Destination Jesus and Valentines Day

We had a great weekend, even though as usual for Valentines Day, we spent most of it at Destination Jesus. We didn't get a picture together this year, so here is our Valentines Day last year. This is the same table I worked this year, but this time I got to leave Bud at home with Grandma :)
I worked the 8pm-12am shift last night front door security. It was slow for the first few hours, so I actually got to attend the last of the Eucharistic Procession, and even hit Reconciliation and hang out with a few Franciscan Sisters. After that though, it got crazy as we had to get all the kids (900 of them) on buses with their chaperones to go to their sleeping locations.

Earlier in the day I had taken Madeleine and John Paul over there for a half hour to see Ken play in the band. Madeleine was so funny and had a great time. She started dancing in her little uncoordinated way (think Elaine on Seinfeld), right next to the bleachers filled with kids. They were all smiling at her and then they all started dancing just like her! It was so funny! I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes. And boy did she love all those kids dancing with her! She did not want to leave.

Today they got dressed up for Valentines day and we went to mass with the Bishop. I figured out a way to get a good picture of Madeleine - I have to say, "Don't you smile!"
Waiting to go in to Mass. Bud had a shirt that said, "Mom's little Love Bug" and his bib says "Future Pope" which was quite a hit with the priests and sisters!
This was the altar they set up in the gym at Guerin Catholic high school. It was absolutely beautiful.
Madeleine has a friend Olivia who is the daughter of the drummer in the band. She LOVES Madeleine and always wants to dance with her. This was last year.
and dancing with Olivia this year. She had a great time although she got really dizzy!
So, we are headed to Florida tomorrow for the week while our new floors are installed. I'm really excited about seeing Madeleine's Godparents and their kids. I'm also quite nervous about traveling with both of them again. We did ok in November going to Florida but we have some new issues now. One is that Madeleine is still fairly newly potty trained. I'm going to make her go before we get on every plane, and as soon as we get off. I am really hoping to avoid a situation where we can't get to the potty, or worse, that I have to bring both of them into the bathroom on the airplane. The other thing is that John Paul is really mobile now and doesn't like to be held for extended periods of time. I am hoping he gets his own seat at least part of the time....

So if you think about it, say a prayer for us tomorrow morning! We will be back on Thursday or Friday. Happy Valentines Day!

Global warming

We've basically been snowed in since last weekend. Schools have been canceled, they never plowed our street, and other than a quick trip to the grocery store with everyone else in the state before the last big snowfall, we've been here. Madeleine was banned from TV for 3 days (more on that in the next post) so we've been cooking, playing, having tea parties, decorating the playroom, drawing pictures, coloring, doing puzzles, etc. It's actually been pretty fun. I've gotten some knitting done too. Here's John Paul's latest vest. I LOVE it. Poor kid, I make him wear it about every other day :) It has cables shaped like owls on it.

And here are the four snowman hats I made for my blog friend. Now that she got them I can show them on here!
And we've also gotten outside a little, even though it's been super cold. Madeleine enjoyed making snow angels,
playing with Daddy, (while I watched from the screened porch!)
and trying to wade through the snow drifts.
Unfortunately, the Colts lost but we had a great time watching the game anyway (the first part anyway!) Now that the Superbowl is over maybe Ken will quit bugging me to get a new TV :) Actually we're about to make some pretty major home improvements. Ones we WANT to make this time, not like the furnace, dishwasher, hot water heater and water softener. Let me tell you, I LOVE spending money on things like that. Yeah. But next week, we're getting new "wood" laminate flooring in our playroom, kitchen, and dining room! I am SO excited. I should take some before pictures. I can't wait until it's done, I think it's going to make this house look so much better.

Keeping God in the little things

Today I went to a talk at our Mom's group about Keeping God in the little things. I think I had a big grin on my face the whole time because in the first 5 minutes of the talk, the speaker quoted one of my favorite bloggers, Mum2Twelve! (She's really Mum to 13 now.) How cool is that?? The speaker had some great practical ideas about keeping focus on God during the day, even through mundane tasks.

