Mental snapshot

Thanksgiving is now over. We had a nice Thanksgiving in Michigan. Madeline got to play with her great grandma. She also had her first pumpkin pie which she loved. She especially loved the whipped cream. Madeline grabbed a big handful of whipped cream and then tried to get everyone around the table to eat it. First she tried Nana, then Great nana, and then went around the table. When there were no takers she tried getting the waitress to eat it. She wouldn't try any turkey but I don't blame her. It looked a bit under cooked.

When we got home from Michigan the other grandpa and grandma were here. We left Madeline and Eric at home and went shopping at 4am. I was able to get a cricut. It is AMAZING! I'm gonna have so much fun making things on it. I can even make gift bags with the machine!

On Saturday, we put up our outside decorations. Madeline was more interested in playing with her lawn mower and car then helping. So since we all know that I am the handy one I ended up putting the deer and penguin together by myself while Eric chased after Madeline. Eric tried putting the penguin together but luckily I caught him before he finished or we'd have a penguin with upside down wings .

Today we put the lights on our tree. We had Madeline help put the ornaments on. We collect ornaments every year for the different life situations we are in. I teared up remembering how our life has changed. I smiled with delight as Madeline put her ornaments on the tree. I remembered how hard it was the 2 years before we were pregnant celebrating a Holiday that is all about a baby. I recalled 2 years ago when I was able to put that wonderful "expecting" ornament on the tree, and last year as we celebrated Madeline's first Christmas. Even though there are still 25 days until Christmas, this year is already 10 times better then last year. Madeline is now old enough to help and understand the basics of Christmas. She oohed at the "pretty" tree lights and loves everything Santa. She can spot Santa from about a mile away. We are learning "Away in a Manger" and "Happy Birthday" so we can sing it to Jesus on Christmas. In the coming weeks we will go see all the Christmas lights, make a gingerbread "choo choo" and maybe even make some construction paper garland.




This coming week we will celebrate Eric's 32nd birthday and Sinterklaas. On Friday night, (December 5th) we will put our wooden shoes out in hopes that Sinterklaas will pay us a visit. We can't wait!

Talent

Madeline has many talents. Dancing, jumping, and carrying big things are among them. Today we discovered a new talent. Madeline wakes up pretty early so is usually napping by around noon. Church gets over about 11:45 and we live at least 45 minutes away. So Madeline is usually sleeping before we arrive home. For the last few months we've been grabbing something for her on the way home. Today we stopped and got crazy bread from Little Caesar's. Madeline was chowing down. Pretty soon it was pretty quiet. I look back and her eyes are closed but she's still chewing. If that wasn't talent enough, when I looked back again she was putting the bread in her mouth, taking another bite. That ladies and gentlemen is true talent! Forget about walking and chewing gum (which I'm sure Madeline could do if we let her have gum), Madeline can eat while sleeping.

Sometimes I really wish we owned a video camera!

I got to sleep in til 8am!

Since when does sleeping til 8am constitute "sleeping in"? Well, that would be right around the time Madeline was born. Ever since the first day Madeline slept through the night (Father's day 2007) we've struggled with sleep. The 2007/2008 winter was tough. Madeline got 3 or 4 ear infections and every time she got one she also acquired sleep issues. When she was sick we let her sleep with us because it was easier on us. That started a bad habit and each time we got her sleeping all night in her own crib again, she'd get sick. We were starting to wonder if we'd ever get a good nights sleep again. All of the sudden last week she started sleeping all night again. We got a full 8 hours plus. 5 out of the last 8 nights Madeline's slept for 12 hours in a row without a peep. I worried the first couple of nights. Eric thinks I'm nuts. I wish for a full nights rest and then when it happens I worry something is wrong with her. We will be getting a video monitor before our next child is born. Hopefully this wonderful sleep continues and we'll get a full year of sleeping in!

A wall.

Wall is defined as: a. an architectural partition with a height and length greater
than its thickness; b. a difficult or awkward situation.

