Stuffed Peppers Anyone??

Monday night I made stuffed peppers for dinner. Maddox and I had been to Walmart earlier in the afternoon to pick up the ingredients. Her new favorite 'job' is to help Mom unpack the grocery sacks. I dump them all in the laundry room, after unloading them from the RAV, and she goes to town. She was very intrigued with the peppers on Monday. She managed to get a couple of the peppers in her hands and carry them into the living room. But, as you can see she was having so much fun running around with them that she accidentally dropped them. And boy what a funny site to see her tryin' to pick 'em back up again. They were really BIG for her little hands. She worked so hard trying to get them both picked up again. She even blew raspberries at herself in disgust that she couldn't get them picked up....it was so funny....!! At one point, and you can see in the pictures, she fell backwards she was working so hard. She even made herself laugh! She worked for like 3 to 4 minutes before she finally got them BOTH picked back up again and went toddling around the house again. She was very proud of herself! We switched out the colors for a little variety, and the red ones were slightly smaller so she was much more successful with those. She eventually broke one of the green ones....oh well!! A little pepper juice on the floor never hurt anyone. We picked up a 'Mrs. Purple Bear' for her little brother today at Target. Course it isn't purple and we won't call it 'Mrs. Purple Bear'. It is brown and blue and I think it is a monkey if I remember right. Maddox and I took it into her LITTLE BROTHER'S bedroom and put it down on the bed! Everyday we try to incorporate some sort of LITTLE BROTHER education...!! Maddox's language has improved leaps and bounds just in like the last 72 hours. She learned 'OH BOY' 'EMMA' ( a little girl at Kim's) 'OUCH' and 'HI DADDY' just in the last few days. They are not perfect pronunciation yet but close. Even her baby talk sounds much more like words now than it did just a couple of weeks ago. Really amazing.

It's A Party!

So Friday night was the BIG WORK PARTY that Eric and I ( and Maddox) have been preparing for for quite some time. It went really well and I think everyone had a great time. I hardly get to spend any time with my coworkers since we are all out seeing patients in the field so it was great to get together. We ended up having about 20 to 25 people, good food ( some supplied by me, some by Sam's and some by my fantastic co-workers Katie and Megan). Best of all one of my coworkers, Teresa who is an OT, brought her 22 month old grandson Cale. Maddox and Cale were so cute together. They seemed to play together pretty well. Maddox was enamored with Cale's hair and kept reaching out to touch it as you can see in some of the pictures. It is amazing the difference in the motor skills of a 17 month old verses a 22 month old. Cale is VERY steady on his feet and was able to maneuver both the giraffe and the cozy coupe around much better than Maddox. They hugged a couple of time which was just precious...of course I didn't have my camera ready. Cale's language was better too and he would say 'Hi Maddox' every now and then. So cute. Eric played chaperon to the kids, along with Cale's grandma Teresa, and made sure they were getting along and sharing....THANK YOU ERIC! Cale was GREAT....it was Maddox we were slightly worried about since it was HER DOMAIN and HER TOYS. All in all a good time. So after the big party Friday we have just been relaxing all weekend getting caught up on chores and just hanging out. A great weekend had by all. Maddox's new favorite toys are the POPPER and the blue and red shape organizer by Tupperware ( from the Gillaspie family) with the yellow shapes inside. She is getting really good at maneuvering her little fingers to get the shapes to drop down into their respective holes. She used to just be able to do the circles/ovals but now she can do the sided objects like the star and the cross and the square. She is learning so fast....it is so fun!! PS the videos appear to be on the brink....keep checking back to see if they are working. Not sure what is going on.

