1 Month OUT!

Prince Henry (as he is called around here) has been out of the womb for 1 month now. UNBELIEVABLE. He still seems so new- but thinking back on the birth, it seems like it was years ago. I specifically remember a moment during the labor that I told Ryan I couldn't do this again- meaning, I never wanted to experience labor pains again!!! Strangely enough, I don't remember the pain and I have already talked about how I want baby #3 to be a Christmas baby :) Don't worry- not a "next-Christmas-baby!" More like in 2 years I'd like to have a Christmas babe! :)

Lets see... here are some of Henry's one month stats:

-cluster feeds like mad. Honestly, all this kid wants to do is eat and sleep. He isn't interested at all in just hanging out. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. He sleeps a lot, which is nice... but at the same time, if he's awake and NOT being nursed he's cranky as heck. We also call him the grumpy old man. :)

-his schedule at night is awwwwwesome. He cluster feeds from around 8-ish to 10 or so, then sleeps until 3 or 4, eats again and then is out until 8 or 9 AM. Yes people, my one month old is sleeping for consistent 5-6 hour stretches. I AM LUCKY!

-he's a chunk A chunk. Although he can still wear newborn dipes, we've run out of them so we moved him right into our stockpile of 1's. They fit and it makes me sad. I already miss those super soft newborn diapers with the umbilical cord cutout. :(

-clothes wise, he swims in 0-3 month Gymboree & Gap stuff, can barely squeeze into Carters newborn and just about every hat I put on him is wayyyy too big- he must have a small head?! My favorite things to dress him in are sweater outfits and cute little cardigan & pants sets. I try and reserve the cutsey animal one-pieces for home :)

-I know I've said it before, but this guy is a total PIGGY. His dream would be for me to walk around with one of those "breastfreind" things with him attached 24/7. Sorry prince, not happening!

-Believe it or not he's rolled a few times... accident? I'm sure. But Ryan likes to think its because he's destined to become a strong football player. (little does Ryan know that my sweet little man will never be knocked around on a football field :)

-Maeve....ohhhhhhhh sigh..... Maeve. My sweet girl. She is having a really rough time with Henry. I am so exhausted with her. I told Ryan last night that I LIVE for her naps. And that makes me sad. :( I feel like everything is a fight and a tantrum. I'm tired of it. I'm sick of chasing her around to change her diaper... peeling her off the floor because I won't give her a candy cane... holding her down with all my might in the grocery cart because she wants to do a flying leap out onto the ground. It's just getting really.really.exhausting. Sometimes I feel like I've lost all control over her- like I went to the hospital for 24 hours, had a baby, came home and lost my relationship with Maeve. Please someone tell me this is normal and it will pass. I am seriously on the verge of a meltdown! I know its only been 1 month and its been a HUGE change for miss Maeve, but my GOSH- this child is screaming for attention and I can only give so much while trying to nurse and care for a newborn. Especially a newborn who likes to nurse all day long.

-okay, back to Mr. Man. He is a poop machine- anyone's babies poop like 30000 times a day??? I guess its a good thing- right? Good bowels? But WOW- we're flying through diapers!

- Henry is a TOTAL mommas boy. It cracks me up because Ryan was soooooooooo excited about having a boy in the house. But ever since Henry came home, I'm the one who spends the bulk of the time with him (again, due to nursing) and Ryan has become best buds with Maeve. It's bittersweet for me- I love their relationship, but again, I feel like Maeve and I have lost a lot of connection. :( Every day I question myself, on whether or not I should keep up with nursing. I feel like its just taking way too much time away from Maeve. Does it get better???? I really don't know which way I should go at this point. I feel like if I switch to bottles, we'd have more of a schedule and I'd be able to have specific times that are ALL Maeve's. Hmmm... who knows. I'm just trying to take it day by day.

- Me, physically speaking, am doing great. Episotomy-shmesiotomy! I have NO pain and haven't had any pain down there for awhile. YEEE-HAAAAAAW! Breast feeding has gone better since I discovered the power of a cabbage leaf! Listen up ladies!! If you get engorged, start to feel icky in the boobs, stick a cabbage leaf in there! Clears everything right up! :) EMOTIONALLY and mentally, I am still kind of in the baby blues. I am back on my normal doses of my meds (lexapro & klonopin) and it feels great :) BUT I am still pretty weepy and can get a tad...ummmm... beeee-yatchy at times. Ryan gets his head bitten off for the tiniest things... poor guy- I keep telling him he can divorce me if he wants :) haha...

