2009 Reflections

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all

we ask or imagine, according to his power that

is at work within us"

Ephesians 3:20

It's New Years Eve 2009 so I thought it appropriate to post some of my reflections of this year. I sit here on New Years eve in a fleece and my Juicy pants. Madison Claire is upstairs asleep, Ryan is sitting on the chair working on his playbook, and the Chick-fil-A bowl is on TV (Virgina Tech is beating Tennessee 24 - 14). Of course we are rooting for VT...no Vols fans in this house! We had a nice dinner at home - fillets, butternut squash casserole (also known as homemade macaroni and cheese with butternut squash baked in the oven), and asparagus. I am happy, content and above all - blessed.

This time last year, Ryan and I were in Orlando on our babymoon. I could never have imagined then what 2009 would have been like. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined what an angel Madison Claire would be or how much my heart would be filled with love for her, I could not have imagined how my love for Ryan could grow so much in such a short amount of time as I see his love for Madison Claire and what a great father and husband he is, I could not have imagined that my family & the McSwains would have provided so much love and support for us, I could not have imagined all that my friends have done and sacrificed in order to help us in the early days with Madison Claire, I could not have imagined that Ryan and I would complete the entire p90x program and have such fun along the way, I could not have imagined that we would have found a nanny that truly feels like part of our family, I could not have imagined that going back to work would be bearable and "work", I could not have imagined the loss we felt with the passing of Missy & Ryan Morgan, Grandma McSwain, and Papa Howard, I could not have imagined that our life would be so different and yet so much the same all at the same time.

This collage was created on Facebook as a "summary" of my statuses for the year and I thought the program did a great job of pulling the highlights. This is what it said:

Lauren.....

is looking forward to going to Birmingham tomorrow to see Meredith SHINE at StepSing! * is ready for Madison Claire to come into the world! Any tips for bringing on a baby?? * is in love with her little angel! What a blessing!! * is looking forward to a relaxing afternoon and thankful for a sleepy baby! * is first day at home alone with Madison Claire in one week - wish me luck! * is relieved that Madison Claire's 2 month shots are OVER! She did great! * is back in Nashville and bummed that vacation is over. How can it be that I go back to work one week from tomorrow?? :( * is ready to face the new week but definitely wishing she was still at the beach * is reminded of how much she loves the people of Stockamp! Conference is the best! * drank at least half a gallon of Milos sweet tea today....enough calories for a whole week! * is bummed for the Lions after a tough loss to Lipscomb tonight 13-10 * is praying BIG prayers tonight...God is good!

I am overwhelmed with thankfulness and gratitude to our families, friends, and most importantly to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because it is through Him that all things are possible. I pray that 2010 would bring to you some of the same joy & blessing that 2009 has brought to us. Happy New Year!

9 Months!

Madison Claire turns 9 months old today...how can that be?! She is so much fun right now. She is expressive - in good ways and bad! She will smile, clap, and dance when she is happy and she will grunt and yell out when she is not happy. She has definitely learned how to exert her will and if she doesn't want to do something, good luck getting her to! I tried to put her in her exersaucer today and she just lifted those legs up until her feet were as high as her face in an effort to show me that I could try to put her in there but she was NOT letting her legs go through those holes! We are picking our battles and trying to make sure she knows that she isn't the boss while also trying to respect her choices.

She is a crawling machine and man, she can fly! She has been doing a bear crawl on her hands and feet for a few weeks now and we think she is getting close to standing up on her own. She likes to climb on anything & everything and LOVES anything electronic (computer, cell phone, camera, remote control, her baby monitor). It's amazing how she will make a bee-line towards anything electronic. She is also starting to be very persistent in getting what she wants. For example, if she wants the computer and I sit in front of it with my legs out making a barrier for her reaching it, she will try to crawl all the way around the chair to get to it, or she will try to fit her whole body underneath my legs to get to it. If that doesn't work, she will try to climb over my legs. She is not easily diverted! This is a character trait that is very strong in Ryan. I think it will make for some difficult struggles in her toddler years but I am thankful for this as I believe that in her teenage years she will be very strong in her convictions, just like her daddy.

Speaking of daddy, she is saying da-da frequently. We think she has said it directly to Ryan twice now, but are very hesitant to say it was her first word. I'm not sure how we will know when she says her first word, maybe she already has! She is also starting to express herself through signing. We've been trying to teach her a few (eat, all done, milk). The only one she has so far is "all done". It's precious.