One suggestion I really want to emulate is to put little inspirational quotes, scripture verses, poems, prayers, etc around the house. For example, she read a little poem called "Thank God for Dirty Dishes." I'd love to print that out and put it right by my sink. I'd also like to put some things like this around in cabinets, by the changing table, etc, and keep my mind focused on God throughout the day. My mom had a needlepoint picture that she made the whole time I was growing up that said, "Cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow, for babies grow up, we've learned to our sorrow. So quiet down cobwebs, dust go to sleep, I'm rocking my baby, and babies don't keep." I must have read that 1000 times growing up and it stuck with me! (Probably a little too literally, just ask my mom!) So I'm going to ask you guys, can you give me any of your favorite inspirational short quotes? I was thinking I'd put the Kimberley Hahn quote, "I'm changing culture, one diaper at a time" by the changing table. What else do you have for me?

Some other ideas were pray for each member of the family as you're folding their laundry, pray the rosary in the shower, have a special prayer place in your home with books, holy cards, rosaries, medals, etc, pray when you see an ambulance, fire truck, or police car, bless your children before they go to sleep or before they leave for the day.

Another thing I am going to do is put a little statue of Mary by my sink, and light a candle while I'm preparing dinner to remind myself of how the Blessed Mother prepared meals for Jesus and Joseph. I'm sure she did it with love even when baby Jesus was hanging on her leg just like John Paul has been doing to me!

I'm also going to start looking at Catholic Cuisine and incorporating some "holiness" in our meals. In fact I'm going to add that to my sidebar. I'm also going to add Gayle, the speaker today, to my sidebar. She is pretty great!

By the way, I'm totally open to other suggestions to keep my focus on God through the day! What do you have for me?

Pirates

Madeleine is obsessed with them. Why? I do not know. It all started when we got this book from the library.

We got it about 3 weeks before Christmas, and read it probably 5 times a day. She got really sad when it got closer to the time we had to return it, so Santa brought her this book and the first one, Henry and the Buccaneer Bunnies. She LOVES these books. She makes me read them several times a day, and knows each one word for word. When I put clothes away upstairs, Madeleine sits in her chair and "reads" them to John Paul. It's really pretty impressive - it's kind of a long book and she doesn't miss one word. I'm kind of getting an idea about doing a "Henry" cake for her birthday. Surely I can do a bunny with glasses, right? :)

Ken got her another pirate book at the library yesterday called Dirty Joe the Pirate. Guess which book I had to read 5 or 6 times today?? What is it with pirates?

In other Madeleine news, she is completely potty trained! She hasn't had an accident for over a month. I was putting pull-ups on her for bedtime but she never got them wet. So I asked her about a week ago if she wanted to try to wear big girl underwear to bed. She has done perfect! It's SO great to have only one kid in diapers! Today I picked up a Winnie the Pooh wooden step stool on Freecycle, and she LOVES it. She calls it her "stander" and has washed her hands about 20 times today, and also washed several of her babies' hands.

So I watched 19 Kids and Counting today (after I taped it last night.) It was about the newest baby, Josie, being born at 25 weeks at 1 lb 6 oz. As Michelle was being wheeled back, not knowing if the baby would live or die or if she would live or die, Jim Bob said, "We praise God in the good times, and praise God in the bad times." Wow.

Snow. Not a fan.

We were planning on going down to NC tomorrow for little Lucy's baptism. Unfortunately they're going to get up to 10 inches of snow and ice, so we decided to postpone our trip. I'm super bummed. I was really looking forward to seeing everyone and meeting Lucy! But luckily we fly for free, so we'll play it by ear and head down in a few weeks.

We were going to rent a car and two carseats, but that was totally not working out. It was going to be close to $200 for just 5 days. So I decided to look on their craigslist and found two carseats for a great price. They picked them up and we'll be able to use them when we come down, and save a ton of money, AND not have to drag two carseats through the airport in addition to two kids, a double stroller and a suitcase. That right there makes it totally worth it.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend at home, seeing a good friend from college, and visiting our friends really soon.

Guest post

I forgot to add, my friend Jenny asked me to do a guest post. To get the whole story, first read

Part 1, by Jenny.

Then read

Part 2, by me.

And leave her a comment!

We have had some issues lately that made me wish we had stayed in the apartment! Home ownership can sure be expensive. And boy is it fun to spend hard earned money on stuff like a clogged pipe or ruined carpet. Luckily we're getting a nice check from our taxes so my dad and Ken are installing a new dishwasher as we speak. We also had some issues with that. We're also going to do some other home improvements, and I'm SO excited about this. This is the first time we've actually had a little breathing room to do anything to the house. And we've been here over 5 years. And the house was built in 1968 and pretty much everything is original. We got a new sink and in a few minutes we'll have a new dishwasher. Yay!

