Endearing moments

What a lovely fall day. Gorgeous weather and good times with the family.

We went looking for trees. We'd like to put one in the backyard to create some shade on the patio, but not block the wonderful sunlight that comes in the sunroom/kitchen nook. Madeline enjoyed running up and down the rows of trees and jumping in the leaves.

On a whim we ate some HyVee Chinese before doing our grocery shopping. We had Sesame Chicken. Madeline tried it and liked it. Wow. Her comment, "Yum. This is delicious." Thatta girl.

Madeline went all day with only a minor morning accident. "Mommy, I spilled." I'd dare say we are about 95% potty trained. She goes all day without accidents, but MUCH prompting. She's usually dry after naptime (still wearing a diaper just in case). Today we went all day in underwear. Even left the house a few times with no accidents. She did use the potty chair in the back of Darrin's truck in the HyVee parking lot. I never imagined I'd be so proud of my daughter for tinkling in a plastic potty seat out in public in broad daylight.

I got out the maternity clothes during naptime. I tried some on the other day, too. I was pleasantly surprised to find them a bit baggy. At last wearing, they were too tight, fairly uncomfortable and full of my bloated 39ish week pregnant body. I am not disillusioned enough to believe that this won't be the case this time around also. My feet were so swollen I couldn't even wear shoes. Yea...not so much looking forward to that again.

Darrin went to play poker with some guys and Madeline and I enjoyed a mommy/daughter adventure. We headed up to AHS to watch marching bands warm-up for contest...too cheap to pay for admission to the show and we were only going to be there for 45 minutes before bedtime. We walked around the school, sat on the sidewalk for a bit and watched a few groups warm-up. Plus I ran into two gals that were in my PowerLife (aka confirmation) small group a few years ago. They're seniors now and getting ready for college. It really made me miss those girls and leading that group. We spent two years together, getting to know each other and encouraging each other on our walks with Christ. I learned a lot from them. They were awesome 8th/9th grade gals and are now wonderful young women.

Adorable parental moment of the night, "Mommy, when I'm big, I be in the marching band. I be on the field and do my instrument. I sing. You clap. The girls do the flags. When I'm big."