She normally wouldn't come with me on a shoot, but it was for a friend and they were helping to watch her in between shots. As I'm trying to get a picture of everyone together I couldn't keep her away from the camera's line of sight. Too funny! I guess all I need if I want to capture her on camera is to pretend like I'm taking someone else's picture.
Madeleine on speaker phone with her daddy. We are gearing up for our next big adventure in life. Andrew already left last week and we miss him, a lot!
Our family will be relocating to Maine for several months to build a house for one of his closest friends who has relocated to Maine as a professor there. Andrew went up in February to assess the situation and learn more about the project and he was mesmerized by the beauty of Down East Maine. It is a great opportunity for him to build a home from the ground up and to be in such a new interesting place is exciting for him.
Me, I'm terrified!!! I'm used to having all my family and friends all around. I'm used to having a big ward to go to on Sunday. I'm used to having several stores at my choosing to shop at - goodbye Hobby Lobby - you'll probably be one of the ones I'll miss the most. This will all soon change. We'll be staying with our friends in Maine until the project's completion, and I'm sure there will be the opportunity to meet new friends. Our family's will be a short phone call away, but we'll miss celebrating birthdays with them. Andrew went to church on Sunday that we'll be attending and he said there were about 15 people there - WOW!!! There is some decent shopping, but it is at closest an hour away. It will be an adjustment.
I think you are given opportunities in life to learn and grow and I know our Maine experience will do just that. I look forward to the closeness our little family will enjoy as we are away from our extended families. I hope to get some scrapbooking done and some fun projects completed without other distractions. My photography will be expanded to more scenic images as I plan to visit as many light houses as possible on the north east coast, and I've heard Acadia National Park is just breathtaking. Heck, maybe (just maybe?) I can drop a couple of lbs with the pull to more outdoor activities (here's hoping anyway). Andrew's (I'm sure) hoping we'll save some cash by being a little further removed from shopping - then again there's always internet shopping. I've learned there's not a Costco in Maine so we've already done some stocking up on diapers. Madeleine will have more kids to play with on a daily basis, our friends up there have four kids so that will be lots of fun for her. Although it will be cold, we will be right on the coast. I love the water, I'm definitely a coastal kind of girl so I look forward to having that closeness.
So this southern girl will be in for a northern surprise. Andrew has already left and I will soon follow shortly. I'm nervous, a little scared, but a little excited to get on with our next big adventure.
This little girl has totally stolen our hearts. We are in constant awe as we watch her grow, and we still have to pinch ourselves that she's ours and marvel at the great fortune we have to be her parents.
She is such a funny kid, she loves to:
Jump on the bed - or really jump anywhere - she LOVES to jump!
Eat snacks - one of the things we laugh at the most is when she says, "I-un-nack" (imagine nack with huge emphasis) this means she wants a snack, aka a fruit snack. If you don't answer her right away (heaven forbid) the request gets increasingly louder and louder, until you acknowledge her request by saying, Madeleine, do you want a snack? To which she would reply (as if it had been your idea all along), "Okay!".
Climb ladders, which can be very dangerous consider the amount of home remodeling we have going on, but she is fearless!
She loves and I mean ADORES bath time. She will lay on her tummy in the bath and move around her whole little body and say, "I'm wimming!" (swimming) Too cute!
In fact she loves the water period! I filled up a tub with water in the driveway on one of our recent 80 plus degrees days and took some bath toys outside for her to play with. She loved it!
We do watch Sesame Street everyday - I have to say, I've learned it's entertaining even for adults, and you know you're in trouble when you add in conversations with your adult friends what you learned recently on Sesame Street. Madeleine gets so excited when it comes on, she loves the intro and loves to clap at the end. Her obvious favorite characters are Elmo and Abby Cadabby. She shocked me the other day when she was sitting on my bed and said "a Abby" it was the first time!
Play the piano, in fact for a not even 2 year old, I think she's pretty dang good! She will usually hit the keys one at a time to listen to the sound and never just bangs on the keys (by the way, don't you just love our piano bench?).
The park, playground, and Chick-fil-A are some of her favorite places. She's now learned to identify Chick-fil-A's when we are driving around and even if we're not stopping she gets so excited and starts clapping her hands. She's gotten really good on their indoor playgrounds and can climb to the top of the playgym by herself and slide down by herself. At the playground the swings are her favorite and she's not afraid to swing high!
She loves ice cream and has the - "I want to do it myself" attitude, which is not always the easiest to clean up!
She still loves that darn paci, man, I do not look forward to it's extinction. We already try to limit it, but I can't even imagine how fun bedtime is going to be without them.
She loves her baby dolls and loves babies in general! I've taught her how to pat her baby's on the back and say shhhh.
She's such a fun little person. We've made the switch to a new pediatrician who I think the world of (thanks Jill!), such a difference a new doctor makes! All the junk we went through with testing Madeleine and her being tagged as failure to thrive really had me worried and stressed to the max. Our new pediatrician actually took the time to really look over her charts and test results and relay items found that would identify her as a perfectly normal and healthy little girl who's just petite. She's about in the 20th percentile for her height and at least she's finally made it on the charts again for her weight (I think she was like in the 6th percentile). I now feel fully at ease with Madeleine's health and know she is getting the care she ought to have, which makes me a happy mom!
