The Lily Pad

Dear 2008, It's been real. I can't really say I'm sad to see you go and maybe 2009 will make me long for your indiffernce but lets face it, we got off on a bad start with Madelyn being in the hospital on IVs and monitors. You got a little better with an awesome fun ski-trip with a fabulous group of friends. We've lived in 3 different states during your reign and Chris has had a whole truckload of training that has meant too much time away from Madelyn and I. I met people I probably wouldn't have crossed paths with under normal circumstances, became good friends with somebody I previously knew little about. I have laughed a lot this year, and cried over things I can't change. I made new friends, visited the capital, flew with Madelyn for the first time, rode the metro more than I ever imagined I would, moved all of my stuff to CA to be put in storage, knitted some, sewed some, lost a little of myself, and found a little I didn't know existed. I know that...

Go figure that I wouldn't be able to sleep after 6 am because I was excited about Madelyn getting her Santa gifts and then when we get up she's more interested in the $10 popcorn popper walky thingy and the legos than the Elmo. Of course she also LOVES her Cracker Barrel rocking chair too. We had a wonderful day and I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas! Ours continues tomorrow with Chris' Mom and Saturday with his grandparents and extended family. Whew. In my down time I'll be learning to sew on my new sewing machine! Playing with her cousin Kaylee - they just met today.

This is one of my favorite times of year. The others being smelling the first crisp air of fall and feeling the first warm morning in spring. I have always loved Christmas and as a child I could barely sleep on Christmas Eve being excited for Santa's visit. Back then it was all about "what did I get?" and then seeing family and eating a huge meal. There was always focus on the fact that we celebrate in honor of Jesus' birthday, but I'm not gonna lie...I was all about the presents. I loved getting my gifts and checking out what my sister and brother got. Luckily for me they are heavy sleepers and I used to get up before them, sneak down the hall and see what we all got before waking them or going back to bed until a decent hour. I just couldn't handle the anticipation. Now our Christmas celebrations are basically the same, we wake up, exchange gifts and have breakfast before joining for family for Christmas Dinner and gift exchange with Granny. The bigg...

I'm not really above putting food on my baby, let's face it. Food on baby is hilarious. Just watch America's Funniest Home Videos or look at any of those too cute for words baby sites, food on baby=good times. So in the spirit of food on baby humor, here is Madelyn with a macaroni on her head. Look how irritated at me she is that I'm taking pictures instead of helping get the noodle off her noodle. Of course, I'm not the one that put it there so I'm calling "Not my job!" and just taking the pictures.

Today I went shopping at Tarjay to check out their selection of cabbage patch dolls to see if I wanted to get Madelyn one (our local Toys R Us is apparently only frequented by white people because all they had left were little brown babies) and there were people EVERYWHERE! I have fought crowds before with shopping but there is a whole different level of having to deal with stuff when you have a baby and you are used to leisurely wandering up and down the aisles and letting her check out stuff and just having a rather pleasant time. Not today, not at all, not any way shape or form. People were pushing, the aisles were packed and I had Madelyn in her buggy and we stopped to watch the big clompy dinosaur and I was standing there with her pushed over to the side out of the way and this rude nasty woman grabs the front of my buggy and starts to move it! She acted like it was just a rogue buggy with nothing in it and it had my baby! and my purse...plus me holding on to it. I looked at h...

One of my favorite things to do to distract Madelyn is to put random things on her head. She loves this game and often tries to put things on my head. So I'm starting a new feature called "Stuff on my baby". I'm not sure how often it will happen, but trust me, this is just the start of something fun and fabulous!

Dear molars, Hi! It's me, Katrina. Madelyn's mommy and I am writing ask you to cease and desist causing my daughter so much pain. All 8 of your incisor buddies came in the night without announcing the presence, just sweet little teeth coming to do their jobs without a fight. You mean molars have been ganging up on my baby for a week now, you have forced her to dig out teethers that she never cared about before and carry them around double fisted trying to find some relief from you. Teeth do not need to hurt to be noticed. Are you afraid that you won't get any love because you're in the back of the mouth so you are acting out? I can assure you that we love you molars, you are special and we will not forget you. I didn't mean to compare you to the incisors, they are not as good as you when it comes to chewing meat, you do all the work while they get all the glory of being seen and used to bite. Maybe you are right, maybe this isn't fair but we all are speci...

For sale (or rent for a few days) 13 month old girl, 8 teeth with 39 bazillion coming in RIGHT NOW, a few runny boogies and great lungs. Doesn't like to sleep so you get a whole lotta baby for your money. $1 or best offer. This picture is old but a crying baby is a crying baby. Plus this one is just of her not getting her way, 5 seconds later she was laughing... it's definitely not the back arching screaming I was getting tonight...somehow I just didn't think to grab the camera.

Please keep your hands and feet inside the car... This past weekend we put up our Christmas tree so that Chris would be able to participate. We usually choose to do a larger tree and a real one if possible, but this year because of a toddler we opted for a table top tree so I pulled out some of our favorite ornaments to decorate with. We also usually have an angel on the top but our usual angel is really big and would have dwarfed this tree and in my shopping I couldn't find one that I liked and I really wanted to have a topper before Chris left. Our little tree with last year's family Christmas picture on the left and Santa Pooh's from around the world underneath. This is a pretty good synopsis of our ornaments, frogs and patriotic. I won't bore with every frog and every patriotic ornament...but the frogs are winning. This is the ornament from the church where we got married. This is a little thumbprint mouse made from Madelyn's thumb. Chris has one just like i...

Madelyns sleep habits are horrible. She hates to sleep, she thinks that something major will happen and she will miss it if she falls asleep of her own free will. This means that most any time she is still she will go to sleep and the only time I can get her still for long enough to fall asleep she is strapped in to her carseat or the high chair. This also means that she usually falls asleep holding something or mid playing in said strapped in contraption. In the high chair, mid cheerio eating and with a juice bottle that she was playing with. Fighting with the hood... And she's out... This was on our way back from Charleston, she was fussy so I gave her the last thing I had available for her to play with (she'd thrown all the toys in the floor). I need to get some pictures of her going to sleep in her carseat, she presses her hands in to her face so hard and pulls on her ears and smooshes her cheeks. It's fabulously amusing. Of course she's usually only going to sl...

This Thanksgiving was probably one of the best we have had. We didn't do a whole lot of running around to various family members houses and Chris was with us. On Wednesday night Mom and Dad came over to do some prep work for our meal on Thursday since I was going to have to run off right in the middle of cooking to pick up Chris from the airport. Dad helped out by entertaining Madelyn who piled all of her stuffed animals on him three times. (Please ignore the messiness). Thanksgiving day was full of good food, laughter and lots of snuggles. All of the pictures from our house are on Mom and Dads camera but Granny was there and I think she had a really good time. The weather was beautiful, chilly but not cold. After our meal we headed over to Chris' Grandparents house for snacks and visiting with family from TN. Madelyn had a great time playing with some of Chris' old stuffed animals. I love her tights, Chris asked if she'd turned into a hippie after living here...