Blow Pop!

Madeline got to try her first Blow Pop last week. She got the Blow Pop in her Halloween basket. We couldn't eat ALL her candy without letting her try a little.

She loved it!


But, it was pretty messy since she is drooling so much. It turned her drool purple. Unfortunately for her, she never got to see how many licks it takes to get to the bubble gum. But, she enjoyed it while she had it.

Happy Birthday Daniel!

Andrew's brother, Daniel, had a birthday last Saturday. We celebrated by going to a Japanese Steak House (one of my favorite!).

Katherine's (Daniel's wife) parents came as well as Andrew's parents. It was really fun. We hope you had a great birthday, Daniel!

11 Months Old

Madeline turned 11 months old on Saturday. One month to go until her 1st birthday party. I have a lot of planning to do :)

Madeline still loves to be outside. We take a walk almost every morning. If it is really cold, then I bundle her up and put a heated rice sock in her lap to keep her extra warm. She seems to stay in her stroller better when it is cold. So, maybe I'll get a lot of walking done this winter. :) A lot of times we go out later in the day as well and just walk around wherever she wants to go. Sometimes we sit in the grass out front and talk to neighbors. Sometimes we find wonderful things on the trails around the lake... like this big stick!


Madeline LOVES flowers. She says, "fffff, ffff, fffff" as hard as she can anytime she sees them. She thinks that any plant is a flower. But, that's ok. Close enough. She has flowers on her carseat and will turn her head around as far as she can to see them.

As I mentioned in another post, she loves to put things on her head. If I have one of her drawers open, she will pull a shirt or towel out and put it on her head. Then she walks around like there is nothing on her head. Buckets and tuberware are great to put on her head as well.

She still loves books. What's better than reading (or eating) a book while driving your car?

I love how she will bring book after book to us and sit in our laps while we read through them. She could probably do this for 10-15 minutes straight. Especially right after she wakes up from a nap. She loves books that have flaps to lift, things to touch, Elmo or pictures of objects for us to name. She also likes to sit in the big rocking chair in her room and flip through books. We might need to get her her own rocking chair that she can get into on her own.

She really likes bananas. This kid lives on bananas, green beans, broccoli, cheese and juice. I think her absolute favorite might be the cheese though.

But, of course, she will take a bite out of anything that we are offering. If she sees something that she is more interested in eating, she will spit out whatever is in her mouth to make room for that something else.

She is still nursing a little bit. Mostly in the morning when she wakes up. But, sometimes she will nurse before going to sleep at night too. It depends on how close supper was to her bedtime. During the day she drinks formula, but really she would prefer juice. She is eating 3 meals a day and will sometimes have a snack in between, like a banana, cheerios, goldfish or cheese.

She still watches videos while she eats her meals. She got tired of the sign language videos for a while, so we moved on to Elmo. She loves Mr. Noodle on Elmo's world. After listening to Elmo for a while, we have moved back to the sign language videos and she is totally interested again. And she is picking up a lot of signs now.

She is definitely doing signs for:

-airplane

-dog

-ball

-fish

-train

She may be doing signs for: (meaning, we have seen them, but not really consistently)

-thank you

-butterfly

-hat

-bath

I put some pasta in a Tuberware container for her to play in and she likes them a lot. She wants to completely empty the bucket. At first she would pull them out with her hand and thrown them behind her back. It took a long time to empty the bucket. Then she figured out how to turn it upside down and dump them all out. And now she can put the bucket on her head. She is really cute when she picks up the big bucket and carries it to me to open it. It is really heavy for her.

When she starts eating the noodles, she has to resort to just sitting on the top of the bucket. Not quite as much fun, but still entertaining.

She LOVES to brush her teeth. She used to grab Andrew and my toothbrushes. So, we bought her one and some baby toothpaste and she will suck the water out of it until it is dry. She brushes her teeth all over the house.

Andrew's parents bought her a new carseat. So, now she has a big girl seat. She sits much higher and can see out of the window. She isn't facing forward yet. But, I think she is much happier in it. There is a lot less fussing coming from the back seat these days. Plus, it is super cute with the girly fabric. :)

~Madeline officially made it through her first night without mommy at home. I went on a women's retreat last weekend with my church and was gone on Friday and Saturday night. She did great with her daddy and slept all night, both nights. She's such a daddy's girl.
~She does a great job blowing kisses now and waving bye-bye.

