Mother's Day/First trip to the beach!

For Mother's day this year John decided we should get out of town. My brother decided that sounded like a great idea, so we were able to find a condo on good ol' priceline.com for a great price that had 2 rooms and since we split the cost it was quite inexpensive! We had soo much fun! We just stayed one night but tried to spend as much time there as possible. Especially since it was Madilyn's first time at the beach and all, we wanted to make sure she got the full experience! It was so nice and relaxing. The hotel had like 4 or 5 kiddie pools and hot tubs and was right on the beach, so it was perfect! Here's some pictures:

Here's Madilyn noticing a cute little boy with a t-shirt that says "chick magnet"...

I guess she thought the t-shirt was literal... he wasn't too thrilled about the kiss, but she sure liked him! :)

I thought she'd be scared of the waves and sand... NOPE, as you can see by her face, she loved every second of it and I had to keep her from running into the ocean!

She loved to sit and play in the sand!

Here she's building a sandcastle with her uncle Mark

Family Pic, sadly, the best one... Madilyn wasn't cooperating (she wanted to get down and go in the water again)... oh well!

Taking her bucket to the ocean to gather some water... :)

Lovin' the ocean!

Ok, I SWEAR this is a smile, she LOVED the footsprayers that people washed their feet off with. She FOUGHT me to get in there and just stood and played, it was so cute!

See? She LOVED it!!! HAHAHA!

Washin' the hands I guess....

So, as you can tell, we had a ton of fun on the beach!!
Here's a picture of Madilyn showing how much fun she had:

As you can tell, it was SO much fun, she couldn't keep her eyes open after about 2 minutes in the car on the way home! So precious!
And, as a bonus, the last picture for this post is a place that I saw on the way out... now I don't consider myself a "fat man", but the name is kinda intriguing to the point I might want to go in there next time... so their marketing scheme in naming their place seems to have worked on me! HA!
Oh, and Madilyn has a couple of new words now! She can say pizza, gorilla and tiger... and says them quite a bit! She started saying "pizza" when we were at the hotel in Myrtle Beach this last weekend and we ordered Godfather's pizza... which I haven't had since I lived in MN!!! I LOVE their pizza! She wanted a bite so bad, and I had already fed her dinner, but she wanted some anyways! So I told her that it was mommy's pizza... so she said "pizza" and made the sign for please. It was so cute... she got to have quite a few bites of mommy's pizza! :) Gorilla and Tiger come from her birthday present from John's dad... he got her "your baby can read" and we watch it once or twice a day, and there's books and all sorts of stuff. The stage that she's on (there are a few different stages that you change to as your child learns to read) has a lot about zoo animals, and so gorilla and tiger are repeated a few times... and... she just starts saying it. But for some reason, she will say gorilla, and not grandma for my mom. HA! Oh well!!!
Thank you to my sweet husband and my adorable daughter for taking me to Myrtle Beach for mother's day, it was the best present ever! It will be hard to top!

First Freckle!

Ok, so those of you who know John and I... know that both of us are covered with what my mom calls "angel kisses", but what most others call freckles. :) Madilyn got her first angel kiss! I don't know when, but I noticed it recently. It is QUITE cute, and on her arm. I am not sure how she did seeing as how I lather her with so much sunscreen every time we go anywhere outside for more than 2 minutes... but it's cute nevertheless. Here's a picture!

Madilyn is 1!!!!!

On Saturday, April 17th @ 7:43am my sweet little girl turned 1! YAY! She is just growing up too quick!
Here are her stats from her 1 year well visit:
Weight: 18 lbs 4 oz. - 10th percentile. I was nervous about her weight, but the Dr. said that it was very normal for that to happen after they start walking and just start switching to table food only. She said she'd be just fine and will gain more by 15 months. So, it eased my mind!
Height: 29" - 50th percentile
Head: 18 1/4" - 75th to 90th percentile

