Goodbye Paci

We officially said goodbye to Madelyn's paci.

We were given a couple of ideas by Madelyn's dentist,

so we took one of those ideas and ran with it.

We took Madelyn to Build a Bear where she picked a kitty cat to stuff.

(kitty cats are her favorite if you don't know that yet)

We had talked about beforehand how we were going to say goodbye to paci

and now that she's a big girl she doesn't need it.

She took her paci, kissed it, said goodbye and stuffed it inside her kitty cat 

while stuffing her with stuffing.

Can I just say this was a very sentimental moment?!?!

She was fine.

But me...

I had to turn away so she wouldn't see me crying.

What is wrong with me?

Just typing this I am almost in tears again.

I think it is just such a monumental turning point that she is no longer

a baby and is growing so big too fast!!

She did such a good job saying goodbye to paci and I am very proud of her for it!

Goodbye paci, hello kitty cat.

Las Vegas

Celebrating 30!

Matt and I both turn 30 this year, so we wanted to do something to celebrate.

I decided to surprise Matt with a trip to Las Vegas.

Both of us have been, but it was when we were both younger.

He ended up finding out about the surprise before the trip,

but that was probably a good thing.

Someone was bound to spill the beans.

Our friends the Robbins decided to join us and we couldn't have been happier.

We had a blast taking in all the sights even though we were exhausted 

from walking from sun up until sun down.

We did and saw pretty much everything you can do there...besides go to a show.

That seems to be everybody's first question- did you go to a show?

Nope. We were there for 3 days and we wanted to spend our time taking in as much as we could.

A show would have been fun, but it would have taken up too much of our time.

We stayed in the Casino Royale, budget friendly and right in the middle of the strip.

This was very convenient and it helped us see/eat/do whatever we wanted to do because we didn't blow all of our money on a beautiful hotel and room to literally just sleep in.

My favorite was probably just standing there watching the Bellagio fountains.

It was so mesmerizing.

My least favorite part (besides missing my sweet baby girl)

was the time change.

By day 3 we were grumpy and exhausted.

We tried to conform to the 3 hour time change

by staying up until like midnight or 1:00 a.m. Las Vegas time

which is 3:00 a.m. or 4:00 a.m. Atlanta time.

It sucked.

We ate buffet at The Wynn one night which was amazing,

but other than that we took in the sights, ate when we were hungry

and went to bed way past our bed time!

All in all we had a great time, 

but our next trip we look forward to relaxing on the beach somewhere!

The Hoover Dam

The Chandelier Bar.

The view from on top of the Stratosphere.

Sightseeing.

The Venetian.

The sky changed according to the time of day.

Very cool.

M&M's World where we had to pick out a souvenir for Madelyn of course.

 View of the strip from one of the crossing bridges.

Sight seeing.

All of these were made of flowers.

It was beautiful!

 Scocia and I.

Gang's all here.

The Freemont Street Experience.

Last night.

Exhausted is an understatement.

But I would definitely not skip Freemont Street.

Very neat experience.

I left behind 4 presents for Madelyn to open each day we were gone.

She opened the first one when mommy and daddy said see you in three days!

Then she opened one each morning until we arrived back home.

Thanks to my mom and dad who spoiled her rotten while we were gone!

This is the picture I found in my luggage that M has drawn for me before we left for our trip.

Melted my heart!

Seperation Anxiety

Wow.

This girl has it bad.

She has been crying when we leave her with pretty much anybody.

Not that we leave her often or leave her with just anybody...

Nana, papa, gigi and pop-pop are it.

She will not speak to anybody she does not know.

She's like a little monkey baby.

Holds on tight, arms and legs in like a death grip.

We started dance class - ballet and tap - 

and I have been sitting in on the class with her

because she will not let me leave the room.

She knows this too.

She'll say 'wook, no udder mommies are sitting in here'

I keep telling her it is okay.

I'm not going anywhere.

I have no idea how long this stage lasts, but the worst part is feeling so helpless.

I actually started crying at ballet right along with her because I honestly

had no idea what to do or how to help her overcome this fear of me leaving.

Helplessness is definitely not a great feeling.

Love you baby girl, monkey arm and leg grasp and all!

Kaboom!

We attended an event down in Atlanta at Fourth Ward Park called Kaboom.

It was a free event for children and their families to help 

promote positive family play and play outside.

Madelyn had such a fun time and I am so glad we found out about it!

 Fourth Ward Park.

Kaboom set up in the background.

 Walking on the trails to get to the event.

 Creating our family flag.

 Rolling the big ball through the maze to the finish line.

 Raising our family flag.

 She won this movie playing a game where she had to jump in a hula hoop

every time the music stopped.

 We met up with the Robbins.

 Playing in the splash area at Fourth Ward Park.

 Playing on the playground before we left.

Thank you Kaboom for hosting such a fun, family time event!

Preschool at The Wonder School of Marietta

Well...

I started a new job.

I am one lucky duck.

I work for a new company that's starting up that wants to offer free preschool to all of their employees. 

I am the teacher that comes in to teach these little ones 

for 4 hours a day, 4 days a week.

The biggest blessing: Madelyn gets to come with me since I am an employee as well.

Madelyn is so excited to go to school and I am loving teaching these little ones!

Right now I have a class of 6 girls ranging from 2 years old to 5 years old.

I am very thankful for my old friend from Brumby who thought of me 

when hearing about this job opportunity

as well as the owners who decided to bring me on board!