Another Year Older

On Jan 15th I turned 33yrs old...it really sucked. I'm generally not someone that's too concerned with my age, but this year I just feel old. What made me freak out the most was filling out an online survey for work that day and noting that I'm only 2 short years away from checking the "35 to 40" box. It's really strange since I swear I still feel like I'm 15yrs old.

My friend Meredith invited Stefan and I out for dinner the Saturday night before my birthday since her husband Harry's birthday is right around mine (I think he's the 14th, but I can't swear to it). Whitney graciously agreed to babysit Maddox while Stefan and I headed out for a nice dinner at Parish in the Highlands. Dinner was great (I highly recommend the short ribs...very yummy!) and between the 4 of us we had 2 bottles of wine. So we decided to go out for a bit longer before Stefan and I headed back to suburbia. Harry and I thought we randomly picked a bar in the Highlands and when we walked in a bunch of our friends were there to celebrate with us. Stefan and Meredith had planned it as a suprise for us and it was a great time.

Some of our friends decided that in addition to all the wine that I should have a few shots. Mind you, I can count on one hand the number of shots I have had in the 10yrs since I graduated college. I think I only did 3 total washing them down with a few Miller Lites. Needless to say I was a bit toasty and rather enjoyed running to the car in the torrential downpour that ensued. I didn't throw up, but I was in bed that Sunday until almost 5pm. Small price to pay for a great night. Dorothy, we're not in our 20's anymore!

Beyonce

Maddox has discovered a new woman in his life and it's not Miss Whitney (his nanny). Maddox absolutely adored Beyonce. Stefan TIVO's Saturday Night Live every week and started watching the one with Paul Rudd and Beyonce one afternoon with Maddox while I was out running errands. Apparently as soon as Beyonce came on and started singing, Maddox was absolutely transfixed. Her second song, "Single Ladies", had him up and dancing so of course Stefan replayed it a dozen times that afternoon.

While we were at my parents house for Thanksgiving, I was giving Maddox breakfast one morning and my mom had the Today Show on in the other room. Guess who was the musical guest...Beyonce. As soon as she started singing, Maddox practically jumped out of his booster to go and see her. It was unbelievable. Ever since, we replay Beyonce singing "Single Ladies" on SNL probably 4 times a day...he absolutely loves it. Whenever we're in the car and he hears any of her songs, he smiles and starts dancing in his car seat. It's really funny because he does not react that way to anyone else. There are definitely worse things out there for him to love...it's a good thing I like her music :). One of these days when I get my video camera working I'll post a video of Maddox dancing to "Single Ladies", it's priceless!

Held Hostage by a Bad Storage Drive

I am all set to blog about our holidays and put up some pictures and of course as soon as I empty my memory card onto our storage drive, the thing craps out. Isn't that just my luck. Neither Stefan nor I (both with engineering degrees mind you) can get the thing working so we threw in the towel and called the Geek Squad. Imagine my shock (and anger) when they called us to let us know that after messing with it for 3 days, they can't get it working or the data recovered either. They need to send it out to other specialists! So I'm freaking out that I have lost almost all of my pictures of everything (I haven't used real film in years, so everything for the past like 7yrs is all on that drive...including all of Maddox's pictures). God willing someone somewhere will be able to recover my data. So in the meantime, I have a picture that we had taken of Maddox with Santa. We took him to breakfast with Santa at our church and of course he got his picture taken. He didn't love it as much as the Chick-Fil-A cow, but he didn't freak out either. Unfortunately no huge smiles, but cute picture none-the-less.

We did have a great Thanksgiving traveling to my parents place in MD. It started out interesting as we overslept and got to the airport late, which was worrisome considering we didn't have confirmed seats on our flight...stupid I know since it was the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Everything ended up working out great (woke up at 7am and we were at the Atlanta airport at 745am...world record for 2 adults and a baby in traffic!) and we got to MD safely with no major issues. We had a great time over Thanksgiving. All of my brothers were home so Maddox got to spend plenty of time with his uncles. We also got to see the Myers, Engels, Susses, Augurusas, McCabes, and Garlands all while we were there. It was great to see all our "DC Friends" again and the McCabes who move up there from Atlanta almost a year ago. Once I get my pictures back I'll post some of the trip. Also, it was great for Maddox to have time with his Nana and Granddad in addition to his great-Aunt and Uncles. The only stressful part was chasing him around my parents non-childproof house :). Not sure how 4 of us made it out of there in one piece ;).