-ONE more note- another baby is not on our menu ANY time soon, but we do know we want at least one more (if not two:). So with that said, I have to reveal this revelation that came to me the other day. ME- the girl that was soooo terrified to have a boy, actually said "I think I want the next one to be another boy." I am so in love with this little man.

Here are some pics of the man from today :) ONE MONTH!!!!!! My how quickly they change!

Funny of the Day!

Today has been tough. Maeve has been acting out & Henry has expressed his desire to be held ALL.THE.TIME. Nap time was a nightmare- Maeve was literally jumping up and down in her crib for a good hour before she tired herself out. And then as soon as Maeve fell asleep, Henry was up and ready to eat. So yeah, the timing was totally off. I also braved Meijers by myself with both the kids. It actually went really well- just tiring.

SO back to that "funny."

Ryan had a service call tonight at 6:30 (BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!) so he got home at 5:30 and was back out the door at 6:15. What to do for dinner? Fast food yet again. GROSS. The kids and I ran out to get something for dinner and were gone for seriously *maaayyybe* 15 minutes. When we came back in the house, it reaked. I figured Henry's and Maeve's diapers were backing up and I just hadn't noticed before because I had been in the house all day. I gave Maeve her dinner and settled into feed Henry. After about 15 minutes, Maeve was done- I got her down from her high chair and noticed that in the back hallway there was diarrhea everywhere. OMG. Those stupid dogs. Well actually, it was just one dog but still- sick. I am so over these animals. Of course Henry is screaming to be fed on the other side and I'm stuck deciding on what to do first- feed him or clean up the poop (which was going to probably take a good 20 minutes). I decided it would be the least stressful on all parties to feed Henry first. So I showed Maeve the poop and told her "GROSS- STAY AWAY." Her face was priceless- she looked absolutely horrified. And then all of a sudden she got this giant grin on her face and yelled "MICKEY MOUSE!" What???? Sure enough I took a closer look and there was a diarrhea pile in the perfect shape of a Mickey Mouse. Leave it to Maeve to pick out the beauty in such a disgusting thing. :)

Ryan is now home, the poop is cleaned up, Maeve & Henry are both fed- Maeve has been bathed and is in bed. Henry is about to get a bath & hopefully settle in for a few hours. I am DONE with today... and hoping to squeeze in a glass of wine in between feedings... my midwife has assured me over and over that one glass of wine with an hour in between isn't going to do a thing but still... feels weird. Not weird enough though to not indulge! :)

A Maeve "Conversation"

I figured I should probably start posting these little blurbs of conversation I'm having with my 2 year old... It's adorable and I don't ever want to forget these moments- and since its just not practical to have a video camera on 24/7 I guess blogging/writing it down is the next best thing...

Maeve: "Ohhhh noooo..."

Me: "What does that mean?"

Maeve: "Poo poooooos."

Me: "Yuuuuckky Maeve... you stink bomb!" :)

Maeve: "It's okay! It's okay! It's in diapers!!"



Oh my sweetness :) We've been having issues with her pooping/peeing in her diaper lately- she has been pulling the tabs off of her dipe which makes it slide down and it results in an accident- actually let me clarify this- she does NOT poop without a diaper on- but she will pee. I know its time to start with the potty, but every time I try and get her to sit on it she freaks out (yes- even the baby potty). So who knows... I'm just letting her take her time with it. But anyways, apparently she has caught on to my frustration with her taking her diaper off- and as long as the poo poo is in the diaper, its okay! :)

oh my maeve.

This is a "conversation" we had this morning...

Me- "Maeve did you do a poopy?"

Maeve- "No way Ashy. Ew gross."



WOW- ASHY???? Thanks to my mom for that one- the other day at the park, I was on my cell w/ Ryan kind of zoning out, while my mom was watching Maeve- apparently she was doing something really cute and my mom wanted me to come see. So she started yelling "ASHLEY!!!" super loud and guess who caught on?

*OH- and for the record, she did poop :) EWWW gross is right!

"I'm Sorry"

We've been working with Maeve on her manners lately. It kind of slapped me in the face one day how much of a spoiled, ummmmmm I can't call my sweet bubs a brat, but you know what I mean.... :) She wasn't saying thank you or please for anything- even though Ryan and I BOTH have always said please and thank you to her. It was also bugging me when she would do "naughty" things that she wasn't saying "sorry" afterward. SO we started a hard core intervention to turn our stubborn pistol into a polite little lady :) So far, so good! She is now saying please regularly & thank you :) But by far, my favorite turn around is when she says "I'm sorry"- actually its more like "I sorrrrrrrry."

