Boom Boom and Night Night

I don't usually have time to write on here anymore, however, I found a small opening in my schedule and I am going for it. I don't have much to say and don't have any new pics to share, but I love talking about Maddy lol. When I picked her up from daycare today it was thundering loudly and I have always tried to make it funny to her, instead of scary. I always say, "Whoaaa!!!" when it thunders and then I will ask her if she heard the "boom boom." She was cute this afternoon because I did the whole whoa routine with her and once I said boom boom, she pointed toward the sky and said "boom boom!" I recorded it on my phone that only works if it's on the charger and will post it as soon as I can get it uploaded. Maddy is becoming more and more vocal at school...for a while they seriously thought she did not talk. I never realized or thought about her not talking at school, but she always had her paci and would never talk. They are working with her to keep paci put up except nap time (I have mixed emotions about this because they are trying to take paci away permanently so she can go to the next class and I refuse to take it away right now) and she is becoming more comfortable without it. Some days when I pick her up she comes running to me and screams, "MAMA!!!" Talk about just melting my heart...
Our afternoon routine is starting to change quite a bit. It used to consist of coming home, eating, and then playing nonstop but now she eats dinner, unless she's had a big snack in the car, watches tv, then reads books  with me the rest of the time. I have to bribe her with a book before she will walk to her room for night night, where as before I could say it was night night time and she'd get her baby, bottle, and paci and walk straight to her room to let me rock her.
That is all I wanted to say...I can't post without some kind of pictures on here, so I will look through my pics and just post random pics of Maddy, some may be when she was just a little baby :)

SWAT

Something I have always been interested in is working out. I love to work out and collect workout dvd's. I decided to start writing my thoughts on workouts I try.  This is my newest workout dvd and I must say I am shaking as I am trying to write this because my muscles just had an intense workout. This was in no way a means to "lose" weight, this dvd is just to firm up your body. If you are wanting to lose weight be sure to add in a cardio workout to this one. This workout is one I had no problems completing and I thought it might not be that great of a workout, but I found out once I stopped my muscles definitely got a workout. If you are looking to firm up then I would suggest this workout. I don't know that the ab portion of the workout is really sufficient enough to firm up your abs but for your arms it is a great workout.

Christmas In July?

This is so unlike me, but today I have been in the biggest Christmas mood. Don't get me wrong, I do not...I repeat...do NOT want the summer to end. It is my favorite season and I really do enjoy spending time outside, especially in a pool. I got to reading blogs this morning and came across a blog about quadruplets and I saw some Christmas pictures and they were absolutely adorable! I fought back tears as I always do when I read about babies, but ever since then I have had this song stuck on my head:

It's Martina McBride's "Baby It's Cold Outside" I have never been in a Christmas mood in the summer, but I find myself with Christmas music pulled up in iTunes as I work hehe. There isn't a whole lot going on in me and Maddy's life...just the same routine stuff day in and day out.  I do enjoy my life for the most part...I love being a mom! I do find myself having baby withdrawals quite frequently, but I just remind myself of all my freedom I have at this stage in life. I do pray that I am able to meet my partner and we can have more children, but if that never happens I am truly ok. I must admit I do like the single mom life even though it is extremly difficult some days and twice as tiring, but me and Maddy make a great family...oh...and Manny...he is the man of our household lol. I hope you all have a great rest of the week. I think me and Maddy are headed back to a local amusement park (Lake Winnie for all you Chattanooga people) to see Sidewalk Prophets in concert, but also to ride the rides we missed. So excited!

Fourth Of July

I was so excited for the fourth of july to come this year. This would be the first year Maddy would get to ride the kiddie rides. The day did not go anywhere near as I had planned it in my head because my oldest niece was just convinced we were only at Lake Winnie to let her ride everything she wanted, instead of letting Maddy and my other niece ride the kiddie rides first then on to the thrill rides lol. I plan on taking Maddy back this summer so she can get to ride all the rides she can. This post will mainly be of pictures so here we go:

This was Maddy's first ride and I got so nervous she would not like it. She can't talk and tell me if she likes it or if she's scared...she can only cry and once the ride starts there is no stopping if she wants off. She was extremely nervous. She kept chewing on her paci and I just kept talking to her and asking if she was having fun. She wanted to hold my hand the entire time and I also had my arm wrapped around her tightly. When the ride took off she was unsure. She saw some ducks in the lake and once she saw those she got ok with the ride. I was so relieved she didn't want to get off before it was time.

Sara and my step-dad on the sea warrior

We were all decked out in red, white, and blue :)

All three girls had matching shirts

Maddy on the train. She got bored on this ride lol

Sara on the carousel. Maddy rode on the chariot

Maddy driving the antique car.



Abby

Maddy was so cute during the fireworks. She would watch and then look at us and then look back up. At one point she started doing her "twinkle twinkle little star" finger motions. I asked her if it was twinkle twinkle little star and she said yes. She was so tired by this point and was just acting silly.

