Maddy's snow day

So, Thursday, snow came to Freeport. I was working that morning and when I got home, Maddy came running at me saying, "Snow, Mommy! Snow! Come on! Outside!" After a hasty lunch, Maddy got "OUTSIDE!"

She was actually kind of helpful. She cleaned the car...

Then she took out some snowmen!

They never stood a chance. I think there were about 5 casualities that day.

Decorating

Oh, Maddy could not be happier. Today we put the Christmas tree up. She has been excited about Christmas for the last week. I think because she has been watching Kipper and there's a whole Christmas episode, so she has a vague concept of what Christmas is. So while we set the tree up, she spent the whole time dancing around the tree hanging bulbs and singing a Maddy song at the top of her lungs. That said, the video is a little long, but I just loved the singing!

Maddy! Ta-daaaaa!

Maddy from the past and present.

I pulled some video from summer off the Flip tonight.  It's Maddy at the pool.

Maddy has a pack of Play-Doh but the most fun is stacking them.

Maddy and her guitar

Maddy has not been feeling good today, so she is spending the day inside, which provides its own challenges for how to entertain a crazy 2 year old in an enclosed space. We played in her room for a bit and then Maddy favored me with a concert, some of which I caught on tape!

Maddyween

Maddy is out getting CANDY.

Maddy in the leaves with baseball

Maddy in the Park

We finally got some new pictures of Maddy. These were taken 3 days before the cast came off and you will see that the cast has not slowed her down at all. That's our girl. Ash took about 200 pictures this day and it is so funny to go through them all because in most of them she only has one foot on the ground, or in some cases, no feet on the ground because Ash caught her mid air. It was hilarious. So, enjoy a quick little update!

Outside!

Maddy's one desire in life is to be outside. She will do anything to get outside. In fact, we can't even leave our front door open anymore to let light in because if we do, Maddy will make a break for it! And before you say, "Well, why don't you just lock the screen door?" Let me tell you about a baby and her clever little fingers that have figured out how to slide the bolt over on the door. So even though she can't work the knob that locks the door, she can still get the screen unlocked and before we know it, there's a baby dancing around on the front porch in her diaper or streaking out towards the front sidewalk.

Luckily, Saturday was absolutely beautiful though and Maddy got a trip to the park where she got to slide and run and play in dirt. Three of her favorite things to do. She also got to swing!

I still can't believe that she uses the big kid swings. She can't climb up into them, but she wants nothing to do with the infant swings and once she's in them. She holds her own. 

After playing for a bit, she decided to do a little exploring and found something really great!

She was absolutely soaked by the time we got her home, but I know of no happier baby then Maddy that day!

Rainy Days

It has been raining pretty steadily since we got up this morning and quite chilly outside, which has been kind of frustrating considering we got pool passes this week. On the upside, next week is supposed to be sunny and in the 80's so we should be able to take advantage of the passes then. The challenge for the day has been trying to find ways to entertain a outdoor loving baby in the house till naptime.

First there was dancing...

Then there was drawing...

That lasted until somebody naughty got bored and started drawing on the door. Thank goodness colored pencils come off.

Finally, she figured out the best thing of all. Breaking into daddy's office with her dog, watching him play a video game, and making off with Pov...

What a good day!

New House!

So most of this month has been spent moving. We finally moved out of the apartment and into a house on the other side of town. Maddy has been taking the move pretty well. She loves the new house because there is so much more room to run around and there's even stairs for her to climb. She even likes her new room, which has two big closets for her to play in. The only thing she doesn't like is sleeping in her new room. She's getting better about it, but when we first started sleeping here she spent a few nights staying up till midnight and sleeping with us. Now she sleeps in her room, but we find her in the strangest spots when we go to get her in the morning. Sometimes she has built a nest on the floor. Other times she is curled up in a chair, and today, when mom went to get her up from her nap, she found her in her closet with her comforter, her pillow, a pile of books and her blanket. Now we put her in bed when we laid her down for her nap, so that means she was pretty busy before actually falling asleep. She's so funny.

She does love unpacking though! For one thing, she loves to throw things. One of the first baskets I put in her room was filled with her stuffed animals. In the time it took me to bring a second basket from the hall to her room, the stuffed animal basket was empty and Maddy was looking at me going, "More, more, more, more." The other fun thing about unpacking is that you find some great treasures. Today, she found a harmonica that she got last year! Oh my goodness, the joy on her face when she saw it! She spent the next half hour playing the blues.

Please disregard the mess in the bedroom. We are still unpacking.

So, it looks like we're almost done with the move now. There's about another load or two in the apartment and a little more cleaning, but, in general, things are starting to settle down. So tonight we decided to go out to the community pool which opened yesterday. Oh, Maddy had so much fun!! She played... and played... and played. The downside was that it's an outdoor pool and today was a bit windy. Not so bad for Ash and I, but Maddy was shivering after the first 10 min. She refused to get out though. We made her take a break after about 25 min and wrap up in a towel. Then she just wanted to get back in, so we let her swim for a bit longer... until her lips started getting blue and then took her home. We wrapped her up though and she warmed up in comfort.

We got season passes though so there will be plenty of opportunities for her to go back... and plenty of opportunities for us to get more video of her! (I'm a little ashamed that we forgot the flip today. Sorry.)

How to entertain Maddy!

So tonight while we were getting dinner ready, Maddy was zipping all over the house, getting into the shoes, begging to go outside, and generally wrecking havoc. I was trying to clean up our dining room table, so we could actually use it and decided to put her to work.
 

Alright, so it wasn't just Maddy working. I thought I'd throw in some extra movies for good measure!

