Happy Easter

Well we have had an 'egg finding' filled weekend. Maddox has gotten to hunt for eggs OUTDOORS ( thank goodness for a break in the cold rainy weather) 2 times in the last 48 hours and she has definitely figured out the technique. Yesterday afternoon ( after waking her up from her morning nap which turned out to not be such a good idea...oops) we headed to church for the annual egg hunt. Normally it is out at the church acreage south of Davenport but with all the rain this year, they decided to hold it at the actual church grounds. She had a good time and got lots of eggs. In fact I think she was probably just happy to be outside and running around with the kids....the colored things that happen to end up in her basket were just a little added bonus. The eggs at church are filled with candy.....which she really hasn't had yet....so Eric and I have stashed away the chocolates and starbursts etc and have been enjoying them ourselves.....don't tell Maddox. Then this morning the Easter Bunny came to visit Maddox here on Judge Road. He brought her play-doh, crayons and coloring books, finger paints, bubbles, sidewalk chalk AND big girl silverware. I have to say she was primarily interested in the play-doh, immediately wanting to open the container, sort of forgetting about the rest of the basket ( ya live and learn .....LESS IS MORE Easter bunny!!) But, Eric and I coaxed her into looking at the rest of the stuff. Then we had blueberry muffins for breakfast and headed out for our own Kies egg hunt. She did really well again, obviously remembering what she had done the day before and set out to collect all the eggs. The Kies family Easter bunny must have been clued into the 'no candy' rule as the eggs were filled with money, which she really has no idea about. But, Eric and I are trying to get her in the good understanding of her MADDOX ladybug piggy bank and interested in putting money in it ( surprise surprise right....??:) She took two pretty good naps today ( still doing really well in her big girl bed just waiting in there for us to come and get her when she wakes up...crazy isn't it??) and we played A LOT outside with the bubbles and the sidewalk chalk. Her latest word ( that I can remember right now...it seems she says a new one every few hours ) is WALK. She does not like to be carried around and wishes to WALK everywhere with a very pronounced K sound. Eric mowed the yard for the first time and Maddox even took a ride on the mower, although I think she was just as happy running around the yard as she was ridding the mower. She even figure out how to BLOW bubbles today instead of just popping the bubbles. Tonight we had a nice family Easter dinner pork loin, homemade mashed potatoes, broccoli and cheese and scalloped pineapple for dessert. Maddox did a FANTASTIC job using her new silverware and even ate from a plate...making clean up a BREEZE ( hmmm wish the Easter Bunny had brought that silverware sooner). She still is a bit uncoordinated but the new silverware definitely helps. This week, and last, Kim has been on vacation so we've been lucky enough to have Grandma Jean come to stay with her. Maddox has been getting very spoiled.....!! She has one more day with Grandma Jean and then it is back to reality on Thursday....but I'm sure she is missing her buddies. I finally got the last of the 'borrowed' clothes washed up from my friends who have so graciously given us their baby boy stuff.... and BOY do we have a lot. I think we are definitely set for the entire summer and probably well into the fall. He already has more than Maddox had before she was born!! I see the Dr. this Friday for a checkup. Just feeling big and tired......and ready to not be pregnant. About 6 weeks to go.....!

