It's been too long!

Really nothing spectacular is happening in the McGraw home. Maddie is being Maddie. Getting into everything and slowly giving me gray hair. She is not walking yet but she can walk with a walker (or laundry basket.. whatever is handy). She is climbing up AND down the stairs (oh joy) and loves to slide down the slides at the park. She is going to be my little roller coaster rider. The girl has NO fear! 

Right now we are getting ready for the holidays. The lights are hung, tree is up and presents are wrapped (yes, I am done with my shopping.. don't hate!). This Saturday my family is getting together for an early Christmas celebration. It's always a good time. My uncle Jerry's kids are HILARIOUS! Last year they put on the cutest Christmas pageant. It will be funny to see if they try to incorporate Madison this year. 

We are leaving for Rhode Island on the 21st. I am SO SO SO excited! I love being there for the holidays. It's cold, there's family and friends.. what more could you ask for!? I am a little worried about how Madison will be on the plane. It's so hard to entertain her for 5 1/2 hours! Oh well, it will be worth it. 

That's all I got for now! Here are a few recent pictures. Have a great Christmas and Happy New Year!

Our morning in the ER..

Blah.. I will start by saying she is fine BUT.. what a night!

On Saturday maddie stayed at my Mom's. About 11:30 she called and said Maddie threw up, felt hot and had been crying for about an hour. We go get her.. I take her temp and it's 101.3. I assume it's due to teething and all is well. We get her home and she sleeps on and off until 8:30am. She seemed fine all morning. She was a little crabby but again.. I assumed teething. 

After her nap she felt burning hot. Her temp was 102.7 and I started to get worried. I gave her a cool bath. She is also refusing to eat and drink anything. She went to bed at 6:30.. about 2:15am she wakes up screaming. She is REALLY hot and throws up on me when I take her out of the crib. Her temp is 103.9. I decide it's time to take her to the ER. (look at me using my Mommy instincts)

The ER is the worst experience of my entire life. They had to give her a catheter, IV, chest X-ray and draw blood. Just thinking about it gives me chillbumps. She was sooo tired and just over it at this point BUT.. she's a trooper. All the tests came back negative. The Dr. said it was most likely a viral infection. She had red rashes all over her legs, cheeks and ears.

Right before the hospital discharged us the nurse brought in a little teddy bear. She had a bottle of pedialyte that she was trying to feed the bear. It was the CUTEST thing EVER! She also kept giving the bear hugs. 

She seems to be better now. No fever, just SUPER needy and tired. We have been watching cartoons all morning and rocking in her room. It's kinda sad but having her lay on me is so sweet. I know she feels icky but it's so cute to know her Momma can make it all better. 

She's sleeping now. I hope she takes a LONG nap. She really needs it.

The Kool-Aid Mom does it again!

Today was cuteness overload! We had the girls and the kiddos over for a Halloween party. We had a potluck and had everything from chili served in a pumpkin to pumpkin cheesecake. It's one thing my Mom's group knows how to do and that's cook! Here are a few pictures from the festivities...

From left to right.. Elle (you can see her feet), Luca (cheerleader), Katelyn (cheerleader), Mady (ballerina... she did NOT want to wear that tu-tu), Caleb (bear), Maddie (Alien), Lily (bee), Kristen (monkey), Timothy (he was a chili pepper but he was not happy), Noah (lion), David (lion)

 We still do not know how she slept through all the noise!
 Luca!
 Noah!

 gotta show at least one meltdown!

Lily and Caleb playing

The best part of the day was trying to get the group photo. The ages range from 1 month to almost 2 years so you can imagine the multiple meltdowns, paci stealing and sippy cup swapping. We all have AMAZING kids.. really we do! They are all well behaved and get along great. I just LOVE seeing them interact together and it's nice to gossip with the Mom's! 

 

Lots to catch up on!

Where has this year gone? The last two months have just flown by! We have been really really busy but that's no excuse not to update the blog. Sorry everyone! I know you sit on pins and needles waiting for an entry. hehehe.

At the end of August we flew back to RI for our friends wedding. It was BEAUTIFUL! We are so so so so happy for Mike and Robin. Everything was perfect! Right down to the rock candy on the tables. Unfortunately, we do not have one single picture from that trip. I guess we don't really view going to RI as a vacation so it's easy to forget to take pictures. Oops! 

