Happy 9th, Madison!

Today was Maddie's birthday and it started out with a request for breakfast in bed. She said she actually woke up around 6am wondering if she would get her wish. How could we refuse? Actually, Mike wanted to hold breakfast off as long as possible to see how long she'd stay in bed before finally coming down to eat with us. We didn't though - 8am we woke her up and she got pancakes and grape juice.

I know a lot of you parents are thinking, "grape juice??" Yes, and I was holding my breath the entire time waiting to make the leap to catch it before it somehow tumbled off the tray and stained everything. Luckily that didn't happen because as she opened her gifts I said, "watch your elbow" about every 5 seconds.





Breakfast was accomplished while opening gifts. Yesterday about killed her because she received about 5 cards in the mail and already had a package from Grandma Murphy waiting for her that we didn't let her open. The suspense was awful and, of course, we couldn't help but wonder about what was in that darn gift for a couple days to torture her! Jake got her a Generation Doll outfit which she was very happy to get. She wanted to hold off on the gift from Mike and I until the family party Friday night. But, an hour later she couldn't stand it and begged to be able to open that one too. It was a Generation Doll Beauty Shop Chair. Can you sense a theme here?
After gifts Maddie's only other request was a trip to Petland. She wanted to play with some of the puppies there. She swore she had done it before with her friend, Rachel. I honestly didn't believe they would just let us play with a puppy without some kind of assurance we were seriously interested in buying one (which we aren't)! But, sure enough, once there they asked if she wanted to play with one. She picked out some small dog that I can't remember the breed of. But his name should be Kujo. That dog was a lunatic. He was all sweet at first, then he turned into Jaws. Snapped at everything. Maddie and Jake ended up standing on the bench so the dog couldn't get to them because he either scratched or nipped at you. Then he latched onto my capris and I honestly could not get him off. I don't even know how I managed to get him loose finally, but of course the salespeople had all disappeared and I was going to feel really stupid standing on the bench as well. So I kept my large red purse between me and Kujo and I think my purse suffered. Finally we escaped him and I thought we were in the clear.

Then they offered to get a second dog and Maddie picked out a little dog like what is on the Taco Bell commercials. Only this one was a chunk. Since I wasn't using my purse as a defense mechanism I was actually able to get the camera and take a picture of the kids with this dog. He still nipped a bit, but was more careful to keep it to the sandals. Jake loved this dog. Maddie did the inevitable and asked if we could buy him. I said, "sorry - but dad's allergic to dogs."
Now, this is our saving grace. My mom never wanted a dog, but frankly, she was ransacked; four against one and she lost. For us it's two against two and we have allergies on our side. But the saleslady was so helpful to let us know that there were hypoallergenic dogs that wouldn't be as bad for a person with allergies. I just looked at her and said, "huh..." but I hope she read it as "you are absolutely NOT helping...walk away." Luckily no child asked what hypoallergenic meant.
After that it was pretty anti-climatic. The sky turned green, the sirens went off, Maddie and Jake were both really scared and wanted to be in the basement. Maddie informed me this storm was ruining her birthday. 15 minutes later the sky cleared up and she saw the sun and the day was back on. Dinner was at Applebee's where they sang to her and we were home and in bed around 10pm.

There's still a family party and a friend party so she's got lots to look forward to, but hopefully her actual day was full of some great memories.