~Andrew also taught her how to make a noise while she is blowing kisses so that she sounds like an Indian. (I think this is how she calls Andrew now.)

~She seems to definitley be moving to one nap a day. She has a hard to falling asleep if I put her down too early in the morning. She seems to be a little Energizer bunny now that just keeps going and going. So, I try to lay her down closer to noon. She will then sleep for 2 or 3 hours. But, she is still kind of transitioning and will still do 2 naps sometimes. She also points to her bed now when she is ready to go to sleep.

~She threw her first tantrum in public. I know, it's something to be proud of :) It happened in Target. She didn't want to stay in the buggy and she didn't want me to hold her. But, of course, as soon as I put her down, she starts running away. So, I have to hold her, while she screams and everyone stares at me. We just bought our things quickly and left and she went home to take a nap.

~She is trying to talk a lot. Here are her words so far: (I'm serious, we can totally understand what she is saying)

ffffsh-fish

ffff-flower

ssssch-cheese

mmm-moo

rrrr-ribit

~She certainly understands a lot more of what we are saying to her. She will nod her head yes or no when we ask questions. She will sometimes go get something when we ask her to, like her paci, monkey or diapers. Is is neat to be entering this stage of actually communicating with her.

Madeline is such a blessing. Andrew and I just watch her and marvel at how cute, precious, smart and funny she is. It is so much fun to watch her learn and explore. She is pretty entertaining. We love this little girl a whole lot!

Happy Halloween!

Madeline was a little monkey for Halloween. It is pretty fitting for her since she is climbing everywhere and she loves bananas. Earlier in the day, Madeline and I headed to the school that I taught at last year for their Halloween parade and parties. Madeline loved watching all the kids in their costumes. She waved at all the kids as they passed her by in the parade.

She even scored a couple of bracelets in one of the classroom parties! Yes!


After Andrew got home from work, we headed to Papa Paul and Nana's house to go trick-or-treating.


We met some very nice neighbors...

and some very scary ones too.

We had a great time trick-or-treating!

Our little monkey started to get very sleepy. (Or maybe the flash was just very bright, not really sure :) It was time to put this little monkey to bed.

When we got home today, Madeline had to check out all her candy (minus the one's we ate after she went to bed last night :).

And of course, the bucket is supposed to go on your head. This is apparently her new obsession. She loves to put clothes and buckets on her head. It doesn't matter if she can't see where she is going.

The Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we headed to Butler's Orchard with some friends from church...

The Holmes', Lauren, Jillian, Brad and Faith. Before we actually went to the orchard, they came over for a pancake breakfast, yum!


We had a great time. Madeline was a little cranky because of teething. So, she mostly stayed in Andrew's arms the whole time. But, when she got down, she had a great time with Jillian.


Madeline liked the pumpkins. We got her a smaller one that she likes to carry around the house and drop. I'm surpised it hasn't busted yet.

We took the liberty of taking some photos on the random tractor. We did find the keys in the ignition, but decided that we probably shouldn't take the liberty to drive it around.

After we left the pumpkin patch, we went down to the little store on the farm.

The girls had fun throwing the leaves.

Faith decided to wake up and play a little bit too since she slept through the pumpkin patch.

We had a great time! This time of year is wonderful. It is definitely my favorite season. It is just so beautiful. I'm glad that we had some friends to share the day with :)

The Look

This is Madeline's new look that she gives people. She will do it when she gets hurt as if we were the one's that hurt her. She might do it for no reason, like maybe she is thinking very hard about something. She has been squinting her eyes at strangers too. It isn't a very friendly face. But, it makes me laugh. It is so serious.

A Sunday Afternoon Walk

Last Sunday we took a walk around our neighborhood. Of course, Madeline doesn't really stay in her stroller much anymore. She would much rather walk and explore on her own.

Our first stop was the gazebo. No we don't start singing "I am sixteen going on seventeen..." anytime we go in the gazebo.

We have a beautiful lake right behind our condo. It is getting especially beautiful now that the leaves are beginning to change. Too bad someone stole our canoe so we can't take Madeline out in it. If you need to read the story of our canoe, click here. (Except the real ending is that someone stole it for good this time.)

Instead of riding in her stroller, Madeline would much rather push it.

We had to stop and smell the flowers...

...and inspect them. Madeline sure has been practicing to be a flower girl lately. She loves to pull off all the petals. So, if you are in need of one, just let us know.

We really do live in a beautiful area.