M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Madison loves to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse each morning while she wakes up. She is not always the happiest when she first wakes up, so we snuggle with her blanket and let her wake up at her own pace. Every time the show ends she asks if she can watch "one more and that's it" A few weeks ago my dad saw a pop up on the computer that could have your childs favorite Mickey character give them a call, so he checked it out. Not only will they call at whatever time you set up with them, but they will also call your child by name. So we have set up a phone call for Madison twice in the past few weeks and have a call set up for her birthday so that Mickey can wish her a happy birthday. She loves getting the calls and gets so excited that they know her name. If you want more info on this, check out  http://disney.go.com/charactercalls/piccolinismiles/

Can't A Girl Get Some Sleep?!?

For some unknown reason, I have been having the hardest time falling asleep lately. Each night I take enough medicine to knock out a horse, and normally it turns me into a walking zombie around 11ish like clockwork. But lately, I find myself wide awake at 4:00am and unable to sleep if my life depended on it. I have had time to do some reading, watch lots of mindless TV, catch up on some cleaning, and steal a few minutes to just watch my baby girl sleep.

At first it was kind of fun to have some "me" time to do all of the things I just don't seem to have enough hours to accomplish, but that novelty is wearing off. I feel like I have a newborn in the house again, and I just need a normal night of sleep. Before I get to busy complaining, I should say that I am so lucky that Zach has a flexible schedule and has been able to let me sleep in some once I finally am able to fall asleep (around 6am or so). Because of his schedule we keep a pretty relaxed schedule at home. There are lots of nights where Madison stays up until daddy gets home from work at 10ish so that she can say good night to him because she is able to sleep in the next day. It works well for us because we get a few minutes of family time before she goes to sleep and because when she sleeps in the next morning, it means that we can too! So even though things could be much worse on the sleep front, I am getting tired of the late night infomercials. Eventually things have to get back to normal right?

Man that looks so nice right now!

Long Overdue Post and Some Cute Pictures

Over the past 2 months I have started to write a new post quite a few times, but haven't finished them for one reason or another. A couple I wanted to add a few pictures to and our camera isn't working right now, a couple more I just had to stop to do something else and never finished them, and the last couple I decided were not interesting enough to post. But a few people  have mentioned that they miss the updates, so here I am again. Hopefully I will finally be able to keep up with some regular posts, if there is anything anyone would like me to blog about feel free to ask. I have trouble coming up with ideas that I think anyone wants to hear me talk about. At the end of this post I will put in some pictures that we had taken today since it has been well over a year since we have had professional pictures taken.

So here is a recap of some of the things that we have been up to in the past 2 months (in no particular order)

• We have spent countless hours out in the backyard playing on the play set or in the pool.
• We have worked on ABC's and 123's and she can count to 15 and recognize those numbers if she sees them, sing her ABC's and recognize some letters.
• We have sang at church and Madison "helps"  and sings with her own microphone
• We have watched lots of Twins games and Zach got to go to a game with a friend (I'm only slightly jealous).
• We have had lots of time to just relax with my family and Zach's parents. Zach's sister Annie came in to town over Memorial day weekend and we had lots of fun together. We went to the horse races at Canterbury Downs, ate at Lions Tap, and had a picnic/birthday party for Zach at an awesome park.
• We have tackled potty training and, with the exception of nights, seem to have mastered that.
• Saw some friends from out of town who have their own Mady who is only a few months older than Madison, and had a fun night watching them play together.
• Madison's speech has improved so much. She is officially out of speech therapy and is able to tell us what she wants/needs and I only have to translate to other people once in a while.
• Me, my mom, my gramma, and Madison went up to Grand Casino Hinckley and stayed at the Inn (a much smaller hotel) for a couple days and had lots of fun in the pool.
• Have watched hundreds of episodes of Mickey Mouse (she usually wants the same episode EVERY. SINGLE. DAY)
• Between Madison and I, we have spent way to many hours at doctor appointments, urgent care clinics, and ER's (with some short stays as an inpatient as well).
• Have enjoyed lots and lots of hugs, kisses, smiles, giggles, and snuggles with Madison. It's possible that a couple of those hugs or kisses may have been shared with my husband, but I can't be sure :)

Lovin on my Little Ladybug

Tonight was one of those moments that just melt a mothers heart and make all of the bad things disappear from your mind. After a very long day that included Madison refusing to nap, a super cranky 2 year old, and a trip to the ER (for me), Madison made me forget about all of it in about 2 seconds flat. We got home and she just wrapped her legs around me like a monkey and wouldn't let go. We snuggled up on the couch and she was out cold in a matter of minutes. I just sat there savoring each minute of having her asleep on me, knowing that all to soon she won't want to cuddle with her mom anymore. It was the perfect end to a not so perfect day.

It Isn't Easy Being Green

More and more I find myself wanting to move towards a "green" lifestyle. I know that we will never be the family that has a big compost pile, only eats organic food, and sells our cars so we can ride our bikes anywhere that we need to go, but I have been able to slowly get my husband on board with some small changes.

We have started to eat some organic foods. Our finances won't allow us to dive in completely so we have decided that our main focus will be on fruits and vegetables that don't have a peel that gets thrown away like berries, apples, and grapes. We will not worry as much about melons or oranges. My next goal is to start incorporating some organic meats, and dairy products. We have gotten organic milk for Madison from the time that she could drink milk so now that she drinks skim milk like us I have no real reason or explanation for why we don't drink it ourselves. I guess I figured that if someone was going to have the expensive milk it should be her. But we have committed to make some other changes or sacrifices so that we can afford to add in more organic foods into our daily meals.

I also decided that it would be fun to plant some vegetables of our own. However I failed to remember that my only gardening experience was a small barrel of flowers when I was maybe six or seven. I may have planted our vegetables a tad to early and did nothing to protect them from the cold at night...oops! So now that it has warmed up some more I am going to pull out the dead plants and try again with some new ones. We are planting tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, red and orange peppers, snap peas, and maybe a few more if I get inspired when I go get them tomorrow.

I have started to buy natural cleaning products and using some household products as some of our cleaners as well. I have been toying with the idea of trying to make my own laundry soap, but I'm not sure if I will like it or not. I love when my clothes come out smelling like our fabric softener. I have also heard of using vinegar instead of fabric softener but I don't really think I would like that because again I love the way fabric softener makes my clothes smell and I HATE the smell of vinegar.

Finally, as crazy as my family thinks it is, I have been thinking that I want to give cloth diapering a try if we are blessed enough to have another baby. I have had the idea on my mind since before Madison was born but never felt like I had enough support to give it a try. Zach wasn't crazy about the idea and my parents were/are dead set against it. But Zach and I have been talking about it more and more so he has decided that we can at least give it a try and see how it goes. He also said that we should wait to worry about it until we actually are pregnant again :)

So I guess we will just see how things go in the coming weeks and months. We are committed to make an effort to do these things and if nothing else it will help us to grow closer to each while we figure out what works and what doesn't. Each little baby step is a step in the right direction so we will just keep trying to make choices that work for us and make us feel like we are doing the right thing for us.