Maddox's 2nd Birthday Party

We had Maddox's 2nd Birthday Party at East Cobb Park on June 13th this year. It was a great time and thankfully not too hot out for the kids. The location was perfect with the covered picnic benches and the playground that had the kids occupied for most of the 2hr party. We had a great turnout of friends and family and the birthday boy had a blast. It was a firetruck theme (I was hoping to get an actual firetruck to show up, but Cobb County gave me the run around) and thanks to Heather (www.thewhimsicalwoods.com) Maddox even had hi sown firetruck shirt. The kids had a great time on the swings and slides and with the bubble machine and ate lenty of hot dogs and hamburgers and cupcakes. We had a cake for Uncle Jason too who celebrated his 30th birthday the day before. Unfortunately we had to break down pretty quickly at 12pm since there was another party after us, so we came back home to open presents. Maddox was actually interested in opening his presents this year and everyone was very generous as always. All in all, Maddox had a great time with all of his friends and family. I've posted a few pictures from his party and the rest are in one of the albums in the Photos section.

Maddox Turns 2

Maddox at 8:09pm, June 11, 2009

I have been horrible about posting the past few months and figured that Maddox's 2nd birthday was a good time to get back in the groove. My little boy is 2yrs old! I must say I was a lot less sad than I thought I would be. His birthday was of course bittersweet for me as I love watching him get older, but miss my baby so much. It seems like just yesterday I was willing him to come out (through 14hrs of labor) and we were bringing him home for the first time. I broke out my signs as per usual and took his yearly 8:09pm picture on June 11th (the exact time he was born). He woke up to Mommy and Daddy (and Nelson) singing Happy Birthday and got him dressed in some grubby clothes for tie dye day at daycare. After I dropped him off, I came home to start making the cupcakes to bring in to his class in the afternoon. I brought them in late in the afternoon and his whole class enjoyed them. We came home, had a great dinner with another cupcake, waited up for our 8:09pm picture and then went to bed. Here come the Terrible Twos!

Preschool and The Wiggles

One day a few weeks ago, Maddox was having a morning meltdown and I was furiously looking through the TV guide to find something on TV to keep him occupied while I cleaned up breakfast and got lunch ready. I stumbled upon The Wiggles on Playhouse Disney channel and an obsession was born. Maddox absolutely adores this show and it's rapidly becoming the only thing that he wants to watch ever. He tries to sing and dance along to the songs and actually does his pouty little fake-cry when the ending song comes on. I'm actually very surprised he's taken to it so well. I guess there are worse things he could be into.

Our other little piece of news is that after having Miss Whitney for a year and a half, we decided the time was right to start Maddox in Daycare/Preschool. We definitely miss Miss Whitney a ton and thank her for all her wonderful time taking care of our little rugrat. Maddox started at the Goddard School on April 6th and seems to be doing really well. He gets along wonderfully with all his little classmates (especially his friend Mitchell who we've known for a long time) and his teachers, Miss Sally and Miss Sabrina. He tries to work me a little bit when I drop him off in the mornings and bursts into tears when I pick him up, but he's certainly getting used to it. I think it's a good move for him at this point. He definitely needed the interaction with other children. He had school pictures this week which I'm told turned out awesome, so I'll post them when I get my hands on them. Definitely a big change for us, but I think he's doing very well.

Feb and Mar 2009

I keep swearing that I'm going to get better at posting and I get worse and worse. The past couple of months have been pretty busy. Stefan and I travelled to Whistler, BC in Canada for our friends wedding allowing Maddox to have a week with Nana and Aunt Kathy. I think Maddox had a great week and I know Nana and Aunt Kathy were exhausted by the end of it. He really tuckered them out, but I think they had a good time with him.

Whistler was amazing, the skiing was awesome. They say it's the best in North America and I believe it. It looked like a postcard and was so much fun to get away with some of our friends. Rich and Gillian's wedding was a blast. I have posted a link to the pictures from there in our Photos section.

