Have 20 minutes? Madeline can fill it.

If there's one thing I will always remember about Madeline as a toddler, it is that she is a talker. Big time. She's extremely verbose in almost every situation. With me, with Joe, with friends, with strangers, with her imaginary friends, with a.n.y.o.n.e.

My fear is that Rockne won't talk until age 5 because Madeline talks non-stop.

I love that she is always talking. I loved when she started saying her first words and I love her stories now. This child could grow up to be so many things but I wonder if she'll be either a writer or a professional storyteller because that is definitely where her heart is now.

She uses her hands all the time. One of my favorite Madeline stories happened about a year or year and a half ago. She was in the middle of telling me a story and I asked her to hold something. She looked right up at me and said, "But if I hold it, then I can't tell you my story."

And she was dead serious. This kid cannot talk without flailing her hands all around.

She loves to make up incredibly long-winded, detailed stories about anything. She delivers these stories with a passion that confuses people and makes them think she's retelling a memory. But nope, it's total fiction.

I have proof with two videos. 

In the first one, she's telling a made-up story about her friend Addie and somehow "Jesus Loves Me" and a quesadilla get a mention too. Please believe me when I say her enthusiasm, facial expression and hand movements are just who she is when she talks. This video is nothing different than what happens about 50 times a day here; I just decided to record it. (I recorded this back in May but forgot to do anything with it.)

The second video captures a story she told tonight at dinner. It's about her imaginary horse, Nova, who is a BIG part of her life right now. She often expresses herself through a Nova story. For example, she got in trouble tonight and there were consequences. About an hour later, she came to me with an elaborate yet similar story about how Nova was being rude and had consequences too. I'm pretty sure she has no idea that I can connect the dots.

My favorite part happens at mark 1:10. I love when she uses the expression "crackin' them up."

Every day, Madeline makes me laugh and laugh hard by what she says. Right now, my favorite expressions of hers are "you're just crackin' me up" and "I, like, totally freaked out." She says these lines every day and she always uses them very appropriately.

Here are some conversations that made me laugh today.

Madeline asked me a question and I responded with "Fo sho."

Madeline: "What's that mean?"

Me: "It's just another way to say 'for sure.'"

Madeline: "Can you speak English again? I can understand you when you speak English."

She asked me tonight how old I am and, making her mama proud, she quoted a movie during the conversation.

Me: "How old do you think I am?"

Madeline: "Five."

Me: "I'm a lot older than five. I'm 28."

Madeline: "Wow, that's old." (then she grinned) "You miserable old tyrant!"

She wasn't really calling me a name; she was quoting Ursala from "The Little Mermaid" and thought it was hysterical to use that line. When I have conversations with her like that, it's downright scary how much she is just like me.

Steven McQueen would love the lemon muffins

Our Monday morning is starting off with PBS, breakfast in my bed and one semi-cranky girl. So you can be assured we had a fun weekend due to the length of our recovery process.

The weekend wrap-up has to start with last Friday. Last weekend, I made plans with my friend, Jaime, to hang out on Friday. She's 38 weeks pregnant with twins so our plans were contingent upon her not being in the hospital on Friday. Her babies are measuring big and everything is super healthy so I was hoping to receive a text from her saying something like "Can't do Friday. About to hold my babies!"

But the text never came. I was glad because it meant I got to see her one more time before the babies come but I was sad for her sanity because it also meant she was still pregnant.

People, she is measuring 54 weeks pregnant. It's pretty obvious she's packing babies.

We went to a park for the afternoon which meant she had to be observed by other people. This is ever fun when you're near the end of pregnancy as people tend to freak out and blurt out just how huge you are. Jaime got up once to help her daughters on the swing and was bombarded by four other women with "Oh my you must have two in there!" and "I bet you're ready to be done!" and "Boys or girls? Oh both?!?!" All followed by loud squeals.

I love hanging out with Jaime because she's just an awesome person and mom but when you're 16 weeks pregnant and with someone who is 54 weeks pregnant, any inkling or whim to complain is nullified. Because (did I mention?) she's 54 weeks pregnant.

Friday night, we ordered take-out  from one of our favorite Mexican restaurants, Cancun, and stuff ourselves until it was almost painful. Confession: after crawling in bed and whining about how much my stomach hurt, I may or may not have said, "I want more chips and salsa."

