Miss Independent

Madelynn has become just that. Slowly but surely. She is gettin to that age that she wants to do everything all by herself.. and we just don't exist.... until she gets herself into trouble that is. She is climbing on everything that her short little legs will possibly allow her to. She is jumping off higher things, becoming a little more of a dare devil. She is just about done with her highchair and almost always wants to sit at the big table by her daddy. Its fun to watch, but also hard at times... like when she's just gotta do it herself and you just gotta let her, and watch her fall, and learn.

There was a jar of baby food on the table that I had planned to feed Payton once I got Madelynns dinner ready also... but before I knew it, Madelynn was climbing up in the chair, had the spoon in hand was ready to feed her sister. But of course, that "hard part" of me letting go of my clean freak-ness, no stains on the clothes-ness, and watching the whole, messy process got in the way and I proceeded to "help" and Madelynn let me know very quickly that she wanted to do it herself. So... I told myself, just let it go, she has gotta learn (something I tell myself 4800 times a day)... and I gotta get over it and let her make a mess. (I am learning, and letting go!!!!!!) So I did just that, and much to my surprise, she did it just about as perfectly as a her little body could. I had to show her you can't turn the spoon over or the food will fall off and after that, she was very careful to keep the spoon turned up. I was so proud of her.

P.S.... So Madelynn has her little kitchen that she got for Christmas and she often stirs stuff up for us to "taste" and when she gives me a bite I always say yuuuum, or mmmm. So you hear her doing that to Payton every time she gives her a bite. :)

when all was said and one, this is how everything looked.

Now before you go thinkin its all grins and giggles 'round here, she also had just about the biggest accident she has had in her entire life. When all was said and done feeding sister, I got everything cleaned up and proceeded to finish up with her supper. I turned around to the fridge to get something, heard an extremely loud crashing sound, followed by a humongous cry... probably the biggest I have ever heard from her. Turned around and saw the chair that she was in had fell straight back, she was standing with her belly against the back of the chair... meaning she fell straight on her face. Her fingers were all smashed between the edge of the chair and the floor, she has a huge knot on her forehead, busted her lip, hit so hard she bled from her top tooth. Poor thing! I felt so bad for her. But all seems to be ok now, bruise on forehead is nice and purple and fingers are all moving. After that she was so upset she didnt want to eat... or do anything but sit in my lap. We eventually went ahead and had a bath and that calmed her down a bit.

nice little bruise starting to form... Before bed, it was already a deep purple.

Ya'll see anything different about this picture??? Probably not... cuz its not your kid, and you probably don't even give a dang... but I do. :) Payton is sittin up in the tub and not in her little bathy thing. I loved this milestone with Madelynn... but this is definitely way more fun! They both had a blast. She slipped and went under one time (oops.)

"Geez mom, your so stupid..."

Are the words I know my little 19 month old would have said had she been capable of putting such words together. As a mom, I try to stay on top of things. Ya know, like I am the sneaky one that can sneak stuff, and I am the one who decides who gets what around here.........

But today, the girl outdid her momma... I have been working alot with her and her dad gum pacifier... only letting her have it at bed time. Its a chore! She will find them anywhere, and when you take it form her its world war 3. If she sees one, and you refuse to give it to her, its world war 4. She is addicted. I dread the day that it is taken from her.

So today, she woke up from nap, and had lunch. Took the paci for lunch time and put 'em on the table (my bad) When lunch was over she was begging and pleading with me for them... but I wasn't gonna give in. So next step is to try and distract her. So I turned on Tigger and Pooh for her and it got nice and quite... ahhh, silence, Im good, I win, Im the mom 'round here and I decide who does what and when, after alll... so you just sit there and watch your show and I'm gonna go about my business cleaning up after lunch.

I then proceed to the living room to get the diaper bag to pack it for when we head out later and I see somethin lookin kinda like this:

Maybe I'm not so big and bad 'round here, maybe I'm not as sneaky as I thought I was, maybe I do fail... maybe, just maybe I got beat at my own game.

she found something better to pacify her... chocolate.

