POOP!

I am fortunate enough to have an account at work that is a pre-launch drug undergoing approval for IBS and Chronic Constipation.  The past few months our team has been getting up to speed on the gastrointestinal tract, disease state, treatments, etc.  I now feel like I know too much about how and why we poop (or don't).

My new found knowledge has been truly put to the test over the last few weeks with Maelin.  The little girl has had some serious tummy issues and has had to go to the doc twice now.  I hope we are on the up swing and have found her the proper medicine. 

Because of this though, Maelin has morphed into our case study at work and is part of several internal and external conversations (imagine her embarrassment if she she knew what was up).  Today I received the below from one of my colleagues......sadly, I'm looking forward to being able to change one of these types sooner rather than later (never thought I would be so excited for the bug to poop!)

On a cleaner note, Maelin's school had school spirit week to celebrate the holiday season.  Below are pics we took each morning before we left for school.

Sports Day
(she out grew all her badger gear, so we opted for a red and white ensemble with some badger socks)

Pajama Day

Color Wars (each classroom had to dress a color, hers was green)

Wacky Holiday Day
(we tried...)

Tree Hunt and more holiday delight

According to Brett, my "scroogness" towards the holiday season officially needs to end this year...I didn't go down without a fight though and tried to convince him that I should have one more year without decorations, seeing as Maelin wont remember ANYTHING but I lost :(  So today we ventured out, got a tree and also "decorated" the house for the season.  What I soon discovered though is we had lost most all our holiday decorations in the fires (shoot), so this year our decorations consist of some pine cones for a candle jar and two red towels for the kitchen....so that part was easy.  The tree however was more of a hassle but we managed and Brett is VERY HAPPY............

 Off we go on our tree hunt

 Found it....Maelin likes 

All set up....a bit small but that means less needles to pick up

SO the tree is up, but we'll see how long it stays there, especially with our super naughty untrained Puggle home alone all day.......to be continued.......

Speaking of holidays, we had a good Thanksgiving last week.  Below are some pictures from the long weekend.  Maelin didn't have much success eating the turkey, we need to work on the chewing a bit more, but she was happy to play with the serving spoon. We also had some black Friday fun and then homeward bound back to Chicago!

 Yum Yum

Taking a break from holiday shopping,  large baby in a large hand

 Happy to be back with her buddy

And then she tried to chew him....

Unflattering Moments

Like everyone, Maelin has her good days and her bad days when it comes to her looks.  For the most part I think she is cute (then again I am biased) but after flipping through some pictures over the last months, I am realizing she is not the most photogenic of them all.  Since we have totally slacked on taking pictures I wanted to share some of Maelin's ugliest moments through the last 8 months.

 I blame this on a bad camera angle

 Also a bad angle, those feet look enormous and not sure about that facial expression

 I dont even think this is Maelin, maybe I just have a random baby's photo in my album

Not sure what this is  

Like father like daughter...she looks a lot like brett after a night of drinking

Chris Farley?

I cannot end this entry with everyone thinking Maelin looks like Chris Farley, so I had to include a normal picture of her below.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.

Ready to tackle the fall!

5 Years of Wedded Bliss.............

Those of you that know us or have been following the blog are aware of our obsession with Cabo.  We go there for every celebration, whether it be big or small....including our one year anniversary, "Brett got a job!", babymoon and just recently our 5 year wedding anniversary.  There are two main reasons we always end up in Cabo, one being the simple fact that its absolutely gorgeous and relaxing. The second that we typically book travel about a month before we plan to go and leave no time for research, etc......Cabo is easy and always guaranteed nice weather.

So last week we spent the days poolside in Cabo, celebrating five years of marriage. The great thing about being married to Brett and his feminine ways, is that he LOVES to lounge, drink girly drinks and catch up on reading....exactly what I love to do as well.  This trip he even opted out of a group water volleyball game when the other guys at the pool asked him to join because he had a spa appointment........