For example, what prompted me to blog this morning, was when Maeve was banging these toys on the table- I let her bang them for a few minutes and then it started to get out of control (as in scratching the tables...oops) and it was freaking the dogs out. So I said, "No more Maeve. Please stop." And she stopped and said "I sorrrrrrrrrrry." hahaha :) how cute.

The problem with her new found phrase is that she uses it at a lot of inappropriate times. Not a big deal right? Well... how about when she poops and she comes up to you saying "I sorry! I sorry!" Or when you're putting her in her carseat and she's saying it repeatedly. Ryan and I joke that people are going to think we get mad at her for pooping or that we're punishing her by putting her in her carseat! And we couldn't figure out why she was actually saying she was sorry! Finally we figured it out- so the whole week (actually 10 days) she had diarrhea, every time she'd poop & I would have to wipe her & change her diaper, I'd say "I'm so sorry bubs!" Or "Momma's sorry!" Because it would hurt her so badly! Ryan did this too- so we're pretty positive that's why she now says "SORRY" when she poops. And the carseat thing- (yikes I feel kind of bad about this) I strapped her into her carseat a few days ago- she was wearing a onsie- and the whole way to the store she was whining... I thought she was just being crabby. We get to the store, and I realized that the straps were so tight around her little legs- and there was no fabric (such as pants) in between the strap and her thigh- so she had these horrible red indentations on her upper legs. AWFUL! Again, I took her out and held her and rubbed her legs and said "I'm so sorry!" Now that we've figured out what's prompting her to say she's sorry all the time, we have to figure out how to explain to her that she doesn't need to say sorry at certain times... tough thing to teach a 2 year old!!

SHE POOPS!!! (SOLID)

Yea! Maeve's poo poos turned into SOLID poopies on Sunday afternoon! And so far today (she's had 2 poops) they've been solid. She also seems to be acting herself- THANK GOD! I did not want to go through having her blood drawn and other cultures taken. Since Ryan nor I got sick, I am really chalking up that horrible week of diarrhea to teething- its happened before, but its never lasted a week. I can't see in the back of her mouth, but I *think* her back molars are coming in. The doc said she could kind of see some red bumps back there...

Oh- and in the previous post ("thinking ahead") I mentioned something about Halloween but forgot to expand on it. Ever since we moved into our neighborhood, I LOVE Halloween- I love seeing all the kids in their costumes and we get the perfect number of trick-or-treaters... not so many where the doorbell is ringing off the wall, but enough to fill the evening. I am also a tad bit obsessed with dressing Maeve up- the first year, she was in a pumpkin sleeper thing (she was just too little for a costume- 2 weeks old!) last year, she was a poodle- and I thought it was the cutest thing I've ever seen. THIS year, I am debating between two costumes...theKITTY and the BUTTERFLY. Notice both are from "Old Navy." That's where we got her poodle costume last year and it was AWESOME- warm, high quality and adorable :) I think she would like to be a kitty just because she has an obsession with cats... but the butterfly is SO cute! Hmmm... decisions, decisions, decisions. :) What are your kids going to be for Halloween??? Share!

Oh and here's a flashback to Halloween '07 & Halloween '08... sigh... where does the time go?



Notice the hot pink toe-nails:)

20 months... WOW

I forgot- Maeve's 20 month mark passed right on by and I didn't make a post about it. Oops. Anyways, here are some quick facts about my MaeMae.

-has an obsession with boo boos/owies/band aids. This is because she falls or trips about 20 times a day... her poor shins and knees are covered with scrapes and bruises. She is such a rough kid!

-her favorite toys lately are her outdoor toys... she could spend all day climbing up and down her slide. (yes she's figured out how to climb UP the slide... dangerous!)

-very interested in body parts! She says "eyyyyes" "nose" "mouth" "ears" "toes" and points to them all. Actually you have to kind of careful because if she's sitting in your lap you might get a poke in the eye- she likes to "point" to it and say "EYYYYEBALL!"

-she has also figured out how to climb into her high chair- again, scares me to death.

-she now recognizes when she pee pees or poo poos. YES!!!! One step closer to the potty!!! I ask her every time I change her diaper if she did a stinky and if she did she says "pooooooo!" and then goes "WOOOOO WEEEEE!" and waves her hand like its super smelly (which it is)

-she knows all her animals and their sounds- my fave. is the crab. If you ask her what a crab does she starts pinching her fingers and then she'll give you a pinch :)

-we now have a morning ritual of watching 20 minutes or so of some cartoon in my bed. she loves it- I love it (sometimes I doze off with her snuggled next to me)

-LOVES her little people toys (did I already say this one?...can't remember) anyways she crams all sorts of animals/people into her bus or airplane and then rams it into things. Makes me laugh :)

-we have a doppler that we listen to the baby's hearbeat with and every time we get it out she starts saying "baby, baby!" and then helps me put the gel on my belly.