On Saturday afternoon, we had Blake's birthday party which was a "Cars" extravaganza. Madeline's highlight was the pinata and it's plethora of falling candy. My highlight was hearing one dad refer to the "Cars" main character "Steve." As in "Steve McQueen" instead of "Lightning McQueen."

And then I wanted to watch "The Great Escape" again.

We shook ourselves awake from the cake/candy coma and headed to my cousin's graduation open house to consume more cake. I felt ridiculously old because I remember so well when my aunt was pregnant with her and how excited we all were when the baby would be the only girl with three brothers.

Then I applied my Ben-Gay, grabbed my walker and shuffled over to the taco bar to eat my feelings away.

The highlight of the entire weekend might have been when Jenny brought her copy of "Bossypants" to the open house just for me. I shrieked. I squealed. I nearly cried. I started the library's waiting list at number 381 and am just now number 216. I love a sister-in-law who shares. (Bless you, Jenny, bless you.)

Yesterday, my mom's family threw a baby shower for Jenny and Beckett. The amount of adorable baby gear is out of control these days. For realz. I speak from experience when I say it's impossible to pass up a super tiny onesie that says "I still live with my parents"  for just $3. The person who is capable to not snatching that up is the same person who can resist the Dollar Spot and Cancun chips and salsa.. (Teach me your secrets!)

On Saturday night, I made lemon muffins for the shower and while each batch was cooking, I watched "Swamp People" with Joe. This is a show I swore i would never watch for the simple fact that it is called "Swamp People." Joe says the more you watch it, the more addicting it gets. I'll admit that I actually watched an entire episode and wasn't bored.

However, when he suggested an episode of "River Monsters," I was capable of saying no. I'd pick "Why Not? with Shania Twain"  over "Swamp People" any day of the week.

I also have to go back to the lemon muffins because they deserve more than a mention. These lemon muffins are always at my family gatherings and have been as long as I can remember. At the shower yesterday, I was talking with some of my aunts about  the origin of the recipe and my aunt thinks the first time they appeared was at my mom's baby shower for Zach. As in 31 years ago.

It's safe to say my family loves repetition, traditions and these lemon muffins. Which explains a lot of why I am the way I am.

Happy Monday!

Madeline goes to The Ruby Pear

A couple of months ago, I wrote this post and included a video of Madeline being enthralled by a brochure from 8 Great Towns. I posted the videos because I thought Madeline was acting super adorable and grown up. (What else is new?) (And yes, I totally just watched the videos again because I can't handle the adorbs.)

Well, the people at 8 Great Towns thought Madeline was pretty darn cute too and sent her some gift certificates to thank her for loving their brochure.

One of the gifts was to The Ruby Pear, a tea parlor in Noblesville. We invited our friends Andrea and Addie because I want to start a club of Ladies Who Lunch and Toddlers Who Tea.

If you need an hour or two to feel like a feminine woman again, a tea parlor will do that for you. Forget that yesterday I floated in the pool like a hippo, just minus the mud.

Today I sat in a little airy green room with flouncy white curtains and ate on mismatched floral china. I drank the hot Midsummer Peach tea and ate a cucumber cream cheese sandwich, a pecan chicken salad sandwich and a white chocolate cashew scone with Southern cream and lemon curd. Even the girls' apple juice was served in a little but heavy glass pitcher.

It's hard to describe how that fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine but it did. I am obsessed really like English movies and books and have heard about clotted cream with scones for a very long time. I've wanted to try it for just as long because anything with cream? Sign me up.

And today I smothered my scone in the Southern cream (their version of clotted cream) and then immediately ordered some scones and cream to go. When I'm eating breakfast tomorrow morning in my pjs (which are not a little sexy satin number but instead a ratty tank top and cotton shorts), I can eat my scone with Southern cream and imagine that Princess Kate is doing the same thing at tea time.

I believe in the soothing power of day dreaming, people. Don't touch that bubble. Don't even go near it.

I really loved The Ruby Pear. I always judge a place by whether or not they give me the stink-eye when I walk in with a kid. (Because, as every mom knows, this does happen and it makes you want to immediately walk out.) I was thrilled when the owners of The Ruby Pear passed that test with flying colors.

