Packing, packing, and MORE packing!

We are getting ready for our BIG move in less than two weeks!  We close on our first house on May 11th and have scheduled the movers for the 14th.  I’m so excited about moving, but more excited about being able to get movers for this time around.  The hospital has a moving stipend that we are taking full advantage of.  Works out perfectly for this pregnant lady!  We have organized our storage unit and have started to pack up our room and all of Maddie’s things.  We have A LOT more than I thought we had tucked away in all the crevices in our current living situation.  I can’t wait to get into our house and unpack all our things and make it our own.  After five years of marriage, medical school, one baby and a baby on the way we are finally get our little piece of the American Dream.  We are blessed.

A lot going on these next couple of weeks.  We move and just a few days later we head to Kentucky to watch Gabe walk across that stage and become a Doctor.  The light at the end of the tunnel is HERE! 

All things on the baby front are great.  I had my monthly appointment yesterday and the little guy/gal’s heartbeat was strong.  I am 15 weeks along now.  We find out boy/girl on May 30th!  Keep praying for a healthy baby! 

Big News!

Maddie is going to be a BIG SISTER! Baby McCoy #2 is due 10.26.12 and we couldn’t be more excited! In other news, Gabe matched into Internal Medicine at the University of South Carolina-Greenville Memorial Hospital. He will graduate Medical school on May 19th and start his residency on July 1st. We are also under contract on our first house. Things are happening so fast and we are overwhelmed with everything, but are excited about this next journey in our lives!

The Life of a 2 Year old…

I am a little behind in posting about all the things that Maddie is up to these days.  We have been so busy with so MANY exciting things going on.  I wanted to jot down her 2 yr old stats while I was thinking about it. 

At 2 years old:

Weight: 33.6 lbs (98th %tile)

Height: 37 inches (99th %tile)

Head: 20.67 inches (99.99 %tile)

 

I am wondering if she will be taller than me (I am 5’10”)  Only time will tell…

 

Maddie is so smart, but I have been saying that forever now.  Some of the things she can do or enjoys doing:

• loves puzzles and has mastered all of the ones we own
• loves books and definitely has her favorites memorized.  We will read and leave out the last word and she fills it in!
• can count to 10 and sometimes she will randomly fill in higher numbers.
• can identify a lot of colors, but still makes some mistakes here and there
• still working on ABC’s, but she will fill in some missing letters if we sing it together.
• enjoys nursery rhymes and can help fill in missing words.  Right now she is obsessed with The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row your Boat, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
• Talks like crazy…we can understand most anything now.
• loves to play with her blocks, baby dolls, and Little People toys
• she could live outside-I know this summer will be spent playing in the water in the hot afternoons
• loves to help cook by stirring whatever we are making
• has become a somewhat picky eater…I guess she just doesn’t eat as much as she used to.  Some mornings she hardly eats any breakfast, but she will devour pancakes any day!  She is picky about vegetables, but will at least try what is on her plate (although she spits it out), eats most fruit, and has somewhat of a sweet tooth
• we are aimlessly working on potty training.  She first pooped on the potty the day before she turned 2 and that was a BIG DEAL!!  The whole process is a slow-go.  We have had a few sicknesses thrown in that has gotten us off track.  Overall she is doing good and will go pee and poop on the potty a few times a day.  I have to keep reminding myself that she just turned 2!
• goes to bed between 8-8:30 and wakes (on most days) between 7:30-8:00.  She still takes one nap and it ranges from 1.5-3 hours! 
• still has the dreaded paci’s or in our world “ditty ba ba”  The child still loves the plug-oh well!  She won’t take it to college, right???

Although she can throw a mean tantrum, they are pretty far in between.  Maddie is a sweet little girl with a giant personality!  She keeps us laughing around here that’s for sure!

Happy 2nd Birthday Maddie!

Our little girl is TWO!  My oh my how time flies when you have kids!  I remember my dad telling me when I was pregnant that once I have the baby time will just fly by.  He was right (he was right about most things).  I love this age (we could do without the occasional tantrum, though).  I will write more in detail  what Maddie is up to these days in another post-for now I will stick to the party.

On Maddie’s actual birthday we spent getting ready for her party the next day.  We shopped for nearly two hours at Wal-Mart, so needless to say, by the time we got to the counter to check out, we had opened up various packages to keep her entertained and FULL.  We decided to keep it a little smaller than last year’s party and it was perfect.  The theme this year was Curious George and it turned out so cute.  Maddie has always had a love for monkeys and she goes crazy for Curious George these days.  Her Daddy and I made a George cake.  I searched pinterest for ideas and came across this.  It was much simpler than we thought and the cake turned out great!  I made dipped marshmallow pops again and just used lots of red, blue, and yellow to stick with the theme.   Maddie wore a bright yellow shirt with George and balloons hanging from the number 2.  I found the iron on transfer on Ebay and bought the shirt at Hobby Lobby for super cheap.  Party Junction here in Greenville had Curious George party supplies so I was able to pick up the plates, napkins, and balloons from there.

