Finished By Friday

This just struck me... "I spent years asking God to be a part of whatever I was doing. When I read the book of Acts, I see people privileged to play a part in what God was doing." Francis Chan - Forgotten God. I KNOW I'm not the only one who ever prayed, instructing God HOW to answer my prayers or prayed that God would use me (in my daily life as long as I didn't have to go out of my way or be uncomfortable). I know we all KNOW this but it just struck me again that God has a plan and I willingly serve HIM. He doesn't serve ME or make a contribution to what I attempt to accomplish.

We had Madelyn's 1yr check-up with the Dr. two weeks ago. She was a hair over 32" and 19lb 9oz. that puts her very high on height and pretty low on weight (go figure!). although I don't know why she's so low on weight because she nearly tripled her birth weight but according to their percentiles she's between 10th and 20th percentile and the nurse said definitely 100th on her height. she seems to be right on track with everything - 2-4 words, games and skills, etc. she says Dad, uh-oh, dropped it, hi (with any number of things after - hi sweety, hi Dad, etc.) and a few other ones that come and go. she blows kisses and plays peek-a-boo (she's not quite coordinated enough to get her hands on her eyes every time... sometimes they end up on the sides of her head and sometimes she get confused with blowing kisses and one hand is over her mouth and one is on the side of her head :) . She plays for extended periods of time in her room with toys. She's work...

The Sunday after her Birthday... Saturday, March 10, we went down to Jon's parents' for a combined birthday celebration (half the family has March birthdays) The kids had fun playing in this "pup" tent. :D Madelyn got more birthday presents (well I did too!) She loved the soft chick card! a Sunday afternoon nap... Playing with balloons... Nana, we've gotten your money's worth out of these by now and they're STILL floating just fine. St. Pattie's Day Trying to get her to hold still... And just for good luck... :D Silly girl hammin it up for the camera Beautiful! Look at those eyes! I was sooo surprised and pleased this past Sunday when I sat her in the chair to get a picture and she promply sat up straight and gave me a nice smile like she knew exactly what was going on (which she kinda DOES recognize the camera now but she usually makes silly faces or starts going wild.)

So I was thinking today about Madelyn and the way we discipline her because some may think we are too hard on her even though she's no worse for the wear and she's an extremely secure, happy baby and I just had this thought: I'd rather have people give me dirty looks because they thought I was too hard on her than to have them give me dirty looks in a year or so because she's unpleasant and ignores what she's told... There, something to think about before you go giving me dirty looks! :D No, this is not meant to be reflective on anyone in particular I was simply musing myself and thought I'd share...

And this is less than half of the pictures! end of a long day. Day before I let her open one that rumor had it she might want to wear for her B-day. She mostly liked the bucket and tissue paper. her own little cake. Showing off. loving the teddy bear from her friend. She liked all the cards - especially the peek-a-boo one. (Aunt June) She was slow starting but really enjoyed opening gifts once she got going. First real encounter with balloons She did NOT want to sit still for a picture by this time in the evening so we put the balloons where she could see them to distract her. width="320" height="266" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashvars="flvurl=http://redirector.googlevideo.com/videoplayback?id%3D56032cfafa81553f%26itag%3D5%26source%3Dblogger%26app%3Dblogger%26cmo%3Dsensitive_content%253Dyes%26ip%3D0.0.0.0%26ipbits%3D0%26expire%3D1415229280%26sparams%3Did,itag,source,ip,ipbits,expire%26signature%3D3AD5651745B774579B7B530435A494B6B80DC0CC.4198E9ABD7C8588855ED1...

I'm not sure why, but I am completely avoiding my housework today! I don't have a lot to do, but for some reason i'm putting it off. I DID clean the kitchen this morning and take out 2 bags of garbage and a diaper genie bag of diapers but otherwise i'm just finding anything else i can to do - checking e-mail, taking pictures of my beautiful baby girl (who is going to be a year old tomorrow already. sniff!), and blogging (lucky for you! :). Her new thing is reaching even further than she ever has. . . She thinks she's pretty clever because she can ALMOST reach the things I moved back so she couldn't get to them. Tippy toes! :-) Sorry it's a little blurry but she was coming right at me and VERY pleased with herself as you can see! :D