Just got her first car!

Mike and I talked it over, and we decided that we might as well just go ahead and get Maddie a car now so we wouldn't have to do it later. This one should be good right up until college, I think. It was advertised as "Grows with your baby!", so we just have to make the crucial decision on when to take the foot plate out. That is what turns the toy from 'Step 1' to 'Step 2'. I don't want her jumping in over her head. Twelve years old I think. That should be a perfect time. Right before puberty, so she will love me because I am allowing her a right of passage. Yeah, I think we've got it all planned out...

Forgot One!

I forgot to add this video to the mix, but it's so cute I had to put it up on it's own. :)

She's Walking!

I finally got it together and spliced some more video together! I've had a lot of requests for Maddie walking, so I put some walking, jogging, rocking, and tooth-brushing in this one! The only thing missing is dancing, which I don't have on tape yet. The clip in there of the tooth brushing is actually her first time. I thought she did quite well with it!
Maddie has gotten very cuddly in her old age too. In the clip where Mike is asking for a kiss, Maddie now offers kisses freely...ESPECIALLY to her Daddy! It is a different side of Mike that comes out when he is around Maddie - a side of him that would be secret forever if not for his daughter. Mike walks through the front door, sees Maddie in her high chair, and is instantly transformed from serious law enforcer to whatever it takes to make Maddie smile. Tonight, it was a high-pitched, balancing-on-one-leg-while-hopping picture of sillyness. Wen Maddie finished her dinner, they were wallowing around on the ground together - BOTH of them having fun building teetering towers of pink and green blocks. It's amazing and beautiful what a baby inspires in her Dad.
O.K. Enough of the mush! In other news, Mike and I have been learning to surf. Mike is learning a bit faster than me, but I'm o.k. with that. Maddie and I get lots of sand-castle-building time! (which actually translates into Maddie stuffing sand in her diaper every time I turn my head)
Other than these things, there is not too much new going on. We had a great visit from the Edster (Ed), a friend from Maryland. So much fun! Like everyone else that I know, I've started in on trying to convince Ed to move out here. :) Next will be my cousin, Dee, and her boyfriend, AND THEN....

KEN AND MICHELLE'S WEDDING!!!

See you soon!

Finally! An Update! :)

It was recently pointed out to me by SEVERAL people that I have fallen gravely behind on my blog updates. Alas, Maddie is now not only walking, but RUNNING from one sharp object to the next. She is so much fun, and at the same time she is two full handfulls!
So now for the story-by-picture. :)
Maddie has recently been working on feeding herself. Can you tell that she likes eating?

Being new to the whole big people foods thing, she sometimes gets herself into a bind...

And then there is the complicated issue of spoons. Spoonwork is much easier if you sort of shovel the yogurt into your mouth...with your tongue as a bridge in case any cheerios try to escape.

And once you get the hang of that technique, you'll graduate to the really-wide-open-mouth technique:

She ate that entire bowl of yogurt! I didn't get any pictures of the final project though. I hear you, Readers. You are saying, "I don't believe you, Jenny. Maddie is toothless. There is no way she chewed Cheerios and chomped on apples!" Well, think again! Maddie is now the proud owner of SIX sparkly white teeth:

What else can she do with those teeth, you might be asking (but you probably aren't, since you, having your own teeth, know what they're good for. Humor me though, I was making a transition) Those teeth are good for word-making (aka-talking)! Maddie likes to read to me:

First though, she needs to bring me the book:

Then, she has to get comfy:

Then, she can start the reading:

When she is done, she has to thank all the fans who came to listen to her read. Generally, this includes myself and Sparkles:

Finally, Maddie is free to reach for her trusty sippy cup to wet her whistle after a long and intensive public speaking session:

And that is the end of the McDonald's Story-by-Pictures! Hope you enjoyed, and hopefully I'll be able to get back on my monthly updating schedule. :)

PS- For the record, I love that you all care enough to check the blog, despite the lapse in updates. You are awesome!

Playtime!

Although Maddie seems to be able to make a supercool toy out of ANYTHING (see picture above), I decided to take her to a baby gym today. I'm so glad I did. We had a blast! Mike was feeling a little under the weather, so he didn't get to come. I took enough pictures so he'd feel like he was there though!
First, Maddie had to inspect the place for quality construction:

Once she was satisfied, she jumped right in! Who says you have to be 16 to drive?

Did I mention that this place was AWESOME? There were tons of toys for Maddie in a special toddler/crawler area, and then she could play on the big kids' stuff too.

The best part was...I got to go with her in the jungle gym area! (she never would have made it without me - those 8 yr olds were maniacs!) This is a picture of Maddie climbing the "stairs" to the slide. She can climb our stairs at home no problem, but these were farther apart, so I had to give her a little incentive by putting the camera on top of each step. :)

She got to the top though, and when she did, we went down a huge slide together! By the way, for being a kid's playgym, that slide was pretty darn fast! Maddie l-o-v-e-d it though! She doesn't really care one way or the other about the slide outside our house, but she giggled all the way down this one and at the bottom. We went down twice. It took about a half an hour to do the stair climb-to-slide rotation. :)

There was a lot of other stuff too, but I don't want to overload on the pictures. We had a really good time, and the best part is, when we got back, half of our downstairs was painted! (Not by Mike - we finally got someone to come and finish the painting for us) I'll post pictures of that when it's done.

Part Deux...After the Movie

Look out! There's an almost 1-year-old on the stairs! :) Maddie has so much fun climbing the stairs that every once in a while (actually, about twice a day), we let her "sneak" past the baby gate and climb the stairs. Her favorite game is pretending that we are trying to catch her but she's to fast for us. The only problem is that she starts laughing so hard that when she turns around to make sure we're chasing her, she loses her balance and tips backwards. Good thing we're always part of that game, huh?
Well, in adult news, Mike had a birthday today. We went to a casino where we pretty much only played roulette. Every single hand, we put at least one chip on the number that was Mike's age, and it didn't win a SINGLE time! Luckily, our other picks did, and we ended up positive $30 and two free buffets (I scored those from a worker named Jesus who was telling me to stop taking pictures in the casino. I took that opportunity to first apologize, and next proudly announce that it was Mike's birthday while pointing out his youthful looks.) Mike loves me for my talent in drawing attention to him. Needless to say, we had a really great time, and ended the night fondly remembering how fun dates are. Hopefully we'll get some more of those. :)
Sadly, we also watched U of South Carolina lose their bowl game while we were at the casino. Luckily, we did not bet on that game. ;-)

HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all!

Maddie's New Toy

This is Maddie dancing with one of her new toys. This darn kiddo of ours seems to get cuter every day. She has started sprinting between the furniture, and she has really been developing her personality.

Christmas was conspicuously absent of most of our family, but it was good just the same. Sean, Mike's brother, came down from LA, and a friend of mine came over with her two kids, so we filled up the house anyway. :) I have another video to post for your viewing pleasure, but Mike is forcing me to end this blog so that we can watch Adventureland. So.....

TO BE CONTINUED!