Imaginary Mashed Potatoes

Suddenly, I'm a blogging fool! I got this picture today of Maddie while I was making Christmas care packages for some friends (this involved baking). Maddie wanted to make her own care packages for her friends, so I set her up on the floor for a little "cold cooking". :)
She just melts my heart! I was thinking today about how un-self conscious babies are, and wondering when they learn embarrassment. I was wondering this after watching Maddie pee and then spit up for the third time in the bath water. (Don't worry, I drained the tub!) My thoughts continued on, but I'm not really that kind of blogger, and I'm guessing you're not really that kind of reader. :)

Sooo, back to the photo: Please note that she would not be kind enough to remove her vehicle from the cooking space. She parked it neatly, but I guess she wanted a quick getaway handy in case she needed it!

No Sleep For Mommy

Well, this post does not have any pictures. Just a little whining. :) I have been having the WORST nightmares about horrible, freak accidents happening to Maddie! In my dreams, it's usually my fault too. It's really bad. I wake up with that sinking feeling in my stomach, convince myself it was a dream, and then have to go stare at my sleeping baby until I am convinced she is breathing. Occassionally, I accidentally wake her up, and then I have to deal with getting her back to sleep. (She sees me and thinks it's playtime because Mommy snuck into her room!)
Anyway, that's about the extent of this post. Just wondering if this happens to all you other parents out there. All these nighttime hysterics are really cutting into my beauty sleep!
O.k. I can't post a blog without a picture. I thought this one was funny. She's making her really-excited-breathing face. Rarely captured by media of any form. :)

Maddie Walks (In a Cheating Sort of Way)!

Well, as usual, it's been a really long time since I've updated this! So I thought I'd do a little compilation of Maddie's efforts towards walking, and end the video with Maddie just walking around being herself. I realized when going through the videos just how much footage I have of Maddie just being Maddie. Ha! I feel like the paparazzi!
Things here have been very busy lately! I started work at the hospital I'm at, and that means Maddie is in daycare 1-2 days a week. This was a tough decision, but in the end, we think it's the best. She seems to like the other kids, and I really like the daycare. Although I walked in the other day just in time to see another little girl pull the binky right out of Maddie's mouth and throw it at her head! It was actually kind of funny because she had a hard time getting it out of Maddie's mouth. Maddie gets a tight suction on those binkys! She started waving to Mike a few days ago, and for about 48 hours would ONLY wave to Mike! Now she she has graciously decided to wave to everyone. :) She also really likes climbing up the stairs. We walk right behind her (of course), and she barrel rolls the whole way down! Just kidding. Just seeing if you're actually reading. She giggles the whole way up, not barrel rolls down. :) I'll work on getting a video of these two latest accomplishments.
Mike is still liking his job and still not talking much about it unless I pump him for info. He had a really great time decorating for the holidays (so did I!)
I have decided to apply for anesthesia school, and I've been working on making my application for that complete. It's a competitive field though, and a really hard program, so I'll let you know what the final word ends up being. To start, I'm just applying to USC (the one in CA), and if I don't get in I'll apply elsewhere.
Here's the video:


I hope this blog finds all of you enjoying your Christmas Season!!

The Cutest Halloweener in California

Well, I hope everyone out there had a Happy Halloween! We had Maddie's first one, as well as having our first here in California. Here is a picture of Maddie in her costume:

We dressed her up and took out for community fun. Weirdly (and I'm guessing this is going to be an on-going theme for San Diego) the weather was 90ish degrees on Halloween, so Maddie got a little hot! We got lots of smiles walking around with her, but most of the activities going on were a little too old for her. The kids in those bounce houses were candy-fueled maniacs!

