A Whole Lotta Happy

We've had such a busy week! Now that Maddie is feeling good again, we have been out and about. On Tuesday we went to Marbles, which is an awesome kid's museum in Raleigh. I liked it so much the first time we visited that we bought a membership. It's great to have something we can always do on a rainy or cold day, and Marbles is so cool that it can easily keep a toddler entertained for 2 hours- and anyone that has spent any time with a 15 month old knows that's no easy feat!

On Tuesday we went with Maddie's BFF Jack. They always have fun playing together (or at least beside each other) and Jack's mom Ashley and I enjoy having some adult interaction! Here's a cute picture of the two of them playing in a space chair. They loved pushing the buttons and making things light up and talk. And yes, they are wearing capes. What else would an astronaut be wearing?

They also really loved the water table,
although they are a tiny bit too short to reach. Maddie managed
to get herself pretty wet splashing anyway.
Enjoying the dress up clothes- don't tell Jack's dad that he loved his tutu!

On Wednesday we went to the NC State Fair. It's a pretty big deal in Raleigh. At the state fair, you can buy anything in the world deep fat fried. Oreos, pickles, cheeseburgers- you name it, they deep fat fry it. That's my kind of fair.

But we mainly went to let the kiddos have some fun- which they did! Maddie was a trooper, as we were there from 12-5 and this baby does NOT nap in her stroller like most normal babies. She was SO SO tired by the end of the day, as was her mommy- it's a big fair, and I did a lot of stroller pushing and baby holding.

It was worth it though, we had so much fun. We got to go on 5 rides, and Maddie absolutley loved them. Even when she was cranky later on in the day, she would get so excited and giddy the moment each ride started. I think her favorite ride was a fire truck that swung around in a big circle. She had fun playing with her friends Henry and Jack, and she even got to hang out with another Maddie for a while.

We met up with our friends at a water fountain-
Maddie was immediately impressed, she just loves water!

Along the path was a kid-sized talking horse. All the
kiddos thought this was super cool. His name was Horace.

Enjoying the rides! It was hard to hold on to her
and take pictures at the same time!

Trying Mommy's cotton candy- hey, it's the fair, anything goes!
Needless to say, she LOVED the cotton candy.
Hence the blue stains all over her face!

Mommy and Maddie on the Ferris Wheel! Maddie
insisted on standing up the whole time. She very smartly
clung to the wheel in the middle though- not that
Mommy let go of her for a second!

It was a long day, but one I will remember for a long time. I think we'll have to make it a yearly tradition, and I'm sure I'll look back on this year longingly when Maddie was too young to beg for more ride tickets or stuffed animal prizes. Maybe they should change the state fair motto from "a whole lotta happy" to "a whole lotta exhaustion!"

Zoo again!

Last week was a rough week for Miss Mads, she was the sickest that she has ever been. 2 weekends ago we ended up at Urgent Care after she had a fever that wasn't coming down with Tylenol and all sorts of gross stuff was coming out both ends. They treated her for the flu, although I'm not convinced that she didn't just have a stomach virus- she was also congested and coughing, but the stomach issues seemed to be giving her the most trouble. She was quite pitiful and only wanted to sit on Mommy's lap and cuddle for a few days- poor baby! I thoroughly enjoyed the cuddling, but not so much the sickness.

Here she is getting some diaper free time b/c of her awful rash-
but all she wanted to do was lay down! So sad.

After a week of cuddles and medicine though, she was back up and running- well at least crawling very fast :). So we went ahead with our planned trip to the NC Zoo! Unfortunately Maddie chose to skip her morning nap instead of taking it in the car on the way to the zoo. So she was quite cranky, and since the animals weren't being particularly interesting (what, is it too much to ask that the elk do a little musical number for the kids?) she didn't have a great time.

Are we having fun yet?

Unimpressed with the animals

One thing she loved, though, was her first ride on a carousel. We wisely chose to skip the stationary animals and put Maddie on a polar bear. She's a daredevil. Her face lit up like it was Christmas morning when the carousel started up, and she cried when it stopped and we took her off. Mike and I are very hopeful that this is a sign that Maddie is a future roller coaster lover.

Yay!

After meandering through the North America side of the zoo, we met up with some friends for a picnic lunch, which was fun. Maddie was pretty good until we wouldn't let her play with goose poop or ant hills, and she remembered that she was absolutely exhausted. So we made a quick exit and she slept the whole way home!

