Pre-Christmas activities

Wow, it's been forever since I posted something. Here are some pictures the last two months and what we've been up to.

Went to Toledo for Thanksgiving and went through the Lights at the Toledo Zoo - one of my favorite memories from growing up.




Decorating our Christmas tree...


We went back up to Toledo mid-December to celebrate Christmas with my family since we are staying in Cincy for the holidays this year. This was "Christmas morning #1" before we heading down to the tree. Madeline was very excited.




I also have a new niece! Baby Mimi was born December 8th and she is absolutely adorable.


With big sister, Ninah


With big brother, Harris


Holiday Junction at the Museum Center. I was hoping for a picture with Santa, but Madeline is terrified of him. She loves the idea of him and wants to see him, but once we get within 20 feet of him she cries and tells me to keep him away. We'll try again next year.


Decorating Christmas cookies...or should I say making a big, big mess.


I'm sure they will taste yummy though.

Ultrasound pics

Here are some pics from my ultrasound today. It was confirmed once again as a boy (for you doubters out there) so I can say officially for the third time, YES it is indeed a boy. There is no doubt at this point ;) Baby's measuring at 70% percentile which shocks me given Madeline was barely a peanut when born, but who knows if that will be the case in another 3 months. Thank goodness I'm having a csection.

Cute baby boy profile...


One of the alleged legs that has been beating me up from the inside out.

Here you can see head, ribs, and his arm is reaching up touching his head.

This is a profile of head and chest and you can see his left arm resting on his chest. Ahhh, it's too cute.

Halloween

Halloween just keeps getting more fun. We got out to a pumpkin fun, carved said pumpkins, made holiday cookies and stocked up trick or treating. I'm sorry to report most of those activities were squeezed into Halloween day, but here's all the proof.





David and Ella with Mady (2 of the many kids on our street).


Halloween night...






We headed to Christina's for a special trick or treating adventure with her kids Ethan and Melina along with cousins Paul, Charlie and Ady Grace. Happy Halloween everyone - hope you all had as fun of a holiday weekend as we did!

Growing up

Madeline has a lot of changes coming up in the next few months. Moving into a new, bigger room, moving to a big girl bed, and becoming a big sister of course. So in preparation we took the front off her crib to see if we could start the process of her sleeping in a real bed. I really don't want to be dealing with a 2 year old not staying in her bed while up in the middle of the night with a newborn. The last two weekends we've taken it off and made a few failed attempts at her sleeping in it.

Last night however, she slept in her bed until about 4:30 am! Before that she actually fell out of the bed at one point...went out and bought the gaurdrail today...don't want that happening again poor girl. Today we had a "bed party" with balloons and Dora stickers to celebrate the ocassion.



Naptime was a little more difficult today. I thought she was sleeping and peeked in to check on her and she had taken her diaper off, and was fully dressed in about three layers of clothing apparently having her own fashion show. After peeling off the layers and getting her back in bed, she is now finally asleep. Looks like we are heading in the right direction!

We also went to the pumpkin farm last weekend and I hadn't uploaded these yet. I just realized a didn't get a single photo with a pumpkin ;) Madeline was running around so excited in the pumpking patch that every picture was blurry! My hopes of a Rockefeller-style picture in a sea of pumpkins may not happen this year, boo.

Ultimate Joy

This morning we went to Eden Park to feed the ducks/geese. This is one of Madeline's favorite things to do. I used to take her every week but with the new job we haven't been in weeks. She...loves...it. I say that just in case you couldn't tell by this picture.

Our neighbor was there with his two girls, Sophie and Eliza so we had some company.

Bengals Tailgate

I'm a little late getting these pictures up from the tailgate this weekend. In case you hadn't heard we've been overtaken by illness in our house. Flu, ear infections, croup, yuck. Hopefully by this weekend we'll be back to close to 100%. So the AJ Cohen Bengal's Tailgate went really great. Jon and the rest of the board pulled off a great event and AJ would have been very proud.











To top off the day the Bengals beat the Steelers in yet another heart-wrenching end of the game win...WHO DEY! Season is looking promising!

Glee Single Lady

Madeline loves three things recently.

1. The show Glee
2. Football
3. Beyonce

The three of them coming together in one form is like the holy trinity of happiness for my dear daughter. I'm not joking around here. She loves all the singing and dancing in the TV show and she has a fondness for Beyonce like her mom. Now the love of football has been a recent thing but she will actually watch the games and cheers the players on. So when I saw this week of Glee I was so excited to watch it with her.

This is not nearly as good as the first 3-4 times she did it when she was mimicing the dance moves and I was crying with laughter, but it was the best I could get on film. We've watched this scene about 10 times in the last two days now.