seems to respond better when we explain things to her instead of just saying no or do this, do that. When we explain, she actually does what we're asking. Maybe it helps her or maybe she's listening to us thinking, "these idiots think I care so I'm going to let them waste their energy explaining it!" :) I'm going to go with the idea that she's really smart and just wants the details!

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Thunder!

We were able to make it two years before a thunderstorm scared Maddy. She has slept like a rock through some really rough weather but last night she woke up at 11:30 pm during a thunderstorm and the rest of the night is a bit of a blur. The storm itself lasted less than 30 minutes but for the rest of the night, she woke up on an hourly basis crying that she was scared. So, in an effort to have at least one of us sleep, I decided to make a bed on her floor so that when she woke up, she could see me and hopefully calm down faster. Matt suggested I bring her into our bed.

Here are my thoughts on that. We've done really well from day 1 with Maddy NOT being in our bed for any reason. My thought is - what if this isn't the last time she gets scared? If we put her in our bed, everytime she's scared she will think she can get in our bed and then it quickly becomes not our bed anymore. I'm not a fan of that. I've heard too many stories of parents that really struggle with getting their children to stay in their own rooms. Is that crazy? Am I being silly about one night in our bed? Any suggestions on ways you have handled little ones that are afraid of the dark, thunderstorms, etc?

I say all of this to say that Mommy spent last night NOT sleeping on Maddy's floor. She has carpet but we must have gone for the cheap padding because it was hard as a rock! :) The past hour has been spent adjusting my mood to trick myself into thinking I slept in a warm, soft bed last night!

My wish for today is that the thunderstorms we are scheduled to have this weekend will occur during the day and not between the hours of 7:30 pm - 7:30 am!

Milestone! (for me - not Maddy)

I will mark the date on my calendar. As of Monday, May 10th, 2010 - I officially own my car!!! Whoo-hoo! Made the last payment yesterday and what a great feeling. I'm not sure what I was expecting (maybe the auto loan company would send me some flowers or something)but it came and went with little celebration - except for me and Matt! We certainly noticed it and our bank account will notice it next month :) This is the 2005 White Mazda Tribute that I purchased 1 month before moving to Charlotte in May 2005 and it's finally mine. It was my first BIG step toward independence. It was my way of telling the world that I could do anything I wanted...move across the country - SURE! Buy a new car - SURE! You couldn't stop me! (haha!) It's important to mention that while I was inching toward independence, I still needed Don's help in making the purchase. I'd still have 2 years left to pay on it if he hadn't handled the negotiations!

My little Tribute has been on a journey - started in Texas, rode on an semi to Charlotte, received new NC license plates(I cried that day) and has treated me well for the past five years. I'm proud to say she's mine!

I promise to write about Maddy for the next post but I couldn't let this moment pass without documenting!

Hope everyone's having a great week.

Don't Touch!

It's been a great week! Maddy's dance class went really well and she LOVED it! She learned new moves and when I got home (late) that night, she said "Mommy, I flap like a butterfly and I bend!" Yesterday was a Tea Party for Mother's Day at Maddy's school so I went and had cookies and participated in Circle Time - that's another blog for another day! Today was the St. Jude Trike a Thon at her school and she got to meet "Bear Care." I'm not really sure that's his real name but he's a bear that travels to schools to teach the kids about bike and car safety. Suprisingly, she was more excited about the sticker he gave her than actually talking to the bear.

Tonight we went to a great little shopping area and had dinner and walked and people watched. It's amazing how long she can stay entertained just watching other people. Now if I could just get her to stop pointing and saying "Mommy, what him doing?"

As part of this evening, we needed to run into a nice little shop with LOTS of breakable items. So, as we walked to the store Matt and I gave Maddy the riot act about not touching anything, just look - everything's breakable. She nodded her head as though she understood. So, we walk in and 30 seconds later Matt goes to pick up one of these items and Maddy yells "Daddy DON'T TOUCH, just look!" Half of me was embarrassed and half of me was impressed :)

Oh - I'll almost forgot. A new discovery in the car today. When you think they aren't really listening/understanding but they are....I'm constantly talking to her in the car and not really sure how much she's absorbing but lately she's fascinated with school buses and a few days ago I went into this 10 minutes explanation about the difference between a school bus and a city bus. Kids riding to school vs. Adults riding to work, etc. Tonight we're in the car and she's says "Look Daddy - City Bus."