The tea parlor is in an old, renovated Victorian home in the historic downtown Noblesville. The layout is very private with tables in multiple rooms, more private than other tea houses I've been to. We had a tiny room of our own, the Garden Room, which was perfect for two adults who wanted to catch up and two kids who weren't in danger of ruining anyone else's special time.

While being everything a tea parlor should be, the atmosphere was far, far from pretentious or stuffy. Canvas paintings hung on three of the walls in our little room but the fourth wall had beautiful aprons strewn across a clothesline. Our mismatched chairs were oversized and cushioned so you sank back comfortably. P.S I just love mismatched style.

The Ruby Pear is a place where you could have a wonderful, lovely lunch with girlfriends and forget the mounds of laundry at home. Or a bridal shower, baby shower, birthday party or a "I survived this week" party.

Or you could totally bring your kids if you need a nice afternoon to remind yourself that real plates (read: fragile) still exist and not just the Disney plastic ones. Just be sure to load them up on Fat Rascal cookies and chocolate-covered strawberries and they'll beg to come back. At least that was Madeline's experience.

My other favorite part was the little shop in the front of the house. The owners have selected the cutest collection of jewelry, handbags, china, doll accessories and the like. I found a drawer full of vintage earrings and couldn't pass up a set of big pearl-colored earrings for just $6. You know they're real vintage when they aren't even clip-on earrings but screw-back. (Since they don't require a pierced ear, Madeline has claimed them as her own.)

Thanks so much to 8 Great Towns for providing a wonderful afternoon with my girl and our friends. And thank you again to The Ruby Pear for not giving us the stink-eye. We loved it!

"Hot" is mentioned only 60 times

I am an admitted heat wimp. I just don't do well when it's hot out. If that doesn't translate as "I get super whiny," then you've never attended the State Fair with me.

Yesterday reached 96 degrees. Joe took the day off to put in someone's landscape in the blazing heat outside. My dad and one of my brothers worked outside putting siding on a house. Even though I didn't talk to him yesterday, I'm sure another brother was working outside since his business is all outside.

Meanwhile, Madeline and I had big plans to spend the day in my mother-in-law's pool and I honestly wondered if it would be too hot and if it would be better for our health to spend the time in her air-conditioned basement instead.

I know. I'm in pathetic stark contrast to all the men in my life.

Yesterday started off perfect. Before Madeline's morning swim lessons, we met Peter and my mom at Starbucks. My mom is a teacher and inevitably gets gift cards from Starbucks in December and May. She's not a big coffee drinker so she enlisted our help to spend the free money.

It was a tough job. My current favorite drink is an iced decaf Americano with lots of room for cream. I'm giddy just remembering it. Madeline got an apple juice and mini pink iced doughnut with sprinkles. 

Oh Starbucks, you're doing quite well at enticing the next generation of lovers.

Then we all headed to Madeline's lesson and she was thrilled to have an audience. At this point in the morning, I was moving past "I'm glistening" and heading straight to "sweat is running down my back and moving to unspeakable places."

I didn't even dry Madeline when she got out of the pool because I thought she needed the cool water on her skin to help survive the heat for the next 30 minutes in the car until we could jump in Grandma's pool. 

Also, I was a bad swim mom and totally forgot her towel but that's just a small detail in the story.

We spend the next few hours blissfully floating around in the water at my in-laws. I was wrong about it being too hot to be in the pool. The water was perfect. My skin is super sensitive this summer and I'm tanning (and burning) very easily. So I had to go all Jackie O style with big sunglasses and a huge floppy hat to shield my face.

I was Bad Swim Mom 2.0 when I generously covered Madeline's face with SPF 50 but then didn't reapply throughout the swim. Between rubbing her face every time she emerged from the water and taking her princess goggles on and off approximately 30 times, the sunscreen was completely gone and her skin between her eyes and mouth got burned.

Bad swim mom. Bad.

We finally came home and Madeline flopped in bed for what I was sure would be a huge, exhausting nap. Instead after 30 minutes, I peeked in to find her sitting in her wagon with her stuffed animals. Once she saw me, I swear she FLEW to her bed and guiltily repeated, "I'm sorry Mama I'm sorry" over and over.