In fact we had a new scare recently. Madeleine's been passing out when she gets really upset. Like when a child cries, they have their big wind-up cry and then they catch their breath and continue to cry. She doesn't catch her breath and passes out for less than 5 seconds and comes to. The first time this happened it was several months ago when we were playing and she fell and bonked her face on Andrew's leg. I always thought it was from the pain that she went in shock and passed out. However, this past weekend it happened twice! On Saturday at Chick-fil-A with my niece and Madeleine. My niece took the kid's placemat out of Madeleine's hand (and I thought inadvertently pushed her to hurt her) and she did it again! It scared me so badly, I'm standing at the order line with my child passed out in my arms. Again, she came to quickly, cried a little more and acted fine. The on Sunday we were leaving my parents' and she didn't want to go. Andrew picked her up and she did it again! So I called the doctor first thing Monday morning. She was concerned and got me set up to take her to a pediatric cardiologist that morning (she is amazing!!!). We had an EKG done and the cardiologist examined her and decided it was breath holding syndrome. I had heard of kids holding their breath to pass out, but never involuntary like how Madeleine has been doing. It's just something to keep an eye on and if it continues we'll have an ultrasound done on her heart.
In just a few months my baby will be 2. I really can't believe how the time has flown. It seems like my infertility years lasted forever, it's amazing how fast time goes with this special little girl. Kind of makes me a little sad like it's going too fast! We just try to enjoy everyday with her that we've been given.
This is my first known picture in my (then ugly) kitchen. This was taken with my film camera the first weekend we bought the house. I immediately stripped all the wallpaper off (not to have it painted until (is this right?) this weekend! This was the pantry they had built that made the entry in the kitchen only possible by the dining room. The laundry room would be behind the camera in this picture so you would have to come downstairs, walk through the family room, through the dining room, and through the kitchen to do your laundry. It was one of the first things to go.
This fridge had a story in and of itself. The original owners of the home wanted to sell it to us for $300. I said NO WAY! We had been looking at new refrigerators and I was so excited to have my very own new one. They LEFT IT!!! Andrew thought it was awesome that he didn't have to run out and buy a new fridge (ugh!). I'm not kidding it took me 3 days of scrubbing it to get it in a safe enough condition to contain food. Cassidie can attest to it. Eggs, that's all I'm gonna say...
Year 2007
As of yesterday, today the tile was grouted. Now to nag to get the rest of the trim up. I promise to post the final pictures when it's done.
I've lived in my house for almost 6 years now. The very first weekend we closed on the house I went around and ripped the wallpaper off every ugly wall with lofty goals on having every surface refinished within the month - BOY, WAS I DELUSIONAL!!!
This past month we've been a whirlwind of activity (it's amazing what happens when a fire is lit), and the kitchen (amongst other projects) is finally getting the love it deserved.
Today, my back splash, can we get a moment of silence please...
Counters are done - YAY! Cabinets are done - YAY! Back splash will be grouted and sealed within the next couple days, and all is left is trim, bead board, paint on the walls and ceiling insets and it is (dare I say?) DONE!!!
If you have a spare moment, and if you could care at all...
Please vote for Sue Blount, she's been nominated in a 1-800-Flowers Spotlight a Mom Contest and it doesn't take anything to vote.
Just click on the following link:
http://ww32.1800flowers.com/template.do?id=template9&page=3007
Scroll down to Sue Blount - On the go mom from Snellville, GA
Click on Read Story and Vote
Then scroll down to the bottom and select "Vote for this Mom"
I've known Sue Blount for like a million years, her daughter and I have been close friends for years. I know firsthand what a giving and selfless mom Sue is and if anyone deserves a break, it's her.
Please, please, pretty, pretty, please vote for Sue.
Lately Madeleine's been calling me Kah-wah (Kara) and Andrew An-roo. Pretty funny except, come on! She's the one person in this world that can call me mommy - I want to be mommy!
I've told Andrew to start calling me mommy around the house so she'll break that habit - we'll see! We definitely have Katelyn to blame as she's been around a lot lately and Madeleine loves to act like a big girl like her. I guess I should be happy she's not calling me Aunt Kara, right?
By the way, it surprises me how many people cannot pronounce Kara. I worked for a company once that the receptionist would call me Car-Uh Oops - for real??? I loved the little video clip they had on American Idol during the auditions on how to pronounce Kara's name. In all my life, I've known just a handful of other Kara's, but I never knew one that didn't pronounce it like mine (Care-uh).
When Andrew's sister, Emily was in town, we all got together at his brother Aaron's for Sunday dinner and I brought my equipment to get a few pictures of some of the cousins.
Wow! Can you say chaos!!! Still I love some of the shots that came from this crazy shoot.
I signed Madeleine up for a toddler gymnastics class and lucky for us the younger class that she was supposed to be in didn't fill up so we were able to be bumped up to the older age bracket. Since Madeleine was an early walker and would almost be borderline for that next age bracket, I felt like that class would be a better fit anyhow.
Well, the very first day a little boy came in screaming and crying and it scarred Madeleine. To know Madeleine, you would understand that she is an extremely outgoing little girl and is hardly ever shy. That little boy terrified Madeleine so every time we came after that the first half of class she was too scared to be let down (during their "warm-up" exercises) however, when the toys came out she was back to herself again.
A typical class would include several warm-up songs, then the ball exercises, then bubbles, then rhythmic exercises (with the ribbon on a stick), followed by floor exercises and if we were lucky the teacher would bring her inflatable jumpers.
Madeleine's absolute favorite thing about her class was those darn inflatable jumpers. She brought one that had a mini climbing wall that you climbed to slide down into the jumping pit and you would slide out through the other side. Even though Madeleine was the smallest (and youngest) in her class she climbed that wall (all by herself) leaps and bounds better than the other kids in her class (can you tell I was proud!!!).
The last day of class you could bring other family members to class and take pictures. So it turns out I am the only one to want to share my daughter's cuteness and got my mom and Andrew to come and watch her perform (no one else brought visitors - their loss!). It was a great experience and so cute! It really introduced her to gymnastics and she can now do a forward roll.
Some pictures from that last day in class and just a note, I have no idea what was up with her mouth that day - that tongue was a wagging!
