Thanksgiving was with family in Michigan this year and of course Maddox was decked out in her gobble turkey jammies! 

I have been waiting patiently this month for Thanksgiving break, all four days of it.  My break is now almost over and it most definitely did not feel like four days, more like four hours.  I think it has to do with the fact that this is one of the busiest holidays of them all.  

This year it started with pre-Thanksgiving festivities on Wednesday night, dinner and wine with some good friends.  Thursday morning we braved the traffic down to Scott’s parents house.  Soon after our arrival the rest of the family showed up.  Maddox had a few hours to play with her cousins and observing them interacting is always my favorite part.   

I can’t wait to watch them grow up together to see what type of relationship they will have.  Will they throw water balloons at each other in the summertime and go sledding together in the winter time?  Build sandcastles together during campouts and tell secrets in the tent by flashlight?  What will their relationship be when they are older?  Will Maddox be included?  Will her cousins know that something is different about her?  While I know they will love her unconditionally, I can’t help but wonder what the future holds.  Then I have to stop myself and remember I am living in the moment.  And yes, this moment was wonderful.

There was a houseful of family, an incredible meal, and a perfect eveing.  Maddox ate real mashed taters, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie while the rest was jarred squash, corn, and turkey.  When the night fell, two very important things happened.

1. Maddox went outside with daddy, grandma, and grandpa to get her first glimpse at Christmas lights.  Grandpa diligently held the umbrella, it was raining...
   
   
2. Mommy got up at 2 AM to do the Black Friday thing in Midland.  CRAZY.....

(Riding on a one horse open sleigh)

After 6 hours of shopping and an empty checking account Scott and I decided to head home.  I managed to sneak in 1.5 hours of sleep in the car.  Once home, the Christmas decorating began.   Saturday the outdoor lights and new wreath was hung and the indoor decorations were hung by the chimney with care.  Sunday we put up the tree.  LIke I said in the beginning, this mini break is just too busy.

This holiday season, I need to try hard to remember what I am thankful for and not about the things  I wish I had.  So, without further ado...

Some very special things happened this weekend.  Maddox decided to give us the most wonderful Thanksgiving gift.  The gift of achieving more developmental milestones.  I was able to capture on video some of the new things she had been busy practicing.  The first video is her eating a tray full of bananas, something we have been working towards for a few months now.  The second video is Maddox INDEPENDENTLY playing pat-a-cake with daddy and Aunt Penny.  

****2 VIDEOS HERE****

And last but not least Maddox shows off her belly laugh.  Just so you know, I look really bad in this video.   I had been up like 18 hours.....And those that know me, know that going that long without sleep is rarity!  Brace yourself, this is the cutest video...EVER.

****VIDEO HERE****

GRANDMA
What a wonderful holiday.  Maddox, thank you for sharing some of your 'firsts' with us,
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2010 - 08:38 PM

addox loves weekends with her parents.  Especially weekends where the fire burns  for 72 hours straight.  Our house is 82 degrees in this photo!

Things are looking up this weekend.  Scott and I received some excellent news on Friday.  More information to come....  

We decided to celebrate by eating take home Chinese food on Friday night.  Maddox ate her first plate of rice, it was cute, rice pretty much everywhere except in her nose (whew).

The celebrations continues with Scott heading out to deer camp with a buddy on Saturday.  No he doesn’t hunt, but he does drink beer.  His evening was spent in a heated deer blind watching the leaves blow by since there were no animal sightings.  I told him he didn’t see the ‘big buck’ because he forgot to dab on his “liquid deer” (aka deer pee).

I celebrated by making brownies, enjoying a girls night, drinking wine, and playing silly flying games on the Nintendo Wii.  Maddox stayed up until 10:30 with us and even enjoyed a glass of prune juice.  This was a much needed night.  The best part is that the next morning,  Maddox slept in until 11:00, yeah!  I need to do this more often.