We spent the Christmas holiday here in Atlanta and spent the day at Mama Les and Grandpa's house. Maddox woke up on Christmas and came downstairs to all his presents with the look of wonder I was hoping for (Daddy got some great pics...again I'll post when I get them back). He really enjoyed all of his new stuff (most of which were recycled gifts from last Christmas and his birthday that I rewrapped up...I'm going to keep that up until he knows the difference...hee hee). We got over to Mama Les and Grandpa's house early in the day and spent time playing with the Jezerinac boys, which Maddox loved. We had a great big dinner and then opened all our other presents. Maddox loved pulling off the ribbons and playing with those, so I ended up opening most of his gifts. Everyone was very generous with him as usual...I'm going to have to start reigning them all in...don't want a spoiled child!

We had a great New Year's at the Davises. It was a kid filled party and since they had a pack and play set up, we were able to put the kids down and enjoy the party until after midnight. Maddox had a blast playing with Mitchell, Miller, Mathew, and all the other kids there...we had a blast with the parents too :). Great way to end 2008! Here's hoping for an even better 2009...

End of October and Halloween 2008

Hayden and Mason's Chick-Fil-A Birthday Party
Our friends Hayden and Mason had their joint 2nd Birthday Party at the Chick-Fil-A in Smryna. We were very excited to go as we had not seen them in a while. The birthday party was a load of fun since they have a huge indoor play area for the kids. Maddox and the rest of them loved climbing and sliding and messing with all the stuff on the jungle gym thing. The funniest part of the day for us was when the Chick-Fil-A cow came out to wish the birthday girl and boy a Happy Birthday and get pictures of all the kids. Most of the kids were a little scared and we thought Maddox would be too, we were wrong. Maddox absolutely loved the cow. He would not get off his lap and kept chasing the cow trying to get a hug and more time with it. It was absolutely hilarious. We had a great time and I think Hayden and Mason really enjoyed their party. My how quickly they all grow...

Carlton Farms

We really wanted Maddox to get to pick out a pumpkin for Halloween this year and in doing research, Stefan found a farm in Paulding County called Carlton Farms. They are an organic dairy farm that has a petting zoo, hayrides, corn maze, duck races, and pumpkins to pick out. Since I'd been itching to get Maddox to a zoo of any kind, we decided to head out to the farm one Saturday afternoon with the Davis's. It was a lot smaller than we expected, but the people and animals were so nice. We were a little disappointed that they didn't have a pumpkin patch, but a bunch of pumpkins sitting out in the main area for you to pick out. Oh well, we figured the petting zoo would make up for it. It was really a lot of fun and the boys enjoyed it a ton. They had baby calfs, pigs, chicks, horses, and lambs in the petting area that the boys had a great time with. We then headed to the hayride unsure of what to expect. The hayride took us out to one of the open spaces and probably 20 full size cows came out to see us. They came right up to the ride and we were able to pet them and feed them hay which they ate right out of our hands. It was really cool and Maddox could not stop laughing at the big tongues licking hay out of our hands. Definitely a highlight. They also had an area to feed full grown chickens and pumps set up to race rubber duckies. Plus a big field to run around and around in...Maddox loved it. We really had a great time, but next year I think we'll try to find a pumpkin patch :).

Halloween

We weren't sure whether Maddox would be interested in Trick-or-Treating this year, so when we got invited to the Fuller's Halloween Trick-or-Treating and Party we thought that might be the perfect thing. We got to their place around dusk and all piled into a bunch of flatbeds set up as hayrides. Then we were driven to all of the houses (members of their family) where the residents came out and brough candy to us. It was really a blast. We had a great time as we didn't have to walk and carry a tired toddler around our neighborhood and it was great to share the experience with so many of Maddox's little friends. One of the barns was set up as a haunted house which the kids all loved. Finally we ended up at the starting point where there was a big party with tons of food and candy. We had a great time and are so glad to have been there. The only downside was that Maddox discovered Kit Kat Bars which are now a total addiction for him. I guess there are worse things...hahaha.

Pop - We love and miss you

On October 12, 2008 my Pop passed away at the age of 90. Pop was my last living grandparent and Maddox's only living great-grandparent. I am so glad that I got a picture of Maddox with him last year when we went to visit him. My Pop had a rough life as so many did that came of age during the Great Depression. He never complained though. He worked hard his whole life and with Nana (who passed away 14 years ago) raised 4 wonderful kids. There are 6 of us grandkids and 5 great-grandkids.

