Swimming with Daddy

Andy got in the pool with Madeline this week. Her mood started out not happy as you can see in this first picture.


But once she got to "jump" in from the side, she was having a blast.

At the end of class, Madeline got dunked. She did great with it!

Stories

When I dropped Madeline off at daycare this morning, I was sitting with her in the play area of her room. Her teacher was in the kitchenette and she asked Madeline if she wanted something to eat. Madeline immediately looked up and did her hand waving sign (that’s her “more” sign when eating), smiled and then took off for the table. It was the cutest darn thing. She pulled her own chair out and sat right down. That morning they were having Raisin Bran and she ate it up.

She has also started quacking at animals. I started reading “Five Little Ducks” to her a few weeks ago and she would quack along with me as I read. Now she quacks at everything. She knows it’s an animal sound but she hasn’t distinguished it as only a duck sound. I told her teachers about this and they were glad I said something. Otherwise, they said they might have thought she was choking on something. Hahaha

Swim Lessons

We took Madeline to her first swim lessons today. As soon as we walked into the place, she had this scared look on her face. When we got in the pool, she DID NOT like it at all. She wanted to cry but fortunately didn't.

We worked on doing the two moves we were told to do....floating on her back and floating on her stomach. She basically just tolerated both.

After about 20 minutes, she started to get a bit more comfortable and used to it. Then the instructor had the babies "jump" off the side of the pool after a count of 3. Madeline wouldn't stand up, so I basically counted to 3 and grabbed her into the pool. This was her turning point and she LOVED it! This picture is kinda blurry, but she has a huge smile on her face.

It's Andy's turn to get in the pool next weekend. He is really looking forward to it!

Hide and Seek

Madeline plays this game with us now. It is hysterical and so much fun until she does it 50 times in a row. She likes to go “hide” in the bathroom off the kitchen and wait for us to find her. And then when we do, she cracks up with excitement. We carry her back to the living room for her to do it all over again. I’ll have to get some video of this!

She is also becoming very polite. She is starting to say Thank You or “tank choo” as she pronounces it. She doesn’t always use it in context, but when she does, it’s the cutest darn thing.

Daycare Pictures

Here are some recent pictures from daycare. This first one is accompanied by this funny comment from her teacher: "Madeline has gotten very good at finding those moments when both teachers backs are turned to try something..."

She looks very proud of herself for climbing on top of the table. This is where they usually eat and do crafts.

This day they had snack time outside.

She has a cool surfer chic swimsuit for daycare. She always has to be stylin', ya know. They get water play time just about every day that is nice.

Tom's 30th Birthday Party

Over the July 4th holiday, my cousin Tom had a surprise birthday party at his parent's house. It was alot of fun and it was great seeing everyone. Unfortunately, it was raining for most of the party, but we eventually made it outside.

Random videos of Madeline

Here is one of her watching her favorite show, the Backyardigans. It's about 1.5 minutes long.

This next one is of her running around the kitchen like she does everyday.....looking for something bad to get into. This was on a weekend after she was outside in the pool. She wanted to show off her figure that day. It's about 2 minutes long.

Playtime

Uh-oh

Apparently this is going into her baby book as her first word. She started saying it last week and whenever she hears someone or something say it, she always repeats it back clear as day. The other day, her teacher said that she walked straight over to a table of toys, knocked one on the floor and then promptly said, “Uh-oh.”

Some friends asked if she says Mama or Dada, and she kinda does. But it’s not clear, it’s more like she makes sounds that sound similar to that, but she isn’t quite saying the word clearly.

Gosh, she is cute

Madeline has discovered the stereo remote that resides on Andy’s nightstand in the bedroom. We never turn the stereo on so I don’t know how she figured this out, but she instantly knew it worked the stereo. So this morning while we are getting ready for work she walks over and grabs it, turns to the stereo and aims the remote at it and starts pressing buttons. She gets it to turn on but no music is playing. She keeps trying and then just decides to start dancing without the music anyway. It was the cutest thing ever!

Madeline's current quirks.....

1. Walking laps from the kitchen to the living room and back. Because she can.

2. Basically not eating anything I give her for dinner. Thank god for the never-fail Cheerios and strawberries. That is what she lives off of.

3. Petting the doggies “gently.”

4. All of a sudden being scared of the bath. She hates it and screams the whole time.

5. Failing at baby sign language. Just when I thought she was getting it, she turns the signs into something else. The sign for "all done" became her "more". Then her "more" became like a mix between "milk" and "all done." So we are back to the stone age......"more" is grunts and screams and "all done" is when she spits her food out or throws it on the floor.

I'm in love.....

...with my new niece, Alexis Nicole. She arrived on June 16th at 9:47pm weighing 9 lbs. 3 oz. and 21.5 inches long. I went to visit last night and she is just an angel. If there is ever a reason for us to move back to Cincy, this is it for me. Sorry to the rest of the family, but you don't hold a candle to this precious bundle. I can't wait to see her again!