Big Girl Bed and Coloring Eggs

So we are excited to announce that we think Maddox has transitioned to her BIG GIRL BED ( at least for now....knock on wood....) We let her take her last nap in her crib Saturday AM.....her 19 month birthday. Happy Birthday Maddox!! Then Saturday afternoon we put her down for her nap in the new bed. She was definitely frightened at first but we read LOTS of books and I sang to her, which is a normal bed/nap time ritual.( the slow song that Mary Poppins sings to the kids when they are nodding off to sleep) She cried when I left the room but only for a bit and miraculously she DIDN'T get out of the bed. She only slept for about an hour but HEY we were excited to find her just sitting up in the bed waiting for us to get her when she awoke. Saturday night proved to be a great night too...she slept in the bed all night and AGAIN didn't try to get out of the bed. She just sits there waiting for us to come and get her after she starts 'talking' on the monitor. It is really remarkable. And it is has been the same routine since Saturday. She is starting to get back to taking her longer 2 hours naps and is still sleeping great at night. We put up a rail on the side of the mattress ( just a twin mattress and box springs on the floor) which seems to be deterring her from trying to get out. Although the rail only goes about 1/3 of the way down the bed so she definitely COULD if she wanted to and I'm sure someday she will start doing that. But, for now she is doing very well and we are very happy with this fairly simple transition. So now that the crib is in the baby's room we have been able to get it together and more organized for the new arrival. We are still deciding on curtains but other than that, if he showed up tomorrow we'd be ready! Saturday, before the big bed switcheroo, Eric, Maddox and I colored Easter eggs. You can see Eric managed the camera and I managed the DYE!! Next year she'll be able to help a little more but she was definitely excited to see all the colors. It was really fun. We colored 12 and by the time we were done we still had 9 that were all in one piece...which I think is pretty good when you're coloring eggs with a 19month old. We are going to have our own little egg hunt, hopefully outdoors, next Sunday AM complete with our colored eggs and about 12 plastic eggs that will have surprises in them. She is still very interested in shoes as you can see from the one photo. Today she strutted around the house with her snow boots on!! It was so funny and given the weather outdoors I'm not uncertain that we might need those things again this season. Go away COLD. My winter coat doesn't fit anymore so I"m left to wear this old University of Evansville pullover thing that is NOT warm and reminds me of my 20's. UGH. I went for a baby check up last week and everything checked out well. Right on target. This Thursday Eric and I are meeting with our dula, Char, that helped deliver Maddox. She wanted to get together before he arrives to discuss our plans for this delivery which is still sort of up in the air....epidural or no epidural...still deciding. But, it will be nice to see her again. We haven't actually seen her since Maddox was born..!! She was a great help last time and we are looking forward to having her present again. Take care!!

Maddox's 18 Month Checkup

Maddox and I went to Dr. Anderson's office on Monday for her 18 month checkup. She was very good and loved trotting up and down the hallway looking at all the paintings and pictures in his office. She is up to 23lbs and is 33 1/4 inches long. Still hanging out at the 25th percentile for weight but she jumped up to the 75th percentile for height. I could have sworn she weighed more like 30lbs. She seems SOOOO heavy lately, but it must be the extra weight I'm carrying with baby Kies. I was actually shocked she wasn't closer to 25lbs....I guess we get to stop for more ice cream Maddox :) He was happy with how she looked and said keep on with the prunes and the vitamins we give her. We can switch her off of whole milk when she turns 2 to...well I"m not sure what kind of milk, I didn't ask. We'll have to call when we get closer. He said we could try prune juice instead of prunes and see how those work to keep her poo poo soft! He definitely doesn't want it hard. I asked about the fact that her teeth are coming in sort of NOT in the right order and he wasn't too concerned. He thinks that as she gets more of the canines and molars those little ones in front that are still missing on the bottom will come in. And he said if they're not there by the time we come for her 2 year check up he'll have us go to the dentist for an x ray to make sure her permanent teeth are down in her gums.....he said she just might not have baby teeth but unlikely and he didn't seem concerned at all indicating they'd probably be up by the time we returned in September. She is getting really smart!! I can't even keep track of how many words she can saw and/or knows. She'll say something completely out of the blue sometimes that I haven't even been coaching her on...like GLASSES. She woke up Sunday AM and literally the first thing she said to me, while pointing her little finger right onto the lens, was GLASSES. It was so funny. I had no idea she even knew that word! Her coordination is getting better too. She still trots with her arms out to steady herself, which Dr. Anderson said was ok for 19 months. But, today we went to this park we had gone to about 3 weeks ago and she needed my hand to step up onto the playground platform but today she could do it totally solo. AND SHE KNEW IT because actually stepping up and down this little step was her favorite thing to do the entire time we were there...not necessarily playing on the playground equipment itself. Funny girl. She is just starting to say 2 word phrases but they are very basic such as HI MAMA. She loves saying HI to anyone and everyone who will listen and given BUMPS to anyone and everyone who will take them. She is a little social butterfly. She made friends with a large family at a rest stop on our way home from St. Louis on Sunday. She was bumping and saying hi to them repeatedly....they thought is was funny. WE need to work on her using her spoon more and we need to get her coloring and or starting to think about holding pencil/crayon etc. This weekend is the big weekend to do the bed switch. Not sure how that is going to go but we'll see! Enjoy the park pictures.