Here is a picture of Maddie earlier in the week, just getting into the spirit of the season! :)

One of the coolest parts of Halloween was getting trick-or-treaters. I've never lived anywhere that was a trick-or-treat hotspot before, so it was especially fun to see all the kids coming around in costume. There were some HILARIOUS costumes (think 15 year old wearing only speedos and big ears, walking around with his little sister, around 7 yrs, who was wearing an inflatable sumo wrestler costume) And then there was our own little cutie(nice transition, huh):

Maddie didn't make it up late enough to help hand out any of the candy, but she did get her first taste of chocolate chip cookie, and she LOVED it! For a toothless little kid, she can mash her food with the best of us! :)
Here's one more cute picture, just because I like it:

Random Acts of Cuteness

These are just some cute pictures that I've gotten over the past few weeks. As Maddie starts doing new things, she gets into the funniest predicaments! Here she is after figuring out how to manipulate the baby gate, and then accidentally closing herself and the dogs on the wrong side of it! (neither she nor the dogs were very happy about the situation)

The next two pictures are of what is quite possibly my favorite new Maddie trick. She goes to the kitchen table and grabs a chair. Then she gets underneath it and does acrobatic tricks over the foot rests. Here's a picture of the beginning of the trick:

And here's how it ends:

And for the final cute picture, Maddie loves playing with Deacon, and Deacon's favorite toy is this ratty, disgusting snake. So, of course, Maddie loves the snake. Here is a picture of her playing tug of war under the baby gate with it and Deacon. Sometimes she will also wrap herself in the snake and then try to crawl away with it, giggling like a maniac the whole time, while Deacon holds onto one end of it. I don't have a picture of that because I can't stand to see that gross toy wrapped around her for long enough to snap the picture! (yes, I wash it, but it only stays clean for about a day. It's a losing battle!)

And that's it for now! Happy November!

Another Blog?? So Soon??

I know it's out of character for me to post TWO blogs within a week of each other, but I wanted to get the word out about a competition that I entered! I made a video for ConAgra foods and got picked to be one of 16 finalists!!! Woohoo! So now my video is up for voting here. I am currently in 8th place (last time I checked) so I really need your votes! My video is the thumbnail with me pushing Maddie in a swing (it says 'submitted by Jenny McDonald'). You can only vote once, so throw your vote my way!
The grand prize is a family vacation for $10,000, so you can imagine that I really want to win...and so does everyone else. :)

I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

Also, if you could repost my link on twitter, facebook, e-mails, your blogs, or anywhere else that people might see it, I'd really appreciate it!

http://apps.facebook.com/delicious-moments/ (it's the one of me pushing Maddie in the swing). Thanks!!!

And Now For Something Completely Different!

**The video that was supposed to upload would not load. :( I'll try again later**

Like....ravioli!! Maddie is eating big-people food now (kind of), and she shovels it right in! Here is a video of her eating puffs, but her favorite is the raviolis. I only give her those for dinner, and the only one who might like them more than her is Deacon! (He catches what she drops before they hit the floor!) She drains the sippy cup faster than I can refill it, and she gets 3 "bottles" a day. She's getting big! I can't believe how fast she's growing. It's weird to look over and see a shorty little person wobbling along the couch edge.

Maddie is walking along the furniture now. She still has not done belly-off-the-floor crawling, and I think she's going to be walking soon. ha! She's apparently got places to go!
Maddie got invited to a Halloween Party, and she'll be wearing a cute little flower costume (don't worry - I'll get pictures). Given my rate of posting, the pictures should be posted around Christmas time! ;)

In our life, Mike and I just did our first adventure race last weekend, and hopefully we'll be doing more soon. Mike's job is going well, but it's very time-consuming. I just took a job at a nearby hospital on day shift, and I'm excited about that. Otherwise, things are just the same! It's been beautiful weather here as Fall starts to break through...."Fall"....it's been 80-87 degrees.
Hope you're all doing well and Happy Halloween!

UPDATE: I thought this blog was sent about a week ago (really!). Maddie has since started crawling with her tummy off the floor. Apparently, she just wanted to show me what she could do! :)

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!

Jump, Jump, Jump, and AWAY!!