Maddox has continued to become more and more like a little kid and less like a baby. It's been fun to watch, but a little sad as well. I'm glad that he can do more and more on his own (feeding himself, walking all over, climbing stairs, etc) but he is starting to develop a little too much of an independence streak. Definitely starting to get an attitude of "I want it now and if you don't get it for me, I'll get it myself". We can no longer really "hide" things up on the counters as I found one day when he moved a kitchen chair over to the counter and climbed up onto the counter. He loves to open doors and drawers and pull out anything and everything. It's definitely becoming more and more of a challenge. I'm sure it'll continue to be so...ahhh the joys of parenting a toddler...

He talks (sort of)

Maddox finally started to really talk in the past few weeks. He's not holding actual conversations (at least not in English as I understand it), but he is starting to say a lot more words and use them in the correct context. Curiously, he will not say "yes" or "no" to Stefan or I (he'll say it to anyone else apparently) he will just nod and shake his head. He does love saying "Hi" and "Bye" and "Ooooo" to everything. He's said "Peez" (please) and "Thanka" (thank you) and he does a little "uch" sound in the right context...wonder where he got that one from :). He apparently says "more" all the time, however I have yet to catch that one. He's said "I know" and "ok" and other such things. It really is amazing to me how one day they just start saying things. He's starting to understand a lot more too like when I start counting he better stop whatever it is he's doing. I'm really excited for him to start actually conversing in full sentences although like all other milestones, I'm sure I'll regret it once we get there. Such is life :)

Storage Drive Data Retrieved!

After much heartache, hassle, and money we finally got all the data back from our corrupted storage drive...yay! I finally got back all of my holiday pictures and pictures from our trips to DC for a visit and Thanksgiving and all the other random pictures we had taken over the course of November and December. All of those pictures (in addition to pictures randomly taken in January and February) are in the Winter 2008/2009 link under pictures. Phew :)

Vegas baby!

The last weekend in January had me joining Stefan out in Las Vegas for a little weekend getaway. Stefan had been in Vegas since Monday morning of that week (hence us having to leave Adam and Randi's fabulous wedding a tad early on Sunday night) and I joined him on Friday afternoon. Whitney graciously came over EARLY on Friday morning to watch Maddox until Mama Les was able to get over and pick him up. Maddox had a great weekend with Mama Les and Grandpa Bill...I think he especially enjoyed eating ice cream with Grandpa Bill :). Mama Les took him to the Ge's Chinese New Year's Party that Saturday night and he apparently had a blast. Not surprising since he can't seem to get enough of running around and playing with older kids. Anson Ge is a year and a half to 2yrs older than him, so I'm sure he spent most of the party chasing him around. He loved eating all of the home made Chinese food Lea and Haijun cooked up for everyone and had a great time all around.

Anyway, I arrived in Las Vegas around 12pm and immediately headed to the spa at Caesar's Palace. It was a fab way to relax and start my weekend...nothing like a Swedish massage to start a weekend away. As soon as I got done, Stefan had just arrived back at Caesar's from the International Builder's Show (what he was there for for work). We got cleaned up and headed to check out how much has changed in Vegas since I was there last (here's a hint...everything! Unrecognizable from 4yrs ago). We had a fabulous dinner at Bradley Ogden in Caesars. It was amazing! I highly recommed it to anyone interested. After that we headed out to gamble. We met up with a collegue of Stefan's and his wife and found a cheap blackjack table to park ourselves at. A few hours and $300 later we decided it was time for a Denny's run. We had a great time that night and headed back to Caesar's for some sleep.

Saturday morning, I woke up early and wandered around to get some breakfast. I found a great coffee place in Caesar's and got some coffee and food and planted myself in the Sports Book to watch all the games going on (Duke vs. MD got most of my attention). Stefan and I had lunch at Mesa Grill (Bobby Flay's restaurant) and headed to the strip to take a walk. The weather was amazing (upper 60's and sunny) and we had a great time walking all over. We headed back in time to get ready for dinner at Kraft and the Cirque show at MGM Grand. Dinner was honestly the best steak I've ever had in my life. If you ever get the chance to go to Kraft Steakhouse in the MGM Grand...go...order the Kobe Skirt Steak and be amazed. The Cirque show was great and after winning back $50 at the blackjack tables, we headed back to Caesar's to call it a night. Sunday morning we got breakfast, placed a Superbowl bet at the Sports Book and headed to the airport.

Definitely a necessary break and a great time :).