I'm sucking at the blogging.

It has been so long since I posted that I kept thinking that I had to post something really fabulous.... which now feels like too much pressure. So I'm getting this "first post" over with... so I can move on.

I could tell you about all of the things I've been thinking about blogging about... you know, when I plan my blog posts while laying in bed, washing the dishes, or taking a shower... but now I forgot what they were. They were some amazingly deep and very moving prose though, I'm sure.

Instead I'll tell you that I think that:

• All Rice Krispies treats should be made with 5 cups of Krispies... never 6.
• Quinoa is pretty yummy and makes a good sub when you are super sick of putting rice or pasta with every dish.
• I bought that milled flax seed at Costco and am beginning to use it as a sub for eggs, butter, or oils in my recipes. So far, I've tried it in pancakes in place of oil... they were great!
• We can eat an entire bunch of bananas in one day, and Andy hates bananas.
• I would like to submit Gerber Graduates Puffs to the USDA as a new food group so that I don't feel so guilty for how many of them Maddie eats in one day. They are wonderful because not only do they fill her tummy a tiny bit, but they keep her busy!

I'll try to think of the deep stuff for next time. ;) Phew... got that post over with! Now maybe I'll be able to start writing more and reading yours! I've missed you.

Growing up Maddison

Maddie Moo is five months old! I cannot believe it, she is growing up too fast! She is also growing like a weed! ... a long round weed!

Here are some Maddison Facts:

Nobody ever calls her Maddison. It is Maddie Moo, Maddie Cakes, Maddiekins, Moose, Gorgeous, MadDog, Madd, Pumpkin Bread, Punky Punky, the list goes on...

Maddie LOVES her daddy! She lights up whenever he walks into the room. She can't take her eyes off of him! He makes her laugh so hard she turns bright red and gets the hiccups!

She also ADORES her big brother. Almost everything he says or does seems to delight her and evokes a smile or a laugh. She seems to be studying him always.

Maddie Cakes almost ALWAYS has cold feet. No matter how she is dressed, her feet are like little ice cubes. They warm up when you rub them, or in the tub, but socks, jammies, booties, you name it - none of it can warm up those frigid little tootsies!

She has really small feet. She fits nicely into 6-9 month clothes but her tiny feet can still wear some of her newborn shoes.

She slept in her car seat in order to be upright because of reflux for the first four months of her life. She was in the car seat, in the pack and play, in our bedroom. Now she sleeps in her crib in her own room.

She sleeps like a champ! TWELVE hours a night! I shouldn't brag, I'm sure to be jinxing myself as we speak... but WOW! Fischer never did that... he still doesn't! She goes to bed at 7 pm and usually wakes up around 7:30 am.

On Christmas she rolled from front to back. She hasn't rolled from back to front yet, and doesn't seem to feel the need to do so. Also, she is also perfectly content to not put an ounce of weight on her feet. Who needs to stand?

At her four month appointment, the doctor said that at 26.8 inches, she is completely off the charts in height, well over the hundredth percentile. And at 15.4 pounds, she is in the 95th percentile for weight. He did say that she was "the picture of health". YAY!

She loves to be upside down and especially loves to watch football upside down. I really need to capture that on film.

She doesn't cry often, but when she gets really wound up and inconsolable, the sure-fire trick to calm her is to take her into the bathroom with the light on, the fan on, and the shower on.



She still loves to be squished into the sling like a tiny baby. She'll take a lovely nap, if she can do that.

She loves to "talk" and "sing". She makes lots of fun noises that Fischer is quick to interpret for us.

When we are outside, hiking, playing at the park, etc. She prefers to have her head covered... as shaded as possible. Even in the Snugli.

She already has a best friend of course, her little X-Man. He is 2 1/2 months older, but they are very close in size. X-man is BFF's little brother.
This week she tried rice cereal for the first time. She liked being fed with the spoon, but didn't actually swallow anything. In the end, she was just annoyed at the whole thing... because she was HUNGRY!

Maddison can brighten up a room and light up my life with just one of her happy smiles.

