The 577 Foundation

Last week on one of our warmer spring days Jake and I took Madison over to the 577 Foundation. It's a beautiful garden area by the river with lots of fun things for kids to do. Madison loves water and would have jumped in with the fish if we didn't hold on to her. She had fun feeding the fish and touching all the pretty plants. She only uprooted one and I quickly replanted it so hopefully not too much damage was done. There is a children's garden with mazes, tunnels, little bridges, and outdoor musical instruments that kept her very entertained. One of her favorite things unfortunately was sneaking rocks into her mouth. She put a pretty big one in her mouth that I knew she couldn't swallow so I let her try it out. I thought after tasting it she would be deterred from trying it again. However, she seemed to enjoy the taste of dirt and rocks or at least my reaction as she would put them up to her mouth and giggle as I would grab them out of her hand and say yucky! She is a curious and busy little girl!

Buddy and the Train Shop

Now that the weather has warmed up one of Madison's favorite activities is to walk down the street to visit Buddy at the train shop. Buddy is the very friendly dog that hangs out in this cute little shop on the weekdays. Madison gets so excited every time she sees him! She loves dogs and wants to play with all of the dogs we see. She even calls the squirrls at the park puppies (some of them are big enough to pass for a small puppy). The owner of this shop is a cute older lady who loves to visit with us when we come in. They have a lot of fun toys out for the kids to play with and Madison loves to push Thomas the train around. They have just started doing Thomas the train birthday parties for anyone that is interested, I think they have a big train for the kids to ride on in the party room.
In this row of shops there is also Wixey bakery and Lickity Split (which just opened for the summer season). Sometimes we go into the bakery and share a donut. As soon as we walk in to the bakery Madison says mmmm, which is followed by "some, some, some". We'll wait until it is a little warmer to introduce her to the twist cones at Lickity.
What a fun neighborhood we live in! Where else can you have the zoo, a fun park with a beautiful river view, toy shop, bakery, and ice cream shop all within a 10 minute walk. We will definitely miss it!

Nuggle!

Madison loves to snuggle. Anytime we are laying on the couch (which is a frequent activity for me these days) or on the floor or she she sees a pillow or her blankie she often will run up and say nuggle nuggle. Sometimes she will only lay there for a few seconds before she is wanting to tickle you, jump over or on you, but there are often some very cute moments where she will relax for a few minutes and read stories or sing songs. I love those moments, what a sweetheart!
Please remember to take note in the picture that Jake is reading a Parents magazine. He actually enjoys this activity and loves to get the latest tips on parenting. I think that is so adorable, what a cute husband! Madison loves to look through the magazines in search of babies, puppies, meows, and Elmo. Some of her favorite things.

Such a Girl!

Madison is such a girl! She loves jewelry. We discovered over Christmas vacation that she loves to put necklaces on and off and she will say pretty pretty when she is wearing them. Recently she has had a lot of fun taking her dresses out of her closet and then she will bring them to me and say on, on. As you can see this is a fun morning activity which explains why in many of the pictures the dresses are over her pajamas. She especially loves to take out different shoes from her closet and have me put them on. Of course they usually don't match so it looks really cute. She loves to put her Sunday shoes on and listen to herself tap across the floor. After she gets on the outfit, jewelry and hair accessories she wants she says woo, woo, and tries to whistle. It's amazing how fast kids catch on to the things you say. Madison is also a little dare devil. She loves to stand on chairs and climb up things. In the picture where she is emptying her drawers she decided it would be fun to climb inside. It she could she would scale the entire dresser. She has been pretty clever lately scooting little chairs over to the table or a place where she wants to reach something that is too high. I have to keep an extra eye one her now that she has figured out how to get into a whole new world of mischief:)

Fun Little Dresses!

These last two weeks I made two little dresses for Madison and one for our new little girl on the way. I am trying to complete as many projects as I can before my free time disappears for a little while with a new baby and getting ready to move to Columbus. The pattern I used for the dress is a fun one that my friend Emilee showed us before she left Toledo. She is a sewing inspiration! Hopefully I can continue to expand my sewing skills and try some new patterns one of these days. I am afraid of anything with zippers and buttons so this pattern is my comfort zone. One of the fun things is that the blue dress was made out of a pillow case and and red dress was free material being given away. It's so much fun to be creative and make new things.

Museum

The last time Madison went to a museum she was only three months old. It was fun to take her to the Toledo Museum to see all the many beautiful paintings.

Funny Faces

Jake was really excited for me to put pigtails in Madison's hair. I thought it would bother her and that she would try to pull them out but she didn't even know they were there all day. It makes her look so grown up. She had fun pulling different faces for me while I was taking pictures. So much expression! Madison has a really cute voice and gets very excited about everything. Lately she loves to say wow-wee! She loves to do her surprised face when she hears daddy coming home up the stairs. Oh, I almost forgot, last week Madison chipped the corner of her front tooth. It was so sad, we were at the zoo's aquarium and she went running around the corner and when I got there she was crying and her lip was bleeding. I was so focused on looking to see if she needed stitches that I didn't even notice her tooth until later when we were home. I was more traumatized than she was and called the dentist immediately. They got her in for an appointment the next morning and said at this point there is nothing that can be done. She is still as cute as ever and it's not that noticeable but it made me so sad:( At least she didn't knock out the whole tooth!

Mommy's Little Helper!

