Date Day!!

My love is so romantic. Seriously. He is so thoughtful and sweet...I'm one luck gal! This past weekend he told me to get some stuff together, he was taking me on a "date day", sitter arranged and all. This may not seem overly exciting but considering the fact that we became pregnant veeery early on in our relationship, we didn't have this "courting" period. We fast-forwarded straight into diapers and overtime! I so appreciate this valuable time alone, to just be. We love Maddie more than anything but it feels so nice to reconnect as a couple...just us. So off to Captiva Island we went. It was a gorgeous day. We brought wine, had lunch, sat and listened to live music and watched the sunset. Perfection. Oh, except that I forgot my camera (moi?!) so I was forced to make due with camera phones...ugh. Almost perfection. ;)

Little Miss Sassy-Pants

Ahhhh...I remember when it was Little Miss Sunshine. Smiles and hugs, all day, every day. Just before her first birthday, Maddie somehow figured it out: she has some control over her little world. She has free will. She has unleashed the fury of this realization with all the might she can muster! Suddenly, everything is up for debate (and by debate, I mean her sternly lecturing me in baby-speak with furrowed brow firmly in place). She whines, fusses, screams, cries, grabs, hits...WHAT?! Where did this come from?? My sweet angel has suddenly become the Devil's spawn! I believe an exorcism is appropriate, although I keep hearing how "normal" it all is. If I hear one more thing about her "asserting her independence", I'm going postal. I get she's not a tiny baby anymore, but I clearly have an aversion to all this growing up nonsense she and Mother Nature insist upon. I believe she should still be pleasing and cooperative...until I leave this planet. Unrealistic? Perhaps. If she only knew how much I loved her and how difficult discipline was for me, surely she would remain my sweet, easy-peasy baby forever. And they say it gets harder?! Ugh....I may not get through without at least one trip to the loony bin. Here's to hoping someone bails me out....

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!

Every September since Caleb's death, we, as a family, make it our mission to honor those children living with and that have died from Cancer. We try to attend fundraisers, have our own, whatever we can get into to continue to raise awareness. Since Tamra works at Chili's we love to go to dinner on the night where all proceeds go to St. Jude's. 100% of the proceeds! Amazing...We also had a great Bath an Body event, hosted by FLUFF products, which raised a couple hundred dollars for the foundation and left everyone smelling and feeling sweet!

Maddie and Daddy

I am so in love with how in love these two are with each other. The way her posture and demeanor changes when Garret walks in the room, the way she makes sure he's watching while she performs with giggles and dances. I am not unaware that most men wish for a boy, but I really believe Garret when he says he really didn't care, even hoped for a girl. He is the first man she will ever fall in love with and I think there is a special bond between them that is so very sweet. He, for certain, is wrapped around her tiny finger and has been since birth. She, conversely, leads him around (figuratively and literally) and seduces him with her charms...he is helpless and she loves it.

Fuzzy wuzzy had no hair....

I know it's selfish. I want Maddie to have hair for total vanity's sake. Bows, barrettes...it was just not to be with my little cue ball. I mean she's so adorable as she is...perfect even. I just wait for something to happen up there. I'm starting to wonder if she'll ever have hair. I fantasize what it will look like, how we'll decide on fun styles ("Should we do a ponytail or two pigtails today? Maybe a french braid?"). She's so often mistaken for a boy. She has such delicate features that I see not a masculine thing about her, but it is just assumed. No hair=boy. Guess all the pink and earrings doesn't help clear up any confusion....