No High Chair Tray

Check out my new eating style! The high chair try has gone BYE BYE ( which Maddox is now able to say pretty well....along with BABY and NITE NITE!! ). We decided to bring her right up to the big table. So far she is doing really well. The brown bow in her hair is from Aunt Diane Uncle Brian and Hannah. She looks SO OLD with them in and actually does NOT tend to pull these out.....unlike many of the other bows we have tried. It seems it is almost time for another haircut though. Her hair is growing fast. Take care.

Maddox goes sledding

We took Maddox sledding for the first time yesterday. It was really warm out and the snow was sort of melting so it was extra FAST. We had a great time. I found a sort of medium sized hill near the YMCA that no one had been on. So we had fresh snow. I think Maddox actually liked walking UP the hill rather than sledding DOWN. She was so excited and shrieked out loud as she climbed up in her fancy boots, which surprisingly she managed pretty well. It was certainly a workout for her though. Hopefully the video of her walking up the hill is working. She has taken to getting up early again for some reason. Just like an alarm clock she has been up at 6.20AM for about the last 5 days in a row. Literally 6.20 on the dot. It is really weird. But, I guess I shouldn't complain because she has still been taking like 2 monster 2 hour naps in the AM and the PM. She has sort of gotten into a bad habit of hitting.....things....and us when she gets mad or something doesn't go quite her way. I guess it is more like slapping than hitting but she is definitely doing it with meaning. So we are in the process of trying to get that straightened out before Baby Boy Kies arrives. We are no longer putting the tray to her high chair on. She just eats from the big table like a big girl ( one less thing to clean... :) She does a pretty good job eating there and I suppose she feels more like part of the family sitting right up at the table with us rather than to the side in her own chair. We are constantly talking about the arrival of her BROTHER but I am certain she doesn't really get it yet. We've decided to keep her in her own room and have baby Kies move into the brown room so we've been on the internet all weekend looking for bedding and talking about what we need to purchase that is NOT in the shade of pink that he needs. We've decided to put Maddox in a big girl bed and have the new baby take Maddox's crib. I have my old twin bed that we'll just put directly on the floor, instead of the bed frame so she'll be close to the floor. Then we're planning to buy at least one maybe two rails for the side and then bank the other side up against the wall. We're hoping this will keep her in and of course safe. I just found the cutest lady bug twin size quilt and sheets so she'll feel right at home and we'll be able to keep all her current lady bug things up to match, again making it seem as if nothing is changing...HAH....! We also bought her a potty chair this week ( picked up a pink one before I knew we were having a boy...probably a mistake....but oh well). We have it just sitting out in the living room for her to get used to. She likes to pick it up and carry it around. But, she does occasionally sit down on it and we praise her for that. I thought after a few days I would actually move it to the bathroom and take her in when I go. She has a funny way of getting on it. She doesn't just back up and sit down like we all do she actually climbs on the thing from the side.....certainly a learning process isn't it.

Mom's Little Helper

Maddox and I went to HyVee today, one of our usual stops on either Monday or Wednesday. We generally have a good time until I have to put her in the entry way to unload the groceries from the RAV. She usually gets upset that I am leaving her there but today she was happy to get into a couple of the grocery sacks 'helping' me empty them. She managed to get this bag around her foot and it was stuck on there for like 20 minutes while she toddled around the house. It was really funny and I managed to get some video of it! We got to celebrate our last Christmas with Aunt Diane, cousin Hannah and Uncle Brian at Grammy Marti and Grandpa Dick's house this past weekend. Despite Maddox having a pretty bad cold and fever we managed to get a couple of smiles. Maddox was AGAIN showered with too many gifts....but had a great time seeing the St. Louis clan. Maddox is feeling better, finally without fever, just a little stuffy nose and cough. But, she slept through the night last night for the first time since Sunday night which was a real relief for Eric and I. PHEW!! We are really working on teaching her to say words. She is getting good at watching our lips and trying to put her mouth and tongue in the same position to be able to say them. Her latest word is DUCK. Actually she says DUCT with a T sound on the end instead of a K sound. But, that's ok for now...I figure this way she'll already have a head start to say DUCT TAPE. We have been able to see Baby Carter a couple of times on SKYPE. He is really cute. Maddox doesn't seem to quite understand the concept of SKYPE but I did get her to say BABY, sort of, tonight! It was really more like BAEBA but that's ok. It'll come. Take care.