Sorry the pictures are such a crappy quality. Bad Mommy forgot both cameras so we had to stop and get a disposable on the way to the zoo. We have a busy schedule this week, including Maddie's first trip to the State Fair, so be on the lookout for updates!

Pumpkin pickin' 2009

We went to Hill Ridge Farms for the 3rd year in a row to go for a nice fall hay ride and pick out some lovely pumpkins. Although when you're taking a 1 year old to a pumpkin patch, it's really all about the photo ops. There is a TON of stuff to do at Hill Ridge Farms (if you're in the Raleigh area, you should go- they are Mike's client!), most of which is too old for Mads, but she had a blast anyway. I mean, she definitely enjoyed it more than last year :P.

I thought it would be fun to see how much she's changed in a year, so here are two comparison pics- she looks like such a BIG girl now!

We did not intentionally push her head down onto a pumpkin for the sake of comparison, she fell over...however my mom did take the opportunity to snap a pic before she helped her up, lol!

Daddy and Maddie- what a difference! And I swear it was a REALLY hot day in October last year- these pictures of my 2 month old wearing nothing but a onesie are driving the judgmental mom in me crazy.

Onto this year! The first thing we did was check out the animals. There were lots of goats, some chickens and a llama. They were all quite friendly and vocal, so Maddie thought that was pretty cool. She starts squeaking whenever she sees a live animal- guess she thinks she's speaking their language.

Next Daddy took her down the giiiiiant slide. She liked it, but was pretty nonchalant- she's ready to move onto something scarier like a roller coaster. Here's a link to the video.

Next we saw some bunnies, which were cute but a little scary- the sign said if you stuck your fingers in, the bunnies would think they were carrots and bite them. So we didn't stay there for too long. While we were waiting for the tractor, we played in the hay jump, which Maddie thought was pretty fun. And she posed for a picture- although she had to look directly at the sun, so maybe not the best time of day for that photo op.


Then we went on the hay ride, where Maddie flirted and talked to anyone that would look at her- she is such a friendly girl! At the end of the ride we arrived at the pumpkin patch and each picked out a pumpkin- well ok, we took a ton of pictures, made Maddie mad by trying to make her smile instead of just letting her crawl around, and then quickly grabbed some pumpkins before the hay ride left without us.





All in all it was a really fun day! It was so nice out and we were glad that Momo was in Raleigh to join us.

If you really love me...

Ok, no making fun for being one of "those" parents, but the fan favorite of this contest gets a really awesome vacation. And while Mike and I are super excited about spending our 5th anniversary in Raleigh next year, we wouldn't mind spending it in Jamaica either :). You can vote every day through Nov. 17th! Click on the cuteness to vote.
So yes, I am basically pimping out my kid's cuteness to try and get a free vacation. What's your point?

First haircut!

Maddie got her first haircut today! I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad about it yet (that's :) or :( in the blog world I guess). I think it will look a lot better once it grows out now, b/c it's all even. But I miss my baby's long hair!



Maddie did great. She got to sit in a tractor, and they had a huge video collection (that's right- video! they are old school) that we got to pick from so she could have a distraction. We chose an Elmo sing along tape, which may not have been the best option b/c Maddie really likes to dance and wiggle her head to music. But the stylist has clearly cut a 13 month old's hair before and was done in 2 minutes flat, so it wasn't too big of a deal that Maddie had trouble sitting still.


We decided not to touch her bangs, b/c we want those to grow out, but the back was a hot mess and most of the time it looked like she had a rat tail. So the stylist evened it out and made it into a little bob, which is pretty adorable.


After the haircut, Maddie got to taste her first lollipop. But then Mommy realized she didn't want Maddie to have it in the car, where she'd probably either choke on it or stick it in her hair. So Mommy took it away and that made Maddie veeeery sad. At least she had fun during the haircut! And her mean, mean Mommy thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the grape lollipop on the way home. Hey- I deserve it for being such an awesome blog updater, right?

I'm learning that quiet usually equals trouble...

Maddie loves to crawl around and explore the house now, and we are *usually* right with her all the time. But the house is child-proofed, and we keep all of the doors closed, so if she crawls out of sight for a few seconds, it's usually not a big deal.

On Sunday, Maddie pitter pattered off into the hallway, where we assumed all the doors were closed as usual. Guess one wasn't closed all the way though, and after a minute or so I noticed that the house was suspiciously babble-free. Since it was unlikely that Maddie was playing quietly in the hall by herself, we jumped up and there she was- sitting in the bathroom pulling toilet paper off the roll!

