Trick-or-Treat

For Halloween this year I gave Maddy a couple of choices as to what she wanted to be. She chose to be a bee out of the choices I gave her. I ended up buying two costumes for her because the day I bought her first costume she was melting down in the store so I chose not to try it on her. Of coarse I also wasn't paying attention to the size and realized later instead of it being solely 24 months it was 12-24 months. I knew it would be too small, so I went back and got the 2T bee costume. People had a hard time knowing exactly what she was with the 2T costume and I felt bad because I should have gotten her the yellow and black stripe tights but didn't have time to go back to the store to buy them and had already bought plain black tights. I still think it was the cutest costume of the night :) She wasn't too sure what was going on...she thought we were going outside to play and started to get upset when I wouldn't open the door. I told her we were going for a walk and then she decided she wanted to walk in the grass. Finally she realized I meant in the street, which she isn't allowed to do normally, so she put her strut on and walked in the street like a big girl. She was walking so proud...it was really cute! She didn't say trick or treat to the people but knew they would put candy or "chocolate" in her bucket and she did tell them thank you and bye. I am very proud of her, she did exceptionally well! Here are pics of both costumes...

Maddy got to go trick-or-treating at her school on Friday. I'm assuming it was a success for her because she came home with a bag full of candy :) She is growing up too fast!

Then vs. Now Part 1

What I really want to talk about I can't so earlier today I had the bright idea to post pics of Maddy from when she was first born and compare them to now. I recently found her newborn pics (they were lost for a while) and thought it would be neat to see the difference, although a tad bit sad for me lol. Here we go...

In this picture we were celebrating my niece's 7th birthday at Ichiban. I had recently found out I was pregnant and was approximately one month along.

Here I am on my 26th birthday and I am almost three months pregnant.

In Florida and five months pregnant

August 2009 eight months pregnant

September 23, 2009 nine months pregnant. I had a 14 hour labor and spent seven hours of it at home and the other seven in the hospital.

Here are her newborn, one year, and two year pics. It is amazing how much she has grown over the years!

 

First Halloween vs. Second Halloween...third one has yet to come.

I will have to finish this tomorrow or throughout the week as my battery is dying and I need to get in bed. Good night everybody!

News Alert!!!

I wasn't going to post today, but I have some exciting news. During bath tonight Maddy kept saying she had to go #2 in the potty so we would let her sit on the potty. We thought it was just a game she was playing and originally said no to the last time but she acted as if she was really about to go potty and she did not want to potty in the tub so we let her go and what do ya know...i look down and see stuff in the potty. I was so excited. This is the first official time for me that she has said she had to potty and actually went. She is backwards in her potty training though. She will not pee in the potty...she holds it until she gets in the tub but she is all about going #2 in there. I know that is ok and in a lot of ways better because that is the hardest part. I just know we are starting this potty training thing full force and I'm hoping this means she will start going in the potty more frequently.
Our day primarily consisted of finishing up our shopping. I will have to go back a little later in the season because OshKosh for the first time did not have much available in her size. It was as if someone came and took all the 2T's out. I got her some adorable blue jeans from the Old Navy outlet that I can't wait to get pics of. Today she did not ask for paci as much...she only asked approximately two times. She even took a nap in the car along the way, instead of waiting until she is exhausted. Maddy really is the best baby (i will always call her my baby) I have ever seen. Yes, we go through the fits just like every other toddler but that is part of life and part of learning. Her school said she is trying hard to say her bible verse and I was working with her on saying it and she ended up saying the last word. The verse is, "When I am afraid I will trust in God." I must admit I got very emotional because it is so important to me that she learn about God and Jesus while she is growing. She is becoming a little girl more and more everyday and she is just an amazing person.