I always remember him wrestling with us on the ground when we were little. He always called my brothers and cousins "Tiger" and we thought that was hilarious. He used to make and drink Whiskey Sours all the time. One time I demanded that he give me the "orange juice" I thought he was making so he gave me a sip...it was horrible. He was a Deacon in the Catholic Church and officiated at all of our Baptisms and First Communions before he retired to care for my Nana who had Alzheimer's Disease. He felt it was his duty to care for her at home until the end, and I cannot imagine how that must have been for him.

Over the years, he developed symptoms of Alzheimer's as well and ended up in a wonderful Assisted Living Facility. As he declined we kept visiting him and trying to keep his mind from forgetting us, but as I'm sure anyone who has been exposed to this illness knows, it's a losing battle.

I'm so thankful that my Mom and her sister Kathy were able to be with him when he died. While it's sad that he is no longer here, I'm so happy that he's finally reunited with Nana after 14 long years. They loved eachother so much, it's a blessing that they are finally together. The funeral home posted a bio of him with a slide show of pictures through his life, which is amazing.

Obituary - http://www.webfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=205300&fh_id=10498

Goodbye, Pop! We love and miss you!

September and Beginning October 2008

Since I'm so far behind on my posts, I've decided to hit the high points of September and October 2008. Here we go :)...

Sesame Street Live In early September we heard that the Sesame Street Live show was coming to Phillips Arena. Since Maddox LOVES Sesame Street so much (and the tickets were pretty cheap), we decided to try it out. The show was really adorable, however I think Maddox got totally overwhelmed by it. Being that he's only 15mths we weren't totally shocked. It was pretty loud and he didn't cry and freak out, but he was sort of awed and then passed out, so we left at Intermission. Maybe next year :). Here are a couple of pictures:

First GT football game
Also in September we decided to take Maddox to his first Georgia Tech football game. We were able to get some great tickets for GT vs. Miss State and figured that since the game was in the afternoon we may be able to get him to sit through a bit without passing out. It wasn't too hot out either, so we thought it would be pretty good. We headed down to campus early and hung out at the ZBT house for pregame. Then we made the walk to the stadium. We got into our seats and realized that it was going to be a lot hotter than we thought. Although the temp was ok, we were sitting in direct sunlight and I had forgotten the baby sunblock for the first time since Maddox was born. We kept him in the shade with a sweatshirt and he was interested at first. Then came the first GT touchdown. All the noise totally freaked him out and he started crying because he was clearly scared. Then a funny thing happened. GT started scoring a LOT (funny that never seemed to happen all that often in the other games we went to) and Maddox was pretty much done. Stefan took him into the inner part of the stadium where they sell the merchandise and food to let him run around a bit and after a while we decided to leave. I'm proud that we made it to halftime and GT ended up winning the game 38-7. Go Jackets!!!

GT Homecoming

As is customary since we moved back to the Atlanta area, we headed down to campus to the ZBT house for GT Homecoming in October. Maddox really enjoyed running around the house and it was wonderful to see a lot of our friends and their children. It always amazes me how different we all are since our days at GT. It's definitely a bit surreal to see people you partied with 10yrs ago (my has it been that long) chasing around babies and toddlers and talking about the which car seat is the best model. My how times have changed.

Tybee Island Vacation 2008

The first week of September 2008 we rented a mini-van and headed down to Tybee Island, GA for a vaction. We even brought Nelson and Mama Les, Grandpa, Nana, Granddad, and Uncle Luke met us there. We rented an amazing house with a pool in the backyard for the week, which was only 2 blocks from the beach. None of us had been to Tybee Island before, although we've been to Savannah which is a 30 min drive. We're so used to going to Ocean City, MD which is loaded with condo buildings and hotels, amusement parks, boardwalk, etc. Tybee Island is almost the exact opposite...a very small and quaint beach town. We had a great time and Maddox loved it. Having the pool in the backyard was awesome...even Nelson got to swim (although I didn't get a good picture of it). Maddox loved the pool and absolutely adored the ocean...I think he could've done without the sand though. It was great to have time with our parents and Luke as well. It was a very low stress vacation and Stefan and I even got some time alone togther. I've included some pictures, but all of them are in the Summer 2008 album (link under albums). I highly recommend it, especially for young kids that are not ready for amusement parks yet :).


Mommy, Daddy, and Maddox at the beach













Nana and Granddad


















Uncle Luke, Maddox, and Daddy

Daddy and Uncle Luke playing catch with Maddox in the pool