15 month-ish checkup and Santa

Maddie had her 15 month appt today- although she will be 16 months in 4 days. Mommy got a little behind there. It went as well as a pediatrician's appointment can go with a toddler. Meaning she had a great time until the doctor wanted to look at her. For some reason, Maddie absolutely HATES when a doctor tries to look in her ears, and pitches a big old fit over it.

She had to get 2 shots today too, so there were lots of tears. She's usually just fine once Mommy picks her up though, and all was forgiven by the time we were back in the lobby. She played (meaning, she tried to eat) her sticker the whole way home.

She is sticking right onto her growth curve, right arount 18% for height and weight. Today she was 21 lbs and 29.5 inches.

My mom is in town, so we met up with Mike at the mall after lunch to get Maddie's picture taken with Santa Claus. I wasn't quite sure what to expect- Maddie is very friendly, but I know Santa scares a lot of toddlers. And last year she wasn't really old enough to know what was going on. She did great though! She thought Santa was really funny, and gave his beard a couple of good tugs to make sure he was the real deal.

Here's her picture, I have to apologize for the quality. It cost eleventy billion dollars to buy the digital copy, so I just got a couple of prints and took pictures of those. Apparently $20 does not equal good printing quality nowadays. But she had fun and it was fun for us too!

Tata-giving *

Maddie's first Thanksgiving was a blur of crying and tired parents, but this year was much different! My parents decided to rent a house in the mountains for a family Thanksgiving vacation. We had SO much fun! Anyone that knows my family won't be surprised to hear that there was lots of ridiculousness and laughter. I have a seriously goofy family- and Maddie has definitely got the goofy gene!

We drove up on Wednesday and unpacked, relaxed and started making preparations for the big turkey day meal. Well ok, it was mostly mom doing that last part. On Thursday we hung out all day until it was time for the big meal at around 5 pm. It was absolutely delish, as usual, and it was extra special b/c there were crazy snow flurries the whole time we were eating! It's like the mountains knew that we were there for a special Thanksgiving dinner (gosh, those mountains are smart).

Where's my turkey?

On Friday, my sisters and I went to see New Moon (yup, I'm one of those- I LOVED it! So much better than Twilight). Then on Saturday morning we woke up and went to the tree farm to cut down a Christmas tree! This is one of my all time favorite Christmas traditions. It's fun going to a tree lot too, but nothing beats picking your own and having it cut down fresh! It will be more fun when Maddie can walk though, b/c she wasn't too keen on being carried around for that long. Luckily the tree farm had a friendly dog, so Mads got to play with him for a little bit. Later that day we got to walk around Boone and do a little shopping while Mike and my dad went to see an App football game.

Maddie sized tree

Hey mom I want to get down and crawl in the dirt!

Awwww!

Maddie thoroughly enjoyed all of the extra attention she got from her aunts and grandparents over the holiday. She is such a social little bug, and she loved being passed around and begging everyone for a bite of their snacks. And of course she entertained everyone with all of her "tricks-" pointing to body parts, giving hugs and kisses, dancing and making monster noises. She was also fascinated by the fire, but was a good girl and never got too close.

Ready for some cold weather

It was such a wonderful long weekend, and it's a Thanksgiving that we won't soon forget.

*My mom keeps trying to make Maddie say "ta ta" for "thank you" and it drives me crazy. I'd rather us say "thank you" and if it comes out "ta ta" when she says it, that's fine. But I don't want my child to grow up thinking "ta ta" is an appropriate way of saying thanks, lol. For the record, Maddie loves saying "ta ta."