Paci Blues and Such

Today was a big day at our house. I decided last weekend that this weekend I would start taking paci away from Maddy. I have always believed in not rushing things like taking paci away, but lately Maddy just has it 24/7, whereas she used to only want it when she got tired or hurt. I decided I needed to go ahead and start weaning her now before it became extremely difficult. I must say I was really nervous over how today would go and was scared I might give in and give it to her but that was not the case. We had a birthday party to go to today so we packed up the car with no paci and off we went. She did ask for her paci but she got over it pretty quickly. As we were driving down the road all of a sudden she just starts whining. I looked back and saw the door to her cd player was on her hand so I told her to open it. Next thing I know she is just boo hooing and I realized something was really wrong with her hand. I pulled over and sure enough she had her finger stuck up in the opening of the slot where the cd's go through and to make matters worse the cd was helping to pin her finger down. Anytime I touched her toy she just screamed in pain and it just broke my heart. I finally figured out that if I turned the cd player upside down her hand would not be twisted and then I could get the cd out and then her finger would be released and it worked like a charm. When I first saw her finger I was so scared it was broke because it looked funky. I quickly rubbed her hand and she just looked at me but instantly calmed down. I was shaking so bad and believe me I about just swooped her up and ran into bi-lo to buy her a paci but I knew I had to stay strong and I was proud of both of us for getting through that incident without paci. After the birthday party we went shopping and got some cute clothes for Maddy.

These are just a few of the things we bought. Tomorrow we are headed down to Calhoun, GA to the outlet mall to go to OshKosh, Carters, Old Navy, and the children's place. Maddy is sound asleep in her room...and so happy to have paci might I add lol.

Never Grow Up

This morning Maddy was not ready to get up, which caused her to be quite moody. I completely understand how she feels on these mornings. I realized later on today that I felt sad and as I sat there trying to figure out what was wrong with me it hit me like a ton of bricks. I had just watched Maddy's slideshow I made and the song by Taylor Swift-Never Grow Up really got to me lol. I then realized or I think this is the case anyways that me and Maddy didn't really get any cuddle time in this morning. I started missing Maddy like crazy today and that is the only logical explanation I could figure out. I am beginning to realize just how much she is growing up and it does make me a little sad as it does most moms, but I'm not so sure if most moms feel sad about their kids growing up at THIS age lol. For some reason I feel like a lot is changing in life and in a way I am ready to throw on the brakes and say whoa horsey! There isn't really a whole lot changing per say...there is...but there isn't. It amazes me just how much Maddy is growing and how much of an independent little girl she is becoming. She drinks from cups without lids now...no I don't let her do this in the car or when we are eating out. I am working still on passy. Tonight just happened to be a blessing because her passy clip hurt her foot real bad...I really don't know what happened. I know she stepped on it but what I'm unsure of is if it pinched her foot closed in it or if she just stepped on something sharp. Either way she was not very happy with her passy afterwards and I used that to my advantage. I told her passy just needed to be thrown away. It was funny the look she gave me because she wanted to throw passy but at the same time she just wasn't sure about giving it up. She made sure to tell it no several times and then she finally decided to throw it in the trash. Her version of throwing passy...and only passy...in the trash is sitting it on top of the lid. She is in bed without passy and so far is doing great. She not once asked for it. I would so love to just take passy now while she is mad at it but I don't think taking passy in the middle of a school week is very good for her. I was going to start taking it this weekend and instead of throwing it away I plan to only let her use it for nap and bed time. Anyways, that should have been a different post. Bottom line is I really missed Maddy a whole bunch today and and this song is a song I will sing to her a bunch because I don't want her to grow up too fast even though she already is. Before I do I have to say it was very exciting tonight because Maddy finally used the potty at home tonight for the first time. She has gone at school a couple of times but never at home (and that is my fault) but tonight I caught her just at the right time and voila. I had mini m&m's for her which she really enjoys but she decided she would rather eat a whole apple instead of chocolate lol. This child will sit and eat an apple as if she has done it all her life. She ate one starting last year and she just sinks her teeth into it, peel and all, and just eats it like an adult would. She amazes me everyday.