Of course the big event was Madison's first birthday. Now that...I have a TON of pictures from! Here are a few of my favorites.

Playing with her school bus. Thanks Aunt B!
Opening gifts.. this took forever!

She loves riding on Rocket!

Dinner on her actual birthday. Yep, she's one! Smart girl!

Birthday cake! She's so dainty.. no smashing for her!

It was a really great day. Filled with love, laughs and cake. You can't beat that! Matt's parents and brother came out from RI. I was so happy they could make it! It really made the day special. All of my friends and Maddie's "cousins" came too! I just love having a house full of kiddos. 

The weekend after that I threw a birthday part for Matt. He knew people were coming over to celebrate but he had no idea what kind of party I was planning. A few weeks before I found a company that rents out poker tables. Complete with dealer, cards.. the whole nine yards. I was so stoked! I knew this would be a great party for him. I think Matt was pretty surprised when I told him what was going on. The bigger surprise came when Matt saw the dec of cards we were playing with. It had this picture on the back...

Matt's friend Pat took this in Vegas. When he showed it to me, I knew I had to use it for something! I mean, come on, you don't get handed a gold nugget and just throw it away! It was a huge hit at the party. I would like to thank shutterfly.com for making that possible. ; )

The past month...

My little girl has been VERY busy lately! I swear she has learned 10 new things in the last few weeks. It's fun, scary and sad all at the same time!! In the past 2 weeks she has done the following things...

1. Feed herself (this is HUGE)

2. Eat cherrios (Matt is SOOO happy about this!)

3. Crawl forward

4. Pull herself up on everything and anything.. including the stairs (crap!)

5. Dance

6. Actual babble .. it's like baby sentences, not just baba, dada.. it's babada, dadt!, daaabababa, aaadadt, eeeeeeeeeeee! If someone could translate that for me I would appreciate it ;)

7. Sit up from laying down

8. Stands up in her crib

9. Holds her own bottle (sorta.. it's getting better)

10. Eats SOLID food! Peas, pasta, fruit and chicken

It just reminds me how fast she is growing up. When I think about her birthday in less than a month it makes me want to cry. Where did this year go? I feel like I was JUST calling Matt and telling him I was going to "drive myself to the hospital". ::::sigh:::: 

Here are a few pics of her in action the last few weeks.

Yuuuuummm BREAD!

Maddie fed herself for the first time this week. It was the cutest thing EVER! The best part was my Mother-in-law was in town to see it. We were all out to dinner and Maddie was being restless. We usually give her sugar packets, my lip gloss or a cell phone to let her play with (aka distract her). Those things were not working. She just threw them to the ground. I decided to try to give her small pieces of bread. Of course, she was curious at first. She picked a piece up, studied it, squished it with her fingers and then threw it on the ground. I put a small piece in her mouth. At first she gave me the usual "icky" face but then she decided it was ok. She chewed it and swallowed! I could not believe it. This is the kid that ONLY eats gerber food (see previous blog entry). I put a few more in front of her and she picked them up and ate them! 

This may not seem like a big deal to some people but it's a HUGE thing for Maddie and to us. She does not eat ANY real food or even snacks. No puffs, cookies.. etc. She wants nothing to do with what we are eating or real food. I have given her real carrots, avacado and butternut squash. It's hit and miss. She will eat a whole jar of Gerber food but only a few bites of real food. Baby steps.. baby steps

Matt got a really cute picture of her on his camera phone. 

I want to be the Kool-Aid mom!

I have a confession to make... I want to be the Kool-Aid Mom! I want all the kiddos to hang out at my house. I promise to always have popsicles, juice boxes, fruit snacks,pizza rolls and episodes of SpongeBob Squarepants on DVR. With cute kiddos like these.. who wouldn't want to hang out with them? Today we had a baby get-2-gether. It was a blast! We had kids in the big pool, little pool and some just hanging on Mom. 

We had: 

Addie, Maddie x3, Noah x2, AJ, Elias, Ryan and Lily.. confused? Check out these pics!

 the oldest Maddie.. look at those cute little  legs!

