Pool

Well, we finally made it to the pool for the first time this season. All I have to say is, "COLD!" (Really, that's not all I'm going to say. But, you get the point.)

We lathered on the sunscreen, got on our swimsuits and rode our bikes to the pool. (Don't you love her zebra print shorts?) By the time we got there, it wasn't so sunny anymore.


Madeline stuck her feet in and then signed, "all done". She did not want to get in at all. But, then daddy got in. So, we went in too. She had a great time. She wanted to stay snuggled close. I didn't mind because she kept me warm too. The sun finally decided to come out for a little bit before we left.

Madeline watched daddy go off the diving board and kept asking for more. Then she decided she wanted to jump off too. So, I dropped her off the diving board down to daddy in the pool. She did it over and over. I was going to get a video of it. But, by the time I got the camera, she decided that she was done.

So, even though it was freezing cold, I guess we can consider our first pool experience this season a success. Hopefully next time the temperature will be a little warmer, the sun will be shining and the water will be warmer too.

We rode our bikes home. (Where I actually had a small wreck. I'm happy that Madeline was on the back of Andrew's bike and not mine.) Then we ate lunch, took baths and now everyone is sleeping. Except for me. Fun day, and it is only half way over.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. My brother came up for a wedding in the area. So, my parents decided to join us for the weekend as well.

It was beautiful weather. So, we spent quite a bit of time outside. We have a beautiful lake right outside that Madeline and I take walks around. So, we took everyone else with us this time.


It's fun to see Nathaniel! We don't get to see him too often since he lives in NC and he is very busy.


We got to feed the geese...


play on "things"...

blow "blow its"/dandelions with Pawpaw...

find a frog...

pick lots of flowers...

and just hang out with family.

We had a wonderful weekend!

17 Months Old

This post is extremely late. Madeline will be 18 months in 2 weeks! Better late, than never though. This month has been so much fun with our little girl. And it does seem like she is a little girl now. I don't know if it is because she is doing so many big things or because we know there is another one on the way. But, really, no matter how big she gets, she will always be my baby (for some reason, Mariah Carey comes to mind :)).

(This has nothing to do with the picture. We left our camera at my parents' house for the past few weeks. So, I don't really have a lot of pictures to post.) Anyways, Madeline is talking so much. She basically tries to say anything we ask her to say. She is putting 2 words together to make little sentences like, "Mommy sit", "bubbles pop" and "Daddy boo boo". "No" has definitely been a favorite word this month. And for about a week or so she was even saying, "no way." It was really funny. It don't know where she picked it up from. The one word she still will not say is, "milk". She will only do the sign for it. She will quietly sign "milk" in her carseat until we happen to look back and see that she is asking for it. Last Sunday at church I was holding her while I was talking to someone and she was doing the sign where I didn't notice. So, she grabbed my face and pulled it around so I could see her hand doing the sign. I'm not sure why she is holding on to that one sign.

Apparently last night she read the word, "ho" in the bathtub with Andrew. She did it again for me after she was done with her bath. I don't know if it was because of the red and green letters or if she really recognizes that word. But, I guess we can say she can read a word. Speaking of ho ho, she thinks that her Little People Noah is Santa. She calls him "Ho Ho" no matter how many times we correct her.

Her favorite books right now are Dick and Jane and The Very Hungry Caterpillar. When she wants Dick and Jane she says, "uh oh" because her favorite part is when Baby Sally gets stuck in the umbrella. When she wants The Very Hungry Caterpillar, she says, "cheese", because she likes to pretend eat the cheese in the book and feed it to daddy, me or the caterpillar.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, she is very much into pretending. The other day she took Elmo to the fish store and held him up so he could look at all the fish and said, "Elmo see." She plays with her Little People things alot. Especially while I am getting ready in the mornings. She pretends a lot with food. She is always pretend feeding people, things in books or things on the tv. We really wish she was little more interested in real food.

Speaking of food, I think her favorite "food" is ice. She loves to get ice at both of her grandparents' houses and we have Flavor-Ice at our house (who knows how old it is, I think we got it as a wedding gift) that she begs for all day long. When we are out at restaurants we can usually get her to eat more food by bribing her with ice. "If you take a bite of chicken, you can have a piece of ice." I have also started making her smoothies for breakfast in the mornings and she likes those as well.

As far as potty training goes... let's just say that Elmo and Baby Stella are doing much better than Madeline.

