And the forecast shows...

RAIN. All. Weekend. Long.

How lame is that?

I guess we'll see how fun our first camping experience with Maddie will be. Soggy? Check. Wet? Check. Irritable? Likely...

xxoo.S

Getting to know her

Now that Maddie is mobile, it seems like we're learning everyday more and more what truely interests her (because this is the stuff she crawls for when you put her down). It's very rarely her toys, unless you're sitting with her, then she'll play all day. Instead it's...

• kitties
  
• cat food
• dirt, lint or any other spec of anything that the Swiffer Vac missed on it's daily pass through the house
  
• door stoppers
• me
  
• vent covers
  
• tv remotes
• anything that sings or talks to her (or plays music in general) - including, but not limited to: her singing Elmo, her stand-up piano, and her Leap Frog fridge farm. I didn't realize just how much she loved this thing, until she could crawl and often makes a beeline straight for it when left to her own devices. Hmm, maybe it doesn't hurt that it's right beside the cat food as well.

Yeah, crawling is fun so far. And it's helping me keep my floors cleaner...

xxoo.S

Clap clap clap

Chalk another one up for Maddie's milestones. Just before Grandma Thompson left yesterday, Maddie started clapping. She loves to clap at her various musical toys, especially her signing/dancing Elmo doll. He gets many encores.

So we had Grandma Thompson visiting for the weekend and it went by so fast! We did a bit of shopping on Saturday, Sunday we watched Daddy play baseball in the morning and that evening we cooked a turkey for dinner and had Greg and Liz over to share with us. Monday we did a bit more shopping and then Tuesday I made my first pie. So I guess I reached a milestone yesterday as well! It's strawberry/rhubarb and I don't know if it's any good yet as Seth hasn't been home long enough for us to share a piece (and I don't want to eat the first piece of my first pie all by myself!).

This weekend we're going camping. I've been told several times just how crazy people think we are for taking an 8 month old camping. My response has been, if I can survive Ireland, I think a little bit of camping will be just fine. We'll see...

Now we're off to the zoo (fun!) and this afternoon we have another daycare interview (not so fun!).

xxoo.S

Daycare nightmare

This week has not been fun so far. I think I'm only starting to realize what kind of nightmare trying to find daycare is going to be. Yes, I know that I should have added our names to lists, like, 6 months ago. Yes, I realize that this should have been a priority of mine, back in January. Yes, I realize I'm an idiot for leaving it for so long.

I actually did contact a number of daycares back when I was six months pregnant, (while working in the office and had all the time in the world to research places online and take care of errands). But contrary to popular opinion, daycares don't really want to hear from you quite that early.

So I've gone on 2 interviews. Neither really seem like a good fit. And everyone else I call on the lists I've found are full. Um, nightmare.

And I don't think I really appreciated just how hard it was going to be to find someone to keep her until 6pm - which is honestly the earliest I can expect to be home from work. Most of the home daycares close at 5pm. Who the heck is done work that early?? And can I have a job??

I know we'll end up finding someone/somewhere that is suitable - even if it's only temporary until we find a *fantastic* place. But it still sucks. And it's making me so sad, thinking that I only have a few short months left with my little girl. As much as I like the idea of her hanging around other kids and having structure to her day, it still just makes me so sad.

So not only am I stressing about finding a spot for her that I can approve of, I'm also feeling sad/guilty/sorryformyself in the process.

Everyone said that the year would go by in the blink of an eye, but I just didn't realize how quickly. And trust me, I never thought I would be saying this, but I'm gutted at the idea of returning to work.

Sorry, a bit of a downer post. And really, I know it will all work out. It always does, right?

xxoo.S

Dear Miss Maddie,

Well this post is long overdue - exactly 9 days overdue in fact. But my excuse is that we were in Ireland for your 8 month birthday. How cool is that, little one? You are not even a year old yet, and you've been overseas. My little world traveler.

Aside from that major milestone, you've managed to accomplish so much this month. All month long you were pushing up on your knees, rocking back and forth, and actually getting quite adept at crawling backwards. You took your first lunge forward in Ireland, and I was able to get it on video so Daddy wouldn't feel left out. And you're still taking your time getting from place to place - you're no speed demon yet, which is probably a good thing, as I just went out and bought the baby-proofing gadgets the other day.

What else can I tell you about you? You love to play. You're obsessed with your singing Elmo. Really, you like anyone or anything that sings to you - you've definitely taken after us in your love of music. And you've started doing this hand-banging-arm-movement that I'm thinking is a form of interpretive dance. :)

You started waving bye-bye this month. It's still intermittent, and often happens long after the person has actually left the room, but as a concept, you get it. Which I think is totally cool.

Oh, and you high-five like a pro. In fact you're far more into high-five-ing than waving good-bye (which I, as a regular high-fiver, totally understand).

You've learned the "milk" sign and use it all the time now. You seem to think it also means hello, eat, happy, sleep - a lot of things. But it's cool to see 2 months of my efforts finally realized. Now we're working on "Mommy", "Daddy", "kitty", "eat" and "more" ... you seem to know the signs, but haven't figured out how to do them back to us just yet.

You are a happy little girl that wakes up smiling, rarely cries, is so curious and interested in just about everything that I wonder how we're going to keep up with you in these next few years.

I love watching you do something you've set your mind to (like getting to the tv remote from across the room), because you look so proud of yourself once you do it. And it seems like your little brain is working overtime lately with all the things you're learning.

I catch you smiling at the cats when you think I'm not looking. I can't imagine what they're in for now that you're mobile.

You are a charmer with that gummy grin. You charmed an entire rugby team on the flight over to Ireland, you charmed every single person you met while over there, just like you charm every single person we happen upon when we're out over here. People just gravitate to you, and you, Miss Thing, love the attention!

