July 2005 Archives

...you're going to love this one.

Here's another video for your amusement. Again, it's one of Maddie. We do take some of Josie, but I just didn't have one on hand.

This one is of Maddie doing some talking. My sister makes fun of me for always trying to get Maddie to do her "tricks" like some kind of trained pooch. But I'm just so amazed by all the stuff she can do that I want everyone else to be able to see it.

Lately, however, Maddie's been playing shy when she first meets people. She won't talk to a new person until she's been around him/her for at least fifteen minutes. Some of my coworkers don't even believe she can talk, because she's so quiet around them.

She talks ALL OF THE TIME at home. She's definitely her father's daughter.

Anyway, right click on this link, then save the file to your desktop before watching it. This one is more than twice the size of the last one, so it could take 8-10 minutes to download (sorry, but I'm still trying to figure out the video stuff). Be patient, it's worth the wait...

Sorry we haven't posted very often lately, and when we do, it's usually an abbreviated or bulleted post. We've just been overwhelmed with everything else we have going on, and the blog has suffered for it. Alecia mentioned some of the stuff that we're doing/planning to do with the house, but we've also had a million social commitments and other obligations, as well. Not only do all of Maddie's friends seem to have summer birthdays, but a bunch of new babies are arriving every day! Add in the fact that we're festival and concert hounds, and you can see how we're never home on the weekends. And when we are home, we have a to-do list for the house that may never be finished. :)

Alecia's done a good job trying to post an update now and then, for which I'm grateful. I'm usually the one who does the lion's share of the posting, but work has been incredibly busy lately. I just launched three of the four biggest projects I'll take on this year. Two were new sections on our site (our At-Work section and the new TBS Blog), and another was our network's first podcast (which is basically an online radio show). The two new sections took almost six months to develop and were held up in legal hell for quite some time. The podcast was something that kind of fell into my lap, but was more fun than my usual projects. I got to spend the morning with Pauly Shore, which was pretty funny.

Anyway, things are almost back to normal at work. Unfortunately, the new sections we launched require constant updates, so the workload hasn't really eased up there. And like I said, those were only three of my four biggest projects for the year. The other--which I'm smack-dab in the middle of right now--is a multiplayer trivia game that will launch in mid-September. We just found an official sponsor for it, which is awesome, and it should be a big success for our site. But it's the most expensive project I've ever managed (over a half-million dollars for a four-month development cycle), so there's a little stress that comes with it.

Other than the social stuff, the work stuff, and the house stuff, I've also been trying to find the time to stretch my creative muscles a little, but it's been a struggle. I have another blog I do some writing on--but that's been neglected, too. I've also been doing some podcasting of my own, but I'm still in the experimental phase, so none of my broadcasts so far are really worth listening to. Finally, I've been trying to play around with putting audio and video on this (and my other) site, to add to the experience a little. I captured some great video of Maddie talking up a storm, but I'm having trouble uploading it to the host servers.

Until I can get that video working, here's another of Maddie doing her signature dance move, THE BOOTY SHAKE. The rest of the dancing is a little apathetic--we were watching VH1 Classics, and Maddie's not as enthusiastic about dancing to '80s music as she is to Black-Eyed Peas or Britney. But the move is there for all to see. To watch the video, right click on the following link and save the clip to your desktop. It's a 16-megabyte file--meaning it's big, so don't try to download it if you're on a dialup connection.

Right click on this link and choose "save as" to save the video to your desktop.

I'll try to post more pics, video, and some updates if we ever find some time to do so. Things can't keep going at this pace forever, or we'll just wear down. So when that break comes, I may write a multi-page update for this site. (I wouldn't hold your breath, however.)

News on the McLochlin front:

-new paint in our living room and kitchen (pics coming soon!)

-birthday parties galore for Maddie (see new pics) Including Grace's party, where Maddie and Grace were inseparable and held hands.

-Josie can now say Mama, Dada, Baba, and Lala. She can also sort-of wave at us (right up straight up and twists wrist slowly while smiling a big goofy smile).

-FINALLY working on the landscaping in our front yard. Tore out the bushes on the other side of the porch, soon to be filled with Gardenias, Nandinas, and Purple Queen plants. (pics coming as soon as it is not breathtakingly hot and they can be planted without one of us passing out from the heat)

-Lots of new babies in our playgroup. They're all so deliciously sweet to hold and smell. Hard to believe that our Josie is so big already. Isn't it amazing how much more you relish holding a little newborn baby when you aren't the one who's up all night with them?

We haven't written an update in a while, mostly because we've been incredibly busy (and stressed out, to be honest) but then again who isn't these days.

