The Lily Pad

This past weekend Madelyn and I took an impromptu trip to surprise my parents for their 30th Anniversary.  I used the GPS to keep me updated on my time of arrival so that I knew where I needed to go for maximum surprising impact.  After exiting for the fourth potty break, and being yelled at by the woman in the box to make a U-turn.  Madelyn asked the following: "Momma, how come you can drive all the way from California without that thing but you can't find Nanna and Da-Daddy's?" Yep.  The GPS landed in the floor and I did NOT use it on the way home.

Scene: After waiting for 5 minutes to pull out into traffic on base, a car slowed and let me out.  I waved and said out loud "Thank you", you know, cause he could hear me.  The following 20 minutes went something like this: "Mommy!  Why you say thank you?" "I was thanking that Marine for letting us pull out." "Why?" "Because that was nice of him.  Don't you think so?"   "How him do dat?  Let us out?" "He stepped on the brake and slowed the car down so Mommy could pull out." "Why?" "Because he's nice." "You say thank you?" "Yes." "Him stop for us?" "Yes" "Him push the car?" "What?" "Why?" and so on and so forth.  Same questions, different word structure and lots and lots of "Why".  In traffic. Then she seemed happy with my responses and seemed to fully grasp the situation and I had quiet for ...

Madelyn loves to color, and by loves I mean LOVES.  I would venture that it is her most favorite thing to do, we go through coloring books like we do toilet paper around here.  She usually colors pictures however she wants, whatever color she wants.  However, her daddy likes to color things the "right" colors and makes a point of this every time he is coloring with her. Friday night was the exception.  After an exceptionally long week of not being home before 8 or 9, Madelyn was in dire need of some Daddy time and asked him to color with her.  Daddy obliged but just did not have the energy to follow his own preset guidelines of coloring Woody the right colors.  I walked back into the kitchen to Madelyn yelling at me "Mommy!  Turn dat movie on!  Dose not the right colors! Turn dat movie on and show him! Him not blue and red!  Him wellow!" Chris looked at me with a "what the hell" on his face and all I could say was "You're the one tha...

Jirp Jirp the snowman was built on Christmas Morn. With bottlecap eyes and an 80's cap and two arms made out of sticks. Jirp Jirp the snowman was not his first name but Madelyn knew that Idiot just didn't feel the same.    There must have been some magic in that 80's hat that day  cause he didn't melt as fast as he should and didn't go away. O' Jirp Jirp the snowman was as short as he could be then he melted away and Madelyn cried all day. Thumpity Thump Thump Thumpity Thump Thump Look at Jirp Jirp Go. **Yeah, I'm a little late for Christmas carols, but I couldn't resist sharing this masterpiece with you.  Plus show you M's lovely snowman.

Madelyn is at the ever lovely "why?" stage and apparently after 3 HUGE tantrums in 2 weeks, the tantrum stage.  On a completely unrelated note, anybody want to borrow a 3 year old for a month?  No?  Darn.  Anyway, she asks why for everything.  At Christmas she asked why her daddy was a boy and I told her because God made him that way (this is my new favorite answer btw) and my father in law asked her why she was a girl.  Her response?  "Because I sit down to pee." Sarcasm is also a new addition to our house and Madelyn's favorite new saying whenever I ask her to do something or tell her "no" is to say "Oh Man!".  My father took great delight in this during our visit and prompted the saying every chance he got.  After one very frustrating evening of Madelyn not listening to me, she and he were saying it after everything I said so I said "Dadaddy is gonna get you a spanking if you don't stop saying that."  Madelyn hurried up the...

Like how I'm just jumping back into blogging like I never stopped?  Yeah.   Me too... My Mom has been planning this trip to Babyland, USA since I was 16 weeks pregnant and we found out I was having a girl.  It was a tradition for our Nanna to take us kids, and Mom (Madelyn's Nanna) wanted to carry that tradition on.  So last week, we took an adventurous trip with a two year old to place filled with baby dolls.  The whole thing is set up like a hospital with nursery's and babies everywhere! You can tell from this picture just how distracted she was by everything going on!  You haven't lived until you've chased a 2 year old through a giant sized Doll store! Just chilling with her girls!  Do you see the puff of curls on that one on the right? Squeee!!! Mother cabbage giving birth to a new baby! After being completely overwhelmed, picking out one baby and all associated accessories, she decided she wanted a different baby.  It w...

Everyone always talks about how empty their bed seems when their spouse is deployed.  I find the exact opposite to be true.  Here is a list of things in my bed currently: 4 pillows 3 baby dolls 2 pooh bears 1 large teddy bear 3 blankets for the baby dolls 5 books To be added to the bed in about an hour: 1 Daddy doll 1 2 year old 1 Mommy 1 laptop and any other item needed by the 2 year old for tonights slumber. Somehow having my Marine home and in bed is going to be so much less crowded!

First we have a toddler with a butterfly on her face.  I'm pretty sure she would wear make-up like this daily if I let her.  Butterflies in the floral arrangement for Granny.  She loved butterflies, and I know she loved this arrangment.  sillines  Rolled jeans and red chucks.  Doesn't get any cuter!  A new hat?  This is how I found her after running in the house, she'd grabbed her skirt (an extra one) and put it over her head.  Obviously the roses did fabulously during our trip.  I counted 75 blooms.  I'm blaming exhaustion and a long day at LINKS but tonight I bought Madelyn a fish tank...complete with fancy goldfish, 4 neons, and a frog (duh).  This is our very round, very blurry (apparently) fancy goldfish. But I'm thrilled that the pizza box in is focus.  Deployment cooking at it's best.

