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.

Teeth.Attitude..Shoes!!

Sorry it has been SO LONG since I posted. It seems time just gets away from me. As Baby Kies grows so does my need to get some sleep when I can which means my normal blogging time is sometimes eaten up with Sorry it has been SO LONG since I posted. It seems time just gets away from me. As Baby Kies grows so does my need to get some sleep when I can which means my normal blogging time is sometimes eaten up with resting/napping on the couch while Maddox naps! Baby Kies is growing well. I went for an appointment last week and all my numbers check out just fine. I start going every 2 weeks now.....as I am FINALLY 30 weeks. Only 10 weeks to go. Luckily my back pain has gone away in the last couple of weeks so I'm just left with feeling BIG and tired by the end of the day....which is nothing of medical concern. Eric has been working hard on the baby's room. He installed a great curtain rod last weekend and moved the full size bed to the basement with the plans to move the crib in, in a few weeks. Maddox's new big girl bed has made it's way up to the 2nd floor but not actually in to Maddox's room yet....we are transitioning her very slowly! Maddox does something EVERYDAY .... almost every hour..... that I think 'Oh, I've got to put that on the blog'. She is learning so much so fast. She knows a ton of animal sounds now and they are really starting to sound like the real thing...OINK BAA MOO NEIGH TWEET BUZZ WOOF and of course ROAR for the lion. It is really fun. She LOVES giving hugs and is evening getting good at giving and blowing kisses. We are working on her colors and I think she has RED YELLOW and GREEN mastered. Her new favorite food right now is oranges. She'll eat an entire orange if I let her....the real thing....!!...not the yummy mandarin ones from the can. She likes the skin and all. WEIRD. She is getting at least 4 teeth right now. All grinding teeth that are sort of on the side and towards the back. So needless to say she has been a bit whiny lately. She still doesn't have anymore in the front on the bottom, just the 2 but her top right incisor has finally come down nicely. She'll be able to eat a steak soon enough..!! So because of her teething she has become OBSESSED with the pacifier....which I guess is fine for the immediate future if it soothes her. She doesn't let the thing out of her sight and at the first wine she is on the lookout for it. Oddly enough Kim hasn't mentioned anything about her being upset there....so I think if she is distrated by kids/the ability to socialize she doesn't seem to notice the pain. Luckily the teething doesn't seem to wake her up at night ( knock on wood) and generally she is still taking 2 good naps despite the teething. She has really started developing an attitude...or I guess the more positive word would be personality. She is a stubborn little girl and definitely knows what she wants, even when she can't communicate it to us. She'll stomp her feet and even lay down on the ground kicking her feet in an attempt to get us to understand what is is that she is really trying to tell us. Luckily these little tantrums have only occurred in the privacy of our own home! She has developed a shoe fetish in the last week or so. She LOVES to put Eric and I's shoes on...slippers, work shoes, running shoes whatever happens to by lying around!! And in turn she really likes to have her own shoes on all the time....even when she has her PJs on she wants to put her own shoes on top of her PJs. Luckily she has gotten a lot of shoes as gifts so we haven't had to run out and buy her any to suffice her desires! It is really funny, she has actually gotten pretty good at walking around in our BIG SHOES.