First Cabo Trip - 2004

 5 Year Anniversary - 2011

So, that was our week, while Maelin got a vacation from school and spent the week at Grandma and Grandpa Hoods house for a few nights and Grandma Sue's house for a night. Apparently my family thought she was a doll and tried on hair accessories for their entertainment....

 Hair Accessory 1...Little Diva Pose

Hair Accessory 2

School Pictures

Maelin had picture day the other week. The teachers schlepped all the babies to the school gym and each one posed for individual pictures, followed by a class picture.  Maelin of course had a blow out in her cute dress so wore a spare outfit that we carry in the diaper bag.  Also, I just want to point out that the white shirt is cotton....the glimmer on the pics below must be from the quality of my scanner......she does not own metallic clothes :)

When we got the proofs back, Brett and I laughed uncontrollably, first, school pictures have not been updated since we were in grade school and the background settings are all still the same.  Second, Maelin's facial expression made us laugh even harder.  We like to believe she is thinking "are you kidding me right now?" The best picture of the bunch is Maelin and the Tree....no seven month old plays in the woods and pops out behind a tree!  We did not order any, we figured the proof sheet was enough.  In fact, these were such a hit at the school, one teacher even has Maelin and the Tree as her screen saver, it makes her laugh every morning she turns the computer on.  

 The Proofs

Maelin and the Tree

Sloth like baby

As most of you know, Maelin is often called buggy.....however, I'm beginning to think that sloth may be more appropriate.  We are fast approaching the seven month mark and she has rolled over only twice.  Though she is not moving, she does lots of other things very well, such as eating, drooling, sleeping, blabbing, grabbing, throwing, sitting, reaching, laughing and crying.  We have been terrible picture takers lately, so thank goodness daycare documents Maelin's days fairly well.

  6 month Birthday Bash

 A mess after painting....not sure she got any paint on the paper and there is no denying the girl loves to eat

Fire Safety Week 

Last weekend we ditched the baby and headed up to Wisconsin for the Badger/Nebraska game.....lots of fun catching up with old friends and roommates.  We pulled off an awesome win against Nebraska and followed up on Sunday with a Packer win.  

 Old roomies

Old roomies

Packer Sunday

The last few weeks..........

have been a bit hectic, it being the end of summer and all (it went by too fast again).  Maelin also started teething, which proved to be a true test of parenting for us. We have a very sensitive baby on our hands and the weeks leading up to those "teeth cutting" through the gums were hell.  In addition to the non-stop diarrhea, diaper rash, screaming and a few sleepless nights, Maelin was just GRUMPY and nothing made her comfortable. I never put much thought into the teething process but I had assumed it only lasted a few days.......NOPE, try a few weeks!  Anyways, we all somehow made it through and finally we have our normal Maelin back......at least until round 2 of teeth.

This past weekend Maelin turned 6 months.  She is getting so large!!!!  Below is a shot of her at one month and her now at 6 months.  I can't believe how many rolls she acquired within that short of a time period.  She is a healthy one!

 One Month

Six Months

Even though Maelin is only six months old, we have already arranged her marriage to Henry Fuchs.  Henry's mom Kristin, is one of my very good friends so we figured they just HAVE to get married so we can plan their wedding and spend all our holidays together.  We introduced the love birds a few weeks ago..........this picture will be played in the wedding slideshow in about 25-30 years.  NOTE: Kristin has Maelin and I am holding Henry, what a cute baby couple.  

 Arranged Marriage

In addition to reaching the 6 month mark and being put in an arranged marriage, Maelin has also been pretty busy at school.  Last week was spirit week and each day the kids participated in the "theme" for that day.  One of the days was favorite sports team, so we of course decked Maelin out in badger gear.  This outfit lasted only one hour until she had yet another blow out (thanks teeth). 

 Ready for the day

 Brett and I took too long to get ourselves ready and she fell asleep waiting

Aside from the petty chaotic weeks and weekends, there is always down time in our house.  Brett and Maelin were hanging out reading one afternoon before dinner......Brett with the Nordstrom Mens fall fashion catalog and Maelin with her Sophie book.....too cute! 