Busy Busy Busy Week or Two.....

So I have gotten WAY behind on my blogging because Eric, Maddox and I have really been on the go. Keep scrolling down I put on a lot of pictures and stay tuned this week we are headed to Dr. Anderson later today for our 18 month well check. We are happy to be home this week and to have a normal weekend to relax and get caught up. I"m on my 4th load of laundry and it is only 10AM!! First, the weather has finally been nice out so we've been spending a lot of time outdoors. Eric, Maddox and I went to the Duck Creek bike path a couple of weekends ago and Maddox was definitely more interested in PUSHING the stroller than ridding. Maybe this is a sign she's going to be a good helper with Baby Kies!! Then after that particular Saturday afternoon we left Sunday after lunch and headed to Aurora to Grammy and Grandpa Dick's house for a little getaway while Eric went to his quarterly Strategic Coach Conference. We got to see Great Grandma Berg and managed to get a good 4 generations picture. My good college friend Katie came down to Aurora with her 2 kids, Mackenzie and Evan, to play with Maddox. Maddox LOVED Mackenzie and patted her head softly and tried to give her lots of hugs. Mackenzie is about 3 months old. It was really cute. Maddox and Even RAN around Grammy's house chasing each other. They had a good time. THEN after that little trip ( and three busy days of work for Eric and I back home) we packed up the car and headed to St. Louis for Eric to run the 1/2 marathon. BUT...before we sent Eric out Sunday morning to run we got to hang out with Aunt Diane, Uncle Brian, and cousin Hannah. We went to the St. Louis Zoo Saturday AM and despite lack of sleep had a FANTASTIC time. It was slated to get VERY warm that day, and it did...it felt like 100 but I think it was closer to 89 or so. So luckily we were there in the AM because the animals were SO ACTIVE. Almost every one of them was eating. It seems we timed it just right to get there when they were all being fed. We saw so many cool animals....different than the Niabi Zoo....bushdogs rhinos penguins puffins grizzly bears chimpanzees orangutans kangaroos gazelles....and I think I few more I can't remember the names of. MY favorites were the elephants. They had 2 or 3 adult ones and then I think 2 baby ones and they were SO FUNNY....and SO ACTIVE. They were running around their habitat stealing bamboo from each other, slippin' in the mud. I could have stood there and watched them the whole morning. (definitely worth the 12 bucks to park huh Uncle Brian!!) The penguins were very fun and we got to be SO CLOSE to them. They had this HUGE grizzly bear. You always hear about how big those things are but it really was HUGE and it was walking around its habitat and got real close to us so Maddox could check him out. Then after a couple of hours at the zoo we headed to get Eric's race packet at the SLU campus and then back to the hotel for a very short nap. After that we went to Diane, Brian, and Hannah's house to play a bit and have a nice pre-race meal. Maddox even got to participate in her first Easter egg hunt complete with ladybug eggs and a ladybug basket. She did really well.....despite being really tired. Luckily Saturday night she slept a little better and DIDN'T wake up when Eric left for the race early Sunday morning. Eric did really well despite the heat, wind, and hilly course....and little training. He was basically just using this as a long run and is planning to 'race' the Mother's Day 1/2 marathon here in the Quad Cities. GO DAD! He still ran 13 miles yesterday in about 2 hours....a great job. Congrats!! Maddox was VERY happy to be home when we pulled in the driveway and she slept really well and is already napping this morning. There is nothing like your own bed. But, boy did we have a nice couple of weekends away. Thanks to all our hosts...the Bergs and the Gillaspies.