Freaked Out

So if you know Madeline in person or just read this blog, you probably know that she has a little bit of a growing problem.  As in she doesn't gain weight. Pretty much at all.  In addition to this, there have been some other issues, primarily of the backside nature.  So after months of stool tests and blood tests and probiotics and dairy-free diets, we were referred to a pediatric gastrointestinal specialists.  And after waiting MONTHS to see said doctor, we finally got in.  I spent the days leading up to this visit, including the drive there, telling myself that I was just making too big of a deal about all of this.  However, the doctor was definitely in agreeance that something is wrong.  It appears she is not absorbing food, hence her ability to out-eat me on any given day while maintaining her girlish figure.  So the next step is to take a peek at what's going on inside. As in...gulp....a colonoscopy.  Yes, someone wants to shove a tube inside of my child.  And not just a colonoscopy, but an endoscopy and biopsy of the colon.  And they want me to watch the whole thing.  Anxiety, anyone?  The doctor said it would probably be worse on me than her.  I think this may be true.  This whole plan goes down on Tuesday so please keep all of us in your prayers!

Big Girl Bed

The last few weeks have been a little unstable due to some major deviations in my sleep schedule. Yes, let's talk about that.  It was completely my plan to keep Madeline in her crib until kindergarten.  Or at least until age 3.  And she's never given any indication that she was interested in getting out of her crib.  That was until one lovely Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago when Brad put her down for a nap...and found her wandering around upstairs.  Turns out she managed to make an Olympic sport out of this feat, dismount and all.  This led to the realization that we did NOT have the right piece to convert our crib into a toddler bed, nor does Babies R Us.  In the mean time, Madeline determined that sleeping on her mattress on the floor was not going to be an option.  She spent that first night, waking up every 45 minutes in complete panic mode.  Neither of us slept at all.  Fortunately the Handshoes loaned us their pack n play while we tried to figure out the crib situation.  After hours and hours of phone calls to every organization that has ever been involved with our crib, we finally got the right piece.  And it only took a week of putting Maddie in her "big girl bed" for her to stop flipping out every single night.  Right about the time we got things smoothed out on the bed time side....enter Daylight Saving Time! 5 AM wake up every morning.  Here's the thing- I'm up at 5 every morning.  But that's MY time.  MY TIME!  The good news is that we seem to have found normal again.  This proves my theory though that we can never have another child because that child won't be a good sleeper like Madeline has always been. And then I may not love said child as much.

This was our first attempt at nap time without a containment system. Ugh.

Barcalounger

um yeah...I ordered a pizza over an hour ago...

Trunk or Treat



After last year's smash hit Halloween costume, we were feeling a little pressured to keep up.  We decided a fun costume for this year would be "Madeline" the famous french orphan. 



Seriously, how cute is she?

For whatever reason, Madeline spent the first half of Trunk or Treat bawling.  The more candy she got, the more she cried. Even despite the safety of Spiderman!

Eventually she figured it out!

We spent the rest of the night walking around our neighborhood in the wagon and handing out candy at our house.  The beauty of this was that Madeline never figured out that you're supposed to EAT the candy, she was just happy to count it and put it in her bag.  Eventually we ran out of Reese's cups to hand out, so we just gave away her stash. Genius idea. No sugared up kid - No extra calories for these parents!

Zoo Boo

So after a failed attempt last weekend, we finally made it to Zoo Boo! We even picked up a couple of hitchhikers (namely Clara and Jenny. Poor Jenny had to sit between the 2 car seats in the back our jeep. Ouch).  It was a gorgeous fall day to be at the zoo....which is probably why there were 30,000 people there.  Have I mentioned how much I hate crowds?  This was only exacerbated by the fact that Madeline did NOT want to cooperate at all. She didn't want to ride in her stroller. She didn't want to walk.  She didn't want to be carried. I think she wanted to swim in the shark petting pool and that was it.  We still managed to have a fun evening though!

Not too many pictures due to the fact that stopping for more than 5 seconds was prohibited by the crowd.

Madeline ditched her costume relatively early on. It did make her less angry though.  She REALLY like petting this goat.  

  I think they're fixated on a cow.  We really did got to the ZOO, not a farm....

End of Radiation Celebration!

It was a beautiful night for some fall fun at the Bales Farm.  We also celebrated the end of radiation treatments for Clara!

Hopefully she's a better driver than her mother.

Picking apples with Ryne. And eating them.

(See that bag in the back? Apparently Brad has some notion of making applesauce?)

Hay ride!

And now there's some fresh pressed cider in the fridge. I love fall.

Ninja

Lately our friends have been referring to Maddie as "the ninja."  Why you ask?  Because she's sneaky. Really really sneaky.  She just waits for everyone to get distracted and then before you know it, she is doing something that she's not supposed to.  Here are some examples from tonight:

Like stealing blue cupcakes.

"Hey Clara, that's a nice necklace you've got there..."

"Victory is mine!"

Seriously, she's really sneaky.