It was one of these moments when I didn't have to say anything other than, "Please go to sleep," because I knew her guilt was punishment enough.

After that, she really did fall asleep within 45 seconds. Mama always knows best. Except when it comes to towels and sunscreen.

Then Joe asked if I could meet him and water the plants he already installed so he could finish planting the rest of them and not have to work until midnight.

I dropped Madeline off at my parents and headed up to a neighborhood of gigantic homes. I asked if he had plenty of water to drink and he said yes, he had been drinking from the hose all day.

So I picked up some Vitamin Waters for me and Gatorades for him on the way up. I don't do bathroom sink water or hose water.

After an hour of watering the plants in the shade and watering my feet every other second to cool me down, I was finished. I was hot, I was tired and I needed to go home. I told Joe I didn't know how he had worked outside all day because I only did it for an hour and I was exhausted.

With love in his eyes, he replied, "Yeah and you've only been watering." Touché, my love, touché.

(I don't know how to put the little line above the e. Now it just looks like I'm saying "touch-y, my love." Not quite what I was going for.)

(UPDATE: I googled it. I just can't hit publish with an obvious flaw. This post deserves more.)

I picked up Madeline up from my parents just in time to catch the best part of "Toy Story 3", Barbie ripping up all of Ken's favorite clothes. But we couldn't stay until the end of the movie because one very tired girl needed to go to bed at this point and Madeline needed her rest too.

We headed home and put the four-year-old to bed. Joe called and asked if any food sounded good. 10 minutes later, I finally had my husband home and Baby Rockne was about to eat an Arby's chicken salad sandwich with curly fries. We ate, watched the last few minutes of "To Kill a Mockingbird," discussed how much we liked the name "Atticus" and fell asleep within five minutes.

It was a wonderful summer day and no matter how many times I've said and how tired you are of hearing it, I LOVE SUMMER DAYS.

Joe, it's another "marathon post." Sorry.

We've officially hit the spot on thermometers which should read "it will be so hot today that you will need a shower in the morning, you will not be able to hug anyone all day because you will be sweaty and stinky and you will also need a shower at night due to the sweat and stinkiness."

I'll move on quickly because I know some of you reading live in Dallas where temperatures are similar to the sun's surface and probably think Indiana is most comparable to a freezer pop right now.

Madeline started her swim lessons this week. She has the same two instructors as last year, a brother and sister duo who are wonderful with Madeline and all the kiddos. These two are now, to steal a phrase from a friend, in Madeline's inner circle of trust. 

She included them in her nightly prayers, filed under things for which she is thankful. 

Also, I know they rank really high in her book because she ran back after lessons were all done today and blurted out, "I love you Allie!" 

Madeline defines the expression "to wear your heart on your sleeve." Or "to wear your heart on your bare arm when wearing a tutu swimsuit."

After swim lessons, we headed over to a splash park to meet up with friends. I love splash parks because I can just sit in the shade while Madeline plays in water and not have to worry every five seconds if she could possibly be drowning at that moment. 

However, the chances of watching your child slide on their booty and get a gigantic concrete burn are severely increased. You just can't win them all.

After we were sufficiently tired, hot and bearing multiple splash park war wounds, we headed home. Madeline took a two-hour nap and I was once again thankful that sunshine + heat + water = one exhausted kid.

I had a surprisingly huge amount of clean laundry waiting for me at home. I say surprisingly huge because two out of the three of us have been living in swimsuits, cover-ups and pjs these days.

Since laundry is one of my least favorite things to do (right after mincing fresh garlic and waiting for a VHS tape to rewind), I watched "To Kill a Mockingbird."

(Yes, I still wait for VHS tapes to rewind because as long as my parents have three huge tubs of working Disney tapes, I will refuse to buy Disney DVDs.)

Now, I'm an admitted book snob when it comes to film adaptations but I love that movie and Gregory Peck with the love of a thousand burning stars. I also really, really, really love the novel and am tempted to read it again for the 43rd time even though I have 17 books currently checked out at the library.

There's something about knowing that Atticus, Scout and Jem are sweltering in their little town at the end of summer that just makes me want to watch it when Indiana gets scorching outside.

