Baby Number Two.....

So I was all caught up in getting the Thanksgiving stuff on the blog I forgot to say I had an ultrasound on Wednesday morning and got to see Maddox's little brother/sister (we won't be able to know the sex for about 8 more weeks......we'll keep you posted ). It was about 2 inches long and really cooperated for the ultrasound tech allowing her to get all the necessary measurements. Everything looked great, the heart was beating at 154 BPM and it was right on schedule as far as length in regards to my due date. She thought that the due date of June 8th was pretty much on target! I'm looking forward to having this one in the summer...we'll be able to get outside unlike with Maddox it started to get cold pretty fast. I got some ultrasound pictures but I'll have to figure out how to scan them to the MAC so I can put them on....although it is so small it doesn't look like much. But, you can see it's two little arms and legs and hands and feet! Pretty amazing something that small has all it's appendages....which is good of course!! I won't have another ultrasound until after the new year.

A Great Thanksgiving

We are very lucky we got to spend time with ALL our family members over the last week or so. We have had an

eventful Thanksgiving season. Maddox and I kicked off the holiday by meeting our friends Megan, Nolan, Nash and Megan's mom and dad at the Festival of Trees parade in Davenport last Saturday. It was a bit chilly but Maddox didn't mind being bundled up. The Festival of Trees parade is basically like a small Macy's parade with big balloons. Maddox would just follow the balloons and the bands down the street with her little eyes not moving a muscle all bundled up in her stroller. She did kick her feet and clap a couple of times to the music but she was definitely ready to be back in the warm car. Saturday night Maddox and I picked Aunt Brooke and Uncle Tyler up from the airport. Then Sunday Grandpa Jim, Grandma Jean, Great Grandma Reta, Veta, Mark, Jaci, and Alex all came over to celebrate Thanksgiving, Tyler's birthday and the arrival of Baby Knowles in January. Maddox was so good. She snapped right out of her crabby little self and really started showing off a lot, prancing around with her cozy couple and the giraffe. She enjoyed all the great company. Then Monday Grammy Marti and Grandpa Dick came over to celebrate with us. Maddox was so spoiled!! We all had a great time relaxing, watching football, and eating chili, cheeseburger soup, pork loin and sweet potatos....and of course cake! Thanksgiving day Eric, Maddox, and I traveled down to Keokuk for one last family celebration. We had a really nice time at Grandma Kies house. Maddox REALLY showed off here. She started walking...and I would actually consider this REALLY walking unlike before where it was sort of just toddling along. She was very brave and started taking about 8 to 9 steps at a time showing off for her cousins Chelsea and Kelby and Brandon. It was really fun to see her go that far. She is still very wobbly and in fact since we got home Thursday night she hasn't even remotely walked that far again....(hmmmm...she must need an audience...? little stinker). We had yummy turkey and every side that you could imagine. The Kies family members are good cooks! This weekend Eric and I are just relaxing and getting caught up on house duties. Next weekend we'll probably go chop down our Christmas tree.

'Helping' mom wrap Christmas presents

Maddox and I spent most of my day off on Wednesday cleaning and getting ready for all our family guests this weekend....which entailed wrapping some of Tyler's 30th birthday gifts, Tyler and Brooke's baby gifts, and believe it or not... ( I"m actually trying to get ahead of the game this year)....some Christmas presents. HELPING is definitely not the appropriate term....rather INTERFERING is probably the more descriptive word for the activity. She loved playing with the ribbons and practically sitting on my lap trying to get me to give her the next piece of tape from the dispenser. I didn't put any of those ribbons around her neck, she dressed herself all up. The other pictures were from Wednesday evening....she was actually happy for a bit and was willing to play by herself so I had to quick snap some pictures. It seems she has gotten into this sort of 'needy' phase. She will NOT leave Eric or I alone and is very crabby...not fussy ( fussy is for little ones under 1). We have moved onto the crabby stage. This has been going on for about a week and I think (course this is completely guessing) she gets bored here at home with us as opposed to being at Kim's with the endless kids. She almost immediately starts crabbin' when we get home from Kim's and even on the weekends she has to be literally entertained by Eric or I sitting right beside her. She used to do such a good job of playing by herself so this is hard for Eric and I to understand. We are hoping it is just a phase as we are tired of having our pants practically pulled off by her trying to pull herself up into our arms when we are busy doing something else. It seems she has started throwing a few more temper tantrums as well...could we be entering the terrible 2's early?!! I ended up taking her to Dr. Anderson on Wednesday just to make sure we weren't missing anything....and we weren't. He said some kids are just more possessive than others. Kim says she is completely fine there and does fine with little to no crying other than when she puts her down for a nap. However, interestingly, I got stuck at a patients house last night until almost 5:30 so she was at Kim's MUCH longer than normal and most of the other kids had gone home. Kim said she was starting to get a little crabby/clingy to Kim as the room started to dwindle in bodies. Maybe she has a fear we are going to leave her somewhere...who knows...but we are definitely tired of the crying and whining...!! Hoping all the company this weekend will be a great distraction and we won't get to see this attitude! Stay tuned for more postings...we went to the festival of trees parade downtown Davenport today and I've got more pictures.

