January 2006 Archives

I posted some new pics to Flickr. The most exciting one is Josie's birthday picture. Her birthday is a "Pink Polka Dot Party", hence the dress. I can't believe how old she looks in this picture.

It's amazing to me how depressed I am about her birthday. When Maddie turned one, I was excited about the next steps for her. Plus, I was pregnant with Josie, so I was already thinking about Maddie being a big sister. But with Josie, my baby, I feel like it's going too fast. I want to scoop her up and cuddle her and keep her as a baby forever. It seems like just yesterday that we were so worried about her and her health, that we couldn't wait to bring her home and have her as our own. Now she's a strong, beautiful, happy little toddler. Seems like yesterday and ages ago all at once. It will be a while (probably!) before we have another child, so I guess it's understandable that I'm missing babyhood.

In other news, we look forward to seeing all the family that will be visiting for Josie's party this weekend: Grandma and Grandpa McLochlin, Nana and Poppa, Aunt Mic and Uncle Heath, Uncle Rob, and Uncle Todd.

Kami, we hope you get well soon and aren't too uncomfortable. I agree with Julie that it's best that you weren't farther along. I remember trying to lie on my back near the end (just for a minute!) and my legs would go numb.

If you're still having the ultrasound tomorrow, we can't wait to hear more news! We'll keep posted on the new baby blog.

Love,
Bill, Alecia, Maddie and Josie

Maddie has a light case of pneumonia. After a couple of days of a high fever (103-104) we took her to the doctor this evening. She was also having chills and breathing heavily while she slept, which was most of the time the past three days. And she wouldn't eat or drink anything. We got some antibiotics and the whole thing should start clearing up in a couple of days. In the meantime, she seems to be okay. She's eating ice cream (yay!) and drinking her juice now. Poor baby just wants to lie in the beanbag and watch Dora the Explorer all day. An you know what? We're giving her whatever she wants.

Maddie was lying on the couch yesterday when she fell asleep with a cracker in her hand. I left the room for a moment to come back and find Josie running from across the room over to the couch where she gingerly (as much as could be with her chubby little fingers) removed the cracker from Maddie's hand. She turned and gave me a smile and then ran back down the hallway with the cracker.

Sneaky little thing. :)

I've been trying to cook more lately. For the most part I've been doing okay, except for a bad run the past couple of days. Just a note that each of these was a homemade recipe taken from The Joy of Cooking. I really do NOT like this cookbook.

Lasagna - I must have somehow overcooked it, or kept it warm too long while waiting for Bill to get home. The noodles were plastic, the cheese rubber. I could have cried because I really love lasagna and was looking forward to it.

Chocolate Cream Pie - The cookbook was so confusing about whether this was supposed to be baked or just left in the fridge to set. (I know, I know, but the directions for baking said only to if you were using a merengue. I wasn't) Anyway, the pie never set. So I went back and tried cooking it. It never set. Big chocolatey mush that wasn't at all appetizing.

Homemade Crust - (for chocolate pie, above) We didnt' have any ready-made crusts, so I decided to make one myself. Again, I followed all the directions perfectly. It turned out great until I added the pie filling. Then even the crust (which had been pre-baked) became a mushy mess.

And finally, the best of all:
Corn Chowder - I made a wonderful, wonderful corn chowder. I do admit that this one was my fault, though. I didn't exactly dissolve the corn starch fully before adding it to the soup. I've never used corn starch before so I didn't know it had to be dissolved completely. So I finished the chowder and sat down to take my first bite. The chowder was great, but I also got a very large clump of corn starch, which got stuck in my teeth as I tried to chew. Not to get into details, but that was the grossest thing I've ever eaten. I literally lost my lunch.

Let's hope that this weeks' effrorts prove more successful (for my sake and those of Bill and the girls, who have been forced to eat spaghettios almost every night.)

It's a rainy, yucky Sunday afternoon. Maddie isn't feeling well and Josie is running around trying to get anyone to play with her. This song from the Noggin show, "Jack's Big Music Show" just came to mind:

If you want to be a grump that's okay
But could you be a grumpy kinda further away
It's not that I don't love ya 'cause you know I do
Sometimes I'm grumpy too

If you want to be a nudje that's ok
But could you be nudjey kinda further away
It's not that I don't love ya 'cause you know I do
Sometimes I'm nudjey too

I think I understand
Exactly what it is you're going through
Oh when your oatmeal's lumpy and your socks are all bumpy
What's a poor kid to do?

