Letting go, down the slide....

Blog postings have slowed down these past few months and I guess we have just figured out why, we seem to be spending most of our time chasing after Madelyn, or playing with her. Pictures are also hard to come by as she is constantly in motion rarely stopping for more than 10-20 seconds with each toy, gone are the days where we could stick her on the couch and pose her for a few shots.

Madelyn continues to love her new found freedom. I took her to the playground this weekend, her favorite thing to do as always is to watch what the other big kids are doing. If they scoop up bark chips and mound them into piles, then Maddy is sure to follow suit. She loves to climb and after getting to the top of the equipment all that is usually left to do is slide back down, usually a problem with only one parent around. However we watched a 17month old named Colin slide down on his belly-feet first, so of course Maddy wanted in on the fun, so down she went. It was hard letting go of her little hands and the slide made for a good parallel of sorts, but part of process of raising a kid must be knowing when to let go. She loved it so much that she raced back to the steps and wanted to do it again. It's amazing to think that a little over a year ago we took home a newborn and now we have this little person running around. We also managed to get to the Mountlake Terrace pool for another swim session.

Another milestone this weekend was the daycare center at the YMCA. I've taken her into it a few times to get used to the place, the first time we left her, she came absolutely unglued. Saturday was actually different, she cried for about 5 minutes, the cry that peels paint from the walls and tingles the eardrums of everybody who is near, then surprisingly she settled down for the next 45 minutes and played with the toys. Her favorite activity is getting into and out of the little kids chairs, sitting down fascinates her and she's always happy to find a chair that fits her.

Still a picky eater at dinner time but thank goodness for blueberries, strawberries and most recently Pita bread.

New Shoes

Madelyn is still adjusting to life on two feet and like any one year old loves to explore anything and everything within her reach. The new shoes that came today were a big hit.
She can walk around on flat surfaces just fine, scoot backwards when she wants to and has begun to realize that the subtleties of walking on grass or an uneven surface. At the playground yesterday she wanted to get on the slide so from afar we commented, "No way she gets up on that herself", sure enough she hiked a leg up, tossed it onto the slide and climbed on, stood up and proceed to try to walk up the slide as far as she could, while her Dad ran over to act as a spotter.

Still a picky eater, she likes white bread, Ummmmmmm, blueberries and the old stand-by, cheese. Closing doors is a new trick that she's learned, often times she'll shut herself in our walk-in closet with the lights out. I guess I would be more impressed if she turned the lights on first. The cats are still her friends, she'll laugh and bend down to pet Wyatt whenever he's in the room with her.

Portsmouth, NH part II

The heat and the duration of our trip wore us out so we did not venture too far on Sunday. We spent our last afternoon in Portsmouth touring the historical museum of Strawberry Banke. A group of citizens formed the museum in 1957 when the neighborhood was threatened to be demolished. Homes that were available for tours range from about the 1680's up to the 1940's. The Goodwin house shown below was just one example of a ship captains home, built around 1812.

We woke up at 3:30am on Monday to finish packing and drive into Boston to catch our flight, I think Madelyn was about the only person who slept the night before. Google maps led us on a wild goose chase of some seedy neighborhoods near the airport on the way back to Thrifty car rental, we eventually found our way, boarded the plane and crossed our fingers. But we apparently did not have Karma on our side for the return trip and Madelyn proved to be a extremely difficult flyer. She screamed so much that Alaska took away her frequent flyer miles for the trip, apparently the first time the airline has done so for a toddler. The little woman just wanted to get down and walk around but on a crowded 737 that's just not an option.

So we pulled out every trick in the book and then some to calm her down. I especially loved the dirty looks that a few passengers shot us, yes your evil stares helped immensely in calming our child down. The tears eventually ran dry, our ears split open from the sound, she played with the two kids in the row behind us, and finally we landed in Seattle. We are happy we took the trip, overjoyed to be back home and are not getting on a plane again for a very long time.

