My new favorite picture

Thanks Kris for taking it!

What a weekend!

Wow, what a great weekend!! My BFF Kristin came all the way from Boston to visit us for the weekend and we had such a great time. She had been to Atlanta before but had never been to our house - so it was fun to show her around the area a little ... but most of all she came to meet our little Maddie. She was such a help to have around! It was so nice to have an expert mommy-of-two around to hold and cuddle with Maddie. She even carried my diaper bag and pushed the stroller when needed! So nice!

Kris spent lots and lots of time sitting with and cuddling with Maddie, which Miss M loved of course. Tucker also loved the extra attention. (Jim and I loved the free time)

And she came bearing gifts!! She brought Maddie the CUTEST little wool hat for winter. Here's a pic of Daddy and Maddie showing off her new hat. You can't see it, but it has her name in little beads attached to the top.

Because Kristin was here to keep my occupied- Jim got to play 9 holes of golf with some friends Saturday morning. We took this picture to make Kris's husband jealous (sorry JP). You can tell by the thumbs up that he's happy.

Ok - back to us girls. On Friday night, Kristin and I went our for a quasi girls night. I saw quasi because we actually came home early to watch the Red Sox game. We went out to dinner at Feast and then to an amazing place called The Chocolate Bar. I had been waiting for Kristin to visit to go. I knew she loves chocolate as much as I do. Its a bar that serves decadent chocolate desserts with amazing chocolate inspired drinks. They were sooo good. It really hit the spot and I'm so glad I got to go with her.

Just look at these drinks! Too die for.

On Saturday we went to the Oakhurt Arts and Music Festival. I wasn't quite sure what to expect because I hadn't been before but I thought the artists were really great and the music that we heard while walking around was really good too. The weather was perfect- sunny and low 70's. We had lunch at Universal Joint (for the second time in two days... sorry Kris!) and browsed the crafts. We of course walked away with some cute things.

Trying to keep Maddie occupied while we waited forever for our food.

On Saturday night we went to the Howards for some homemade BBQ. Jim brought his famous coleslaw and pimento cheese which was a hit and the rest of the food was perfect. The Lopez's were also there so got to spend time with them before the much anticipated birth of Baby Alexia! We can't wait! Here are a few good pics from the night.

Diego and el gato.

Diego and Mommy

Katie, Jim and Madelyn

Diego being as cute as can be.

Unfortunately, we had to say good-bye to Kris this morning. We loved having her here and can't wait to see her and the rest of her family at Christmastime! Thanks to JP for taking care of the kids and letting me spend some quality time with my girl. ;)

Bye-Bye Aunt Kristin! I'll miss you!

For Nana

It's finally FALL here in Atlanta (YAY!!!! Could not have come a moment too soon for me.) And Maddie was asking if we could break out the sweater and hat her Nana made her. She's been dying to wear it.

Well - she wasn't very happy to get her picture taken... she still still looked smashing.

Ahhh the good ole days...

We had an old school Booz-Boston reunion today. My BFF Kristin is here visiting for the weekend (pics to come) and we were able to meet up with Brian for lunch. We had fun eating burritos and catching up on old times (its hard for the three of us to get together without talking about the crazy times we had in Boston (ie: "He's at the Summer Street office...")) and then we of course filled eachother in on all the juicy latest and greatest Booz gossip. Its always so good.

The infamous threesome with the newest addition.
Soon Miss M will be as bored
with hearing our stories as the Jims are!

He's such a natural

As much as I REALLY don't miss Booz, I do miss working with these guys. We've done a pretty good job at keeping in touch over the years and I'm so thankful for that. We'll always have Boston! :)

Thank you Amanda Panda!

Madelyn just wanted to thank her Cousin Mandi for the oh-so-cute Panda Bear doll. Its actually the first toy I think she really looks at. Thanks to C for the dolly too! We havent taken it out of the box to take pics of yet but we will... I promise!

Showering Andria and Baby Alexia Marie!

