The List - Update :)

Now there are only 3 weeks (and a couple of days) before the baby comes...oh my...

The good news is that progress has been made on the list.  Realistically, I don't think everything is going to get done, but it is good to have goals...

Item #1: New Shades for the Sun Room
We are making progress...all 7 shades have been cut and are in some state of being sown.  Some are really close to done, some are not as close to done.  Of course, after the sewing then there is the stringing of the shades and the installing...well, we'll see what happens.

Item #2: Get a big girl bed for Madelyn and move her into it
As a refresher, this is the bed we got from Ikea...I still need to actually take pictures of it in her room with the quilt Aunt Becci made for her.

Last night, Madelyn told us that she wanted to sleep in her big girl bed.  The last time we tried to get her to sleep in there it did not go well and she ended up in the crib.  However, last night it was her idea and since our goal is to get her sleeping in it we decided to give it a try.  She really wanted me to stay in the room with her, which I agreed to.  However, after about 30 minutes of lying down with her in the bed and her talking to me, I told her that I would stay in her room but in the rocking chair, not in the bed with her.  5 minutes later she was fast asleep.  She did come find us in our room at about 1:45am, but Justin took her back to bed and she slept the rest of the night in her bed without incident.  Tonight she is currently sleeping in her bed.  I am currently cautiously optimistic that this transition is going ok.

Item #3: Extra storage in the kids room...yikes!
We have made more progress on this front.  The closet is anchored to the wall (thanks Dad and Justin!),  most of the inside pieces are installed (we may or may not have initially gotten the wrong size shelves), and we have gotten the doors.  This has been a much more multi-step process than I had originally envisioned, but at least we are making progress.

This is the PAX storage system from Ikea

Item #4: Childproofing the kids room BEFORE Madelyn actually starts sleeping in her big girl bed
I am pretty sure this is done...just in time :)  Who knows what we'll discover now that she is free to roam her room at night.

Item #5: Fixing/Removing the shower doors in the bathroom
DONE!!!! They are gone! I am so happy!

Item #6: Repaint the Living/Dining Room
This is scheduled for Monday.  Sometime before then we need to pick out and purchase paint and clear everything off of and away from the walls.  We've got some time...

Item #7: General cleaning out/organizing of closets and other storage in the house to make things easier once the baby comes
I cleaned out and reorganized the linen closet and the under the bed storage in the kids room.  I am going to count this as a partially filled goal :)
Here is my beautifully organized closet...who knows how long this will last.

At least we've made progress :)

Goodbye Pacifiers...

It was time for the pacifiers to make an exit from Madelyn's life.  Justin and I agreed that was the case, but we have been putting it off.  However, with her move to her big girl bed imminent we thought it would be better to get her used to sleeping without pacifiers in her crib where she feels secure and then moving her to the big girl bed.

On Saturday we took her to Build-A-Bear where she could pick out a stuffed animal and put her pacifier in with the stuffing.  She was really excited to get a new stuffed animal (Puppy) but by the time we got home she just cried.  Madelyn finally cried herself to sleep around 11pm and she slept until 7:30 am, so the night wasn't a complete disaster.

On Sunday Madelyn refused to nap, and she told us at bedtime that she did not want Puppy in her crib (he has evidently been banished).  However, she went to bed without any fuss and went to sleep fairly easily.

Monday and Tuesday were a repeats of Sunday...will this continue?  Only time will tell.  However, bummer for Puppy to have to bear the brunt of her feelings about not having pacifiers anymore.

Vacation!

2 weeks ago I celebrated my 30th birthday.  I was not terribly excited about turning 30 and I told Justin that instead of a party or anything along those lines I would prefer to go on a trip and spend some time together without Madelyn.  After some consideration and taking into the account that I was already going to be well into my 3rd trimester of pregnancy prior to travel, we decided that we would probably be best off staying in the country.  Justin's grandmother has a beach house in Ocean City, New Jersey so we worked out a plan involving dropping Madelyn off to spend some quality time with her Mommom and Poppop, seeing some friends in Philly, and then heading to the beach where my sister Becci and her husband Micah were going to meet us.

The beach house has some history for Justin and I: the first time that I went there with him was the weekend that he proposed.  Then, when we lived in Philly we spent a lot of weekends and random middle of the week days driving down to spend some time there.  So, almost 9 years after we got engaged (we actually got engaged on Labor Day weekend) we were back there spending time together and enjoying some of the same things that we had done early on in our married life.  We didn't take a lot of pictures before Justin's mom brought Madelyn down at the end of the week, but here are a couple:

To cap off a fabulous vacation which included a lot of really good food (Italian at Franco and Luigi's in South Philly for my birthday, cheesesteaks at Pat's, Manco & Manco Pizza on the boardwalk, seafood at the Lobster House...) Justin's mom brought Madelyn down to the beach for her first real experience at the Ocean.  Justin and I did take her to the beach when she was 4 months old, but that isn't really quite the same.

I think that Madelyn would have done a little better with some more time at the beach, she needs a good amount of time to warm up to new things, but since then she has been asking when she gets to go back to the ocean so I think we have planted the seeds for many excellent trips to come.

The List

When we found out that baby #2 was on the way Justin and I made a list of projects that we would like to accomplish before the baby.  Then, we didn't worry about it because we had so much time.  Now, with about 10 weeks left before the baby's estimated arrival we realized that it was probably time to look at that list again.  We actually made some big progress this weekend!