Welcome to the family Carter!

Carter James Knowles was born Sunday January 16th in Denver at 6:26PM. He weighs 7lbs 11 ounces. Look at that HAIR!!! Thick dark hair just like his daddy. Mom and baby are doing well. We already skyed with them and got to see him in person. He was very alert with his eyes open the whole time he was on video. We are happy to have an addition to our family. Congrats Tyler and Brooke....we love you all. Hugs from Iowa!!

Maddox's First Haircut

So we finally did it!! We got Maddox's hair cut today. I took her to this kid's specialty haircut place and she did really well. Didn't make a fuss and sat pretty still given her age and all the things to look at. She got to sit in a Dora Beetle Car and watch Dora and a couple of other TVs to keep her entertained. The girl was very quick and efficient and kept Maddox's attention so she could get the job done. I think she looks great but you can see for yourself!! Such an improvement.

Mmmm...lasagna

I was able to actually make homemade lasagna yesterday afternoon! Maddox loved it. She scarfed it down faster than I could put it on her tray. It was hilarious. She probably ate almost 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup of it not to mention her standard prunes and a couple of animal crackers for dessert. The picture of her with her hands pointing towards each other is the sign for 'MORE'.....! She was eating it faster than we could get it down. Of course she wouldn't give me a good smile. I bought 2 pairs of khaki maternity pants today....!! Luckily that should be all that I'll have to purchase. Unfortunately most of my maternity pants from Maddox were capris and shorts but luckily I have a couple of good friends that shared with me their winter maternity pants. So I just needed a couple of pairs of khakis for work. Not really thrilled to be in them....but they are infinitely more comfortable than my regular pants. Can't wait for the 27th of January....boy or girl? PS....we have a hair cut appointment scheduled for Wednesday afternoon....thought you'd be happy to read that given the picture I posted of her in her elephant PJs....!! Gettin' a little long isn't it. I'll try to take plenty of pictures but I'll be solo so I'll get as many pictures as MADDOX will allow.... I think I say that a lot these days. Funny how kids literally run your life. But, oh how much we love her. She is really into giving hugs right now. It is so sweet.

Maddox's '15' month check up

On Thursday we went to see Dr. Anderson for Maddox's 15month check up, a little late. We are always a little behind on her check ups ( just how the scheduling has gone from her first 2 week check up). But, Eric and I had to postpone it even more when we ended up being out of town visiting family when her original appointment was. Oh well. It doesn't hurt. She passed everything with flying colors. She is up to 21 pounds and is 31 inches long. She is still chuggin' right along in the 25th percentile for weight ( where she has been since she was born) and about the 50th percentile for height, maybe actually a little above average but Dr. Anderson didn't give us a specific percentile. He was happy with how she looked, checked her ears given our recent double ear infection, checked her teeth ( all 4 of them) watched her walk and gave her 3 shots! OUCH. Her ears looked good and he wasn't worried that she still only has 4 teeth, in fact he thought the gums where her molars are going to come in were looking a little swollen and he thought maybe she'd get those before her regular teeth??? which he thought was fine. So we go back in April for her 18month check up and if all goes well we won't return to the Dr office for any other sicknesses before then :) We have been relaxin' a bit this weekend. Maddox has been in a great mood, laughing, carryin' on, wrestlin' with dad. She is REALLY good at knowing exactly what we are saying. She knows a ton of body parts and can point to them on herself now.....eyes nose ear hair head mouth tongue teeth feet hand arm tummy belly button. We are working on elbow and knee. She isn't able to say many of them....but we are working on that a lot too. She is really good about repeating what we ask her to sayalthough it isn't always exactly like the word, but close. She is really good at saying Mama and Dada. Her 'P' sound is more like blowing raspberries except for in 'UP'. She CAN say UP pretty good. We ask her to say PIZZA and she has the 'ZA' part down really well but needs work on the PI part. You can tell when she watches you she really wants to say the word so I know she is trying. Dr. Anderson didn't even mention anything about her speech and said she shouldn't need to be saying words right now as long as she is chattering away which she is. But, the overachiever in me wants her to be able to communicate more. She is really good at signing but still the same things as in the past milk, grape, more, cookie. However even her coordination to do those 4 is much better now with her hand. She didn't used to do cookie quite right but I knew what she wanted. Now she has it spot on. She is really fun at this age. We haven't been in the picture mood lately after all the pics from Christmas but I'll try to get one for you later today. We wore her suede cowgirl boots to the mall yesterday that I had posted about on the last blog. She is getting good now at walking in them. So CUTE! PS>......there is talk of going to get her hair cut this week!!! Stay tuned. It is getting so long. I swear it grows everytime I talk about getting it cut! Luckily she doesn't seem to mind it in her face all the time.

