Mommy's growing belly

At 14 weeks I am much bigger than I was with Madison. Everyone assures me this is completely normal for a second pregnancy. Most important- the doctor says Pickle and I are both healthy. The dry heaves have almost subsided and I have lots more energy to play and run around with Madison. Welcome second trimester!! Check out the growing belly.

President's Day Kern trip

We went to our favorite camping spot for President's Day weekend. As usual we had a great relaxing weekend. Madison seems to have more fun every time we go. She walked around camp collecting sticks for the fire and rocks to fill her buckets and cups. She still loves cruising thru camp in her wagon, and is not picky on who pulls her. She'll con anyone into pulling her around. Madison does have a new love though. As she calls it- the 'broom, broom'. Several fellow campers had quads and ATCs (four wheelers and three wheelers). She got so excited every time one was fired up and driven away. She even got to sit on a little quad while Uncle Chris Whalley pushed her a little.

It was quite cold, 20s and 30s at night, 60s during the day. Madison got to try out her new winter jacket while hanging out by the campfire at night. It was so nice to have our nice warm RV to keep us toasty at night. A great trip, as always. We even managed to snap a few shots of her headstand. Still not sure why she loves this so much. She'll do it at home on the carpet, in the yard, and in dirt camp! Check out the pics to see what I mean.

One and a Half Already!

Can you believe our baby is a year and a half already? As I sit here typing this Madison is reading to Daddy. It is just amazing how much more she is enunciating her words even since last week. She's truly growing up before our eyes. This month Madison learned how to turn on the dvd player, take a dvd out, put it in the vcr and get her hand stuck in the process. We thought the living room was Madison proofed enough for Mommy to take a shower without worrying- guess not. She sat there patiently waiting until she heard the water turn off, then started yelling 'stuck, stuck'. Mommy to the rescue, I lifted the flap so she could pull her hand out. She managed to stay away from it for a few days before curiousity set in again. Time for a new entertainment center!

We had a great time playing outside this month too. The weather is off and on- hot/cold. One day we play in the sprinkler, the next day pants and a jacket. We also started painting this month. Madison had her first encounters with finger paint and paint with water. She LOVES them both. If she isn't asking to go 'side, side' to play, she is asking to paint.

We started working on letter recognition too. She knows 'M' and 'a' now. She knows star, circle, square, triangle, moon, tree, flower, house. It's so fun to color and paint with her-she gets so excited when she recognizes a shape or letter.

The month wrapped up with a trip to Dr Pattan for her 18 month check up. Madison weighs 24.4 lbs and is 32 1/8 inches tall. This puts her in the 60% for height, but just under 50% for weight. Even with that big belly she is still underweight. It's all the running and climbing she does! Dr Pattan was impressed by Madison's vocabulary and overall interactions. She says not to worry about weight- Madison is still just perfect. Of course, we agree! We also noted her upper left eye tooth is finally poking thru. Such a growing girl! Madison did have a bad reaction to her tetanus shot. Her leg was so sore she couldn't move it all day. It made me so sad, she just sat around on my lap lethargic all day. Thankfully it only lasted a day and she was back to running around by the time Daddy got home from work.

In the post picture she is 'enjoying' a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Love outside time

The weather warmed up this weekend so we decided to take advantage. Madison and I picked up some sidewalk chalk on our Friday errands. She had so much fun drawing all over the driveway with me Friday afternoon. By the time we came inside she was covered head to toe in chalk dust and dirt. Needless to say, bath time quickly followed.

Saturday we put Madison's sprinkler toy to use for the first time. It was a birthday gift from Aunt Stacy. She giggled at the fish spinning around and spurting water. We ended up putting her sprinkler inside her pool so she wasn't splashing around in mud in the backyard. The ground is still pretty saturated from all the recent rain. She had such a great time filling her buckets with water and dumping them into each other. We are really enjoying our outside time with this warm front. We know winter will come back soon so we are taking full advantage while we can.

Meet Pickle

We went back to the doctor Friday for a pickle check up. Pickle looks GREAT. It's tough to tell in this photo but the top circle is his/her head and the bigger oval on the bottom is little Pickle's body. You can see the legs stretched a bit too. Pickle was twisting and squirming around like crazy. We even saw a little hand waving out at us! Dr Kim confirmed pickle looks fantastic and has a strong heartbeat. In four weeks we go back to hear the heartbeat for the first time. In five weeks we go to the specialist to check Pickle's heart and (hopefully) determine the sex! Stay tuned we go for our big appointment March 14th. We continue to talk to Madison about the new 'baby' and even lift Mommy's shirt so Madison can pat or kiss the baby. She thinks it is great fun. We are all starting to get excited about the newest member of our family.