Christmas in Review - and at length

We had a wonderful Christmas and were totally spoiled... but hopefully we're not too rotten... yet!

Fischer and Maddison had their Christmas pictures taken right after Thanksgiving.

They also got to see Santa! Although he was super excited to meet Santa, Fischer was pretty shy. He didn't ask Santa for anything, in fact he didn't speak at all... and it was a struggle to get him very close to Santa's lap. The rest of the month, anytime someone asked him what he asked Santa for he'd reply "I'm just going to see what he brings me!" Not too helpful for Santa...

We celebrated Hanukkah earlier in the month with GrandmaBetsy. Fischer loved opening presents for both he and Maddison. His favorite gifts were a Geotrax Cars racetrack and a headlamp. Maddie loved a noisy butterfly toy and I loved her new cozy jammies. Andy and I were drooling over our new Dyson vacuum! Ok, maybe I was the only one drooling! Fischer loved lighting all of the menorahs and listening to Grandma sing the prayers. We had a yummy dinner complete with latkes and applesauce... and of course enough chocolate gelt to go around.

Fischer and BFF had a sleepover the week before Christmas. We took them with my parents to see Christmas lights at a Festival of Lights. They loved it! They ooohed and ahhhed at all of the displays. Then they got to go to McDonalds playland late at night, I thought for sure they'd be the only kids there! It turns out, they were the only ones in their pajamas but the place was packed! Needless to say when they got home they were totally hyped up and silly! I don't think they fell asleep till 10:45! The next morning they popped up bright and early ready to go to their friends' joint birthday. They celebrated two birthdays at a gymnastics gym - so fun!

My Uncle Dick came into town from St. Louis as a Christmas surprise to us all. He is my dad's twin brother, and came to spend the holidays. We were all so excited to see him!

A few days before Christmas, Fischer got sick. He was running a fever (which he never does) it fluctuated with Tylenol between 99.9 and 102.6. It came on Monday night, stayed through Tuesday... where he laid on the couch all day complaining of a tummy ache and a head ache. That night both of our thermometers stopped working, and Andy was at hockey. Maddie was crying, Fischer was crying... they both felt hot and I was getting nervous. I called my dad to bring over a thermometer and he, my mom, and my uncle all showed up with brand new thermometers! We spent the next hour taking each others temps with all three new-fangled expensive thermometers... and let me tell you that none of them work! Not one consistent reading in the bunch. One was a temple thermometer, one was a forehead thermometer, and one was a regular oral/armpit/rectal digital thermometer ... no we didn't test out the rectal feature ... geez you are gross!

Anyway, by morning nobody had a fever (I think), but Fischer was complaining of abdominal pain in the middle and on the right side. Our pediatrician sent us to the ER, for fear of a appendicitis. The ER doc, was suspicious of the same diagnosis. He wanted to give Fisch a CT scan to find out for sure, but told me that a CT scan is enough radiation in a pre-schooler that he had a chance of developing cancer later in life as a result. Ummm? Really? I'm being asked to make a decision about giving my son cancer when he is a grown man?.... Nobody tells you this kind of stuff before you have kids. Well, I decided to have them treat him for constipation, just in case, and wait a little while to see if his pain gets worse. Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick... Praise God. Nobody wants their baby having surgery over Christmas.

We laid low Christmas eve and skipped out on church and Aunt Beth's annual party, Fischer needed to be home to rest and get well for the next day. We watched movies, made cookies and prepped for Santa.

Christmas morning, Fischer woke up to find that Santa had brought him all kinds of goodies. He actually allowed him to come down our chimney this year. Fisch opened both his and Maddison's presents from Santa, Granddad and Grandmom, BFF and X-man, us, the dogs, etc. Definitely spoiled! Maddie just laid on her Daddy and watched all the action. They both received fun toys, clothes, games and ornaments.