Colts are going to the Superbowl!!!!

YEAH!!!!

Miss Smartypants

9 months!

John Paul is 9 months old today. He's sure getting around! He's been standing up for about a month now, but he gets up really quickly these days, and in the past few days he's started cruising around the furniture. I wonder if he'll be walking by the 10 month update??

He is still such a cute smiley baby. He's developed a few, uh... less than cute habits though. For one thing he is extremely LOUD. He just likes to make himself heard. All. the. time. He "talks" and/or "screeches" constantly, especially when Ken is around. I can't hear myself think half the time!
As I wrote in the previous post, he's started saying some words. He's good at Mama, Dada, Tee Tat (kitty cat) and ball. He says ball all the time, and Mama too. He likes to be with his Mama. For example, when I'm trying to do the dishes or cook supper, he thinks he needs to be held. Or he's hanging onto my pants. If I try to contain him, he makes his loud noises or cries. I usually end up sitting him in his high chair and giving him some food so I can cook dinner!

Speaking of eating, Oh. My. Goodness I have NEVER seen a baby eat this much! He is totally off baby food now - the only thing he'll let me spoon feed him is yogurt. Otherwise he likes to do it all himself, so I've been cutting up little pieces of fruit, veggies, chicken, cheese, etc and he gobbles it all up and makes a huge mess. He can pack it away. I think our grocery bill has gone up at least $20/ week because of him!
He's getting some curls!! Sometimes he has lots of curls on the back of his head. I think it'll look so cute when he gets some more hair.
So, he started sleeping through the night now for a few nights! Like from 7:30-6. I hope I'm not jinxing it! It's been wonderful, even though he's ready to go at 6am. I hadn't had a full night's sleep in 9 months.
I love the Bud!

Whoa!

So today, John Paul woke up at 6am. I brought him into bed with us to nurse him. When he was done, he sat straight up and said, "mama. Dada. Tee tat. Ball." All in a row, all the words I've been telling him to say! I think we have another smart one!

On eating

I know everyone makes New Years Resolutions to lose weight, get in shape, etc. We're joining them this year and hoping it sticks! We've always eaten pretty healthy, but the biggest change for me is that I'm making myself eat breakfast, snack, lunch, snack and supper. I used to wake up, drink a few iced coffees and then not eat until like 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We're also kind of following the Superfoods diet, which isn't really a diet. Basically it's eating 5 times a day but eating the most nutrient dense foods. The 14 original superfoods are beans, blueberries, broccoli, oats, oranges, pumpkin, salmon, soy, spinach, tea, tomatoes, turkey, walnuts, and yogurt. They each have their "sidekicks" too. The additional superfoods are apples, avocado, EVOO, etc. There are a ton more. But we just try to incorporate all these into our diet. I've been packing Ken's lunch and two snacks, and also having Madeleine eating regular snacks too. I've been trying all kinds of new recipes and they've been great! I've been having oatmeal every morning with walnuts and blueberries. Oh and great news at our house, I've given Madeleine almonds, walnuts, and cashews now and she is fine with all of them! So I made some almond butter and we've been having some great sandwiches. Today I made us turkey and cheese sandwiches on rye and stuck them in the waffle maker. It was delicious and Madeleine was all over that! We had salmon, brown rice pilaf and kale chips for supper tonight.

John Paul was ALL over the kale chips! (Excuse the pink bib :)

So I've lost 5 pounds in a week and a half, which is fabulous. Really, my goal is to lose about 2 pounds a week for 10 weeks or so.

My favorite part of this eating style is seeing my kids eat super healthy foods all the time. I love seeing Madeleine eating oatmeal with flaxseed and all the other great stuff I put in it. She is SUCH a great eater - she will eat anything I give her. She loves broccoli, greens, salmon, everything! It's awesome. John Paul is turning into a great eater too. I really want to be a great example to them on how to eat healthy, so I hope we stick with this forever.

This is the day the Lord has made!!

Let us rejoice and be glad!!


Welcome to the world, Baby Lucy!!!

The last of the Christmas posts! (Finally!)

First of all, Happy Birthday Mom!!

John Paul had a great first Christmas. And Madeleine had a terrific Christmas! Here's our tree after Santa came :) She also had a dollhouse that we set up in the room so she could see it when she came down.

Stockings and Nativity Scene.

Daddy and a tired little boy on Christmas morning.

Opening her stocking, made by Grandma.

