Foto Friday

Here are some pictures from Saturday, July 25th through Friday, July 31st. The highlight of our week was taking Maddie to the beach for the first time, so those are the only pictures you get for this week :) Daddy came home this morning but it's been a crazy kind of day so we haven't gotten the camera out yet...

She would stand in the sand, but didn't dare take a step!

Touching the wet sand. She couldn't handle the dry sand, only the wet sand :)

Believe it or not, Maddie was actually facing Steph until this little wave came up. It kind of lifted her up and turned her sideways...she just kept on playing :)

Digging in the sand.

Crawling back toward the water for some more swimming.

Chasing the poor bird...

Posing on a random boogie board :) Remember I mentioned how she loves to wear her sunglasses? Eventually they became covered in sand so we had to take them off...

I wrote "Maddie 7-29-09 Galveston, TX" in the sand...you can't see it, but I promise that's what it says :)

Does this look like the most whiniest face you've ever seen?!?! I don't know what was going on here, I probably just snapped the picture at the wrong time (I ALWAYS get caught with those faces!). I just like how you can see all the sand trapped in her neck...gross! By the way, you can click on any of these photos and it'll open up to a full screen size. I think I mentioned that last week, but just in case I happen to have someone new checking out my blog today...)

Wrinkle toes :)

A Day at the Beach

Maddie had her first REAL day at the beach today! Since Steph's here to visit, we've been getting out more to do things we don't do on a normal basis...so we decided to head down to Galveston for the day. When I first put Maddie's feet in the sand she wasn't a fan. She IMMEDIATELY pulled her feet back up (thank God I hadn't let go of her!) and whined a little. I kept insisting on her putting her feet in and she seriously didn't want anything to do with it. Unfortunately I had no choice but to sit her in the sand while I got our beach blanket prepared and put sunscreen on us. Then we started walking down toward the water and Maddie was ok walking in the wet sand. I guess she just doesn't like that really sandy stuff. Even though it all sticks to your skin the same, the initial feel is different. So we got to the water and our first "wave" came in (you know, it was about 2 inches high by the time it got to our feet...). At first she had this look on her face like she didn't know what to think. Usually we're the ones going to the water, this is the first time the water came up to meet her! Steph was taking some pictures of Maddie as the first "wave" came in so I'll post those here so you can see her thought sequence. She was just so much fun. She was completely fearless when it came to the water, she crawled right down into the surf and played around. She even put her face in the water like she does in the pool and the tub. She definitely didn't like the taste of this new water...I don't like the taste of salt water either, ESPECIALLY in Galveston! YUCK! Maddie enjoyed playing with seashells on the beach and picking up the wet sand and dropping it. It's amazing to me how she was just naturally drawn to pick up the seashells, I didn't point them out or anything but she found them and picked them up. It was really cute :)

The Amazing Madeline

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE to just sit and watch Maddie? She is so incredibly smart and had the most amazing imagination. It really seems these days that she's doing something new on a daily basis. Her newest words are "coffee", "baby", and "color". She's also saying Ma Ma more and can point out Ma Ma and Da Da in pictures. She's been trying to yawn...which I think is just the most hilarious thing! She'll have a big yawn and then it seems like she enjoyed it so much that she wants to do it again :) She just opens her mouth really big. Another thing she's started is stacking. She used to stack her food on top of her sippy cup, but now she's stacking her toys on top of each other. She stacks up two wooden blocks then squeals and claps for herself. She's hilarious! Yesterday we stopped to eat out and she balanced her sippy cup on the side of the highchair. She let out a loud squeal and applauded herself. What could I do but laugh? Maddie has this girly truck that her Pappy and Grandma BJ got her for her birthday and it has a little truck bed in the back and she likes to stand her little puppy in the back. She HAS to have it standing upright, it can't be on its side. It's so fun to watch her really concentrate and try to figure out how to get it to stand upright. Now, if we could just get her to read her books upright!

One of the silliest things Maddie's into right now are her sunglasses. She says "glasses" in her own little almost-14-month-old way and I put them on her face. This morning she left them on while she was playing in the playroom for about 20 minutes. She'll leave them on if we're at the store (inside the store), she left them on just about all day when we went to Sea World, but she WILL NOT leave them on in the car! She cracks me up :) She certainly does draw a lot of attention to herself when she has her glasses on. Especially little kids, who don't know how to contain their emotion/excitement, say "awwww....look at the baby" to their parents all the time. It makes me laugh every time!

I know there are a ton of other things she's been doing the past few days but I just can't think of them now...it's almost 10pm and I should be sleeping :) Tomorrow we're going to the beach!! Maddie was at the beach last year but, of course, she doesn't remember it. I'm anxious to see what she thinks about the sand and the waves. Hopefully she'll have lots of fun...she loves swimming and splashing so hopefully the ocean will be fun for her! We weren't able to get any sand buckets or toys, apparently all the stores sell out of those by the end of July...oh well. I'll take some measuring cups and plastic cups or something and we'll see what we can do with all that :) Let's all pray Maddie doesn't eat TOO much sand tomorrow!

We'll update with pictures and more stories of Maddie soon...plus Daddy will be home in just over 48 hours!! Pray that Maddie will walk to him in the airport (she CAN walk, she's just selective about when she does it) and that she'll welcome him back home with open arms!