Despite her lack of gaining significant weight, she is eating really well. She likes just about everything we feed her (Thank you, Lord!) and especially likes feeding herself finger foods like puffs, melts and pieces of banana and kiwi. She still hasn't taken to a sippy cup, but has learned how to drink out of a straw and loves a juice box! When she first started sipping through the straw you should have seen Ryan and I...we were sitting there clapping and cheering - we were so proud!!

I've also started weaning her from breastfeeding. I felt like it was time and she started weaning herself because she loves eating her solid foods. I laughed to myself when she started doing this and thought "she doesn't want to be the dumpee...she wants to be the dumper"! I'm still breastfeeding her in the morning, in the afternoon, and at night but have switched the mid-morning and mid-afternoon feeding over to a bottle. Luckily, I've got enough breastmilk saved up in the freezer that she's able to get that in the bottle. I'm hoping to get down to just feeding her in the morning and at night in the next few weeks.

We have started giving her soy formula supplementation in her oatmeal cereal that she eats every morning and each night to help give her some more calories. We go to the Doctor next Thursday, so hopefully it will have helped!

The other big news for her is that I started using cloth diapers after some encouragement from a friend of mine, Audra Tilden. So far it's gone really well - we'll see how it goes moving forward. Right now we are only using them during the day when we are at home. I put her in a regular, disposable diaper at night and when we go out to make it easy. Madison hasn't seemed to mind, in fact, she hasn't reacted at all!!

Here are some recent pictures of her reading, drinking her juice box, crawling and reaching for electronics and just being her cute self!

Big girl bath

Madison Claire has been taking baths in the "big girl" tub for about a month or so now. Last night, I put her in it while the water was still running and she was fascinated by it. She scooted herself right up to it and was trying to grab the water with her right hand. When that didn't work, she stared at it and tried to go in at it really slowly with both hands. It was adorable to watch her little mind processing the whole thing and see her wondering why she couldn't "get" the water. Tonight I had Ryan come up to take a little video...check it out...I think it is so cute!

Comfy day!

Last year for my birthday, my beloved Bradshaws got me a Juicy Suit! I wasn't able to wear it at the time because I was pregnant but it has become my uniform lately! I *love* it and wear it at least once a week! I knew that Annie didn't have one, so we got her one for Christmas as a Christmas and early Birthday gift! She wore it on Tuesday so we decided to put Madison Claire in her track suit and just have a comfy day at the house. How fun!

Christmas with the Howards

Mom, Dad, Sarah, Ryan, Meredith & Patrick all came to Nashville on Sunday night and stayed until Tuesday morning so we could celebrate Christmas together. We had such a great time and as usual, when they all left I wished and wished that they lived in Nashville! Sunday night we went to Mafiosas for dinner...yum! I had Monday off of work so we had breakfast here, exchanged our gifts from Secret Santa, went to a late lunch at Chuys, and then came back and baked brownies and played games. Annie came with us to lunch & stayed over for a few games of dominos.

During the secret santa exchange, my Mama Howard ended up with Madison Claire's name. She handmade her a BEAUTIFUL blue velvet dress, just like the red velvet one she made for me when I was little. It is so special to me to have it for Madison Claire and it makes her eyes totally pop (you can't tell so much in this picture, but my dad has one on his camera where you can really tell!). I somehow didn't get any pictures of the whole family, but do have this one of Madison Claire.

Christmas Day!!

Our first Christmas with Madison Claire...what a blessing! It was also our first Christmas since we've been married where we were at home, just us, on Christmas morning. We borrowed one from the Howard family Christmas book and made mom's breakfast casserole last night so we could cook it this morning...YUMMY! We had fun putting together Madison's toy from Santa and getting everything all ready for the morning. It was so much fun and she is too young to even understand it all! We can't wait for next year...as Ryan said today "Christmas is so much more fun with kids". So true.

Madison Claire was so cute in the morning coming down the stairs and was excited about all of her presents! Once she got the hang of the wrapping paper, she loved it! She was too cute with all of it and it made us smile all morning long! Notice her new face is making a face like she is whistling...

Madison Claire's first Christmas outfit from her Nana...complete with a bonnet! We headed over to the McSwain's house around lunch time for Christmas with the McSwains. We exchanged gifts and had a great meal!

Madison Claire got her very own American Girl Doll from Nana & Papa Gary and she LOVED it!!! She seriously attacked the box and would not leave the doll! Precious!!