iPhone 4s

This doesn't have much to do with my blog in general, but it kinda does lol. This blog is about life as Maddy's mommy and part of my life includes my entertainment...my phone. For those who do not know, I previously had a HTC EVO. When I first bought that phone I absolutely loved it. It had an amazing camera and let me do so much more than my Blackberry ever did. I primarily bought it because it was the closest thing Sprint had at the time to the iPhone. I quickly realized the battery life was horrible and then recently I started having problems with it to where sometimes it would work and other times it would not. The first time it stopped working the dude said it just needed the update. I went with what he said up until this last time. It started acting just like it did the first time and I knew this time it was not the battery and I feel quite certain it wasn't the update either. If there was an update, it didn't tell me there was one like it normally does. To cut to the chase, with the help of my mom I was finally able to get the iPhone 4s today. There are pros and cons to it, but so far I am really excited to have it. The main con for me is the screen size is smaller than my evo was. The evo has a crisp, clear, and huge screen whereas the iPhone is smaller and not as wow with the clarity. The biggest pro for me is the battery life. Right now battery life is more important, especially with a toddler. The camera is not as easy to use on the iPhone as it was the evo but it is 8 mp and has front and rear camera like my evo. I really like how the iPhone fits in my hand, whereas the evo was more bulky and harder to carry. The other functions are pretty much the same. Yes, the evo has 4g (not mine because my area does not have 4g) and is a tad bit faster but again that does not matter so much to me right now. I would buy another HTC, but I would do some research on the battery life prior to buying as I really need my phone to be available when I need it. At this point I would buy another iPhone as well...especially if they would make the screen bigger which I hear they will on the next one. Once my 2 years is up with this phone I have no idea whether I will go with the newer iPhone or get something else. I will just have to weigh the pros and cons of each phone available. I just wanted to do a mini review between the two phones and to say I am very excited to finally have an iPhone in my hands and also to have a working phone in my hands again. I feel much safer while traveling :)

Pumpkin Patch

This was our first time going to a pumpkin patch. I've been to one when I was around six but I don't really remember it very well. We decided to take Maddy to the Mayfield Dairy Farms pumpkin patch and hay ride. The weather was really warm today so we went in sleeveless shirts and capris lol. I have nothing but good things to say about Mayfield's farm. They had plenty of activities for the little ones. We left around three to go have some fun.

 Maddy was trying to milk the cows, but apparently the cows were all dried up lol. It was actually water and the bucket needed to be refilled :)

 They had lots of hay for the kids to run around in and jump off of and slide down. Maddy loved playing in this...mommy...not so much lol

 Maddy wanted to pick up every pumpkin. She did not understand the point of us being out there, but she really had a fun time with the pumpkins.

 This is her giving some attitude, but she really wasn't pitching a fit or anything. She usually poses like this if she has just screamed NO! I think she was just trying to fold her arms like adults do sometimes.

 They were sooo cute!

 The goat is the only thing that would come up to us. Maddy loved petting him or her

This was the neatest thing. It's a corn box. I enjoyed putting my hands in there myself. We also did the tire swing, something else Maddy really enjoyed. I am starting to try to get rid of passy because she seems to be clinging to it more than she used too instead of less. I also don't like that she always has it in her mouth for pictures and you can't see her pretty smile. She really does laugh and smile a lot but it's so hard to catch on camera...especially with passy lol. I hope to make this a tradition and once she gets a little older I want to go towards the night time and sit by the bonfire and do the corn maze.

Friday Night Lights

After only having one hour sleep last night and starting work at 4 a.m. and not getting off until 5 p.m., you bet I am exhausted lol. I have school work to do that was due yesterday but I had to share our evening with you guys. My aunt and uncle wanted to take their granddaughter, who btw is only 8 months younger than Maddy, to a local football game. We went to my old high school and I haven't been there in about ten years lol. We started out eating at my favorite restaurant, Olive Garden. I cannot tell you how happy I was that we ate there. I am not the type of person to really savor my food, but I did savor every bite I had tonight. I usually like to try some of the new dishes, but tonight I decided to stick to a great classic, chicken alfredo:

Olive Garden knows how to do their kids menu and actually have very realistic looking pictures of the food. They are the only place I can usually get Maddy to point to tell me what she wants. She chose a kid favorite...macamoni aka macaroni and cheese. I can't find a picture of it right now so I will skip that. We then piled in the car and went to try to get my phone with no such luck. Then off to watch some Friday night football. As we drove up I heard the band playing and tears came to my eyes unexpectedly. I used to be in the band and it was so much fun and something I really miss doing. I was very surprised Maddy did as well as she did, but she just sat in my lap and watched football. When the player got hurt I think she got worried about him. She also enjoyed the music the band played. Her cousin Aria enjoyed the band in a whole other spectrum than Maddy. Maddy wanted to watch the action on the field and Aria was all about watching the band and nothing else. I quickly realized the minute I stepped out of the car just how much I have grown myself. I wasn't worried about being embarrassed like I used to be ten years ago. I didn't care that I had no make-up on and was basically wearing mom clothes lol. When we walked through the gates it was nothing but teenagers saying all kinds of cuss words and I realized that I would never be ready for Maddy to go to high school. Teenagers are faced with so much throughout high school and I decided in my head that maybe I would home school her lol. I wasn't able to get a whole lot of pictures because Maddy was in my lap most of the time but I got a couple.

