One of those days....

First off, a note about the blog... I have decided to blog in the mornings since it doesn't interfere with family time or me/Anthony time in the evenings. So, I will be blogging about the day before. Hope that doesn't confuse anyone too much. :)

Today was definitely one of those days. Long. Hard. Frustrating. Long. It's definitely going to be a readjustment back to these 12 hour shifts. They make for very long days. I'm shocked sometimes by how slowly time can go by! But then other days it seems to fly, so I guess it just evens out.

Anyway, I did not have my camera with me for most of the day so the only pictures I got were during Maddy's last playtime. So here's a review of the day up until then:

Yesterday was the first day that I gave Maddy a sippy cup for the first feeding of the day instead of nursed her. We made the decision at the end of vacation. It's just time. But it's still so hard to stop nursing. Even though I know that I'm not really giving her as much milk as she needs anymore and that she doesn't even enjoy nursing anymore, it still makes me sad to stop. She cried for a full five minutes when I presented the sippy cup to her. Poor girl. She just kept turning around into me like she was so confused and just wanted to nurse. It almost made me break down and nurse her, but I know that we are ready for this transition so I pushed forward. She eventually took the full cup (part of it in my arms and part of it in her playpen).

The rest of the morning was pretty uneventful - Maddy had breakfast and took a GREAT morning nap. During that time, I got a lot accomplished. I made hummus, cut a bunch of vegetables and put them into individual bags for snacks, started a load of laundry, folded two loads of laundry, prepped sweet potatoes for Maddy's food, and got myself and Maddy ready to leave for lunch/playdate. Whew! It definitley felt good to get so much done!

In the afternoon we went to Emily's to hang out and let the girls play together. Maddy and Rosie (6 months apart) still do the side-by-side play. Sometimes they just take a toy back and forth from each other until one of them gets frustrated. It's really amazing to watch all of the social learning that goes on. Maddy loves to be over there and watch the girls and learn about playing together! And I love the time to chat with such a sweet friend! Win-win!

After that it was home for afternoon nap. After I put Maddy down, I had a near catastrophe with Bella. I put her on the leash to take her outside but three steps out our down she was unhooked from the leash (apparently I hadn't hooked her very well). This generally results in what we've come to call a "Bella adventure" where Bella runs around the neighborhood for anywhere between 30 minutes and several hours and comes back dirty and stinky. This time, however, when I called her to come to me, SHE DID! I couldn't believe it! I put the leash back on (securely this time) and we were good to go! I am putting all the credit for this on Mom M - Bella learned some good skills while she was with you for a week!

After afternoon nap was when the day started to feel forever long. Maddy's nap was not the greatest and by 4:00 she was cranky. By 4:30 she was crumpling. I knew we were in for a looooong two and a half hours until bed. We took a walk - one of Maddy's favorite distractions - even though all I really wanted to do was take a nap. Maddy loved the walk, though, and looked around at EVERYTHING. We practiced waving to cars and people and even stopped for a bit for me to rest and played some peek-a-boo.

Maddy with her stacking cups (one of our favorite toys)

Beautiful Maddy Grace

It's hard to see it in this picture, but I think she's starting to prep for standing. She puts one leg behind her and one leg out to the side and then slowly lifts up to a kneeling position.

"Helping" with the dishwasher. Those spoons kept her busy!

Anthony missed seeing Maddy awake today, but it was nice to have the time together this evening. We had dinner and watched a favorite TV show. We were both super tired by 10 and headed to bed. Here's to another day ahead!

Here's a video that I did not post the other day. Since it is a Maddy First I wanted Anthony to be able to see it at home first before posting it on the blog. Can't believe our little girl is getting so big!