The Lily Pad

great rainy going too fast rainy warm fun rainy fabulous time with family exciting since Madelyn remembered everyone rainy and... rainy.

I guess I'm going to just do a bunch of silly posts tonight as I sit here on pain meds with my feet up... Madelyn loves tickles and snuggles. She wants you to tickle tickle tickle her and then she buries her head in your chest. I love it! Her giggles are the best sound in the entire world and the snuggles, well...I don't have to tell you that snuggles are the reason God made babies. She will pull up her shirt to allow maximum raspberry and belly gobbles. She will grab your hand and put it on her belly for tickles and her whole body will tense if you even mention tickles. She and I just finished a round of T&S and she promptly hopped off my lap and sat on Chris chest (he's laying in the floor watching a movie) and wanted tickles and snuggles from him. I can't wait for our families to see her next week, to see how much she's grown and changed and to hear these beautiful giggles for themselves.

In 2 days we are flying across the country. Today I found out that I separated the ligaments between my big toe and my second toe and that I need to keep off my feet and keep it elevated as much as possible. Yeah right, that's gonna happen on a flight with a toddler...and I'm sure Chris would love to push me and the baby through Atlanta.

Last night Madelyn stayed up really late after a nap in the living room floor at 5 pm so Chris and were working around the house and at around 9 I walked back to her bedroom to put away some clothes and hear a horrible rustling sound. It sounded like somebody or something was trying to come in the window or was in a closet or something...it was really scary. I went to get Chris who of course dismissed my craziness (I'm a little paranoid sometimes) until he walked back and heard it too. It was a big enough sound that he got the pistol and headed outside to check it out. Upon seeing nothing he walked around the house and heard a similar sound outside when the sprinklers hit the roof. Sweet, the noise is named. Fast forward about an hour and a half and Madelyn is sleeping in our bed and I am putting away towels in the hall closet and I hear the noise again so I question Chris if the sprinkler is still on and it isn't. Crap! So we go back to the bedrooms to try to figure it

If you know me, or Madelyn then you know of our struggles with eating anything other than honey nut cheerios, grapes, and macaroni and cheese. Occassionally I can get something else in her, but it's never a vegetable. It's been an ongoing struggle since she figured out that she could refuse to eat. She has NEVER liked green vegetables and physically gags on peas (I do this too..I hate peas.) This past Saturday my friend invited me to a seminar by Dr. Sears. I had heard of him but didn't really know what he was all about and figured it couldn't hurt, there's always something to learn. He started talking about picky eaters and told us what he did with his own son who was a picky eater and told us not to be short order cooks. Then he told us about a Center for kids who don't eat good and dont' do other things good too* where they did a study to prove parents wrong about what their kids would and wouldn't eat. The study proved that it took an average

I've been snapping a lot of pictures with the blog in mind lately so here are the ones I remember the thought process behind. 1. The first time I saw one of these logo thingies I thought it was a fat man holding a drink with fire hair. Look again...the belly is on the right with a crooked elbow and flamey hair. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was supposed to mean. 2. Madelyn loves her white sandals. She wantst to wear them constantly even if she's still in her jammies and we haven't even had breakfast yet. They are the most difficult of her shoes to put on too. 3. Yesterday we went exploring in Hemet to find a museum that was having a Disney exhibit. Luckily there were also signs pointing us to Jesus. Unfortunately when we came to the end of this road there wasn't a sign so we went right. 4. And from the looks of this sign (right besdie the loading and unloading point for the museum!) we made the wrong choice on which way to turn. 5. L

I learned an important lesson about being a mom today: It is very important to have a secret stash of yummy "mommy" food so that when the daughter goes to bed and you have a cosmo to read you have something other than fruit snacks and pudding packs to enjoy. I also found Jesus, but that's a whole nother post...and it's not what you think.

On Wednesday we had our friends, the Snipes, over for dinner and we had a great time. I cooked some easy but yummy stuff and we visited while the kids played for hours. I'm sure they were hating us after having to drive all the way home so late, but whatever, it was fun! Madelyn absolutely LOVED having friends over to play with and Bonnie's kids are awesome! There was a time when I would have stressed out over having 4 kids running rampant in my house but now, it's nothing...funny how a toddler will do that to you. Seriously though, the kids were great and played so well together, I was amazed. I want Madelyn to hang out with the Snipes kids more so that she can pick up their excellent manners and maybe some of Emmalyns curly hair grownin mojo will rub off too! I was a dork and set out the camera but didn't get a single picture of the girls throwing the ball back and forth or of Cooper jumping over Madelyn while she absolutely cackled. Oh well, maybe next time. It

I'm posting videos here because they are too large to email, usually I would just email them to family, but you get to enjoy them now too...ignore the mountain of laundry on my couch. That's what happens when you spend the weekend avoiding folding clothes. The really cute part happens almost at the end of the video.

1. There is nothing better than getting a show at the pharamacy on base. OK, maybe there is but the two old men fighting at the counter pretty much made our wait worth while. 2. People watching here in CA is fabulous. Today we were leaving the mall and there was a teenage girl walking in her pajamas with her hand run down the backside scratching her butt...blatantly butt scratching right outside the mall! I thought Socal was supposed to be glamorous. 3. Our camera's flash crapped out on us making capturing a good pic of a baby on the move impossible. So we picked up a new Nikon Coolpix today. I would love an SLR, but I really think a point and shoot is better for our family and lifestyle right now. Maybe an SLR as a special occasion camera and not an every day one. 4. On Friday night Chris had his first encounter with glitter. He took Madelyn to a father/daughter dance on base where she recieved a wand covered in silver glitter which she promptly hit him on the head with showe