Playdate

Madeline had some friends over on Saturday. We started inside playing with all her toys, but then decided it was too nice out to sit inside. So we got the baby pool all set up and headed out. The kids all had a great time!

I have to include this picture of cute little Laila and her mommy. Laila didn't like the pool, so she didn't get in any of the pictures.

One Year Stats

We went to the doctor this week and Madeline is 23 lbs. (75th percentile) and 30.5 inches long (90th percentile) and as healthy as can be. She is completely off formula now and we just started her yesterday on no bottles, only sippy cups. She is doing well with it so far.

She has 5 teeth now and talks all.the.time. She has baby conversations that sound like she is really trying to tell us something. It will be great once we can actually understand her. Also, she has gotten over that walking hump and is EVERYWHERE now. She can easily walk from the living room to the kitchen and back without holding onto anything.

It's funny some of the things she plays with and she's always into things she shouldn't be. She found Andy's dirty socks and was holding one up to her ear and talking into it. Yeah, I guess she thought it was a cell phone. Not sure what to think of that!

Video from Daycare

Daycare sent this short video today. So cute!

Birthday Celebrations

For Madeline's actual birthday on Friday, Andy and I took the day off work and we all went to the zoo. We had an excellent time! Madeline loved the petting zoo and the aquarium. She was wiped after 2 hours so we decided to head home. We didn't want to wear her out too much since she had a big birthday party the next day.

Her party was with immediate family only. Since everyone but us live in Cincy, Nana and Pa-Paw Lair let us have it at their place. Madeline received a lot of great gifts....a baby-sized chair, a pool with a beach ball, and a sand box to name a few. Plus, some great new toys and clothes. Everyone was very generous. We are so thankful to have such a wonderful family.

There were so many pictures from the zoo and her birthday, I didn't want to post them all here. So I uploaded them all to a Shutterfly album. You don't need an account. Just click on the link and then click on "View Album."
http://tinyurl.com/MadelineBirthday

Below is the video I created for Madeline's First Birthday. It's a total of 26 minutes long so I chopped it up into 3 segments to get it loaded onto here more easily. Some of the text is hard to see with this small screen so I apologize for that. But it's made to be watched on TV. (For family that saw the original version, I added one more song to the end with all her birthday footage. So you'll want to watch Part 3.)

Part 1: Birth to 4 months



Part 2: 5 months to 9 months





Part 3: 10 months to First Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Madeline!

Dear Madeline,

This past year has been absolutely amazing. Thinking back, it has been a blur and we can’t believe you are turning ONE already. It feels like just yesterday we were holding sweet little you in the hospital. We were so excited to bring you home.

You grew slow at first. Mommy had to take you in to the doctor for extra checkups to make sure you were growing okay. But you made up for lost time and then some. You shot past the growth curve and have been in the upper range ever since. Your cheekies grew to mammoth proportions and you're chubby thighs and Buddha belly are so adorable. Your chubbiness is wonderful to kiss on and we love it.

Now you are changing into a wonderful little girl and it is so fun to see you develop. You crawl and walk around with reckless abandon. You love to walk between us and dive into our arms. Soon you won’t need our help at all.

You are already a little spitfire with an attitude. You know what you shouldn't do, but you do it anyway while looking us straight in the eye. Your look says, “I know I’m being bad and what are YOU going to do about it.” When you do get in trouble, you are a drama queen with the tears. Even the word ‘No’ sometimes sets you off.

You are very sociable and love to “talk.” Especially during meals. Mommy and Daddy can hardly carry on a conversation over your jibber-jabber. You also love to make a complete mess of yourself while eating. Spaghetti and Meatballs is your favorite and much of it inevitably ends up all over your face and in your hair. It’s a mess to clean up, but watching you have so much fun makes it all worth it.

You think Maggie and Miles are funny and giggle whenever they go running past you. You like to chase Maggie around the room whether she likes it or not. You are beginning to learn how to pet them gently and we are teaching you to say ‘doggy’.

Every month we say we want to freeze time and keep you there, because you are so much fun. But then you learn something new and it just keeps getting better and better. We can’t wait to see what you learn and can do in the next year.

Happy First Birthday Baby Doll! We love you!
~Mommy and Daddy

Badness

This is why she needs to watch TV while I get dinner ready.

I'm so proud

Sure loved my report from daycare today.... "Madeline was sitting on another child during snacktime. The other child bit Madeline on the arm. After ice was provided, she went back to playing." Lovely. It's a pretty nasty bite mark too. I hope she learned her lesson not to sit on other kids.

On a lighter note, here was some fun from yesterday. We wanted to buy her a water table for her birthday, but none of the stores have the one we want. So instead, we made our own. She seemed to like it.