All of her Christmas gifts from today out in her playroom. We are all spoiled...and very blessed!! Of course amidst all of the gifts & fun, we remember the true reason for Christmas...a celebration of the birth of Jesus, the savior of the world, and our personal savior. We are so unworthy of that ultimate gift.

Here is a video I put together from this morning. (Note her face in the constant whistle mouth & the hilarious tumble she takes towards the middle of the video).

Merry Christmas, everyone! God bless you all!

Trip to Cincinnati

We had a great visit with Ryan's family in Cincinnati! It didn't start out so great though...poor little Madison Claire started acting funny on Sunday afternoon. She began boycotting food that afternoon and by Monday around lunch time her fever was up to 102.5. We called the doctor and they had us come in so they could check her out before we left for Cincinnati on Tuesday morning. We had to go to a different location of the practice we use for Madison because our normal doc didn't have any openings. The appointment was a disaster. They checked her ears, throat & stomach and all were normal. However they thought her fever was too high for it to be a symptom of teething. They were concerned she might have a urinary tract infection so they needed to insert a cateheter to get some urine in order to run a lab test. The entire procedure was awful...poor Madison Claire! There were 2 nurses there and it became clear to me after about 10 seconds that the nurse who was doing it had never done one before. She couldn't get it in the right place and kept pushing it in anyway and Madison Claire was screaming. I felt so helpless!! No pee was coming out (because it wasn't in the right place!) so they asked me if her bladder could be empty...as if I would know! Finally the second nurse asked me to take over holding down her legs so she could step in and once her gloves were on and she took over it was in & done in a matter of a few seconds. I definitely learned my lesson - the next time I think someone is "learning" on Madison Claire, I'm asking them to stop. Anyway - sorry for the venting, but it was very frustrating!!! The test came back clear so basically they said they thought she had a viral infection so we needed to just keep giving her tylenol every 4 hours. One other point of interest from the doctors appointment...they weighed her while we were there and she was 16 pounds, 12 ounces. We think she is supposed to be 17 pounds, 8 ounces when we go to the doctor in 2 weeks in order to not have dropped in percentile again...RUH ROH!!!

The tylenol seemed to help during the day but by Tuesday night, once we were in Cincinnati, poor Madison Claire went from bad to worse. She was crying uncontrollably, wouldn't eat or sleep or relax. I took her temperature about an hour after I had given her some Tylenol and it was 102.5 again so we think it was up to about 103.5 before I gave her the Tylenol. I called the doctor and talked with a great nurse on the "After Hours" line. She asked me what felt like a million questions and ended up saying that she wasn't concerned with the fever but that she was concerned that she was getting dehydrated. We made it a goal to get as much liquid in her as possible - using whatever means necessary (which means letting her drink from our cups...her favorite!). Here she is after she finally conked out on Ryan. FYI - she is back to normal now...it's been 2 days with no fever...WOO HOO!

Ryan's all time favorite place to eat in Cincinnati is Skyline Chili. Everytime we go to Ohio, we have Skyline at least once a day, sometimes twice a day. When he was in college, he would eat 12 coneys!!! I know that sounds like a lot, but when you see the picture below at how much cheese is piled on top of each one, it's even more impressive (or disgusting depending on your viewpoint :)). The picture below is 5 coneys. Imagine 12!!! Anyway - we introduced Madison to Skyline. We didn't give her any chili since she wasn't feeling great already, but I did let her have some of my baked potato with sour cream & cheese. Notice the series of events...smiling for the picture, reaching for the coney, getting her hand cleaned by me!

It was also the first time Madison Claire got to meet her great grandparents on Ryan's side. We met up with Grandpa McSwain, Aunt Sue & Uncle Mike, Aunt Lola & Uncle Ronnie for dinner at Pappa Deux. Everyone loved Madison...surprise, surprise! We missed Grandma McSwain...this is the first Christmas since she passed away in July.

On Christmas Eve day, we went to lunch with Grandpa and Grandma Terry. We were convinced that Madison Claire was going to be a disaster during lunch because she hadn't napped that morning, but she was great!! She loved playing with the spoons and straws and ate at least 1 whole roll by herself! She also had fun getting fed dessert by Grandma Terry. Grandma Terry nicknamed her "Fatso". She wasn't kidding!!! She totally thought that Madison Claire was a chubbo!! Too funny considering our little shrimpy is still less than the 20th percentile!

Outside of these events, Madison had fun with her Nana & Papa Gary. We are so thankful for our wonderful family and it was great fun to have Madison Claire in the mix of our Cincinnati Christmas!!!