It was a fun time and I can't wait to take her back and let her enjoy the day :)

Aria's First Birthday

Baby Aria has had an amazing journey in life within her first year.  I was not faithful in blogging during her birth so I will try to shorten the story.  Her mom was a week past her due date when the doctor decided to go ahead and induce.  I was able to go the hospital with my mom and sit with my cousin and the rest of my family while we  anxiously awaited Aria's arrival.  My mom, step dad, sister and her two girls, and me and Maddy all went to O'Charley's to grab a bite to eat.  Right as we were getting to ready to pay and leave my mom received a phone call from my grandmother who was in tears telling my mom to please pray for Aria something was terribly wrong. All we knew was that Aria was having trouble breathing.  In my mind it was no big deal...my grandmother exaggerates as it is...and the nurses had a real hard time getting Maddy to breathe as well.  I shrugged it off and was like yeah, whatever...baby is fine.  My grandmother calls again to say it is bad and we need to pray.  Well, by this time I am shocked and had a bad feeling this baby would not make it.  We all go to the hospital and hear the news that Aria might not make it.  We had no idea what was wrong other than they could not get her stabilized and she was having problems breathing.  My aunt was just boohooing and told us the experience she just went through and that after they took Aria to the NICU, the nurse came back to the room and told my cousin that she needed to pray for this baby.  For a nurse to say that tells you something is really wrong.  They told my cousin that they weren't sure if they could keep Aria alive long enough to make it to another local hospital (T.C. Thompson).  Because they could not get her stabilized they called for the staff of T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital to come to the hospital Aria was born in.  By this point we are all just so overwhelmed with sadness and shock and I felt so guilty having Maddy there because I really felt Aria was not going to make it and my cousin would go home babyless and here I have my perfectly healthy baby. They allowed my cousin to go back and see Aria, which was another sign that they thought she would not make it as well.  The other hospital staff arrived to work on Aria and were successful in getting her stabilized.  They hooked her up to an isolette that was on a stretcher and wheeled her off into the ambulance.  Seeing her wheeled off like that is just something I will never forget. Babies are so innocent and helpless as it is and seeing her lifeless body on that stretcher was just too much.

Once transported to the other hospital it was determined she had a diaphragmatic(sp?) hernia and something else...i already forgot what it was. They said diaphragmatic babies usually do not make it so once again odds against Aria were not good at all. After an hour or so at the local hospital, it was determined she would be transported to Egleston's Children Hospital in Atlanta, GA and placed on an ECMO machine.

Here she is in ATL hooked up. The amount of machinery that was attached to her was unreal. I will post a pic of that as well.

All those monitors were for this one baby...Aria. Her hernia was causing her heart to be on the wrong side...they were not sure she even had both of her lungs and her intestines were pushed up into her chest. They found she did in fact have both lungs, but underwent surgeries to correct the hernia. She spent like 50 something days in the NICU I believe it was and she was able to go home sometime in July i think. Aria has defied many odds and has been a proven miracle. On May 23 we celebrated her first birthday at Harrison Bay State Park. I will post the pics now.

J-Fest 2011

This was Maddy's second year attending J-Fest.  Last year she was still eight months old and not all that mobile. This year she was 20 months old and very mobile lol.  At one point I thought I was going to pass out from the heat because I was constantly chasing her around in that hot sun.  I love being outdoors, but it was so extremely hot that day and all I wanted was a nice cool pool. When we first got there Maddy took off and because I wouldn't let her go exactly where she wanted she decided to pitch a fit right in front of the sheriff's van of all places lol.  She was tired from the very beginning, which made for an interesting day.  My mom took these pictures and I'm glad she did because even if I had a camera with me...I wouldn't have gotten any pics, except for the back of Maddy:)

this is Jenny (I think) from Addison Road.  I absolutely loved their concert and would really like to go see them again.  I like all of their songs and she was very energetic.

 Here I am trying to prevent Maddy from pitching a fit in the middle of the aisle lol.  She wanted to go up the steps to the stage and security kept standing next to me at one point. I wanted to tell him not to worry that I wouldn't let her go past a certain point, but decided against it. She did not want to leave and was starting her fit process.

here is another fit lol...poor Maddy...she was so tired and hot



She finally told me she wanted in her stroller...didn't take but maybe 10 seconds and she was fast asleep with her drink and baby lol.

Francesca Battastelli

Big Daddy Weave

Deer Maddy

I'm not sure if I talked about Maddy getting to pet a baby deer or not, but as you can see she did lol.  My stepdad found this baby deer just laying in the middle of the road.  He knew someone else might run over it as well as the fact that my mom would be in heaven if she got to pet it.  My mom came in the house and told me I needed to go look outside and by her tone I knew it was something big. When me and Maddy went outside we found my stepdad holding this baby deer.  This baby deer was so precious and cute. After Maddy got to pet it and my mom got to hold it, we took a walk back down to where it was found and went into the woods to let it go back to it's mom.  I have never in all my life been that close to a baby deer in the wild, let alone pet one.  Maddy was able to accomplish this within a year of her life lol. Maddy loves animals...especially dogs...so she really enjoyed being able to pet it.