What a difference a year makes!

Today Mom, Ava, Madeleine and I went to the mall to try to find a 1st birthday dress for her party on Sunday. (She can also wear it for Easter and Sarah and Chris's wedding.) We didn't get anything for the kids because it was all summer stuff - sun dresses and a bunch of sleeveless stuff. That's not going to work for these three events. I found some great deals for myself at Macys - a shirt to wear for the party for $12, and two pairs of leather boots - black and brown - for $7 each! How could I pass that up?
Anyway, we had a great time shopping and eating lunch at the mall (and have you noticed that the 4 of us hang out a LOT?!)

But I was thinking back to what I was doing a year ago. I was HUGELY pregnant, and had been told by my OB to expect to go early because I had been dilated for several weeks. (No such luck, the kid only came 2 hours and 10 minutes before her due date!) I worked up to the Friday before I had her (on a Monday.) I was definitely ready to have her ANY TIME. I absolutely could not wait to meet her and have her on the outside instead of the inside!

Here's what I was doing on the 26th the 27th and the 28th of February last year.

I had absolutely no idea what to expect back then - about labor and delivery, about life with a baby, about what she would be like, or about what I would be like as a mother. I really had no idea that she'd be the sweetest, cutest, most lovable baby that was ever born :) But I can honestly say this has been, by far, the best year of my life. And since she gets more fun every day, I can't even imagine how great this year will be.

Perfect birthday gift (I hope!)

Today Mom, Ava, Madeleine and I went shopping for a first birthday present. I was thinking I'd get her a doll, since she really seems to get excited when she sees them. (Not as excited as she gets when she sees a ball, however!) So we went to a toy store down the street, which has more interesting and "classic" toys. I wanted to get her something really special, since I'm only getting her one thing. Well, we went to the doll section, and she was not impressed with any of them. With each one I held up, she just took one look and looked away. She was more interested in the little doll house with the little kitty cat figurines than the dolls. So we decided to just walk around the store and see what she liked. A very pushy, I mean helpful saleslady followed us around and told us what one year olds usually like. She was kind of interested in a few things - the little farm with the animals, and a few tub toys, and of course every ball that we passed. Then we saw it... and the "Halleluiah Chorus" started playing in the background.


Yes, it was the Rody. As soon as she saw it, her face lit up and she started bouncing around in her stroller. Mom took her out and put her on it, and it was love at first bounce. She held onto it's ears and bounced like she'd been waiting for this her whole life. After a while, Mom tried to pick her up and put her back in her stroller, but she held on with her hands and legs for dear life. I knew I had to get it for her. They even blew it up for me so it is all set for her birthday next Wednesday. Her party is this Sunday, but we'll wait until her actual birthday to give her this present. I hope she really enjoys it!

Blog Awards

Kathryn over at Little Men gave me this blog award and wrote something REALLY NICE about me! Thanks Kathryn!

So I want to give these awards to a few of my online friends. Cathy over at Ward Wide Web is always a good person to talk to, and her blog is VERY entertaining. She also helped me get over feeling sad about Madeleine turning one. :) Brenda from The Ones With The Baby pretty much goes through the same things with her daughter that we are going through over here. So we can share ideas or just talk about how we have no idea what we should do! Ouiz always gives me great advice too - about getting kids to sleep, big family life, etc. She is great! And I love Lifehopes because we have so much in common - I feel like most of her posts I could have written myself just a few short years ago - Plus she (and her husband) are really fun people! (And by the way, Ken wanted to move Madeleine's birthday party so we could go skiing with you next weekend!)

Police line up

Actually these are my favorite old childhood bears that my mom just found. I did not like dolls, so I played with these bears ALL the time. They were my absolute favorite toys. I'm so glad that my mom found them so Madeleine can have them! They are well loved, but I'm sure she'll appreciate them someday :)

You know how you feel

When you think someone is surely going to find you dead on the bathroom floor? That's pretty much how I felt all day yesterday. This flu thing is just SO FUN. And I had Madeleine and Ava at my house most of the day. Thank God my mom came over for a little while - she fed them both lunch and played with them for about an hour. Then Ava's mom came to get her around 3, and Madeleine slept till 4 - unusual but very much appreciated! Ava has it now - so I am here at work for the morning and her mom is coming home in the afternoon. I feel a little better, but just very weak from not eating yesterday and everything else!

I do feel somewhat rested, since I went to bed at 7:15 last night and only had to wake up twice with Madeleine. Speaking of waking up twice... she is almost 1. SURELY she'll sleep through the night soon. Right?