Until the next blog moment occurs - I hope all the great Moms we know have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend. I'm hoping mine includes Mimosas and some quality time at Hobby Lobby!

Dance! Dance!

Tomorrow is a big day for Maddy (and Mommy). Wednesday, May 5th is Maddy's first day of DANCE class!!! Her school is great about offering extracurricular activities as part of the day so parents can still allow their children to participate in activities without driving them all over town everyday. So, Maddy is signed up for dance class. My confession is that I've been dreaming of this since the day she was born. I will be ok if she doesn't enjoy it but based on her love of music so far, I'm thinking we will have to drag her out of class each week. Even if that's not the case, I'm excited for her to try it.

We've known for about a month that she was taking dance class and in a weak moment a couple weeks back I did what many parents do - I held it over her head. I explained to her that she wasn't being a good listener (as she darted from my car in the grocery store parking lot) and told her that she was signed up for dance class but could only go if she was a good listener. Then later that night she acted up again and I told her she wasn't being a good listener and she started crying "class dance, class dance." I know, I should feel guilty about that but we all have our weak moments and truth be told - It worked so I've used it to my advantage for the past two weeks.

Now the day has arrived and we made a big trip to Target on Saturday to pick up shoes, tights and leotards. We tried them on tonight and she was SO excited. She did a LOT of spinning with her little skirt.
Exciting and crazy to think my baby is a two year old getting ready to go to dance class.

I've always thought Madelyn was a great name for a Ballerina! :)

Happy MAY!

Wow! I'm having a hard time writing the date on things - I can't believe it's MAY already! Last week was a busy one so there wasn't time to blog every time I had a thought so I've missed documenting a few funny things. To save on time and energy, I will just say we had a great week and summarize:

1. Maddy is convinced that when I say Okey, Dokey....I'm really saying Okey, Donkey!
2. Matt and I are lacking in the nursery rhyme department so we decided one night this week to Google a few songs for Maddy so we could learn the words. Needless to say, I'm glad she's only two and had no idea what she was watching. There are people in the world that have WAY too much time on their hands and choose to spend it making inappropriate versions of children's music online.
3. While watching the nursery rhyme videos, Matt has decided that Maddy is a children's music groupie. She sits there and sways her head with this far off look - Matt says he's glad they don't have drummers or we would be in trouble.
4. Matt and I finally figured out two songs that Maddy's been singing for a month. She would just mumble a few words and we had no idea how to fill in the blanks. After a little investigating, we determined she's singing "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree" and "Baby Bumblebee." Cute songs but bugs and animals die in both. Not sure how I feel about that. Both the bees and the monkeys deserve it for acting so ugly but I'm a little unsure about my daughter happily singing about crocodiles snapping monkeys out of trees :)

Matt and I took a day of vacation on Friday and went to the Quail Hollow Golf Tournament. Absolutely a great way to spend a Friday. Saw a little bit of Phil and Tiger, enjoyed the sunshine (a little too much) and were given suite tickets by some friends so we lived the life for the day. Great day!

The first week of May is proving to be a busy one. Maddy's first dance class is Wednesday! Went to buy her "uniform" this weekend and can't wait to see her in those little shoes. Duke's Annual Shareholders Meeting is Thursday morning and I'm serving as a volunteer so looking forward to that and hoping the protesters behave themselves. Thursday afternoon is an afternoon tea for Mother's Day at Maddy's school. The weekend will be spent celebrating all things Mommy! YAY! Matt continues to do A LOT of work around the outside of our house. We now have a garden, fresh mulch and rock around our back deck. Looks great and really excited to see everything looking so nice!

Happy First week of May - I'll try to do better with my blogging :)