Madeline's first day in nursery!

Today was Madeline's first day in nursery. Even though she's still a week shy of 18 months, the Primary President invited us to come to nursery with Madeline so she could get used to the place while one of us stayed with her. She's a very friendly little person, but she doesn't have too many chances to play with kids her age, so I was curious to see how it would go. Overall, she was happy to play next to the other little kids and even sat still through most of singing time. Tears flowed only once when she got pushed around by one of the bigger kids and retreated to Cameron's lap for a few minutes. Hopefully she'll be comfortable with the place in a week or two and Cameron and I can run off to our meetings.

Back To Atlanta

Last week we were really enjoying life being in Maine. That didn't last very long. By last Friday we knew we were heading back down to Atlanta pretty soon. Finally about 3:00pm on Monday I had everything wrapped up and all the approvals I needed to take off. Three hours later we were on the road heading to Atlanta. It absolutly amazes me how efficient we are getting at this whole thing. We drove Monday night, Tuesday, and Wednesday to make it down. Within a couple of hours after arriving at the hotel we were all moved in and felt like we were home. It is pretty pitiful to think that vacation is being at home and living in a hotel is the norm.

I am happy to be down here because of the work I will now be able to do, the way I'll be able to contribute to getting this project done, and last but not least the money I am making. I have been very blessed to have Madeline and especially Janet be so flexible and willing to tag along on such a crazy adventure. My biggest regret is when I see Madeline in the portable cribe asleep and stretched out. She now nearly touches both ends, and when I see her I feel bad that I have not been able to give her the proper bed she deserves.

While it is tough at times we are still managing to have a lot of fun. We brought our bikes and the bike trailer down with us. Yesterday I had my third free Saturday since December and we went to a really nice bike trail called the Silver Comet Trail and rode for about 15 miles. The majority of the trip Madeline was in the bike trailer fast asleep as Janet and I pounded down the trail. The bike trailer has actually worked out really well to equalize the workload when i go biking with Janet. Usually I am pushing Janet too hard or I am going too easy to make the trip enjoyable for both of us, but the trailer makes it workout just right. I guess over the next few weeks we will probably get some visitors such as the Lundbergs, Rissie, Caitlin, my Dad and Jenny. We look forward to seeing everyone, but we really wish you all could visit us at our home in Maine or at any home in any location rather than a hotel. Such is life. Anyway we love you all and miss you.

Happy Birthday From A Big Brother

Fun pictures! I remember when Erin was born and how cool that was to have a new little sister. Obviously Jenny is my older sister, Caitlin in my little, little sister, and Becca is my younger sister, but I have always felt like Erin was my little sister. Not that my last sentance made sense, but let my try to explain. Anytime Erin has a major life accomplishment I just feel like I am getting older and really moving forward. Also I feel life's timing hasn't allowed me to witness and be apart of alot of the best things. When Erin turned 8 years old I was really sad that I was still a few months from being able to old enough to baptize her, and I remember how special a moment that was for me. Next I remember when she turned 16. Again I missed out on being the big brother who was able to teach his little sister how to drive because I was out at school. Next one of the best things was being out at school when Erin first came out to school. That was one of the highlights of my life being able to have my "younger" sister and my "little" sister at school while I was in school. It was one of those cool moments and periods of time when my little sister had caught up to me if for a short period of time. I am actually really sad that I didn't get to spend more time out there while Erin was there, but we had to keep moving forward. Next came Erin's meeting Craig, their courtship, and marriage. Fortunatly I was really blessed with awesome timing while in the midst of an insane and crazy job to be able to witness my little sister's marriage. Because Erin is 8 years younger than I am, it is so much fun when my sister does things that are grown up because she seems like the little baby at the hospital I remember seeing when we lived in Colorado. I love you and wish I could be around more often and especially for a birthday dinner like we would do out a school while Jenny, Becca, and I were there. As we have been separated from the family and have been traveling so much, it gets to be really hard to be away for so long and to be so far away and not be able to share Madeline's growing up except through pictures and the stories on a blog. Anyway happy birthday.

Curls!

There is great story behind the face painting, but what I am trying to demonstrate is the curls.

The Bed Time Routine

We have a very well established bedtime routine that we follow every night. The only change is that we give her a bath every other night. Tonight as you can see from the pictures was by necessity a bath night. She is teaching herself to eat by her self and while it is great, it is really, really messy.(See Picture 1) What happens with the routine is that we give her a snack then we take her up and run the bath water.(See Picture 2) Once the water is just right we'll put her in the tub, wash her hair and everything else and then we'll let her splash around for as long as she likes or as long as we can stand. In the mean time the person who is not bathing her gets the PJ's, diaper cream, anti-tangle hair conditioner, comb, diaper and towel ready on our bed. When all the water has been drained from the tub we snatch up the slippery wet kid in a towel and take her to the bed where we lay her down and dry her off.(See Picture 3) Once she is dry we put on the diaper cream then the diaper. After the diaper comes the PJ's, and after the PJ's we spray her hair with the anti-tangle conditioner and we comb her hair.(See Picture 4) Now she is ready for her bedtime story, which recently is exclusively Janet's responsibility. Once the story has been read, Janet gets Madeline to lay her head on her shoulder and we say a prayer.(See Picture 5) After the prayer has been said, I try to get Madeline to come to me, but we have not had much success over the last couple of weeks. Then I say goodbye as you see in the video.(See Video) After I left, Janet lays Madeline down and places the blanket on top of her. Finally we walk out and enjoy the rest of our evening and see Madeline between 5:00am and 6:00am the next day. What a life! I believe that this routine and everything else that we, but especially Janet does the keep Madeline's life normal has made it possible for us to travel so well over the last few months. Kudos the Janet the full time mom for doing such an awesome job in sometimes less the ideal circumstances. I give her a 5 on a scale of 0-4 for her performance. My boss said a 4 means "walks on water," I can't give Janet anything less than a 5 for "already to be translated."

Madeline Tricks

So here we are back in Maine at least for a few days before heading down to Atlanta again for the summer. We thought that for you who haven't seen Madeline Lately you might enjoy seeing some of the fun things she is doing. Anyway we hope you enjoy.

Pictures From All Over