Some things that are new this month:
2 new teeth, so now she's up to 6! 3 on top and 3 on the bottom, and I think I see another one coming through on the bottom. She started shaking her head no... she is a full fledged walker (She just is everywhere and into everything!), she has tried to stand up in the middle of the room w/out pulling up on anything, hasn't succeeded yet, but she tried...we brushed her teeth, had her 1st hotdog & her first snow cone @ Funday Sunday @ church (and LOVED them!), we went on a bike ride, and she got pulled behind in her trailer/stroller that I got "her" for her birthday... and we have done it a few times, she loves it!, said ball, went on Zyrtec and her eczema got sooo much better and her constant runny nose went away, had and got over her first ear infection, down to 1 nursing a day (in the morning) and switched to whole milk (with smoothie mixed in, otherwise she doesn't like it yet... I am working on it!), LOVES strawberries and watermelon, had her first birthday party! (I think that's it for now....)
Her first Birthday party was a great success! She had 4 of her church buddies come for her party, turned out they were all boys! HA! (really, they are the kids of mommy and daddy's friends, but it counts nonetheless)... She tried cake for the first time, she liked the frosting, but didn't really get into the cake. After that she just wanted water and strawberries. She actually helped open gifts until a big ball from her Uncle Mark was brought out... then it was over for all the kids... BALL! :) They had a fun time! Then, we all went over to the park across the street from our neighborhood to get some of the sugar "burned" off. By the time everyone left and I laid Madilyn down for her afternoon nap, she was out in about 3 minutes. She had had so much fun, it just wore her out! So cute!!! Thanks to everyone who helped make her day so special!
Here are some pictures of her birthday party. I took her to Portrait Innovations today and I will try to post some of those soon.

Here's Madilyn in her original birthday dress, we had to change it though... a bit short and I didn't have the bloomers that I wanted to put underneath... they were dirty!

The other birthday dress from Grama... cute huh?

A smirk from the Birthday girl w/her "I'm 1" tiara from Grama

Bein' cute

So you can see how short the dress was, but it was so pretty! It was from my aunt, my cousin had worn it when she was 1, so I had to get pictures!The cake! I made it out of twinkies and cupcakes! I did a dog cuz it's Madilyn's favorite word and animal...

Madilyn's face AFTER having her first little bit of cake

Madilyn playing with her friend Jacob

Having her first taste of a carbonated drink... funny face huh?

Her "smash cake" called a cupcake critter... a dog! cute huh?

Kids playin', notice Madilyn has the ball

Madilyn and mommy

Madilyn and Daddy

Mmmmmm.... caaaakkkkkeeee

have you guys tried the cake? it's pretty good!

Madilyn's first pair of flip-flops courtesy of Auntie Julie and Uncle Ryan... so cute!

The center of the party... the BALL!

Nathanial running away from the ball, maybe Madilyn was trying to throw it at him?

picture of the kids

Another pic of kids

So, as you can see, she had fun!!! I'll be posting her pics that we did today soon!

My poor baby!

I must start off by saying, I had NO IDEA how exhausted I would be once Madilyn became a sturdy walker. She is everywhere and into everything... all before her first birthday!
Ok, now, I must say that although she is sturdier than she was, and no longer need to hold my hand or a toy to roam around, she trips A LOT! I know that is very common for new toddlers, but it still makes me nervous. Before Madilyn was walking I saw those toddler helmets on amazon.com that you can use when your child first starts walking, and I thought, how silly, is it that serious. To me, YES, I have considered it! I know it will get better, but man, she sure does fall a lot, and hard! I feel so horrible! She has a bruise on her forehead from the corner of the dishwasher, by her eye from the washer/dryer, above the eye from our kitchen stools... and the list goes on. Today, my mom (who watches her while I am at work) called and told me that while they were at the book store, she fell and hit her cheek on a bookshelf and now has a nice sized bruise on her cheek. MAN! My poor baby! I hate when she gets hurt, even if it is partially because of her absolute need to try to run and maintain full independence on all of her decisions on where she wants to go. It's so hard not to hover and be a "helicopter parent" as my pediatrician calls me :) ..... I want her to get more study and better at walking, but it's hard to see her fall and get those yucky bruises!
Also, my daughter is in the process of getting her 5th and 6th tooth, fighting her allergies to this horrible yellow disgusting pollen (can you tell I have allergies too?). The poor thing, she's got bruises all over her face with snot running down her nose like her nose is a faucet and her gums all swollen from all the teeth she's getting. It's a surprise she smiles at me! HA! Who ever said being a toddler was easy?! lol!
Well, her 1 year well visit is coming up, and her birthday is on the 17th!!!! I'll make sure to get plenty of pictures then! Until then, here's my favorite latest photo:Shows her personality huh? :)

11 months on March 17th!

