The Albin Family

The scene: Dinner last night. Maddie, Gammie, Rick and I. We are having Taco Salads and Maddie is refusing to even try it. She claims she does not like it before she even tastes it. Everyone else is loving it.

Me: Maddie, how do you know that you don't like it if you haven't even tried it?

Maddie: No, I no like 'dis!

Rick: Maddie you need to try your dinner.

Maddie: No

Me: You are not getting anything else for dinner. This is what dinner is tonight and that's all you get.

Maddie: No, I no like 'dis!

Rick: Maddie, try your dinner.

Maddie: holding her hands up to us as to say "stop" Okay! Okay Guys! Calm down! Calm down Mom! Calm down Dad!

..... Gammie, Rick and I just looked at each other. It was all we could do to keep from laughing.

So I know it's been a while. But I just wanted to post a quick one to let everyone know what was going on.

First, I will say that about 2 weeks ago we went to the Pumpkin Patch and had great fun. I have a bunch of pictures to narrow down into a reasonable number to post. Maddie still talks about the Pumpkin Patch. Look for that post to come.

Secondly, I don't know who is more excited about Halloween, me or Maddie. This is our first year of actually having a party to go to.... to be honest, I think this may be the first Halloween Party I have EVER been to... hummm, maybe that is why I am so excited.

Party/Halloween Prep Checklist:

• Costume Shop for Maddie - CHECK (Kitty Cat)
• Decorate House for Halloween - CHECK
• Face paint Trial - CHECK
• Hair Trial - CHECK
• Alteration on costume so it fits her - CHECK
• Practiced "Meow" - CHECK
• Reattached Tail to costume after she pulled it off - CHECK
• Volunteered to be a Parent Helper @ Party - CHECK
• Find the perfect item to bring for Pot Luck - CHECK (it's a surprise... pictures to come)
• Get ingredients for said perfect item - CHECK
• Get container and serving utensil for said perfect item - Thursday
• Maddie Haircut - Friday morning
• Mommy and Daddy costumes - OUCH... not yet... Thursday??? maybe???
• Carve Pumpkin to bring for the contest - Thursday
• Practiced Trick-or-Treat ettiquette - CHECK (during Bathtime tonight)

Ohh can you tell I'm excited? Maddie is excited too, but for a different reason. This is our conversation when I was pinning her pants to sew them:

Maddie: I can't wait to show Jude, and Miss Shan, and 'Dona!

Me: What can't you wait to show them?

Maddie as she sticks her butt out: My Tail!

Oh I just am beside myself in excitement! Look for pictures and post on our Halloween festivities.

And lastly, I just want to share that I am so very happy to hear that someone very dear to me has completed her radiation treatment for cancer this past week!!! Wahoo! I know is was a long road for her, but I am so glad that the treatment portion has come to an end. She does still have some upcoming appointments and will get the final results next week. She is in our prayers. We love you and you know who you are!

That is about all I have to write tonight. I will post our Pumpkin Patch Pictures soon and of course post about our Halloween Party and Trick-or-Treating.

I wish I had a picture of me as a child to compare this too, but you will just have to use your imagination.

You will have to excuse her 'outfit'. She hardly ever keeps her clothes on when she's at home. She loves wearing my fuzzy socks on her arms and legs and she's been enjoying this hat.

Can you see the resemblance at all??

Yup that's right, today is my Birthday. I'm getting closer and closer to 30 by the day.

This morning I woke up to my sweet little girl putting one of her baby dolls in my arms to snuggle up to. Could she be giving me a hint? It's funny, because there is a little baby boy around 7-8 months that goes to her daycare and so she is more conscientious of babies now. When you ask her if she wants Mommy to have a baby, she will say yes. Then if you ask her whether she wants Mommy to have a girl or a boy, she always says girl. Humm... something to think about.

We had a pretty low key day today, which is perfectly fine. I had the day off, but Rick had to work. I spent most of the day planning our meals for the next two weeks and clipping and organizing my coupons. Exciting, I know!

Maddie has been begging for 2 days now to go get her haircut. Which is really weird, I guess her hair was in her eyes enough to get on her nerves. So this afternoon, I took her and the whole time we were waiting, she kept say "I get hair cut!" Rick met us there and after the little princess got her piggy tails and glitter in her hair, Rick took us out to dinner.

We went to Applebee's. We haven't been out to eat in a long time.. it is just so much cheaper to eat in. We can easily spent half to three-quarters of our grocery budget for the week on one meal out! That can be kind of hard to swallow these days. But because of the special occasion, we did go out and have a nice family dinner! They sang Happy Birthday to me and I think that embarrassed Maddie as she buried her face in me. But she did enjoy splitting the ice cream sundae with me!

All in all, it was a very good day. I had many people call, text and "Facebook" me a Happy Birthday, I do feel very loved. Thank you to all!

And P.S. it's 9:22 and Maddie is in her own bed yet again. I think we can hang up the Bootcamp hat as the worst is over. Wahoo!

Day 3 of the Bedtime Bootcamp extravaganza went pretty smooth as well. I am posting this the morning after Day 3 because I was just too exhausted to blog after she went to bed.

First off, Day 2 recap: She stayed in her bed until about 4:30, however I was already up and at em by that time, so no worries. I am very excited that this is going so smoothly!

Last night, I was really exhausted by the time that dinner was over and had a headache. I seriously thought about skipping the bootcamp for the night, especially since I had off of work on Thursday. But I pushed my self to stick to it so we weren't sending mixed signals.

I did however, declare it a "Bath Holiday" and we skipped bathtime. We didn't get home 'till about 7:00 last night so we were running a little behind schedule.

Rick came home during story time and tucked her in. She came out a few times but was redirected to her bed.

She did end up coming into our room probably around 4:00 am.

Overall, this is going very smoothly and it is so nice to be able to get good sleep without having her in the bed with us all night. Also, she seems a little more refreshed in the mornings too.

Wahoo! We made it through last night! If you have no idea what I am talking about, we started a Bedtime Bootcamp with Maddie this week. To hear about Day 1 click here.

Last night was great! As predicted she did come into our room. But the fabulous thing is that she didn't come into our room until 5:45am!!!! This is great because it was only 15 minutes before we were to get up anyway! Last night went smoothly and this morning she told us that she wanted to sleep in her bed again tonight.

So tonight I stuck with the same routine and stayed on board with the patience thing. Rick came home earlier than predicted so he was actually able to read a bedtime story, which she was very excited about. She did come out of her room a few times, but I just led her back into her room very calmly. Last time I heard from her was 9:10, which was about an hour ago! This is going so well. *knock on wood*

I have to admit, I am not always the soft spoken patient Mom that I would like to be, especially when trying to get her to do what I wish of her. However, over the past two nights, I have realized that when I need to get her motivated to do a task at hand, she is much more receptive to me being patient with her and not getting upset with her. Sometimes you just have to choose your battles, and not get all bent out of shape when it doesn't go smoothly.

Well, here's to another night of being able to stretch out in bed without Maddie's feet in my back!!