Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Holy shit! She's Three!So this week and weekend my goal is to get caught up on posting. So look for posts regarding a trip to the zoo, Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, and of course, her birthday.
See ya'll soon!
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Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Christmas ShoppingSaturday, Shelly, Maddie and I attended a craft fair in Sussex. Maddie was a very good girl until we left and entered the parking lot. It was snowing and she wanted to jump around in the snow even though she didn't have a coat on. After her little temper tantrum and when we finally got her in the car, I think she yelled at me about something and I told her that I was 27 and could do whatever I wanted. Yep, the bestest fake aunt ever.
Sunday was a really long day. We went Christmas shopping. Or not really. We TRIED to go Christmas shopping. I think we spent 6 hours in stores like Disney and Build a Bear. If I didn't love Maddie, I would have literally gone insane. I didn't get any shopping done at all. I'm not saying it was a waste of time, as spending time with Miss Maddie is never a waste, but it WAS a waste of Christmas shopping time. Good thing she was a good girl most of the day. She did have a temper tantrum towards the end. Literally threw off her shoes and screamed in the middle of the store. Totally not embarrassing or anything. But what can you expect? As the title of this blog dictates, she's TWO. Oh I can't forget to mention the chit chat that Shelly and Maddie exchanged as we were leaving the store...
Maddie (screaming and crying): "Stop carrying me like a BABY!"
Shelly (calmly with a smirk on her face): "Then stop acting like a baby."
I should probably also notate the few bright moments of the day (including the fact that we got to see Auntie Amber hard at work.) I literally had tears in my eyes twice because she's just too damn cute (and no I am not hormonal and I still definitely don't want children - so don't get any ideas.) When we were in the Build a Bear store, she had to follow directions for adding the heart to the bear (the bear she was building for her adopted soldier in Iraq named Wes.) She had to rub the heart in her hands and kiss it and all sorts of stuff. You should have seen the look on her face while she was doing that. It was priceless. We also saw Santa at one of the malls (yes we went to two!) and as we were leaving she blew Santa a kiss. I could hardly stand it!
Anyway, here is a pic of Maddie with Santa...
Until next time...
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There really isn't a whole lot to say about Thanksgiving. It was at my parents house. Those in attendance included: Kelli, Tim (my parents) Shelly, Maddie, Jimmy, Sandi, Beady, Mike, Mikey (my aunt, uncle and cousin - oh and their dog Mason), Ryan, Bri, Cory and I. 
Maddie was a very good girl the whole day. Everyone else drank martini's, wait, no that should read cosmopolitan's, and ate lots of food. We had a very untraditional dinner, which included steaks and potatoes. It was a great day for grilling out in the minus 30 degree garage (yes, I'm being facetious.) Maddie helped a little bit with that.
Maddie also took pictures of everyone with Shelly's camera. Including this picture of Cory. His head is soooo big that this is all that would fit in the picture...
Maddie sat with everyone to take pictures with them as well, except she didn't want to sit with me. I think it was I hate Auntie Mandi day. That's what I'll be calling Thanksgiving next year I'm sure. A new holiday has been born! Well at least I'm getting my name out there.
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So last night I was laying in Maddie's bed with her and I was half a asleep...she however had her mind on something else. Out of the blue she says.....
"Mom, can you go pick up Wes and bring him back here?"
"Maddie I can't go get him, he's too far."
"Well, you could go in your car and I can come too, and we'll drive there and pick him up."
"Maddie, we can't drive there, he's all the way across the ocean."
"Well we could take a boat" (and that's when I started to cry...because she said it in the most innocent voice ever...like really...we could take a boat.)
"Maddie we can't go get him...he's in a bad place right now where people are sassy, and he's protecting us....we'll see him when he gets home" (I wasn't really sure the best way to explain a war to a 2 1/2 year old.)
At least 5 minutes of silence went by...and all of a sudden the tears started pouring...."but mommy we could take a boat"....and she fell asleep sobbing her little eyes out..............
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Sunday, December 11, 2005
Turkey Hat
It was Sandi’s birthday celebration. Almost a week after her actual birthday, but that doesn’t matter. Shelly had planned a big dinner, even though we were going to be celebrating Thanksgiving in only a couple of days. But the point was that Sandi wouldn’t have to do anything, she would just get to enjoy all of our lovely company (because we are the coolest collection of peoples on earth.) The whole family was actually together too! Cory, Ryan, Bri (Nana), Shelly, Sandi, Jimmy, Maddie, me, and CRAZY BARB. (Hopefully she’ll never read this and see that I call her that.) Crazy Barb is Sandi’s Mom, or Maddie’s GREAT Grandma. The reason why we call her Crazy Barb is quite obvious to us, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
I figured since we’d be spending time at the Gasper household, that I’d plan another little crafty project for Maddie and I. I joked with Bri later that she wouldn’t be allowed to participate, because Maddie seems to talk about Bri more than me and that just totally sucks (for me obviously – because that probably means that I’m not the bestest fake aunt ever, or the favorite – because it’s a contest you know.)
But back to the day at hand. We went over there about 3 o’clock because I was going to help Shelly with dinner. I didn’t (sorry Shelly! - Oh, and by the way, Shelly was peeling potatoes while instant messaging people over the internet while she was on her cellphone - talk about multi-tasking.) I was busy playing with Maddie and watching her drag Bri around on a leash pretending she was her dog (and yes I told Maddie that her dog pooped on the sidewalk and that she should pick it up.) Maddie also did both mine and Bri’s hair, by putting lots of clips all over the place.
Then we all sat down together for dinner. We had turkey and mashed potatoes (the best food item ever created.) During dinner, I broke Jimmy. (I’m really good at that and the only one who can do it, because I’m so darn cool.) It seems it’s much easier when Crazy Barb is in attendance though. The first time I broke Jimmy was over a conversation with Crazy Barb about a Hummer (umm, the car?) and this time it was Bushwhacker (the drink?) I’m sure that makes no sense to anyone that doesn’t know the Gasper family, and I’m not about to explain it. Maddie will hear the stories someday I’m sure, and that’s all that matters.
After dinner, the boys (Cory and Ryan) did most of the clean-up. I was busy getting my crafty project ready for Maddie. They all kind of laughed at me and said that I should be a kindergarden teacher since I like to do crafts w/Maddie. I joked back that Maddie could be the only student in my class, and well the conversation isn’t near as funny now that I’m writing it, so whatever! When I went to get Maddie, she told me, “I’m doing busy’s.” Oh that girl is hysterical.
Anyway, turns out the crafty project I brought along, which involved making a Turkey Hat, was not entirely appropriate for a 2 year old. Involved lots of cutting and wasn’t all that fun. So I sort of just let Maddie cut out and glue random objects (while I cut out the real project and put it together.) I took pics of Maddie's hands while she was doing that, and those pics are posted in the previous entry.
Bri helped too. She cut out the turkey wings for me, since I’m not coordinated enough. I’m sure that small contribution puts her way ahead in the contest though, so next time she’s banned!
Shelly said that Bri and I looked like we were concentrating really hard on our Turkey Hat project, what do you think?
Did I mention that Maddie was naked the entire time? She was. I was cold just looking at her!
In the end, the Turkey Hat turned out totally cute, and we made Maddie do stupid wing movements with her arms so that she’d look like a Turkey. Hey, who ever said adults were mature?
But it’s cute right?
Towards the end of the evening, Maddie did some magic tricks for us and I dressed her up in some really ugly fabric the Gasper’s had laying around. Oh, and she ended up playing around with Crazy Barb’s hat (which by the way, matched her belt and her pink purse – see what I’m saying about the crazy part?)
Care to share?