Van Buren Family Adventures: Catching Up

Wow! I was re-reading this blog last night (the 1st time since Madison was born) when I was inspired to start updating it again. Needless to say, SO much has happened in this last year, however, since most of you are my facebook friends, you know all this. So, instead of repeating everything you all know has happened, I'll start with what the Van Buren family has been recently up to.

I guess I'll start with Kyle and I. As you all know, we are very blessed and I am able to be a stay-at-home mommy. Just recently I have finally gotten into a nice routine with handling my mommy and wife duties at the same time :). As of now, my days consist of playing and taking care of Madison all day, cleaning, household accounting, and getting dinner on the table by 5pm. It took me a while to feel in the swing with everything, but I am so proud of our smoothly ran house. Also new with me, I finally took the plunge I have been too scared to make for the last 10 years: getting contacts. After getting used to them for a few days, I absolutely love them and I can see all the time now!

Kyle has also gotten into his new routine of being a dad and full time (and on-call) Deputy Sheriff. I know it's rough on him working 12 hours a day and dealing with the type of people he does but you would never be able to tell when he walks through that door. He turns into the amazing father I knew he'd be. Madison and I love when we hear his truck pull into the driveway! Kyle has also been doing very well with moving forward after his dad passed away. Last week was a little rough since it was Larry's Birthday. We spent the morning with Kyle's grandparents and went by the cemetery. We still all have our sad, hard days but, like I said, we, as a family, are moving forward as I know Larry would want us to.

Onto happier things, Kyle and I celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary next weekend. I think we're planning on a nice dinner and movie (or maybe eve go to the casino) during the week when Kyle's not working. I can't help but think where we were last year at this time with a new baby. I remember my present (a big fat upgrade to my wedding ring) but for the life of me, I can't remember what we did or if we even did anything! I guess that shows the state of our sleepless lives back then!

Now, onto the star of our family, Madison. Just a few weeks ago, she finally got her 4th tooth and we can see 2 others almost here. Her new routine, due to the pain of teething, is waking up at 3am and fussing the rest of the night. She has always been a good sleeper (minus when she's not feeling good) so it's been a long few weeks for us since we're not used to this! I told Kyle that I think we deserve an easier teether for our next baby because Madison is definitely NOT an easy teether.

Madison is also SO amazingly close to walking. It is such a mental thing for her right now. She'll walk around holding one of our hands, or pushing her play grocery cart (which is harder then walking because that thing is really light so she can't put any weight on it without it tipping over) and she'll even have moments of just standing without holding onto anything. So, we think that when she finally realizes that it requires way more energy to crawl than walk she'll do it. She is a very independent baby and does things on her own time. There is no trying to get her to walk from me to Kyle the good ole fashioned way. She'll just suck up her legs and sit when we try that. I guess she'll just do it when she's ready :)

So, for Easter Madison got a gigantic bunny rabbit that she has completely befriended. She kisses it and gives it hugs, but the greatest thing she does is she crawls in it's lap to read. Just this week though, while she has her book and sitting in it's lap she has started reading to herself in her baby gibberish. It is the cutest thing ever! You can just barely hear her talking and she'll be pointing to the words. Kyle and I are each responsible for teaching her different things (for example, Kyle is the one that taught her how to dance!) but I have to take credit for her love of books :) I have been reading to her since she was first born hoping to instill a love for reading as I have and to also boost her language skills. So, I think it worked!

One more thing that is new to Madison (it's hard to think of everything because she is learning so much everyday) is that she makes animal sonds. It is so funny! Right now she'll make dog, bird, and sheep sounds when you ask her what each animal says. I keep trying to get video of it, but of course she refuses to do it on camera. So, hopefully I can post a video of that soon. Oh, and words she is saying is bubba (our nickname for Charlie), daddy, momma, emma (short for Grandma), and nini for bananas. Again, it is crazy how fast she is learning right now.

I will ends this crazy long post with some pictures. Also, we're hopping to make it down to the zoo this week so I'll definitely post some pictures of that. And I will keep trying to get some good video clips to post up here. Like I said though, she pretty much stops everything she's doing once the camera is on! We love you all and I hope you enjoyed the update!