Maddie's 1st Six Months! - update!

I have updated the video, after some constructive criticism from the viewers! :) So, anyway, the lowdown is that Sara and I have started a business called Divine Designs Media. We make custom, high-quality original photobooks, holiday cards, and videos (like the one above) created from your own home videos. We can convert your VHS or digital media and give you back all your original media on a dvd or HD-dvd as well as the edited compilation that will be your video! :)

In other news, Maddie is pulling up on things now! She can pull to standing, but has not gotten the courage to take a first step yet...which is o.k. with me! I'm working on baby-proofing the house for this new stage, and I don't want her moving faster than me. :) I put a picture below of her exploring the toy basket. (A whole world of fun!)
Hope you are all having a great weekend - I'll update more later!

And she's crawling! (kinda)

Maddie has mastered the fine art of the army crawl! Here is a little crawling clip:

I had a better one (or so I thought), but apparently the intricacies of the camcorder still elude me. :)

I did manage to get some good pictures lately though! I keep deciding that Maddie is teething (based on nothing except some drooling), so I bought some teething biscuits for her. This is what she did with them:

Which led directly into the post teething biscuit bath!

Baths always tucker Maddie out. And when Maddie sleeps, Daddy sleeps!

And finally, here is a shot of me and a sleepy Maddie. It doesn't fit into the storyline I've been following, but I want to be in the blog too! :)

Actually, I have one more thing to add: CONGRATS TO THE LOCAL LITTLE LEAGUE WHO JUST BEAT CHINA TO WIN THE LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES!!!
Now I'm done typing for real.

Visiting Texas

Maddie and I have recently returned from a trip back home, and we had so much fun! It was great to see all the family, and Maddie had an awesome time showing off her new tricks. :)
We started in Texas. Unfortunately, I have no Texas pictures because I stupidly forgot to take a camera. :( I have a sneaky feeling though, that I may get some in my e-mail, and if I do, I'll pop em in! I know everyone likes pictures, so I'm throwing in a few recent, random ones!
Alright, we had a blast in TX! Maddie got to see her first horse, and I'm sure she would have reached her chubby little arm out to pet it if her Mom weren't so afraid that the horse would suddenly become carnivorous and take a bite out of her. It was okay though, because Maddie, true to child form, was much more impressed with the cat that was stalking around the house than the horses. I'm o.k. with cat s, as I'm bigger than they are.
We also went to the BIGGEST used book store that I've ever seen/been inside. It had half a million books (literally), plus videos, dvds, and various forms of music. It was amazing. I picked an educational book series for Maddie that I had seen on TV (Your Baby Can Read) and bought it, only to get it home and realize that it was missing the accompanying dvds. It figures that, having a 1 in 500,000 chance to purchase a quality used book for Maddie, I chose the incomplete one. :) (I did get 3 good books for me though!)
Finally, we went with Gloria to her work and found a gigantic Clifford dog that Maddie thought was hilarious. She loves dogs, and her favorite color is red, so this was a double whammy for her. She had the whole store laughing along with her as she giggled contagiously at the stuffed animal. That includes me. I have been witness to several of Maddie's giggling fits, and I still can't help but laugh right along with her - usually at nothing at all!
Soon after the Clifford festivities, Gloria fell ill. Pat took this opportunity to pamper her when he could. When all else failed, he invoked some good old fashioned rib bing to pull some laughs out of her. It is always very sweet to see a couple laughing at/with each other, and Pat and Gloria are like a couple of flirting kids when they get going. Aside from being sweet, it's also just funny!
Soooo...Pat, Maddie and I hung out the next day, and the day after that I drove the biggest vehicle I have ever driven into Ft Worth to meet a friend. I think it was a Ford Navigator. Compared to my little Mazda 3, this thing was a monster! In fact, on the first exit ramp I thought that I was going to flip over. I didn't though, and I went to Ft Worth and back in one piece! I even confessed the near-flippage to Pat when I got back. (As far as I can tell, it is near impossible to disturb Pat. He is a picture of cool collectedness no matter what is going on. Admittedly, I haven't tried very hard to upset him because...well, why would I ?)
And this brings the Texas trip to a close. We hopped on a flight to SC the next day.
Isn't there something missing, you ask? Why yes there is! I have failed to mention that in just 7 short months I have been able to completely block from my memory the horror that is humidity. This left me a gasping, red-faced mess when I bravely decided to take myself for a run at Pat and Gloria's. "No problem", I thought. "A quick, flat 5-miler will feel great after that plane ride". Well, I don't know where the hills on that run came from because it sure looked flat when we drove it! Then there were all the road bikers sailing by me at 20 mph, all smiles and waves with their cute outfits and lungs full of air. I did manage at least a friendly nod to everyone though, and, on the bright side of the run, I don't think I have ever been so excited to see a pheasant-studded mailbox in my life! (that was my start and stop point)
Until next time, Texas - sionara, my friend!