 It was homecoming night

Late Night Ramblings

I have been up and down with school here lately. One day I am quitting the other day I am going to attempt to make it through.  Prior to our cruise dropping out was never an option. I may have thought about it all the time but I always found my determination to finish this race. Once we came back from the cruise and I was sick I lost all determination. I was not sure where I stood with school and just assumed I would have to drop out because I can't afford to pay for classes. I was given a second chance so to speak. I was able to drop one class and only have to pay half of that class back and I was supposed to have worked on assignments starting on Thursday. Thursday night came and I could not make myself log into school. I almost viewed school like I do work...it's just too stressful sometimes and I was not ready to deal with everything that comes with school. I'm not ready to go back to sleepless nights and I certainly am not ready to go back to having absolutely no free time whatsoever.  I decided to work on Maddy's slideshow instead and would figure school out another day. Friday came and once again I was supposed to have worked on school, but I would not allow myself to log in. I decided the sleepless nights were not worth it anymore, especially with the holidays coming up. I was wanting to enjoy the holidays instead of missing them as I did on Mother's day because I'm sure I will have some paper due on Christmas and that is just not going to happen. All weekend I just kept telling myself that dropping out was the best solution. I want somebody to tell me what I am supposed to do, but unfortunately I am the only person who knows what to do. I decided before I dropped out I would pray about it. Getting my degree has always been my dream and in fact before I found out I was pregnant with Maddy I was preparing to go to school. I started wondering if my going to school now was me just wanting to do what I wanted to do or if God supported me. When I first enrolled in school I honestly believed it is what God wanted me to do. I received an error at work on Friday...right before I was logging out for the night...and since I am supposed to not be worrying about production to help my quality come up I panicked. That one error has messed my entire month up unless it goes on September's numbers and if I am slowing down to ensure good quality...what are the next steps going to be for me. When I received that error it definitely kick started my motivation to finish school once again. Apparently it wasn't quite enough motivation because over the weekend I spent time with my nieces and nephew and of coarse Maddy. I decided Monday I would start back and try to make up work. After work Monday night I had it in my head that I was going to work on school no matter what. I open my laptop up and next thing I know I am falling asleep. Once again I started leaning toward dropping out. It was obvious my body had reached its limit a long time ago. Tuesday I receive yet another error at work. By this point I am really stressing. I remembered my interview I had a couple weeks ago and thought maybe that would be my outlet but my application is only good for 30 days and I would have thought I would have heard something by now on the other job openings she was telling me about. Once again I was feeling defeated. I watched the movie Flywheel and once again was reminded that God usually shows up at the last minute possible. Here we are on Wednesday and I am so proud to say that I did log into school tonight and made up the only assignment I could. I will have to work really hard to keep my grade at a passing level, but I do believe it is doable. I have my determination back and I have facebook friends to thank for that. I have seen a few statuses tonight that both said, "Do not give up." The first one I saw I wondered if God meant that for me but I didn't have that aha moment so I just dismissed it. I read my bible this morning and it was Ecclesiastes 8 and I saw in there basically to keep my eyes on the Lord and from Him I will gain wisdom. Low and behold right as I was working on school I saw someone else post about not giving up. When I saw that post I was like okay God....I will not give up. I am still praying about school and will work on it until the door is completely shut. I will also continue praying about my job situation and trust the Lord to take care of me. 

On another note I am so happy to say that Maddy's 2nd year slideshow is done. I still have more video to add to it, but it is currently lost and it may never be found again lol. I will make a slideshow every year because even though they take a lot of work they are really fun. I will not just rely on slideshows for memory sake. I still want to scrapbook about her life, but that takes a little more time and money and I don't really have a lot of either right now. 

I have a lot to say about Maddy but will make that another post as this one is becoming quite long. I will post a random music video in here just because I can lol.