When Madilyn turned 11 months on... what was it, Wednesday, I completely forgot! Poor thing, she shouldn't worry though, I will DEFINITELY not forget her 1 yr birthday though.
So, throughout this last month she has had a few firsts!
1. Madilyn can take up to 20 steps on her own!
2. Madilyn can stand on her own, and squat to pick something up
3. She says a few words : truck, dog, kitty kitty, daddy, mommy, papa, grandma, and a few other words we still don't know what she's trying to say :).
4. She's learned more signs. She knows drink, more, please, eat, drink, hungry, all done, up, down, and milk.
5. She dances!!! She loves music and will dance to just about anything.
6. Her hair is getting so long. (I will post an 11 month picture soon). I try to keep bows in her hair as much as possible when she doesn't pull it out, otherwise her hair is in her eyes.
7. She had her first ear infection :(... and I think she has allergies, but she's still happy a majority of the time! :)
8. She has preferences to which book she wants me to read her at bedtime and during the day. She mostly likes one with dogs in them!!!
There may be more firsts this month, but at the moment, I can't quite think of them!
I have decided that for her first birthday, since she has a recent obsession with dogs, we are going to do Pink Poodles! We're just gonna have a little party @ home with family, but I wanted to have some sort of theme for the cake. I found the cutest picture of a cake that's in the shape of a poodle and when Madilyn saw it she said "dog" for like the next 1o minutes. I decided then and there that it was the cake I had to make!
She's getting a little bit better about drinking milk... she'll take sips gradually. I have been making smoothies, and so she will drink those a bit more readily. I also found a way to get her to eat cheese.... the spreadable cheese by laughing cow... she LOVES it! She even licks her fingers when it gets on them! She also has been obsessed with any kind of fruit lately. She is definitely not allergic to strawberries, I know for sure based on how often she has been eating them lately and shoving them into her mouth as fast as I can get pieces of it onto her tray. Some foods she likes one day and not the next so it can be hit or miss. We just try to fit in all of the food groups and enough calories and dairy.
Well, that's it for now, I will post pictures as soon as I take some this weekend.

It's official...

So, Madilyn has her very first ear infection... :( I was so sad! The last couple of days she's been really stuffed up from teething and possibly allergies. So, yesterday I noticed that she kept putting her finger in her ear and tipping her head to her shoulder on one specific side. I called the Dr. this morning so she had me come in... yep, ear infection in her left ear. Poor baby! We have the medicine, and strangely enough, her stuffiness is getting better also, hmmm.. maybe it's just a coincidence. She was pretty fussy for most of the day, and then tonight she went to bed great and is sleeping beautifully! YAY! I am glad the medicine seems to be working quickly! This will hopefully blow over quickly! :) (Dr. Mac also said that she is definitely getting more teeth, definitely part of the culprit... poor babies having to go through all of this, huh?)

New things

I just thought it was so cute, I had to say this... Madilyn has started to try to say a couple of things. She does some signing... she signs for more, drink, eat/food, all done, please, and up. We are working on more. BUT, she has started saying "truck" and "dog". It's hilarious because they kind of sound the same. She was trying to say "duck" this morning! When a semi truck passed us on the road this morning, she pointed out the window and said "truck"! Then yesterday at Publix there was a dog in a car, and she pointed and said "dog". She seemed so proud of herself that I knew what she was talking about too! They start properly with a d or a t, but they all kind of end with a gravelly, mucousy sounding "kgh" sound... it's pretty funny! I don't know how else to describe it! It's so cute! She also says "mama" and "dada" and "papa" (for Grandpa/Papa) and yesterday she said grandma... but it was more like "momaw". She sure is trying!!! She's getting big!