The Lily Pad

Madelyn has started drinking whole milk out of a cup and instead of the trademark mustache she had a milk beard. Here is my attempt to capture her for her very own Got Milk ad. OK, looks good, let's lose the cup... So close, I just need the cup a little more out of the shot... Beautiful! Work it baby! This is perfect! Ummm...not so much. That last picture is totally my favorite, she was making hte face because I pulled the cup away from herand tried to get her to laugh. You can totally see the milk dripping off her chin and on to her chest.

Dear Madelyn, This month I am forgoing the usual raves of how much you amaze me and how much you have changed in favor of listing my favorite things in our day to day lives, the things I don't want to forget, that I love more than anything and without them I think my world would collapse onto itself in a black hole of despair. I love your crooked little grin, you crinkle your nose and show your teeth. Sometimes this grin is more than even you can handle and you pull your shoulders to your ears while you are doing it. Your full body hugs. Almost everytime I pick you up you hug with your arms, your legs, and your face burying it deeply into my shoulder. I love how after a car ride, no matter how short you will grab me like we haven't seen each other in months. How excited you are on weekends when you sit up in bed and Daddy AND Domino are in bed with us. You are so happy and so excited that you don't know which way to go first. Your fat rolls. I love them so much I think...

I have a new friend Jessica and she was totally at the park yesterday but I didn't blog her because well...she didn't fight the killer caterpillar although she did try to block my picture so that she could blog it and she wasn't a kid. So this post is gonna be all about Jessica. She's such a Marsha Brady. You should see her at the gym, all checking her herself out in the mirror all the time. She only wants to work with the freeweights because the machines are too far away from the mirror and when she runs on the treadmill she picks the one closest to the mirror so she can get ideas for her Myspace picture. Speaking of her Myspace, she doesn't have a picture up because she thinks she's too good for Myspace and is afraid that her beauty will crash the server. Of course she visited the blog yesterday and was so jealous that I didn't mention her. I'm afraid that she might try to beat up Bonnie or hide the kids in a closet or something because I mention...

I'll do my letter to Madelyn later, but first here are some pictures of how she spent her 11 months birthday. A trip to the park! Happy RUMP Day! She loved playing on the slide. Not to actually slide down it of course, just to sit and climb and crawl. Oh and for mommy to bonk her (Madelyn's) head on during one of many pant pulling up sessions. Tearing up and trying to eat leaves. Notice the nastiness on the toes... Passing out in the stroller with Emma Kay It's so much fun now that she can actually play at the park. Her knees were nasty, her toes and hands were black and she had a blast. She and her new friend Emmalyn got their fiber by shoving wood chips in their mouths just as fast as we could get it out of their hands and sneaking leaves in as soon as they could. Emma-Kay kept running off and climbing on the playground equipment and Ian and Miah (another new friend) were so great playing with the babies on the slide. Isaak (Miah's little brother) slept and slept a...

Last night as I was picking noodles out of Madelyns fat rolls in the shower I had a mini-breakdown and started crying. Yesterday we got some news that turned our entire plan for the next several months upside down and while it's nothing we can't handle I was just having a hard time processing it all. You know how when you have a fantastic plan and all these exciting fun expectations and then all of the sudden not only does your plan change but the opportunity for fun and exciting is greatly diminished and you're taken by surprise because the orders you got only 2 weeks ago should have been good, they should have been right? Yeah, that sucks when it all changes. Anyway, I was crying and it was an ugly cry, a body shaking cry and Madelyn must have thought I was laughing because she grabbed my nose and started cracking up laughing and then when I regained my composure she started bouncing because I had stopped shaking and she wanted to play more. In that moment I remembere...

Madelyn hates to be fed baby food yet she hasn't quite mastered self feeding, so we end up with alot of fun meal times. The fact that the spoon is in her mouth is purely coincidental. Please notice the plump belly, the foot propped up and the apple sauce mustache Scary! Spaghetti face

Here's a short video of Madelyn climbing the stairs. Her FAVORITE thing to do that she's not supposed to. She has learned not to do it and then last week Chris watched her and she climbed them looking for me so now the gate is up all the time. However, I did want to get a video of it because it amazes me how well she climbs! She's such a stinkpot.

Madelyn's latest thing is to throw a fit whenever I tell her "no". She doesn't like it when she doesn't get her way and especially hates it when she's tired. Things like not being allowed to climb the stairs or to eat the dogs food will throw her into a crying fit every time. I usually just just wait until something new gets her attention. On this particular day she was being clingy and wanted me to pick her up, there was no reason for the fussy, she just likes to get her way. Mommy get me! Fine, I'll lay down here and make you pick me up from here! Oh wait. Is that the camera? I'm ready for my close-up! Ok Mom! See you later! Nice talking to you!

I am teaching Madelyn how to use a snack cup so that when we are out shopping I can give her puffs/cheerios without leaving a trail through the stores. The snack cup has a lid with slits so that stuff won't spill out but she can pull things out. She learned quickly to stick her hand in, grab and pull it out with a puff. BUT when you have to have one in each hand and one hand is full of puff already, it creates a dilemna. Puff in her left hand...in goes the right hand Umm....Mom? Concentrating hard... Success! (yes, I set the cup back on the tray, but she got her hand on own)

On Friday we went to Busch Gardens with our friends Craig, Denise, Reese and Paige. Madelyn was too small to ride anything, but she had a great time checking everything out and watching the shows. For her first amusement park, she did excellent. The start of our day. The big scary tree. You can tell that Paige is the only girl interested. Dancing on the table in Germany. With daddy and a lorikeet. This was probably one of her favorite things, she was dying to grab and pet the bird.

Hey baby girl! A few days ago (OK, a week ago) you turned 10 months old. I know I say this every month but I can't believe how much you have grown and changed and learned. Every single day is a new adventure, a new discovery. This month you flew for the first time. You didn't care. We boarded the plane, you flirted with the people around us and then you wanted to nurse so I hooked you up and you were asleep before we even took off and slept the entire flight. Then we had a layover and you were so happy and well behaved and on the second flight, you hooked up and were out again shortly after take off. It was so easy I kept waiting for the inevitable fall back. We got it. After sleeping 9 - 6:30 for 3 weeks you stopped sleeping. I don't know what it was, a new environment (Nanna and Grandaddy's house), a cold, a new tooth, or just a combination of all of the above, but you stopped sleeping and went back to being up every couple of hours. We're still working on getting...

Last week we went shopping with our friends the Wiggins' (Denise, Reese, and Paige) and the Willis' (Amber, Isabel, Ian, and Emma-Kay). Madelyn absolutely LOVES to hang out with friends and did really well being toted from store to store and then the mall. We went to the play area in the mall and you would have thought Madelyn was in heaven. She crawled all over the place and kept me on my toes chasing her down and keeping big kids from stepping on her. Cute little crooked smile! Oops! Try and try again and you'll get to lick a frog. Madelyn and Emma-Kay are so interested in Reese!