-obsession with the park. OMG- don't say the word "park" around her if you don't intend on immediately going to a park.

-she still won't sit still to watch a movie- however, she loves "Dora" & "Spongebob" and she will sit to watch those shows.

-she is such a girl- she loves having her toes painted, wearing "pretty's" (jewelry) and getting new clothes and shoes. NO JOKE- when she gets new shoes she will go up to Ryan or my mom and point and say "shooooooes!"

-her new fave. phrases are "OH WOOOOOOW!" and "Oh MYYYY!" and "OH YESSSSS!" she's very excitable :)

-she knows all her body parts... and has a particular fondness for her belly. She likes to lift her shirt up and yell "DING DONG!" (we push on her belly button and say "ding dong")

-her new words (that I can remember) are airplane, spoon, plate, park, crab, sky, tree, flower, water, bus, slide, swing, hot, cold, mine... hmmm- a whole lot more- she talks, talks, talks all day long... half of it I can understand, the other half is baby talk :)

-she is putting a few words together here and there- it is so awesome to hear her make the connections- just this morning she said "OHHHH! It's Hammy and MeowMeow!" (hammy & meowmeow are the names of her 2 fave. stuffed animals)

-loves lotion, shampoo, soap, hand sanitizer- really anything that you can squirt in her hand and she gets to rub all over.

-she watches dora & diego and repeats (or tries) everything they tell you to say :)

-her fave foods are mac & cheese, fruit snacks, cereal and pizza. (wow how healthy are we???)

-she loves songs and her faves are: Itsy bitsy spider, Wheels on the bus, Jesus Loves me, Twinkle Twinkle Little star, and Jesus loves the little children. She does all the hand motions and it truly melts my heart.

-we play with sidewalk chalk every day (well when its not raining) and she knows the colors: blue, red, purple, yellow and green. She will either say them to me or I'll ask her to pick one up and she gets it right :) smarty pants...

***well... I could probably come up with a billion more things to say about my special girl but I will stop with the bragging now. She is my favorite, special, beautiful blue eyed, summer sunshine, sweet as sugar, twirling, swirling, baby cakes. I couldn't be more in love :)

The Popper. Vocab & Sick Updates!

Do you remember that toy as a kid?? Well the famous corn popper has made it into our house (actually it was a Christmas present- so its been here for awhile) but Maeve just discovered how "fun" it is to run around the house with it... YIKES is all I have to say!!!

The poor dogs are terrified of it- just the popping noise alone sends them into outer orbit! And Maeve knows it- so she will ram it into them and then crack up- it IS kinda funny... regardless I have to remind her to be NICE to the puppies. So when she isn't ramming it into the dogs, she likes to ram it into anything else she can find. Our poor house is getting banged up left and right!

Anyways, its really cute to watch her go crazy with the thing... so I had to take pictures and post.

***************************
Maeve's vocab is really expanding too- her new words of the week are:

-Apple
-ALL DONE!!! (did I already mention that one?)
-hop, hop, hop (that's what she says when she sees a bunny)
-quack, quack
-she has also mastered a "sign"- thank you- she has been saying it for awhile but within the past couple of weeks when you have her say thank you she does the sign for it :)


We're also so thankful that she is FINALLY starting to feel better!!! Just within the past 2 days we've noticed she's been eating better (MUCH better!) and sleeping great. Her energy is also back and her whole demeanor is much more pleasant! Which makes for a very happy momma & dadda! (we were going on 2 weeks of having a crabby pants on our hands!) Ryan & I are STILL sick- I think we both have sinus infections that need to be cleared up with antibiotics so I'm scheduling appointments for tomorrow. We are crossing our fingers that this is our last bout with sickness for the season!!!!

A First!