And last but not least - you are turning into a total daddy's girl. You only have eyes for Daddy once he gets home from work and you love that play time with him. You squeal and giggle and laugh when he swoops you around, and he's the only thing you want to look at while you sit in your highchair. It's okay - I don't mind. Especially as it makes him so happy.

You are very loved little munchkin. I can't wait to see what this month brings.

Love Mommy
xxoo

PS - nope, you still don't have teeth. I've given up thinking they are ever going to get here. Oh, and Hyland's homeopathic teething tabs are the best thing in the world.

And she's crawling!

As promised - here's the video of our little Miss Thing taking her first lunges forward in Ireland!





xxoo.S

And we're back (oh, and she's crawling!)

Yes, we made it home safe and sound from the green isle - still pretty jet-lagged and I promise to post pics soon, but in the meantime...

• Maddie is an excellent flyer. As in Rain Man excellent. I can just hear her saying to people as she's grinning and waving and doing her happy little screech, "I am an excellent flyer". On the way over she made friends with a rugby team (lots of large men cooing over her and passing her around - too adorable for words really). And on the way back she was kidnapped by the air hostess for a bit and taken up to first class to hang out. Yeah, I was jealous too.
• We visited West Cork and Co. Kerry (doing part of the Ring of Kerry - all on the seaside - gorgeous), we went to the most southerly point of Ireland (Mizen Head - beautiful cliffs), stopped in Killarney to shop, kissed the Blarney stone, visited the Cobh (Cove) Heritage Museum which was the last port of call of the Titanic, did the Cork City bus tour and rang the bells at Shandon Church (we rang Maddie's fave song - You Are My Sunshine), went to a real farm and saw cows, and watched all the latest episodes of Corrie!
• Maddie charmed absolutely everyone she met. I'm still not sure how my daughter is so amazingly good natured - must take after her dad in that sense! But seriously, I think her head may have grown an inch or two with all the compliments she was getting.
• We are now in full-on, official teething territory. She's had diaper rash, green poops, rosy cheeks, mild fever, pain, drools (gross, stringy drools) and chin rash. Still no teeth - but it HAS to be soon as this point, right??!?!
• And the BIGGEST news of all - Maddie is now a crawler! Yep, she started crawling on Tuesday night to Louise (of course, right?). Luckily I got it on video - which I will post soon.

It was a fantastic trip, gorgeous company and scenery, but we're both very happy to be home. I'm in a state of fuzzy-headed tiredness but wasn't able to sleep later than 7:30 this morning (which is really past noon for me with the time change), however Maddie seems to not have that problem. She's currently on her 3rd hour of a morning nap as I type. And lucky me has a besotted daddy to take care of her for the rest of the day while I take a long hot bath and maybe an afternoon nap. Fabulous.

I will post more soon I promise - but for now we're just going to enjoy Father's Day weekend and laze about. Bye for now...

xxoo.S

Wanted to post, but...

I wanted to post a happy birthday message to Miss Maddie before we left, but I'm quickly running out of time and still have a lot of things to get done, so I guess it will be post-mania when we get back from the land o' the green.

Until then - enjoy the latest pics I've posted on our Flickr page - that's May in a nutshell. And yes, I know I was a little photo happy this month - what can I say... I am an artiste! ;)

Speak to you when we get back - until then, lots of xxxxxx' and lots of oooooooo's ...

xxoo.S

The countdown is on

In just over 24 hours, Maddie and I will be packing up the car, picking up Auntie Liz and heading off to the airport. I'm trying to pack us both into one suitcase (well, not us literally, but our stuff). It's proving difficult. I know that I'm a bit of a clotheshorse. And we all know Maddie is TOTALLY a clotheshorse ... but to be fair, it's a bit difficult when the place you are going could be very cool, or very warm ... depending on wether the sun is shining that day or not.

I feel bad for Louise's mom. She's picking us up from the airport, and I expect she won't love to see the amount of baggage that we will be carrying. I'm sure she'll be wishing they let us take the train down to the city...

Wish us luck - I will try to post tomorrow - lots going on though, and it really depends on my success at packing today, just how much free time I'll have tomorrow.

xxoo.S

A garage-sale weekend

We actually hosted a garage sale this weekend - Saturday morning, bright and early. I can tell you it was no way near as fun as going out to the sales, but I was happy to get the stuff out of the house (and the money into my pocket for our upcoming trip - woo hoo!).

Seth's parents came up to visit for the weekend, so aside from the garage sale we got lots done around the house as we often do when they are around.

Friday night they kept him company while I went out with the girls for dinner/drinks and the Sex and the City movie premiere. I had an absolute blast out at dinner, enjoyed a few cosmos (mmmmm - alcoholic goodness) and the movie was okay. (They didn't screw it up totally, but it was a little less cheeky and sardonic than the show - which made me a little sad). Oh, and can I just say - a woman brought her 3 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER to the show. The 10:30pm show. The movie that used the word 'fuck' as a noun, adjective and verb. And had several full frontal scenes. It pissed me off (and distracted me) the entire time. Wow, I've turned into a judgmental mother...

In other news - Maddie (as of this Wednesday) is now waving goodbye to people (when she feels like it, not always on cue, but still...). She also gives out high-fives. Very rarely leaves you hanging. I love it.

We also think she is working on her first word (no, not dada). Kitty! Except it comes out sounding more like "it-theeeee". The. Cutest. Thing. Ever.

That started on Saturday and now it's a running battle over what she says more, 'dada' or 'kitty'. That's right. Still no 'mama' anywhere near her vocabulary. I'm so being shafted.

Four more sleeps until we board the plane for Ireland. I'm starting packing tomorrow. My goal is one suitcase for both of us. One big-ass suitcase, but one just the same. Yeah. We'll see how that goes...

xxoo.S