Happy Halloween!

From our Little Garden Gnome.

Work

'I working'.

She thinks it is pretty cool to get on the computer

and 'do some work' whether she's at home, at the library, or GiGi's and Pop-Pop's. 

She's learned she loves the computer!

Names

'Mommy's name Vicki'

'Daddy's name Matt'

'Jackson's name Jackson'

'You name Madyin'

You got it little love.

Outside Happenings

First encounter with cotton candy.

I'd say it was a success.

Meeting up with friends.

Venice couldn't take her eyes off of Madelyn.

I think she wants to be big like her...like now.

And Madelyn couldn't stop saying 'baby Venice'.

Madelyn enjoyed picking out pumpkins with her friend, Bryce

and practicing trick or treating in their costumes.

Loving every minute!

Pumpkins, Fall, and Fun!

I love the fall.

With it comes cooler temperatures,

the colorful outdoors, 

warm soups, and ciders...

and of course Matt would add in Football.

(or as Madelyn calls it 'Feetball')

We have had our days full of fun for the month of October-
Pumpkin patches being one of them.

Meeting Baby Jovi

Madelyn got to meet her new baby cousin, Jovi, today. 

And let me just tell you. 

She was in love. She was smitten. 

She just stared at her and then when she got to hold her she didn't want to let go. 

Precious!

 Cheers to more cousin friends!

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Yes. We have reached that stage. 

Madelyn will test me in everything I do and say these days.

If I say 'come on, lets go'. 

She stops in her tracks and looks at me like 

'And what are you gonna do if I don't come?'

If I say 'don't put that in your mouth'.

 She stares me dead in the eye and moves it closer as if saying 

'And why not...'

If I say 'it's time to go inside'.

 and she's not ready it's 'No!' 

After many attempts at getting her to come inside nicely 

and many attempts at her testing with the word 'No!' 

Which soon leads to a quick burst scream from her as if saying 'I said no!' 

I tell you what. 

Stubborn. 

And I know she gets that from me, but that doesn't make it any better.

The sad thing is I have to turn my head because I'm often

laughing at this new found independence.

Hopefully this is just a phase and like many other milestones...this too shall pass.

Welcome!

Jovi decided to make her big debut this weekend and we couldn't be happier.

Welcome to our family Baby JoJo!

We love you so much already.

Madelyn is so excited to have a new cousin and can't wait to meet her.

And of course Matt and I couldn't be more excited to have a new niece.

Happy Birth day, Jovi!

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day...

Today was very much that.

I know I'm not the only momma out there who's ever had a child 

have a febrile seizure and I know I won't be the last, but
those few minutes of helplessness feel like forever.

Doctors say that there really isn't anything you can do when these seizures occur.
Most importantly she needs to be able to release her body heat,
but other than that my job needs to be to watch the clock.

If three minutes goes by then I should call 911.

SERIOUSLY?!?!

Watch the clock?

Sit and watch the clock for three minutes?!?!

I doubt that's what I'm gonna be doing...

Why?

Because I will be too busy being frantic and hysterical, and not thinking about watching the clock or

what all of the 'studies' say about febrile seizures and how they're not dangerous

or how they won't do her any harm.

All I see is that my baby is not herself and I want to fix that.

Not to get into much detail we had another trip to the hospital

and it is a day I will put in my 'do not repeat' list of days.

This was her second febrile seizure.

And let me tell you it was not any easier than the first.

Apparently after a child has one febrile seizure they have a 30% chance of having a second one.

If they have a second one they have a 50% chance of having a third..

They did all sorts of tests including checking her temperature about a hundred times.

Blood sugar = great.

EKG = great.

Walking = great.

Speech/Cognitive thinking = great.

Fever = great...she just had a dose of Motrin.  It better be great.

Eyes = great.

Ears = great.

Honestly, I can't even think of what else they checked.

She was a champ in the doctors office and at the hospital.

Every doctor/nurse/staff member that saw her said she was the 

best 2 year old they've ever seen come through.

She let them poke, prod, pull, push, and pretty much anything else they needed to do

and she didn't put up a fight.

Staff at Kennestone rocked!

They definitely have found their calling.

Big thank you's go out to them.

Good news is my little lovey bones is back to her chipper self 

She only has a virus and has a lower tolerance to elevated fevers 

which triggered the seizure.

It's as if nothing ever happened to her even though

 these events will be forever engraved in my mind.

Boo!

Madelyn is all about hide and seek these days.

She either calls it 'seek' or just yells 'count'

and I have to remember what in the heck she's talking about.

She loves to hide in the most obvious of places, 

but gets a riot out of the whole game.

We ask her what number she wants us to count to.

Most of the time her response is 3, 6, or 10.

She and I made a quick stop at the pumpkin patch this week.

I thought she would love it...

well, let's just say she was more mesmerized 

with the gravel floors than anything else.

Here's hoping that a couple more trips to different locations 

will make her a little more excited.

This is one of my favorite times of the year!

They were super sweet and let her pick out a baby pumpkin to take home.

She knew right away which one she wanted.

'dis one'
'me punkin'

They then gave her stickers so she could decorate 

the pumpkins face if she wanted to...

Forget her new baby pumpkin at that point.

You would think we never gave the girl stickers.

She had every last one ripped off and stuck on her.

Happy Fall!

Here's to cooler days and more time outside soaking it in!

Music

Madelyn loves to dance!

You throw a dance party and she is there.

We have a dance party in our living room at least once a day.

She loves to dance by herself.

And she loves to dance holding hands.

You might have to stop every now and then to change the song

But, overall she will dance her little heart out.

One of her favorite songs believe it or not is:

Sail By: AWOLNATION

You play that song and she starts to clap and smile and says 'mean song' which means my song.

I don't know what it is about that song,

but she LOVES it.

Putting her in the Tiny Tykes and Tunes Music class again was a good move. 

She looks forward to 'dancing class' every week!

She's a bit shy, but that's okay.

Life just needs a little time...

Here you have it folks,

We reverted back to the paci.

She did well for about a week, but we also noticed that week 

that she wasn't taking naps and was very grumpy.

I kept thinking oh, she'll get through it and get back to her naps...

well a week long adventure in 'no napping land' I decided to 

give her the paci back- just for naps.

I said nap only.

Yeah, saying and doing are two different things.

She doesn't understand why she can't have the paci.

All she knows is it helps her sleep.

She asked for it repeatedly that night and kept patting herself 

and saying baby.

Hurt my little heart.
She still is a baby.

So, here we are back with the paci 

and honestly I don't feel that bad about it yet.

She's only two.

It's not like she walks around with it.

And by golly if it helps the girl sleep.

Let her sleep.

We will save paci weaning for another day...

when she's ready.

In other news we have been trying to potty train again.

I am a very flexible person...

as you can see from the whole paci weaning adventure.

Anytime we are at home she wears panties (unless sleeping).

We have not dedicated our days to staying home and practicing this though.

I'm in no real rush.

Again, she's only two.

Why such a rush to grow up in everything we do.

She'll do it in her own sweet time.

It's been going really well though. 

I actually set a little owl timer for every 15-20 minutes to start

and we would try to go when it wet off.

Then we just went with asking every now and then...
Now, we are down to asking every now and then or her
telling us that she needs to go.

Children do things in their own sweet time.
It reminds me to take a moment and smell the roses...
Literally. 
She makes me stop and smell all the flowers on our walks these days.
Like most things...

I wouldn't have it any other way.

Best Friends