Heading back to Florida.

My previous entry listed me as "deflated". What better way to "inflate" than to go to Florida for some R&R with Nana and Papa? Madeline and I are saying good bye to Minnesota for 2 weeks and heading south. It's bittersweet in that John is staying home. Madeline and I will miss our dada!
Madeline will have an opportunity to hit the beach, as seen below from our trip in December, and also go to the pool every day if she wants! I can't wait!
We leave Wednesday. My next post will be from the sunshine state! Talk to you later!

Deflated.

Ray Charles or Corey Hart? (For those of you who are not 80's buffs...Corey Hart sang the song, I wear my sunglasses at night)

As you know, we're expecting baby #2 this fall and that will put Madeline at 2 years old and one month if baby comes on time October 1. This makes me nervous. Madeline is a handful all on her own, so let's just add an infant to the mix. Years from now I'll know it's the best decision we made having them so close, but I keep hearing from other mom's that it's TOUGH, HARD, STRESSFUL, TIRING for at least the first 1 or 2 years. Wow. I'm not scared at all.

Recently though, I feel deflated. The joy of pregnancy has been anything but. I'm queasy most hours of the day and tired everywhere in between. It's as though Madeline knows how much mommy wants to sleep because she sleeps less. Naps that used to be very routine and about 2 hours are not routine and an hour if I'm lucky, that doesn't include the hour she takes to fall asleep. And at night.....she goes down fine, but an hour later she's up.....she'll go down fine again, but at 3, 4 and 5am she simply doesn't want to be sleeping in her crib. She'd rather be in our arms rocking the night away. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! We're working through this little hiccup in our routine, and some nights are better than others. But at the end of the day, or the start of the day, when she wakes up smiling it makes it all okay....that and photo ops like these.

Happy Spring!

Our Little Leprechaun.

Out for a walk this morning wearing green! And....her beads. We rarely go anywhere without them these days.

I will be trying my hand at a Corned Beef today so we can make Ruben's tonight! YUM YUM!
I hope you'll have a beer for me, if everyone that reads this has a beer for me, I'll be nice and toasted :-)

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

We're Letting You In On A Little Secret

Sometimes there's just no easy way to say it....

...arriving on 10.01.10

18 Month Happenings

Madeline has officially reached the "year-and-a-half" mark. Hard to believe. Time sure flies....
I look at photos of her as an infant and feel like is was not just 18 months ago, but years ago!

A few of the things Madeline loves to do:

• "Dance". Although that means running in circles as fast as she can until she's dizzy and falls down.
• Color. She's got paper, coloring books and crayons and really likes to scribble. She has discovered that crayons also work on mirrors and walls-fortunately crayons are washable and no damage is done.
• Going for rides in the elevator. She loves to press the buttons.
• Playing with her baby by wrapping her in her blankie and hugging her like a real baby, patting her and putting her in the stroller.
• Playing with her puzzles. She is a genius with her shapes and colors. She knows what goes where and so often puts her puzzle together or shapes in her sorter so quickly it's like, "okay this is too easy".
• Loves the piano. Her music class at MacPhail is going to teach her so much about different sounds and instruments, but also how to have patience and to share (I hope!)
• Always loves her books, the more the better. We recently took her to the Wild Rumpus in Linden Hills-so many books, childrens music and cats and chickens running about the store!
• She loves to watch her cartoons in the morning. Among her favorites are Curious George, Special Agent Oso and Sid the Science Kid.
• Likes going to the mall to run around and bump into other little people her size.

As I said, those are just a few of the things she enjoys. She's a joy, she's fun and she's beautiful. Need I say more? But don't get me wrong, she knows how to work her mom and dad...she's got our number for sure. SPOILED.

During one of our afternoon strolls outdoors we went to the Lund's Grocery store...Madeline always seems to find the Beemster Cheese cow and just loves to touch it and kiss it....I wonder if she believes that it is real? I happen to have my camera with and so I had to take a few shots. The shoppers around us had to stop and watch her giggle and touch the cow. They enjoyed it and thought it was very sweet!

Happenings....

We've been busy lately; a trip to Edinborough Park, which Madeline loved....but what child wouldn't. An "Adventure Peak"- The "Peak" is a 44-by-44-by-37 foot high climbing, low crawling, slip sliding Northwoods adventure and a Great Hall, which is a 60-by-90 foot multipurpose space for kids to play with balls and all kinds of other things. For anyone without children this would be stressful, in my opinion! SO MANY KIDS ON THE LOOSE!
We had our first Musical Explorations class at MacPhail in Minneapolis. Roughly 10 kids within the age of 14-24 months running in circles playing the piano, the bongo drums, playing with the scarves, the parachutes, and the director plays piano and guitar and sings the cutest little songs. Madeline had one minor meltdown when she couldn't bang on the piano, but the teacher buttered her up and allowed her to play. Many of the mother's in the class asked if Madeline has done any modeling because.....drum roll please....."Her eyes are so gorgeous! So big and so blue!" I love it. Makes me happy.

I attached two of the proofs from her Valentine's day shoot. If you have a chance to view the others, if they're still online, go to www.3peasphotography.com, click enter-site, then client log-in. The password is MMVD. What a fun day that was. And it's evident by the smile in her face!

Talk to you later!