Playing hooky and a love of painting!

Madeline has been very into painting lately. She likes to sit outside at her table and paint with watercolors or finger paint. I had to get her a smock because gets a little messy.

You can see she's also in her bikini in these pictures. She likes to change into her bikini as soon as she gets home. 

 You may wonder what Stella is doing in the background. She has a love-hate relationship with the two cats next door. Here she is having a staring showdown with them as they sit on their driveway.

Look at my picture!!

On Wednesday I got a call mid-morning from Maddie's daycare. They thought she was sick so I came and got her. But....turns out, she was fine!

I let her take her "nap" on the couch which resulted in 90 minutes of her making faces at me.

And, since she didn't have a nap, this is what happened on our walk that night.

 Yes, she's wearing a princess dress. 

Last night while I was cooking dinner I looked out the window and saw Chris and Madeline swinging. He was talking to her about her day at school.  He is such a sweet daddy!

Later, I asked what they talked about. It went like this:

Chris: Maddie, did you have a good day today?

Maddie: Yes! I danced and I played.

Chris: Who did you play with?

Maddie: Stella Murphy

Chris: Did you have to go to the thinking spot?

Maddie: No. I didn't steal anyone's purse today.

Chris: Well, that's good.

I wonder if purse-stealing is an epidemic in the 2 year old room. Who knows. Happy Friday!

Sam's Party and Hockey Playoffs!

On Saturday, we went to Sam's birthday party. It was at the nearby park and spray ground at Beckley Station. This is such a great park!

Last time we went to the water side, Madeline didn't really get into it. This time was totally different. She ran around like crazy!

 Trying to figure out where the water went.

Splashing with Sam!

Soaked! 

That night, we had a quick dinner at Qdoba and let Madeline play at the Summit playground.

 Sunday night, we went to daddy's hockey game. 

 Yay daddy!

The euphoria didn't last long since Chris's team got knocked out. :( Oh well, Madeline doesn't care. She still thinks daddy is a rock star. She shouts really loudly for him and wants him to pick her up after...even though he stinks to high heaven! (Side note...there is NO smell quite like a hockey smell. Seriously. Not a one.)

Happy Monday!

Getting messy and a visit to grandma's!

We had some fun with shaving cream this week!

And got a little messy!

But we ran through the sprinkler to get cleaned off! 

Today I picked Madeline up early and we spent the afternoon at my mom's. Madeline likes to do the same things when she goes to grandma's:

Water her plants

Make a craft (today it was potting a plant in this funky pot) 

 Jump on the trampoline!

And feed the birds! 

We had a quick, great week and are looking forward to the weekend!

On her own schedule...

Madeline has decided she's officially over diapers. She wears her undies all day (a pull-up for sleeping) and is doing great! She stayed dry the entire day today! 

I've learned my lesson with her now. She will do things when she wants to. And, if she seems behind, she'll get caught up. Quickly. 

I've said before Madeline was a late talker. In fact, when most kids her age were babbling or trying to talk she stayed silent. Then, one day she started talking. Like, full sentences. She totally skipped the phase of indiscriminate words. Now she is one of the best talkers in her class. (Obviously, in her genes.)

Same goes for potty training. A lot of kids in her class were training at their 2nd birthday. Maddie didn't really have much interest. And, of course, being paranoid I thought she'd be four in the two year old room putting her own diaper on. Then, one day she decided she was over that nonsense and, within a week went from part-time panties to full-time. 

I'm guessing we'll see this a lot with her as she continues to grow up. 

Just doing her own thing, on her time. 

***

My good friend Kathryn moved to North Caroline awhile ago and came in for a visit. All of my work girls got together for a yummy catch-up at Mojito!

Me, Lauren and Jennifer.

So, as this pic was being taken, I KNEW my arm would look funky. And, it did. Sigh. 

Carla, Kathryn and Stephanie

I have to admit, I have gotten SUPER lucky so far with this summer weather. Just when it was getting H-O-T, it got cool. (I still will always pity pregnant women in the summer.) We've been enjoying the swing set!

Notice Maddie lifted up off the seat. This is her new thing. She likes to swing from ANYTHING. She can hold her weight pretty easily and will dangle from any bar or rope she can find. I wish she wouldn't.

Daredevil.

Tonight we had some fun with play doh! 

This week is half-over! Looking forward to a great weekend! 

A Pool Weekend!

On Thursday, we had a cook-out with my parents. Maddie and grandpa took a "selfie."

On Friday, we had dinner with nana and grandpa. We took a little swim before the pizza came.

