Maddie & Snow

Well, it certainly wasn't the first time its snowed, but today was the

first time Madison was introduced to snow. Last year, she was too itty-bitty to be out there, and the other times it has already snowed this season, we had colds, so we had to wait until today, New Years Eve '09. I think it was worth the wait! She loved the snow, ate quite a lot of it in fact, and was very upset when we had to come inside! I think she will be a little snow bunny and love skiing like her mommy. :-)

Getting ready to go outside. So cute in those pants!

So happy to be in the snow!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture!

You were stuck for awhile here.

And... you were fine once you discovered you could eat it!

Silly Daddy! It was really fun though!

Transitioning to the Sippy Cup

We are weaning, weaning, weaning in our house right now. While Mommy is finally weaning, we are also weaning you from your paci and from bottles. You are doing wonderfully with the paci, we are giving it to you when you sleep only and you don't seem to mind at all. As for forgetting about the bottle, this is something you are not happy about. You are using the sippy cup successfully for a few minutes, then throw it!!! I think we will practice a little bit more....

10 Months Old!!!

Yay! I'm ten months old!!!

I am just too cute for words. Smiley pants!

Dear Madison,

You continue to grow and get older. I thought we had a pact that you would stay Mommy's little baby and live with me forever. It seems like that isn't going to happen! While it makes me sad that time goes by so fast and you are growing more and more independent, this is a really fun age. You are determined to do things on your own. You are content crawling all over the house, chasing the cat, and getting into everything! At times, you play happily in your own little world and other times recently you are glued to me. I am not sure if you are going through some separation anxiety (because we are never separated) or you just love to cuddle. You are so loving and affectionate and give us lots of kisses. You are an extremely fast crawler and are getting stronger at walking, as long as you use your walker or hold someone's hands. You are incredibly proud of yourself- and you should be. We can not go ANYWHERE without hearing from at least ten people how beautiful you are and what a great baby you are. You are confident and friendly yet shy, so funny, sweet, extremely smart, caring and of course beautiful. You truly are a content, laid back child and we love that about you.

This month you spent more time with your new friends from playgroup: Natalie, Chloe, Victor and Gianna. You love socializing and playing! You continue to love reading and I love reading to you. We continue to re-read some of the same books each day for consistency, but have also moved on to some higher level stories: If you give a cat a cupcake, and If you give a mouse a cookie. Your favorite toys right now are your piano, the leapfrog table, your flip phone and walker. You are talking up a storm, most of it we can't make out, except: da da, ma ma, good, hey, ba ba, nay nay, and na na. You just started waving bye-bye and we are working on you clapping and pointing to your nose.

I love you more and more every minute!

Love, Mommy

Our visit with Aunt Nikki

Aunt Nikki and Brett were here visiting us this week! You had a blast spending time with Aunt Nikki and showing her all your new tricks.

Meeting the Cows: Mannings Farm

We went with the Moms group to the Mannings Farm in Dalton today to see the cows. While you liked the "Moo" sounds that Mommy was making, you were otherwise pretty oblivious to the big cows in front of you. Regardless, I thought it was a fun thing to do, especially since your favorite song is "Old McDonald". We saw the cows eating, the cows being milked, and Mommy had some ice cream. Yummy!

Friday Playtime

Ball Pit

I'm flying a plane! Ok, so its a teetter totter. It still looks like a plane!

Madison, Natalie & Chloe

I love this walker.

Maddie & Addie !!!

The Vanden Hengel's are here! Amy, Henk and Addie came to visit! It was a lot of fun for them to finally meet you and for you and Addie to play together!

Trying to Walk!

At our playgroup today we focused on a new skill- walking using our walkers. I have tried this with you before, but at the time, you weren't very interested. You just wanted to play with the toys on the other side! Today you surprised me, because when we went to give it a try, you took right off! We tried this again at home with our walkers since it was so neat for me to see, and you did wonderfully! Such a big girl! You will be walking on your own very soon. :)

Starting finger foods

We just started finger foods, and boy are we trying! Over the past couple of days we've tried a few things: bananas, grapes, cheerios and teething biscuits. All you seem to be interested in however, are your "cookies", aka the teething biscuits. Guess you have a sweet tooth!

Maddie's New Ride....

We got Maddie her first car..... :-) !! A sweet new ride to go around in for walks and just cruising around the driveway. She LOVES it! She instinctively held right on to the steering wheel and was turning it. When I stopped pushing her in order to take pictures, she started rocking back and forth as if to make it go by herself!

Video: I love the swing!

Video: The Spinkler!

A day at the park with Mommy and Daddy

Today, we were lucky to have Daddy stay home with us, and we took him to the park. You had so much fun on the swings again, you really love it!

And... since it was a hot, sunny day we got to break in your cute new swim suit (Thanks Aunt Nikki!) and run through the sprinklers for the first time! You weren't really sure what to think about the sprinklers and getting wet, but you wouldn't take your eyes of of them and all the big kids playing!