Teaholic not quite anonymous

Well, Maddy's first Halloween went well! She dressed as a Ladybug and hung outside with us while we handed out candy. We had about 40 kids stop by. She was sooo cute as a Ladybug and so good too! I wasn't sure if she'd be afraid of the dark because she's shown tendencies to that in the past. But she wasn't as long as we were close by. As a matter of fact, she was quite the explorer! She crawled around in the grass and explored our Crape Myrtles, tried to eat leaves, crawled down the sidewalk about three houses. She would wave to all the kids as they walked by and would crawl down the sidewalk after them. As she'd pass houses she'd wave to the people handing out candy. She elicited a lot of 'awwwww's and 'How cute's!" Here's one of my favorite pictures of Matt and Maddy from last night. She is resting with daddy and is giving me her nosie face. She bunches up her nose at me, squints her eyes closed and breathes really quick through her nose. It's really cute!

Matt wasn't able to leave work on time because he had to come home at lunch to see a remodeler. So he hit a lot of REALLY bad traffic. He picked up dinner on the way home since I didn't like the look of the chicken I took out of the freezer after it was defrosted. But it was too close to dinner to defrost anything else. So I gave Matt the choice of picking up something or having grilled cheese with soup. He chose picking something up! So he came home after trick-or-treat started. So we wound up eating outside while giving out candy. Maddy had a few chicken tenders as well and REALLY loved them.

Maddy had a really hard time going to sleep though. I had to let her cry it out because after going up once she was more than ready to sleep in my arms until I laid her down. Then she got back up and started to cry immediately. So we had to let her cry it out for a while. We heard her a couple times in the night and Matt slept poorly. So I turned off my alarm at 4:30 and now I need to work out during Maddy's nap. My mind is zooming with little tedious chores that need to get done again as well. Our pantry is a disaster area and really needs to get cleaned out so I know what we have in there. The fridge could use a good cleaning out too. I am planning on making pumpkin seeds as well in the oven tonight, if Matt is home early enough. I can't wait until Maddy is old enough to help me with it next year!

Ok, well that's enough for now.

Tea of the day: Adagio Mango Black Tea
WO of the day: 30 minutes elliptical, eating yesterday was a 1, I gave into the french fries!

Quote of the day:

DALE CITY, Va. -- A Halloween prank resulted in a pregnant teenager being injured in Dale City, police said. According to police, it happened while 15-year-old Ashley Stafford was trick-or-treating near her home with her brother and sister. --http://www.nbc4.com

I'm not going to comment on this. I'm just going to let the quote speak for itself and let you make heads or tails of it.

Well, last night went really well here. I opened up the pumpkin from Halloween, took out all the seeds and made toasted pumpkin seeds in the oven. There wen't that many seeds though, but that was ok. Maddy went to sleep on her own which is fabulous. She didn't want to go to sleep until almost 8:45 though. She had a fun bath. She loves her baths. After her bath and bed, Matt and I started a fire in the chimnea and opened a bottle of wine. We finished all the pumpkin seeds in one night! By the time we got to bed it was almost 11:30! Obviously, I didn't set my alarm for 6 this morning.

Maddy woke up about 8:30 and wasn't ready for a nap until 11. I did get a couple cute videos and pictures of her this morning though. You can see them on our photo gallery. She is virtually impossible to get video of because she sees the camera going and will come to see it. I did get a nice 4 minute video of her playing (throwing) her books.

She only napped for about an hour. That's pretty short for her. I was able to get in my work out and shower before she was up. I was getting dressed and that's when I started hearing her. I made the mistake yesterday of not stretching after my work out. I started a load of laundy before my work out and then it finished during, so I decided to go hang out laundry instead of stretching. Time is of the essence when Maddy is sleeping! I did my crunches and push ups during her second nap, but you can't replace stretching right after a work out! So my legs were tight today.

Today Maddy surprised me! I decided to try my hand at sorting pomagranite seeds from the rind in the kitchen while Maddy was playing by the gate. She played in my eye sight for over 10 minutes without complaining that I was in the kitchen. THAT is truly amazing. Normally, if I try to step foot in the kitchen she's all the gate whining at me.

Well, she's down for her second nap now. I cut up mixed peppers and onions for our Western style omeletes. We'll add in some cheese and cooked turkey bacon and that will be dinner. We haven't gone grocery shopping for a while, so it's breakfast for dinner tonight! Last night was grilled cheese and soup. I didn't bother making a menu last weekend and it's really come to haunt me. So this weekend I'll make a menu and plan my grocery list around it (like I normally do). I see better meals in our future next week!

Tea of the day: Adagio Mango Black Tea and Adagio Green tea
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical WITH stretching!, eating a 3

--to the mall. More on that in a bit. But first, some background.

Man, I woke up in a mood this morning. The neighbor outside woke me up, then Maddy woke up right after, Matt needed to get ready right away for work. I just was NOT ready to get up and get moving right away this morning. Maddy did give me a bit of a reprieve that she stopped making noise for about 10 minutes which allowed me to check my email and make a cup of tea. Then she started talking again so I knew she was up. I got her ready and Matt gave her a bottle (which allowed me to scarf down my oatmeal) and then I fed her. By the time breakfast was done I had decided that we needed to get out of the house and go SOMEWHERE even if for a walk today.

So, when she went down for her nap, I worked out, showered and got ready. I showered and got ready in record time. Yet, she still woke up right before I finished getting ready so I let her talk and play by herself for five minutes while I finished. I got her diaper bag together, the stroller together and took it all out to the car while she was still in her crib from the nap. She HATES seeing me go outside without her. I think she thinks I'm leaving her. Then I went up to prep her and fed her lunch (while I also chowed down on mine--I swear I win the race for fastest eatter). I bundled her up and off to the mall we went!

I was jonesing for this purse I saw online at Macy's. However, when I saw it in person it was HUGE and just had one magetic snap at the top. Plus, Maddy figured out snaps about a month ago, so that would never be safe around her! Then I remembered seeing a purse I liked at JC Penny so I went over there and found this purse. Here's an alternate view. I loved it so much I bought two, the burgandy one shown and one in saddle, which is more tan than the brown alternate view. The price difference was great too. I was able to buy two purses for 35% of the ONE purse at Macy's. Maddy and I rode the elevator that overlooked the Christmas (YES, You heard me right--CHRISTMAS) display in the middle mall. She loved looking at the animals. We have an ark themed Christmas display. No, I don't know why. No, I'm not talking Polar bears and penguins only. That would kind of make sense--cold weather animals. We have lions, tigers, giraffes, monkeys and elephants. I don't get it, don't ask me. I went to Gap and used up our GC and bought Matt a basic black hat and scarf. I aso bought Matt's mom her Christmas gift as well. But since she reads the blog (Hi Donna!) I can't say where I got it or anything else about it!! I can say, that I spent a lot of time buying her gift though and I was so impressed with Miss Maddypants who was so patient. She was great as well while I was looking at purses.

I had three funny instances with her at the mall though. First, I put some cherrios in her tray on the front of her stroller. They were gone in five minutes and I'm pretty sure they wound up on the floor. I'm pretty sure she was leaving a trail for daddy to find her in case we never made it home (since we had been there so long). I could hear her thinking, "I know Daddy will save me from Mommy if I leave a trail for him to find! Am I ever going home again? Where is my crib and my toys! Daddy, Daddy save me from shopaholic Mommy!" Also, while we were in Gap, I parked her next to another boy about 3. She just wanted to play and interact with him, but he wanted nothing to do with her. So, she started to blow raspberries at him **Pphhfftt!**. The whole store cracked up. When I got Maddy out of the car after we got home she was sockless!!! I was 95% sure we had left the mall with socks on, so I figured they should be around her seat. I found one of them, but not the other. I was thinking to myself that I was walking around the mall with a one-socked baby for a while at the mall! Turns out it fell into a bag next to her (or she threw it in there, which is also very likely) and I found it when we made it in the door.

After we got in, I put her down for a nap. I made myself a cup of tea and switched out purses. Other than that, not a whole lot new to say about today! It was a very nice outting and Maddy liked it a lot. She enjoys seeing people and interacting with kids. As soon as she stops napping during playgroup time, I will be able to start going to them again. I know she will love them (and it will get me out of the house more). It's nice the mall is only 10 minutes away, too.

Have a great weekend everyone! TGIF!

Tea of the day: Adagio Mango Black Tea (finished all my Adagio Black Tea!)
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical, eating a 4

I've seen it happen time and time again. The story isn't new. It happens to the wealthy, the poor, the strong, the weak, the powerful and the powerless--to everyone. The more people try to control something or someone the less control they really have. As soon as people start imposing more and more restrictions the more whatever is being controlled will balk and fight back. It's a LOSING battle. Just the need to impose a lot of restrictions should tell the person that something 'is not right' about the situation. All situations should have some give and take to some degree to make it work and be beneficial to all parties.

Now, before you all start to worry about me, it's not me or anyone close to me I'm talking about. (I hear a sigh of relief out there, don't I?) I post at a couple message boards on various pet projects of mine. It's happening over there. Honestly, I'm pretty happy to be on the outside of this. But I do find it amusing to watch this happen time and time again. Someone lets a little power go to their head, people get annoyed and pretty soon the person in charge wants to shut up the critics. Just too funny.

What an enjoyable Saturday! I woke up early this morning to go get breakfast with my friend Rosanna. Her and I worked together at the school I used to teach at. It was really nice seeing her. We went to Panera for breakfast. WOW, within 10 minutes of us getting there it became extremely busy! But we had a seat, so we were fine. However, I wouldn't suggest going to Panera on a Saturday after 8 am!

Rosanna and I are never at a loss over items to talk about. We spent about an hour and a half chit-chatting but I think I could have spent three! But I was starting to feel guilty over taking up our seat even though we had finished eating.