A FREE FUN Day with Mom

I am home today with Maddox, even though it is a Friday. Maddox's sitter Kim, and almost her entire family, have strep throat!! UGH. Maddox was probably exposed when she was there on her normal Tuesday, but so far so good. Dr. Anderson says generally children under the age of 2 don't get strep throat??? Luckily Eric and I were able to share the day yesterday so I was able to see a few patients in the afternoon after Eric worked in the morning but, Eric had to be in the office today so the only other option was for Mom to stay home!! And maybe it was a blessing in disguise because we are having a big party tonight. I've invited all my co-workers over for a party. So it has been nice to have the time to finalize things around the house and make ONE MORE run to HyVee. There are probably going to be some kids just about Maddox's age here for the party which is good because I think she is in withdrawal from not having any kids to play with this week, having not been to Kim's since Tuesday. We have been taking advantage of the extra day at home....playing, reading books, dancing etc. She is really into bringing you a book, a photo album, one of the family picture blocks.....etc....crawling onto your lap and 'asking' you to read it to her or even just talk to her about the pictures. She is really into our wedding album lately. She is getting incredibly fantastic at pointing out things on the pages. She can point to almost all the family members by name in the family blocks and a LOT of different animals. Yesterday I learned she knew 'ladybug'. Which of course I"m not surprised as we have been throwing ladybugs at her since before she was born. Her new favorite food are STRAWBERRIES. We had gotten some at Sam's for the party and let's just say I'm glad it was a big container because she has really put a dent in them....and they are really good.....which is surprising given the time of year. This baby boy is going to be bigger than Maddox, I am almost convinced. I am getting so big and my back has been bothering me. Likely going to have to give up the running soon and maybe even the elliptical as both tend to bother my back. I go next week for a check-up so we'll see how he is growing. I am PRAYING he will come a little early. We have been talking a lot about 'Maddox's little brother' and she'll pat my tummy when I ask her where the baby is. It is really cute. Just hope she is starting to somewhat get the idea. Just a quick couple of photos. Of course as soon as I got out the camera she can a runnin'. She is getting to look so old!

The Passing of the Car Seat

So we made it official today.....we passed the car seat to baby kies. In the middle of lunch the new Graco car seat cover arrived via mail. Luckily we didn't have to buy a whole new seat, we were able to just buy a new BOY colored cover. So we waved goodbye to the pink and brown seat, in between bites of PB and J and I proceeded to pretty easily put on the new cover....all the while singing the tune of Maddox is a big girl....this car seat is for babies!! Not sure if she got it or not. But, after lunch I put it down on the ground and she played with it for quite a while....rocking it, putting her baby in and out and even trying to sit down in it herself a couple of times. I am happy with the blue/silver color and it looks brand new. Thank goodness we didn't have to buy a whole new seat....THANK YOU GRACO. Maddox's big girl bedding arrived on Monday and I am really happy with that as well. It is for a twin size bed and has ladybugs much like her crib bedding does. So it will go perfectly in her room. We opened the box with Maddox alongside and proclaimed 'it's for Maddox's big girl bed'. Again, not really sure if she got it or not but she seemed to really like it and started carrying around the really nice quilted sham that came with it like it was her 'Mrs. Purple Bear'. We then carried the quilt upstairs to see how it would look in her room still proclaiming to Maddox that it was for her big girl bed but she very quickly tried to push the big quilt through the slats of her crib as if to want to put it in her bed. I put it out on the guest bed to get it out of site and that little stinker found it today and started fussing that she really wanted it. So she definitely realizes it is hers....however I am quite certain she has no idea that it is for a BIG BED. We'll see come April. I ordered the baby bedding today from overstock.com. I always see their website but have never used them. They had some different boy bedding that WASN'T covered with animals and the prices were fantastic. So we'll see how it goes in the brown room when it arrives. It is just a basic blue and red plaid bedding. Maddox is getting really good at recognizing animals in various books. She can point to an alligator, a pig, a giraffe, an elephant and horse and a lion....which I really had no idea that she knew. I think she picks up on a lot more than I really realize. So now I am on the bandwagon to teach her more animals. She of course can't say any of them very well but I think its great she can point to them. She found a tupperware bowl full of coins today that I think she would've played with for like an hour if I had let her. She had never played with coins before and dumped them out then put them back in and shook up the tupperware with just a few coins in it making a pretty sound. It was fun to watch her explore something new. She amazes us everyday...I really love this age! She is really a great kid. We are very blessed!