Today we had a "FIRST" here at the McKenney house! Maeve went on her very first wagon ride..... OUTSIDE! YES! The weather here in Michigan was nice enough this morning to take a walk!!! I was thrilled and Maeve was beyyyoooond thrilled! I had heard the temp was supposed to be in the 60's today and it definitely was :) Actually after Maeve woke up from her nap we went on a SECOND walk cause she loved the first one so much :)

On our first wagon walk, I dressed Maeve super cute and we decided to visit my dad. Which meant we had to go through this muddy pathway to his office... it was interesting pulling the wagon through the mud- my Uggs might be ruined :( but Maeve was laughing and bouncing around while I lugged that thing through ankle deep MUD. We did make it to my dads though and he was happy to see us. Our second wagon walk was to the park... I think Maeve & I went down the slide about 40 times!!! She couldn't get enough of it! I had to drag her away! SO yes, it has been a really fun, lovely day! Tonight we're planning on dinner with my parents at Darryls so it should only get better :)

Tomorrow I judge my LAST meet of the season :(sad!!! It's gonna be a LONG drive and a LONG day... but its worth it- the paycheck is gonna go towards a new bathing suit for spring break! And NEXT weekend is our Westin night- (Ryan's Valentines present to me..) BTW just to clarify why and how we go to the Westin so much- we belong to that SGP club (Starwood Guest Points) so every time we travel, stay at a hotel, rent a car, etc. we earn points... it takes 4000 points to stay 1 night at the Detroit Westin. But on certain weekends (like next weekend) we are allowed to redeem 2000 points and pay the other half- so our room is costing us a whopping fifty bucks. YES! ANYWAYS, I am so excited! We're planning on going to that huge mall "Great Lakes Crossing", eat at the Rainforest Cafe & shop for spring break.

Well... I am off to get ready for dindin. Happy weekend!

I made...

a slide show :) its a bit cheesy and makes Ryan & I cry when we watch it... but its cute and not supposed to be emotional... every time the song "Angel" comes on (my ipod- its not on the radio) I think of MaeMae, and I'm sure as you listen to the song you'll think of your babies too. So... enjoy :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My Monkita... Maeve

Hmmm... does "Monkita" stand for female monkey? It sounds like it should... so I'm going to go with it. Anyways, Ryan and I are pretty sure that Maeve is morphing into a monkey. Some of her monkey antics are super cute and funny- like when she breaks out into her "monkey moves" - she waves her arms like a monkey and says "ooh ah ah ah." Really cute! And then there is her recent love of fruit... she has ALWAYS been a veggie baby- from the beginning- I remember buying/making baby food and being a bit disappointed that she didn't want to eat the yummy fruit stuff- she'd rather have nasty spinach or green beans...yeeccccchhh. The only fruit she was really into was bananas (hmmm... another monkey antic). Just recently though she has become obsessed with fruit- of any sort! Her favorite though are clementines. And this is when we first started saying she was a little monkey... she will take a clementine and peel the thing and eat those slices WHOLE. I am not sure she's even chewing them.. she slurps them up and before we know it the mini orange is GONE! She probably eats 3 a day.... strange huh? But again, really, really cute to watch!
So this morning she pulled another monkey "move" however, this one was not cute- AT ALL. She was in the bath and was squatting... I noticed that she had done a "poo poo." Not a big deal- she does it quite often actually (she is also entering this phase of not wanting to poop in her diaper... potty training coming up???? OHHHHHH PLEASE!!!! YIPPPPEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! CAN'T WAIT! :) Anyways, I stood her up while the water drained out- my plan was to let the water drain, pick up the poop, clean the tub a bit (with her still in it... keep in mind the water would be drained) and then give her ANOTHER "clean" bath... because she was sitting in poo poo water- so she HAD to have another bath. So the water is draining, draining and she kept squatting- and I was thinking "okay she is going poop again... whatever, just more to clean..." well she picked up a piece of poo poo and chucked it at me- like I had to DODGE that thing- it flew on the floor and I screamed "EW! Maeve NO!" She laughed, squatted again, picked up another piece and did it again!!!!! Let me tell you- it was disgusting. EWWWWWWWWWWW I had to end up getting in to take a shower with her because she had poo on her hands and she had stepped in it, etc. It was sooooooo gross! Anyways, what an ordeal! When Ryan came home from work I told him about it and we cracked up because we really think we've got a fruit eating, poo flinging monkey on our hands! :)

Okay on a totally different note, we've had a new sight around here- Maeve with a NUK (pacifier)! What a wonderful, WONDERFUL thing. For the entire first year and 3 months of her life, she was NOT a fan of nuks (pronounced NOOKS). And it was horrible because the only thing that could or would calm her down was a bottle. But since recently taking the bottle away (YEA! Passed that milestone!!!) she had been having a hard time falling asleep- so one day I just popped a nuk in her mouth and she SUCKED it... took right to it.. And from that day on, unless we pluck it out of her mouth or she's eating, the nuk is ALWAYS in. She went from zero to 60 on that one- like not wanting anything to do with a nuk, to now, HAVING to have one- this is all just so new to us- we're not used to having to grab a nuk before we leave, so we've already made many stops to snatch up a nuk. Anyways, I am thrilled, because it really calms her down- pretty much every time in any situation so far... crossing my fingers it stays that way! Because it is SO much easier to pop in a nuk than make a bottle or listen to her "scream it out." Anyways, I know she kind of looks like a rag doll in these pics... but I snapped up a couple last night with her and her nukkie. :) Its just so funny for us to see because for SO long she would spit her nuks out... so now we think its just the cutest thing :)

She's my flower child :) Doesn't she look like a hippie here?

