Nap Time...or Play Time?

Madelyn has become (knock on wood) a wonderful napper. Typically she'll sleep for about 3 hours every afternoon. But lately, naps tend to begin with lots of playing around in her crib before I find her asleep in some funny position with all of her stuffed animals repositioned and blankets hanging on the side for decoration. OR, on days like this one, I come up to find her happily playing once she wakes up. This day struck me as particularly funny because she had taken off her little dolls red dress and creatively found a way to turn it into a hat for herself. I found her like this and said "Oh Maddy, that is so cool. Can I take your picture?" And thankfully she stayed in her crib like this while I ran down the stairs to retrieve the camera. Talk about a Kodak Moment!

A lot of Catching Up to Do!

Well, I don't know how many real "fans" I have out there that regularly (or even intermittently) check this blog. But if there are a few of you, I've been slacking on keeping this thing up-to-date. And it just dawned on me that with my next baby's due date just 9 days from now, time is only going to become MORE limited. So, while I have a free moment of solitude right now, I thought I try to post some highlight photos from the last few months. We'll start here with some pics from August:

Madelyn is such a little mommy with all her baby dolls. On this particular morning she was saying "mommy mommy" while I was preparing breakfast and I look over to see she was posing with her babies. So sweet. So I said "let me take a photo!" and she sat there and actually said "CHEESE" while took the photo. This was a first (that now happens regularly), but I was so proud of her, and you can see she was proud of herself too!

A cute and hilarious kissing moment between Madelyn and her cousin Maci. What perfectly puckered lips!!

This was a fun day at Easton fountains with our good friends Kristen and Jeffrey. They live up in Canton (sigh...) and we miss them ALL THE TIME. So, what a fun treat to spend the day with them. Maddy and Jeffrey flirted with the fountain for a long time!

Here's Madelyn with the Westermeyer's new baby girl, Clarie. Good practice for Maddy! She's so enamored with little babies, so hopefully she'll feel this way about her baby brother!

While my brother was here, we captured this funny moment of him swinging Madelyn around in the extra-large LL Bean tote bag. Of course she thought this was the greatest thing ever!

Okay...now I'll get some September photos posted too. Thanks for being extra-patient with me!

A Story Worth Sharing

I just got home from a fun day at the zoo with Madelyn, Jonathan, Natalie & JulieAnna. It was a nice cool morning so the animals were super-active and so fun to watch. And for the giant pregnant lady, it was nice to not be sweaty all day long too!
So, I just got Maddy down for her nap and checked my email. This little story was waiting for me (something my aunt forwarded along that I actually decided to read). It's a story that just made me think "we all need to know about this woman and be inspired by her". So, here you go:

Irena Sendler
Nobel Prize Loser
The prize doesn't always go to the most deserving

There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' .. She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids.) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, ar ms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most of course had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. Last year Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected.
* Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

(Now, I personally really appreciated Gore's passion and educational global warming info. So, this is not a slam on that from my personal opinion. But...it interesting to ponder, none-the-less)

Hope all of you out there are having a great last week of August. Can you believe September is practically here?! Crazy.

Hilton Head...our Wonderful, Relaxing (HOT) Vacation

Well, to say our vacation to Hilton Head was fun and relaxing would be an understatement. We had such a wonderful time, and much of it was to do with the fun company we had all week long. It was a big group of 12 of us (see photos below), and we had the best time swimming, eating, resting and...applying sunscreen nonstop! It was a HOT week (heat index between 107-110 every day!) So thank goodness for the ocean water and big swimming pool right outside our front door. Madelyn absolutely loved the beach (what kid doesn't like digging in the sand?) and she was so brave in the swimming pool. Every morning she woke up saying "I want pool. I want beach!" Well, okay then!!
Gary and I had never been to Hilton Head before, and we just loved it. Such a "family-friendly" vacation spot and hopefully we'll return soon. Maybe even next summer?! Between all 12 of us we took LOTS of photos. Here's a small collection with some highlight moments of the fun week together down south. (August 1st - 9th)

After our dinner at Kingfisher's restaurant.

Funny group photo after dinner. Go Team!

Here's some cute photos of people in our "Party of 12"

My parents: Mark & Lori

My sister and her boyfriend: Natalie & Mike

My brother and his fiance: JulieAnna & Jonathan

JulieAnna's family (flew to meet us from Utah) Maria, Julio, Anna & JA

And here's our little beach-bum...showing off on the beach. Should I contact a modeling agency?

This sand is GREAT fun!

Okay, can you all see where Madelyn gets her hair from? How cute is this?!!

We spent lots of time playing with Maddy in the shallow ocean water. Kept us cool and kept her entertained. More sunscreen please!

She was so brave with swimming. Kicking her legs and really trying to get the hang of it.

Fun group photo in the ocean.

I think Jonathan was the photographer (only one missing from the pic)

So yes, you were seeing correctly from the above photos that I actually mustered up the nerve to wear a 2-piece bathing suit. Ha! I decided that since I get lots of stares regardless to just "let it all hang out" and go "Hollywood Style" (that's what we called it!) Here's me & my little baby boy in our shining glory.

I just loved this photo of my dad and Madelyn. So sweet.

And here's our sweet girl on our long 12-hour journey home. She was such a trooper.

The End.

The Great "OH - IO" Cheer. You'll love this!

Here's Maddy proudly showing off her ability to cheer for the OSU Buckeye's just like the rest of us! Oh, she makes us SO SO proud! (This was while we were having pool time in our backyard and she found that playing in the gutter was just as much fun!)

Forever and a Day

Well, it's been taking forever to get more photos uploaded onto here from the first part of our trip (Sweet Rome!) So today, I found a little blurb in Parenting Magazine about this Smilebox website where you can make online photo books, etc...
So, for fun I tried it out today, and voila! Now you can at least some more photos from the first leg of our Italian journey.

We've been back home for a month now, and are in full swing trying to get the "Guest Bedroom" converted into "Baby Brother's Bedroom". Gary's been installing more storage space in our garage and we've both been cleaning out the big bedroom closet (and only storage space in the entire house!)

Meanwhile, Madelyn's been LOVING the little inflatable pool we bought for the backyard. We've had many HOT days lately, and the pool is the perfect remedy.
I'll post some cute pool photos when I get another minute.
Until then, I hope you like finally seeing a little glimpse of our WHOLE Italy trip (not just part 2 and part 3!)
With love, Karina (a.k.a. "Big Mama" these days!)

Something fun I found online today...trying out a new program.

Make a Smilebox photobook