After breakfast I went over to Walmart and braved the Walmart crowd. We needed a few necessities and I wanted to look at toys for Maddy for her birthday. I bought some books, coloring books, a few toys. If they aren't for her birthday then they are for Christmas. One way or another, she'll get them by the beginning of January! I just don't want to shop too late and miss out on toys I'd think she'd like at prices I'm willing to pay! I WON'T spend a lot of money on toys!

I brought home a couple egg souffles for lunch for Matt and I from Panera. Maddy was down for nap when I came home. After she was up, we all got ready and went out to Trader Joes, the drycleaners and Whole Foods. Maddy LOVES to shop. The issue is now she's starting to reach for things on the shelves. At Trader Joes we picked up their Pumpkin Granola that I love to add to yogurt and oatmeal. I bought three bags and for the price it's a steal! Soooo good too. We also bought six bottles of wine and we used up the rest of the Gift Certificate from my parents. At Whole Foods we bought their 365/7 house brand garlic pasta sauce (3 of them actually) since they are all natural, low in sugar and DELICIOUS. We bought a couple marinades too--a Thai one that is just delicious. We gave into their cake bar, but neither Matt nor I were very impressed when we ate it. Eh, I've had better! Maddy came home and had her afternoon nap, only about 45 minutes since we were home so late.

When she got up, we ordered in Thai from a new Thai place nearby and it's great!! We still have quite a bit left over for tomorrow lunch or dinner. Maddy, Matt and I played for a while before she needed to go to bed. I put up some new video and pictures of tonight.

Speaking of video, I finally figured out what was wrong with my uploading ability!! I was having issues uploading larger videos (4+ min) even though they were well within the range I can upload. Turns out the applet I was using was the issue, not the video at all. When I uploaded differently, they went up without a hitch! YEAH! So you'll see a few larger videos that will take a while to download. I normally tried to mention those in my caption so you'd know it would take a while.

Ok, well, I'm off to hang out with Matt, watch a bit of Tivo'd tv and enjoy a glass of wine! Goodnight!

Tea of the day: Adagio Green tea in the afternoon
WO of the day: None, eating Friday was a 3

So I sent Matt to church with a grocery list today for after church. He decied to go to Wegmans for grocery shopping. Well, it took him SO LONG to get home!!! Now, mind you, it probably wasn't the best choice to go on the weekend because it's alwasy so busy. But, it's laid out very poorly as well. Nothing is ever where you think it's going to be! The produce is nice and so is meat, but it is SO HARD to find anything there! When he finally did get home, I found a few more thing I need to buy. So I'm going to GIANT where I know I can find what I need without searching for it. Sometimes convenience comes at a premium, but it's worth it!!!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Strawberry Black Tea
WO of the day: none, eating a 3

*Yawn* Well, it's Monday! Today is 'laundry' day so I got up at 6 and worked out this morning. I can't say it was a spectaular workout, but it was one, none-the-less. It is nice to be showered and dressed already though and Maddy's not even up.

Besides laundry, I want to make a grocery store run today too. Maddy is almost out of baby tylanol and she's getting another molar in so she will need it for bedtime. I'm hoping to get some other cleaning done too, today. But we'll see how far I get.

This sounds like a weird goal, but I'm hoping to read three magazines today!! Man, if you saw our family room coffee table you'd think I better read more than that in one day!

I found another use for Desitin Creamy! It makes great foot lotion and then cover with socks. I use A+D on Maddy so the Desitin was just sitting here. So I slathered up my feet and threw on socks before bed. It REALLY did a nice job! So I'm wearing it with socks again today. Now, it's not as luxurious as my Aveda Foot Relief balm, but... hey, it works!

Ok, well, I'm outta here. Maddy will be up soon and I need to start breakfast for Matt and I. Have a great day all, I'll write more tomorrow!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Strawberry Black Tea
WO of the day: 30 min elliptical, 4

No?!?! Well, get out there and do it! It's your right and your responsibilty!

Whew, Monday was really busy! I guess I got up the gumption to clean and organize because that's all I did during both of Maddy's naps. I finished off a lot of chores that were LONG overdue.

I realized something yesterday morning while working out (my time to think). I haven't had any issues with insomnia for quite a while and I attribute that to working out. I I think it works off stress and wears me out enough to sleep at night. Also, I can feel that I'm stronger too. My workouts aren't as strenuous (or feel that way at least) and I've increased both my pushups and crunches by quite a few. Flexibility is still an issue but it's getting better. My only problem is that I need to increase the intensity of my workouts because I really can't increase the duration. As it is, I'm pressed to get in the amount I do. But that takes total concentration and I'll be honest, working out is a nice time to zone out. I'll try to increase the intensity tomorrow.

I NEED to clean bathrooms!!! Argh. I get so busy with other chores that I STILL haven't deep cleaned them. Sure, I wipe up and spot clean with disinfectant wipes, but I really need to get down in there!

Maddy helped me with laundry yesterday. Well, ok, she didn't hinder laundry. I bundled her up and took her outside with me to hang laundry out and to get it when it was dry. I locked her in her infant seat and she didn't overly seem to mind. She would lean over and grab leaves to hold and then try to eat. She seemed to enjoy it. It was nice to get her outside too since it was a bit cold out for a walk and I was busy anyway. Tomorrow should be a little less strenuous.

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do about Christmas cards this year. Last year didn't send them out because I sent out Maddy's birth announcement instead. I'm trying to decide if I want to send out general cards and then put a couple pictures of Maddy inside or if I want to get cards with her picture on it. There's a lot of nice ones out there now. I can't decide.

Joe is so nice to Maddy. He lets her crawl all over him (as long as she doesn't grab his tail or grab his...uh.. fat). He puts up with her so patiently. Matt is soooooo good to Maddy and I. He just loves her to death. She lights up when he comes home from work. Even if I wanted to take her at night and give him a break, I don't think she'd let me. She is so happy to have him home and is so refreshed and has a second wind when he plays with her. He loves playing with her too. Matt loves to wrestle around with her, snuggle her, play ball. They are so cute together and it's fun to hear her coo and talk to him.

She accomplished something new yesterday! She has a jungle spinning toy that came with balls. She is supposed to insert the ball into the hole at the top of the toy and it comes down the course. It hits a button on the way down that makes the circles spin and play music. Normally, she doesn't want the ball on the spinners, but today she was dropping them down the hole on her own over and over and really seemed to enjoy it! Something little, but fun! Matt was pretty impressed when she did it after he got home! I took a picture of her last night playing with it.

Maddy and I ran a couple errands today after voting. But it's really gross outside now so we may put off the grocery store trip until later.

It's time to go and get something done, I guess. Hope this finds everyone well.

Tea of the day: Ahmad Strawberry Black Tea with 1/2 splenda and touch of praline creamer
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical, 3

SULLIVAN'S ISLAND, South Carolina (CNN) -- A sheepish Gov. Mark Sanford was turned away from a South Carolina polling place Tuesday because he forgot his voter registration card.

The casting of ballots in front of the news media is a well-worn tradition for politicians, but it was no Kodak moment when Sanford discovered he had left his card behind.

Off camera, South Carolina first lady Jenny Sanford could be heard telling her husband that she had reminded him to bring it.

The first lady's identification was in order, and she was allowed to vote, said poll manager Bob Crawford, according to The Associated Press.--CNN.com

*hehehe* Did you vote yesterday when I reminded you to? Every vote counts! Check out VA, afterall. I can't believe that we are the deciding vote on which party will be the Senate Majority! I guess Webb and Allen are only separated by a few thousand votes. How exciting! Of course, we won't know the whole outcome until a month from now when the recount is finally over.

I don't have much today, really. I've been reading the voting news a lot. I worked out during Maddy's first nap and REALLY scrubbed down the shower and bathtub. I will reward myself with a hot bath tonight with a nice glass of wine and a magazine. Maddy has been extra snuggly today and I've been LOVING that. She's even let me hold her like a newborn, sing to her and rock her. Her upper molar is coming in opposite the lower one that is already in. So I don't think she's feeling all that well. Plus, it's a grey day so it's a WONDERFUL day for snuggles.

I plan on making apple crisp tonight since I bought the apples this weekend. Matt LOVES my apple crisp! I made a light snack today that I thought was pretty good! Just put together plain non-fat yogurt with pomagranite seeds! The seeds need to go anyway, since they've been around for a while. It was REALLY good. Almost like a bowl of icecream?! Yes, really!

Maddy's up, so I will run. Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Strawberry Black Tea with 1/2 splenda and praline creamer, Adagio Green tea
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical/eating yesterday was a 1--I had french fries!!! EAK!

Yesterday I talked a little bit about how much voting counted here in Virginia because of the small margin between Webb and Allen. Today I am not surprised to hear that Northern Virginia's been the swing votes for this Senate election. I found these stats impressive, but not surprising:

Even when (Allen) ran in 2000 against a Northern Virginian, former senator Charles S. Robb, Allen lost by only 3 percentage points and 30,000 votes. This year, Webb beat Allen by 116,000 votes and 17 points in the region. About half of that margin came from Fairfax County, the state's biggest place and an important symbol of the change in the state's politics. "Fairfax used to be the bellwether for the state," Brodnitz said. "Now it's considered a critical piece of the Democratic map." (www.washingtonpost.com)

Really though, when you talk about politicians there's no 'good, honest' politician, just 'who's the lesser evil'. Right now, it's pretty easy for people to point fingers and say who's evil, to blame, corrupt. The fact of the matter is, we don't know if this new change will help or hinder. But I guess the country does know what it DOESN'T want--more of the same.

So, I just hope the Dems can pull themselves up by their boots straps and get something done around here. The people have given them their vote, so it's time for them to show they know what to do with it!