Item #1: New Shades for the Sun Room
A little over a month ago I had actually roped my mom into helping me start on this project that we bought the fabric for over a year ago.  The shades in our sun room have been falling apart since we moved in, but we thought it would be more cost effective (if not time efficient) to make the new shades rather than have them made.  7 windows that are 5 ft by 3 ft (the panes, not including the molding surrounding them) is a lot of window to get covered, no matter how you look at it.  After beginning the project we realized that it is going to take us a while and it is more complex than we had anticipated...nonetheless, I think that if we are diligent we actually have a shot at getting this done before the baby arrives.

Item #2: Get a big girl bed for Madelyn and move her into it
Justin and I have been putting this off since it involved taking down the queen size guest bed in her room and getting it to my parents house somehow, as well as actually getting a bed and mattress for Madelyn.  Then, Justin and I made a plan to get it done this weekend only to be thwarted by not having an extra person available nor a vehicle to transport furniture.  Luckily for us, friends of ours (Matt and Becki, along with their son Cole) called and offered to help us out Saturday morning by providing extra man (and woman) power as well as their mini van.  With their help we got a new bed and mattress for Madelyn at Ikea, tore down the old bed, and got it to my parents house.  Madelyn is now ready to go in her big girl bed!  (Original plans may have included painting the bed white before setting it up, but for now we're just happy to have a bed for her to sleep in :)

This is the bed that we picked up from Ikea, actual pictures will hopefully be posted soon :)

Item #3: Extra storage in the kids room...yikes!
The room for the kids has a big disadvantage: it has no closet.  The small dresser and armoire functioning as a dresser/closet in Madelyn's room wasn't really enough storage for Madelyn but we were making it work.  However, with the addition of another child's clothing and other things a new storage solution was needed.  Once again, thanks to our friends coming to our rescue this weekend, we were able to get a wardrobe storage system from Ikea which will provide significantly more storage for us without taking up much more floor space.  It isn't anchored to the wall yet, the inside pieces still need to be put together, and the doors that we wanted weren't in stock, but we are much closer than we were to this goal.

This is the PAX storage system from Ikea

Item #4: Childproofing the kids room BEFORE Madelyn actually starts sleeping in her big girl bed
This needs to happen...soon.

Item #5: Fixing/Removing the shower doors in the bathroom
I strongly dislike the shower doors, particularly after 2 years of giving Madelyn baths in that tub.  Now that one of the doors is broken I have the excuse I need to just get rid of them.  We are having someone come take a look at it in a few weeks, so I consider that progress towards this goal :)

Item #6: Repaint the Living/Dining Room
This is probably not going to happen...let's just be realistic here.

Item #7: General cleaning out/organizing of closets and other storage in the house to make things easier once the baby comes
I still really want this to happen...at some point

Things that start with "fire"

Recently, Madelyn has been preoccupied with all things starting with the word "fire."  During the 4th of July she was beside herself with anticipation to see the fireworks, until they actually happened and she insisted on going inside with Daddy where it was safe.  She was so worried that fireworks were going to happen again that we told her that they wouldn't happen again until after Daddy's birthday (since that is July 3rd).  Now if she talks about fireworks she lets you know that there will be no more fireworks until after Daddy's birthday.  (Justin pointed out that there can be fireworks on Labor Day, at Parades, the State Fair, etc...but I didn't think it was worth worrying Madelyn about...)

She is also very interested in fire trucks and fire hydrants.  When we took a walk tonight she told us that when the fire trucks come the water comes out of the hydrant.  She seemed disappointed that we couldn't see it in action :)  However, when she says fire trucks she doesn't say the "tr" sound as clearly as it could be, and often it sounds more like an "f."  It can be a little startling if you aren't expecting it.

Madelyn is looking forward to visiting her Mommom and Poppop and hopefully getting to visit the fire station and fire trucks again (which she told them tonight when she skyped with them).  Since I never did post the fire truck pictures from Christmas I thought I would share a couple of them tonight.

A little behind

A little may not adequately cover it...but I have been behind.  My new work schedule means that hours I used to be free I am working, and when I am home Madelyn is awake.  We're all adjusting...

Shortly before those changes at work we went to get Madelyn's 2 year pictures taken, so I thought I would share some of my favorites.

With the pictures here are Madelyn's 2 year stats (a few months old now...)
Madelyn's Stats from her 2 year check up

Weight 26.6 lbs (50th-75th percentile)
Height 34.25 inches (50th-75th percentile)
Head Circumference 18.5 inches (18th-25th percentile)

I'm planning on finding a little more time to blog soon...

New Schedule

I recently started a new job at work.  The job is a promotion but comes with some very different hours.  My new schedule means that I am going to get to spend more time with Madelyn because I will be home 3 mornings a week and every Friday.  But, it also means that  I am going to miss dinner and bedtime 3 nights a week.

Yesterday was our first day that I was home in the morning and not home for bedtime.  Madelyn was very confused about why Grandma wasn't there, and I am pretty sure that whatever I did for breakfast did not live up to the Grandma standard.  However, she was happy to have me home to play with her and it was nice to have a relatively relaxing morning split between trying to take care of things and playing.  However, bedtime was not so great.  Madelyn called me twice; the first time she was pretty happy to talk and tell me about her day and say goodnight.  But the second time she was crying for Mommy to come home.  That was pretty tough for me... Justin said she ended up crying herself to sleep after about a half an hour

I know we'll all get used to this new schedule but until Madelyn is ok with bedtime I have a feeling that I am going to have a rough time with it.  In the end it will be a good thing, but the short term is tough.