Little Cutie

5/15/08

Today, we were looking at photos of Madelyn as a baby. I just have to share some of them. It makes me realize how much she's grown, although her personality has been pretty much the same. It also makes me realize how bald and fat she used to be! It made her look even more Chinese. These are pics from 0-12 months. I'll have to show you years 1-2 and then 2-3 sometime, too. (I have about ten kajillion pictures of this girl...)

Madelyn, about 2 or 3 days old. She weighed less than 5 lbs in this picture. (5lbs, 4 oz at birth.) scrawny!

Starting to smile!

One month old (and trying to eat my shirt). Up to 6 lbs, 10 oz

6 weeks

2 months --starting to fill out!

2 1/2 months --she loved to stand already

3 months

Friends Alyssa (6 mo), Tylee (8 mo), Laila (5 mo) and Madelyn (4 mo)

4 months--isn't she so dang cute??

5 months

6 months (with G-ma Carolyn at Kevin's wedding)

7 months

8 months (we used to take a picture in front of this sign every month)

9 months

10 months

11 months

11 1/2 months...(apparently, the novelty hasn't worn off, because she still does this)

She's one!!

What an exciting first year we had. We love you, Little Miss!

Leapin' Lizards

5/11/08

Lest any of you think that Madelyn has slowed down, here are some pictures from the other day. She had just finished watching Elmo's World and got all excited about jumping (the topic for the day) , so she got her pink princess jump rope from Auntie Maria and went into our room so she could watch herself in the mirror.

"I exercise!" She was shouting. Then, "That's close enough." (She was just jumping up and down and flinging the jump rope around. She doesn't actually know how to jump rope.)

Then it was off to demolish the living room. She arranged all the couch cushions on the floor and spent another 30 minutes leaping off the coffee table. Thanks to her Blue Planet documentary, she knows that whales and dolphins jump out of the water, so she told us that she was a dolphin (or whale) and put her arms above her head like she was going to do a swan dive, and then went airborne.

As hard as it is to take care of her sometimes, she sure keeps us entertained. I am so lucky to be her mom. Happy Mother's Day to all my friends and family who are in the mommy club!

Check out my Slide Show!

One down, Seven to go

5/9/08

"You know I hate having my picture taken"

Mark is officially done with his first rotation!! (sounds of rejoicing). He has spent these last six weeks doing his family practice rotation at a clinic called "Doctors On Call" with Dr. Vigil. Mark already knew Dr. Vigil as his surgery teacher at school from two quarters ago. Anyway, how shall I put this.... as a former surgeon, this man has no people skills. (surgeons are typically like that) He was constantly yelling at his staff, which was shocking for Mark, who, as you know, is the sweetest person on earth. Vigil was happy to have someone to unload his paperwork on, though. Mark ended up being quite the asset--he had a heavy workload, ridiculous hours, and no pay. It was a stressful experience for our family.

Not to be too negative--he had some good experiences that he would not have had at another clinic. He did a lot of house calls with Dr. Vigil and also went out to a detention facility a couple of times and saw 30 patients at a time. He also got to go on location for two different movie sets to help do physicals on several actors. His favorite experience was helping Dr. Vigil after hours one time to "harvest" the kidneys of a young woman who had died and was donating her organs. He and two med students were left to "close up", so he got to do his first stitches on a real (although not live) person. They liked him so well at the clinic that they wanted him to come back and work for them after he's done with school, but we'll be back in Utah by then. There was also a nurse who has been working in an ER for 25 years who came to the clinic twice and kept referring people over there, just because she liked Mark so much. She said he is one of the best PA's she has ever met in all the years she's been a nurse.

This week, he's been back at the school for presentations and also a big hairy beast of an exam, which despite his worries, he passed. We had to do a celebration dance when he got home yesterday. He has been catching up on his video games and has now taken Madelyn all the way across town so they can go to an indoor swimming pool with slides and stuff like that . Madelyn was SO EXCITED. She is a little fish and just loves to go swimming.

"Hee, hee! Daddy's taking me SWIMMING!!!"

"Hurry, hurry!"

"I've got my trusty inner tube and I'm ready to go"

On Monday, Mark will start his behavioral medicine rotation with a PhD named Dr. Wells. He is a psychologist and for the most part, Mark will be observing counseling sessions for people trying to overcome addictions. It will be a change of pace from Doctors On Call (that's a good thing), and everyone at the clinic is super nice. I'll let you know how it all went 6 weeks from now....

Rio Grande Zoo

Monday, we decided to go to the zoo. I think it's Madelyn's favorite place in the whole world. Not only are there animals, but there are lots of things to climb on. Luckily, we have season's passes to the zoo, aquarium and botanic gardens, so we can go whenever we want. Now that the weather's nice, I'm sure we'll be going at least once a month. One of the perks of living in a big city!

Check out my Slide Show!

Madelyn's World

5/5/08

Hi, this is Madelyn. I am 3 years and 4 months old. My mom says I live in my own little world. I think every day should be about having fun, and by "fun", let me give you some examples of things I've done this past week:

1. Found a blue ball-point pen and scribbled all over my arms and (white, brand new) jammie bottoms. Mama still hasn't been able to get the ink out.
2. Pulled all the tissues out of an entire box and left them in a pile all over the floor. Twice! (At least I didn't shred them into tiny pieces. I've done that before, too.)
3. Climbed the chain link fence in my back yard and got a hole in my shirt.
4. This was after I had to change my previous shirt from having gotten strawberry stains all over it.
5. Just stripped all my clothes off, ditched the diaper, and went streaking around the house in the nude.
6. Insisted upon taking my doll stroller with Bear (my teddy bear) into a sit-down restaurant with my mom and great-grandma Nora.
7. Tricked my mom and dad into thinking I had gone to bed EARLY for once (by 8:00!), but then woke up after 11:00, screamed hysterically for 20 minutes because I wanted a green juice box but the straw wouldn't come off and I just wanted to do it by myself...anyway, I made my parents put in my new favorite show (The Blue Planet documentary about the ocean) and stayed up until 1:00. I think they fell asleep on the couch waiting for me.
8. Found about 300 pictures mama had organized and stacked, and flung them all over the floor. I still deny I had anything to do with it. "No thanks," I keep saying.

See how much fun? Here are some pictures from my latest adventures:

Chilling out eating some corn

Painting all over my hands

Daddy let me pick out my own outfit

"It's dis-a-wishus!" (delicious)

I sit here so I can look at my reflection in the oven door

Goofing off with daddy

I've got my cape (backwards bib), and I'm ready to...

...tightrope walk across the wall

Looking at pretty poppies

Phew! It's exhausting to be me