Happy New Year

Well we opened our last Christmas box last week. It came in the mail from Aunt Brooke and Uncle Tyler, who are patiently awaiting the arrival of their new little boy :) Hang in there Aunt Brooke!! Once again Maddox was showered with gifts...however you'll see by the pictures I posted below that we could have all saved a lot of money and just got her a box with peanuts!! Sorry Tyler and Brooke!! She played with those peanuts for quite awhile. We really had a very nice holiday traveling around celebrating with family as well as having some down time at home to relax and hang out just the 3, or 3 1/2 of us! We didn't do anything special for New Year's other than order pizza...I know exciting. It was a quiet night and Eric and I were in bed by 10.30PM. Maddox and I are settling back into our normal routine today. She slept her normal 2plus hour nap this AM and then we headed out on the town to run some errands. We generally go to WalMart on Mondays. She entertained EVERYONE in the store today waving and yelling out in excitement to the people (I think she was just happy to be out of the house...she hadn't been out since last MONDAY....because we were lucky enough to have the Grandmas come all last week so she didn't go out to Kim's). WalMart carries our favorite brand of animal crackers. Only today they didn't have the normal kind, they ONLY had the chocolate flavored kind.... bummer right? So I picked those up for Maddox. We call them 'cookies'. Little did I know she would make such a mess....but she really liked them. I put a few in her perpetual snack bowl that is always around the kitchen and she pin pointed them out amongst the boring ol' cheerios and scarfed them all down before I put her down for her afternoon nap. You'll see from the pictures they aren't quite as neat and face friendly as the plain kind. Grandma and Grandpa Knowles got Maddox about 5 new pairs of shoes for Christmas. We tried them ALL on yesterday. Our favorites were definitely the little brown suede boots...not necessarily by how they looked but by how Maddox tried to WALK in them. It was like she was a little cowgirl. All's she needed was a holster and a gun. I wish I could've gotten some video. All three of us were crackin' up. She had a hard time, not being used to having to keep her ankles stiff because of the height of the boots. She swaggered those little hips of hers to clear her feet....it was so funny!! AND YES....we know we need to cut her hair! I just can't bring myself to do it yet. We go for her 15 month check up on Thursday, a little late! She still only has 4 teeth which I am kind of getting worried about, but we'll see what Dr. Anderson has to say about that. Other than that she is doing well. Eating well, sleeping well, hasn't been sick in about 2 weeks, knock on wood....! Our next two major hurdles ( at least from my standpoint) are getting rid of the pacifier and getting her potty trained. Both of which I am hoping to do by the time baby number 2 gets here...but of course that'll be done on Maddox time, not Mom time. So we'll see. I had a baby number 2 check up last Thursday and all is well. She seemed to think my uterus was on the large side and wondered if I had had any ultrasounds thinking that maybe there were possibly 2 babies in there. But, I reassured her, and myself!!, that I had had one about a month ago and there was only 1. She just thinks this baby is going to be bigger than Maddox. But, we'll have specific measurements taken on Jan 27th....maybe they'll move up the due date too if it IS measuring big? We'll have to see. We get to find out the sex that day too....so it will be a BIG day.