And to top off her hippie look, the peace/love/joy shirt ;)

French Toast Fridays!

For the past few Fridays I've been making Maeve French Toast- not only is it a hit with Little Miss Magic, but it also takes care of left over purees :) Today she got carrot & beet french toast- and AGAIN ate just about every bite. This stuff is gold- I swear! So I think we're going to make it a tradition- "French Toast Fridays!" Of course the kid doesn't know if its a Friday or a Monday, but still, it will be a nice change from cereal! And I swear it takes about 2 seconds to make- I am not big on spending a lot of time in the kitchen early in the mornings- I will do the overnight bakes in the crockpot or stuff like that, but totally not into waking up early to make breakfast- heck I can barely manage to make dinner half the time. But this truly is easy and only "dirties" a few dishes... nice :) Again, I would totally post the recipe but those dang copyright infringements!

Today we have NOTHING on our plates- absolutely nothing! I don't have to work tonight :)YEA! I am hoping to talk Ryan into going to the mall and entertaining Maeve for a little bit while I raid Gymboree for the 2nd time this week :) We'll see...

Tomorrow I am supposed to judge in Adrian... I have this sinking feeling though its gonna be cancelled... jeez I could totally use that 160 bucks. Who knows though... the weatherman could be wrong.

On the Maeve front, we have a new skill- or "thing" I should say. She is bilingual :) haha...not really- she just has found a new phrase that she loves saying "De Nada." She has this toy that speaks in French, English and Spanish and I guess its been on the Spanish mode, because there's no denying it, she's been going around saying "DAAAAAAAY naaaaaaada" strange thing to say but cool. She also has been saying "OHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOO" very dramatically. Its funny- the other night on the way home from gymnastics she was in the back seat saying "oooooooooohhhhhhhh nooooooooo." No clue why or where she picked that up- I never say "OH no" usually I just say "NO!" :) But again, pretty neat she is becoming so verbal :) Also, every time the phone rings she puts her hand up to her ear and says "hello?" And when she's got the phone actually IN her hand, she says "Hello?" and then jibber jabbers to herself... funny kid.

It's hard for me to imagine her being a talking person, but it excites me to no end. I can't WAIT to hear what's on her little mind and telling her how to say something and what it means and actually knowing its sticking in there :) Right now there's a lot of "Maeve this is baby's nose, these are baby's eyes, but I think its going in one ear and out the other :) Apparently she's learning more from her toys than she is from me!

Oh how is everything going on the sick front? Ryan is as healthy as a horse (of course- he NEVER gets sick!!!) I think I've lost about 10 lbs. this week from loss of fluids out of both ends (nice image i know) and not eating... and Maeve is STILL having blow outs- her doc.said while she's breaking these teeth and fighting this virus its totally expected that she have diarrhea and to not be worried about it... BUT wow its getting sooooooo old changing her bedding, giving her yucky baths and cleaning poop stains out of clothes. (for those of you who haven't been keeping count this is our 8th day of it...)

Wellllll........... I hope everyone has a safe and realxing weekend. TGIF :)

It's Just Another Day :)