I had ran to the store earlier (hungry) and picked up some cadbury eggs they had out for easter. I have no idea how she found them, I have no idea how she got them... but she enjoyed 'em. As you can see, she took a couple of bites out of each one. Geez kid, couldn't you leave one for your poor pregnant mother?!?!

signed,

humbled mother of 2.. and a half.

and now, the rest of the story.

Pardon the fact that I did not live up to my word and blog the rest of what I had to say the next day. The only excuse I have is that I simply did not feel like it. Just didn't have it in me to load the pictures. How lazy!!

Anyways... So... since we kinda had a milestone here in the Rose house, it motivated me to load the pictures. Little miss Payton made 6 months on Sunday. Its sooo crazy how when your pregnant it goes by soooo slow and it seems like this kid is never gonna come out and the last few weeks are even slower and then once the day comes, and you have that baby and you blink your eyes for 2 seconds and that sweet little baby is half way to a year! Why cant it be the other way around??? Anyways... Payton is now sittin up all on her own! I remember the day that I felt confident enough that Madelynn could do it on her own and the day has come for Ms. Payton... 2 months earlier mind you. :)

How fun. Im lovin' it... BUT, I dont think that I am lovin it as much as Madelynn does. She has a blast with Payton since they can interact more.

Madelynn

We also had another (silly) milestone for Madelynn. She grew out of her little size 3 pink tenny shoes that she has had forever. :( I am seriously sad about it.. and yes I know thats absolutely ridiculous... but when I see those shoes, It just screams Madelynn. I'm thinkin that its gonna be something that we put in her memory box instead of pass down to sister.

old shoes on the right.

new shoes on the left.

Park day

On Sunday, we packed our picnic bag and headed out to the park. We had to take full advantage the nice weathere we (had) been having, knowing cold, yucky weather was on its way. This was also Madelynns first time to be able to WALK at the park... and she had an absolute blast. I dont think I have ever seen that girl so happy in my life. It was a completely different experience from the last time we went to the park. The slide was IT. That was all she wanted to do. She went down on her tummy, on her back, sitting, laying. Any possible way to go down a slide, she tried it. It was so fun to watch her.

she was scared to death to sit there without holding on but she refused to sit on my lap.. it was a hard meal to eat when your holding on for dear life with both hands. She did manage tho.

so big! She is getting so independent. Didn't want any help at all.

the face says it all.

Payton loved bein outside.

She tried all the slides out.

swingin'

daddy had this fantastic idea of taking Madelynn to "play" in the sand. Deep down inside I think that HE wanted to play. Meanwhile Madelynn is weirded out by the sand and is freaking out for help and her father was just diggin' away.

Snow day

Now only living in Texas can you blog about a park day and a snow day at one time. But its true! We went to the park one day, and 2 days later there was snow on the ground. Madelynn still wasn't to fond of it. Nat didn't have to work so we got to spend the day with him. He thinks snow is only good for eatin so he and Madelynn ate snow the whole time we were outside.

she later figured out that snow would stick to her gloves so she put her hand on the snow, ate it off her glove and ate just about all the snow on the bumper of my car.

stuff

Wow, I feel like I have so much to write about. Between severe nausea, and being busy, busy last week... I feel like I had no time to blog! So here ya go.

Valentines

Was fun. Surprise, surprise, Nat thinks valentines day is the stupidest day on the face of the earth. Me on the other hand, think its quite a lovely day. One that you can show all your love to the loved ones in your life. So of course, me being me, went all out for my 18 month old and 5 month old who will remember nothing about it. But I'm all about the sweet memories that I will forever cherish in my heart!!

This was her at valentines day last year. When she liked Paytons lady bug more, we had to pull this guy outta stuffed animal hiding and she has slept with it ever since!!