Even though we are in town for a very sad reason, that's no reason not to get out and have a good time. We have made the best of our visit and on Monday we joined my lovely sister in law for lunch and exploration at the health adventure. Lunch was noodles at The Noodle Shop in down town and Madelyn used chop sticks for the very first time! To say that I am constantly amazed at her ability to learn and to try new things is an understatement. She did better with chopsticks at 2 years old than I did at 20! She never gave up or used a fork, although she did allow me to "telp" her when she started getting tired.

I will miss you.

Last night I emailed Chris pictures of the "Daddy skirt" for his viewing pleasure since he cannot facebook or check blogs. I mentioned that I was proud of it and which blouse I used to make it, nothing else really in the email. Today I recieved a phone call and among the rest of our conversation, out of the blue, he says: "That skirt is cute as hell." Coming from a man who usually says "It looks good." or "It looks fine", this is a huge compliment! I am so happy that he is happy with it, afterall I did destroy one of his cami blouses to make it. :)

Are you my baby? No, not baby! Are you my doodle bop ? No, not doodle ! Are you my big girl? No, not big! What are you then? I Madelyn!

Early this afternoon, Madelyn and I were reading a book and we heard the doorbell. Madelyn immediately says "Daddy's here!" and I have to remind her that Daddy is "bye bye" and won't be home for a whole bunch of sleeps. We go to the door and peep out the peep hole only to see that nobody is there...so that means there's a package! Woohoo! We love packages. I pick up the box and see immediately that it's addressed to Madelyn and know that it is her "Daddy Doll". I am not sharing the first video I took of her opening it, it was very personal for her and she walked away from the camera and me to have a moment to herself. She is doing very well, but I can tell she's not sure how to process things, I'm not even sure how to process things so it's understandable. I'm just glad that she is expressing herself and hopefully soon we'll be able to find a way for her to express herself that doesn't involve a full on meltdown. :...

Today Madelyn was the Happy Helper at Mommy and Me. One of the duties is to hold the flag for the pledge of allegience and to say "Please rise" to all of her friends. We practiced and practiced and she was very clearly saying "pea rye" on cue...until it came time to actually do it. However, she did a great job holding the flag and putting her hand on her hear! Do you like her outfit? Yeah, she picked this one out. Those shoes are her favorites because she can very easily put them on herself. Yesterday I spent $6 and bought her a scooter at this awesome little consignment shop and of course in the interest of safety we had to have a helmet...which she wore out of the store and the entire ride home. She must be a little scared of my driving. :) This was the best $24 (including helmet) I've spent in a while! She loves her "bike" and has ridden it all over the place. She's not too good at turning yet and chooses instead to just pick it up and...

I've thought several times about how to write how I am feeling as a new mother and every time I start I find myself at a loss for words. I just don't know where to start, how to start, or even the word to start with. It's amazing. It continues to amaze me how much love I feel for this little bundle of life that has come into our lives. Is it tiring and stressful? Yes. Is it rewarding? Yes. Is it awesome? Yes. Is it mind numbingly monotonous? Yes. This past weekend we had our first night out after having Madelyn. It was for the Marine Corps Birthday Ball, an event I just couldn't miss. My parents came into town to watch her and to say that I missed her for the 7.5 hours that we were apart is an understatement. By the end of the night my heart ached for her. I just wanted to be at home to smell her sweet little head, to kiss her sweet little cheeks and to hold that little hand. I fought back tears several times throughout the night and looked at pictures of her. I think...

Here is the clinical part of the labor and delivery of Madelyn. I'll post a more emotional/pretty story later. Things around here have obviously been crazy and my postpartum experience wasn't exactly normal or easy so it really just feels like I'm ending my first week home with Madelyn when it's actually been 2. On Tuesday, October 23, after a dinner with friends at Carrabas Chris and I checked into the hospital. Our nurse, Sally, greeted us and asked us to wait while they finished getting our room ready. It was a busy night in labor and delivery but we only had to wait about 20 minutes after arrival. We went through the check-in process and at around 1 a.m. I received my first dose of cervadil. I was barely dialated and still 75% effaced. After 4 hours of restless sleep they checked me again and I hadn’t changed so I received a second dose of cervadil. This time I started having mild contractions and back labor kicked in. 4 hours later there still wasn’t any change, ...

Born: 10/24/07 - 10:43 p.m. Weight: 7lbs 1.2 oz Length: 20.5 inches Birth story to follow soon.

Yesterday I had my 4th ultrasound (I'm just over 15 weeks) and an amniocentesis*. Let's back up to three weeks ago when Froggydaddy and I had our first ultrasound at MUSC to measure the nuchal translucancy fold of Froggybaby and the bloodwork done to test for Downs Syndrome and other genetic abnormalities, known as the quad or triple screen. We were confident that everything would be fine and this was just a precaution because we are people that need to know stuff because we have to plan. The ultrasound went great and the nuchal measurement was perfect so we left feeling confident. One week later, I'm at work on a particularly busy Friday afternoon when K, the geneticist, calls and says that my results are in. She proceeds to tell me that based on my age before the bloodwork, my chance of having a baby with Downs Syndrome was 1 in 803 and after the bloodwork, my chances are now 1 in 73. I stopped cold. Especially when she gave me the actual numbers for my results. The ...