 





Drinking juice from a ‘glass’ glass was all fun and games until we cut her off.

We had great crowd control though.......

Totally on top of the cleanup.

Here is Maddox getting a thrill out of watching mommy play the flying duck game on the Nintendo Wii.  This video does not even come close to capturing how hilarious this was.  You know how it goes....by the time you get the camera set up, they don’t want to do it anymore so then you have to try to prompt it.   At least you can get the picture.

****VIDEO HERE****

And our big accomplishment for the weekend is the five foot wreath Scott and I made to hang above our garage this year.  

SITO
Beautiful Wreath. For a Beautiful Family. Maddie is darling standing next to the wreath. She was really cheering you on while you were playing the video game. Loved watching the video.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2010 - 01:35 AM

I love Maddox’s blue blue eyes in this photo!

After several sleepless nights from Maddox’s first cold, I officially consider have a mommy membership to the parenting club.

You know you are tired when:


  A) You pump gas into your car while forgetting to turn it off.

  B) Put mascara on your lips thinking it is your favorite lip gloss.

  C )Get ready early for work so you can sneak in a snooze before work.

  D) Actually set your cell phone alarm to take a quick 5 minute snooze on your lunch break.

And the worst one of all.....

  E) Pull out a used tissue along with a very old bag of carrots from your coat pocket.

RISTIE
Welcome to the club!  It's a great one to have joined......even if it did require you to have no sleep.  Sleep is overrated anyway :)
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2010 - 07:21 PM

I think we had a little too much fun trick or treating on Halloween because at 10 months old Maddox had her first ever cold!  Ok, so this cold is either from trick or treating or from the fact that  after hours of debating I finally broke down and decided to administer the dreaded “I still don’t believe in it” flu shot.  I am kicking myself right now.  Not sure if she will get the second dose or not.

I am kind of a spoiled mama because I have never had to wake up in the middle of the night to care for Maddox but Wednesday tonight we spent our first night on the sick sofa together.  And while yes, I was missing my bed, I secretly enjoyed our snuggly slumber party in the living room.  

10 hours of sleep from Wednesday to Friday is the recipe for:      

Our first family cold.

Yep, all of us now have duffy nodes.

Squirt saline in, suction snot out, squirt saline in, suction snot out.  I can do it in my sleep now.  It was amazing to watch Maddox catch on.  It only took a few trials before she learned how to bat the suction bulb away with both hands and shake her head back and forth really fast.....

I’d say that is some darned good problem solving (but that skill never shows up on developmental tests)!

Some other new things I learned while Maddox has been sick.  When you don’t have family around, it is really tough.  Simple things like running an errand for medicine while Scott is at work becomes a huge ordeal.  I bundled her up in the warmest snowsuit ever and drove to town.  

She fell asleep (finally) on the way into town and I had no choice but to wake her to take her into the pharmacy.  Yes, I woke the sleeping baby......

Also, during our sick day we sang and danced...ALOT.  I guess the good thing that came out of this is that Maddox can now clap through the entire song of Pat-a-Cake and can keep a rhythmic sway to Where is Thumbkin.  VIDEOS TO COME

That’s it for today, we are going to go curl up on the sick couch in front of the fire with our hot chocolate!

The moment you have been waiting for

Drum Roll......

Meet Maddox the Cowgirl
and
Daisy the horse

I took a million photos, you will see.  Maddox loved Halloween too.  She was such a ham and jabbered at everyone.  She even ate her first sucker and did so like she was a pro.  Maybe she has watched her mommy eat a few....  First she had the sucker in the fist of her left hand and maneuvered it over to her right hand holding the stick just as you are supposed to.  This girl knew what she was doing, incredible.  The best part is that she was showing off some pretty extraordinary hand eye coordination.  Without further ado, I present....Maddie Lou

All my little cowgirl needs now is her horse!


Halloween was bittersweet,
here is my ‘lil punkin’ 365 days ago!