She's been eyeing that toilet paper a lot lately, I bet she was thrilled to find a way in and check it out. Luckily we got to her before she made too much of a mess! I imagine we're in for many more "surprises" around here in the next few years :).

No way is this kid one year old already...

1 year picture from Hammett Photography-
check out the rest of these adorable pics here! If you
click on this picture to make it big, you can just baaaarely
see her first little tooth poking out :).

Ok, ok. I'm a lame blog updater- to say the least. I noticed myself looking back at old posts lately, trying to remember specific dates and ages of milestones that have already faded from my memory. This has inspired me to try once again to get back into blogging. I know I'll be glad I did it- Maddie is growing so fast and it's hard to remember the day to day stuff for very long.

SO! Miss Maddie Grace is 13.5 months old- for you non parents, that means she's 1. I never understood until recently why parents insisted on using months instead of years after 12 months- but I guess it's b/c a 13 month old is totally different from a 15 month old, a 15 month old is totally different from an 18 month old, etc. The point being, they are still changing so fast at this age!

Maddie decided to start crawling about 4 days before her first birthday. Guess she heard she was almost one and decided she wanted to be a mobile one year old! She is a little speed demon now. Just in the last week or two she has started pulling up on everything in sight, which has been a huge detriment to her naps, but she's having a blast. I was dreading having a mobile baby, but it's actually awesome. We've childproofed, and Maddie is so much happier now that she can crawl around and explore things. She plays much better independently now, although she still likes when Mommy and Daddy play on the floor with her better.

She switched over to table food around 11 months, and although she STILL doesn't have any teeth to speak of (her first one appeared at about 13 months but it's taking it's time growing all the way out), she is a GREAT eater. She has clearly inherited her Daddy's taste buds, hallelujah, and we are doing all we can to encourage that. Other than occasional slips into toddler "picky mode," she will generally eat absolutely anything we put in front of her. And we've now tried eggs, peanut butter, shell fish and strawberries- not allergic to any of them! Hooray! When she turned one, we switched from bottles of formula to sippy cups of milk- and Maddie LOVES her milk.


Maddie has been a BUSY little bee for the last few months. She was Christened by her Uncle Jim in Charlotte in a wonderful ceremony with lots of family and friends. We travelled to Richmond for Laura and Daniel's wedding, where Maddie stayed with a "stranger" babysitter for the first time- she did great! She has been to the Greenville Zoo a couple of times, which she loved (girl loves animals- especially dogs!). She took 6 weeks of swim lessons and she's a total fish- even likes being dunked underwater. We've been to 2 super fun kids museums and she even visited the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte. And a couple of weeks ago, Maddie had her first vacation- a week at the grandparent's house in SC (and Mommy got to relax! woohoo!).


So I think that's all the major stuff that's happened in the last few months! Maddie had a great birthday party in SC on 8/8/09, and she even got to meet her sweet cousin Faith, my Uncle Dan's new baby. It is SO much fun to see more and more personality emerge from her each day. She is absolutely HILARIOUS and I rarely go more than a few minutes without cracking up from her latest antics. She isn't talking yet, but babbles up a storm. She also understands a lot, and communicates her needs pretty well too. I'm finding late babyhood/early toddlerhood to be much easier as a parent than infancy. Maybe a little more physically tiring, but not nearly as emotionally tiring or frustrating. Plus, there's a lot to be said for sleeping all the way through the night!


Maddie gives hugs and kisses when we ask, and even sweeter is when she gives kisses unprompted- usually while she is sitting in my lap while we watch tv, read a book, or sing songs. She is very friendly and loves when anyone gives her attention- whether it's family or a stranger in the Target line. She loves music and dancing (My name is Maddie! I like to dance!), and will stop whatever she is doing if a Stanley Steamer or Empire commercial comes on. Her favorite songs are "You Are My Sunshine," "Twinkle Twinkle," "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Jesus Loves Me." Her favorite books right now are "Goodnight Moon," "Moo Baa La La La" and "Daddy and Maddie (a book I made Mike for Father's day with their pictures in it)."


Her most recent "stats" from her 12 month appointment show that she's still a shrimp- although my aching arms and back make it hard for me to think of her as a little baby anymore! She was about 18.5 lbs and 28.5". We'll be going back Monday for her first flu shot- poor kid!

9.5 month picture- Laura Brett Photography

Thus begins attempt #532 at being a regular blogger!