A Visit from Aunt Brooke & Cousin Carter

Maddox, Eric and I got to meet Carter for the first time this past weekend. Aunt Brooke and Carter flew into Moline from Denver on Thursday afternoon for a whirlwind tour of IA, IL, and IN. Boy is Carter a GOOD baby and smiley. So happy, so content, really mellow ( compared to Maddox when she was that little :) ) and such a great sleeper. He turned 4 months yesterday, along with Maddox turning 20 months, and he is in such a good routine already. Maddox thought he was pretty neat......although she needed a LOT of supervision around him. Poor guy I think he got stepped on at least once and his forehead met a few of her dropped toys. But, all in all I think she thought he was pretty special....course he left after just a couple of days so we'll see how her attitude differs with baby Kies. She gave him lots of hugs and kisses and shared her toys with him and even handed him his pacifier when he was having a bit of a fussy/crying session ( which were VERY few and far between). It was so nice to see them interact and I think as Carter gets more mobile, he and Maddox will have a good time playing together. HINT HINT Uncle Tyler, why don't you find a job in the Quad Cities and move on back to the midwest?!! Would sure be nice to have the cousins be each other's best buddies. Having Carter around was a great learning experience for us. We are definitely going to have to set up the pack-n-play downstairs for baby Kies as a safe haven from tossed toys and pointer fingers. We're also going to need a changing station downstairs too to avoid going up and down the steps almost hourly to change someone's diaper. Maddox is getting to be such a big girl. She has slept EVERY NIGHT in her own bed since we implemented the big girl bed several weeks ago. She STILL just sits on the bed waiting for us to come and get her in the AM and after naps not even attempting to get down from the bed. We have officially transitioned off of the pacifier during the day. She just uses the paci during naps and at night and is starting to get pretty good at taking it out when she gets out of the bed, giving it to Mrs. Purple bear and lady bug night light to watch over until she returns. I am so proud of her!! She has become very interested in coloring and getting herself dressed. She is pretty good about staying on the paper but luckily we have the 'washable' kind of crayons. Yesterday AM I left her on our bed to 'clear' out the laundry basket. I had washed all her new summer clothes from Target so they were all in the laundry basket waiting to be put away. She made it her GOAL to get everything on her entire body. It was so funny and kept her busy for about 20 minutes!! She was very proud of herself when she finally got up with all the clothes around her legs. She is probably ready to potty train. She is actually starting to indicate to us when she is going to poop BEFORE she is going to poop and I think we could probably rush her to the potty chair to do her business. It isn't 100% that she'll tell us but pretty darn good. I"m not sure Eric and I are ready for the full on teaching....but we could probably do it. Pee pee isn't quite the same. She is good about telling us AFTER she pees. She has been having some very whiny days lately......getting at least 1 tooth for sure and I'm pretty certain we are going to see more pop through in the coming weeks. It seems all her little gums are swollen and on her more painful days she is not the most fun little girl to be around, especially since we discontinued the use of the pacifier during the day....maybe not the best timing but oh well. Yesterday was a good day and she was so happy and fun and saying so many words now...too many to even remember. Her little brain works so fast now she is pretty darn smart, but then again I am a little biased. As most of you know baby Kies is heads up instead of heads down and is STILL that way as I write this. I"ve been to the chiro one time and will return everyday this next week for her to do the Webster technique which is a special adjustment that is supposed to get the baby to turn. She is hopeful it will work but encouraged me we may need to do the technique daily until the last minute as it doesn't always work the first few times. Time will tell I guess. I am going back to work on Thursday to avoid using more of my vacation time. I am 37 weeks tomorrow which puts me out of the 'danger zone' if I had the baby early. So at this point he can come anytime. Eric and I both have our bags packed.

Bye Bye Pacifier!

