Its that time of year....

Thursday night, Maddie woke up gasping for air and as if she were choking. This was my sign that she would end up with croup! As scary as it sounds, that is exactly what she did the last 2 times she started with croup. Sure enough, she continued to cough and woke up with croup on Friday morning. She's a fighter though! This cold has not effected her eating habbits or her energy level at all! Other than the fact that she sounds aweful and has a constant runny nose, she's completely herself.

Maddie is now talking in small sentances!! I dont know if I shared this already or not, but it was the sweetest moment ever!!!! Madilyn looked up at me the other day and said..."mama, kiss me!" My heart completely melted! As mothers, those are the moments that mean so much!!! Its not whether or not they know their ABC's, or can count or walk or any of those things. Its when they can completly express their love for you with hugs and kisses and those sweet words.....MAMA KISS ME!!!

Last night I couldnt hold in my laughter when we were talking and I was trying to get her to put her pajamas on. I had told her it was time to put pj's on. Maddie said no. (maddie hates to change clothes!!) SO then I said, "Madilyn, its time to get ready for bed and put on the jammies." Madilyn responds with "I said no!" Now we all know thats not necessarily something you want to laugh at, as they tend to repeat things that people respond to. HOWEVER.....when she's just staring to talk in sentences and THAT comes out of her mouth.....how do you not laugh!!! Gee, I wonder where she heard those words from????? :-)

Valentines Day

On Valentine's Day Maddie and I went over to see our friends Miss Susie and Owen, in order to keep the tradition going! Last year (maddie and owens first valentines day) we went over to play with all the McKoon's....Isabelle, Grace and Owen. But the girls have grown up and they were in Preschool on Thursday, which only meant that Maddie and Owen had some "alone" time. :-) It was so fun to see them playing together and thinking back to last year at this time when they were just crawling around. Maddie loves Owen's little 4 wheeler and Owen shared so nicely!!! Its so great to have friends who have kids around the same age as your kids. Its fun to watch they grow up together!

The day after Valentine's day was sort of a sad day. The title transfered on Friday for Grandma and Grandpa's house, and the people started moving in immediatly. Today there is actually a UHAUL out there. I'm sure we will all get use to it in time, but for most of my life, I looked out my back window and saw Grandma and Grandpa pulling in or Grandpa out in the Garden. It will be weird to see someone other than Grandma and Grandpa over at that house. However, on the bright side of things, its a younger couple, about our age and they have 2 kids. One is about 6 yrs old and the other just coming up on his/her first birthday. So it will be nice to have more kids in the neighborhood, so hopefully we all won't be strangers for long. It will take some getting use to (watching them come and go), but I'm sure in time it will be very natural. Its just another phase of life.

Completely Blessed!

Well, I just have to say that I've been feeling very blessed lately! As we're coming up on Madilyn's Second bithday.....yes, thats right...I said SECOND!!!! (YIKES) I've just been noticing so many little things that she's been doing and how much she has changed over the last 22 months. Children are a miracle and a blessing! Its amazing to see how they grow and learn and adapt to this crazy world. I just feel so blessed to have a happy, healthy little girl who loves people and loves to be out and about and going places. I feel blessed that I have a wonderful husband who has security in his job and even though he has to work a lot of hours, he loves to spend the rest of his time with his beautiful daughter. And now God is blessing us with a home that we can grow in as a family and as we add to our family in the near future. I just look back to when Maddie was born and we worried so much about Dave getting a job back here in Cleveland and felt like that time was never going to come! Then the thought immediatly went to "well, where should we live." God has just mapped out our life for us and just pointed us in the right direction. Maybe I'm just feeling overly blessed lately because of the clients I work with and the troubles I see on a daily basis. All of my clients struggle with mental illness but most of them also struggle with alcohol/drug addiction, homlessness & not having medical coverage....just to name a few. Every day I leave work feeling even more blessed than the day before. God has put me in this position for a reason. It totally puts my life into perspective! It makes me realize that my problems (though at the time I feel are aweful) really just arent that bad. Which makes me think of another reason I feel totally blessed.....I only work 20 hours a week and I'm able to spend the rest of my time with Madilyn.
I hope each and every one of you feels the love and blessings that I do!!