If you want to be a grump that's okay
But could you be a grumpy kinda further away
It's not that I don't love ya 'cause you know I do
Sometimes I'm grumpy too

The actual video to this song can be seen here

Even when things were incredibly hard with Josie as an infant and Maddie barely a toddler, I knew there would be a day that we were so glad that the girls were so close in age. That day has come and is here to stay.

Now that Josie can walk, it's as if she's become a big girl and now worthy of playing along with Maddie. It makes me almost cry with happiness to see the two of them sitting side by side, playing with their toys and giggling with each other. Josie thinks Maddie is the funniest thing in the world, and Maddie is happy to fill that role. Also, Josie already imitates whatever her sister does, including making her dolls talk. It's interesting to see a little girl who can't even talk herself, make dolls move around and jabbler. (Speaking of which, Maddie will make anything talk lately. Everything is mommy, daddy, sister, brother/baby. The other day I found her making used dryer sheets talk to one another. One was the mommy and the other the baby.)

Unfortunately, along with that wonderful play comes sibling rivalry as well. The fights have already begun. "Mommy, she touched me! She's pulling my hair!" (Josie is infatuated with Maddie's hair lately). Or Josie screams because Maddie has taken her toy. And how do I explain that one should share and not take toys when Josie goes right ahead and does it to Maddie? I'm having trouble with discipline for Josie until she gets older. Yet I want things to be fair for Maddie. I've got to figure that one out.

Maddie: Mommy! Mommy!

Alecia: Just a minute, Maddie. I'll be right there. {changing Josie's diaper}

Maddie: Mommmmmmeeeeeeee!

Alecia: I'll be right there, Maddie. Please be patient.

Maddie: Mommy, look at me when I talking to you! You want time-out?

Josie has a habit lately of throwing herself down on the floor and kicking and screaming/grunting when she doesn't get her way. She's still young, so I usually try to comfort her or distract her to make her feel better.

Well, yesterday, I wasn't able to get to her in time, but I was watching her. She started out flopping on her stomach and kicking her arms and legs. Then she rolled to her back and screamed. Then.... she stopped. She looked over at me out of the corner of her eye. When she saw that I was watching her, she started again, saying "Na na na na na!" (her word for no.) Again, she stopped to look at me. Then she just lay there using one arm to hit the floor. She did that until I came over to her, after which she gave me a big smile.

I think the kid knows what she's doing. Maybe she's learning too quickly from her big sister.

I started watching our friends' son, Liam, last week. Near the end of the week, he came down with chickenpox. So, of course, our family is now on watch to see if the girls get it. Maddie got the vaccine when she turned one, but Josie is just a few weeks away from getting it.

No signs yet, except for Josie having a high fever the other night, which broke and hasn't returned. However, I also had almost everyone from our playgroup over last week as well, so we are all on watch. Maddie's friends should be okay with the vaccine, but the little ones and pregnant moms are at risk. I'm keeping the girls home all week to make sure we don't spread it anymore, but someone just told me it can take 2-3 weeks to incubate before showing signs. Not sure if we can stay quarantined until that time without going insane.

Any suggestions?

Well, we're back from Indiana and settled into home. Sadly, it's taken us this long. And no, we're still not fully unpacked yet.

We had a great time with friends and family and it was so nice to celebrate the holidays with them. Especially, considering that this was probably the last Christmas we'll be travelling. Our plan is to stay home next year and start some holiday traditions of our own.

Since we've gotten back the girls have grown so much, in so many ways. (like every time we travel). Josie is now walking and has suddenly grown into this little girl about to turn one, who loves to chase down her sister and play with her toys. And Maddie has expanded on her entertaining skills and now sings songs (and makes up her own!) and dances all the time. She and her friend Grace love to play various musical instruments and sing "The Wheels on the Bus" and dance.

Josie, too, has been working on her talents. She now dances (it's kind of a "Stevie Wonder" swing back and forth, but she thinks she's funny). And she's now doing her signs for "more" and "all done". I only taught those two to Maddie, and they proved to work really well. Maddie still pulls out her "more" sign when she's tired or sick.

As for any new pictures, we haven't done well with technology lately:

Maddie broke our new camera. (only a couple of months old, and our old one broke a few days later)
Josie broke Bill's laptop (only the closing latch is broken, but it acts a little funny sometimes)
Our dryer broke.

That's all for now, but keep your fingers crossed that the stars align for us in the future. We'll try to do more frequent updates in the future. Be sure to check out Judy and Julie's pictures to see how our vacation went.

We're back in Atlanta after a great trip up north. I'll post a trip synopsis when I get the chance, but I'm currently drowning in work.

For now, I'll post something I meant to put up before we left: more good press for Rob's sketch comedy troupe!

Congrats, Rob, and keep the good news coming!