So let's see what have we been up to?? Last week Maddox developed a cold...the first one she has had since the middle of January...which is a TRUE record! Unfortunately, unlike the last one, this one developed into an ear infection (her last ear infection was december of 2010 so that is a good run too). So Eric and I had Maddox to the Dr. on Saturday AM after an EXTREMELY long and unpleasant Friday night for all three of us. But, she is always quick to respond to the antibiotics and generally speaking she was doing better by Sunday. Eric and I decided we needed to get to business on getting rid of the pacifier before Baby Kies arrives. Maddox has become literally OBSESSED with the thing. And basically both Eric and I really have nobody to blame but ourselves for creating the behavior of 'whine until Mom and Dad can't stand it and they'll hand over the pacifier!!' Somewhere between like 16 and 18 months she started absolutely loving that thing and really wanting it all the time. ALTHOUGH, interestingly enough, NEVER using it at Kim's. Kim quit using the pacifier back in January...not even for nap time. So both Eric and I knew it was definintely a behavior we had created, so of course we have to be the ones to break it :) So yesterday after her afternoon nap we left the pacifier up on her pillow, which is it's new home, when she is not sleeping. I am ok with her having it while she is sleeping but this business of seeing it sitting up on the counter or standing at the 'pacifier' drawer stomping her feet and throwing a tantrum until we go get it for her during the day, has got to go!! So far it is definintley a life changing event for her, HOWEVER I will say she is MUCH more willing to go down for naps and took a 3 hour one this AM and she is going on now almost 2 hours for the afternoon one. She is probably up there suckin' the life out of that thing before she wakes herself up :) I did put her on the potty chair today too. She is really getting good at pointing to her diaper ( front and back depending on the duty being performed) so I thought I'd try it. She indicated to me this AM she was going to poop so we hurried into the bathroom and I got her all undressed and set her on the potty chair and I seriously thought she was going to do it....!! But, then she got bored got up and started running around the house naked. Of course I was quick to get her clothed again and like 1 minute later she pooped! So we'll give that some more time and practice. Changing too much in her life in one week will probably backfire anyhow. I have been having lots of contractions lately so my doctor and I decided I shouldn't see patients for the next couple of weeks. reducing my risk for going into labor early. I'm still working out with human resources if I can go in to the office and do paperwork/chart audits. But, for now I'm just home for the next 2 weeks. Planning to go back AFTER I get closer to full term. We had a nice relaxing Mother's Day yesterday...happy mom's day to all you moms..... Eric ran the Quad City 1/2 marathon and Maddox and I went over to cheer him on. He took almost 20 minutes off of his St. Louis time.....who hoo!! Go Daddy. I took a nap while Maddox napped in the AM and then we grilled kabobs for dinner. It was a very relaxing day. Enjoy the close up shots....take care. She's got her new summer PJs on in one of the pictures...it was SO HOT here today and even HOTTER tomorrow. They are a little big but definitely cooler than the footed kind.

A Trip to Washington

Maddox and I went to Grandma Jean and Grandpa Jim's in Washington over the weekend. Eric was up in Minnesota at a workshop so Maddox and I thought we'd take a little trip over to the 'farm'! Grandpa and Grandma have all kinds of grassy hilly land, barns, wild kitties to feed, and tons of neat looking birds....not to mention a big John Deere tractor that Maddox rode once around the house and a big Harley motorcycle!! ( All kinds of new things to explore) It is not really a 'farm' per se but much more than the ol' Kies residence. Luckily we had planned this little getaway for Maddox and I because I sure enjoyed the extra sets of hands. I've been having LOTS of REAL contractions in the last week or so and my midwife told me Friday that I needed to take it easy and get my feet up and even offered to write me a letter for work!! I declined that, but was very happy to have Grandpa and Grandma to help out all weekend since Eric was out of town. Maddox had a fantastic time. She barely whined or cried the entire weekend...!! Course the grandparents provided almost full time entertainment complete with bubble makers, new books, sidewalk chalk, a pin wheel and cool squishy ball....but she's not spoiled is she :) Grandma Jean's school carnival was Saturday too, for added entertainment. Maddox was really too small for the actual games but SHE LOVED socializing with the hundreds of kids that were roaming around the school and meeting all of Grandma's co-workers. She was SO FUNNY, she practically ran from classroom to classroom exploring and saying HI to anyone that would listen. She acted like she knew exactly what she was doing. Every now and then she'd look back to make sure she saw someone she recognized, either myself, Grandpa or Grandma, and then she'd tear off down the hallway looking for another game/another set of kids in a different classroom. Then Grandma Jean got us into the 'little kids' playground. All the equipment was just the right size for her. She loved the slide despite it being a little wet from the morning's rain. Luckily the sun came out that afternoon and it was nice and warm. We had planned to go fishing while we were there but the weather just DID NOT cooperate on Sunday so we'll have to return. We got to visit with Great Grandma Reta Saturday evening and Maddox even ate an entire piece of Casey's pizza sitting at Great Grandma's big people table! She LOVED Deuce this time. At Christmas she was still pretty scared of him. But this visit she loved on him and would pat him and pet him and point to his nose and occasionally right INTO his eyes. Luckily he is a very relaxed lab and tolerated all her poking and prodding. We had a great time! Unfortunately I didn't go with a fully charged camera so I missed out on a TON of great photo ops but the ones I did get turned out pretty well. The school carnival had a Hawaiian theme! Luckily the outfit I happened to bring for Maddox fit in perfectly. Maddox and I ( and hopefully Eric the next time) are definitely looking forward to our next visit to Washington. Thanks Grandpa Jim and Grandma Jean for one fantastic relaxing weekend. We'll be back soon.

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.....!