She LOVED her dollhouse. I think I'm going to get her a few extra rooms of furniture for her birthday, right now she only has a few. She loves to play with it, especially now that we have a dedicated playroom... more on that later.

Christmas at Grandma and Papa's house. Madeleine's favorite present - have you ever seen a drummer suck her thumb??

Grandma and Papa with all the grandkids, John Paul, Madeleine, Jude and Eli. Last Christmas they only had 2 grandchildren, this year they have 4! They're multiplying!

John Paul and his favorite present. This is the only toy he'll play with for an extended period of time. If it's not something he's not supposed to have, for example a tube of toothpaste or diaper cream, tylenol bottle, pen, important piece of paper, etc, he's not interested. But he really likes this, and it's quiet so we bring it to church.

It's hard to get a picture of all 4 of them at the same time - 4 under 3 years old!

Eli really liked Ken. He kept asking for him and looking for him if he stepped out of the room.

We had a great Christmas, but I have to say I was pretty happy to get the tree down this year, since I spent every single day trying to keep the crazy little boy away from it. We also got rid of our couches in the family room, moved the other ones in here, and now we have a dedicated toy room. These couches are much smaller and make the room look bigger, and it is so nice to have a room just for the kids to play in. Also my sewing machine is in there so a few times I've actually got to work on a project while they're playing. It's really nice.

I got commissioned to make 4 snowman hats for a blog friend, and I've been working non stop on those. I am on the 4th one and I hope to be done by early next week. Ken and I had a great Christmas break together, we enjoyed our evenings watching movies and having a few beverages :) It was a wonderful week! Now I'm ready for spring.....

Christmas Eve

I should clarify, that when I say I had 3 martinis, they were not "real" martinis. More like fruit juice and a splash of alcohol :) In fact the waitress was totally making fun of me and even brought me a little umbrella for my drink!

So Christmas Eve was our busiest day. In the morning we went to my Mom and Dad's house for Dad's side of the family Christmas. Here's Dad and John Paul.

And here's my stubborn little girl who wouldn't let me take her picture! I love her curls anyway :)
We ate brunch at Mom's house and then took the kids home for a nap, then when they woke up we went to Ken's parents' house for supper. Here's the Bud with Ken's mom, Nanny. Of course the kids were spoiled rotten by Nanny and Pa and their Aunt and Uncle.
Before we left, we changed the kids into their jammies. John Paul fell asleep as soon as we left and slept the entire way home. We drove by our church around 8:15, and decided at the last minute to try to go to 8:30 mass, even though it was WAY past everyone's bedtime. We changed Madeleine back into her dress and she got to pretend to "drive" in the parking spot after we changed her in the car. I think that might have been the highlight of her evening!
John Paul woke up and we just let him go to mass in his jammies. I am not kidding, it was the BEST they've both ever behaved in church. Ever. I think this might have to be a new tradition. It was just beautiful and I actually got to pay attention to the homily!
We performed the song we wrote at the first Christmas Eve party. My cousin took a video on my phone but I can't figure out how to upload it! More on that later :)

The first of the Christmas 2009 posts

Ok this was my birthday, but since it's on December 23, it's close enough to Christmas to be included! Ken took me out to a very nice dinner and Mom babysat. John Paul was already in bed and I loved this picture right before we left. This is her favorite Dora nightgown :)

This is number 3 martini - right Ken? I don't remember :) I do remember the people at the next table though. It was a family with a boy and a girl, probably 13 and 11. Twice during the meal the mom and dad cut. their. kids'. meat. If my kid can't cut her meat by the time she's 13, she's just not getting any!
Thanks for babysitting Mom! When we got home this is how we found her and Bonzo :) Oh and that's my new Droid on the arm of the couch!

So after we got home, we polished up the song we wrote for our family Christmas Eve the next day. It was a good thing we had a few drinks first. Details coming up!

Happy New Year!

10 years ago today I met Ken! I had just turned 20 at the time so I've now known him for 1/3 of my life.

I was a junior in college and was dating a different guy who's birthday was on New Year's Eve. We had planned for a few months to go down to my roommate's house in southern Indiana, go to a nice dinner and Midnight Mass for the millennium. As the time got closer, however, I realized that this guy was not "the one" and didn't really want to go by myself with him. So I begged my friend Mary to go with us. She told me she had already promised her friend Ken she'd do something with him. I told her to bring him! Mary and I had been friends in grade school and just reconnected 6 months before at a young adult Steubenville conference. She was taking guitar lessons at the music store where Ken worked. So worlds collided that night! We started dating 3 months later and 2 1/2 years later we were married.