Sleepover

With nana and paw paw. I was desperate for some good solid sleep last week. Both girls had been going to bed late due to getting home late almost every night and they were both waking up between 7 and 8 and I was dying!! Being nauseated, and sleep deprived, and in the first trimester of pregnancy, and taking care of an 18 month old and 5 month old made for a VERY unhappy, unloving mother and wife so I invited them to sleep over with their grandparents. How nice of me huh??

there's a new sheriff in town.

talkin to her daddy on the phone.

sleepin in a big girl bed for the first time at nana and paw paw's. I let her pick out what she wanted to bring to the sleepover to sleep with. She was so excited, she put it all in her special little bag.

sweet sleepin girl.

walkin around outside. One thing that I sooo looked forward to, living out in Mertzon with all the openness, was letting her just run around outside and not worry bout a thing!! She LOVES to be outside.

Rodeo

We went to the rodeo and the fair on Saturday and of course had a blast! Im tellin ya... there just ain't nothin like the rodeo! I love it when it comes around every year. We just took Madelynn this year and she was a little nervous at first. When she gets nervous she puts her bottom teeth forward... like a bull dog, and she holds her hands together and ever so often, she bites her nails. She did this for the first 30 minutes or so. Once she noticed those cotton candy boys walkin back and forth she very kindly asked for some... and there is really no such thing as a rodeo without the cotton candy. That warmed her up quite a bit to the whole thing and she really started to enjoy it... and all the animals. Then she conked out for about half the show.

Oh ya!

and she's out

us. - Payton

The fair was fun. I was kinda sorta hopeful that she would maybe, just maybe be able to ride a few of the little kiddey rides. I was waaaay off on the height thing. So we just walked around and watched the girls ride some rides. She had a blast!!

She was waaay to cool for a stroller! Shoulda known.

Daddy and the princess

and she was not cool enough unless she walked around with the drink.

Pregnancy

I made it to 11 weeks!! ha! and I still have an eternity to go. But thats ok! That will be to my benefit somehow, I just know it. Everything has settled down and its kinda become real to me. I have been soooo nauseated with this one!! It is awful!! Not all the time to the point of vomiting, but crap... if your gonna feel like that, I would rather be puking from it rather than being tortured by it day in and day out! Hopefully that will end as the first trimester ends. Not that thats to terribly close. On Wednesday, I had woke up form a nap and had some pretty bad pains on my right side and it really concerned me. I have a pretty good pain tolerance, so for me to hurt like that and be concerned enough to call the Dr. is a big deal. I gave it some time and it never went away so I called my Dr. and she wanted for me to go ahead and get an ultrasound done just to make sure all is ok. So I went in on Friday and had one done. Baby had a good heartbeat so that was a huge relief! I should hear the results tomorrow, but I am really not concerned about it. As of now, the pain has gone away so I think its all gonna be ok!

and that my friends is all for now. I have more for tomorrow!! So if I find time to get around to it be ready for some more.

Oh wait!! One more thing. Prayer thing at that, for my family. My cousin passed away this morning. It was a pretty sudden and tragic thing. She was young. The closest cousin I ever had. I have lots and lots of good memories with her and my sister (elizabeth) and other cousin (her sister) Rebekah. Laying in bed I was thinkin of lots of sweet memories we had together, the 4 of us. It was always me and Sarah, and Liz and Rebekah. I hadn't seen her since I was probably 14 due to the fact that I live in TX and she lives in FL... so that makes it hard. I never thought the last time I said goodbye to her would really and truly be the last time I would say goodbye to her. But I know that one day I will see her pretty face again! Ahh. Its hard. Hard to accept death. And I've had to go through it twice this month. Something new to me... and I don't like it.

urologist

We had Payton's appointment with the urologist yesterday.. It went well, kinda how I had a feeling it would go. He showed us the x-rays from the VCUG that she had in the hospital back in Dec. It was nice to be able to see what was going on (wrong) in her little body. There are 5 stages that they go by in kidney reflux, 1 being not so bad, 5 being the worst. He explained how they figured that out... meaning how swollen the ureters are, and how far it goes up into the kidneys. Payton is at a 4. Her ureters are pretty swollen and the urine does go up into her kidneys. There is a valvey type thing that in a normal person, opens and closes on its own and lets urine pass through to go down to the bladder. In Paytons case, the valve dont work, so it goes back up into her kidneys.

I shared this awhile back while we were in the hospital with her, but just so you know what im talking about, I'll show ya again. Paytons insides are like the red arrows.