Zumba

I apologize up front for any typos in this post. I am using my phone and usually miss all the mistakes. This morning my mom and I went to our first zumba class. Can I just say, apart from feeling really awkward, that class is so much fun! I am already addicted to it even though I need tons of practice. Today hasn't been the best day. I received an error at work and I am supposed to he bringing my quality up and with one error I have blown this month. I also got a lovely packet from the IRS stating they were auditing me. Normally I would have been super stressed, but zumba has really helped me have a good day despite these issues. My wording is a little off in that last sentence...I don't worship zumba or anything like that. It is just an outlet for me to reduce stress. I will come back later and post a video of zumba. This class will help me come out of my shell and work on my confidence level as well. I do not dance in front of people...especially not shaking my hips, which I cannot do by the way lol. By the end of the class I didn't feel so weird but knew I had work to do. Just wanted to share my zumba experience with you all :)
The video that I posted is the closest I could find on YouTube that was kind of similar to the class I went to. The instructor  has some latin in her and she is amazing at doing the moves. I don't think I will ever get as good as she is but I will try my best to get as close as possible. There is another class at the gym that according to a lady in the class we went to is more "white girl ish" for us girls who can't really shake our hips lol. I can't tell you enough how fun zumba is and would definitely recommend it to anybody who wants something fun and creative to do for a workout or stress reliever :)

Life Randomness

Ok so I know I have been posting an awful lot lately and I'm sorry. I have so much to say and document whether it be things I need to get off my chest or things about Maddy that I want to remember. Tonight is kind of an update on me. Before I left to go on the cruise I had been struggling with health issues. Nothing real serious, just I was literally stuck in bed when I wasn't working. I figured I was getting sick all the time because I was not getting any sleep or if I did get sleep it might have been an hour or two tops. Obviously on the cruise I was not able to catch up on sleep nor did I want because there was so much to see and do in a short period of time. When we came back from the cruise my goal was to write a paper for school that was already a day late. I didn't anticipate not getting home until 12:30 a.m. and I decided I would have to take a 20% penalty and write it that Tuesday. That Tuesday rolled around and I was starting up my sickness issues. I attempted to work on my paper that night but my body was just shutting down on me and so I went to sleep. Wednesday rolled around and that is when I realized something in my life was going to have to change. Not only was I physically getting sick out of no where, I also had excruciating stomach pains. At one point I told my mom it felt worse than labor and then I said ok it's probably the same but it's really bad. My gut told me if I didn't start getting proper rest I would end up in the hospital. I got scared because day after day I was sick so I decided to email my adviser and ask what options I had as far as dropping classes. She emailed me back and wanted to talk on the phone which I procrastinated in getting back with her and received an email from my academic adviser today that just really irritated me. After explaining my frustrations and letting her know I did not appreciate her tone and about 30 minutes later we came up with a temporary plan. Right now I am dropping my education class because that was my lowest grade and as of today I continue with my humanities class (yuck!!) and then after this class I will still only have one class and will retake my education class and then I have to go back to two classes. I am concerned because I have an 88.25 in my humanities class. I highly doubt I can catch up this week and if I fail this class then I will have to drop out because I don't have two grand to fork out to retake these classes. I only have 3 weeks left to pull my grade up and I also have a final that I have not prepared for at all. I decided to try to continue with this class and honestly I am ok if I end up having to drop out of school once again because my health and time with Maddy is so much more important to me. After reading about Steve Jobs and learning he also dropped out of school, I realized I can make it without a degree and be just fine. I'm happy to continue my education because I have worked so hard in school to just throw it away, but at the end of the day I can't stress over whether or not I can get the work done or not.

iPhone?