For food, we had spicy ham biscuits, pasta salad, buffalo chicken dip, a fruit platter, Monkey Munch, and chewy banana oatmeal cookies.   Everything turned out great!

Maddie was showered with lots of gifts on her big day.  She got some beautiful clothes from Omi, Mimi, and Aunt Natalie that I can’t wait for her to wear this spring and summer.  I think her favorites this year by far are her new princess tent, doll stroller, and her new ride on tractor from Aunt Teresa. 

Maddie is one blessed baby big girl!  Happy Birthday Maddie Moo!  We love you so much!

Look Who’s Talking!

Miss Maddie has officially begun talking and by talking I mean saying full sentences (sometimes up to six and seven words). I really took notice at the beginning of December when she started putting three words together. For the longest time she would get frustrated and start yelling “IMO, IMO, IMO”. We had no clue what she meant by this, until recently when the “IMO” has turned into “I want ___” Her wants and needs are now being verbally requested and this makes things so much easier on us! We can understand pretty much understand anything she says now! I will never forget as we walked into the doctor’s office a few weeks ago {right before Christmas} and she said clear as day “Doctor said no monkeys jumping on bed” I looked at her and was completely taken off guard. Yes, I have been singing this song to her nonstop for weeks, but for her to just say it out of the blue was incredible! She seriously surprises me every day with the things she says and remembers. I know she is my own, but I have to say she is so smart!

I wrote down at 18 months that she had about forty words. I would think that this number has at least quadrupled. And to think just a few months ago I was worried about her lack of language. Well, my child has proved me wrong…WAY WRONG. I have to say my favorite thing she says is “I love you” which is more like “luh you”. Also just today while we were walking up the stairs I started to count and then all of the sudden she took over and counted 4-10! We have a talker and this mommy couldn’t be more proud!

Potty Training is in full swing…

It is hard to believe that another month has almost come and gone in just a blink of an eye. After the busy Christmas season, we have laid low for these past few weeks, mostly just leaving the house to go to the gym or grocery store. At the beginning of the month we really started to focus more on potty training. Maddie has showed more readiness lately, so we have decided to give it a shot. A friend of mine gave me a little pink frog potty to use and Maddie has seemed to respond well to it. We have a potty ring for the big potty that she has sat on here and there in the past, but I think the floor potty works better for now. She has gone many times on the potty these past few weeks, but it has been taking forever (even if it has been HOURS of staying dry). But after she goes, she stands up and squeals like crazy and yells “I pee pee on the potty!” I get just as excited as her!

At the YMCA where I work out, they have encouraged me to bring Maddie in a pull-up so she can go to the potty with the “big kids.” Yesterday was the first day that Maddie wore a pull-up and when I picked her up she had a ‘potty heart’ that they made for her for just sitting on the potty. Maddie carried that thing around and kept telling me all about it. She seemed so proud of herself, so right after the gym we headed to Target and picked out big girl underwear {Minnie Mouse!} I put them on her after her nap and she was so excited about her new underwear. She looks so grown up! I kept telling her that she has to keep Minnie dry and that we pee pee on the potty. She wore them all through dinner and then we sat her on the potty and within 5 minutes she went! About an hour later (right before bed) we sat her on it again and sang her ABC's and sure enough she went again! I was shocked to say the least. This morning as soon as she woke up I put her in the underwear and it has gone remarkably well! She has gone three times so far today (with only one #2 accident…but hopefully she will catch on to that soon) We have even gone on a walk and played outside in underwear!

The plan is to put her in underwear while we are home and sit her on the potty every 30 minutes or so until she gets the idea. Hopefully wearing big girl underwear will keep her motivated to stay dry and learn a little quicker. It sure would be nice to save a little money on these crazy expensive diapers. I don’t know how long this process is going to take, but regardless, I am so super proud of my almost two year old!

Twinkle Twinkle!

We took Maddie to see the Roper Mountain Lights last night.  We figured she would enjoy seeing all the light displays and we were right!  There is a place that you can get out and walk around.  You would have thought this child was five years old!  She was prancing around with her hands in her jacket pockets and trying to be miss independent.  She was talking a million miles a minute and didn’t want to be held at all!  She kept saying “twinkle twinkle” at all the lights and telling us what each display was.  Watching her look at all the lights I could just see the sparkle and joy in her eyes!  We just love taking Maddie places and having her experience new little adventures.  When we got back home Maddie told Mimi all about what she saw.  She didn’t miss a beat.  She was saying “twinkle twinkle lights, duck, penguin, Santa, Christmas tree, train”.  It was amazing that she remembered everything!