Although I didn't think of dating Ken that night, several things impressed me about him. He had decided to become Christian at that time, and was very open to everything that Mary and I had to say. Mary is the kind of person who loves God with her whole heart and had a big personality. When Ken was thinking of becoming Christian, he was afraid he'd lose his personality, but Mary showed him that that was not the case! One thing that really impressed me was how polite he was to our waitress at the restaurant, who was not doing a good job that night. He went out of his way to be nice to her, and I could tell that was his personality, because he wasn't trying to impress anyone. Also my boyfriend at the time was trying to impress everyone with his guitar playing skills. Ken didn't even say a word about it but I later learned that he is one of the best guitar players I've ever met, and could easily have shown the other guy up.

To this day, he is still impressing me with his patience, kindness, work ethic, love of God and his family, and now especially by his vocation to fatherhood. I couldn't imagine a better husband or father, and I can't imagine what the world would be like if we hadn't met that night, and Madeleine and John Paul weren't here!

I love you Ken - Happy Anniversary!

30

I was going to blog about 20's today, complete with pictures, but I am out of time! I will save this post for a later date.

But today was great! My parents took me out for breakfast with Ken and the kids, and Ken gave me a Droid, which I've been playing with all day :)

Then Ken and I got to go out for a date tonight, which was a rare treat!

Everyone have a Merry Christmas!

8 months old! (yesterday)

The Bud had a big month! He went from not crawling to crawling everywhere, hanging out on his knees, and just now he's started to try to pull up to his feet. He gets one foot up. He is a very physical and strong boy! It's not my favorite chore to change his diaper because he rolls violently to his tummy multiple times during the change. I have to give him something he's not supposed to play with to hold his attention, like the tylenol bottle or something! He does not like to be still.

He's grown so tall that I'm occasionally putting him into 18 month outfits! This one is actually a 9 month, and you can see how short the legs and arms on him. He is a great eater. Not a fan of the puree, of which I've stocked the freezer. He prefers to do it himself with chunks of banana, slices of orange, apple, pear, cucumber, mango, broccoli, carrot, etc. While he's doing that I try to sneak a few bites of the puree in. He makes the biggest mess at meal time I've EVER seen. I pretty much have to stick him in the sink after every meal.
He loves this piano in Madeleine's room. He is very good at balancing on his knees. Madeleine was still a month away from crawling at this age! And she had no teeth. He has two on the bottom and is working on a top one.
He has been saying more syllables, like dadadadada and mamamama. I swear he said HI when I told him to the other day. He is waving too.
You know what else he is doing? Still waking up 1 or 2 or 3 times/night. Killing me. Something has GOT to give soon! He doesn't self soothe like M did, because he doesn't suck his thumb or take a pacifier or anything. However, Madeleine didn't sleep through the night until 13 months, so I just keep thinking maybe he will by then too. Please God :)

I, of course, think he is the cutest baby boy in the whole world! He is loving and even gives hugs and buries his face in our shoulders. He LOVES his sister - no one can make him laugh harder than she can. When she is watching TV she crawls over to her couch and pulls up to his knees and just stares at her. She is still so good with him, she takes care of him and hugs him all the time. They're starting to really play together. Today he stole her Winnie the Pooh and started crawling away really fast while she tried to get it! Then later they were handing it back and forth really fast and Madeleine laughed and said, "We're sharing!"

I'm so excited for his first Christmas in a few days!

Christmas picture preview

Oh and here is a hair picture! What do you think? Yesterday my friends took me out to my favorite Chinese restaurant for an early birthday dinner. Then we came back here and Jenny brought me delicious cupcakes, Heather brought wine, and Ken made my favorite amaretto sours with his homemade simple syrup and fresh squeezed lemon juice. I might have had one. Or three :) Thank you everyone!

Dominic and Jenny

And today the Bud is 8 months old! I didn't get any good pictures of him today though so I'll do his 8 month post tomorrow. I did get their professional pictures back though, and as always, was extremely happy with them!

Ken doesn't understand why I have to get a naked picture, so here's the reason:

It is the cutest thing I've EVER seen! :) I got one of Madeleine at 3 months, and tried to get one of John Paul at 3 months too so they'd match, but he wasn't cooperating. So we tried again at this photo session and I was thrilled. Don't think I won't be putting an 8 x 10 in my bathroom. Cause I will.