Enough politics... Last night I made Apple Crisp and Matt just loves it. (I was good, I only had one piece last night and one small one for breakfast this morning.) This morning Maddypants was a snugglepants again. She curled up in my arm and sucked her thumb. I love it, it's so cute! I'm pretty sure her teeth are bothering her. During her nap, I worked out as normal, got a fast shower and got ready. I have a dental cleaning today during Matt's lunch. I can just see if I had to take Maddy with me. She's scream bloody murder as they worked on my mouth. As it was at the opthometrist she didn't like the light they used to look at my eyes. She lunged at the doctor yelling at her! LOL! That's my little hero!

Tomorrow is busy as well. Matt and Maddy both get their flu shots and I have a contact fitting at 8:15 in the morning. So it will need to be a 6 am work out time for me.

This weekend should be a lot of fun. Matt's parents may come up to babysit Maddy and let Matt and I get out for a while. On Sunday we're having friends over with their little boy who is probably 3 now! He's a cutie and such a smart little guy. Joe will love him since I'm sure by now he knows better than Maddy how to pet a cat!

Now to get on the cleaning! I feel like I clean constantly, but never really get ahead or am able to say, "This place is clean." Ah well, tonight, I guess.

Tea of the day: Ahmad Strawberry Black Tea
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical, 2

Yowsa, last night was a LOOOOOOONG night. Not bad, just long. Matt had to work late which I knew ahead of time so that makes it OK. But Maddy is uncomfortable with her teeth even with teething tabs and teething rings. So she wanted snuggles most of the night which I really love. But after awhile, even MY arms get tired! She was so cute though, curled up in my lap sucking her thumb. I know soon enough she'll be 5 and off to kindergarten so I need to enjoy these snuggles while I can.

I put her to bed tonight which normally Daddy does. The whole time she was with me all she kept saying was, "Dada, Daddy" I knew who she wanted! She wouldn't sleep for me cause she wanted him! So, when he got home he rocked her a bit and out like a light she went!!!

Maddy is starting to try to climb now. She's starting to climb up all her toys, me, the couch, and the TV stand. She's even starting to try climbing our gates. She'll put a foot up if the cats are on the other side. If the cats are in the playpen she'll try to PULL herself with just her hands up into the playpen. Obviously, it doesn't quite work yet, but I can see it happening. She's also starting to balance and stand on her own a bit now. That's exciting to see happening. It's so cute too, but I always feel like I should grab her so she doesn't fall. I know falling is a part of growing up so I try not to and just make sure that things she can hurt herself on are out of the way. Maddy is also starting to put objects IN now. I mentioned before about her jungle toy. She puts toys through the gates now, cherrios in my mouth (she's GREAT at sharing), puts toys into her baskets and even cherrios back into her travel cherrio container! She's trying to get the hang of matching her shapes to her shape holes, but that's not quite there yet. But she's trying.

She's really gotten the hang of her straw sippy cup now too. She uses it all the time without issue. Maddy's finally gotten past trying to smoosh all the food I put on her tray table. Now she actually eats at least 4-5 pieces. She's still not the best eater when I let her eat on her own. But she loves people food--salty and spicy best but doesn't really like sweet. Yeah, she even turned down my apple crisp!

It's almost her birthday! I can't believe it! She'll be one year old and I'm just in shock. WOW. That's all I can say. She's even looking more and more like a toddler every day and less like a baby.

My dentist appointment yesterday went well! Nothing new to say there, which is good! I had my contact fitting appointment today and that went fine as well. My prescription hasn't changed, which is nice. So now I need to order new contacts. After Maddy's morning nap (and my workout) I ran to Kmart with her and bought a new umbrella stroller because her's was in Matt's car and I wanted to use it to do a bit of shopping. I bought a few Christmas/birthday gifts for her as well along with wrapping paper for her birthday. After Kmart we went to Ulta for a free Smashbox gift. I received the last one! I guess they only got about 20 in, which is very few. So they ran out by 2 pm on the very first day it was out. I didn't buy much else while I was there--just a few hair clips and an Ulta brand palette for a great price. Ulta's makeup is surprisingly good quality. After Ulta we walked up to 5 and below and I bought just a couple little things for Maddy to open up for St. Nicks.

Tonight Maddy goes for her flu shot. Matt says his was different than the normal syringe, a pinch and punch object that didn't even hurt. So hopefully Maddy's will be the same way. Mine was the normal needle.

Tomorrow Matt's parents are coming. Matt has a Church Council meeting in the morning then we are going to a Sushi making class together as a date. That should be totally fun and cool!!! We'll come home, all eat dinner together and then Matt and I will most likely go Christmas shopping and then stay somewhere out of town over night while Matt's parents watch Maddy. They are so good to us. We're very lucky they are so willing to babysit and offer as often as they do.

I probably won't be blogging tomorrow, but I'll catch back up on Sunday! Have a great weekend all!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Strawberry Black Tea (gone)
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical, 3

Yesterday Matt's parents came up for the weekend to watch Maddy! They offered to come up and let us have some time to get out on our own. We are ALWAYS appreciative of that! I know how much Maddy loves Grandma and Grandpa and how good they are with her, so I never worry about her while I'm gone. Sure, I think about her and what she's doing, but I don't worry cause I know they can handle it and she loves her time with them so much. As a matter of fact, Matt and I came home in-between being out and going out again to drop off some sushi to Grandma and Miss Maddy didn't want to leave her and didn't much care if we were home or not!! So I always know she's having a great time! It's comforting to be able to have that kind of assurance!

Matt and I took a sushi class at one of our local sushi places. It was SOOOO much fun. The instructor was great. We lucked out and had the head chef at the restaurant who's been making sushi and other Japanese cuisine for over 10 years. His skill was just utterly impressive. The way he chops and dices. Of course, it helps to have a good knife, but if I had a good knife I'd just chop off a few fingers, not dice up cucumber the way he did! We learned to make sushi rolls, mainly. It was really fun and we wound up bringing home California rolls, tuna rolls, eel rolls, avocado wrapped eel rolls and some plain cooked eel. It easily fed four people! They let us keep our makisu mats. The class was only $40 each and I highly recommend it to everyone. It's so much fun. They also fed us a spicy sashimi and a ceviche dish as well after our class prepared by the head chef. They took our picture at the end and had us sign a waiver so they could put it up on their webpage. I doubt it's up yet, but it can most likely be found later at http://www.obisushi.com/.

After we came home and shared our goods (with enough for lunch for me today) we went back out and picked up dessert and a bottle of champagne. We stayed overnight and I have to say, it was nice to not have to be whisper at 9pm! It was nice to not go hide away in the laundry room to open our dessert boxes, which inevitably would wake up Maddy at home. Maddy is such a light sleeper. When she was little and slept in the playpen during naps I'd play music, run water in the kitchen and try to go about my business. But as she became older, she's more even more aware now of what's going on around her than she was when she was little (she was then too!). So now she feels like she misses something if she hears something going on when she's supposed to be asleep. But it was nice not to have to jump out of bed in the morning and make her a bottle, change her diaper and clothes and feed her right away. Back to reality tomorrow though! Ha!

Mondays are always hard though. It's the day I do the most of my chores and I need to get back into the weekday routine.

Tonight we went out to dinner with a couple friends of ours and their three-year-old son. However, both Maddy and him woke up on the wrong side of the bed from their nap and before we were even settled into where we were going to it, we decided to come back here and order in. It was really nice to see them and we had a nice time! It was fun to watch a 3 year old in action and seeing what to expect from Maddy in a couple years.

Tea of the day: Hotel Coffee and Peach Black Tea
WO of the day: none, eating was poor yesterday--but very fun!

And a grey and icky one at that!!!

I've kind of taken it easy today besides the normal chores. We're having left over Thai for dinner, so no cooking for me, whooo whooo!! Maddy did NOT want an afternoon nap today although she was acting very tired. I wound up getting her back up for about a 1/2 hour before I laid her back down. Then she fell asleep without MUCH fussing. She's really hurting I think with her teeth coming in. She hasn't been wanting to eat much 'people food' or 'baby food' other than cherrios and fruit puffs today. I've been pushing the teething rings and tabs but nothing seems to work but tylanol. Poor sweetie-pants.

Or, it could very well be the weather! It's just absolutely disgusting outside. It's cool, misty and dark. I know when she went down for her (first) afternoon nap I was going to nap as well. That' is not like me at all. Normally I'll prep dinner, read, do a few chores, etc. But today all I wanted to do was nap as well. I did get about an hour nap in too during her second afternoon nap. But then the doorbell rang. So I jumped up and ran down the stairs to find a package for Maddy from my neighbor back home. So, it looks like she'll have something to open later when she's up! She'll enjoy that, she loves opening gifts.

For those of you with dishwashers, don't buy the Cascade action packets with two sided soap (liquid and powdered). They DON'T work. I did dishes last night and when I opened it after it was done (1 1/2 hours later since that's how long the normal cycle takes) it was still sitting there not dissolved at all! So, I tried it again and the same thing happened. So my dishwasher ran for 3 HOURS last night without getting clean!!! I need to pick up some dish soap ASAP. We should be ok for tonight, but tomorrow we'll need to run it.

Tea of the day: Ahmad Mango Black Tea, Adagio Organic Rubios Tea to warm up during the day.
WO of the day: 30 min. Elliptical, eating at a BIG FAT zero for the weekend!!! But a good time was had by all--ok, at least me! :)

Not a whole lot to say today. Maddy was quite fussy with her teeth. I gave her teething tabs and tylanol. But she was VERY clingy and simply not a happy baby today. I was able to still get in a workout and shower during her first nap. For that I am quite grateful! She did sleep a whole two hours during her first nap so that was good. She woke up miserable though. She refused to eat anything I gave her and almost refused her bottle as well. Fortunately, she did take the bottle later.