Maddie went to her first baby shower yesterday!!! I wish I had more pictures of Andria and the rest of the guests, but I was busy holding Maddie most of the time. I hope Andria will post more on her blog! Miss M had no major meltdowns and looked fabulous in her pink dress given to her by her Nana. Here is Maddie being held by Ms Katie! Both looked beautiful.

The shower was at the Roswell TeaHouse and was just perfect! The place was so quaint and the teas and finger foods were all so delicious! We can't wait for Baby Alexia to join the world. Madelyn is excited to have a playmate just her size.

Here is the room the shower was in. The yellow walls matched our yellow and pink theme just perfectly!

This is the owner of the teahouse telling us what was what. Everything was scrumtious! Andria is there in the blue dress... the Mommy of Honor, also looking beautiful!

And finally... Maddie and Mommy together at their first tea party! I hope to have many many more Sweetpea!

Go Sox!

She's actually watching the game in this pic.

Go Sox!!

5 weeks (since I've slept)

No, Im just kidding.

Our little froggie has done well at sleeping for longer chunks of time at night and letting me get some shut eye here and there.

This week we met our friends Carrie and Jonah for our new weekly walk at Piedmont Park tradition. We took a detour out of the park and to Caribou Coffee for an ice coffee and a nice 45 minute lounge time with the babes. They both ate and slept and were generally just angels.

Here's a pic of Carrie and Jonah. Carrie and I are already planning their joint birthday parties. Jonah was checking out Madelyns feet and asked mom for more milk so that Maddie doesnt grow up taller than him. He can't have that.

We also took Madelyn to our churchs Wednesday service again (we did it last week too) and she didnt do quite as well. She made it thru the dinner time but decided to start crying as soon as the message started. Luckily the nursery was right down the hall so I took her in and rocked her for awhile. That didn't really calm her but at least we got to rock and check out her church nursery and daycare rooms!

Here are a few more pics from this week. We didn't take too many adventures this week so most of the pics are just her lounging around the house.

Oh. My. Gosh.

So remember in the previous post how I said our pediatrician said we need to start a routine (you probably haven't even read that one yet)? Well, we did... and she's sleeping in her bassinet now as we speak. I gave her a bath, put on her jammies, read her a book (yes, I know... she can't comprehend books nor can she probably even see the book really but its all part of the "routine"), and tucked her to sleep. I then put her in her bassinet and she fussed for a minute but now she's asleep! Its only been about 20 minutes since I put her down and Im not banking on her sleeping more than like a half hour... but its a start!

P.S. Im feeling nostalgic and happy because I got to read my baby my all time favorite book when I was a kid for the very first time.

If you've never heard of this book before... check it out. Its the best Golden Book ever. Well worth the $2.99.

Since when did parents get shots at the pediatrician?

Yes, Jim and I both got a shot today at the pediatricians office. Just like the stroller thing... no one warned me that might happen. I guess they can't give babies under 6 months a flu shot so they give them to the parents instead. Neither Jim or I have ever had the flu shot and never really had the flu (at least in the years I can remember) so let's hope we don't get it this year. We do both have a cute circus themed yellow bandaid on our arm now.

So Miss M had her one month appt today and did wonderfully. She only screamed an ear peircing scream for about 30 seconds after she got her shot. She gained 2 lbs and grew 2 inches so Mommy is happy. I was beginning to feel like a walking breastaraunt and would have been extremely disappointed if she hadn't grown much in the last month. She's 90 percentile in height and 75% in weight. .. which is good because she's got some big feet.

The pediatrician also said we should start putting her to bed at "bedtime" and setting a routine. I wasn't quite sure when the right time to start doing that was and I guess now I know. She did spend SOME time sleeping in her crib last night so I'm happy to say we're at least moving in the direction of her sleeping in her room like a big girl. She's also starting to nap in her crib more and doing well with it.

Pretty soon she'll be riding a bike and writing in cursive so stay tuned!