I kind of lumped his 6 month (which was really 7 month) pictures together with Christmas pictures, so here's one of the two good ones of the two of them together. She was really good and tried to hold him while he tried to crawl straight off the table. I had to actually catch him a few times.
And this is my very favorite. It was totally worth it staying up till 1am the night before to finish his hat!

Merry Christmas!

Chopped

I got my hair totally chopped off today! I went to my girl and told her I was turning 30 next week and was ready for a big change. She thought about it for a while and then gave me a great haircut. I really like it! It's a big change! Maybe I'll try to get a decent picture tomorrow :)

Also, we had dollhouse drama today. I bought Madeleine the Fisher Price Loving Family Dollhouse.

But it didn't come with too much stuff to play with. So I tried craigslist and ebay and had several leads but it never worked out. Then I saw this beautiful wooden dollhouse on craigslist and contemplated sending this one back, until I went and saw the wooden one and it wasn't what I thought. So I made the trek to Toys R Us today and picked up a couple of extra "rooms" of furniture for her. She has a birthday coming up in a few months so we could always add to it. I think she'll really like it - she LOVES playing with "tiny" things, putting the dolls to bed, feeding them at the table, etc. I think we're going to try to set it up so she'll see it when she comes down on Christmas morning, so we won't have to assemble it while she waits to play with it.

I love this age - where she likes to have tea parties and play with dolls. I love pretend play, especially watching what her little mind comes up with. She's so fun.

Our December so far.

We went and picked out a real Christmas tree - it was so fun! I'm not sure I'll go back to artificial! That reminds me, I need to water ours!

Our advent wreath. It has 3 candles lit now.

Their snowman hats. I made Madeleine's last year and decided at the last minute I'd make one for John Paul right before getting their pictures taken. They look SO cute in them!

His new favorite toy. You see my barricade? He laughs at it.

What did I do??

Go Colts!

Rotation is the key

I should have been doing this all along! This morning Madeleine and I purged the toys and books we've accumulated over the past few years, and got two garbage bags full for our friends' garage sale. The house looks so nice and clutter free right now. We also found several old books, toys, and puzzles that they haven't played with for a while. They kept the kids busy for quite a while today! Madeleine enjoyed feeding her baby a bottle and putting her to bed with a little silky. She also did several wooden puzzles and John Paul enjoyed chewing on the pieces. Now we have room for Christmas gifts too.

So Ken and I decided to only get 3 gifts for each kid (plus a few stocking stuffers.) We decided that if it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for them :) So we both had a great time choosing the 3 perfect gifts for them. Madeleine is getting a dollhouse for her main present, and then a stack of books and puzzle books (ok so that counts as one present) and some really cute pretend cupcakes and cakes since she's been really into tea parties lately. John Paul is getting a teddy bear, since he loves stuffed animals and doesn't have a really nice big one. It's black so it looks boyish. And also a little birdhouse that he can put birds in - they all make different sounds and fit in different holes. And Ken hasn't decided what his gift to John Paul is yet.

I did 90% of my shopping online this year, and I have to say I don't think I'll ever go back to waiting in lines and fighting the traffic and dragging the kids out in the cold. It was great! Now I just have to hope it all gets here in time... it should!

I should probably post some pics one of these days.

Our tree looks beautiful, and our advent wreath on the door has 3 candles lit. Madeleine's list of words she can read is growing, and she's gone 3 days with no potty accidents. She is doing fantastic and I'm so proud of her! Also yesterday, the child did a 100 piece puzzle by herself. Tiny pieces, lots of detail. I gave her a few directions like, "Find the corner pieces and straight edges," and "group similar colors together" but she did it all on her own.

So this is for anyone who lives around here. One of my best friends is adopting from Ethiopia. They're having a big rummage sale to raise money for their adoption fund. Their sale will be in May so I'll keep you updated on that. But does anyone have anything they'd like to donate to the sale? If so, please email me and we'll work out a way to pick it up and they have a place to store it until then. We are going to donate our Anakin Skywalker couches and I'm going through lots of toys and clothes and baby stuff. This is such a great cause, they will be fantastic parents and this child or children will be so blessed!

Can we have hope??