Maddox Eats Pasta

Wanted to share with you some quick photos we took on Monday. Maddox has turned into a bottomless pit. She is eating like a champ and REALLY loves pasta. Every kid has to a have a 'spaghetti sauce covered photo' for their albumin right ? She has really been scarfing down anything we are giving her. Unfortunately her hunger is waking her up earlier than normal. The last 2 days she has gotten up at 5.30AM instead of her normal 6 to 6.30AM. She has been waking up very happy. You can hear on the monitor almost every morning 'da da da da da da'. Repeatedly until someone comes to get her. It is really funny. Hopefully she'll start sleeping back in after she gets through this growth spurt. She has gotten really heavy in the last week as well!! We got a bigger car seat for her a couple of weeks ago ( can't remember if I told you that or not) but we have still been facing it rearwards. I think she has probably broken the 20 pound limit and we could probably face her forwards but they are saying now the longer the rear face the safer so we'll try to keep her that way a little longer. She doesn't seem to mind facing backwards but I'm sure once we turn her around there will be no going back. Eric and I have been busy with work this week so we are looking forward to hanging out with family this weekend and the coming Thanksgiving week. So far NO SICKNESS!! I think we've made it about 5 days without any illnesses.....keep praying. It is so nice to have everyone well. I still keep the lysol in my back pocket and spray every time I think about it. So I think we are pretty much a germ free house. Ta ta for now.

Maddox Walks...sort of!

Maddox started walking on Veterans Day....despite all the illness in the house. After dinner that night she got very brave and was doing a lot of standing on her own without holding onto anything. Then all of a sudden she just took off and took about 3 to 4 steps on her own, walking between Eric and I. It was very exciting and she was very proud of herself, although not so happy with the efficiency so she hasn't been practicing all that much. She still just takes about 3 or 4 steps every now and then and will go almost a day sometimes without practicing her new skill. I think she knows she is still MUCH faster crawling so that is her preferred method of mobility....FOR NOW! Of course getting this new activity on video has been painstakingly hard. But I did manage to get just a short little one for you. Every time I go to get my camera ready she doesn't want to do it. Generally she practices her new skill after dinner...which seems to be her happiest time...not sure if she knows that she'll be able to sleep soon or what but she usually does all her new tricks after dinner. Speaking of dinner she is really eating a lot. Seems like she gets very fussy if she doesn't have a full tummy. I read that this time in their life they are supposed to be eating less but not Maddox. She scarfs down practically anything we put on her tray. Let's see this weekend we tried pizza, cinnamon rolls, grapes ( which she absolutely devoured and would eat a pound if I let her), and part of a hot pretzel from the mall. She has really taken a likin' to table food although we do fit in her old cereal usually 2 times per day to make sure she is getting enough iron. Luckily she still likes it. We are getting ready for all our holiday company this weekend. We're all looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving, Tyler's 30th birthday and the upcoming arrival of baby Knowles....phew...that's a lot of celebrating....and cake!! Then after the celebration with my side of the family we're headed down to Keokuk to spend Thanksgiving with Eric's side. Maddox will be in heaven with all of the company and family to play with her. Take care for now and enjoy the video.