Sick

Poor little baby. She's been a mess today. Ava came over this morning around 8, and then Madeleine started having some BAD diapers. Let me just say this was a time that I am SO glad we use cloth diapers - if we used disposables it would have been everywhere. Cloth diapers contain SO much better! I called Ava's mom because I don't want her to get it. She came and picked her up about an hour and a half later. The rest of the day, she didn't sleep at all, just wanted me to hold her, but she was really squirmy. I could tell she didn't feel well at all. And she didn't have a wet diaper for about 9 hours... so I was a little worried. We finally got her to drink some Pedialyte (Ken had to pretend to drink it first and then she took a drink!) Luckily she went to bed pretty easily tonight - last night she had a terrible time going down. Every time I laid her down she would wake up screaming a few minutes later. I ended up laying down with her until she fell asleep. By then I was just exhausted too. I'm pretty much still exhausted but I have American Idol to look forward to tonight! :)

Please God let this girl have a good sleep tonight!

Joined the Bandwagon

The rest of you should do it too!

It seems pretty fun so far.

Weekend Highlights

Friday night we went to Destination Jesus, where Ken was playing in the band. We had the usual 800 high schoolers, and the usual great music. I held Madeleine in the sling and she was dancing and clapping to the music! She also waved to everyone and was quite the little charmer. Destination Jesus has always been very special to me, and I've had some great experiences there.

Saturday was GREAT!! I got to meet Lifehopes and her husband - they are SO much fun! I wish they lived closer! They came up to see Immaculee Ilibagiza speak at our church (and to meet us, of course :) She was really inspiring, and I definitely think everyone should read her book. Then I left Madeleine for the very first time at night with my mom and went to hear Ken play at the Rathskeller. D and P (from Lifehopes) came with us and also Heather, who I had not seen in a while! We were having a great time when I got a call that Madeleine was throwing up. Mom said I had better come home. By the time I had got home, she had thrown up several more times. We ended up using all of her crib sheets and pajamas, and then I finally put her in bed with me. She slept from 2:30 to 7:00, woke up happy and nursed. I thought she was fine, but then after her morning nap she threw up all over her crib again. She acted fine after that so I decided to go to the Destination Jesus Sunday mass. Well, she threw up again there and when we got home she had a fever. Poor little thing! Basically I have just held her all day. Ken's feeding her some dry toast and pedialyte now, and she seems to be interested, so maybe she's feeling better - I hope!

D and P, we had a great time with you this weekend and hope you come back soon!

Can you believe all this fun stuff and NOT ONE PICTURE??? Sad.

Happy Valentine's Day!

This was Madeleine's Valentine's present. I think it was 2 bucks well spent!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(Notice how I'm slaving away in the kitchen, while Ken is having fun :)

Just kidding - he was sick this week and I was happy to cook again - he's really taken over cooking since Madeleine has been born! Thanks Ken!

Guess what Ava's doing?

Hint: Apparently, Baby "Sean" needed some "moke." I don't know WHERE she gets this.... :)

The most exciting thing that happened to me today

Left to Tell

Has everyone read Left to Tell? Read it - it will change your life. It is just incredible. I read it in two sittings. I could not put it down. I really can't imagine going through what she went through, and coming out of the experience with such an amazing faith and love. And it reminds me that I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

Next weekend, Immaculee Ilibagiza is coming to our church to speak, and this week I got some tickets! I am so excited to see her. I really hope Madeleine behaves, and I hope I get to meet her!

http://www.lefttotell.com/

Next weekend is also Destination Jesus. I'm not really helping with anything this year, but Ken is playing in the band so I'm sure I'll go hang out and go to Mass. Immaculee is going to speak and lead the rosary there too.

I'm too tired to blog - goodnight!

Naughty!

Yesterday we went to a friend's house who has two very cute and very well behaved little boys - a 3 year old and a 1 year old. Ava was a really good girl, but Madeleine..... she actually kept hitting the 1 year old in the head with toys! I could NOT believe it, and I was SO embarassed (Sorry Susan!)

I immediately picked her up and said NO, and took the toy away, but as soon as I put her back down she went straight over to him and did it again! I didn't know I'd have to discipline her this early. I asked one of my good friends today what to do - she is a GREAT mom and I would love for my kids to turn out like her kids. She told me I need to start working on teaching her "gentle" and "soft." I hope it works... Now I'm a little worried - what I do to her is going to shape what kind of person she is. That is a HUGE responsibility! What if I mess up? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Happy 11 months!