In a way I feel this post should wait considering the news about Steve Jobs' passing. I pray for his family and pray they will heal from their grieving fairly quick. When the iPhone first came out I had no desire for it. I didn't see a need to pay that kind of money for a silly cell phone. My how my thought process has changed since then lol. Honestly I don't know what the first iPhone to come out was, but around the second or maybe even third one I was becoming more and more intrigued with them. Last year I was wanting one so bad, but my cell phone carrier did not carry them. I opted for the next best thing, which was the HTC EVO. I liked the evo when I first got it because it had so many features my blackberry did not. I was so thankful to kick the blackberry to the curb because of the limited functions. Soon after I bought my evo i was complaining about the battery life. It lasts 4 hours with little usage and who wants to live life connected to a charger...not me. So I heard rumors about the iPhone coming to Sprint. I decided to do some research about it and supposedly the iPhone 5 was supposed to have been released and indeed Sprint would carry them. As we all found out on October 4, Apple decided to make some major upgrades to the iPhone and introduce the iPhone 4s. Sprint still has to make their announcement on this phone and I'm sure my questions will be answered then, but I am almost scared to go from the evo to the iPhone. I know the iphone is really not up to par in the cell phone world and it seemed evo ran neck in neck with the iphone and in some ways blew it out of the water. So now that my dream has finally come true (my technology dream that is lol) I am left wondering if I really want the iphone. I was hoping for some advice or insight into the iphone. Is the battery life decent? Does it seem to work most of the time? How is the speed? I know I don't have a lot of readers on my blog yet but am still hoping maybe somebody has some kind of information that will help guide me in this decision. My prayers go out to the Jobs family. I myself am shocked he passed so soon after his resignation.

Maddy's 2 Year Check Up

I keep putting this post off thinking I can do it once I get done with work, but my body literally shuts down as soon as work is done and I have been falling asleep. On September 28 Maddy had her 2 year check up. I honestly have no idea what time our appointment really was. I show it was at 3:30 but my mom showed it was at 3:40. I am going with 3:30 because usually when you are late...even if only 7 minutes like we were...you have to sit and wait forever. Maddy handled the wait pretty good in the beginning, but towards the end she was over it and honestly I didn't blame her lol. Maddy no longer sits on the baby scale which I must say made me a little sad. She weighed in at 25 pounds. They also did not lay her down on the table to measure her height, again, I was a little sad. She was measured using the big girl measuring thing and she measured in at 34 inches in height. Luckily she did not get any shots...she is done with shots until age 4 and that set is a doozie. She did however, have to get her finger pricked to check her blood levels, iron, and her lead levels. Her doctor, which I absolutely love, came in and showed me her height and weight graph and she fell right in the average category. Her BMI is also good so she was perfect. Her blood work showed she had good iron levels and was not anemic and she also has practically no lead in her so I know the things she is chewing on are not harming her lol. I had to fill out a questionnaire on Maddy and it was testing for autism which she passed with flying colors on. They also start checking for heart problems, arrhythmia's and she told me signs to look for and when to be alarmed. That was pretty much everything that happened during this check up. She doesn't have to go back until she is 3...yay!!!

Maddy's Birthday Party

Maddy's birthday party was Friday September 30. I ran into a few problems when planning her party. First of all I put the wrong dates on the invitations I mailed out. I was embarrassed to be honest and just could not believe I did that. I then realized on Tuesday that I was supposed to have mailed the check to her party location the week before the party. Because I was so busy staying up all night preparing for our cruise and trying to get everything squared away, I completely forgot to mail her check when we left that Thursday. I felt like I had failed Maddy because her party was becoming one big mess. With the help of my mom we figured out a new location. We had her party at a local park that I love so much called Riverpark. We rented a building and the view was so pretty. I worked 4:00 a.m. until 3:40 p.m. that day and then scrambled to get ready. My mom makes all the birthday cakes in our family and this year Maddy had two...an Elmo cake and a dog cake. We ordered Little Caesar's pizza for everybody and had cold drinks. Again my camera is not near me at the moment, so I will have to come back and add the pictures later. Maddy got a lot of neat stuff at her party and I think she had a good time. She looked so cute in her birthday dress. She got a lot of Elmo stuff and some books that are just adorable. They talk about what I want all kids to know which is God loves you and You are special. It was a special birthday too because this was the first year that everybody in my family could attend. For Maddy's 1st birthday my aunt and uncle were unable to come because of baby Aria's health issues, but this year Aria is doing so well and is so super adorable so they were able to bring her and all the kids got to enjoy each other's company. I know she will not remember her 2nd birthday, but I at least have a lot of pictures to show her as well as the memories. I would not trade my life for anything in this world. Some may think the parent life is not for them, but this life is definitely for me and I feel so super blessed to be Maddy's mom and see the world through her eyes. I love you very much Maddy!