A Little Texan Through and Through

The sign of a true Texan: A Gruene Hall shirt before the 2nd birthday! Thanks Aunt Hallie!! :)

Picking Wildflowers...

Near our neighborhood park there is a patch of beautiful wildflowers. Madelyn wanted to smell them so we stopped on the way to the park the other day!

After smelling the wildflowers we headed to the park and Madelyn spent most of the time climbing on and off this "horsey" (or so she thought it was :)) until they started to cut down a tree near the playground and it got really loud and dusty!

Big Girl Breakfast

This morning, Madelyn did not want to sit in her high chair for breakfast. So we pulled her chair up to the coffee table and she went to town! She is getting so big :)

Happy Daddy's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day to the best Daddy in the world!!

Funny story: On Friday Madelyn and I headed to run some errands and I told her that we were going to buy Daddy a present. We did what we needed to and came home to wrap the present. While she was taking her nap I hid the present so Daddy did not find it until today. All day long Madelyn talked about Daddy's present and I tried to convince her that it was a secret. The minute Derek walked in the door on Friday Madelyn was telling him all about his present and trying to find it to give to him!! What a stinker! :)

We had a nice, relaxing Sunday today...We spent time as a family just playing around the house and outside.

Waiting for the puppies to come and play...

Toby was hot and decided to cool off in Madelyn's water table!

Madelyn thought this was a good idea! What a crazy child she is :)

Happy Father's Day to all those Fathers out there!

Good Morning!

Mornings with Madelyn are my favorite time of day lately. Most days Madelyn wakes up in a great mood and just loves to sit and play quietly for a while. It takes her a while to wind up and become wild so this is a great time to snuggle and play quietly! What a great way to start the day.

I love her bed head in these pictures :)

Elmo PJ's

I think that we now own every Elmo thing that has ever been made! Madelyn LOVES Elmo and when we found these PJ's we had to get them!! Isn't she super cute :)

Afternoon at Gigi and Papa D's

Derek had plans to go golfing after work and would not be home until late so Madelyn and I packed up and headed to Flower Mound for the evening to spend some time with Papa D and Gigi!

We wanted to go swimming to show off our new skills we learned in swim lessons but Madelyn was less than thrilled with that idea at first. She was clinging to me and did not want to float, pick up her pool toys or go underwater. After some quick thinking and the invention of a new game involving her rubber ducky, Madelyn was all about the pool. She probably spent well over an hour swimming back and forth from me to Papa D! She loved it! I can only hope that she warms up quickly when it is back to swim lessons on Monday!

After swimming it was time to come inside and play with her puzzles and books...

Time to call Daddy and see how golfing went!

We had a great time! Thanks for letting us come play Papa D and Gigi!!

We Got This!

For the past few months we have been working on self feeding. Madelyn has always been great with her fingers/hands but on and off with a fork or spoon (especially if it is something with lots of liquid). But lately Madelyn has been doing great feeding herself with a fork or spoon. She wants to use one with every meal (even if she does not need it) and can stab something to eat it or scoop it up! I think we have a big girl here! :) Here are some pictures of applesauce from the other day with hardly any spills...

OB Appointment - 29 Weeks & Swim Lessons

Today was another appointment (I am almost 29 weeks) and this one included an Ultrasound by Dr. Patton! The two words that stuck out from this appointment were: BIG and BREECH!

Little Mason is running a tad big! He is weighing in at over 3 pounds already! This puts him measuring between 30 and 31 weeks (I will be 29 weeks on Thursday) and his head is measuring over 32 weeks! YIKES...No wonder I am feeling HUGE lately!

Now the scary part, this baby is breeched. Madelyn was always head down so I have not dealt with this before and it is worring me a litte bit. Before now he has been sideways (head on right side and bum on left side) but now he is officially breeched (head up under my ribs and feet down low). My doctor is not super concerned about this for several reasons:
1. It is still early - we will worry more about it in 4 weeks (when I will be around 33 weeks)
2. I have more than normal fluid levels. This is actually a good thing because it allows him more room to move around. She said that with his size and my extra fluid it is no wonder that I am looking much more pregnant than I really am!
3. Second babies are easier to turn should it come to that! (I really hope it does not)
Dr. Patton did give me several things to try to get little Mason to turn on his own within the next 4 weeks. These include putting an ice pack on my left side (apparently they move away from cold) so that he will flip, doing some strange exercises and playing music on the part of my tummy where we want his head! They all sound like long shots to me but I am willing to try anything! The good part of all this is that he is completely healthy and I get another Ultrasound in 4 weeks! YEA :)

More good news: my glucose test came back great - no problems there :)

Overall, I am feeling pretty good. The bigger I get, the harder it is to carry Madelyn around and put her in and out of her bed and bathtub. (She is weighing around 31 pounds now!) I think that lately the worst part of pregnancy are the dreams. They are very vivid and sometimes I cannot remember if something was a dream or real! :) I have not had very many leg cramps this time around and the heartburn I had a few weeks ago is subsiding for now. I am getting anxious about having two babies and how Madelyn is going to handle sharing Mommy! We are also going to start working on moving the house around and getting Mason's nursery ready in July sometime! I will post pictures when we get it all done...

We only got one picture from the Ultrasound today...Mason was moving all over the place so it was hard to get a clear picture. His hand was also in front of his face but we did get a cute little picture...

Madelyn and I started Mommy and Me swim lessons yesterday. We will be going for an hour everyday for the next two weeks. The kids in her class range from 6 months to 2 1/2 and Madelyn was the only one that has not cried! She laughs through the entire class! She LOVES it! I think that she is at the perfect age for these - she is not as afraid as the older kiddos but can do all the skills (it also helps that she loves to be in the water.) I was a little concerned about being able to keep up with the class since I am pretty pregnant but it is going well. I think that I am more tired than Madelyn after the classes though - good thing it is nap time when we get home! (I do not have any pictures because I am in the water with her!)

Fun Morning

Yesterday, while Daddy was doing yard work, Madelyn and I went to feed the ducks and play at a nearby park! We had so much fun even if the ducks were not so hungy (they must have already been fed!). There was one very aggressive duck that kept getting VERY close and quacking until we gave him more bread. Madelyn was not concerned with him but I had to scoop her up a few times when he got too close!
**NOTE: Yes, this is her favorite shirt and she wants to wear it ALL the time! I am trying to give her some more independence by letting her pick out her own clothes which means that she wants to wear her favorite outfits over and over again! All in the life of a nearly 2-year-old :).

Book Worm!

Okay, so I am a few days behind on posting pictures. Anyway, last week during the rain storms Madelyn and I decided to spend a rainy afternoon at the local library. Madelyn (and Mommy too) really enjoys looking at books so I thought that this would be fun for her. She did enjoy looking at the Elmo books and playing with the puzzles. Unfortunately I was not the only one that thought the library was a good idea on a rainy day because it was packed!! We did not stay very long but did get to take some books home!

Back at home looking at her books.

Up Close and Personal!

I am ready for my close up! There was no smiling today from Madelyn. The closer we get to the "terrible twos" the more we see her stubborn personality come out! The absence of a nap today made her Ms. Cranky Pants! She finally slept a little bit in the late afternoon and was MUCH better after that :).

It was HOT this week!!

It has been a really HOT summer already!! Madelyn and I have been trying to spend at least some of the day outside before it gets super hot. We went back to the park on Wednesday and it was great because there was no one else there - we had the run of the whole park and I let Madelyn play on the big toys...she loved it and got super hot! :)

It was hot today!