Foto Friday

Here are some pictures from Saturday, July 18th through Friday July 24th. Steph came to visit us from Baltimore and brought some new toys for Maddie. So far we've gone swimming and took a mini-vacation to San Antonio! Of course we have about 400 pictures from this trip, but here are some highlights...

I LOVE my new Ponies

Who says I don't have hair??

Swimming with my favorite cousin

I love cinnamon toast so much I like to wear it as a hat!

Me and Steph at the Alamo. I cried when Mommy wouldn't let me swim in this fountain.

Me and Mommy playing at the Alamo

REALLY?!?! We get to go to Sea World tomorrow?!?!

Eating at Landry's on the Riverwalk

I know where my eyes are now and everything I hold has to point to my eyes...

Big bite of garlic bread!

The bread pointing to my eye.

Waiting for a show to start at Sea World.

What an exhausting day!

I thought Shamu was SO FUNNY!

She's Walking!!!!!!

Foto Friday

Here are some pictures from Saturday, July 11th through Friday, July 17th...

Here's me taking a walk holding Mommy's hand.

Giving Daddy lots of kisses.

Smelling my feet :)

I like to grab Murphy's tongue when she's getting a drink from my swimming pool.

Mommy loves my "old lady" butt and legs :)

My little curls.

I had my first Oreo cookie this week.

I got a new toy from Grandma "Goggee" Rexroth for my birthday.

Mommy let me play in the grass naked...I'm going to HATE this picture when I get older!

Having a naked picnic in the kitchen...just having some grapes.

Silly Girl!

Yesterday Maddie and I went out to eat and I ordered her chicken fingers. I LOVE honey mustard dressing so I thought I'd see if she liked it too. I had given her a few bites of plain chicken and then snuck a honey mustard one in her mouth. She bit down, scrunched up her face and then reached her little fingers in her mouth, pulled the chicken out and handed it to me. :) I then tried the honey mustard and it was NASTY...too much vinegar in it. I felt bad for letting her try that bad stuff. Oh well, one day she'll like it.

One of Maddie's newest habits is storing food in her mouth when she's done eating. Tonight after her dinner I had washed her face and her hands then we went to play in the playroom. She kept grunting instead of talking and I noticed she was keeping her mouth closed. So I asked her if she still had food in there. She reached her little fingers in her mouth and pulled out the skin from a grape and handed it to me. Until now I had to fight her to take the stored food out of her mouth. I'm glad she's giving it up on her own now...as long as she continues to hand it to me and not drop it on the floor!

Maddie started saying "hi" today. We were shopping at the Houston Premium Outlets and she kept saying "hi" to people. :) I guess my shy little girl is starting to come out of her shell! Well, maybe not. As soon as anyone says "hi" back to her, she turns her face away. She's so goofy!

Peek-a-book Pictures

Here are the pictures of Maddie doing peek-a-boo all by herself :) She cheats a little, but it's so cute to see her really interacting!

And the Winner Is...

My opinion my be somewhat biased, but I believe my baby is the best in the world! She's the prettiest, most intelligent, bravest, most independent baby ever. Ok, maybe not (besides, we still need to work on more hair!), but I am so proud of her for all of her accomplishments. She amazes me every day with something new. This morning she said "A, B, C, D" in that order! It wasn't all run together like you just read it, but she said all four of those letters in the correct order. Amazing, huh? So what if it was purely coincidental? My baby is S.M.A.R.T.! Today I started teaching her "what does the A say" trying to teach her that like I teach her what animals say. We'll see tomorrow if she's retained it :) If I can get her to know her letter sounds by the time she's two, she'll definitely be heading off to Ivy League! Uh oh...we've only paid for a Texas state school...looks like she'll have to be an over-achiever at a small school! :) Hey, valedictorian at any school is just as good!

Now on to Maddie's physical accomplishment of the day. Oh, there are two of them, actually! First, we were in the kitchen this morning and she pulled up at my legs (like she ALWAYS does) and then just held on to my nightgown. She held on to just my nightgown with one hand and we walked all the way from the kitchen to the playroom! She was pretty wobbly since my nightgown wasn't a steady surface for holding her up, but she did it! Then this evening I took her in the playroom and stood her down on the floor. She bent her knees and was bouncing for a few seconds! Her balance is getting a lot better when she's standing still but to see her bouncing was so exciting! So we kept playing "bouncy bouncy bouncy". I was bouncing with her and I was "losing my balance" and falling over too. I made a big deal about how clumsy Mommy is and said "ouch" really dramatically and she thought that was so funny. I had read an article online about how parents should make themselves trip and fall sometimes so their babies can see them...apparently it helps boost the child's confidence level. When they see adults trip and fall it makes them realize they aren't the only ones who do it. Hopefully with me acting like such a fool she'll start walking by the time Daddy gets home! He'll be home in 2 weeks, 6 days (yes, it's basically 3 weeks but it makes me feel better to look at it as 2 weeks, 6 days, it just feels shorter that way) :)

First Foto Friday

I just thought of something new to do with my blog. Every Friday (when I'm home) I'll post "this week in photos". Here's what happened from Saturday July 4th through Friday July 10th...


I had my first taste of candy


I got into some sticky situations


I tried putting the pieces back together


I made quite a splash!


More than one sticky situation this week!


I played outside A LOT


I had some new obstacles to overcome


And I made some new friends and invited them for an after breakfast tea party.