28

The title of this post is pretty significant, for once! 28 is how old I am now, after my birthday on the 14th. Yikes. And 28 is also the number of pounds I have lost in about 12 weeks! I am much more excited about the second "28" than the first. I am 2 lbs. away from my goal, and finally got rid of all my "fat clothes." Yes! So sorry for not posting more often, but I've been too hungry (ha ha, just kidding!!) My mom was here for my birthday and the week after, so Andy and I got to have a couple "dates" with a free babysitter! Not that my mom or child could have cared less about where I was...Maddie and her GiGi had a ball and love each other so much. It makes me so happy to see that they still have a great relationship even though they only get to see each other every few months. Here they are, all snuggled up.

I had a great birthday dinner at my favorite place, The Melting Pot. Here is a picture of me and Andy before gorging ourselves on cheese, meat, and chocolate. (The memory is making my mouth water!)

Mom also helped me with a ton of projects, like cleaning out the closets and getting goodwill bags together, and a little redecorating/organizing. Sometimes, all I needed was someone just to keep the baby occupied so I could actually FINISH something. I love it when people ask me, "So, aren't you bored being a stay-at-home Mom?" I usually laugh and tell them if I ever was, I'd be neglecting something, whether it's my house, husband, child, or (heaven forbid) myself! It was great to have an extra pair of eyes, ears, and hands around here, and it made me appreciate my Mom so much! Oh yeah, and any Mom-Stephanie-Maddie time includes lots of eating out and shopping, which was fun for me, but probably less exciting for the Budget Guru Andy. Here is Maddie looking super cute in a new spring dress!

Other than getting older and less, umm, Rubenesque, we are just enjoying our routines and watching Maddie grow. She is a very funny baby who needs to be the center of attention, and doesn't mind loudly reminding you of that. She has what I would call a "class clown" personality. Exhibit A , the following picture. What IS that face about?!?!

I love how in this one, she looks like she is holding his hand!

She loves to make funny noises, and if you laugh at her, she will repeat them ad nauseum. I use the phrase "Stop encouraging her!" a lot. She also loves her bath, just like her mommy!

Finally, one characteristic she gets from me! She has been scooting around on her belly for a while now, and has just started getting up on her hands and knees, so I think crawling will happen before I am ready for it. She still hasn't cut any teeth, which is fine by me. I want her to do it while we are in Tennessee next (May) so I have backup! I'm going to miss those gummy baby smiles!

This has been a pretty random post so I will end with a random story entitled "Adventures in Google-ing." Andy and I are on a home improvement kick, so last weekend I was on the computer looking for gardening ideas. I remembed something my dad was telling me about where you just buy a big terra cotta pot, and put it on your porch with all kinds of veggies or herbs in it. It's called a Container Garden and the idea sounded easy enough for my black thumb. Well, dumb me couldn't remember what it was called when I got on Google to look it up...so yeah, at any point now I'm expecting the cops, DEA, and President of the United States to bust down my door wanting to know why I was searching "How to grow a pot garden" on the Internet. Good thing I didn't look on YouTube.