Also, seeing Scout in her overalls nearly make me want to go all 1992 and buy Madeline a pair of denim overalls. But then I remember that she lives every moment to be a super girly and probably wouldn't appreciate the Great Depression-era tomboy look.

Then Joe came home early and all three of us headed to an ultrasound. It just never gets old to watch a baby punching, moving and stretching inside me. The baby had hiccups for most of the ultrasound and even though he/she was moving like a bucking bronco, I couldn't feel it with all the other movement happening outside the belly. I just loved seeing it because Madeline had the hiccups during most of her ultrasounds too. 

It's like these two are related or something.

There was a great moment when Madeline waved at the baby and a couple seconds later, the baby waved a little hand back at her. Madeline squealed and laughed, clearly thinking that was the coolest thing ever. Honestly, so did I. I think (and pray) that these siblings are going to loooooove each other.

And in the spirit of honesty, I did also have a few moments when I pulled a Rachel Green and simply had no idea what I was looking at. There's even one photo that we took home and, hours later, I still have absolutely no idea as to what I'm supposed to be seeing.

But it's still a beautiful, miraculous gray something. Everything looks super healthy and on-track and I'm so thankful to once again be part of such a miracle.

Fifteen weeks

When I was pregnant with Madeline, I didn't write anything down to remember the cooking period. When I bought a baby book at month nine, I finally wrote down a few things but could only remember "craved turkey sandwiches" and "wore Joe's huge rugby shirt a lot."

It was quite pathetic.

But this time around, I have a blog and I intend to use it. This will be more for my recollection than your reading pleasure but still... here goes.

I'm 15 weeks along. My due date is November 28 but I would bet big money that this is a December baby. (It might be a fuzzy cell phone picture but it's one more picture than I had at 15 weeks with Madeline.)

(Also, please disregard that my hiney is showing more of a baby bump than my stomach. I will never be one of those women who are "all belly" when pregnant.")

Joe and I found out on March 18. It was a Friday night and I was going to take a pregnancy test in the morning. But I felt acted like a kid on Christmas Eve and couldn't sleep so I took a test at 11 p.m., saw the pink plus sign and ran back to the bedroom to wake Joe up, partly yelling and partly whispering, "We're pregnant!"

I have the self-control of a 2-year-old when it comes to Sun Chips and pregnancy announcements.

We wanted Madeline to be the first person we told and Joe and I shared the news with her a week later while we were eating lunch. Her reaction was priceless. She had the classic shocked expression and then a huge grin became half her face and she hopped off her chair and gave me a big hug.

And then she leaned down to my belly and gave the baby a hug. 

I couldn't have dreamed of a better moment and yes, I melted into a puddle of tears that I'm certain had more to do with me being just regular, emotional me than a shift in hormones. 

Or at least I'm pretty sure. Kinda.

We told our families a week later and told extended family at Easter.

Madeline kept the secret for weeks and did an awesome job. She didn't tell (many) friends but she told numerous strangers, ranging from Target cashiers to the waitress at Cafe Patachou. My theory is that she knew friends were off limits for awhile but she also knew Joe and I wouldn't get too mad over people we would never see again. She had a theory and she wielded it.

She is so excited about Baby Rockne. She picked that in utero nickname and goes back and forth over whether she'd rather have a brother or a sister. She's also picked a couple names for the baby. My favorite was Under the Sea Mayes.

We have since talked her out of that option and I'm thankful we have several months to warm her up to more traditional names.

Madeline has a lot of sympathy pains. If I say I don't want to eat something, she'll push away her plate away and say she doesn't want to either. If I have to lay down, she suddenly has to sprawl on the couch too.

She now carries her baby doll e.v.e.r.y.w.h.e.r.e. This is how we shopped at Lowe's a couple of weeks ago (back when it was freezing in May). She is a great little mommy and I can only imagine how this will be intensified when the baby actually comes.

She loves to play with Baby Rockne. There are two ways. One is to pile her toys on my belly and play next to me. The second option is to come up to my side, cup her hands and "pull" Baby Rockne out and take him/her to go play. Both ways are presh.

Food-wise, hardly anything sounds good to me. I've had much worse morning sickness this time than I did with Madeline. Joe thinks I currently have the worse palate right now because the only thing that always sounds good is...Taco Bell. Or Taco Smell, as he calls it.  (And, of course, the infamous art fair hot dogs.)

