Today is our first anniversary! (Well, technically it was last night, since it's past midnight right now.) Happy one year anniversary to us!!
I could go on and on about how wonderful my wife is, about how great the past year has been, or about how unbelievably much I'm enjoying life now that I have EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED...but Alecia's heading to bed and only a fool would stay on the computer while his wife went to bed alone on their anniversary.
I'm no fool.
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It's true. Maddie is indeed a little superstar at the young age of 7 months. Don't believe me? Just check out the June 2004 issue of Pregnancy Magazine. The one with Katie Brown on the cover. Turn to the 3rd page from the back. There's a page called "Pregnancy's Beautiful Babies". Maddie's picture is on that page. We knew she was one of the cutest babies in the world, but apparently the magazine agreed as well. :) It's a picture of her in pigtails when she was 4 months old.
(On a more serious note, I think this might be the end of Maddie's little modeling career. I've seen too many episodes of Showbiz Moms and Dadsto scare me off of submitting her pics for anything else.)
More updates too. Maddie is cutting her first tooth. Bottom left side. It's so weird to think that soon she'll have a little tooth in her mouth and we won't see that gummy little smile anymore. It also makes me so thankful that I weaned her a couple of weeks ago. Yikes.
She's also developed a VERY strong attachment to Mommy lately. I can't even leave the room or walk 3 feet away without her bursting into tears. I've been told it's just a stage, but I'm seriously wondering if she'll get over this. She even cries when Bill holds her and I walk away (poor guy).
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As I write this, Alecia's sleeping on the couch, Maddie's napping in her crib (after a long fight), Sindri's at the groomer getting his hair cut, Astrid's on the back porch, sleeping under the table, and Mallory's on the futon next to me. For the first time in weeks, we have no workers in our house, tearing up flooring of installing cabinets. (Our kitchen remodel has been the project from Hell, but I'd rather not talk about it right now. I need time to cool off.) For the first time in forever, it's quiet at our house. I could take a nap, myself, but I figured it was about time to do something with this site, so here I am.
Anyway...
This weekend, Alecia and I took Maddie to the freakshow. Er, I mean The Georgia Renaissance Festival.
Actually, the Renfest is a fairly impressive event. Instead of having a "county fair" environment, the entire site is a permanent village. There are a few tents, but for the most part the buildings are sturdy, full-sized buildings that are up the entire year. And the area of the event is similar to a full-sized amusement park. Alecia and I spent all of Saturday walking around, and still felt like we hadn't seen it all.
The best part of the Renfest, of course, is the food. They serve the typical beer and hot dogs, of course, but they also have dozens of medieval-themed dishes, as well. Our favorite is the traditional roasted turkey leg (you know, the dish that makes you feel like a Viking when you eat it). We're also big fans of the "macaroni and cheese on a stick." I'm not sure how this fits the theme, but apparently putting anything on a stick makes it medieval. Thus, the deep fried Snickers bars on a stick, the Polish sausage on a stick, the steak on a stick, the frozen bananas on a stick, and even the corn dogs...on a stick. Corn dogs on sticks? What will they think of next?
Every year, they add new rides and attractions. Last year, we spent most of our time watching shows (Alecia was five months pregnant when we went, so we preferred sitting and laughing). But this year, we participated a little more. Alecia did the "War Catapult," which was probably as fun for me to watch as it was for her to do. For the War Catapult, they strap you into a harness with rubber bands on each side of your waist. Then, they lift you up over a trampoline. The combination of the trampoline and the rubber bands is enough to send you about forty feet in the air. They encourage you to do flips while in the air, and Alecia wasn't about to shrink back from the challenge. She did a flip on just about every jump. Later, she told me that her fear of heights really kicked in on the first jump, and concentrating on the flips helped her forget how high she was. In other words, she flipped to avoid puking.
Maddie seemed to enjoy watching her mommy fly. Then again, Maddie seems to enjoy everything. The only thing she didn't like was the angry goose in the petting zoo. She and Alecia were inches away from a gigantic goose, who was leaning in to possibly nibble Maddie's feet. In an effort to get a good picture, I stepped closer to the group, thus freaking out the formerly placid fowl. He started honking this high-pitched honk that totally terrified Maddie. Alecia agreed that it was the first time we've ever seen her scared of anything like that.
Later, Maddie got her chance to pet a more mild-mannered bird when we stopped in to see Mother Goose. Mother Goose is a lady that literally keeps geese as housepets. They sleep in their owners' beds and walk around the house like the family dog. They wear diapers and sometimes, clothes. When you see them, you'll agree that they're very nice...if a bit loud. Maddie wasn't afraid of Mother Goose's geese, even after the angry one in the petting zoo. But she was so much more interested in Mother Goose, herself--perhaps because of her big hat--that she kept pushing the goose away and reaching for the lady.
