Happy Halloween

I apologize for the streaks in this post and the last one. It has been quite a challenge lately to download the pictures without some sort of issue. I have and continue to look for solutions. What I post is generally the best out of 2--3 of the same picture. I continue to try and find a solution, but until then, please excuse the streakiness. UPDATE: FIXED THIS POST'S STREAKS

Some random tidbits:

*Madeline's birthday celebration is November 17th. I will post a picture of the invitation and eventually the actual birthday in the near future. Please note, if you are reading this, you are invited. :) 

*I have been promoted from Mama to Mommy. While this is super sweet, it also makes me a little sad on how fast she's growing. Will continues to be called Dada. I'm obviously progressing a lot faster than Will. In 17 days, she will officially be 2 years old! CRAZY?!!?

*As of today, one of Madeline's ears is infected and has drained blood. We are in the process of getting things figured out. She's on two antibiotics and I will be the squeaky wheel in getting an ENT appointment tomorrow. She is scheduled to fly this Thursday, which hopefully will still happen. UPDATE: MADELINE'S EARDRUM WAS ATTEMPTING TO CLOSE OVER HER TUBE. THE FLAP "BURST' CAUSING THE BLOOD. AFTER 10 DAYS OF EAR DROPS (ANTIBIOTICS) SHE IS GOOD AS GOLD. SHE ALSO DID AMAZING ON THE PLANE!

*Starting January 2nd, Madeline will be starting a Mother's Day Out/preschool twice a week. She is at the age where she would start benefiting being around other children her age.

 Madeline's first time with finger paint. Besides painting her hand for lots of hand prints, she preferred (and still does) using a sponge brush. 

 

I think she likes it!

Shaving cream-tastic.

Helping us spoon out the pumpkins. Every time she touched the pumpkin guts, by accident, or saw a pumpkin seed, she would say, "Eeeewww!

                                                                            

 During a festival, Madeline had to sit on the ride on lawnmowers.

Mice time!

O for Obringer!

She was singing, "eyes and ears and mouth and nose..." She gets the general area when it comes to pointing the different body parts.

About to touch her, "knees and toes."

About to start gathering some candy. She needed to triple check and confirm that there was absolutely nothing in her bag. 

Madeline would walk up, gather the candy, mumble something close to, "trick-or-treat", Will or I would quickly put her candy in her bag, and then would capry on.

We went to about seven houses and she started to get the hang of it.

Finding other uses for her Sit-and-Spin. She's singing a song where part of it says, "Shh shh shh".

October Fun!

I can't believe October has almost passed. I wanted to update the blog before Halloween because that will be a blog all on its own. This month has been filled with Grandpa Bob and Grandmom Betsy visiting, trying to get the piddly stuff organized prior to the deployment, and obsessively planning Madeline's 2nd Birthday celebration.

Will officially will be leaving December 4th. We are grateful for the extra month of quality time. He will be taking a week off starting this Friday for his last block of leave before he bids us farewell.

I do have an address for Will in Kandahar, Afghanistan however, I will post it at a later date. It was explicitly instructed NOT to send anything until after December 10th. There is a very good reason and it would take way too long to explain. If a package was sent before the 10th, Will would never receive it.

I will be posting more pics later this week.

Hope everyone is well!

Madeline convinced Grandpa Bob to swing her numerous times (Will and I get too dizzy :)).

The finishing touch!

I love how she's strolling while carrying the leaf. Beautiful!

These pumpkin stickers aren't meant for the actual pumpkin! Der!

Peak-a-boo!

Wasn't too into the pumpkin pictures this year. :/

One of the few that she was actually smiling. 

It is so cool to see how her imagination is growing. In this tree trunk she pointed out a snake, turtle, and a bug (maybe that one wasn't her imagination).

She sure loves "MiMi" 

And this is why her 2nd birthday's theme is Minnie. 

Stupendous September

An update through pictures...

One of my favorites. We visited St. Simons for the first time and loved it!

Madeline helping grab the umbrella that wasn't obviously anchored in.

Can we say model?

She's dancing and it is awesome to see.

Still riding 'Kitty'

We bought a very expensive Tinker Bell costume at Disney. After Madeline's new obsession with cats, we had to roll with it. I'm introducing her piece by piece to her costume so hopefully, she'll give me zero issues when it's Trick-or-Treat time.

Her tutu was introduced and she's dancing around.

Peak-a-boo

Madeline with Grandmama

Say cheese!

Madeline was placed on top of Will's shoulders, after she started pinching his face it was a matter of who was going to win: Madeline who wanted to get down and was stuck or Will who wasn't going to let her down no matter what. Eventually, Madeline won.

Thanks to a new gift from our neighbor friends she has a Minnie hopper (too bad her legs are a wee too short right now). 

Bubbles! 

Loves cutting things. She prefers her hand versus the cutting board. She's still learning.

So Silas and Moose are at Wendi's until Madeline and I join them at the beginning of December. I have taken on feeding Silas's mom. Is this her? NO. I think this is a cat that may take advantage of Silas's mom from time to time. But I had to show this pic because Will has a named him, Kitler. Ha haha.

This is Silas's mom. My hope is that she will let me take her and Silas's sister so I can get them spayed and hopefully adopted. 

Meet Silas's sister.

This is Silas's 1/2 brother.

OK this opossum keeps eating the cat food. He and I have had many eye to eye encounters. He continues to be sneaky, but I win every time! 

Future job?

Will and I finally had a date night. I think this is the 3rd one in a year and some months. Eh, we'll make date nights up when we become empty nesters. 

The Oscar saga has concluded. We came up with an agreed settlement where the Browns pay for over 1/2 of Oscar's medical bills. It's been a very long road and even though I wish things had turned out differently after Oscar's death, this is something that I'll be able to live with. Thank you to everyone who wanted to be kept in the loop in regards to Oscar and for everyone's thoughts and prayers. I, of course, have to have an Oscar photo collage down memory lane:

As a wee lil' thing. He has my nephew Josh's sock on his nose.

Of course, you had to get your kid in the bluebonnets.

Always so cozy to snuggle with.

He was an optimist!

He also humored me. 

His BFF forever, Mattie!

R.I.P. Oscar Mayer!