little firecracker

Monday morning after I put Madelyn down for her nap, I couldn't help but notice how it appeared as though I had a house full of munchkins. Every toy in our house was either covering the living room or kitchen floors. It was comical and most days it's the norm. I probably clean it up 10 times a day and Madelyn drags it all out again. I love it though. One of her favorite things to do is drag everything out. And I actually really enjoy watching her do it!

Madelyn looked like our own personal firecracker when I put the tutu I made her on.

She looked so festive and precious all at the same time.

While Luke was playing rec softball Monday night, Madelyn and I joined everyone over at my mom and dad's. The cousins had so much fun playing together. Emily was the short order cook of the evening (with a little of Grandma's help).

Alli and Maddie enjoyed pulling all the toys out and scattering them around the house (at least she's consistent and does it everywhere she goes).

sunny sunday afternoon

Can you believe all the faces this girl makes??

Usually when she sees the camera she hams it up. Sunday afternoon was no exception.

Once she runs out of smiles she moves on to silly faces.

At this point I was laughing so hard that my side hurt and that only encouraged her more. She loves to entertain and to make people laugh.

My mom has two really cute flower beds that are full of blooms but MK wasn't up for smiling when I sat her in the grass. She was not sure how she felt about it.

We stopped by the city park on our way home for a little late evening swing. Gigi and Papa mailed her an awesome swing, but Luke needs to get a few things before he installs it. We are so thankful because this girl loves to swing.

Madelyn wasn't sure what to think when I sat her down at the top of the slide.

It was hard scooting her down it because her little thighs were so sweaty. I think we will save our next trip down the slide for a pants day!

I realized Sunday afternoon that Madelyn has a lot of red, white and blue. A whole lot. She's going to be sporting it all week in celebration of the 4th! You can just call her Miss America :)

it fits!

We received so many clothes before MK came along that covered the first six months, and truth be told, I looked forward to seeing her in all of them. My favorite thing to do with my dolls when I was little was to dress them. I always pretended they spit up on themselves or had a bad diaper and needed their clothes changed. I am proud to say that before Madelyn, I was mommy to Betsy Wetsy and about 17 Cabbage Patch kids. I used to "forget" to put Betsy's diaper on just so that she would wet her clothes and I would have a good reason to change her.

Not that I am comparing the excitement I felt thinking ahead to the days of dressing Madelyn up while I was still pregnant to my days with Betsy Wetsy...or maybe I am...but there were a few special outfits that Madelyn had to do a little growing in order to fit in to and I couldn't wait to dress her up in them.

One was this little pink dress that she wore on Sunday to church.Last summer one of my aunts bought a sweet little church dress for Madelyn. It said 6-9 months but this was the first time that it did not swallow her. She looked so cute in it.

Before church, she and MeeMaw got a little reading in. I am not sure what prompted this face? She has been making it a lot lately though.

Thanks, Aunt Nancy!

t-ball time

I am pretty confident that Em had the most fans at her Upwards t-ball game on Saturday. Nana, Grandma, MeeMaw Fee, Aunt Rachel, Madelyn, myself, her mom, and her dad (who doubled as the coach) all braved the heat (and man was it hot) to cheer her.

She was super cute in her little Giants uniform. My favorite part of being at the game besides seeing Madelyn enjoying the game between her Grandma and MeeMaw Fee...

was watching my brother coach her team.

Not that he would know anything about baseball (that was typed with a hint of sarcasm and a little giggle considering I spent the better part of my life sitting in the bleachers of a baseball stadium cheering him on chewing Big League Chew Bubble Gum-from little league to high school to college and beyond), but he did a pretty good job considering his lack of experience.

It was pretty cute. And it made me proud of him and I definitely took that walk down memory lane in my head. Don't go telling him that though.

Emily is destined to be a star. I am only kidding, but she does have a pretty good swing.

Madelyn may want to get her to sign this picture just in case.

I think MeeMaw Fee was definitely her most excited fan of the day though!

For the record, this is number one in a series of about 10 catch up posts from this week! We've been having too much fun around here to blog (but I was starting to have major withdrawals, so here I am!).

heavy eyes

I am too tired to blog. I have spent the last hour staring at my computer screen trying to back up pictures on my external hard drive just so that I could have enough space to import today's pictures (yes, I only have like 1.4 gigs of hard drive space availavle). I have got to get this picture storage business under control.