 AJ and "momma to be" danielle
 Addie "aka" addie-tude. I think her expression explains it all

 the middle Maddie.. aka.. Mady. She just turned 1!!!! 
 Little miss hostess with the mostess.. the youngest Maddie
too cool for school, Ryan. Aka.. My Maddie's boyfriend.. even though he kissed another girl!

 The younger Noah and Lily.. I think I see a love connection!
 AJ.. talking to all his "lady friends"

 I promise she had a good time

 The older Noah!

 Noah, Ryan and Addie. Addie like the younger boys ;)

 Noah

Elias... the new kid in town ;)

As you can see, it was cuteness overload! You really can't go wrong with good food, good friends and cute kids! I am lucky enough to have made some really great friends in the past year. We have kids around 6 months apart. (some are even a few weeks apart) We also have some new Moms and Moms to be. I am so happy to be apart of this group and hope our kids continue to be friends. Ok ok.. I just want to host more parties! 

Remember when........

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

Just something funny..

Just a little funny thing that happened today.. I promise not to take up too much of your time. I needed to go to Target today to pick up a few things. Maddie and I had been swimming so I needed to change her before we left. I carefully picked out her outfit. I always think about what she is going to wear. Do I want her in a comfy summer dress? Is it a onesie/shorts kinda day? Maybe a jumper? Ahhh... so many options. So I decided on an summer dress. I peeked in the diaper bag to make sure I had my wallet and a diaper and out the door I went.... well.. almost.. I got to the door and realized I looked like something the cat dragged in. I had on a dirty tank top and shorts with paint on them. My hair was pulled back in somewhat of a ponytail and my shoes didn't come close to matching what I had on. Oh.. and I hadn't even put deodorant on yet!

Now.. normally I could care less about what I am wearing, make-up, hair done.. etc.. BUT.. I do like to look presentable. I mean, these poor innocent target shoppers do have to look at me. I decided to at least put on a clean tank top and a decent pair of shorts. 

Thinking back on this incident made me laugh. It truly says something about being a Mom and that no matter what, when, or how little.. we always put our kiddos first. The best part of this story is now I spend 98% of my time in the baby section. Usually looking through the clearance aisles for cute clothes. The other 2% is grabbing what I actually need. (toothpaste, shampoo.. etc.) This is a FAR cry from before Maddie was born. I could browse Target for HOURS. Looking at clothes I didn't need or purses I didn't want but bought anyway.. 

Ok.. there is a cricket the size of Africa in my living room right now. I can't concentrate.. He's SO LOUD! IT'S ALL I CAN HEAR RIGHT NOW.. I can't even hear the dang TV! That's all I got anyways.. LATERS!!!

The meaning of the songs on my playlist

I thought I would explain why I chose the songs on my playlist. I know some of them are pretty random!

The Light- I love the lyrics to this song. A friend sent it to me a long time ago and it stuck with me. Listen to the words.. it's pretty cool

Come on Eileen- This song reminds me of going to Martini Ranch on Saturday night to see Rock Lobster. My friend Kristi and I would go almost every weekend. Nothing better than listening to a cover band perform your favorite 80's hits and doing shots of jagermeister, Right?

Faithfully- Come on.. it's Journey.. 'nuff said

Cold as ice- Aww geeze.. this is a song Matt LOVES to sing to me when I am being mean. Lets just say it's a song he sings A LOT! 

The final countdown- This is a song Matt would sing around the house right before our wedding and before Madison was born. I thought it was cute. The song makes me smile

Paul Revere- Please.. if you know ANYTHING about me you know I was going to have some Beastie Boys on this playlist.

Grove is in the heart- Just a classic dance song. It makes you feel good and feel like shakin yer groove thang! This song also reminds me of my friend Angie and good times at Club Rio. 

Hungry like the wolf- No special reason for this song, I just really like it! I like to sing it loudly when I am in the car ;)

Isn't she lovely- Dedicated to little miss Madison (of course).. because she is, in fact, lovely. 

