October

Well hello there.

I know, I know, it's been a long time since I have posted anything on our beloved blog. It's been since August 20th to be exact. I guess I've just taken a little break and have been enjoying each and every moment with little Maddie O. and her Daddy O.

To save you from potential boredom and trying to recap the events over the past two and a half months. I'm going to briefly recap October.

I have to start off by saying that our Madison is changing. She is growing up, becoming even more independent, she is smart, the child is freaking hilarious and she is so sweet and kind. She is also extremely shy when any one that she doesn't know very well is around. I mean like hang-on-to-my-leg-face-buried-in-my-butt shy. Although, get the child at home where she is comfortable and it is a whole new gal.

We have seen a huge change in her since she has started school. She is learning more and more as the weeks go by. It cracked us up when we heard her singing the continent song. Just hearing "North America, South America..." come out of a 2 year old's mouth is hilarious. Madison is very polite and shows great concern for others. She recognizes when someone isn't happy and wants to put a smile on their face. We find that it is hard for us to remember that she is only two, soon to be three.  She acts very grown up and when she has her two year old moments it is hard for us to deal with because it's something we are not used to. 

At the this rate with her learning and growing we have no idea what may become of this child. Sometimes I see a potential teacher....





Or an artist perhaps....



Whatever it may be she will always be a ham. Speaking of ham....we went to the pumpkin patch. (Yeah, that had nothing to do with ham but I couldn't think of a good segue.)

Okay, it's not a real pumpkin patch although technically the pumpkins came from a patch somewhere they just trucked them in, piled them on the side of the highway right in front of a lovely motel and made it more convenient for us to visit. Anyway, upon our arrival, Madison ran right in and started climbing. I was very nervous as I envisioned her little tootsie going right through a giant pumpkin but internally grateful because it made for some great pictures.





It was just the 3 of us who made the trip to the "patch". They have a nice little set up available for taking photos. I looked around to see if there is someone who could take a picture of us and I see a nice old man wearing a smile and overalls and three other gentlemen who seem to be busy unloading straw bales from a giant flat bed truck. Crap. No biggie.....a little photoshop comes in handy sometimes.

 

Ryan totally looks like he was sitting next to us, right? After many photos, we made our choices and loaded up our finds.



Madison enjoyed painting our pumpkin. She slapped on the paint and I wiped it off to create our design.





However, she did not like carving.



She absolutely refused to touch the inside. She took off and went back to playing.



Ryan didn't seem to mind. He got out the tools and finished it off. He drilled tons of holes in it and it glows quite nicely when lit.



Now, on to the moment in October that brings me so much joy. Her Halloween costume. I decided on her costume back in August as we were laying in the bed watching the movie. I asked her if that's who she wanted to be and she said yes. Although, I got a little nervous and a bit disappointed when in September she said she wanted to be a witch. I heard her wishes but guided her back on my path and thus continued on with the costume as planned. After some shopping, a bit of sewing, some spray painting and a little glue from the glue gun, her costume was complete.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, our very own Mary Poppins.....



Much like the original, our Mary Poppins was poised with a bit of sass.



I am so in love with this costume and I was very eager to take her out trick-or-treating so we could show her off. However, her shyness kicked in on mega high.



Look at the fear in her face and we are approaching the porch of her Nana's house! A house that she's been to hundreds of times.



So, what do we do? Take her to some strangers' house. Duh.



Yeah, three houses later, she was done. Mary was popped. She said she was tired and asked if we could go back to Nana's house. I know, every parent's dream, a child begging to go back home on Halloween but I have to say I was a bit bummed.

 

Although, once she got back in the car, in the comfort of her car seat, she was all smiles again. She had Lucy, who by the way was dressed up as a ghost, and life was good.

 

Thanksgiving is approaching and I am feeling a little fall fever coming on. A little crafting and decorating is what we have planned for today. I'll try not to stay away so long next time but as you can see we keep busy with our little Maddie O. She's a hoot! Bye for now.

First Day of Preschool

It was a special day for Madison.

Today was her first day of preschool.

It is a day that she has been looking forward to since the last day of summer camp. Our back-to-school shopping was complete, her lunch box was packed and the gifts for her new teachers were ready. The day began like any other day, except Ryan went in late so he could join her on her first day too. I told Madison that we had to hurry up and get ready so I could take some pictures of her on her first day of school.

She replied "Mom, we already took pictures last week." (I think she got this line from her dad.)



It is crazy to think that she is already going to preschool and yes we realize that she is only two-and-a-half. However, she's ready, she's independent, she is anxious to learn anything and everything. Ryan and I have had several discussions on this and wondering if we are doing the right thing. Regardless of what others think, we have chosen to follow our gut. Sometimes that's just what parents have to do.



She was very excited about her new backpack and lunch box.

 



I was mostly excited about the adorable shoes and socks.



I did have to bribe her with a piece of gum so we could each get a picture with her. She just wanted to get into the car and go. Nothing like a little sugar high for the first day of school.