Here is a quick picture of Maddie lounging at the pool!

Visiting Walhalla, Charlotte, and Seneca!

The final leg of the trip was a visit to my hometown, Walhalla. I love coming back here because I get to see family and old friends, and for the best part: Ken and Michelle were in town at the same time! We had big, family dinners every night, so Maddie got lots of time with everyone. Here is a picture of her with her Great-grandparents:



One of Maddie's most exciting times was the time she spent with her cousin Ely - finally a kid about the same size as her. Unfortunately, he is 3 months younger than her, so their "playtime" was actually mostly Maddie manhandling Ely. :) They sure were cute together though! (Maddie's on the left)



Here is Maddie with Ava, her other cousin. Ava is SO BIG now, and just adorable! She is learning to talk, and it's so cute to listen to her. She is also a little tumbleweed of energy and laughs rolling around the house!



And here is my awesome sister, Sara, with Maddie. She got lots of good, quality time with Maddie on this trip. Sara somehow has the ability to make Maddie laugh, no matter what. It was really great to see them together.



And here is Ken, my big brother, with Maddie. On first glance, Ken strikes you as a big bear of a man, with broad, muscly shoulders, thick arms, and large paws of hands. Then, Ken will swoop down on a crying baby, and before you know what happened, he is tossing the kid in the air, making funny little noises, and that crying baby is laughing! It was amazing to watch!
One of the funniest parts of seeing Ken with the babies though, was how SMALL they all looked in his arms. Ha! Here is Maddie helping Ken check his law school schedule online.


And Michelle is here with Maddie in an incredibly photogenic picture. They had a good time playing together, and doing pretty much everything together except eating. :) Maddie likes to eat by swallowing 3/4 of the food and spitting out 1/4 of the food. Then she does a big stretch and somehow manages to scrape all of the food that's around her mouth up into her hair, over her eyes, and around her neck. I think it's her babyfood version of a facial. :)


And that's the end of the pictures. There are more of Mom and Dad, but they are currently trapped inside their digital camera. Once we figure out how to free them, I'll download them and get some up here! The same goes for the pictures of Lauren and Philip with Maddie, Ely, Sara and me. Stay tuned!!! Thanks for reading!

Our Little Flipper :)

Maddie is getting so big and moving around so much! She likes to be flipped upside-down, and will generally just be happy to check out the world from this view. Sunday, Mike decided to make it a game, and Maddie LOVED it! (that's the video...with cameo appearances from the rest of us too)

Enjoy the video - I'll get some pictures up soon too! :)

Where is your THING???

Well, Maddie has now entered that active period between the baby-blob stage and the crawling stage, so I have come to the realization (the hard way!) that putting Maddie in one place only ensures that she will not be there the next time I look. That being said, you would think I would know better….

This morning, I put Maddie down on my great-grandmother’s hand-stitched baby quilt. Maddie likes to think of this quilt as a diving board off of which she can sail into the billows of honey-colored Deacon dander floating around the pink sea of carpeting. This morning however, I thought to myself, “Excellent work on vacuuming yesterday, Jenny! Now that little scamp can roll herself all over the carpeting, and at worst she will run into another baby toy!”

Little did I know that there was a malevolent THING lurking in the pinkness…

I, ignorant of the aforementioned THING, left Maddie to her gymnastic tumbles and turned to the kitchen. Her squeals of delight soon let me know that (I had nothing to dread? No, wait, that’s another story) she had flipped herself off of the beautiful, quilted launching pad and into the great unknown.

I finished up the dishes while Maddie creeped closer and closer to the THING…(enter Jaws music here).

I glanced over and saw Maddie cooing at her toes, so I returned my attention to making her breakfast. A mere 2 minutes (at most!) later, I set her breakfast – a yummy concoction of Tropical Delight and oatmeal – on the table and went to grab Maddie for her high chair. It was then that I realized Maddie had managed to find the ONE undesireable thing in the entire living room – she had caught up with that THING – A DIRTY SOCK! A SOCK - a dirty, cotton, tube sock to be exact - that Maddie had pulled out of one of Mike’s shoes that had been discarded beside the couch, and she was now working hard to fit the entire dirty tube sock into her mouth.