The Stomach FLU...UGH

So I promised I would update more frequently now that we have this fancy MacBook but I have to say it is taking an act of God to get it done tonight. All three of us have had the GI flu over the last 3 days. I started monday night, then Eric last night and Maddox has sort of been struggling with it for the last few days. Oddly enough her symptoms have been less than Eric and I's...knock on wood. I ended up in the Dr. office yesterday afternoon getting 2 liters of fluid via IV I was SO dehydrated. I definitely felt better after that. Eric is on the mend and Maddox...well we'll wait to see what happens tomorrow. Eric took today off and has already called in for tomorrow, as he is too weak to work yet. I am planning to go back to work tomorrow. Maddox and I managed to get out of the house today to enjoy the great weather (and to get to Walgreens to load up on 7-up, lysol, and gatorade). It was beautiful here. She enjoyed being outside. We took her giraffe out for the first time today. She did really well with it on the sidewalk and steered it right down the center. Of course when I went to get good video she decided to just head straight for the grass. YES, she does have her PJs on. All three of us have been spending a lot of time in our PJs. She doesn't care....and not having any shoes on didn't slow her down at all. She enjoyed exploring our new rock beds and crawling in the grass. Hopefully we'll have a few more days like this but I don't know. You can really see her teeth in the high chair pictures. These are probably the best smiles I have seen out of her in the last few days. She hasn't really had any BAD symptoms of the flu but definitely hasn't been herself. We are all looking forward to getting WELL. Seems like someone here has been sick since like the middle of October. UGH......and its only November!!

Maddox the Ladybug

Phew.... I am finally able to take a minute to update the blog. Since we arrived home from Denver it has been extremely difficult getting back into the swing of our normal activities of daily living. Maddox got terribly sick when we returned from Colorado. She had a 103 fever which was followed by an awful cold. Her little nose was running all the time, she was coughing, and sneezing, not eating or sleeping well. I thought all her other little colds were terrible but they were nothing compared to this one. Luckily we are over that. We kept her out of daycare as much as possible that week. Eric was able to take a day off and luckily Grammy Marti came for a couple of days. She WAS well enough to go trick-or-treating. We were actually up at Grandma Marti, Grandpa Dick and Great Grandma Berg's house. Maddox had a great time although she really had no idea what was going on. She loved sitting by the front door watching all the goblins and ghosts come to get their candy. She even learned how to drop a few pieces into each kids bucket. We did go to a couple of house in Grammy's neighborhood. Maddox walked like a champ and even negotiated some big steps to access people's doors. She walked all over the neighborhood like she had done it a 100 times over....with Grammy on one hand and me on the other. It was hilarious. She did get tired quickly though and about 1/2 way back to Grammy's she just sat down in the middle of the sidewalk as if to say 'I've walked enough'. She has really started to problem solve in the last few weeks. She is able to push her giraffe and the cozy coupe all around the house getting it unstuck from the couch corners and the dining room corners finally able to realize REVERSE. She is even putting little toys on the seat of the giraffe as if to give them a ride. She has really started to play more dynamically and has become really involved in our conversations. She knows so many words...she isn't able to say many of them but totally knows them and is able to follow verbal instructions from Eric and I. She pretty much still just says DADDY and MOMMY and now UP but one of these days she is going to yell out a sentence. I can see the wheels turning in her little head. She still loves books and will bring them to Eric and I as if asking us to read them to her. She has totally mastered the stairs but isn't walking yet. She is getting very good at standing by herself without holding onto anything and she will walk for long distances now with only holding onto one hand instead of two. She has become very good at organizing and will sit for quite some time emptying and re-filling her leggo box. She also methodically puts the food that she doesn't want to eat into the little cup holder spots on her high chair tray, which is so much better than what she used to do with it....throw it on the floor. She is able to sign MORE EAT and COOKIE with a little prompting from me but she definitely know what the words mean. She is still taking 2 good naps each day but she has started getting up at 6AM this week UGH.... tomorrow it will be 5AM with the time change. She goes to bed around 7Pm and I was thinking maybe she'd sleep later if we kept her up later but something tells me that won't work. Her hair is getting so long, but I refuse to cut it yet. We just this week started putting it into pony tails but unfortunately she is able to pull those out herself. Her 2 top teeth are almost through and she really eats just about anything. This week we tried real beets which she ate just fine for me but didn't like them at Kim's house??? Luckily Eric and I invested in a MacBook Pro laptop so hopefully from now on I"ll be able to update the blog more often. Our old PC was so slow it was a definite deterrent to updating. Take care for now....