Say- makes me think of my Dad who passed away about a year ago. The lyrics are great even though they make me sad sometimes

I'll be- The first dance at our wedding (ready... AWWWWW)

Da Rockwilder- I have always loved this song. It has the best beat! We took an instrumental version of this song and used it as our procession at the wedding. It was hilarious to look back and see our Grandparents being led up the aisle to this song. Good times, good times!

Only Time- I walked down the aisle to this song ::tear::

Big Pimpin- Just love the song.. It's Jigga, yo!

Hypnotize- this song reminds me of Matt. He loves Biggie

Secret- This is my favorite song on this CD. I just love it

Champange Supernova- Who doesn't like a little Oasis!?

And there you have it... make sense now? ;) 

I am teaching my daughter to people watch

Lets face it.. the BEST sport in the world is not baseball, football or soccer. It's people watching. This could seriously be an olympic sport. Let me demonstrate...

 

On Monday afternoon I was bored to tears. I wanted to get out and get some exercise but it was too hot to walk outside, Maddie does NOT do well in the child care area at the gym (see above blog entry) and all the recreation centers, with indoor tracks, only allow strollers when Maddie takes her naps. (don't EVEN get me started on this issue). So my next best solution was to take her to the mall. There is a mall near us called AZ Mills. It's an outlet mall that's one level and shaped in a circle. It's PERFECT for what I wanted to do. 

I realize that people who are shopping in a mall are not power walking with their 10 month old in a stroller, BUT... is is necessary to walk .005 MPH? Have you not been in a mall in your entire life? Are you sightseeing? Does this mall have stores you have never seen before? (trust me, it doesn't). Do you have severe ADD and 10 things just caught your attention? I really do not get it. It's like they are the only people in this place. Also, do people think it's ok to suddenly STOP in the middle of the walkway? Or dart out in front of someone(or something aka strollers). I started to get really annoyed and was ready to leave, but I decided to turn it into a game. I would give myself points for right answers. I am not sure what I will do with these points yet though. Maybe reward myself with a pedicure once I reach a certain amount? Hmm.. sounds good to me! So.. in my head I would say.. ok.. this guy in front of me is going to zig left so I should zag right.. then.. BOOM! It happens! I shit you not, my friends. I get 10 points! Woowhoo! Ok next... a little girl is going to dart out of a store with her parents nowhere to be found. BAM! It happens.. BUT.. it was a little boy.. only 5 points. This game continued on for 4 laps around the mall. I think I am up to 75,000 points (ok ok maybe not that much)

Next on our people watching adventure was to analyze the people themselves. Let me backtrack a little bit here.. this mall is .. how do you say.. umm.. a little ghetto. Picture fat girls in tube tops (umm sex-ay)

guys with pants down to their ankles...

and TEENS with parents that let them out of the house like this...

So.. I think you got my drift here. 

All in all it was a fun afternoon of making snide remarks to myself and getting some exercise. Hey.. killing two birds with one stone! Even Maddie had fun.. We would get behind someone and she would yell out a little bit. People would look back, see maddie, smile and move out of my way! She was like my little ambulance siren. Gotta love it!

Planning a 1yr old's birthday party

In my wildest dreams I never would have imagined that planning a birthday party for a 1yr old would consume my life. The sad thing is... Maddie is not even 10 months old yet! I have a little over 2 months to go! I find myself thinking of possible themes all the time. Butterflies, flowers, Winnie-the-pooh.. the list goes on and on. I was at Party City right before 4th of July getting plates, cups.. etc.. and I found myself walking around looking for ideas for the party. I was literally in that store for an  hour. I did like the idea of a beach or luau theme. How cute would that be? Mom and Dad in grass skirts! :::sigh:::

 

Of course I have another issue... Matt's birthday is 3 days after Maddie's. We plan on doing a BBQ that weekend. We will have maddie's friends over during the day and Matt's friends over at night. The problem is... does Matt really want butterflies and/or flower decorations at his party? These are the things a Mom thinks about. I know Matt could care less about his party but it matters to me. I am all about the details. 

Now the next issue.. the cake... there is NO WAY IN HELL a store bought cake will do. I have seen the cakes my mom decorated for me as a kid and I really want to do the same for Maddie. It can't be THAT hard right? RIGHT? Oh lord help me! I have never even attempted to decorate a cake before! I need to look around for cake pans. I am sure that will give me some guidence and maybe even a theme for the party! Then I need to think of a "smash" cake for Maddie. EEEEEEEK! I am getting so excited just thinking about her smearing the cake everywhere! 