So, I did what Mommies do when their little ones are unhappy. I got out of the house! I packed up the stroller and we went for a long walk. It was a high of 65 today, partly sunny and not windy. It was a beautiful day! So we took a VERY long walk and then swung on the swings. We were home in time for her second nap. Her second nap did not go very well though. She slept solid for about 30 minutes and then on and off for about another 40. She did eat two jars of baby food when she woke up and the bottle as well.

She was a little better tonight with Daddy but she had a hard time going to sleep. I was out at the grocery store. Hopefully tomorrow she'll feel a little better!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Mango Black Tea, Adagio Organic Rubios during our walk
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical, eating a 1 (I blame Matt for ordering pizza ;))

Well, the Holiday Season is upon us! I still have yet to make a huge list of things to get done or buy. But well, Maddy won't let me!!! Every time I pull out a pad and paper she wants it. I do other things during her naps (work out, shower, clean, laundry, pay bills, etc.) that I haven't had the opportunity. I do know that I want to buy a small 3 ft. Christmas tree to put on top of a table. I don't want a big one this year cause I know she will go for it. I can't blame her. It's interesting and too much fun to resist it! Or, I could put the big one in the dining room. But even then, I'd want a different tree since ours is so round. I'd want a skinnier one. I have determined I DO want a tree though. I will also put out the garland on the railing again too since Maddy can't reach that yet either! I'm hoping to wrangle and fanagle my parents into helping with either decorating or taking Maddy so I can decorate. It will be nice to have help. Taking it down will be a chore Matt and I do one weekend.

Of course we'll need to do St. Nick's night for Maddy this year as well. It's December 5th. It surprises me how little people know about it! My parents always did it for me. I hung out a stocking and in the morning there would be food items (caramel corn ball always at the toe) and small toys in it. It was a TON of fun. I've bought a few small things for Maddy's stocking.

My mom's group is having a cookie swap and white elephant exchange. I know I'm in for the cookie swap but I'm not sure about the white elephant yet. It depends if I can find something to buy. I'm making mint chocolate cookie bars for the cookie swap! It will be nice to come home with a lot of different cookies for Matt.

I just bought a turkey for Thanksgiving yesterday at the grocery store. So now it's taking up room in the fridge. I bought an 18 lb-er. What doesn't get finished will be froze for later meals. But with 6 adults (and Maddy) I thought it was better safe than sorry! Matt's mom is going to make her fabulous sweet potato cassarole which I have the recipe for, but still haven't tried my hand at (I like it better when she makes it!) and a pumpkin pie. I'll make the normal sides, mashed potatos, stuffing, veggie, and..... CAKE! Yes, it's Maddy's birthday afterall! We must have cake! I don't know how to decorate the place?! I'll have thanksgiving stuff laying around and birthday hats and balloons (just kidding, we don't need those. I hear a sigh of relief from the grandparents who are thinking, "I'M NOT WEARING A BIRTHDAY HAT!"). But it will be interesting! Kid's parties will be harder, I think. It's Thanksgiving weekend and I don't know if we'll get a whole lot of kids to come. But it won't fall near Thanksgiving every year, will it?

Oops! Maddypants is up! Next nap I'll start making my list. (I can see Matt rolling his eyes now. OH NO! Not a list! Love you, Hon! ;))

Tea of the day: Ahmad Mango Black Tea with splenda and creamer
WO of the day: 30 minutes elliptical, eating a 3

Lazy, lazy day here. It's really rainy, windy and dark! Inbetween raindrops I took out the trash and got the mail. But, really, I don't feel like doing much of anything today. I had a great spurt of energy this morning and got a ton of stuff done (started the crockpot, emptied the dishwasher, ran the dryer, etc) but now.... blah.

I did get my workout in and that's good. I started to sort through some CDs under the TV stand. Some I put into a CD Leather holder (Jazz, Big Band and Classical), left the Christmas ones under there. The rest I want to upload to Itunes. I did all this out of necessity though! You see, Hurricane Maddy struck this morning. She decided it was a great idea to pull out all my CDs and throw them on the floor, hand a few to me or (my luck) put a few back! So, it's time to clean out a bit! But it's awefully hard to sort them when she goes through with me and takes them out of whatever I'm putting them into!

Good news though! I bought about three pairs of pants about a month ago they all fit right except for one pair that was HUGE. I didn't try them all on since I had Maddy with me. But the size was mismarked. Unfortunately, I had thrown out the tags and receipt (since the rest all fit right and I had worn them). So yesterday I took the chance of drying them in the dryer and now they fit like all the rest! Now, if I could just get into my prepregnancy pants.....

Speaking of working out (since that's where prepregnancy pants always take me) I'm really enjoying it! Yes, actually ENJOYING it! Matt says I've lost weight. I don't necessarily see it, but I feel better, more energy, sleeping better, better moods, and I seem firmer. So, I won't disagree with him.

Also, I'm on a quest to match this garnet heart sterling silver jewerly set I own. I want a ring! I think I've actually found one and I purchased it. But we'll see what it looks like when it gets here. If it works, then I have a VERY funny story to tell you about it! But we'll wait for it to arrive. It was shipped today.

Other than that, I made more banana bread tonight and now Maddy just went to bed. We'll probably watch a Myth Busters and I want to go to bed early tonight. I'm just tired today, I guess!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Mango Black Tea and Adagio Roobios
WO of the day: 30 min. elliptical, eating a 2

Well, we did one of Maddy's favorite activities today! She stood on the couch and watched the garbage truck go by! She loves to watch the garbage truck!!! She waves to the people as they pick up our trash. Once, they caught sight of her and they waved back! It was the CUTEST thing! Two grown men, grinning ear-to-ear baby waving (open and closed fingers) at Maddy. It was awesome.

I can really see that she's understanding language. Today, she was playing with a toy and I said, "Maddy, where's your blankie?" She stopped what she was doing, looked at me, crawled across the room to her blankets on the floor (that she pulls down there from a chair) and rolls around in them. She's done other things like that, too. If she has something she shouldn't have I ask her, "May I have it?" And then she hands it to me.

I'm starting to try her on regular sippy cups with cold milk. As of yet, she can't stand them. I tried them with juice as well and she doesn't like that either. We are mixing her bottles with a little over 1/2 milk now. So it's mainly milk and just some formula. By the Monday after Thanksgiving I'd like to have her on just plain milk! She doesn't seem to mind the milk/formula mix! I'm still wondering about her eating. She will pick up certain items on her tray and put them in her mouth, but not too many. I'd like to see her eat more solids than she is now. She won't put peaches, pears, bananas or the like in her mouth and gags if I give it to her. She loves her cherrios, fruit puffs, peas and carrots though. She also likes mozzarella. cheese with hummus. She also likes what Matt and I eat for dinner, but won't pick it up off her tray. She'd rather us feed it to her! She STILL isn't holding her bottle. It's not that she's not capable of doing it--she's simply too lazy and likes us doing it for her! Well, it won't be for much longer anyway, because once she's on milk I'm switching to cups which we WON'T hold for her. I guess I should really enjoy feeding the bottle anyway, since, not long from now, it'll all be over!

Today she turned around from the couch, saw me about 3 feet away, took one of my hands, and walked towards me two steps to get to me. She's getting there! Maddy is still calling me dada most of the time though. Sometimes it will come out baba or mama if she's really thinking about it. But most of the time it's still dada. She still says kitty now and again, but she's in a quiet stage right now just taking it all in.

Maddy has been enjoying putting things 'in' lately instead of 'out'. That has been a lot of fun for us! She puts her toys away, puts cherrios back into their travel container, puts cherrios in my mouth, puts books into her basket, puts toys in other toys. It's been fun! I need to pull out her stacking cups and see what she can do with those now!

She's also been climbing into her toy baskets to get at the TV. Here's a picture of her doing it! She knows she's not supposed to, as well!

Tomorrow my parents come in the morning! It will be great to see them! They will be showing up during Maddy's first nap, though, so maybe I'll try putting her down a bit early.

We were supposed to get the carseats checked today because it's time we turn them around (ok 6 days early, but the weight is right). There is a carseat station going on at our local Babies R Us but we didn't get the chance to turn them around last night. They almost always have to fix them anyway. I love the guys who do our seats. They are GREAT and really put their heart and weight into it. They are local policemen and really know their stuff! Normally we take it to the police station but they aren't accepting car seat checks right now, so that's why we wer going to do the Babies R Us thing. Oh well, I'll need to call other police stations to see if I can get them in there instead. It's really important to get your seats checked!!! Here's the webpage to find the closest carseat station nearest you! http://www.seatcheck.org/

My workout was annoying today. About 25 minutes into it Maddy started to make a couple noises but I was able to get through the 30 minutes. Then I jumped off and ran into the laundry and grabbed the clothes from the washer and threw them out on the line really fast. Then I ran back in, tiptoed past Maddy's room and I heard her making small noises, jumped in the shower, was out 2 minutes later and dressed in three. Not that my showers are normally all that slow (contrary to my dad's belief), but I use soap on my face, a shampoo/conditioner in one and a shower gel. When I get out I put on lotion, hair stuff and face stuff. It takes me about 10-12 minutes to shower and get dressed. Today it took me 5. Of course, I skipped a lot of what I normally do. Now I'm downstairs and she's NOT MAKING NOISES ANYMORE! Argh.

I want to clean a bit before my parents get here. Nothing too crazy, but that will be during her next nap.

Mom informed me yesterday morning that the Turkey will IN FACT defrost too soon if I left it in the fridge, so I put it back in the freezer yesterday. Hard to imagine something that frozen solid will defrost in time (or too early, in this case).

Well, Ladies and Gents! That's it for today! I may not be around a whole lot in the next week, but I will try to pop in now and again. I'm glad to hear you all are enjoying my blog and photos. I enjoy putting them up! Have a great one!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Mango Black Tea
WO of the day: 30 minutes elliptical and quick stretching. Eating was bad, a 1 yesterday.