Then we stayed in our pjs and headed over to my parents' house to open presents with Grandpa, Grandma Barb and Uncle Dick. We ate cinnamon rolls and hot chocolate as per tradition as we opened and opened and opened! Fischer was in present heaven and quickly turning into the Christmas Monster! After all the gifts were finally opened he was able to open the GIANT present that Uncle Matt and Aunt Jana had sent.... the anticipation had been killing him! It was a kitchen set, he was delighted! "Cuz why I love kitchen sets!" We ate a lovely breakfast together and then headed over to Andy's Grandma's house.

More hoopla at Grandma Pearl's with food, presents and fun. Finally we headed home where we all took a nap. Then gussied up to head back over to grandma and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner with Uncle Dick. We were able to see Uncle Matt and Aunt Jana on Skype. It looked like they'd had a great Christmas too!

Now to chill and enjoy the rest of the holiday break. So great! We are so thankful to God for our friends, family and many many blessings. We hope you all are enjoying the holidays too!

TGIF

Maddie and her X-Man

Happy Birthday Grandpa/Dad

I'd just like to wish a super happy sixtieth birthday to my dad today. Thanks for being my rock and the most amazing grandpa ever! Pretty hot for 60 eh?

A month of Halloween

October was such an eventful month, despite how I was feeling. We had a great time celebrating fall and HALLOWEEN!
Fischer and Maddie went to a scarecrow festival with friends and Fischer played played played: bounce houses, giant slides, tunnels, haunted houses, games, treats, pizza, petting zoo and pony rides! Maddie slept through most of it.

They also went to an apple orchard to see how cider was made and a very fun farm with more games, animals, rides, jumping, and slides! Maddie slept through a lot of that too.

Fischer and BFF had a fabulous time at a pumpkin patch, with a maze, a spooky pirate ship, creepy decor and a tractor. Maddie slept through most of that too!

Fischer got into the spirit of Halloween with haunted tattoos (I can't believe I forgot to take a pic of all his tats!), glow in the dark fingernails, and festive toes.

Fischer and BFF put on their costumes to go to a Halloween birthday party with all of their friends. They were so excited! Fischer had been dying to wear his "knight in shining armor" costume next to "Princess Aurora". I don't know how many times he told me that he would be able to save BFF from dragons "cuz why she is a princess and I am a knight in shining armor in real life!" They were so cute together, even if they didn't hold still for pictures.

Maddie and X-man went too. They mostly just wiggled around on a blanket till their legs got tangled together.

On Halloween day, we carved pumpkins as a family - Fischer designed them and wanted to make sure that his and Daddy's looked EXACTLY the same as one another. Fischer and I made pumpkin cookies to take to a friend.... he was in charge of the frosting colors.

Then it was time to dress the knight and the ladybug and meet up with our trick or treating buddies.

Our friend Ann was in town, so Danae, Ann and I rounded up all of our kiddos (which takes 2 minivans now) and drove them to all of the grandparents' houses. First stop was Ann's parents' home.

P7 and Q5 were some kind of Star Wars clones (forgive me for not knowing my Star Wars characters), then their was our knight, I3 was Tinkerbell, BFF was Aurora,

Maddison was a ladybug and X-man was a skeleton (his hat says "bad to the bone").

Next stop was Danae's parents' house.

Then we went to GrandmaBetsy's house.

Finally we stopped at my parents' house to play for a few minutes while Maddie and X-man ate some dinner. Afterward, we picked up pizza, and had dinner at Danae's. Andy met us there and then we all bundled up a little and headed out for door to door trick or treating. We met up with their friends T n' T and they all ran around Danae's neighborhood collecting loot. SO fun! What a great Halloween... and I must say that our little knight did a fantastic job protecting his tiny ladybug from dragons!

Who doesn't love a good double chin?

Maddie Cakes

What do big brothers do?

I asked Fischer, "What is a big brother? What do they do? What is important about them?"

Here are his answers:

• "Big brothers follow directions."
• "They look at their babies and make sure they don't get hurt."
• "They love their baby sisters."
• "They love to play hide and seek with their babies."
• "They love to play with their sister when they get older."
• "And that's it!"