Sleeping and Puppy Fun

Based on observation of other babies Maelin hangs with, she is lazy in comparison (this has also been confirmed by her daycare).  She would much prefer to view the world sitting up (with assistance) and make baby noises either at another baby or just to herself......opposed to her friends who are rolling over and some are even scooting.  Sometimes I wonder if maybe she is to chunky to roll :)

Sleeping is a different story though, this is when she is on the move.  We have a video monitor downstairs  and every time we turn it on to take a peek, Maelin is in a different sleeping position.  I find this amusing so decided to snap a few pics (no worries, the bright flash did not make this lazy girl wake up or even flinch).  Please note, these pictures were all taken within a 20 minute time period.

Stuck!

Kicking Back.....her leg is crossed over the other and she is just catching ZZZ's

Hoisting her legs up between the bars...this cannot be comfy

On a very unrelated note, last week Maelin and I went out to lunch with some girlfriends.  One of my friends brought her 4 month old little puppy, Buster...it was love at first site.  Buster also came to visit this weekend but this time only cared to play with Begley.  

Loves puppy licks

Cannot get enough of his fluffy fur

The new way to cry

Recently when Maelin gets tired she starts to spit/blow bubbles/vibrate her lips (I'm not exactly sure how to describe it).  We are terrible parents because the other night we sat downstairs laughing at the baby monitor while the poor girl struggled with the decision to cry or do this thing with her mouth......she figured out sleep was better than both. Here is a video of what we see when buggy gets tired.

The Daycare Blowout

Last week I had dressed Maelin in a cute little yellow romper for daycare. When we went to pick her up that night, I had noticed while walking in that she had a white onsie on in place of the romper.  This has happend quite a few times before and typically has meant that she just spit up or peed herself.  We soon learned that neither was the case and she had a major blowout during story time on the carpet.  Apparently it was so nasty and bad that the girl needed a bath and the carpet a good scrubbing.

Enjoying a good clean after a nasty mess.....she doesn't seem too embarrassed about what she did 

Pooping all over the classroom that day wasn't good enough for Maelin, to top it off, she also peed all over her teacher......only at 5 months can you have no remorse or embarrassment for pooping all over story time and spraying your teacher with pee!

Some other fun pictures from the past couple weeks

Hanging with Dad

Her new favorite obsession....Begley

Lots and lots of tummy time.....

It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To...........

We were very much looking forward to this weekend,  Maelin was getting baptized and we had lots of family coming into town for the weekend.  However, things can't just be smooth and easy for us, there  always has to be a hurdle........

Friday night Chicago got hit with some of the worst rain in the history of the city, which led to our discovery on Saturday morning that our entire basement flooded.  This was terrible, aside from the fact that we just redid the basement from the fire (3 months ago), we were entertaining about 30 people on Sunday for the baptism and had planned to use this space.  We spent most of the day moving furniture and bailing/pumping out water.  In the meantime our air conditioner decided to fail, which is awesome when it is in 95 degrees outside......we headed to the Home Depot and purchased some window AC units....problem temporarily solved and our guests were able to get some sleep.

Then came Sunday, the house was still a disaster but not much else we could do. We got Maelin ready and off to church we went.

The Shoes, every girl needs a pop of color

Buggy in her dress

Being curious

Posing for the camera

Ms. Maelin was in a pretty good mood when we got to church, just finished a 2 hour nap and a bottle.  The girl has impeccable timing though and the moment the ceremony started, all hell broke loose..........she SCREAMED so loud and so much during the ceremony, it was unbelievable, I'm not sure I've ever heard such terrible cries. She must have stunned all the other babies because no one else made a peep throughout the ceremony.  I'm sure every parent looked at us and thought "thank god that is not our kid."  Brett finally calmed her down and she was able to get through the "dunk" without crying, which surprised us all.

Her Godparents, Ryan and Meggie

 (they hung in there through the screams, Ryan actually thought it was hilarious)

Not a single tear was shed the rest of the day UNTIL....Uncle Steve dropped baby Charlie and Maelin's cake.....Opppss (made for a good photo opp though)

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to......