Well, Matt should be picking up my parents at the airport right now or is on his way home with them! I'm excited for them to see how much Maddy's changed just in the last two months! Maddy is down for a nap right now! But when she wakes up grandma and grandpa B will be here!

I didn't clean house too much. But the cat litter is changed, floors swept and vac'ed and bathrooms cleaned.

We may go out to see the Meteor shower tonight. Matt and I drove out a ways to a hilltop park about 5 years ago and watched one then. It was so neat. We brought hot chocolate--the whole works! So we may go tonight.

Ooh! Maddy's up! Guess I better run! Have a great week all!

Taking a bit of a break while Maddy takes her second nap so I thought I'd quick check in.

I took a long hot shower both yesterday and today. I must say, it's felt really nice!!!

My parents made it in just fine! They were about a 1/2 hour late, but not too bad! That was good anyway because before we knew it, it was 10:10 and Matt hadn't left the house yet!

We picked up Five Guys for lunch and their burgers are always fabulous!

They've had a great time playing with Maddy. She's had a blast with them. They can't believe how differently she is proportioned now that she is crawling and moving so much. I'm contemplating moving her down a size in pants since her tummy is so small now! She's still got pudge on her legs, arms and cheeks but her tummy is pretty small!

Mom and I did the grocery shopping for the week (well most of it) and made a meal list. I couldn't believe how many groceries we bought! Holy cow! But, it's basically done! As we were getting out of the car to go grocery shopping I showed mom the new purse I bought and she loved it so much she wanted to get one too!

So off to the mall we went that night! I am buying the purse for her for Christmas and we also bought Maddy her birthday dress, too. I went upstairs to People's Pottery to use my $25 Gift Certificate I had and bought a necklace for a friend. I think she'll like it. I will mail it tomorrow!

After that we went to Walmart to pick up a couple things for Matt, some baby shoes to go with her dress and more tights. We looked at the toys but I didn't buy anything. We got home but Maddy was already down to sleep.

Matt was psyched to go drive out to see the Leonid Meteor shower that happened last night so we went out to 7-11 to get 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf coffee (we needed gas anyway) and then over to Arby's to pick up something to eat since it was 9:00 and we never had dinner! Mom and I were out and the guys were out before that, so we just never sat down to eat! On the way home we realized it was getting very cloudy so the Meteor watching was a bust. Oh well!

Today my mom made her homemade sloppy joes for Matt and I to freeze. That will come in handy so much! I love her sloppy joes and they freeze great! They will be wonderful on a cold night when I don't have much time to prep for dinner. Maddy loves them too! I put together my crockpot beef stroganoff for us for dinner. We'll see how well that goes over since dad likes mom's best.

We changed around the couches from our living room to our family room. Boy that was a big rig-a-marole. I'm glad we did it though, since now my parents can sleep on the pull out sofa in the family room. They are really worried about waking Maddy up at night with their snoring. Well, last night Maddy did wake up at 4:30 am. But I'm not sure if it was the snoring or if she was just cold, her teeth hurt. Who knows. But she did go back to sleep and slept in until 8:30. But dad moved to the family room from the living room when Maddy woke up. So dad was crammed on one couch and mom on the loveseat! That won't do for 7 days! But we vacuumed underneath where each couch was and it was really gross. Then the vacuum caught a pull in the carpet and snagged it about a foot. So I fixed that up with super glue and a knife. (I have a lot of practice with that since Joe used to pull up the carpet.) I meant to fix that snag for a while but we were out of superglue. I finally did buy some at the grocery store when mom and I went but I still didn't get around to it. So it serves me right for not taking care of it right away!

I bought Maddy her bithday cake yesterday! It will be ready to go on Thursday morning. It's a pinapple, orange carrot cake with pinapple curd in the middle and plain white butter cream frosting. I asked her to decorate it with rubber ducks and/or flowers. As long as it says, "Happy first birthday Madeline" it's all I really care about. I was just glad that she was willing to make it for me on such short notice! I bought it from Stephanie's Cakes.

Joe bit Maddy today. He didn't break skin, but did bite her. She grabbed hold of his paw and squeezed it. She moves so fast that sometimes it unavoidable to have her grab him sometimes. All we can do is try to minimize the amount she bugs him, but we can't stop it all together! She handled it well though. Didn't even cry.

I still haven't taken any pictures though! I will get on that ASAP and post them up!

Tea of the day: Ahmad English Breakfast (Dad had some too!)
WO of the day: None since it's the weekend, eating yesterday was BAD, BAD, BAD--I had FRIES two times!!!!!

Matt here. I'm just posting my alibi in advance of any charges being levied against me.

This post might not make the most sense to uninvolved observers, but trust me, it'll come into focus over the next few days as Bec continues her regular posting interval. You may hear some crazy-talk about televisions, antennas, running new wiring, drilling, caulking, ladders, attics, falling, bruising, or some combination thereof.

My excuse, ahead of any of these fantastic stories: "Its just a guy thing."

Hang on to your seats folks, we're on-track for another eventful thanksgiving! =)

Ha... I just saw Matt's entry. We'll talk more about that later.

Well, it's late, 11:36 according to the laptop, but I'm still not tired. I had a Diet Dr. Pepper before with some advil for my headache and I woudn't be surprised if the caffeine is keeping me up. I'll take a Midnight in a bit, but I thought I'd check in first.

Yesterday, Grandma B., Grandpa B., Maddy and I all went out to Kmart to pick up a few things. They bought a new 7 qt. crockpot for me. It's REALLY nice. I like it a lot! My mom had cleaned out my smaller 3 qt. crockpot the day before but it doesn't have a removable liner so she had to be really careful to not get it too wet. She didn't like that at all so she decided that was going to be my Christmas gift! I used it today to make Terriaki Chicken.

Maddy refused to take an afternoon nap yesterday and only slept a total of 3 hours during naps today. That's pretty short for her. She also woke up tonight crying. We just did the whole bedtime routine over when she wouldn't be rocked back to sleep. But she's doing great and loving the company.

Grandma and Grandpa J. showed up today! They are having a great time with Miss Maddy Pants! Grandma's going to make her wonderful Casserole and a pumpkin Pie. She also has recipe for Puritan Punch which doesn't seem so pure since it contains Orange Vodka!

I dressed Maddy up in her birthday outfit today and took a couple pictures. They are up on the gallery now! I wanted to see how the dress fit and it looks GREAT.

The grandmas and I went to to Toys R Us to look at toys tonight for Maddy for Christmas. Grandma J. bought Maddy her own little Ariel Couch! It is SOOOO CUTE. I bought Maddy an Elmo plastic chair with arm rests that open while we were at Kmart. But it's still a bit too big for her right now.

Tomorrow I am going to the school where I used to teach to visit with Maddy. It's a good day to go because it's a 1/2 day and everyone will be doing fun things so I most likely won't be interrupting a whole lot of learning. I remember what September and October were like for teachers. September was spent getting into the swing of things and October was spent hard-core teaching. October was always very stressful for me and so was March. Those were hard months! I didn't want to bother people with that, so I wanted to wait until it was a bit easier.

I've been really good the last couple days with working out! I've still fit it in. Tomorrow will be a bit harder, but I WILL fit it in! It's a nice time to just zone out and relax.

So yes, Matt bought a new TV (actually just a monitor). It's a High Definition one that's flat, 37 inches. He decided to see what kind of signal he got off antenna so he hooked it up. When he found he got pretty good signal he wound up hanging it under the eave of the house. So the last couple days have been spent stringing wires from the attic under the eave to the basement! Grandpa's been helping too. He even got Grandma into the act. I don't understand why every Thanksgiving winds up being a time for a huge project. It always ends up that way too. If I had known it was going to be this big I would have honestly asked Matt to wait on buying the TV. The TV did come tonight though. It's nice looking. Tomorrow he's going to put it up and HOPEFULLY that will be the end of things!!

I'm pleased to say that Maddy is eating more 'people food' now. She had whole wheat pasta with organic spaghetti sauce the other night. She really enjoyed it!

Well, I'm starting to get tired, so I may as well hop off to bed. Hopefully Maddy will continue to sleep through the night and maybe even sleep in tomorrow morning. I'd prefer to avoid rush hour traffic to work! That's something I definitely don't miss about driving to work. Of course, I could always take the HOV lane if I'm with her!

I'll try to check in tomorrow, but I doubt it. If not then, maybe on Thanksgiving night. I hope this finds everyone well! Goodnight!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Mango Black Tea
WO of the day: 30 minutes elliptical, eating a 3

So today was Maddy's first birthday. I can't believe she's already one. It just feels like yesterday I brought her home from the hospital and wondered what the heck I was going to do with an infant. Breast feeding was a nightmare so after a few grueling weeks and Maddy losing weight I gave up the battle although that didn't stop me from feeling guilty. After she started gaining weight, seemed happier and slept better, I stopped feeling guilty.

I still wondered if I was doing the right thing, if she was progressing fast enough, eating right and things like that. But after a while, things got easier.

But before I knew it she was laughing, cooing, rolling over, talking, pointing, sitting up and crawling. Where did the time go? Also before I knew it, I was becoming more and more comfortable being 'mom'. At first I'd question my decisions wondering if what I was doing was right, at the right time.. etc. But as time went on I questioned less and trusted myself more. Of course, it could help that Maddy has grown up so much and matured as well. The transition from teaching to staying home wasn't easy, I must admit. I missed my kids, the teaching and my coworkers with whom I was used to talking with every day. I didn't miss the stress of work, the driving, the paperwork... but I missed the rest of it. It didn't help that I went from working with people and interacting all day long to talking to a little person who couldn't talk back.