I am sure there will be many more blogs to come about this upcoming event.. stay tuned!

I was violated today!!!!!!!!

So in an effort to get healthy and lose weight, I started going back to the gym. Madison is not very happy in the gym's daycare. I think she is going through a little bit of separation anxiety so it's hard for me to leave her. The daycare does a fabulous job of keeping her entertained and giving her special attention, but I think she just wants her Momma. She will last 30-40 minutes before I hear those dreaded words come over the sound system. "Attention Mountainside fitness memebers, will Cyrena McGraw please report to the childcare center". Ughhh.

So... about the violation... I decided to sign up for a class called "stroller strength". It's basically cardio, upper and lower body workouts with your kid being pushed in a stroller! It's great! What a fabulous idea! I get the best of both worlds. I can be with Madison and get a good workout. Little did I know the class was going to kick my ass! I realize I am not in the best shape (haha) but I had no idea how bad it really is! The class starts with some cardio. Jogging around the gym.. ok, I can do this. No problem! Then we do lunges across the whole gym and back (ok ouch). Next it's sprints... half court and back.. full length and back.. This continues in a cycle what seems like FOREVER. I am DYING at this point. I look over at the other girls (who are a size fucking 2) and I want to stab them. They are skipping along like this is a cakewalk. (stab. stab. stab. stab) 

There are times when you leave your kid (still in the stroller obviously) and do sprints, lunges etc.. on your own. This does NOT make Madison happy and I realize it's about her nap time. I use this as an excuse to skip out early. Now, I know that if I stick with the class it will get

easier. Now that I know what the class is like and what my body can handle, I will be taking it easy. I have nothing to prove.. but.. I have to say.. I did feel like the fat kid in dodgeball. Stay tuned for more.. "tales from stroller strength"

You have to go backward to go forward...

This is the philosophy of my darling daughter.. check out this video 

And here is another one of Madison and I playing. I guess you really can teach a kid "tricks"

For the last time Mom, Gerber ONLY!

I have been trying to get Madison to eat "real" food for the past few weeks now. I've tried mashed up bananas, cooked carrots and watermelon. Each time she spit it out and made a horrible face. The banana actually made her throw up (yeah, it was fabulous). I tried the watermelon IN her actual baby food. She ate the baby food and THEN spit out the watermelon (so smart). A few of my very lovely and talented friends suggested it might be the texture of the food and not the taste. Ok.. well let's try a different route. I picked up some rice cereal and mixed that with mashed up banana's.. here was the outcome. I think the face says it all...

 here it is.. just a simple bowl of mushy bananas

ok.. trying it... and...

ugh.. what IS this stuff, MOM!

nope.. i'm done

Well.. fast forward to this evening for dinner. I decided to cook carrots and mix it with the cereal. I get the cereal from the pantry and I realize I never put it in the bananas! The cereal box was unopened. *DOH!* Basically I gave her bananas mixed with formula. I wondered why is was runny but I just didn't question it further. I guess the "pregnancy brain" continues after birth. So I think we have success with the carrots! See for youself...

Let me introduce myself and my family.....

So I have decided to start a blog. All my friends are doing it and I wanted to feel like I was in the "cool group". haha.. ok not really. This is basically a way for me to look back on my life with a beautiful baby, a goofy dog and a wonderful husband. I will try to update this as much as possible but lets face it.. sometimes life is just life and not much is going on. I am sure it will be witty, sad and happy but mostly real. Having a family is not all rose petals and rainbows, and if you think life is like that then this blog is not for you. I am going to warn you that I am a horrible writer. My thoughts get easily jumbled and my grammar and punctuation are horrible. If you can tolerate that then come on in, hold tight and enjoy the ride..... here is a quick intro on who we are.

Cyrena and Matt aka "Mom and Dad" Damon aka "the bubeeze" aka "the big brother"

And of course... little miss attitude herself.. Madison aka "McMuffin"

Please bare with me while I figure out the wonderful world of blogging.