This kid is just growing up way too fast. She started standing up a few days ago and already she's a pro. She pulls up on everything! I am sure she'll be cruising and then walking soon.
She is a very good talker, and adding to her vocabulary every day! She says Mama, Dada, Papa (for the Pope), ball, doll, duck, night-night, and she said Ava once, and also Yi-Yi for Eli. She TRIES to say everything I ask her to - like I asked her to say Madeleine, and she said "Ma-na-na." She usually gets the first consonant and the correct number of syllables. I am trying to teach her to say hello or hi and bye bye, but every time I ask her to say those things, she just waves! Whenever she learns a new skill or word, she giggles and claps for herself.

I have to keep my eye on this kid every second, because she is really fast and still puts everything in her mouth. Now she can reach up on coffee tables and shelves and pull everything off. She actually fell on the base of the swing the other day and got a bruise under her eye!
And it's getting increasingly challenging to change her diaper - she thinks it's really funny to flip over to her tummy when I'm trying to change her. I think it's going to be hard to discipline her too. When she does the flipping thing, I have flipped her back over and said "NO" in what I thought was a firm voice. Unfortunately, she thinks this is hilarious, cracks up and flips again so I will keep doing it!

Even so, she is the joy of my life, and I cherish every minute I get to spend with her!

Really, how many people can say this?

Ken and I played guitar for the Superbowl winning coach and he told us "Good job."

It's true. Tom Coughlin was the coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and I was living at the Newman Center at Ball State. I must have been a junior or senior, because Ken and I were dating, and one Sunday evening Fr. John told us he was saying Mass at the hotel in Muncie where the Jaguars were staying after playing the Colts, and asked us to do the music. Of course we jumped at the chance. We actually had NO time to practice so I doubt if we played well, but Coach Coughlin was very gracious and made a point to come up to us afterwards to thank us and Fr. John, and tell us that we did a good job. Yay for the Giants!

Superbowl Sunday

Who cares? Of course, I'd like the Giants to win, because the Patriots are a bunch of cheaters (Sorry, RI people!! :) Leave me a comment and tell me what you think of THAT comment!

This weekend, Madeleine had her first ride in Daddy's car. Yes, her first. We take the van everywhere, but if you recall, I had a little incident several months ago. I did get the scratches out, but the mirror was not as fortunate. It was hanging by a thread for a while, but it finally fell off. So I was taking it to get it fixed. So we had to ride in Daddy's car. (We're selling BOTH cars, getting cheap ones and doing the Dave Ramsay thing soon.) Madeleine had a VERY cute outfit on today that she got from Ava. Ava's mom bought this really cute shirt and pink corduroy jacket when Ava was tiny. But by the time it got cold enough to wear it, Ava was too big! So Madeleine got it and it is adorable. This is definitely one for the one year old professional pictures. Actually Ava's mom gave us all three outfits I'm going to bring for those pictures. She has GREAT taste!
The BIG news of the day: Madeleine pulled herself up for the first time tonight! And she stood for about 30 seconds! She's crying because she wanted me to pick her up once she stood up - and I was trying to take her picture, so it didn't come out too well. Notice the mess she makes of this room and notice the cat who kind of ignores the whole situation....
And for all the concerned citizens out there, I measured. She has a good 2.5 - 3 inches between her head and the top of the carseat :)
Madeleine also learned to clap this morning. At Mass. During the Eucharistic Prayer. She was very proud of herself and giggled loudly after each clap. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Baby it's cold outside

Name the movie: "(She) looked like a tick about to pop."

He's Here!!!

My beautiful new nephew, Elijah Kent, was born this afternoon!
Congratulations Michael and Jenni - we love you three!!!


Madeleine LOVED her new little cousin - she kept staring at him and wanting to hold him.
Happy Birthday Eli!!!!

Awesome milk-free pudding

Seriously, you'll love this even if you're lucky enough to be able to eat dairy products. We've made it about 5 times in 10 days, and last night Ken said I'm not allowed to make it for a while :)

2 cups soymilk (I use vanilla)
3 Tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 Cup sugar
1/3 Cup cocoa powder
1 Tablespoon vanilla

Whisk the soymilk and cornstarch together until the cornstarch dissolves. Add the sugar and cocoa powder, put it on medium heat, and whisk constantly until it gets thick. It seems like it takes a while but once it starts bubbling, it gets thick really quickly. Then you take it off the heat, add the vanilla and stir. Pour it in bowls and chill for at least an hour - depending on how cold you like it. I like it really cold. It's supposed to be 4 servings but Ken and I can finish this whole recipe off. I won't say who eats the most :)

Try it! It's delicious!

On a MUCH happier note...

My brother and sister in law went to the hospital this morning - looks like my nephew will be born today!!!!!