But for real, seven-layer burritos are the only things I want to eat. In the very beginning, it was a bagel and butter craze in which I ate a bagel three times a day and that was pretty much it. Now, just the vision of a bagel makes me want to hurl.

I miss things like fruit, toast and my morning tea. Oh oh and coffee. And flavored creamers.

Last week, I felt the baby move for the first time. Good night nurse, that is so the best part and I can't wait until the movements are more pronounced.

I think that brings us up to speed and if you made it through this, I'm really sorry I talked about Taco Bell and hurling.

The weekend we actually took pictures

Yesterday, Joe remarked that June is turning into his favorite month and I might have to agree with him. I love the beginning of summer and after the epic chaos commonly referred to as "May," June seems like a warm packet of blissful, easy days. (I really don't know what "warm packet of blissful, easy days" means but I'm just gonna go with it.)

If you live in Indianapolis, you might have noticed that everything fun but Christmas happens this weekend. The first weekend in June is always full of fun summer events and we tried to make our favorite ones happen.

Saturday was three of our favorite events. First, we headed over to Goodwill for their 50 percent off sale where everything is.... 50 percent off. (It's deep, I know.) Last year, we walked out with tons of bags but sadly that didn't happen this year. We just bought a few things, including one super adorable ballerina shirt for Madeline. 

Of course, Madeline found about 57 junky toys that she desperately wanted but I said no and promptly slathered hand sanitizer all over her.

We headed home and walked to the 54th Street Art Fair. If you live in Indy, you really should do this art fair. It's small but totally free and they hand out free balloons, hot dogs and lemonade.

I haven't been eating much because I've had morning sickness and not much sounds good at all. But those hots dogs? Oh my, I covered mine in mustard and relish and told Joe it was the best thing I've tasted in awhile. I think he was pretty bewildered that I can't eat toast, eggs, chicken, pizza, cheese, yogurt or just about anything but lead me to a street fair and I will gulp down a charred hot dog.

Madeline spied a face painting booth and immediately started begging for it. It was more than half of what the face painting costs at the zoo and other places so we told her she could do it. She was so stinkin' excited.

Here's a quick set-up for the next part. My aunt loves to tell a story about me when I was three or four years old. She took me to the Children's Museum and told me I could have a treat. According to family lore, I looked straight at her and said, "I want a brownie and a cherry coke." She tried to convince me to look at other options and have something without caffeine like a sugar cookie and chocolate milk but apparently I only repeated, 'I want a brownie and a cherry coke."

I say this because I think I've passed the decisiveness gene onto Madeline. Once she saw the face painting, she said she wanted to look like a zebra. The lady had all of these pictures of the options kids could choose from and zebra was not one of them. I tried to point out the butterfly face or kitty face. Nope, she wanted to be a zebra.

When it was done, she was kinda disappointed. My heart wanted to break because I knew how excited she was and how not excited she was now. But then she told us she thought she would look more like a zebra which translated to me: "I thought I would look EXACTLY like a zebra instead of a child with a painted face." Sorry kid. This is the best we can do.

After the art fair, we headed to the Woodruff Place Flea Market and when we were about three minutes away, we realized we had a passed-out zebra in our backseat.

I laugh every time I see this picture. Oh to be four years old with a painted face sitting in a pink and purple booster seat with a pink and purple horse carrier next to you. It's a hard-knock, pink and purple life.

If you live in Indy, you also need to hit up this mother of all garage sales. Half of the reason I go is for the fabulous stuff you can find for dirt cheap. The other half is because I like to gawk at the monstrous, gorgeous homes.

We only made it up and down one street because it was a blazing 93 degrees out and at this point, we consisted of one very tired, thirsty and whiny zebra and two sweaty and thirsty parents who were too hot to even hold hands.

So we headed home to fill up Madeline's tiny pool and all three of us sat in the icy hose water. It was the kind of coldness that makes you go all tingly and you really don't want to submerge because it's almost painful but you have to because the only alternative is to die of Indiana heat.

Madeline tried really hard to keep her face from getting wet but that's pretty much impossible when this girl gets around water.