Matt has really come into his own over the last year as well. At first he was very hesitant although very willing to help. He wanted to know exactly what to do at all times. But as time went on he had less questions and was more self-assured. Maddy just loves her daddy to death. He has his own way about him and does his own thing with her and she LOVES it. Maddy lights up when Matt comes in the door and he runs home to be with her. She snuggles with him and lets him hold her for SOOO long--much longer than anyone else. Matt is Maddy's favorite person. Hands down, no question! She's definitely a daddy's girl!

I still can't believe the little person she has become. She has such a large personality, is so active and loving. She's so smart and catches onto stuff so fast! She looks like a toddler more and more now and so much less like a baby. Her hair has grown so much and became so thick. She has 12 teeth! She definitely knows what she likes and doesn't like. While she can have a temper, she's really even keeled even on very little sleep. She's my little angel.

Happy Birthday Maddypoopoopants! We love you dearly!

Tea of the day: Starbucks Christmas Blend, strong, due to insomnia last night
WO of the day: None today or yesterday. Wound up not being able to fit it in. Will work out this weekend instead.

I had really bad insomnia last night, going to bed late and then waking up at 3-6 am. Matt let me sleep in this morning after we got Maddy up so I slept for about an extra hour. I think it helped some. I had just enough time to jump in the shower, throw on some clothes, blow dry my hair and run out to get the birthday cake! Matt and I ran out to pick up Maddy's birthday cake. It is soooo cute. You can see it here. However, the frosting was a bit sweet so I wouldn't overly recommend the bakery, but the cake was delicious. It was a pineapple, orange carrot cake. The cake was so moist that it was almost like quick bread! SOOOO good. Maddy didn't actually eat what we gave her, since she seems to enjoy salty/savory foods more than sweet. But she had fun playing with it! (She did finish off some sage stuffing though!)

But after her first nap she opened her gifts. The Zhangs (our neighbors) came over to give Maddy a birthday gift. It was so sweet of them. They bought her a little car she can ride on and push or stand and push. It has the disney girl characters on it and is just adorable. Maddy did great opening her presents. She pulled off some bows and pulled at ribbon. She tried to pull off paper but it was harder for her. She studied most of her gifts she opened and tried to figure them all out one by one. She received a couch from Grandma and Grandpa J that pulls out into a sofa bed. It's so cute and she laid in it right away!

After gifts, eating and what not she went down for a second nap but that only lasted about a 1/2 hour. We used the time after that to have cake! Maddy refused a third nap which she normally doesn't take but I thought I'd try since her second nap was so bad.

The grandmas did most of the cooking for Thanksgiving. It was REALLY good. We had turkey, sweet potato casserole, stuffing, mashed potatos, cranberries, green beans, and carrots. We still have two pumpkin pies that are sitting there ready to be eaten, but we were all so stuffed that we didn't get the chance. I see that for breakfast tomorrow (or maybe some of the sweet potato casserole)! I was able to actually eat slowly and enjoy my food. Most meals I gobble through or don't really notice because Maddy wants so much attention with wanting to eat or be played with. But tonight she seemed pretty happy eating when I fed her and not being fussy. Unfortunately, when I feed Maddy I have a hard time following through on other conversations at the table but tonight it went better. Maddy loved the stuffing but didn't much like the mashed potatos. She didn't like the turkey either. She liked grandma's sweet potato casserole but by that point was tired of sitting in the high chair. Matt, my dad and I did most of the clean up and Grandpa J stripped the rest of the meat from the turkey.

After dinner, Maddy was DONE and ready for bed. She never got overly fussy though and that was SOOOO nice. With the long day she had, skipping a nap (basically) and having company I wouldn't have been surprised if she had lost it towards the end of the night. But she DIDN'T! She did just great!

After she was down for bed, I spent some time organizing and captioning her pictures on the webpage. Then I came downstairs and caught up on my friends' blogs while everyone kind of did their own thing. I think we were all pretty tired from the turkey because Donna and Gary went back to their room, dad is watching football, mom is laying on the couch, Matt is watching Heroes and I'm here!

On another note, I went into school to see 'my kids' on Wednesday. It went so well and Maddy did great seeing and being held by everyone. I saw two of my kids and I was so amazed to see my 5th grader. She had grown so much since I saw her a year ago. She's always held a very special place in my heart since I've taught her since kindergarten. She had grown sooo big! She held Maddy and the teacher took a picture of them together. Seeing it almost made me cry. Knowing that Maddy was one day away from being one and that this fifth grader had grown so much from Kindergarten when I met her just hit home how fast kids grow. I was at school for over an hour I think. The car ride is about 20 minutes in good traffic and it was good traffic. So by the time I got home, Maddy was long overdue for her nap! But she never fussed once, even in the car! (Speaking of the car, we need to switch the carseats around.)

I hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving! I know we did! Happy Birthday Miss Maddy!

Well, I'm pleased to say that the grandparents' trips went quite well! Everyone had a nice time and everyone was able to enjoy Miss Maddy! We dropped my parents off at the airport this afternoon. It couldn't have gone better! We ate lunch about an hour before they had to leave. We had the left over turkey with gravy on hard rolls--so good! About a 1/2 hour before they had to leave Maddy got up! So I changed, dressed and fed her. We all hopped in the car and we were at the airport on time! It actually was a very smooth ride down 66 which I wasn't too sure would happen given Thanksgiving weekend.

After we dropped them off, Matt and I were going to head over to Gravely Point park outside the airport but we tested it out first just opening the windows while a plane went over (they take off over Gravely Point) and Maddy was frowning. So we decided to just move on. We stopped at Roosevelt Island instead. I've lived here for five years and haven't been there! It has nice walking paths and some great quotes. Maddy enjoyed herself and it was a really nice day after it was rainy all week so it was great to get outside.

We got a lot done today between the grandparents and us. We put up the glass insert into our screen door and took off the screen. We switched the couches back around. Matt and I started to put up the plastic on our banister behind the TV going to the family room and Grandpa and Matt switched Maddy's carseats around! She LOVES facing forward and is so confused by it! It's really cute! We also washed all our sheets and hung them out to dry. I love the smell of line-dried sheets.

I also ordered our picture Christmas cards as well. They should be here in a few days. I need to go pick them up at CVS but it saves us the $12 shipping charge!!! Good grief! I did order 100 of them, but I don't know how many I'll send out. They are nice looking though and I'm quite pleased with the way they turned out. They have four pictures on it, three little and one large in the middle. I put one of us as a family in the middle that the grandparents took and the rest are Maddy around the outside.

Picture taking was quite interesting. Basically it was a big circus event! I got partially ready while Maddy was sleeping, then when she was up, I had the grandma's get her dressed while Matt and I changed and Grandpa got the bottle warmed up. After we were ready and Maddy had a bottle in her, Each grandpa had a camera and I gave my mom mine and the flashes went! We got some really good shots (and some really bad shots too since Maddy became fussy with the flashes) to choose from! As soon as pictures were over we all changed out again! HA!

I also wrote up my Christmas letter today. It's the first time I've ever written one. It's pretty good overall--not braggy. I HATE braggy Christmas letters. I'm not saying one shouldn't share their acheivements but, sheesh! Some people go overboard!

I did upload some video from her birthday to go with the pictures!

Well, I'm pretty tired even though I slept well and I still have to think about dinner. Maddy is still taking her afternoon nap so that's great! I hope this finds everyone well and that everyone is having a good weekend!

So Matt checked out Crutchfield and the Highdef, flat screen TV (ok, ok, Monitor) we just purchased is $400 off! So he called Crutchfield and immediately they Ok'd the credit without any hassle or issue. SO COOL!

Well, let's start with the good: Maddy had a really fun time this morning! She was so cute crawling around and toddling from gate to gate. She ate small pieces of banana with her breakfast. She also took a good morning nap so we all laid down! I slept like the dead and wasn't really ready to get up when she woke up later! I did a load of laundry, not that I really expected to have to today!

That takes us to the bad: Last night Maddy when I changed Maddy's diaper she went! Argh. It's been a while since I'd been caught off guard. I didn't put a diaper mat down either since it was just a 'quick change'. Well, fortunately, she didn't wet through to the bed, just her clothes. So I changed her clothes and while I was doing that THEN she decided again to wet the bed! After striping the bed and getting her redressed we were set!

This bring us to the ugly! All this wetting took place at 10:45 last night. Maddy woke up about 10 with a really bad dream. Matt went in to walk her first but as soon as they laid her down she started screaming and crying again. So I decided to go in and see her and she wouldn't stop even though I was holding her. I took her into our bedroom with the light on to try to snap her out of it. She snuggled with Daddy and I but even then she would whimper now and again. But she snuggled down and went to sleep. When I took her back in her room and left she started crying hysterically again. So I went in to walk her. Well, Matt came in 2 minutes later and said, "Come on, let's all go watch a movie and get your mind off it." So we all went downstairs, turned on Oobi and watched a 20 minute episode. And wouldn't you know it? It worked great! Maddy snuggled into us and sucked her thumb for about 1/2 the time and then the other half she smiled and laughed at Daddy. She went back to bed with very little trouble.

Well, that's about it! We're trying to get used to having the house back to ourselves. It's pretty quiet in here. Maddy hasn't really seemed to notice the difference though. She seems to be pretty happy playing with all her new toys.

Back to life as I know it! It's a normal Monday here, and as much as I loved having the family around for Maddy's birthday and Thanksgiving, it's nice to be back to normal! I worked out this morning for the first time in six days. Yes, I'm a slacker. But it felt good to get back on the bandwagon, but it was a tough workout. That's what I get for going six days without working out!

My eyes are pink again. ARGH. I don't really know what it's from. But I put in a different pair of contacts on Saturday so I think that's what did it. So I've put myself back on my antibiotic eye drops. I'm wondering if all my 'new' older contacts that haven't been opened are going to do this to me and if I should just refill my prescription that I just received a couple of weeks ago although it's the same prescription as my older contacts are. I don't know... maybe I'll just take these into my eye doctor and have them check it out. So anyway, I'm back in glasses!