Easter pics

It's a been a while since my last post, but Maddy has been puttering about as always. She had a lovely Easter yesterday. Ash's friend, Josh, is visiting this week, so when Maddy got up Easter morning, she found one of her favorite things. A can of Sour Cream and Onion Pringles.I distracted her with her Easter basket though. Maddy was pretty pleased by a basket of things.

She got a rabbit, and a tic-tac-toe board, some bubbles, and some gummies. Then she got dressed for church, which she didn't enjoy as much. She looked awful cute though. 

Now today, we are watching a friend's baby while he's out filming with Ash and Josh. Maddy is very interested in the baby. In fact, when I put the babyseat in the car, the first thing she said was, "Baby." So, when I brought the baby home, she sat right down next to him on the floor as if to claim him.

They chilled for a while there and then Maddy wandered over to her old swing, which we had brought out for the baby. She played in the swing for a bit and then gave it up to the baby, which was nice because when he got it, he passed out. After a bit of fussing, of course, but who likes to sleep when they are at a new place.

On the road again... sort of

Alright, so I was trying to think of a cute little entry to write for this video, but really. It doesn't need one. Maddy just loves to drive!

Paging Doctor Baby

So tonight I finished up the second pair of Maddy's birthday pajamas. These pajamas are all girl and she looks really cute in them. Check out what she's got around her neck though...

Maddy loves my stethoscope. When ever she sees me with it, she makes a beeline for it and throws it around her neck like a professional and proceeds to chew it to pieces. Luckily, those things are super tough and it has survived many hours of Maddy fun time.

Well, tonight she grabbed the measuring tape I was using to finish the shorts and ran, so I went looking for my stethoscope to make a quick trade. I couldn't find it. I did notice my Student Nurse bear that my grandparents got me when I started nursing school though and the stethoscope hanging round its neck seemed like a viable option. Maddy was delighted and proceeded to wear the stethoscope the rest of the evening. It's just her size. I just think it's funny she knew how to wear it. We didn't show her that. I know what Maddy's going to be when she grows up!

Maddy gets a life vest

Maddy is totally loving the whole swimming thing. She will romp all over the toddler pool now until she is exhausted and chilled and still cry when we take her out of it. She keeps looking longingly at the big pool though. Ash and I found a solution. It's a baby life vest/swim suit. It's the coolest thing ever. Now, she can go in the big pool and have some degree of independence. She's loving it!!



Finally, here's Maddy modeling her birthday pajamas. That's right. She got pajamas for her birthday. They are homemade though and have Star Wars ships all over them so she's still the coolest baby in town! She thinks they're great.

Maddy gets her big girl bed!

So, Ash and I have been debating for a few weeks now whether or not Maddy is ready for a "big girl bed." We found out over Christmas that she is big enough to crawl out of her Pack 'n' Play, which causes serious headaches when traveling because she's no longer confined. It seemed like an impossible task to get her to lay down for a nap without hearing an escaped baby trying not to sleep. With that vision in mind, we've been putting off making the transition from the crib.

Then today, I went into Maddy's room to get her out of bed after her nap and I couldn't get her out of bed. Not because she didn't want to get out, but because her legs were stuck between the bars. That's nothing new for her. When she wakes up she always sits on the edge of the bed with her legs dangling between the bars. This time though, her legs were just far enough between the bars that I couldn't get her knees back through to get herout. So, after a little bit of whimpering and some creative wiggling on Ash's part, Maddy was freed from her confines and the decision was made to make the transition.

The conversion was actually pretty painless. Her crib is made to convert to a toddler bed and all Ash had to do was switch out one bar and then I made the bed, all while mom was watching Maddy in the living room.

Once we were done, I called mom and her into the room and, of course, Maddy didn't want to come and mom had to drag her into the room crying. She set Maddy down on the floor and Maddy made that face like she was going to start really crying and then... she saw the bed and her face just lit up. She started giggling and laughing and climbed right up and started jumping. She was one happy baby.



So tonight, I laid her down in the bed and covered her up and she asked for some books and lay down looking very happy and so far I haven't heard any sounds of rampaging baby. Must be a success. We'll see how early she gets up in the morning now.

Birthday baby and her orange

The birthday baby is finally two. And Maddy celebrated in style. Well, not so much in style maybe. We had a small party with her best friend, Hayden, who you can see jumping in her crib with her in a previoius video. Nan made Maddy's favorite meal, macaroni and cheese with broccoli and chicken, and Aunt Kim made a cake.

Maddy's favorite present was a block of wood with wires that you push wooden beads along. It kind of reminds me of a complicated abacus. In fact, when her friend came over and gave her his present, she set it aside because she was playing with something else. We finally convinced her to open it when he started getting concerned that she wasn't opening his present.

Then, there was the blowing out of them candles. Maddy thought they were fascinating. It was hard to convince her that you don't touch!

Finally the festivities were over and guests got a gift bag. Maddy got one because, well, she's the birthday girl and had a delightful time pulling all the little things out of her bag... and putting them back in again... and pulling them out again, because that's what girls love to do!



So what does a two-year old do after a fabulous party? Well, peel an orange, of course!



It's great to be two!!

Maddy's snow day

The snow was just too perfect to stay indoors. Thank goodness for snowpants.

Pool baby

This is how Maddy spends those cold winter days!

Token Post

I've got a lot of videos that need posting right now. All the Christmas videos and really all the videos that need posting from the end of last year. It's a little overwhelming. Here's a start though. This is Maddy and her friend, Hayden. They climbed into the crib together and had a fabulous time! Who knew cribs were so much fun!