Bouncing Maddie

I dug through all the baby things we have and found our Bungee Bouncer. All of my kids have loved it so we figured that Maddison would enjoy it as well. It has been wonderful. Not only does it entertain her, it also keeps the older 3 busy because they think it is funny to watch her. In my mind, it's a win-win situation. Of course Jason gets a little crazy with it and Maddie loves it even more. I had to share the videos because they are just too fun. When Maddison is in the bouncer it turns into a family event.

What A Week!

This has been one of the longest weeks ever for pretty much all of us. It has been interesting for Jason and I to reverse rolls and get a glimpse into each other's daily lives. For those of you who do not know, I have been in SLC this week for training for my new job. Because I am still nursing Maddison, I had to keep her out here with me and so having Jason come out and stay at the hotel with the kids seemed like the most logical explanation. For 5 days I traded in my comfy clothes for high heels and business dress. Man my feet hurt! I even managed to make it through the day without having spit up on me. That doesn't happen too often.

I think that we are all so exhausted. I have been putting in some long days and then having to go out to dinner with my team in the evenings a couple of times. It makes me really appreciate Jason and his willingness to work so that I can stay home with the kids. My guess is that Jason also has an appreciation for how hard it is to be a stay at home mom.

He really has been wonderful and very willing to just support me this week. Not only has he taken on the care of the kids, he hasn't complained even once! He kept a smile on his face when he had to pack up the kids and bring them to my office so I could feed Maddie everyday at lunch and aside from Kaiden's black eye and Kenzie's fat lip, the kids have managed to survive. I think I have the best husband ever.

The Day After

Well, Kaiden's black eye just keeps getting darker and darker. You cannot imagine the looks you get from strangers when you are walking around and your 2 year old has a black eye. Thank goodness I didn't have pictures scheduled for this next week. The good news is that Kaiden could care less that he has a black eye and he actually seems to think his "battle scar" is kinda cool.

Anyone Know of A Hotel That Is Childproof?

I am sitting in a meeting earlier today when I had a quick break and thought I would give Jason a call. I open my phone to see that I have a picture message. So I go ahead and open it up to only to see a picture of Kaiden and his newly created black eye. How did that happen you might ask. Well, we have a table in our hotel room and our wild and crazy little guy decided to try and put a corner of it through his eye. Jason said that it turned black immediately. The picture just does not do it justice. Obviously our hotel is not childproof.

Grandma

I just had to post this cute picture of Maddison and my mom. I am very close with my mom and being away from home has been really hard. It was fun to spend a little bit of time with her last week and it gave my kids another opportunity to see what an incredible grandma they have. The kids just love to be around her because she helps them do fun things that they normally do not get to do. I have only been away from my mom since Sunday and I miss her already.

Fun With Grandma and Grandpa

We have been fortunate enough to get to go home and see my parents this week. The kids have had a blast playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house. One of their favorite things to do is to talk my dad into taking them up the canyon on the four wheeler. Kaiden is having trouble calling it by it's correct name and instead says 4 weiner. That kids just kills me!

Maddison's New Best Friend

We got together with my family yesterday and had a blast. It was so fun to see everyone and it was shocking to see how big everyone's kids have gotten. Maddison is very much a mommy's girl and usually isn't too willing to venture into other people's arms. But, she has found her new best friend, my little sister, Ashlee. Maddison just loves her. She played with her and cuddled up to her. I was a bit shocked that Maddie took to her like she did. She would even let Ashlee hold her when I was sitting right next to her. It was kind of nice to get more than 5 minutes without having her in my arms. Thank heavens for new friends.

Shots

Wow, 2 posts on consecutive days! That doesn't happen too often. At Maddison's appointment yesterday, she got shots. Not just 1 or 2 shots, but 5 shots. Poor thing. She got 3 in one leg and 2 in the other. She is the funniest though. We laid her down on the table to give her the shots and she looked very concerned. The gave her the shot and she screamed her head off the entire time. As soon as she was done, I picked her up and she stopped crying. The nurse started laughing. Apparently Maddison was just glaring at her. The nurse had never had a baby so small do that. It was so cute because she was giving the evil eye and had huge tears on her face at the same time. At least she smiled at the nurse before we left.

Now Maddie is doing the typcial after shots grumpiness. She is running a low grade fever so we are keeping her doped up on Motrin and Tylenol. She is much happier that way. I cannot believe how emotional she is. Just look at her wrong and she starts crying. I have a feeling that the teenage years are going to be rough with her.

7 Months Stats

I just got back from taking Maddison to her well child check. We are a month behind so she is almost 7.5 months. The good news is that she does not have an ear infection. I was worried because she was tugging on one ear but she didn't act like it was hurting. Turns out that she has just discovered that she has ears. Well, I guess technically she has discovered that she has one ear. She only plays with her right ear. Imagine the fun she will have when she realizes that she has one on each side of her head!

I have been watching her thighs get bigger so I was sure that her percentage for weight would move up. It did, by ONE percentage point. Yup, she moved from the 3rd to the 4th percentile. I decided to take it as a victory until her doctor said that she probably went down in all reality because she is almost 7.5 months and they mark it as 7 months when they figure out the percentage. Oh well, she is chubby but just a little one.