Snow again??

It snowed again this AM, but luckily just about an inch and a half. Just enough to make my morning run pretty slick....(and make Eric work on the driveway for about the 5th time this week with the snow blower) But, then again when you are joggin' along at a snail's pace no snow is TOO slippery. We took Maddox sledding again this afternoon with the warmer temperatures. She only went down the hill about 4 times

before she was ready to walk. She seems to have much more fun just trotting about in her snowsuit and her pink light up boots. So we chased her around the YMCA parking lot, till it was time to hit

HyVee for some much needed grocery shopping....along with the rest of the town of Bettendorf. It is pretty evident she is much happier huffin' and puffin' to get back up the hill as opposed to going down the hill on the sled with us. Funny isn't it. You'd think she would be happier ridding than walking. She has been really fun and happy all weekend laughing and carrying on, playing and trying to say lots of words. Eric and I are enjoying the Superbowl as Maddox is sawin' logs. We celebrated the event with pizza and blueberry muffins. She scarfed down about 1/2 a slice of pizza and almost an entire blueberry muffin. I keep thinking one of these days when we go to the Dr she is going to bump up in the weight percentile but so far she remains in the 25th. We'll see this next time. She is back to sleeping in to at least 7 now which is nice. I suppose I should be happy, every now and then she reminds us what it is like to get less sleep than you really want....because come June that will certainly be the case again. Hmmmm not looking forward to that! The hideous hat is one that a patient made for me several years ago and I just wear it around the house. Notice the feet up on the table.....that is a nasty habit she has gotten into since we started just pullin' her up to the table.....although come to think of it, I don't think I've had to tell her to get her feet down all weekend......

Its a BLIZZARD

So we have had quite the night here in ol' Bettendorf. Of course most of you are also dealing with the winter blizzard too. I have never seen it this bad...at least since I've been back in the Quad Cities.....2003. Some are saying it is as bad here as the blizzard of 1979?? Well, in these sort of conditions you HAVE to have heat..which we started having trouble with last night. Unfortunately our furnace vents kept getting drifted shut with snow which then of course triggers the furnace to shut off. So starting at about 5PM Eric would go out and shovel them out about every hour to get the furnace back on till unfortunately the intake vent became completely plugged. You can see our several attempts to block the snow with anything and EVERYTHING that we could anchor into the snow to create a makeshift snow fence. But, we quickly learned setting up a makeshift snow fence in the MIDDLE of the blizzard doesn't really work. So we finally gave into the snow and called our fantastic 24.7 furnace guy, who has bailed us out before during issues like this. He very nicely and happily advised Eric over the phone to just unplug the intake vent in the basement on the actual furnace so the furnace could just take in the air in the basement. So luckily that solved our heat problem. Unfortunately that didn't solve our gas fume problem. In all the efforts made to try to find SOMETHING in our garage to block the snow from drifting ( plywood, bags game, wheelbarrow) WE accidentally knocked over the snow blower gasoline container ( you learn very quickly in situations like this to NOT place blame..... so it was a joint spill...:) Due to the severely negative pressure from the blowing wind the house quickly filled with gasoline fumes so we had to keep the man door and the small garage door open just a bit ALL NITE. Which, of course, then let PLENTY of snow into our garage. So poor Eric has been out not only snow blowing the foot plus of snow off of the driveway....but at some point we'll have to clean out the 3rd stall of our garage. Luckily today is my normal day off so I'm home and The Planning Center decided to close so we're all home safe and sound. Looking back it will definitely be a funny story to tell. Seriously it was so cold and windy out there trying to set up plywood, wheelbarrows and bags games....we finally gave up about 9.30PM decided it was a lost cause and the furnace would just have to vent itself off of the basement air, which I think is fine for a short amount of time. THANKS to Grandpa Jim for all the suggestions of how to block the snow....we appreciate it....but I think we were about 6 hours too late!! Take care and stay warm....