Catching up, Seriously....

Soooo, it's hard to believe that it's been 9+ months since my last post; I've thought about posting a couple of times, but every time I would sit down to do it, something else came up and I just never got around to it; and it seemed like such a daunting task to try to catch up on everything that has happened since then.  Mal and I have been up to so much and she's grown from my baby girl into a rambunctious toddler.  I'm going to do my best to go through some highlights of the last few months (well, almost year).

Last September, Mal and I started Mommy and Me classes at the Little Gym of Frederick.  She met some new friends there and really had a lot of fun learning and playing.  She wrapped up her classes just a few weeks ago and we decided to take the summer off.  Though we had a lot of fun, I'm not sure if we will go back again in the fall; I'm leaning towards starting some swim lessons with her since she loves the water so much.  Here are a few pics from her last class, where she got to show Gummy and Pop Pop everything she learned.

 
In October of last year, Mal, Matt and I visited the Baltimore Aquarium.  Mal is in love with fish, so she had a great time and I made her a promise that when she was a big girl and learned to go potty like a big girl, Mommy would get her some fish for her bedroom.  (Well she is potty trained and has been for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to the fish yet).  I'm hoping to maybe be able to make it into a Christmas gift this coming year.

We also had adventures at the Pumpkin Patch (she picked her own pumpkin and helped Mommy carve it), Renaissance Faire and another trip to Sesame Place in October. 

Mallory decided that she wanted to be Tinkerbell for Halloween last year, which made me smile because I just LOVE Tinkerbell.  She got to go trick-or-treating twice this year, once with Coop and Ky and again at daddy's house.  She looked too cute in her dress and matching shoes.  And she still wears those shoes all the time; she loves them!

November and December breezed by as we prepared for the Holidays and Mal had fun helping me decorate our Christmas tree.  I think my favorite part of the holidays was going with everyone to cut down trees and also seeing Mal in her Christmas dress, and matching coat and hat.  (And yes, I got the dress back in September, when it went on sale to make sure I got what I wanted). 

January is always kind of depressing because it brings about the crazy time of year for me, tax season.  This January was even crazier than normal because I had a car accident the morning of our first Saturday of tax season.  That was by far, the scariest 5-10 second of my life and I was so thankful to have both friends and family nearby to take care of me and get me back to normal.  I was lucky and just had some neck pain/strain; my Mini however, not so much.  The insurance company decided to total my Mini and I was not at all ready to part with that car.  I still miss it, especially whenever I see them on the road.  Car shopping was fun though and I decided on a blue Honda Civic, which is perfect for Mal and I.  Mal was very excited and she was telling everyone that she got a new car, lol!

My little munchkin turned 2 on January 19th, I can hardly believe it!  We had a Minnie Mouse themed party for her.  I am so thankful to everyone who came to help us celebrate.  Mal and I are truly lucky to have so many amazing people in our lives. 

January also brought about Mal's first haircut.  She sat on my lap and let AmyJo cut her hair without any problem.  She really is too funny because whenever anyone says anything about her hair or getting it cut, she blurts out "AmyJo cuts my hair!" 

February, March and the first half of April were a blur.  If I wasn't at work, I was spending as much quality time with Miss M as I could.  But boy, was it ever exhausting.  This was by far, the worst/busiest/craziest tax season I have been through yet.  Here's hoping that next year won't be nearly as bad.

Easter was a lot of fun again this year. Mal got to dye eggs with Coop and Ky and Pop Pop has a special Easter Egg hunt for them. 

April brought about some big changes for Mal.  She stopped wearing diapers (Woohoo!!) and also moved into a big girl bed (Tinkerbell, of course!).  I thought the bed might cause some problems with her trying to come over to my bed in the middle of the night, but nope.  She just sits up in bed and calls for me till I come get her. 

We also made a trip to Philly with Matt in April.  We went to Longwood Gardens and the Philadelphia Zoo.   Mal had a wonderful time; she liked pointing out all the tulips to me at the gardens and LOVED seeing the animals at the zoo. 

May brought another trip to Stone Harbor, NJ, my very favorite place.  Mal had a blast jumping waves, building and knocking down sandcastles with Pop Pop, swimming in the pool and enjoying some good old Springer's ice cream.  I am hoping we get another trip to SH in this year. 

We've made a few trips to Hersheypark this year and Mal has enjoyed getting on rides with Mommy but also being a big girl and going by herself on some.

In June Mommy took a couple of days off and we went to Jubilee Day (well not for too long because it was waaay to hot to be outside that day).  But in the short time that we were there, Mal rode a pony.  I honestly didn't think she would do it at all, but she went right on, no problems at all.  We also went to the Land of Little Horses, with Gummy, Pop Pop and Ky.  Mal and Ky had so much fun and loved seeing the animals.  Feeding the animals was another story...   They both had a pony ride and we also went on a wagon ride around the grounds before heading home. 