The girls have grown in so many ways that many of you wouldn't even recognize them from a few weeks ago.

Josie: Our sweet little Josie-Posey is the happiest baby in the world. (until she gets hungry, then watch out!) Honestly, I don't remember ever meeting a baby who smiles so much. It's already evident how different she is from Maddie. She is so content to just sit back and watch what's going on, as long as she can make eye contact with you and smile every few minutes. She's almost sitting up, but loves to play in her ExerSaucer. I think she likes it most because she can interact with Maddie and the dogs more. Her favorite person out of all of us, though, is Maddie. Maddie can simply say, "Hi, Josie!" and Josie starts giggling hysterically. It's the most wonderful sound in the world and I'm hoping to catch it on tape because I'm sure it could cure some kind of illness. Josie's also becoming quite talkative. She now babbles "Bah bah!" over and over constantly when she's playing. When she's upset, it becomes a slow "Mama" moan. Still cute! She can roll over from her back to her stomach, but then gets stuck and frustrated if she can't roll back over to her back. She's reaching for everything and of course it all ends up her mouth. I've had to be extra careful about the toys Maddie gives her. Speaking of toys, her favorite playthings are her feet. Honestly. The girl loves to sit in her carrier and hold a foot in each hand and then kick her feet, pausing to suck on her toes now and then. Who knew they could be so entertaining?

Maddie: Our big girl is becoming even more of a little girl and less of a baby. She's now speaking in full sentences and even has a few catch phrases of her own that she's picked up. For instance, her latest is to walk into a room and go, "Oh mah gawd!" in the craziest Southern accent. I don't know where she got it, as neither Bill nor I really use that expression much, but we keep trying to change it to Oh my GOSH. She just goes back to her way. We had a short stint with potty training that ended badly (Mommy gave her M&Ms for reward when she went potty and they gave her diarrhea that freaked her out and ruined her new Princess panties) but she still lets us know when she's going potty in her diaper. The girl loves to dance and will break it down whenever she hears music, WHEREVER WE ARE. She loves loves loves her baby sister and makes a point of kissing her good morning and telling her, "It's okay. Don't cry." She also mocks Josie's babbling, which is hilarious. (So it begins...)

Life is great and the floors are gorgeous, thanks to all of Bill's hard work. It's exciting to be making these changes to our little house, though we sometimes wish we could make them all at once. Instead, you'll be reading about them over the next year or so. (Hey, you can only do so much with two little ones running around and getting into the tools and paint.)

IKEA of Atlanta opened last week and it had a profound effect on our lives. If you don't know what IKEA is, and haven't been to one, then you can't possibly understand just what an event this is. For the past 5-6 years, my only access to this wonderland of shopping has been visiting my brother in Chicago and then kidnapping he and his girlfriend to go to the IKEA in Schaumburg. That, my dears, is the closest one to Atlanta, other than Washington DC. Since we were always on a road trip to Indiana, we could never buy much more than we could bring back in our car.

So you can understand the ecstacy of having a store ONLY 10 MINUTES FROM OUR HOUSE. And within walking distance of where Bill works.

Our first trip was on Friday evening, wherein we joined the crazy crowds wandering through the store. We had an agenda in mind: we're redecorating a few rooms in our house and needed new desks for our office. The ones we wanted were out, but that didn't stop us from buying lots of other things, including a new little bed for Maddie, housewares, lights, a file holder, etc. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we could come back at any time. Our history with visiting the store in Illinois had us puzzling every item to see if we should buy it just in case (like back when we knew we'd only be back in a year or so.) We even ended up visiting the store again on Sunday to pick up some things we'd forgotten, and the before-mentioned desks.

The rest of our weekend was a blur, but so fun. We spent all day Saturday at Lake Hartwell with our friends Grace's family (Maddie's best friend). I don't know who had more fun, us adults or the girls. The day included lots of swimming, boat rides, and a few scares when daredevil Maddie fell in the water between the boat and dock (don't worry, all was well and she begged to get back IN the water five minutes later.) "Puh-leeeeeez, Mommy?"

Monday was spent painting our new office, and some furniture pieces during the day. That evening we went to Lake Acworth, where we watched fireworks last year. After a rainout, and then a return to the beach, we had a wonderful evening watching the sky light up. As predicted, Maddie loved it and tried to call out all the colors she was seeing. Josie? Well, she passed out asleep in our arms, exhausted from the weekend.

Check out the pics we posted recently of our fun-filled weekend.

How was everyone else's holiday weekend? What did you do to celebrate?