When you get to stage 4 and 5, It us un- common that it heals itself and it more than likely will need surgery to correct it. They do not like doing it on children until they are at least a year so basically what he wants us to do is wait until this December, which will be a year from when she was hospitalized and they will do another VCUG test on her and see if it has healed itself at all, or if they have gotten worse, or if its just the same. Of course if its the same, or worse, they will schedule her for surgery from there. She will be on a small dose of antibiotics until Dec. to keep infection away. If infection does break through the antibiotics, that would more than likely be cause for surgery sooner than a year.

Soooo what this means is that every single person that will read this has to pray, pray and pray some more that God would heal her little body and that when we go back in Dec., she will have perfectly, normal, beautiful ureters!!!!!! So from now till Dec. 16 thats what we will do, and we would greatly appreciate it from you too!!

Strange man

Yesterday, I had just got outta the shower and the girls were napping so I did what I do just about every day at nap time... sit on the couch all by myself and watch dvr shows that I need to catch up on. This particular day I walk into the living room and see what seems to be a strange man peeking inside my window. The curtains are deep red, but when the sun is shining through, you can see shadows of things outside. I immediately notice this and I'm like ok... if someone is there, surely they will knock so I stand at the entrance to the living room waiting to hear a knock and I hear nothin. At this point I'm kinda freaking out cuz this tall man with a hat on keeps looking in my window. He would go back and forth from the window to the door... desperately trying to see more and more into my house. Some time passes and I am like seriously freaking out! So I start to think, what do I do??? I can A.) find another window where he cant see me and see who the heck it is.. but there is not another window that you can see the front door from, so that wasn't an option anymore. B.) Man up and walk across the living room, look out that window and hope its not someone who wants to hurt me... after all he is desperately looking in my window. or C.) call Nat and see if he knows something I dont know about and I need to answer the door... and if not, tell him there is a peeping tom and he needs to get his butt home and take care of it... but wait! my phone is at the other end of the couch... if I walk over there, he will surely see me and then lord knows what would happen. After I stood there a minute, contemplating what to do and absolutely scaring myself to death... I'm like ok... gotta get my phone and call someone. The cops, Nat, anyone for help!!! So I slowly and slyly go get my phone and much to my surprise I see a nice tall man with a hat on... looking somewhat like this:

A nice sweet balloon that says I love you.

Ok... can you say IDIOT!?!?! I couldn't even believe what I put myself through over a stinkin balloon. I just had to laugh at myself.

Dedicated to:

My mother-in-law, Sharon

Granny

and anyone else in Nat's family who took part in, laughed at, prayed for, or simply sat back and watched this task.

I have heard many many (horror) stories about my dear husband when he was younger, one being him having to take liquid medicines. In this process, it would take 2 people, his mom and his granny. One had to hold him down, while the other would hold his mouth open, pour in the medicine and hold his mouth shut until he swallowed. You may think this sounds a little.. cruel, but knowing my husband now, and the many many (horror) stories I have heard about him, it doesn't surprise me one bit... and its not in the least bit cruel.

Poor Nat, so mis-treated...

So he has had a bad cough lately and it usually messes with his asthma real bad so yesterday, he decided he was going to take some cough medicine... having heard stories about his poor mom giving him medicine, and never having seen him actually take a liquid medicine, I proceeded to watch. As I watched, I wished desperately that I had my camera. (I was a little hesitant to share this story with you for lack of pictures in the process) but I knew that if I got up and got my camera, he would run and hide Im sure.. or the typical hand in the camera kinda picture. So I took mental pictures and I laughed... and I laughed, and I laughed and I laughed, until I cried. Never before had I seen a grown man act like such a baby!! He stared at the cough syrup with a look of disgust on his face for (literally, I kid you not) 15 minutes. He then picked it up and held it for another 5 minutes and the look got even more disgusted. He brought it up to his mouth for another 3 minutes and I literally thought he was going to lose it. All the while I am laughing so hard I can hardly contain myself. I eventually had to get up and go tend to one of the girls, so I missed the swallowing process and when I got back in the kitchen, he had an empty medicine cup in his hand and he was leaning over the sink with his eyes shut and he looked like he was just fixin to throw up. I laugh, he proceeds to get up and he said, "I think Im scarred for life with what I went through with momma and granny."

