tales from a far-land

About a month ago, one of my non-profit organizations, P.E.O. International, decided to organize a Girls' Night Out trip to the  Musical Instrument Museum  in Phoenix.  I had heard wonderful things about this institution and had never had the chance to visit so I decided it would be a great adventure for Madi and me.  Just the two of us (and my fellow philanthropists).  After picking up Madi at preschool, the two of us headed straight to the museum.  It had been decided that everyone from our organization would meet in the museum's little cafe for dinner and then we would go explore the museum together.  Madi and I arrived a little early, but used the time to make Madi feel comfortable with the new surroundings.  Plus, we had a chance to check out the children's room where we read some books about different instruments from around the world.  We then went into the cafe to start eating dinne...

Last Thursday was Aiden's nine month pediatrician visit. Per the doctor, he is developing very well and seems to be a very happy baby.  Aiden received the normal vaccinations and also had his toe pricked to check for anemia. Like usual, he only cried for a short period of time after his shots before he was smiling and ready to play again. Aiden's stats as of this visit were: Head circumference - 17.75" (53rd percentile) Height - 29.5" (90th percentile) Weight - 22 pounds, 4 ounces (87th percentile) We have a very BIG boy! Here are some of Aiden's developmental milestones at this age ... He is mobile.  He just started to crawl this past Sunday.  What a wonderful Mother's Day gift!   He is a very good eater.  Even though he does not have *any* teeth, he loves table food.  He wants to eat everything that we eat and will watch you inten...

Just a little birthday wish from Madilyn to Daddy.  As you can see, she has only mastered the first verse of the "birthday" song.  However, it was just too cute not to share!  Enjoy!

Three years ago today, you and I stood before our friends and family to exchange our vows in marriage.  Although it was an unconventional ceremony on a blistering hot day, and even though some claimed it was "on a whim", we could not have been more serious about our commitment.  I am so lucky to have found you.  You have enriched my life in countless ways -- two of them being our beautiful children.  You have accepted me and my idosyncrasies.  And every day I know that you challenge me to become a better person.  The past three years have been full of new lessons, wild adventures, and many, many compromises.  However, I would not want anyone but you by my side as we travel this route together.  Our relationship grows stronger and deeper everyday.  I trust that we will continue to wake up each morning and choose to walk hand in hand down this crazy road they call life. As I did on that day, he...

When you are pregnant and preparing for parenthood, everyone is willing to provide you with plenty of insight and warnings about the trials and tribulations that you will soon encounter. We were warned about sleepless nights, mid-night feedings, the incessant crying, the consistent and ever flowing spit-up, the mountains of dirty diapers, the never-ending loads of laundry, non-stop house cleaning and the joys of potty training. However, no one, not one single fellow parent, warned us of the true pitfall of parenthood. No one warned us of the day when our adorable, cute, little babies would become infectious, vile, disease-carrying monsters. When a single virus would invade our house and continue to attack until every person had been infected at least once, if not twice or three times. What a vicious little circle! As the latest survivor of the most recent attack, I am amazed how such a small little organism can wipe out an entire household in a matter of days.  And how it ca...

We had our first home potty time success this morning.  Madilyn has been going potty on the toilet successfully all week at preschool.  All week she has been using the preschool's toilet about 3-4 times a day.  She even has gotten to the point of letting her teacher know on the playground when she needs to go potty.  However, when we try to use the toilet at home, we have not once been successful nor has she been that forthcoming.  It has been a little frustrating.  We will take her to the potty at home about every half an hour and, before this morning, it was inevitable she would pee her pants right *after* one of our trips to the toilet.  But this morning it was different.  When Madi awoke this morning, her diaper was completely dry.  Yes, we are still using diapers at night.  We were not quite ready to combat her night time bodily functions too.  Anyway, since she was completely dry, I knew that she would need to u...

Madi adores Elmo.  Every morning when she wakes up, the first thing she wants to do is watch Elmo.  When she gets home from preschool every afternoon, she wants to watch Elmo.  It is crazy.  We have had to limit her Elmo intake to only once a day.  So, when thinking of the theme for her birthday party.  It was easy ~ an Elmo themed party.  On the Saturday afternoon following her birthday, we invited a small gathering of friends and family to celebrate Madi's 2nd birthday.  She enjoyed playing on the swing set with her friends ... Keaton, Emma, Brooke, Nathan and Ryan.  While the kids played, the adults struggled through their own game of Elmo Trivia.  Elmo's favorite food, pizza, was served for dinner.  After watching Madi open up her gifts, we sang "Happy Birthday" and watched Madi blow our her candles.  In actuality, she really didn't understand that concept, but she enjoyed watching Mommy blow out he...

What can I say?  Toddler potty training has arrived in our house.  Actually, it has not only arrived, but it is consuming our home.  Preschool started the potty training track for us about a couple of weeks ago when Madi officially moved into the Toddler 2 Room.  This classroom is unique.  It has an adjacent bathroom that has three tiny toddler toilets.  The kids are just rotated in and out of the restroom all day.  So, we have continued the diaper to Big Girl panties at home.  In fact, I took Madi shopping for her first Big Girl panties this weekend.  I walked her into to Target and she selected her own packages of panties.  She wanted "Kitty" (Hello Kitty) and "Micky" (actually, Minnie Mouse) underwear.  She was so excited that she carried both of the packages all around the store and didn't want to hand them to the cash register.  She kept exclaiming, "Min...

It was time to capture more of our childrens' milestone moments in their lives.  Madilyn at age two and Aiden at 6 months.  For this photo shoot, we returned back to JC Penney's Portrait Studio.  Sadly, it was not as enjoyable as previous visits.  However, this is not a reflection of the studio at all.  It was entirely due to the behavior of my 2 year old.  She was insane !  Our visit consisted of many, many tears and a good amount of "No, Mommy, no."  As you will see, the photo results are not as "smiley" as we have seen from our daughter in the past.  It was *so* terrible that we had to return a second time later that day to give Madi a break before we tried again.  Unfortunately, our return visit did not go much better.  Aiden performed very well, except he refused to do any belly shots.  Every time we tried to lay him down on his tummy his waterworks began.  It was a lovely experience.  I ...

A couple of weekends ago while I was organizing the office, the kids (and Josh) decided to join me and play in some of the empty boxes that were laying around the room.  It always amazes me how much fun kids have while playing with unconventional "toys".  I guess we should invest in more boxes and tupperware.  They played in these boxes for a good while.  Watching them enjoy themselves was a refreshing afternoon break from my weekend chores.  Aiden enjoying playing in a box   Madi and Aiden He is *so* excited!   Of course, "Puppy" had to join in the fun Relaxing ~ Feet Up     Ouch! "No touch-er, Aiden.  No touch-er!"