21 months...headed to 2 years old!!

Yesterday was Sept. 27th which marked my mom's birthday and Maddie turning 21 months! My mom and I have always been close and I'm so thankful to have her so close. Happy birthday mom! You're the best! 

Maddie turned 21 months...which means she is a few short months from two! It seems like she learns something new every single day! She is starting to sing full songs (ABC's, Happy Birthday, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star), and put words together (Where daddy go? What Stella doing?) to make short sentences. She is also continuing her quest for total independence. She likes to do everything for herself, even if it takes longer. She also wants to walk everywhere (which she will shout LOUDLY anywhere you are holding her) and will often wave hello to anyone who will listen. She is definitely a small girl with a BIG personality!

Driving the Ice Cream Truck at the mall

 Shopping at the Science Center

 Driving the bus at the Science Center

Swinging at the park by our house - I think she could swing here for hours!

Tubes, round 2

This morning we headed to Kosair Brownsboro for Madeline's second round of tubes. We loved having the surgery there. The first surgery was at an adult surgery center, so it was great to be at a place just for kids.

The monitor in the lobby-they were ready for her!

Most kids were sleepy or sitting quietly by their parents- not Madeline. She met every child in the waiting room (Janna, Harper and a little girl having elbow surgery) and played with all the toys.

 Playing in the car!

Watching Baby Einstein's and "patting" to make the rocket ship fly.

Maddie then (14 mos - 1st set of tubes) and Maddie now (21 months - 2nd set of tubes) 

Madeline had a pretty good week- the weather has been perfect!

A new favorite--corn on the cob!

Sliding...over and over and over 

A walk with Grandpa Hartman--showing off her "cheese" face. It's kind of intense, huh?

Hoping Maddie has a good weekend and easy recovery...and praying that these tubes stay in longer!!

Have a great weekend!

Family Feud!

This week, our Family Feud episodes aired. It was a riot. It's very weird watching yourself on camera. I have always been a dramatic and energetic person, but on tv, that was definitely magnified....as was my accent! I am going to have to work on sounding more "northern..." haha!  

This was truly the experience of a lifetime. I had SO much fun with my family and we did pretty well too! We won a little over $22,000!! I laughed and laughed the 3 days we were in the studio. They were LONG days - about 12 hours- but definitely worth it. 

Now that the show has aired, I cannot wait to get my check from Family Feud in the mail! Should be a good day!

As for our sweet Madeline, she has had a great weekend with lots of shopping!

 Shopping at EarthFare!

 Shopping at Lowes!

Breaking for some strawberries and a slice!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend! We're doing some outlet shopping tomorrow!

Birthdays, zoo, house!

Whew! Right now, things are hectic for us! We're getting to the point in the housebuilding where we're trying to do a lot of the work ourselves...and by "ourselves" I mean 90% Chris and 10% me. (With A LOT of help from our dads!) Anyways, this week we're doing insulation and starting to drywall...because..<drumroll please!> we finally finished the outside!! The roof, brick and stone are complete! 

We love it! 

On Sunday, we spent a few hours at the zoo with Kyle, Danielle and Maddie's best friend, Hudson. 

 Best friends and their babies

 Waving to Hudson! 

 And again!

 Getting a prop up from daddy to see the elephants 

 A little baby belly shot for ya.

Late afternoon treat! 

 Playing with Hudson!

This weekend, we also celebrated Nana Hughes and Uncle Cory's birthdays. We had a yummy dinner at Bonefish and celebrated with everyone on Saturday. 

Happy birthday Nana and Uncle Cory! We love you!

Cape Cod Wrap Up

After our hospital visit, Madeline had several days of feeling puny. We took little trips to the beach but mainly just kind of hung around the house. 

We met with her pediatrician this week and it looks like we'll be going for round two of tubes end of September. We talked about the febrile seizures and how to handle them in the future, should she have another one. We also got emergency medicine in case she has a prolonged one. I talked with her daycare to educate them as well. Hopefully it's not something we have to deal with again, but since she's had two, we want to be as prepared as possible.  It was such a relief when she got her appetite back and her smiles! 

Here are a few more photos from our week in Chatham!

Cousins!

Sweet hugs!

Maddie and Nana collecting shells

Who doesn't love a good popsicle?

Take my popsicle, and I will cut you.

 

Beachwalk with daddy

 Our little family

Seriously? The camera is in my face again? I'm trying to chillax, mom.

We took family pics on a windy, sunny morning. Unfortunately, most of them were duds. Here's a few salvageable ones.

And finally, one of our sweet girl on our first day of vacation. So joyful!

Cape Cod Hospital

Well, vacation got a little crazy yesterday. We had been having a pretty perfect week, but then yesterday, we had a rather scary turn of events. Madeline had a seizure at the beach and we took her to the hospital in our first ambulance ride. Turns out she has an ear infection (did I tell you both tubes had fallen out as of two weeks ago, at our last ENT visit??), an upper respiratory infection and possibly pneumonia. I say "possible" because the x-ray wasn't conclusive. So...that was rough. Chris and I were all alone on the beach when she started seizing. She hadn't really had any symptoms other than one tug at her ears the other morning, so I didn't think too much about it. I guess her fever spiked at the beach, causing the seizure. She's on an antibiotic and we're rotating Tylenol and Advil around the clock to control the fever. Hoping this subsides quickly. She's pretty miserable today--tired and whiny--so we're just trying to keep her comfortable.  Fortunately, febrile seizures cause no long term damage, according to many studies. Unfortunately, they are about the scariest thing to witness. We picked up Madeline and ran up the beach to Chris's aunt and cousin who had just left us. Jenny, his cousin, is a nurse and helped get Maddie cooled off until the ambulance arrived. She actually works at the hospital so she met us there and made sure we were comfortable the whole time we were in the ER. Chris's parents also met us at the hospital. We are so grateful they all gave up their afternoon to sit and stay with us. I cannot wait to get home and get her to her regular pediatrician for a nice long check-up.

Until Maddie got sick yesterday, we were having a great great time. Here's a few pics of our sweet girl leading up to yesterday.

 We watched a man clamming on the beach. He gave her a clam, but I don't think she really liked it. Such a typical girly girl!

 Pondering her next move

 Walking in the cool Cape Cod water!

 Having a snack

 Dane and Madeline shared a popsicle and it was so sweet and so funny!!