I am also tired because I have been chasing this little girl all over the place today.I think I have about 45 pictures of the last two days that I want to post, but it is definitely not happening tonight. Tonight's the first night in nearly a week that I am going to crawl in to bed before 1am.

Yawn. Goodnight.

the doctor and a delivery

Yesterday Madelyn had her 9 month check up. I forgot that she was not due for any shots so I was pretty excited when the nurse said that it was a shot free visit. I think I hate the shots more than Madelyn does. She just cries for all of 30 seconds and is over it. Me...I am a nervous wreck all day about it.

We waited in the room for nearly an hour (after a 30 minute wait in the waiting room). The waits are getting harder and harder the older she gets. I thought about what all we do at the house over the span of an hour and a half and realized exactly why they are getting so hard. Nine month old babies do not sit still for long and are not entertained by any one thing for much longer than that.

At first she was fascinated by all the equipment hanging on the wall. That lasted for all of 47 seconds.Then she moved on to making faces and blow noises with her mouth. That lasted about 24 seconds.

Then she moved on to throwing her clothes around. Surprisingly, that lasted about 3 minutes. Probably because she kept throwing her bloomers on the ground and watching me fetch them over and over and over again.

Then more faces and noises.

And bloomer throwing.

After about 25 minutes I pulled out my reserves. First her duck. Then her books. Then a bottle. Then my keys. Then I just stood there letting her pull out my hair (what little is left after the post baby shed...too bad the gorgeous locks I grew while I was pregnant have all started to fall out since I stopped breast feeding).

Then the doctor came in. I was so happy I think I squealed.

The good news...she's doing great.

The apnea monitor stays at least until her next visit at 12 months (really?? our next scheduled visit she will be one year old??) when we will see if she has outgrown the reflux and has continued to do so well.

She weighed in at 17 pounds 12 ounces (31%) and measured 27 inches long (or short as the doctor said) (also 31%).

After her appointment, we made a special delivery.

Remember when my sister and I got the crazy idea to set up shop at a craft fair?? (If not click here to take a look.) And how out of that "The Madelyn Project" was born? (Click "The Madelyn Project" to read more.) And then how so many of you showed up and bought bows and put one in the jar?? 156 to be exact? (If not click here to see.)

Well, one day shy of exactly two months later, it was time to deliver.

I wanted to get them there sooner, but I also wanted to find a way to not just make bows. I wanted to make some flowers like the one that the nurse put on Madelyn's cap (click here to see my blog post from that day). When we made our delivery in December, it was just bows. This time I really wanted to do bows and flowers.

I finally found some that I could layer, hold together with a cute brad in the middle and hot glue to alligator clips. I love how they turned out.

I even tried a few of them on Madelyn's cap from the NICU just to see how they would look.

So with a jar full of bows...

and a hefty pile of flowers, we were ready to make our delivery.

We made plans to go a few different times throughout the week but for some reason or another it did not work out. Then one night I was talking via email with an old coworker and we discovered that her precious daughter, Samantha, was given one of the bows that I made during her stay in the NICU. It blessed my heart so much to see this picture.

There are several people who read this blog (or at least who I think read the blog) that made a point to come out to the craft fair or place an order to support this simple effort in Madelyn's name to bring a smile and a sense of normalcy to families who find themselves in the NICU. Your acts of kindness have blessed so many...especially this proud mommy.

After yesterday's delivery, 156 more families will be blessed. To some, they may not notice. To others like our family, it may be the bright spot in their day.

The neatest thing about our visit, they had used their last bow that morning.

Madelyn was in such a playful mood while we were there.

She loved seeing nurse Erica and all the other nurses that were at the front when we dropped them off.

We still have more to make. I have sold 30 bows here and there since then so I have at least 3o more to make from my "buy a bow, give a bow" promise (which is something I will still do-for every bow bought, one is donated). Even if I don't sell one more bow, making bows and flowers for the NICU will be something that we will continue to do.

I felt big huge crocodile tears well up in my eyes when I witnessed this moment.

Madelyn was riding on her Daddy's shoulders, grinning and babbling the whole way, out the front doors of the very same hospital that she arrived at in an ambulance inside an isolette struggling to breath. God is good.