We tried to go without a diaper all Friday morning. We had 0 peepees in the potty and 3 accidents in the floor. So, we will keep trying.


Madeline has also been very obsessed with bird poop lately. She can barely walk to the car without pointing to every white spot on the ground and saying, "poop". Which seems to be a lot!


One more random thing, she really likes things that beep. She loves to push the buttons on our keys to make the car alarm go off. She likes for Andrew to hold her up and push the smoke alarm button. She also says, "beep beep" when she is backing up or if we are closing a door like the refrigerator. (She seems to walk around backwards a lot lately which is kind of funny to watch.)

Madeline has also been very giggly these past few months. She loves to be chased and tickled. And she loves to bounce around on our shoulders. It is so sweet to hear her little girl laughs. It is so fun to get to know her more and more as time keeps ticking. Each stage of her life has been so much fun and so rewarding. We love our little Madeline!

Grocery Bag Holder

I have been very inspired by my friend, Kim's, recent sewing obsession. You can check out her cool things at thirtyoneeighteen.com. So today, Madeline and I headed to Joann's Fabrics and bought some inspiring prints to jump start some sewing projects.

So, I came home, put Madeline down for a nap and began searching for my first project. I remember Andrew saying that his mom had a lot of grocery bags and maybe she would like something to put them in. So, I found this great tutorial online and made it in less than 2 hours. It's a grocery bag holder. You stuff the bags in the top and pull one out at a time through the bottom. We don't keep many grocery bags around here. So, I don't know if it works real well. But, I think it will. So, Marg, this is for you.

Hmmm... what will I make tomorrow?

Cleaning

Madeline thought that things were very dirty outside today. So, she went around cleaning everything with her napkin. She makes me smile :) I also uploaded a few more videos of her. You can view them to the right if you want. One of them reminds me of Jenny Robertson a little bit. Can you figure out which one, Jenny?

Potty Training

We are in the early stages of potty training with Madeline. This means that we have watched A LOT of Elmo's Potty Time (which I actually like). I have also been putting training pants on Madeline a few times. They are the smallest size I could find. But, they are still a little big on her. But, she likes her big girl underwear. She likes them so much, that it makes her want to dance...

And why not include Baby and Elmo in the dancing. They are actually potty training too. But, they go a lot more on the potty than Madeline.

Madeline has gone peepee on the potty 2 times already. She likes to sit on her potty and then get up to see if there is anything in it. Then she will sit down again and try some more. She certainly knows when she is going in her diaper and will let us know.

If I just really dedicated a week to training her, she would probably be trained. So, maybe we will be doing that in the next few weeks. I will let you know how it goes. But, then I keep thinking about how easy diapers are. We don't have to find a bathroom while we are out. And I don't have to think about her putting her precious little hands on the public toilets that grose me out anyways. But, then I remember that there is another one coming soon and it would be easier if we didn't have 2 in diapers. And I should probably do it earlier rather than later so that she doesn't decide to stop being potty trained once the new baby gets here.

Ok, I guess I have convinced myself.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mothers day to the best mommy in the whole wide world!!!!

Smith Mountain Lake Triathlon

Last year, Andrew decided to do a triathlon. So, I guess he is making it a yearly thing. Which is great! I still haven't gotten up the courage to do it with him. Although, there are talks of doing a relay team with Krisha W next year. So, we need a third person if anyone is interested.

We did not get to the race in time to see Andrew swim the 750m. But, we did get to see him bike and run. Here he is on the way back from his 20k ride.

Brian Whited joined Andrew this year as well.


Andrew headed out on the 5k.

Brian heading out on his run.

He made it! And he beat his time from last year. I am so proud of him. I told Krisha, who was there supporting Brian, of course, that I felt very lazy standing on the sidelines watching everyone else exercise. It's like sitting on the couch and watching FitTV.

Brian at the finish line as well! Way to go guys!!!

Madeline had a good time hanging out with Granny and Pawpaw most of the morning. We are so glad the rain held off. They were calling for rain and thunderstorms. But, it turned out to be some great weather for competing and watching.

Baby Glenn

Here are a few pictures of our new little baby at 8 weeks.

At 8 weeks, our little bean was a little over 1/2 inch long. Now, at 13 weeks, he or she should be about 2 1/2-3 inches long. So, it is no longer a bean, but a peach :)

Our next sonogram will be around 20 weeks. That is when we will find out if it is a girl or boy. And yes, we are definitely finding out. :)