There's this song in "50 First Dates" and I'm trying to find it to put it on my blog playlist, but anyways it talks about how each day is just another day of doing normal day to day things. This wasn't on my "official" New Years Resolution list, but I think I am going to try to make each day unique for both Maeve and I (and Ryan... poor guy always gets left out!) but really I'm talking about the actual day and he's not home then... but whether its cooking something out of "Deceptively Delicious" with MaeMae, going to the store to pick out a new book, going to the "Y" child watch or even visiting dadda at work... I think for my sanity and hers, we need to make it a point to do something interesting everyday- we GOTTA get out of this house!!
I did get to go to the grocery store today (WHAT FUN!) but my mom came over to watch Maeve because I didn't want to take her out in the cold... she is fighting this bug right along with me, and I know how crappy I feel, so the last thing I wanna do is drag her out in this JUNK. By the way, I heard someone say the other day that we should get over this snow because after all, IT IS JANUARY! WHO GIVES A monkey's butt it's January- I could care less- this weather is horrible- I hate it and 99% of the people here hate it... if you happen to like it, great for you, come over and shovel our driveway! Anyways back to the grocery store trip- it was miserable and biting cold but I HAD to go- I didn't have a meet tonight and I was determined to cook dinner. So I ventured out.... pretty uneventful besides me running into an old friend, Summer Moon. And the only one who will find any significance in that is Angela, so... if ya wanna know the details Ang, call me or something :)
When I got home, my mom told me Maeve was feeling warm to her- GREAT- the start of fever... sure enough, by nap time, her cheeks were rosy red and she was miserable. Although, after a dose of motrin, she took an AWESOME nap!
During her nap I worked my booty off in the kitchen. Now let me explain a little something- her nap times are my "breaks." As if I were at a job, and I had an hour for lunch- its that same sort of thinking for me. Every day I think about what I'm going to do during my "break." Usually it doesn't involve cooking, cleaning (MAYBE putting some clothes away or cleaning a bathroom) but most of the time you can find me curled up in bed taking a nap myself, or in the bath reading my gossip mags, or blogging... or blogstalking! Any one of those activities are far more appealing to me than cooking or cleaning or doing anything else useful around the house. Lazy? Yes. So what :) Today, however, I had planned out this elaborate meal and I knew there was no way around it- if I wanted to get it done in time for dinner, I HAD to cook during my "break." BOOOOO.
On the menu? Spaghetti Pie & Chocolate cake... both out of the "Deceptively Delicious" cookbook- so the Spag. Pie had carrot & broccoli puree and the "chocolate" cake was really BEETS!!!!! Seriously- an entire cup of pureed beets went into that cake! Anyways there I was pureeing away in the kitchen like a maniac. I got all the purees done (which really IS the hardest part- cleaning the veggies, steaming, pureeing- takes awhile!) and was ready to start actually cooking. I did the cake first- that beet puree was so dang pretty! It was relatively easy- the thing with this deceptive stuff is that everything is "pure"- there are no shortcuts. Meaning, you melt baking chocolate to make the chocolate flavoring for your cake- you use only egg whites (which I am a MASTER at!), so yeah- the concept is cutting out the oils, butter, sat fats all that nasty stuff and replace it with veggie or fruit purees. Once the cake was in the oven, I made the pasta just to have one less thing to do when Maeve woke up from her nap... somehow I could sense she was going to be a STINKER after her nap :)

My gorgeous purees :) The beets were sooooo pretty!!!

Mixing the beet cake :)

Still cooking... not sure of the significance of this pic. except for the fact that I really liked that beet puree!

Stinker, she was. Maaaaan it was an afternoon! She woke up around 3:30 or so, and we did all the normal stuff, changed her, let her be cranky for 20 minutes or so (really she is SO cranky after her naps! She walks around the house just being grouchy like an old person! :) haha its kind of funny- she gets SO ticked at the littlest things, like if you try and put a sock on her or hand her a book that she doesn't want, etc.) Around 4 I started dinner AGAIN, except this time I had a koala bear stuck to my leg... ahhh!! Let me just say, making 1/2 inch turkey meatballs with a toddler whining and clinging to your leg is not fun. I had to keep washing my hands before I could touch her (because of the raw turkey) and then I'd pick her up and try to figure out what the heck she wanted. She has this weird thing about her sippy cups- she CAN use them by herself- when she wants to- but when she doesn't want to, she throws it at you and she just stands there like a baby bird while you feed her... strange! Anyways she kept pulling that this afternoon... so it went like this: make a meatball or two, wash hands, give Maeve her sippy, make a few more meatballs, wash hands, give Maeve her sippy. YIKES!!!! I finally got done with that stupid spaghetti pie and was SO excited to "trick" Ryan when he got home- I had it all planned out- there would be this delicious spaghetti pie and chocolate cake on the table and he'd eat it all up and then I'd tell him the stuff that was in it :) so sneaky!

Meet my little bird :)

The Spaghetti Pie... yes, with green meatballs (they were green b/c of the brocoli!)

WELL the spaghetti pie did not turn out like it was supposed to- I think I added too much sauce? Who knows- but it didn't "crunch" up like it showed in the picture. So Ryan got home and it was STILL in the oven- he kept checking on it, and since it wasn't totally finished he caught sight of the "greenish" looking meatballs and the chunks of cottage cheese in the sauce. He was like "what did ya put in there???" DANG my cover was blown! How did it all turn out? After a SOLID hour and 20 minutes in the oven, the spaghetti pie was actually pretty good- no hint of carrot or broccoli at ALL. And the beet cake was AWESOME. DEF. will make that again!!!! I'm making Ryan take to work with him so I don't eat it tomorrow!


