What? No pictures?!

Haha! Nope, just me talkin! I wanted to let everyone know that I chickened out and did not do the swim. *sigh I will eventually go, but when 5 a.m. rolled around, the last thing I wanted to do was groggily drive an hour just to go jump into some freezing shark-water (haha). So I'm saving that joy for another day.

When that day comes, I will let you know...with pictures! ;-)

A Day With Hats...

Maddie and I were playing dress-up today. The hats looked better on her than they did on me, so I only included the pictures of her wearing them. :)

She thrashes her arms and legs around when she smiles, so most of her happy pictures have the problem of this one. It's okay though. I think there are worse problems to have than being SO HAPPY that it takes over your entire body!

There's not too much new going on here, but I hadn't updated in a while. Maddie is 5 months now. She can roll over (and does regularly, at the most inopportune times!), and she can army crawl for short distances. She is also recovering from whooping cough and an ear infection. :(

Mike is happy at his job and has started doing extra stuff to spice up his life a bit.

I started running with another mom (and Maddie of course), and recently bought a trailer for my bike so Maddie can come along on bike-rides, too. Tomorrow, Maddie will stay with a buddy while I try 2 new things: 1) putting on a full wetsuit. Don't worry, there will not be pictures of that dance! 2) Swimming a mile in the ocean. Yikes! It is at least a cove swim, so I have that to assuage my fears a little, but I'm still scared. Plus, I have a bad habit of getting horrible songs stuck in my head during swims. Then, after the swim, I get to try to get the wetsuit back off. I am making these comments about the wetsuit because I tried it on in the living room tonight, and it was quite the comedy routine. I'll repost about how the swim goes.

Hope all is well with everyone reading this!

Maddie Kicks and Plays!

Maddie has discovered her toes! I have been waiting for this stage, and I think it's so cute to see her grabbing her toes. :) She's getting better at eating also, which her clothes really appreciate - she was staining them all!

And this is a video of Maddie playing with her Kick n' Play while she makes some vaguely condor-like noises. :) Pay no mind to the lost sock lingering in the background...

A Visit From Afar (aka - Memphis)

Maddie would like to start this blog off by delivering an important reminder to everyone:

Now that everyone knows that, we had a great visit from Uncle Ken and Aunt Michelle last week! Although the weather was grey and less-that-warm the whole time (very unusual for SD, but 100% on out-of-towner visits so far!), we still had a great time. Just no laying out at the beach. :-/

We did get to visit the zoo though, and we snapped some great pictures:



This one is of Ken chatting with his buddy, Mr. Gorilla. The gorilla had a name, but I couldn't pronounce it. Ken remembered him from childhood though, and they reminisced about the good ole' days they shared as litter mates. (this is he and Ken chatting through the glass - you can see Ken there in his ugly tiger paw shirt, hehe)

Michelle and I tried to fit in, but it was obvious that we just weren't cut out to be monkeys:

So we moseyed on to the alligator pool, and got a shot of Mr. Alligator (crocodile?) modeling:

There are many more zoo pictures, but I don't want blogspot to kick me off for using all their web space. :)

Next, we went to Coronado Island, where the Hotel Del Coronado had a cool Dr. Suess statue exhibit!!

The beach was also pretty. Those statues have a great view!

Next came La Jolla. This is where the 'seals bite' sign from above came from. We visited "Seal Beach" aka "Children's Beach" (big fight going on between the seals and the children right now), and we got to see a lot of seals - including some baby ones! Michelle and Ken are very photogenic in front of one of the cliffs:

I didn't know it at the time, but Ken was actually holding onto Michelle in that picture. When he let her go later, standing overlooking the seals, she slipped and almost fell in to join them on the beach! (Just kidding, he wasn't really holding her. She just slipped on the sand, but I figure I might as well make jokes.) :)

We also went to Balboa Park - the central park of San Diego. This picture is from the botantical area of the park (you didn't think Maddie would go unrepresented, did you?!):

AND NOW....for the most exciting part!! The day before Ken and Michelle left, we went up to LA to see a filming of The Price is Right. Mike's brother, Sean, suggested that we all act super excited and wear college sweatshirts. We did that, and guess what?! Ken chatted up the interviewer and got himself called onto The Price is Right!!! Check out the show on June 12, and see my big bro up on the lineup. Also, check out the guy who beat Ken's bid by $2. The guy is ridiculous. And I'm not just saying that because he stole the Showcase from Ken! :)
This is Ken and Michelle at The Grove in LA:

Here is a cute picture of Ken and Michelle cuddling with Maddie:

I was sad to see them go, but we'll see them again soon!