Teaholic not quite anonymous

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!