The rest of the weekend was one peaceful blur of sitting around and doing a whole of nothing but reading books, making Easy-Bake cookies and watching Joe eat the said Easy-Bake cookies. 

Because if mama can't handle cheese or chicken, she sure is not going to be able to handle a charred cookie smothered with icing and purple sprinkles. But she does want another hog dog.

Summer is...

 playing outside with friends until your nose gets a few freckles

eating popsicles until your tongue changes to the appropriate shade of electric blue

napping hard and blurting out random sentences in your sleep after an exhausting morning

and for mama, finally finding a church sign that made me laugh out loud

(I know it's a horrendous photo but, in my defense, I was driving. 

Or maybe that's no defense at all.)

It says "Annual Fish Fry: our cod is an awesome cod."

Any church that manages to make sarcasm with Rich Mullins lyrics is ok with me.

(And yes, I totally passed it, turned around in a parking lot and drove by it again so I could share it with all of you. That's how much I love you.)

In which Katie changes the solstice

I know scientists and super smart people say summer doesn't start until June 21 but in my book, it started yesterday.

I've been watching two adorable girls since January. Their mom is a teacher so my last day of watching them was on Tuesday. While I really miss seeing them every day, I've also really, really loved the past two days with just my baby.

You know, this four-year-old baby.

Madeline really misses her friends too so I told her that Wednesday was a super special Mommy and Madeline day and she could picked anything she wanted to do.

We ate breakfast while watching "The Little Mermaid" for her first time. She laughed ridiculously hard at Flounder and was enchanted with Ariel's hair. 

Honestly, I was too. Have you ever notice the ginormous comb-over poof that I think is supposed to pass for bangs?

We painted our nails. I chose my standard hot pink. She selected electric blue to match her Ariel nightgown.

We met Joe downtown for lunch at Bazbeaux Pizza. I haven't been eating much recently but I wanted to lick my salad bowl so I could devour every drop of their creamy basil dressing.

They ran out of the Greek pizza I ordered, apologized profusely and gave us free cheesy garlic bread in addition to my revised B.O.T. It was really nice but so unnecessary and made me wonder if I come across as high maintenance. 

Because my first reaction was the total opposite. I just felt bad that I ordered something that was unavailable.

But that free cheesy garlic bread? It was BA-nanas. Although since the herb-y grease dripped off my fingers, I doubt Rachel Zoe would touch it.

Then we headed over to Mass Ave Toys to spend Madeline's birthday money. She picked the mermaid sandbox which she has wanted since...um... about February. 2010.

She wanted to also spend part of her money on Baby Rockne. Which made my mom-heart swoon and nearly burst. She picked out a bib with a firetruck. Her money, her choice. But I think Baby Rockne will love it.

We swung by McDonald's for the ultimate summer treat: a $.49 ice cream cone that was as long as Madeline's face. No joke. (May be joking by one inch or two but that thing was tall.)

We came home and played with her new toy. Her face was a vision in bliss while the tips of her fingers was speckled with blue sand.

Joe came home early and we went to nursery to pick out flowers for my mom's pots. It was her Mother's Day gift from the kids. Joe knows more about plants than I know about the Royal Wedding and that's saying something. So he got the honor of picking out the perfect arrangement. And it's pretty darn near perfect.

After a little while hanging out at my parents and with Madeline's hero Uncle Peter, we headed to the library. I picked up books by authors who I just know have so much in common if they could ever do coffee: John Grisham, Emily Giffin and James Dobson. Joe checked out books on plants. Madeline walked out with "Miss Spider's New Car."

After we came home, I read to Madeline on the porch swing until way past her bedtime.

It was a perfect day. I love that she picked nearly every activity and I loved it as much as she did. 

This kid is so much fun to be around and I'm so blessed to spend every minute with her.

Today, we continued the bliss with a splash park and Icee's. I love me some summertime and it's only getting started.

P.S. Thank you for all your sweet comments about the new baby. I'm just ridiculously excited.

Madeline wants to tell you something

"The Lord has done great things for us and 

we are filled with joy."

Psalm 126:3

P.S. The new baby is coming after Thanksgiving. I didn't ask Madeline because if asked, she just says that the baby comes after school starts. August is the only milestone on her calendar.