I am stalking CVS. Kodak gallery shipped out my holiday cards yesterday but they aren't in yet. They get their shipments in after 2 pm so I called and it's not in! Hopefully tomorrow. I'm excited about the cards (if you can't tell).

Matt and I went to bed at 9 pm last night! WOW! That was so nice. I actually slept over 10.5 hours! Today I've spent straightening up the house as much as I could. It needs a good thorough cleaning though! Hopefully tomorrow. Maddy and I took a walk inbetween her naps. But she seemed fussy even then. I'm pretty sure it's the teeth she has coming in. I gave her some tylanol before her second nap and also some teething tabs. Hopefully that helps her a bit.

She slept all night last night! WHOO WHOO!

Matt, my mom, dad and I decorated a bit for Christmas while there were still here. I have a little 2 ft tree in the dining room in the corner. I didn't want to tempt Maddy with anything that she can't have so no big tree this year. I also decorated the end tables just a little bit with non-glass items. They can still break, but not shatter the way glass would! I still want to put lights in the windows and maybe the tree outside (but that will be a stretch since we don't have a power outlet in the front). I need to hang the garland from the railing going up the stairs too. I think that's all the decorating we're going to do for Christmas this year though.

I'm starting to think about Christmas gifts. Maddy is basically done with from us, Matt has his new TV but I may get him a couple other little things as well. I still have family and friends I want to shop for, too. I have a White Elephant gift I need to shop for my Mom's group. That's about it!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Blackcurrent Black Tea
WO of the day: 30 minutes elliptical, stretching and weights

I read this today online at W*USA 9 and thought it was cute so I'm posting it! I have more to update later about Maddy's doctor's appointment (it all went fine) and what not. But for right now, this will have to do! Because Miss Maddy is up!

The greatest number of moments, 26, come from the 1970s. TV Land identified nine moments from this decade. Ten are from commercials, and 28 from comedies, including six from "Saturday Night Live."

In alphabetical order, TV Land's list:

_"Aaay" (Fonzie, "Happy Days")

_"And that's the way it is" (Walter Cronkite, "CBS Evening News")

_"Ask not what your country can do for you ..." (John F. Kennedy)

_"Baby, you're the greatest" (Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, "The Honeymooners")

_"Bam!" (Emeril Lagasse, "Emeril Live")

_"Book 'em, Danno" (Steve McGarrett, "Hawaii Five-O")

_"Come on down!" (Johnny Olson, "The Price is Right")

_"Danger, Will Robinson" (Robot, "Lost in Space")

_"De plane! De plane!" (Tattoo, "Fantasy Island")

_"Denny Crane" (Denny Crane, "Boston Legal")

_"Do you believe in miracles?" (Al Michaels, 1980 Winter Olympics)

_"D'oh!" (Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons")

_"Don't make me angry ..." (David Banner, "The Incredible Hulk")

_"Dyn-o-mite" (J.J., "Good Times")

_"Elizabeth, I'm coming!" (Fred Sanford, "Sanford and Son")

_"Gee, Mrs. Cleaver ..." (Eddie Haskell, "Leave it to Beaver")

_"God'll get you for that" (Maude, "Maude")

_"Good grief" (Charlie Brown, "Peanuts" specials)

_"Good night, and good luck" (Edward R. Murrow, "See It Now")

_"Good night, John Boy" ("The Waltons")

_"Have you no sense of decency?" (Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy)

_"Heh heh" (Beavis and Butt-head, "Beavis and Butthead")

_"Here it is, your moment of Zen" (Jon Stewart, "The Daily Show")

_"Here's Johnny!" (Ed McMahon, "The Tonight Show")

_"Hey now!" (Hank Kingsley, "The Larry Sanders Show")

_"Hey hey hey!" (Dwayne Nelson, "What's Happening!!")

_"Hey hey hey!" (Fat Albert, "Fat Albert")

_"Holy (whatever), Batman!" (Robin, "Batman")

_"Holy crap!" (Frank Barone, "Everybody Loves Raymond")

_"Homey don't play that!" (Homey the Clown, "In Living Color")

_"How sweet it is!" (Jackie Gleason, "The Jackie Gleason Show")

_"How you doin'?" (Joey Tribbiani, "Friends")

_"I can't believe I ate the whole thing" (Alka Seltzer ad)

_"I know nothing!" (Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes")

_"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hannibal, "The A-Team")

_"I want my MTV!" (MTV ad)

_"I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl ..." (Larry, "Newhart")

_"I'm not a crook ..." (Richard Nixon)

_"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" (Vicks Formula 44 ad)

_"I'm Rick James, bitch!" (Dave Chappelle as Rick James, "Chappelle's Show")

_"Is that your final answer?" (Regis Philbin, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire")

_"It keeps going and going and going ..." (Energizer Batteries ad)

_"It takes a licking ..." (Timex ad)

_"Jane, you ignorant slut" (Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, "Saturday Night Live")

_"Just one more thing ..." (Columbo, "Columbo")

_"Let's be careful out there" (Sgt. Esterhaus, "Hill Street Blues")

_"Let's get ready to rumble!" (Michael Buffer, various sports events)

_"Live long and prosper" (Spock, "Star Trek")

_"Makin' whoopie" (Bob Eubanks, "The Newlywed Game")

_"Marcia, Marcia, Marcia! (Jan Brady, "The Brady Bunch")

_"Mom always liked you best" (Tommy Smothers, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour")

_"Never assume ..." (Felix Unger, "The Odd Couple")

_"Nip it!" (Barney Fife, "The Andy Griffith Show")

_"No soup for you!" (The Soup Nazi, "Seinfeld")

_"Norm!" ("Cheers")

_"Now cut that out!" (Jack Benny, "The Jack Benny Program")

_"Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" (Stan and Kyle, "South Park")

_"Oh, my nose!" (Marcia Brady, "The Brady Bunch")

_"One small step for man ..." (Neil Armstrong)

_"Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" (Grey Poupon ad)

_"Read my lips: No new taxes!" (George H.W. Bush)

_"Resistance is futile" (Picard as Borg, "Star Trek: The Next Generation")

_"Say good night, Gracie" (George Burns, "The Burns & Allen Show")

_"Schwing!" (Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth, "Saturday Night Live")

_"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" (Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle)

_"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" (Trix cereal ad)

_"Smile, you're on 'Candid Camera'" ("Candid Camera")

_"Sock it to me" ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In")

_"Space, the final frontier ..." (Capt. Kirk, "Star Trek")

_"Stifle!" (Archie Bunker, "All in the Family")

_"Suit up!" (Barney Stinson, "How I Met Your Mother")

_"Tastes great! Less filling!" (Miller Lite beer ad)

_"Tell me what you don't like about yourself" (Dr. McNamara and Dr. Troy, "Nip/Tuck")

_"That's hot" (Paris Hilton, "The Simple Life")

_"The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" (Jim McKay, "ABC's Wide World of Sports")

_"The tribe has spoken" (Jeff Probst, "Survivor")

_"The truth is out there" (Fox Mulder, "The X-Files")

_"This is the city ..." (Sgt. Joe Friday, "Dragnet")

_"Time to make the donuts" ("Dunkin' Donuts" ad)

_"Two thumbs up" (Siskel & Ebert, "Siskel & Ebert")

_"Up your nose with a rubber hose" (Vinnie Barbarino, "Welcome Back, Kotter")

_"We are two wild and crazy guys!" (Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd as Czech playboys, "Saturday Night Live")

_"Welcome to the O.C., bitch" (Luke, "The O.C.")

_"Well, isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, "Saturday Night Live")

_"We've got a really big show!" (Ed Sullivan, "The Ed Sullivan Show")

_"Whassup?" (Budweiser ad)

_"What you see is what you get!" (Geraldine, "The Flip Wilson Show")

_"Whatchoo talkin"bout, Willis?" (Arnold Drummond, "Diff'rent Strokes")

_"Where's the beef?" (Wendy's ad)

_"Who loves you, baby?" (Kojak, "Kojak")

_"Would you believe?" (Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart")

_"Yabba dabba do!" (Fred Flintstone, "The Flintstones")

_"Yada, yada, yada" ("Seinfeld")

_"Yeah, that's the ticket" (Jon Lovitz as the pathological liar, "Saturday Night Live")

_"You eeeediot!" (Ren, "Ren & Stimpy")

_"You look mahvelous!" (Billy Crystal as Fernando, "Saturday Night Live")

_"You rang?" (Lurch, "The Addams Family")

_"You're fired!" (Donald Trump, "The Apprentice")

_"You've got spunk ..." (Lou Grant, "The Mary Taylor Moore Show")

Let's start with Maddy's doctor's visit. I almost forgot about it! Matt and I went to bed really late last night (midnight!) and I woke up at 6:15 naturally and remembered with a start that her appointment was at 8 am!!! Fortunately, we had more than enough time to get ready and get there. Plus, it helps that her doctor is 10 minutes down the road in the hospital complex.

Now onto the visit! She really hates being manipulated!!! She hates it when the doctor looks in her ears and holds her down to get measurements! But she did well and overcame it fast enough. She did get three shots today, Hep A, chickenpox vaccine and Hib-4. She's now 29 1/2 inches and in the 60% (up from 28 1/2) and weighs 23 1/3 lbs and in the 80% (up from 22 1/2 lbs). I'm pretty sure that the last height measurement is off. I don't think they had her head all the way to the top of the bar so when they measured it came out longer at the feet. And she's only gained a pound! Tells you how much she's moving around now too!