Our latest project was redoing Mal's bathroom. Since I bought my condo 4 years ago (that is seriously hard to believe!) the only thing I really did not care for (ok, I really hated it!) was the wallpaper in the second bathroom. I felt Mal was old enough now to tell me what she liked and wanted in her bathroom. So we ventured to Bed, Bath and Beyond to pick out new things. She went with a flower pattern and wanted pink walls. Mommy and Matt worked hard and got the wallpaper down and walls painted. She saw the mostly finished project before she headed off for vacation with her daddy, but I added a few more items (courtesy of Gummy) to finish it off. I can't wait for her to see everything when she gets home shortly.

Well, I guess that is it for now.  We head off to Disney World with our family next week!  Hopefully it won't take me 9 months to post about the trip....

Phillies Game

Well, well finally managed to see the Phillies! We saw a great game, which they won and we had a wonderful time, despite the crazy wind. Here are some pictures of us with the great Harry Kalas.

Not much else to say...can't wait for next year! Go Phillies!!!

Hands-On House

Well Mallory and I had plans of getting to Hersheypark one more time this summer, but all the rain the last few day derailed that plan, as Hersheypark was closed for the whole weekend. So I took to my favorite site, Google, and searched for what we could do instead. Hands-On House in Lancaster was on the top of the list.

A family friend had recently posted pictures of her little one there and it looked like a lot of fun, so last Sunday Mallory and I met Matt for lunch and then went to Hands-On House. Mallory had a blast! She played in the coal yard for quite sometime, picked ears of corn, played with a giant "Lite-Brite" (mommy's favorite) went grocery shopping (she kept picking up the pinapple for some reason) played with farm animals, played in the machine workshop, she even let me paint a heart on her cheek (that is about the limit of my artistic abilities), though I do believe her favorite part was the tractor. She kept running back to the tractor any change she got.

They had an outside section as well with a garden, house, boat, sandbox and sliding board. And that was the steeping sliding board I have ever seen. Matt tried to hold her and get her as far down the slide as he could before he let her go, but she stil zoomed down the slide so fast. She wasn't scared at all and would just laugh and laugh after she was down.

I would say the only downside to the day was that Matt brainwashed Mallory and now she is only cheering "Go Eagles!"

Phillies Game - FAIL

Mal had been perfecting her "Go Phillies" cheer and parading around in the Phillies "slips" and even learned the name of her favorite player (as coach by Mommy) "Chase Utley" in preparation for attending the Phillies game on the last Sunday of August. But hurricane Irene had different ideas.

First, the game was moved from Sunday to Saturday so it could be played before the rain started. But, the storm moved faster than expected and as we were driving to the game it started raining. The rain wasn't too bad to we made our way into Citizen's Bank Park and to our seats, which conveniently were underneath the overhang.


But around 1:20 they came over the loudspeaker to announce the game was cancelled. BOO! But it is rescheduled, so we are going to try again on September 15th! The 10day forecast is showing sun for that day, so hopefully that holds out.





Go Phillies!

18 month checkup

Here's some quick stats from Mal's 18 month check up:



Weight: 22 pounds 6 ounces 43rd percentile


Height: 31.25 inches 23rd percentile



And she's right on track verbally, motor skills, etc.



Next up - slowing starting potty training (oh boy!)

Mallory's first sick visit

Just 3 days after M started daycare, she came down with her first respiratory infection. I had picked her up on Wednesday and they told me she had been coughing a lot during the day. She coughed some Wednesday night and on Thursday morning her breathing was bothering me a bit. It wasn't that she was struggling to breathe, but she was just breathing kinda quickly; when it was still quick throughout her nap, I decided it was time to call the doctor. He said he would like to see her, so we trekked to Shady Grove late in the afternoon.



I'm glad I called and took her in because he immediately put her on a nebulizer (so cute, it's a doggie neb) and steriods to help with the inflammation. It was amazing to see how quickly she perked up in the middle of her neb treatment. I had to give her treatments the next few days, but she's been fine since. By the end of the few days, she was actually holding the mask up to her face for me, not bothered by it at all (watching Mickey Mouse helps her sit still too). I have a couple of extra packets of the neb medicine in case she gets like this again. Here's hoping we don't have any more recurrances.

Mal Starts Daycare

On August 1st, my little darling started daycare. Here's a great shot of her in her little Bee outfit on the first day.
The first two weeks of drop-offs were pretty rough. She cried (though I was told that she was fine 5 minutes after I left) and needed Abby Dabby and Big Bird to keep her company at school, but she kept telling me she had fun at school and before I knew it, she was excited to go.


Just this morning, she helped me get her bookbag and said "Mommy, I school. Have fun." She ran right into her room to play with the baby dolls and I barely got a kiss goodbye. She loves the other kids in her class and her teachers too. (She's even comfortable enough to tell them when she's pooping).

Her vocabulary is expanding, speaking short sentences and she speaking clearer. I can definitely see a big change in the month since she started school.


Friday is Grandparent's Day at school and she is excited because all of her grandparents are coming. Hope I get some good pictures.