So here’s the picture:
Me – Horrified, running over to remove the offending item from my beautiful, happy, 7-month-old’s mouth.
Maddie – Cute, smiling, legs up in the air while she coos around a mouthful of sock which, in her mind, appeared to have been the choicest of baby food morsels.

*Sigh. In the end, no harm done (as far as I know!), but it just goes to show that no matter how much you clean, the baby will find what you have inevitably missed!

Or maybe it goes to show that one man’s sock is another gal’s treasure? Haha! (It’s okay to laugh at that – you’re at your computer and no one will know you’re laughing at a corny joke. Unless you’re Dad, in which case everyone knows you’re corny anyway!)

PS- Pics and details of the recent trip home will be posted shortly.

I Did It!!

The open-water swim, that is. I know I told everyone that I was going to do this last week....
but I chickened out. :) And with good reason, it turns out! I have discovered SEVERAL hazards (and tips) in ocean swimming:

1) When putting on a wetsuit, turn the arms and legs half inside-out. It makes it a lot easier! (I got this info after one of the gals swimming "with" me recovered from laughing so hard at my clumsy attempts to get the neoprene over myself! Also, Bodyglide is your friend. You're very, very good friend.

2) When putting on a swim cap, remember that you are now in the sun, even if you don't feel like it. You WILL get a silly-looking sunburn that draws a line right across your forehead if you're not careful in your positioning! (Yeah, I bet you'd like a picture...too bad!!) :)

3) As I was swimming along, I saw a dark mass moving beneath me. It suddenly moved quickly towards me, and I almost threw my back out from jumping up and backwards so fast. Luckily, I got out of the way fast enough that it only brushed my hand...kelp. Yes, I know now that I have an irrational fear of slimy, creepy, sinewy, marine plant life.

4) After the kelp attack, I realized that I was only 1/4 of the way done with this swim. Note to self and everyone else: Ocean swimming is NOT as easy as pool swimming. Don't worry about trying to breathe on both sides, don't worry about the proper roll, don't even worry about breathing strictly air! It turn out, it's okay if your air is laced with salt water. Apparently, it's also okay to snort salt water.

5) Make sure that what you are looking at to maintain the right direction is actually what you think it is. After turning around at the buoy, I began diligently swimming out to sea. Luckily, Sarah was not only sighting for herself, but also checking on me, and called to me. The "orange buoy" that I thought was watching was actually a bald man's head who was swimming to a different buoy from the opposite direction.

6) 2/3 of the way done. I have been back-of-the-pack the entire way. Me, who is regularly cocky about my swimming ability. I took a deep breath and plunged forward again...only to find myself staring a GIANT kelp plant right in my face. There goes the back again.
I know you think kelp is not scary because you are sitting there, comfy and dry, on your cushiony chair. Imagine looking down into the murky depths of the ocean (that houses LOTS of scary creatures) and seeing a dark, moving object really close to you. I was unable to fight the kelp off this time, and it got my arms and plastered a gross, slimy, leaf on the side of my face. ugh.

7) What is that burning that I have been feeling for the past 30 minutes? I think I might throw up from salt water ingestion and lack of food.

8) There are hot and cold pockets of water in the ocean, and they do not indicate that you are being whisked away by a rip tide. Really.

9) Finally, I can see the lifeguard tower we started from. What IS that burning? How long have we been swimming? Why are there kayakers swarming around me?

10) Yep, there were 3 classes of kayakers who were out at the end of the swim. Several of them wanted to have a conversation with me.
Kayaker: How do you do that? Aren't you cold?
Me: *sucking air* It's not that cold with the wetsuit.
Kayaker: Aren't you afraid? What if you sink?
Me: (thinking: If I stay here talking to you, wasting energy, I might sink!) No, I'm not afraid. The wetsuit helps keep me from sinking. *swimming away before he can ask another question

11) We're back. Finally. We go to rinse off, and Renee unvelcros and unzips my wetsuit for me. "Oooh, you are really red! Didn't you use Bodyglide?"
"No"
"Oh. You're chaffed. *makes a "sucks for you" face*"
"I guess that's what the burning was." My neck, my elbows, and my knees - all rubbed raw! I'd like to say it is the war wounds from my Kelp Battles, but lets face it - the kelp won without a battle.

All in all, I finished my mile and a half swim in 2 hours. This is ridiculously slow. I can do 1.5 miles in a pool in 45 minutes. I don't care though - I finished, and I can't wait to do it again! Maybe I'll do a cove swim next time though...

ADDENDUM: I just saw Sarah, Renee, and myself on the news. There were apparently some scuba divers who were whisked 2 miles out to see by an undercurrent this morning at the beach we were at. Great. Don't tell my Mother-in-Law!