Last night I went to Target to look for my White Elephant Gift for my Mom's Night Out this month. The limit was $20. I have to say, I think I spent my $20 very wisely! However, I can't comment on it too much here because I'm pretty sure that some of the moms read my page! I bought a few things for the house as well--2 Christmas CDs, Contact Solution, Diapers, Shower Gel for Matt, Slippers for me, two hand balms for me (both the previous are Chirstmas gifts) a 3 layered holiday candle and other stuff.

I tried out Matt's shower gel this morning--Sharp's Spearmint Foaming Scrub. It was on clearance for only $5.50 for 12 oz. Well, it smelled just like Bath and Body Works Stress Relief Shower Gel that I used to love but just a tad bit mintier! So today, after Maddy's first nap, I went out and bought two more (but these weren't on clearance??? I think the first one was mismarked). I was so excited to find a replacement for my discontinued Stress Relief! Matt may have to fight me for it! Actually, I love warm manly scents in the shower--woodsy, eucalyptus, mint, etc...

I picked up a new set of PJs for myself (for Christmas) and warm sleepers for Maddy while I was there as well.

Ran an errand to Kmart and took back a Smoke Alarm that we didn't need since Matt bought one the same day I did! Great minds... And, AND! MY PHOTO CARDS WERE IN! YEAH!!!!! So I'm going to run, sort through some Christmas gifts, maybe wrap a bit and then start writing out my cards while Maddy is still napping!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Blackcurrent Black Tea
WO of the day: Elliptical 30 min, Eating a 4

Tonight was Maddy's last bottle of formula--if you can call it that! It was six ounces of milk mixed with one ounce of formula. Her two day time bottles today were both five ounces straight milk. She's had no issue transitioning to milk! Now, I need to be able to get her to drink it cold and from a cup. She also ate asparugus, beets, egg drop soup, quiche and toast over the last few days. Those are all new for her! She also had baby cookies and LOVED them. I call her the cookie monster now cause when she had a cookie she tried to shove three pieces in her mouth at once. When I tried to take them away she tried to grab them away from me and yelled at me. HA! My little cookie monster!

Tomorrow we start a new bedtime routine. She's been taking a bottle at night right before bed that daddy feeds her. But we need to get into the routine of brushing her teeth before bed (I do brush them two other times in the day). But the milk isn't good for her teeth and really, she doesn't NEED the night time bottle anymore anyway. So, we are starting something new tomorrow night. I"m hoping to phase out the night time bottle over the next couple weeks and then the bottle all together over the next month.

Big plans for a big girl!!! I still can't believe she's 1!

Off to make out Christmas cards! Goodnight!

So I wrote out the envelopes for the Christmas cards last night! Yep, they came yesterday and by the mail today, they there out! Matt helped me stuff, fold my holiday notes, stamp and return address label. I wrote the addresses on the envelopes and also did my fair share of stuffing. We sent out EIGHTY-SIX cards! Holy cow. I didn't think I knew that many people. I'm sure I'll send out a few more as time goes on, too. Well, this is the year where I make a list of everyone I sent them to and mark them if I get one back. Next year I'll cull out my list and not send to those who didn't send back to me. I'm not being petty, I'm being economical! Also, not everyone does the Christmas card thing, and that's fine!

Maddy was very clingy today, mainly because I tried doing a lot of other stuff while she was preoccupied. But it needed to get done, so.... that's the way it goes, I guess! We went outside to crawl around on the grass a bit to get her mind off things (and to put three more Christmas cards in the mailbox). I saw the mailman coming so I refused to look his direction lest the icy cold glares pierce right through me. Afterall, I did have the gall to put all 86 cards in our mailbox and raise the flag! Ha!

I had another really nice work out today. I would say I'm right back on track where I left off before the holiday. It feels good to be active again! However, as I was in the shower I heard Maddy pounding on the wall! Argh! So I rushed through! When I went into her room she was grinning at me ear to ear!

I've sorted through some of her toys. I will put some away now and pull them out another time or just leave them in storage. She just had TOO many laying around. It still looks like I didn't clear out anything!

Tea of the day: I actually had coffee with International Delight Pumpkin Pie Spice creamer and splenda. It was a foggy day here and more of a coffee day than a tea day.
WO of the day: 30 min. Elliptical and eating a 4.

So we tried a new routine for Maddy tonight after we got home from Target (my THIRD trip in three days--gah, I love that place).

After her bath with daddy (she loves it when daddy gives her a bath) and I got her dressed, Matt gave her the bottle (her first full day with just whole milk), after the bottle I brushed her teeth while Matt continued to hold her and then he held her for a bit more in the dark room and layed her down! It all went fine!

Until..... she started crying. So I went up to see what was wrong. Turns out the very light weight, large holed blanket I gave her for her nap (crocheted by a dear friend/previous coworker) somehow turned into a hat! And when I walked in she stood there against the rail crying with this blanket on her head! It wasn't OVER her face, just on her head. Well, she didn't like that much (see yesterdays manipulating post) so I took it off and out of the crib, held her for a bit and layed her back down. She hasn't made a noise since!

Yes, we went to Target again tonight. I wanted to buy a starter toothbrush for Maddy. I've been using the finger brush which is fine, but I thought it was time to move up to the next size. Matt needed a couple of things and I was eyeing the Watkins Lemon Body and Hand Lotion. I bought a Sharps Lemon Scrub when I bought a few more of the Spearmint Scrubs so I thought the lemon lotion would go nice. I did buy the Lemon Hand repair cream and lavendar repair cream the last Target trip I made. I did buy Maddy another Christmas gift. She absolutely adores music, so I bought her a mini see and say with instruments on it. I guess it's as much for me as her, since I love to watch her dance!

I've been addicted to Jones Soda. It's calorie free, caffeine free and SO GOOD. Matt's dad and my dad would love the black cherry! It doesn't taste diet at all. They have a lot of fun flavors. It's really a treat to drink!

Well, that's it for tonight! Going to watch a new Dirty Jobs and have a glass of wine! Goodnight!

So in the last two days I've seen my very first purposeful 'defiant' acts by Maddy. Yesterday, she went over to Joe and laid on him like she always does, burying her face in his fur. Then she sat up and grabbed ahold of his tail. So I told her, "No. Nice hands." and took the tail out of her hands. Well, OOOH WHEE! Did she get MAD! She kneeled straight up from sitting, clenched every muscle (her face got all red) and yelled! Then she reached out and grabbed ahold of his tail with both hands as hard as she could! Well, fortunately she didn't yank it, but Joe was definitely paying attention. So I pryed both her little hands off and said, "No, Madeline! Not nice!" I wasn't yelling, but the tone of voice was definitely firm. Then she yelled at me again and crawled away! It took all my effort to not laugh so she could see it!

Then, this morning she found my gum package in the outside pocket of my purse (I never put anything there). Since that's not safe for her to have, I had to take it away. Well, she held on as tight as she could, yelled at me and tried to crawl away with it. I got it away from her, but with more of a fight than I expected. She fussed for a second, but then moved onto something else.

Maddy tried a couple new foods in the last couple of days. She had clementines (just the inside pulp) and loved it. She also had Turkey kielbasa and macaroni and cheese. I guess I should have expected it, but she LOVED the Mac and cheese! We very seldomly have it, but she must have had at least 10 elbow noodles. She also liked the kielbasa which we chopped up very fine. She tried some of the Zwieback toast, biter biscuts and Gerber cheese crackers. She likes them all! However, I now need to be careful how much she has on her tray because she'd love to stuff it all in her mouth at one time and then try to chew. HA! She's especially that way with her biscuts.

So this morning I worked out like I always do, but I swung the flat screen on the bracket on the wall to face the Elliptical Machine! I put on Discovery HD Worlds Best Aquariums on our high def Tivo. Can I just say, DARN that picture looked good?!? I'm not one to care in the least about TV. For me, the less TV the better. I certainly don't care how big, good, loud, surround sound or base-y (the less the better) it is. I can easily live with a 15 inch as long as I have Tivo and Cable. But, giving credit where credit is due--the picture was FABULOUS. I mean, underwater pictures are gorgeous but it was so sharp and bright. The issue is I'm afraid to turn it up too loud since Maddy is napping and I'm working out. I don't know if I want to try to overpower the Elliptical's noise to hear dialog. The Elliptical is quiet, but it still makes SOME noise. So there ya go, hon, your TV is definitely sharper and brighter than most I've seen. I think you picked a good one!

Well, we'll probably make a mall trip tonight. We may even get Maddy's picture taken with Santa if it's not too long of a line and depending on her mood. Still haven't figured out dinner! That's next! Have a good one!

Tea of the day: Ahmad Blackcurrent Tea
WO of the day: 30 min. Elliptical, eating a 1-- I don't even want to talk about it!

So today Maddy went to see Santa for the first time! We all went tonight after dinner. She did really well! I didn't get her dressed up or anything, just the jeans, sweatshirt and tennis shoes she was wearing! The line was pretty short so that was nice. She did REALLY well! She was quite enthralled with Mr. Claus. She could barely take her eyes off him. It's not that she was scared or even concerned, just very focused on studying him. It took all our yelling, "Maddy! Maddy! Over here!" to even get her to look out way. The bell the lady was ringing didn't help at all. But we did get a few pictures of her looking very annoyed because we distracted her away from Santa. I'd show you the picture, but computers absolutely suck.

I plugged in the scanner tonight. Of course it didn't work. So, I went to the software page to upload the drivers. But they (Canon) compiled the drivers wrong. So, we pulled out the next best thing to upload that but I needed my password to install it. And it wouldn't accept my password. So I'm in a lousy mood just trying to scan in one picture. Argh. Why is something so simple, so hard?

Anyway, I will find the CD for the drivers tomorrow (Matt swears he threw them away, but I am pretty sure I know where to find it) and upload them. Hopefully by then it will work. All for one Christmas picture with Santa. It's rediculous.