Alright, this video is a full 45 seconds, but I couldn't find a single part to cut out! It's all so typical Maddie. She LOVES jumping in this thing, and regularly jumps herself to sleep (a Godsend for us, because it broke her cycle of resisting naptime!).
Also, you'll note the part where she considers eating the camcorder. This is a funny thing that Maddie does. She locks her eyes on an object, slowly reaches her hands out towards it, and tries to "tractor beam" it into her mouth. The girl will put EVERYTHING in her mouth - even Deacon's nose!
And also, you get to hear a little bit of a giggle in the video, and that's just always a happy sound. :)

Unfortunately, there is not a lot else to report here. I always feel like I need to have something exciting to tell you guys! I did make some extra yummy blueberry pancakes on Sunday! Of course, the berries did most of the work there.

Also, I started selling AdvoCare as a side project. It's something I started taking at the recommendation of my personal trainer, and I liked it so much, I started selling it too! If you're interested, feel free to e-mail me, or you can check out my site here: www.advocare.com/09064453. (had to put in my plug!)

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!

She's got a sweet tooth (in theory only)!

O.K., so no ACTUAL teeth yet, but this girl loves her bananas! We started her with veggies, and she got bananas the other day for the first time. I thought she might chomp through the spoon, she was so crazy about them! It's so fun to watch her as she's turning more and more into a little person and leaving some of her other traits behind. (She now knows to do the "baby bird face" for food instead of trying to suckle the spoon).
Maddie has also started noticing the dogs. Deacon (the big yellow lab) LOVES this girl. Cooper (the "more mature" mini schnauzer) is still warming up to her. How can we tell? Cooper steals little licks on Maddie when he thinks he can get away with it, and he watches her from his dog bed the rest of the time. Deacon walks brazenly up to a Tummy Time Maddie and plants a big lick on her hairless little head! Then he'll lay down beside her tummy time blanket. :) What a family!
Here is just a cute picture of Maddie with her Daddy.

Maddie, Meet Mr. Green Bean!

Ha, what a mess! She seemed to like them though. She sees the world through green bean-tinted glasses I guess. :) But that's not all!
Maddie has also started playing in her Johnny Jumper:

And then sleeping in the Johnny Jumper!

Tripping along the Country

We're back! I know it's been a long time, but it's been a busy time too! Maddie is growing like a weed! She will be 3 months and 3 weeks this Saturday, and she's so much fun as she grows!

All three of us went on a Meet-the-Grandparents trip a couple weeks ago, and it was a blast! Maddie's first flight was a long one, but she had the other passengers eating out of her hand by landing. Her smiles are contagious!
The first stop was in Dallas to see Grandma and Grandpa McDonald. We got to be there for a great thunderstorm (RARE out here in San Diego!), and Maddie got to hang with their new puppy - an adorable Golden Retriever. We met tons of very sweet people and had an awesome, relaxing time. It was nice to see Maddie bonding, and it was even nicer to get a much-cherished trip on the town with Mike while Grandma and Grandpa babysat! :-D

Oh! I forgot to mention that Maddie did her share of modeling work during the trip. It wasn't hard since we all kept dressing her up, and Gloria had a lion's share of cute baby-girl photo props!

The next stop was sunny SC! We landed on a rainy day after an easy plane ride on a small plane. Maddie spent most of it trying to beat the jet lag so she'd have smiles galore for the next family to meet.

We ate lots of good food, went on a beautiful hike, hung out with grandparents, great grandparents, and a great-great aunt (that makes her sound much older than she is-sorry Aunt Aggie!) Somehow, not a single picture of the great grandparents landed on my camera, but I did get one with Aunt Aggie.

AND... Mike and I are new Aunts and Uncles! We got to meet Sara's new family member too!

And finally, after many tears good-bye, our trip was over...or so we thought. We ended up stuck in Chicago overnight, re-routed through San Jose, then stuck in San Diego with no luggage (which contained our car keys!) At least all that happened at the end of the trip!