Ain't she a beaut'? :) My heart shaped beet cake...

Happy girl eating her beet cake! :) YES ITS CHOCOLATE! Bring in the troops! I gave my kid sweets! :) haha

So she's been into taking her clothes off lately... but this is the first time its happened at the dinner table :)

I simply ADORE this pic of Maeve. She was tipping her head back and cracking up at me... I caught a pic :)

Working on her dinner... look at those rosy cheeks!

After dinner, it was bathtime and I am proud to say that Maeve learned a couple new things within the past few days or so. First off, if you ask her where her "ding dong" is she points to her belly (we do "ding dong" on her belly button all the time) and just last night I noticed that she was very, VERY interested in her little baby boobies! She kept poking at them in the bath last night and it was one of those moments where I had to come up with something quick- I was thinking "What should we call them? I certainly do not want the word "boobs" coming out of her mouth or even "boobies" and "breasts" is just ridiculous to teach to a 15 month old, so I said "Boppies." Hmmm.... Boppies? Well today in the bath I asked her where her boppies were and sure enough she slapped her boppies. So Boppies it is! I am pretty sure she is still feeling under the weather (so am I) but her cheeks are super red and she didn't eat a thing for dinner... except some beet cake :) ughhhh hopefully tomorrow we'll both wake up with better feeling tummies!!! I gotta get to the Y!!!!
She looks funny in this pic... she is so fresh and so clean, clean after her bath :)

This is part of our bedtime thing- she picks out books....

and SHE reads them! She won't sit in our laps long enough to turn one page... so we let her flip through the pages... at least she's interested in books!

Just took this to show y'all "Billy" the penguin. We named him "Billy" for obvious reasons (or I guess not so obvious if you're not an Adam Sandler fan... but from the movie "Billy Madison", ya know the penguin...) anyways he sits at her baby grand piano... she's not to sure of him, but every once in awhile she'll venture over to him and give him a poke :)

OH- and all you gymboree fanatics out there- don't forget gymbuck redemption is this week!!!!! HOOOOOOORAY! I am going tomorrow (hopefully after the Y????) and stocking up for next winter.
Alright, long post, huh? Bedtime for me... goodnight and peace out :)

Maeves's Latest And Greatest :)

So it seems lately that Maeve is doing and saying more and more by the day. I thought I should write her new "tricks" and such down...

Maeves words: Mama, Dadda, Nana, Poppa, Emi, Bad Dog, Lola, Whats That?, Thank you, Yes, No, Yeah!- Keep in mind all these words SOUND more like this: "Da Dow Yoya" (Bad dog Lola). "Wassss dat?" (Whats that?) "Date too" (Thank You), "YEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS" (Yes)

Its a pretty impressive vocabulary I think... :)

She is sleeping through the night now on a regular basis :) YEA!!! Except when she is sick... then she wakes up because of her stuffies :(

She LOVES pancakes, waffles, toast, basically anything bread! Actually she'll eat just about anything now a days... but her faves are anything sweet!

She watches cartoons in the morning!!!!! YEA!!! TIME FOR ME TO GET STUFF DONE!!!!! She will actually sit and look up at the tv for a good half hour or so- an excellent time to clean the kitchen and get in a load of laundry!

She has favorite toys- her car, her purse, her baby grand piano, books, and baby dolls.

She also has what I call "obsessions"- WIPES- she has an unnatural thing going on with wipes. She carries them all over the house and pulls them out one by one. UGHHHH. Good thing I've been getting good wipes deals! She is also in loooooooooove with her bottles. I know- such a bad thing! But she carries her babaas around all day long. Even after they're empty- she just likes to carry them I guess. Dr. Williams said she needs to be totally off bottles by 15 months... um yeah- no clue how to do that!!!! We DID cut out her morning bottle, but we and SHE are very dependent on her naptime and bedtime bottle!!!

We've also entered her naked stage- it doesn't matter how cold it is, she wants to be naked all the time!!! I have to admit its really cute seeing her nakie butt running around the house. She pee peed on daddy the other day as he went to catch her! haha :)

Oh one last thing- she LOVES all this halloween suff! When we go into a store and see decorations I start saying "oooooh spooooooky!" And she will look back at me and then at all the decorations saying "WAS THAT? WAS THAT?" Sometimes she'll even go "ooooooohhhh" as shes looking at the stuff. Its really cute :)

So there you have it, as of October 28th, these are Maeves latest and greatest tricks! :)