The day was long and hot, but we had a ton of fun. It's a blast taking Maddie anywhere, because she always gets so much attention. It's almost weird sometimes, how whole groups of people will stare at her when we walk by. We think she's the most beautiful baby on Earth, of course, and sometimes, it feels like others think so, too. :) The only bad thing about taking Maddie to the Renfest yesterday was all of the hucksters trying to get us to buy fairy wings or flowery crowns for her. And we almost gave in to some of those people...after all, she looked so cute in the medieval gear. But we had to wonder, where would she wear that stuff after the Renfest? Of course, she'd probably be the envy of her playgroup in her fairy wings.
If you'd like to see some pics from this weekend, check out the "Renfest Weekend" link to the left. I'm trying to get away from using Snapfish (I don't like having to login to see pics), so I'm using a program called Web Album Generator. Let me know if the new format is better or worse than before. Oh, and there are a few pics in the Renfest Weekend folder that aren't really from this weekend. They were old pics we never took off of the video camera, so I figured I'd throw them in with the rest.
One last thing: The quote at the top-left of the page? It's randomized now. Click refresh, and you'll get a new one. I can hear the "ooohs" and "ahhhs." I can tell you're impressed.
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OK, OK already... {she says across the room to Bill, who is urging her to finally post something}
Soooo, it's been a busy couple of weeks for our little family. I'll try to remember to include everything, but forgive me if I leave anything out:
- Visit from Grandma and Grandpa. One of the biggest things a few weeks ago was having Bill's parents in town. They hadn't seen Maddie (or us, for that matter...not that it matters, haha) since Christmas, so they were very obviously surprised by how big and how aware she has gotten. She kept all of us laughing all weekend. We enjoyed spending time with them, though it all went by too fast.
- Smyrna Village Jonquil Fest. We went to this festival the weekend that Bill's parents were in town. To sum it up in just a few words: Boiled peanuts and funnel cakes. MMMMMMMmmmmm.
- Busy days. I've recently started watching the 9 month-old daughter of a friend of mine three days a week. Her daycare provider fell through at the last minute, and she only has a few more weeks left of work. (She teaches school and won't be going back after this year). It's been a challenge, as I've had to quickly learn how to keep track of a very curious crawler, but I think it's preparing me for where Maddie will be in a few months. The good thing is that Maddie just absolutely loves Grace and usually spends most of the day just sitting, watching her, and laughing.
- She sits up and talks!!! OK, these are probably the biggest and most exciting ones for me. Maddie can now sit up on her own and play with her toys. It's so fun to sit back and watch her play and talk to herself. Yes, most of her words are incomprehensible, but we have understood a few of them. She can say "BaBa" for her bottle, and {drumroll, please} she can say "Mama"! It happened without a doubt last night. Bill was putting her to bed and she was crying a little. Suddenly, she yelled out "Mama!" I went in her room and she stopped crying. {She's also been VERY attached to Mommy lately} I assured Bill that her next word will probably be "Dada". I'm just hoping that's the case. :)
- Work stuff. After nearly going nuts from exhaustion and the stress of it all, I finally resigned from my management position in the cafe. I'm now just a plain old cafe server, who only works a couple of nights a week, and not at all on weekends. I'm a very happy woman who now sees much more of her husband and child. It took a while, but I finally got over the guilt of saying "no". Wow, that wasn't so hard at all...
- Kitchen renovation. I watch home makeover shows all the time, so you think I would be familiar with what EXACTLY happens during a kitchen renovation. But no, I have still been surprised by all the little things and just HOW LONG IT TAKES TO BE COMPLETED. Our landlord is remodeling our original 1964 kitchen with new cabinets and appliances. I'm thrilled and things are going to really look great, but I've discovered it's not so easy to make bottles for two screaming babies when you have no running water in the kitchen. Or washing those same bottles afterwards. We've experienced everything from a broken water pipe, which flooded our kitchen and living room (the carpet is still drying out) to having no countertop (and hence no sink) for the next 10 days. Just mark this one as a learning experience for us.
- And finally, some extended family news. Congrats to my mom and her boyfriend, Ralph, on their engagement. Mom, we couldn't have picked anyone better for you. We love you, Ralph. And congrats to my brother and sister, Rob and Michel, both of whom will be graduating from college in the next few weeks. I'm so proud of you guys.
Be sure to check out the latest pics in the April 2004 folder on Snapfish.
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I keep meaning to post a big update on here, to let you know all of the exciting stuff we've done over the last few weekends. But work is getting busier and busier, and Maddie is doing more and more. So I never seem to have the time to post, anymore.
So, I keep urging Alecia to do it.
She ain't biting, so it will have to be up to me to talk about the family. But not tonight. I have a short day tomorrow due to a work function, so I'm doing my best to go to bed at a decent time so I can get in early. Those who know me wouldn't bet money on either of the above happening. :)
Anyway, Alecia did post some new pictures on our Snapfish account. They're all in the April folder (since they took place in April--duh), but they're at the end. So if everything looks familiar in that folder, scroll down to the new stuff. And if a picture's truly worth a thousand words...I won't have to do a long update, after all. :)
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