There's a first time for everything...

This afternoon as I was boxing up newborn clothes in Madelyn's room, folding the clean laundry and putting away her Christmas goodies, she was playing on the floor with her little activity gym. One minute she was busy swatting and kicking at all the toys dangling from it...the next she was sucking on her hand and had really heavy eyelids. Since I was going to be in there, I decided to see if she liked napping in her crib. After all, there's a first time for everything. She loved it. She snoozed for over an hour in it (even with me giving her an occasional frequent nudges just to make sure she was still OK).

We did get some of our furniture shuffling done today. The crib and dresser from the nursery are now downstairs in her new room. I can't really take any credit for most of the furniture shuffling that happened today. Luke pretty much did it all. He even managed to get her dresser (which is very solid) down the stairs by himself after I was too much of a weeny to help. All the other room "stuff" is hanging out in the hallways. I have always been one of those people that makes 5 messes to clean up one. This little project is definitely no exception.

My mom stopped by this afternoon to see the baby girl. Madelyn lights up when she hears her voice...it is so cute.

Just about as cute as them singing to each other.

Madelyn has become quite the techno savvy little girl. She skyped again today with her Gigi, Papa and Great Granny. When she finished up her chat with her grandparents, she and Luke did their nightly reading. I know I have taken oodles (However many that is? How much is an 'oodle' and then how many is it if you add an 's'? I have never really liked that word ((if it really is a word)) because it's just too vague...yet I find myself typing it from time to time. Sigh.) Back to what I was saying...I have taken oodles hundreds of pictures of this very thing...but each one seems just as sweet as the last.

During their daddy/daughter time, Madelyn got a case of the sneezes. When her reflux is acting up...she sneezes a lot. Since she developed her cold, she has been somewhat of a "sprayer" when she sneezes. Check out Luke's shirt...

It was Luke's first time wearing one of Madelyn's big boogers on his shirt (almost a daily occurrence for me) so I had to get a picture of it before I would let him clean it off! Ha :) Hey, there's a first time for everything.

I was thinking today about this past year. When I found out I was pregnant I went into "mega-planner" mode. I tried to work out every detail. Decorate the nursery with my favorite colors. Schedule several doctor's appointments in advance. Attend child birth classes. Make birth announcements before baby arrives. Order outfit for newborn pictures. Wash all the clothes and put them away. The list of all my planning could go on and on. Most of it didn't happen the way that I had planned for it to. The way that I expected it to. I don't think there is anything wrong with preparing, but how foolish I was to plan how I thought everything should go. With every preparation I made...I had thought out in detail how everything would happen. Decorate the nursery for baby to use in a couple of months. She still has yet to use it (with the exception of her nap this morning). Attend child birth classes so that I can have a routine labor and delivery with a healthy baby. We were only able to attend one class and did not have a routine labor and delivery. Order outfit for newborn pictures so that we can take some super sweet pics of her in it the first week or two we are home. The only pics we had of Madelyn during that time were in the hospital with tubes and cords and wires everywhere. Instead she was nearly two months old when we had her "newborn pics" taken. Make birth announcements before baby arrives so that I can mail them within the first few weeks. *I just mailed them out two weeks ago. You get the picture? He had His plan. His ways are better than mine. I hope this year I am more in tune with His plan for my family, rather than trying to do all the planning myself. It's easier that way...then I won't be so disappointed when things don't turn out the way that I planned for them to and I will baby able to see each detail that He has laid out for the gift that it is.

*Since I did (finally) get Madelyn's birth announcements in the mail, I thought I would share them on here. Thanks to Jana Ezernack for taking such beautiful pictures of our family, we had the perfect picture of Madelyn to use for the front of her card. As for the design...not quite as I planned but perfect for telling her story this far.