Madison is growing up so fast and learning new things ever day. One of her favorite activities is to vacuum. She screams with glee whenever I get it out and is eager to "help". Lucky for me she has a vacuum of her own to help distract her from the big one.
Lately, we have discovered that Madison likes to be somewhat neat. She of course makes plenty of messes, but promptly wants it cleaned up. When we are eating, she will scoot everything on her tray to one corner and then push it off to the floor, unless we get there in time. When she sees a mess she will say, "messy, messy, messy". When she sees things on the floor that don't belong she picks them up and brings them to me. The other day at church she found a push pin and I was relieved that she brought it to me rather than trying to eat it.
She has also learned to help put things away. The other day I asked her to put her shoes in the closet. She looked at me for a bit then picked up her shoe, walked to the closet and put it on the shelf. The funny thing was when I asked her to put away the other shoe she tossed out the one she had just put in to make a spot for the second! Silly little girl.

Seven Years in Ohio

Well, the suspense is over, no more trying to divine the purposes of the magical NRMP Match computer. We now know that we have matched into on of the top pediatrics training programs in the country, Nationwide Children's Hospital, in Columbus, Ohio! It is an exciting opportunity to train at such a renowned place. US News ranks the program #15 in the nation, Child and Parent magazines rank it #4 and #6, respectively. For the next three years I will be learning from the best! Four years of medical school in Toledo followed by an additional three years of residency in Columbus leads to Seven Years in Ohio. Who'd of ever thought!

Jen and I were actually quite surprised with the match. We had ranked Primary Children's in Utah as our first choice and we thought that we had a really good chance at getting the job. Oh well!

For those unfamiliar, Columbus is the Capitol of our great state of Ohio. It is home to the Ohio State Buckeyes, the NHL's Bluejackets and MLS Crew. It is about 3 hours south from Toledo so moving won't be too difficult for us. Thanks to the dismal economy housing prices are very reasonable in Columbus. We may look to buy a house if the situation looks good. Columbus has a great airport, so we hope that many of you will come out for a visit. If you come during football season we'll join 106,000 other fans and watch OSU play in the Horseshoe!

More Painting Fun!

I finally took some time to do some more painting! The three pictures of the animals were for Madison's room. She loves them and makes the animal noises that match when she sees them. I am going to do three more to go underneath. The idea is not mine, they are from an artist named Yuko Lau. My friend Lindsay told me about her work, I think the animals are so fun! The painting underneath is for my sister. She wanted one similar to the flower painting I did a few months ago but with a different color scheme.

Cutie Baby!

Madison is obsessed with babies! Every time we see a baby she yells, baby, baby, and she wants to go over and say hi. In church, after sacrament meeting, Madison runs out the doors, down the hall, and into the nursery. Once there she finds one of the dolls and runs out of the room. She may not be old enough yet to attend nursery so I guess she makes up for it by taking out her favorite toys. It's a good thing she is getting a little sister soon! We'll see how much she still loves babies after having one at her house all the time:) It's so much fun to watch her rock her baby doll in her blanket and feed it her bottle. She is quite the little mother.
Madison has also been exploding with all sorts of words. She will try and say anything that she hears. Some of my favorite words that she says are: eyebrow, hospital, Madison, snow, happy, please and thank you. I love it when she wakes up in the morning or from naps and just talks to herself and the animals in her room. She is such a fun personality. She is also very determined. Often she will say hi, hi, hi, to someone until she gets a response. She also loves containers and works very hard at getting lids on and off of jars, Tupperware etc. We are having so much fun watching her learn and grow. What a cutie!

Happy Valentines Day!

Madison hasn't quite figured out how to hold up a sign and smile. Thanks mom for the cute valentine outfit, she loved the sparkly hearts on her belly. We had a great Valentines day with some fun surprises. Around noon we headed to Jake's favorite place, Bass Pro Shops, so he could use his gift cards to buy some fishing flys. He is very excited for the water to drop so he can go out and catch some steelhead. We watched the fish feed at noon which was actually pretty fun to watch. It was sad to see the live fish they threw in eaten up so fast by the big fish. I don't think Madison was too traumatized by the disappearing fish. Later that evening Jake gave me flowers and made a wonderful gourmet dinner. What a fun day.

Chocolate Pudding!

Madison absolutely loved her first experience with chocolate pudding! She kept saying mmm, mmm, yum yum! What a cute little angel!

SLC Childrens Museum

We had a about a week left in SLC before we headed for Toledo. My sister Becky and her family invited us to go to the Children's Museum with them. Once again, Madison's favorite thing was the water exhibit! She was so sad when we took her away to explore other areas of the museum. I think however that Jake had the most fun of anyone. He spent a lot of time being fascinated by the ball mover and animation station. He looked like one of the kids! My family also threw me an early surprise birthday party before we left complete with my favorite carmel brownies and Gandolfo Sub Sandwiches. Gandolfos is a sandwich place in Utah that I have been craving many times while being pregnant. On our way back to SLC from Cali. I was so excited to stop and eat at one located in St. George. I had found it on the GPS and my mouth had been watering the past few hours of driving. It was the one thought that was helping me get through the past half hour of Madison being fussy and ready to get out of her car seat. We pulled up to the cafe and I pulled on the door only to find that it was locked. Confused I looked at a sign that read, due to economic hardships this location had to close. That was the first time these economic troubles have hit me so hard. What a disappointment, what luck. So.. it was quite the fun surprise to have the sandwiches at my birthday party. If you ever go to Gandolfo's Deli, I recommend the New Yorker:)