She now weighs 13 pounds 8 ounces (4%) and is 25.25 inches tall (18%). So she is pretty consistant with her growth and is staying right along the same curve. She is such a sweet little girl and is always wearing a smile on her face. She loves to talk and blow bubbles. Giving kisses is also a hobby she has recently picked up on. Jason says it's okay as long as he is the only guys she kisses for a while. She will not attempt to crawl around but she will hang on to our hands and walk for a short distance. I am thinking that she will go straight to walking and just skip the whole crawling phase. She loves to be on her feet. She does have a bit of a temper as some of you have witnessed in the mothers lounge at church. Jason says she is like me, she knows what she wants and makes sure that she gets it. We love our little Maddie and are having so much fun with her. She is in such a fun stage.

Life with 2 older sisters

Poor Kaiden. Not only is he the only boy, he has 2 older sisters that love to play dress up and are obsessed with the Disney Princesses. Of course, they cannot dress up to play and not include him so they "help him out" by getting him all dressed up too. I bought this little princess jewelry set on friday on my short shopping trip without any children (Yipee!) and gave it to the girls saturday morning. Of course they were thrilled and started to play with it. I leave the room for a few minutes, and well, this is the result. I made the mistake of laughing the first time they got him all dolled up in dress up clothes and now they think it is funny to torture their little brother. And of course, he is oblivious to the fact that it is not cool for him to be a princess so he is more than willing to play along.

The poor little guy has no clue that these pictures are going to be great blackmail when he gets older. I have this feeling that he will someday not be too happy with his sisters. He is so willing to do whatever they want him to. At least I can say that if he is a princess, he is the meanest princess I know! He might get talked in to getting all dressed up in girly clothes but he most certainly does not act like a well mannered princess. He is more like a bull in a china cabinet and my house is frequently a victim of his craziness. I wonder what Kaitlyn and Kenzie will come up with next. What a good sport! Jason and I might need to have a talk with our girls. We don't want to let our girls scar Kaiden for life. :0)

Mysterious Brown Balls

We have had 2 warm days in a row!!! It is not hot by any means, but jacket weather instead of coat weather. I have actually worn capris for the past 2 days. Hopefully this means no more having to bundle up just to go to the mailbox.

Our morning started out hearing our little Kenzie singing "I Am A Child of God" to the top of her lungs while sitting on the potty at 7:00a.m.. Jason thought that his alarm was going off and just about flew out of bed. We were not thrilled with the fact that we didn't get to sleep in but at least she was having a good time. After watching the first session of Conference, the kids wanted to go out to play. It would be a beautiful day if it weren't for the wind. But, they didn't seem to mind the wind as long as they got to play.

The highlight of them playing was when it looked like they were playing with the bark on one of the trees. Kaitlyn said that she was just playing with these little brown balls and not the tree. Okay, so I should have gone out and checked out these "little brown balls" right then and there but we don't have a dog and so I didn't think it was a big deal. I went outside a while later to push Kaiden in the swing and saw these mysterious balls. It was rabbit poo!!! They had been playing with it for quite some time. I guess I take for granted growing up in the country because I have always known what rabbit poo is and I have always known not to play with it. Man, my kids have been in the city for way too long.

Maddie and Mac

Maddison has finally adjusted to Jason being home. When he first got home she only wanted to play with him if I was holding her. She was fine until he took her and then those tears started. And when Maddie cries, she really cries. We are talking full blown tears. She has decided that Jason is good to spit at. This picture is her attempting to do just that. As soon as he walks in the room she starts spitting and blowing bubbles not to mention her sticking her tounge out. She love, love, loves her tounge. We are even accusing her of being part German because she does this thing in her throat that makes it sound like she is trying to speak German. She is really starting to love her Daddy and even cried yesterday when he left the room. I am sure she will be a Daddy's girl just like the other 2. I am great when they are tiny but they quickly realize that Jason is the rough houser and they love it.

Mackenzie had a field trip yesterday to the Aquarium at the zoo. She was so excited and has been talking about it for weeks. She obviously doesn't understand time because she would ask me if she gets to go to the zoo today and I would tell her no that it was next week. Well, she would ask again the next day. This went on for at least 2 weeks. So needless to say, I was thrilled that yesterday was the trip. I have decided that they need to wait to tell the kids about fieldtrips until the day before to save the parents from going crazy. lol! She had so much fun. I wanted to go with her but they do not allow parents to go because they have enough aides in the preschool. She must have some of me in her because they said that she started talking as soon as she got to school and never stopped talking. Yes, my kids have the gift of gab!

What too much shopping does to a 2 year old

I guess that I am a bigger shopper than I thought. I took Kaiden shopping for a couple of hours and he fell asleep in the car. Jason carried him in the house and put him on the couch. He slept there looking somewhat uncomfortable for quite some time. Normally he wakes up when we are taking him out of his carseat, but not this time. He didn't move at all and his eyes stayed completely shut. Maybe he does still need to take his naps during the day. Now if I can only convince him of that!