Eighteen Months

Madilyn and I just got back from her 18 month check up. How is she a year and a half old already?!?! Besides being busy playing, she's also been very busy growing! She is 23.4lbs and 33 inches tall. She's grown 3 inches since her 15 month check up (one month late, so 16 months) just two months ago!!!

The doctor was also very impressed by her vocabulary and cognitive reasoning.

Our little princess is right on track and we couldn't be happier!

Pictures!

After 3 short weeks, we're back from Colorado! As you can see by all the photos below, we had a wonderful and busy vacation. The cool weather (and snow) and time with close friends was just the breath of fresh air we needed to keep on trucking through this deployment. Speaking of which, we're halfway done!!!!! This itself should be cause for a celebration. As we like to say, it's all downhill from here...

Madilyn the day we arrived.

Duke

Madi playing outside with Jordan

A morning at the zoo with our friends Debra and Isla

Madilyn is watching the seal show at the zoo. She loved it!

Checking out the Gorillas

Taylor's soccer game

Playing at the pool in the rec center. Altus needs a rec center like this!

Hanging out in the lazy river with mama.

What A Week!

The week started out great. Madilyn was finally starting to settle in ans sleep a bit better. Wednesday we met up with our friends Debra and Isla and had a wonderful time.

However, come Wednesday afternoon, Madilyn woke up with a fever after her nap. Considering one of Shelley's girls (Taylor) was just on the tail end of the swine flu, I was pretty sure we had it coming. I tried hard to wash wash wash.....but it still got her. By Thursday morning her temp had spiked way up and she was miserable. Since we're out of town, I had to take her to the urgent care center down the street. The doc said he was pretty certain it was H1N1. He told us he could run the test but that is has a 40% false negative rate and wouldn't change the course of treatment, so we declined. It was a good thing we went in through, because she had and ear infection in the left ear and was wheezing. Her O2 sats were hanging out around 90%. So, they sent us home with some antibiotics and a nebulizer. Here's a picture of our poor little baby. What a trooper.

Race for the Cure

Today we left early in the morning to head to downtown Denver for the annual Race for the Cure! We did the family walk, which is a mild version of the actual run. It is much easier with the stroller ;) A friend of ours, Shelley, lost her mom to breast cancer a few years back. Since meeting Shelley, we have tried to go with her family to the race each year. It is a very emotional time for all of them. This year, we had an extra reason to run. Matt's Aunt Wendy was also diagnosed with breast cancer.

I think it is awesome that every year so many people gather together for this great cause.

We had a great time meeting lots or fellow supporters and many survivors as well. At the end of the race there are several booths set up where they hand out food and other goodies to the participants. Madi sure loved all the new snacks.

Here are a couple of photos from the day. The first is the group we were walking with. The second is a photo of Madilyn and me. Be sure to see the pants I made her... she's quite the supporter too!!