New. found. love

Every time we go to wal mart, we take Madelynn back to look at the fishies and she goes crazy!! She walks up and down the tanks lookin at the fish, studying them, talking to them. She could seriously stand there for hours!! It is not a fun thing to try and get her away from it!!! (I just got this genius idea!!! They need to start a little day care in the back of Wal Mart where the fish are. Drop 'em off and go shop. They can page you over the intercom if your child acts up.) Ok... anyways, sorry bout that. But seriously isn't that a fantastic idea?!?!

So Nat and I were like hey, we got a tank out in storage, why dont we get it and fill it up with fish so she can enjoy them at home too! (and.... after 2 years of marriage, we both win! He gets his fish tank and I get my blanket rack) thats another story for another day tho... So we did just that! Got the tank all set up, and last night we ventured out to petco to buy some fish. After we selected our little beauties, we brought 'em home... and the girl went goo goo over them! It was so cute. She just wanted to sit there and watch 'em, It took a lot to get her to go to bed. When she woke up this morning, I asked her if she wanted to go see her fish and started giggling and got outta bed and ran in the living room. Hopefully this enjoyment will last awhile for her.

the water is still a little cloudy... I wonder if that has to do with nasty SA water???

(my) the sucker fish

and this is my personal favorite. Isn't it beautiful??? and wouldn't ya know this was the only fish that we didnt get 2 of. I definitily wanna go back and get a few more of these.

and wouldnt ya know, there all still alive!! I was soo worried we would get home and they would all die. Fish can get kinda expensive so I was not looking forward to flushing a $5 fish down the toilet.

We'll get more fish slowly... just got a few to start us off.

In Payton news,

(dont mind her hair.)

She has been fussy and unhappy lately and not eating well at all, so I just KNEW that it was leading to something! yesterday, after her nap she woke up screaming and I could tell that she was definitely in pain, and we could not get her to stop. Nothing was making her happy. (now I know why she wasn't eating, and wouldn't take her paci.) Later that night, I felt that she was a little warm so I took her temp and she had a fever. It was what I had dreaded would happen at some point. We prayed that it WAS NOT a UTI and that she would not have to get a cath done and that we would not re-play that horrible time in our lives. We (barely) made it through the night with her! Poor Nat slept right through his alarm and was late to work. So I called first thing this mornin and they wanted me to go ahead and bring her in even tho her fever was not too high. We eventually found out that it was just an ear infection. Praise God!! It is sooo nice to say it was just an ear infection. He said he would check her urine if I wanted him to and I said no thanks!!! We were sooo relieved! Thanks to everyone who prayed for our baby. God hears your prayers!

Anyways... we are on the mend now. Just got a little runny nose. Got some ear drops, and some antibiotics. Now hopefully she wont do like her sister did and get worse, and not have to be on 24 different medicines before it finally cleared up the infection!

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

Two things my 18 month old knows that:

A.) She just absolutely should not know.

and B.) That we will possibly one day regret.

First off, she knows how to say no-no. No no daddy, no-no anyone, EXCEPT ME! Thats right, she knows better than to say no no to her momma. :) For now she just plays around with it when were playing around with her... but we cant really get onto her if she decides to use it in perspective some day.

Listen close, its kinda quite.

Second, she knows how to make a fist... and punch. I have always played with her and put my fists up and said Im 'onna getchu ... totally playing around, and then I would fake punch her. Wow, that sound horrible. But you know what I mean... a nice, gentle, friendly little punch. Well the other day, she was playing with her paw paw (Rose) and he put his fist up at her, just playing (wow, we sound like a violent family huh???) and she put her fist back up at him and punched him! I couldn't believe what I had created! Her father, of course, was proud of it. I'm sure regardless if she had learned now or not, her daddy woulda taught her as soon as she was old enough to know.

watch out for the Rose girls!