On Saturday, we celebrated our friend Kaylen turning 2! 

Playing with Charlie and Mallory.

Kaylen enjoying her cake!

YUM!

She loved floating in this tube!

Madeline liked Kaylen's presents a lot!

Chris played in a two day golf scramble for work this weekend. Maddie went to Nana and Grandpa's on Sunday for a while and had a great time playing. Grandpa let her throw rocks in his water feature one time and she never forgot it. Now she does it every time!

Last week Chris worked in the evenings to start on our bookcases in the basement. After just 5 nights here's what he's done. Looks great! The bottom half will have cabinet doors on them. 

We're hoping to get the basement completed (or close to it) before baby H 2 makes her arrival on the scene. It's going to be tight but I'm sure Chris will try his best!

30 week bump date!!

I realized the other day that I didn't do one bump date during the 20-30 week window. Time is FLYING!

How far along? 30 weeks 

Baby is the size of: Cucumber!

Maternity Clothes?  All the time! I am basically cycling through the same clothes every week. I can just imagine my co-workers saying "oh it's pink striped shirt Tuesday" or "its polka dot shirt Thursday." 

Stretch Marks? I found one outside of my belly button. Sigh. Oh well. Maybe it will show when I get in my 'kini one day. But I'll be a mom of two so I dare someone to say something. :)

Sleep? Meh. I fall asleep with no problem and then I wake up a few hours because I am literally ON FIRE. I am a human furnace. Then I may or may not go back to sleep. But it's amazing how your body adapts.

Movement? Ok, so this baby is WILD. She moves ALL the time. You can actually see my stomach move majority of the day. At my doctor's appointment last week she was listening to the heart beat and she said, "Oh wow. I bet this is an active child. You can listen to babies and know which ones are the movers. This is one." Oh boy. 

Cravings? Pickles. Coke. Chinese food. Banana chip ice cream.

Gender? It's a GIRL. Well, at least we think so! It took a good 45 minutes for the nurse to tell us. She finally got one good picture and said she was pretty confident but I'd still be more comfortable with another ultrasound. I'm not sure a boy would appreciate the lavender room quite as much. 

Belly Button In or Out? Out.

What I miss: Being able to easily pick up Madeline, walking up steps without tiring.

Symptoms: I have Braxton Hicks contractions like its my job! A few charley horses have been painful.  Also, I got the stripe on my stomach a few weeks ago and that continues to darken. 

Best moment of the week? Madeline is so interested in her sister. This week she gave her a kiss, patted my stomach and then asked me (again) to get her out. She asks if she can come out several times a week now.

What I am looking forward to: PICKING OUT A NAME. We have narrowed to three and will hopefully make a final decision soon. 

And here's how little miss looks today.

As for my other girls, I caught this little moment between them this week. 

Maddie got a present from nana and grandpa for doing so well at potty training. She was so excited to add to her collection!

Surprise! I see you!

Maddie's first hockey game!

On Sunday, Madeline and I went shopping for a bit. She made me push her around Target in this monster.

Besides the fact that I looked ridiculous, I cannot even imagine how many germs that thing harbors. But, she loved it!

That night we went to watch daddy play hockey! A lot of his games are past Maddie's bedtime but this one was earlier so I thought I'd take her. She LOVED it. She sat on my lap or stood in front of me the entire time! We stayed for all 3 periods because she was so into it. 

Trying to figure out if this was the rink daddy's team was playing on.

 A snack between periods.

Waiting on daddy to skate over and wave at her. She thought this was SO COOL. 

So excited!!

This week's new recipe was lemon italian chicken in the crockpot. It was delish! I'm adding all kinds of new items to my cookbook! If you want, you can find the recipe here.

Maddie is on a huge Stella kick right now. At the lake on Saturday she saved some fish food to "take to my Stella dog." She talks about her every day in the car on the way home. She likes to give her treats and think its hilarious when Stella kisses her. This day they were being really sweet together but this was all I got by the time I grabbed my phone. 

 (Crazy pigtail-hair compliments of Ms. Tiana)

AND!! Big news in our house! We are really working on potty training now! (I wanted to wait until after vacation.)  Madeline puts on big girl undies every day after school and wore them all weekend while we were at home. She is doing FABULOUS. She has only had 3 accidents (once outside on the swing set, one eating dinner and once while trying to make it to the potty) but she is doing better and better. She's even going #2 in the potty (every day for 5 days now!!) She keeps asking to wear them to school so we might start that next week. Wish us luck!