June Has Been a Busy Month

Daddy's Girl

Well, it's been a few weeks since the last blog and we've been busy! In the last few weeks, Madison got another tooth on the bottom which gives us a total of 7 teeth. We had about a 2 week reprieve of teething pains where Madison was her happy little self, however, just the last 3 days she is teething hard again. She is uncontrollably drooling, biting on her fingers, etc. Unfortunately, it is even going into a cold. The poor baby just started coughing a lot today. However, in the 2 good weeks between teeth Madison was weaned from her last bottle! We saved her after-bath but before-bed bottle to wean last knowing it would probably be the worst. On the 1st no-bottle night we gave her some milk and a snack before her bath, read her a bed time story after her bath (instead of the bottle), and then I put her in bed waiting for the explosion of crying once I shut the door. I hesitantly turned on my video monitor as soon as I left her room, and to my immense surprise, she was looking around, sort of confused and then laid down. It was AWESOME!

On other food news, we are finding out that Madison is quite the picky eater. She will like one thing one night and hate the same thing the next. And the only way she'll eat ANY veggies is if it hidden in Mac and cheese. It's a little frustrating, but one of those things that comes along with being a parent!

Madison with the buffalo

We have been up to more than just teething and spitting out mouthfuls of dinner though :) Madison, my mom, and I made it down to the Wagon Train and walked around, but by the time we got down there (after Madison's nap) everything was pretty much wrapped up. But we were able to get a picture next to a giant Buffalo which is, as I said before, Madison's nickname.

Kyle and I got our garden planted with our usual stuff (watermelons, pumpkins, strawberries, tomatoes, eggplants, various peppers and bell peppers, cilantro, basil, and rosemary) and some new stuff including: cucumbers, garlic, blueberries, and corn. Our garlic is already sprouting and the corn is taking off. It's fun to watch all of our new stuff because we don't know what to expect. It's a great learning experience. The really annoying part though is that birds and slugs are attacking our strawberries! But a few days ago we spread slug killer out there and hung up some CD's on a fishing line to hopefully keep the birds away. I can't wait to taste our 1st strawberry and now, hopefully, that'll happen soon.

Kyle and Madison at the Fair

Last week, the El Dorado County Fair was going so on Thursday the three of us went. As embarrassing as this is to tell, I will say what I did as soon as we walked in. We went directly to a kiosk inside the gates to enter our ticket numbers for a raffle. I parked Madison's stroller so that she would be facing me and forgot to set the brake. I turn my back for literally 5 seconds and Madison is rolling backwards a few feet away from me! Some nice man caught the stroller and brought it back to me while I was in tears at my mistake feeling like a horrible mother. Kyle was besides himself laughing. Ugh, it was horrible, but Kyle made me feel better abut it. It is kind of funny now looking back on it. Besides our run-away stroller episode, we went around to look at all the vendors, animals, and even a monkey show before we got mine and Kyle's reason for going to the fair, the 20/30 Club tacos. We got ourself a nice spot on the grass and ate our tacos while Madison crawled around on the blanket. We even got to visit with a lot of Kyle's friends from work because they were all meeting for a quick briefing right behind us. It was a great day that was followed by a great Father's Day where Madison and I went to a Robertson family BBQ and then went home to fix Kyle his favorite dinner followed by a chocolate cake. Last weekend was a fun weekend!

Madison dipping her feet in the pool at Andy's house

This week, Kyle and I have been doing some yard work and getting stuff together for our annual Pismo trip which we'll be leaving for soon. My brother also cut and highlighted my hair since he is now a licensed Cosmetologist. So, if you ever need your hair done, you know who to call! Today though was super special because Madison, her Grandma Corrie and I went to Madison's cousin's 1st birthday party. We got to see all of our Van Buren family and even got to meet some for the 1st time. It was such a fun way to spend an afternoon and rather than explaining our time, I'll just leave you with pictures. Much love to you all, and I probably won't be reporting until after we get back from our vacation. So, Happy
 4th of July!

Madison and the birthday girl, Johnna!

Madison liked getting some cake from her Grandma

Madison and her Great-Uncle Darell

Madison and her Great-Aunt Pam who was showing her a pond

Me and Madison enjoying the party

The Van Buren Clan: Me, Madison, Pam, Johnna, John, and Corrie

The Teething Blues

First off, let me start with a question:  Why do children just inherently know to not like vegetables?!  When we started Madison on baby food, she had no problem eating her vegetable serving every day.   During the transition form baby food to solid food, she started hating vegetables in both forms.  Today I was feeding her some mac and cheese with vegetables hidden in there (this is the only way she eats veggies-when they're hidden in her favorite foods) and the few times she tasted the green bean or carrot, she would just spit out all the contents of her mouth onto the high chair tray; an annoying habit she has just started this week with foods she doesn't like.  Madison then proceeded to find the vegetable, put it back in the bowl that I was feeding her from and started picking up and eating all the noodles she has previously spit out.  I have to say though, it was kinda funny how she put the piece of vegetable back in the bowl like, "Here mom, I really don't need to eat this one."  So, I'm going to throw out this question to everyone with kids: What are some yummy ways to incorporate vegetables into other food because I'm starting to run out of ideas?

In other Madison news, she is working on cutting her "eye" or "canine" teeth.  What I thought were just wives tales about those being the toughest to break (minus the molars) turned out to be completely true.  My wonderful child that slept through the night since she was about 2 months old now wakes up at least 2 times (on a good night) crying because of teeth pain.  This has been going on for a few weeks now.  The worst part though is that my happy, playful little girl has turned into a whiny, screaming, clingy baby.  I can't say that I blame her.  I can see she's in a ton of pain while she's gnawing on everything she can get her hands on including her own fingers!  We've been keeping some of the pain under control by giving her some baby Motrin, ora-jel, and those teething tablets.  I just got some advice from a friend to use Baby's Bliss Gripe Water.  I've never heard of it, but it's all natural.  So as soon as my little Buffalo is up from her nap we'll be taking a trip to the store to pick some up.  The good thing is, the teething hasn't put a damper on her walking.  Now that she has a little confidence in herself, she's been attempting to walk so much more.  Each day she can go a few steps farther in one go.

For the weekend, I really hope to take Madison downtown to the Wagon Train event.  I haven't gone in years, but I remember it was fun.  They shut down Main St and have all sorts of stuff going on down there.  As of right now though, it doesn't look like the weather is going to cooperate with us.  I think the forecast is for rain ALL weekend!!  So, backup plans are to go down to Lowe's and pick out vegetables to plant in our garden.  Kyle tilled it all up this week (we've waited so long since it's been so cold) and it is ready to go. We even have a lot of strawberries from last year popping up.  This is only our 2nd year tending a vegetable garden, but it was great last year.  We got lots of tomatoes, peppers, etc so this year, we're trying a few new things like garlic, onions, and potatoes.  I'm crossing my fingers and we'll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!