Three days ago Madeleine decided that she did NOT want to wear diapers anymore. I let her wear big girl underwear (which she loves) and she has done SO great over the past 3 days! We've gone out, went to story time at Barnes and Nobles, grocery store, even got their pictures taken today and she's done amazingly well. She had a few minor accidents at home, but just because she didn't get there quite in time. She's telling me when she needs to go and holding it until we get to the potty. Other than talking about it occasionallyf and watching Elmo's Potty Time, I didn't do any formal training. She just decided herself that she was done with diapers and PLEASE GOD LET THIS BE IT!!!

I took them to get their pictures taken today (I know, it's December 10!) and they turned out great. I can't wait to get them back. Last year I made Madeleine a snowman hat and decided at the last minute I wanted to make one for John Paul for their pictures today. So I stayed up until 1:15 am last night but I finished it! And I'm really happy with that picture. I also got the cutest little naked boy picture - he's sitting up looking over his shoulder. I love love love it!

Great weekend and Madeleine update

D came and visited us this weekend! We had an awesome time, and our activities included picking out a real Christmas tree (our first one) and also beating the game Super Mario Brothers (both of us beat it, I beat it first!) We were also entertained by endless renditions of Frosty the Snowman, You are my Sunshine, Up on the Housetop, Put down the Ducky, and countless other songs. Our house is decorated and smells wonderful with our REAL tree. We hit downtown Indy and did some shopping, and D bought John Paul a great pair of shoes, which he desperately needed! And he looks adorable in them!
Thanks so much for visiting! Pictures coming soon, I just don't want to get off the couch right now :)

So today we had a fantastic day. Madeleine woke up this morning and told me that she didn't want to wear diapers anymore, she wanted to wear big girl underwear. I've heard this before, but I decided to let her try it. The child did not have ONE ACCIDENT all day today. She took care of everything herself, and even told me she had to go when she was sitting in her booster seat at the table. That has never happened before. She even told me she wanted to wear her big girl underwear to Mass. I was extremely nervous about this, especially since I had to take both kids by myself, but she did great! I'm so proud of her! I hope this is it. She seems to be ready. She wants to wear underwear and not diapers anymore, and she knows how to do it. Let's hope she keeps it up. I can hardly imagine only having one kid in diapers!

Madeleine and I made a paper advent wreath and put it on the pantry door, complete with 2 lighted candles and a wreath made out of cut-outs of her hands. It looks great and she understands that advent means we are waiting for Jesus' birthday. We have also been working on "reading" words. Every day or so, she tells me a word she wants to learn and I add it to our list on the fridge. We practice every day and she has a list of words she recognizes, including Madeleine, John Paul, Mommy, Daddy, Bonzo, cat, pony, Advent and candle. She even recognizes the words when they are not on the fridge, for example, when we got her stocking out, she looked at it and said, "That says Madeleine!"

She's been loving puzzles for a while now. We started her out with these puzzle books with 12 piece puzzles. We explained to her that she should find the corner pieces first, then the straight edges, and then fill in the middle. She became an expert at those puzzles. We decided to try a puzzle book with 48 piece puzzles, thinking she'd need lots of help. I'm not kidding, the kid can do these puzzles better than we can! She will sit and do puzzles for hours. Ken bought her a 100 piece puzzle the other day and she did the entire thing with very little help. I'm really really impressed with her.

Also, she must have a photographic memory, because she will "read" books to me after I've only read them a few times to her. We go to the library about once a week and get a stack of books. After a few days I will hear her telling her animals the stories, word for word. A few times I've had her "read" a book to me, and I am amazed at how accurate she is!

She is VERY independent, and can be very trying at times (just ask D) but overall she is a wonderful, smart, sweet, interesting and fascinating child. We are so blessed to have her!

Unintentional blogging break

Wow I think this is the longest I've gone without blogging in about 3 years!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it on here, but my friend Dominic (second picture from the bottom) has cancer. He just had his second chemo treatment and his hair is falling out. He said his head would be cold so I knitted him 3 hats in the past week, which is pretty much the reason I haven't been on the computer! I got them sent out yesterday so hopefully he will get them tomorrow. I was really happy with how they turned out - I've never knitted manly hats before (Ken is not into hats!)

Anyway, please pray for Dominic. And visit his website to keep up with him.

The other reason I haven't been on here is because John Paul is crawling. everywhere. He did this before we were really ready, so I have been spending my days trying to keep stuff out of his mouth.

We did have a few nice Thanksgiving dinners. Hopefully I'll be back to my regular blogging self now!