I ran into both of these that last night. I was drafted for curtain hanging duty at my brother-in-laws new condo. You see I am the only one in the immediate Olson family that is the slightest bit handy. I own a drill and know how to use it. Dirk lives in a large old complex. I had never been there before but was imaging a building much like a college dorm with CEMENT walls. Anticipating this I asked what the walls were made of. I told my family that if the walls were cement that they needed to find a drill bit that could drill through cement as I didn't own one. I was told that the walls were all dry wall. Ok that was good enough for me. I gathered my equipment and headed downtown with my mother-in-law. Over an hour later we arrive. We unload the boxes of stuff that Dirk "needed". We pass the "work-out room", which was 2 exercise bikes in front of a mirror in the hallway, and squeeze into the tiny elevator. At the 7th floor we exit and open the door to Dirks condo. "Wow those are big windows".... "Um, this wall is cement" DOH! I new from across the room. I walk up to the wall and touch it. "Yep the wall is cement". MIL, "No it can't be we were told drywall". "Ok, I'll try to drill it". I was just humoring them of course. I knew it wasn't drywall. Finally, my mother-in-law touches the wall herself. Instantly she knew. HOW did my wonderful brother-in-law NOT know it was cement. Well that's the Olson logic for you. He called the building manager and asked what the walls were made of. He NEVER thought to actually touch the wall himself. Gotta love that Olson logic at work! I will be praying that Dirk's future wife is handy. LOL

So, guess what I'm doing on Saturday night? Yep, take 2 on curtain rod hanging. Wish me luck!

Bye Bye Truck

Madeline is starting to speak in sentences. We were sitting in our car at a stoplight. Next to us was a big cement truck. She watched that thing spin for the 5 minutes we were stuck at the light. When the light turned green I told her to say goodbye to the truck. I expected her to say her usual "bye, bye" but instead I got "bye, bye ... truck". We were stuck next to it at the next stop light too. For 5 minutes I listened to her say "bye, bye ... truck". ~giggle~

A picture of our princess.

Is she spoiled? You bet! Is she rotten? Not a chance! :)

Read this to catch up on the last 19+ months.

I have no idea where my last blog stopped. It was probably sometime after we got the exciting news that the IVF worked. The pregnancy was fairly easy. We had one scare around 19.5 weeks, but all was well. We found out that night that we were having a girl. Eric (my husband) just could not wait to know. His desire to know outweighed my desire to not know so we found out. I did develop gestational diabetes. Luckily I didn't have my gestational diabetes test until after Christmas. That would have been a bummer. We muddled through and on March 28th, 2007 at exactly 9pm (I know this because Lost, my favorite show, was just about to start) my water broke. Since I am a nurse I know all the bad things that can happen while in labor so we headed right to the hospital. I was not taking a chance with our little miracle. I had a pretty easy labor, although it was a little long. At around 6am on March 29th Pitocin was started to help me progress. I got an epidural around 1pm, I think. Madeline Claire Olson joined our family at 5:15pm on March 29th. She was perfect in every way. She had gorgeous blue eyes and a bunch of dark hair. We left the hospital 2 days later. I know you're wondering what the first thing we did when we got home was. We watched Lost. LOL

Madeline was such a good baby. We had issues with breastfeeding so she was bottle fed with formula after the first tough month was over. She also had reflux so was on a special formula and eventually some medication. The reflux suddenly disappeared around 10 months. She also struggled with ear infections off and on that first winter. She took her first steps on her 1st birthday.

Ever since those first steps she's been on the go. She now climbs, jumps and dances (her favorite thing) She can be naughty at times but is perfect. We couldn't ask for a better child!

Madeline, don't play with your poop!

Yes, I actually giggled as I said that the other day. There was a time when I didn't think I'd ever get to say things like that. When one struggles with infertility, you gain a perspective on things that you never would otherwise. Does a parent that had an easy time having a family find joy in things like that? I would guess not, or at least they wouldn't think about it for more then the time it takes to clean up the mess. I found true joy in being able to clean up that mess. Is that weird? Some of you followed the blog I had while we were struggling to conceive Madeline. I lost track of that blog long ago so am starting a new one. Hopefully people will find this as helpful or entertaining as my previous blog. If not then I'll just talk to myself. It's ok, talking to myself will still be more enjoyable the cleaning the house!