 



Madison was anxious to get inside that building.





We helped her find her cubby, gave her teachers their gifts, put her backpack and lunch box away.

 

It was then time for us to say our goodbyes. She looked up and me with a little fear in her eyes and pleaded for me to hold her. I picked her up and we walked into where the other kids were waiting at circle time. Madison spotted Ms. Holly and her friend from summer camp. She looked up at me said "Hug. Kiss" and she was off to join the others in the circle.



I was stunned. She was ready to get the show on the road. When I picked her up she was filled with excitement and smiling ear to ear. When I asked her what she did today she said "I don't know." I swear the teachers teach the students to say this because all children have the same reply. That or they say "Nothing."



Madison is already asking to go back to school so off to bed we go so we can do it all over again tomorrow.

Love,
Kimberly

A bit of a Catch Up

Hello there!

Well, I've taken a little break from the blogging world. Mostly because we had to invest in a new laptop. Getting a new computer is so very wonderful however, getting it set up exactly like your old one is quite time consuming. Anyway, I thought I would touch on a few highlights from the past several weeks.

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July 4th

I'm only adding this as one of our highlights purely because I want everyone to see Madison's attire. Check out her shirt......



Adorable isn't it! Madison's Nana, Ryan's mom, made this cute little ruffled, red, white and blue shirt for her. My favorite part about it is that when you lift up the top ruffle there is a little patch that says "Made by Nana".



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Summer Camp

Again we find that all good things come to an end. Summer Camp has ended. I am happy to report that Madison's last day was very, very different than her first day. It was all smiles and "Bye Mom!" No, tears nor sitting in her cubby.

 



Just in the six weeks that she attended summer camp she transformed. She became even more independent, she started saying yes instead of yeah, she was more well behaved and her focus on an individual task became intensified.





Oh, and I finally made her show me the chickens. For six weeks I kept hearing about these chickens and I had to see them for myself and sure enough there are two chickens in a pen in the school yard. The kids feed them and check for eggs each morning. Then they gather the eggs and make omelets for a snack.....just kidding. I have no idea what they do with those eggs.





We are anxiously awaiting Madison's first day of school on Monday. I did some back to school shopping for her last night where I found the perfect outfit for her big day. Ryan and I attended Orientation tonight where we met her teachers, Ms. Holly and Ms. Darcy. They are both so sweet and so eager to work with the little ones. Madison's class is made up of three, four, five and six year olds. There are twenty kiddos in her class. It's going to be so wonderful for her. I'll report after Monday on the first day.

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Atlanta

We went on a little road trip. We loaded up the car and headed south. Ryan's grandfather, Charlie, just turned 79. In celebration, Ryan's two aunts threw him a very intimate dinner party.

 





We were so glad we were able to make it to the party to spend time with our family and enjoy each other's company.





Madison thought she was all sneaky and no one was paying attention but I busted her sneaking some of the icing from Grandpa's cake. She kept walking by and swiping her little finger in the icing. Ketchup and icing.....her first two loves.



Of course the party only lasted one evening so we had lots of time to explore. During my Google search of "things to do in Atlanta" I learned that there was an American Girl store 4 miles from our hotel. Score! Ryan's mom and I both looked at Ryan and asked "Can we go? Right now?" Ryan doesn't like to disappoint his girls, especially his littlest girl so off we went.





Madison was in baby doll heaven. She was so overwhelmed by the baby dolls and accessories that she didn't even know what to look at first. She moved from area to area, only giving a moment of her attention to each to insure that she didn't miss a thing. It was so cute to see.





Of course when her Uncle Brent arrived we didn't want him to miss out on seeing Madison's happiness in the baby doll store so we might have prepped her a bit to ask "Brent, you take me to the baby doll store?" And how could he say no to her little face?



Uncle Brent is a sucker for Madison's sweet little face, frankly we all are.  Madison is finally into naming her babies which is awesome.  Normally, I randomly throw out names and she decides on one for the baby in question.  However she named her new American Girl doll all on her own. 

Are you ready for this? 

Her name is.....

Jimmy.  Yep that's right, her name is Jimmy.  Jimmy is pictured above (she's camera shy) and Lucy is pictured below.



Also, during our visit, we went to Centennial Park. During our stroll we came upon a water park. We were totally unprepared but I was determined to figure out how we could allow our little girl to experience the awesomeness of the water.



Luckily, I dressed her in layers, I stripped her down and let her go.



She ran. And ran. And ran. The smile on her face warmed all of our hearts. It was true happiness. A genuine joy for life. She was living in the moment and so were we by watching her little face.





Of course, I couldn't resist getting in there myself. Don't worry though, I kept my dress on. However, my judgment on the timing of the water shoots was completely off and I ended up walking around totally soaked for a couple of hours. And you know what? It was completely worth it!



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Okay, I think I've rambled on enough and I'm dying to get caught up on Big Brother. It's important too. So, we'll report back next week on how our little gal did on her first day of school. Goodnight!