Portsmouth, NH

We landed in Portsmouth, NH for a few days. It's a great port city with lots of Colonial and Victorian buildings still in tack, think of a city with about 10 times the number of historic buildings of Port Townsend and founded in about the 1640's to get an idea of what it's like. Last night we took a harbor cruise, the first half was great but the second half was rough due to be couped up on a boat.

Sunset Cruise

This photo is great because is shows how independent Madelyn has become at times. Just a week ago we needed 10 minutes in a new place before she would be willing to check things out on her own. Now it's more like 10 seconds to get the lay of the land and she's off and running.

Checking things out with Angus

Helping Mom pack

Fishing boats in Portsmouth Harbor

Great Grammie

The real focus of our trip was to introduce Madelyn to her Great-Grandmother and celebrate her birthday. We enjoyed a few lunch at the "Fruitlands", a family favorite, in the town of Harvard where Grammie grew up. We also played at her apartment every day until Madelyn's legs gave out from exhaustion every day. Now that she is walking, she does not want to stop and after 30-40 minutes they just turn to Jello and start giving out.

Trying to snatch Grammie's purse.

Acting cute for the camera

On Thursday we went to Sturbridge village. It's a historical town frozen in about the 1830's. People are all dressed up and you can wander around and watch a blacksmith make horseshoes and see what life was like back then.

Skip & Barb

"Digging for Crackers"

To say the flight out to Boston was long was a understatement. Madelyn has entered a new phase of attachment and picked her Dad as the preferred parent for the flight, so that meant I got to try to hold on to a wiggling 1 year old for the 4.5 hours that she was awake. Luckily we had Truman in the seat behind her, a 2 year old, so the two of them played a game of peek-a-boo for what seemed like hours at a time. The three kids in the seats in front of us proved to be equally entertaining. When the turbulence kicked in after lunch the 8 year old "lost his cookies", that set off giggles in our row.

Karin's cousin Skip and wife Barb were good enough to let us stay with them for the first two nights. She warmed up to them then next day but was still too clingy due to all the changes to let anybody but us two hold her. Madelyn has continued to stay on West Coast time, give or take 1/2 hour.

Cousin Barb

Cousin Skip

"New Outfit!! Thank You Barb & Skip!"

One Year!

What a exciting year this has been for us, we brought home a baby girl a year ago and today we have a toddler walking around our house. This year has gone by in the blink of an eye, it's like life on overdrive with new surprises every day.

10 Weeks

Some fun numbers and moments from the past year:
Mike's Favorite moments - first giggle and smile, learning to walk and perhaps the best of all , the first time she dropped her 11pm feeding.
Karin's Favorite moments - after nap time and the 2nd time she slept though the night.
Least Favorite Moment: Learning that she had hip Displasia, the first 12 hours after her birth.
Number of diapers changed = ~1,800

6 Months

Number of teeth: 4 lower and 4 upper
Weight gain: Mom= None of you business, Dad=10lbs, Madelyn=16lbs, Wyatt=-1lbs
Biggest surprise: Not taking a bottle until 6 months. How much work it takes to raise a child, sleep deprivation.
Favorite foods: Ravioli, blueberries & cheese.
Favorite word: "Itthey" - translation, Kitty and "Hiii"

8 Months

Favorite time of day: "Any time Dad comes home."
Favorite Neighbor: Abby the next door neighbor's dog.
Favorite Toy: Anything that Mom or Dad happens to have in their hands, remote, phone or keys.
Favorite Song: Folsom Prison Blues by Johny Cash and 5 Little Monkeys jumping on the bed.
Number of Blog posts: 78
Number of Pictures: 4,000+
Hours of Video: 10

11 Months

1st Birthday!

Madelyn's birthday party was at St Edward's park last Sunday afternoon. Everything went well until the cupcake came out, maybe the frosting scared her. Luckily the balloons and all the generous gifts made her smile.

Tumbling

As if learning to walk was not enough, Madelyn has decided this week to start tumbling or so it seems. She dives in and out of her garden play set about 10 times a day. Normally my pictures are just of a leg or two flopping over the side but I was lucky to catch the entire sequence yesterday.

Her cousin Jr. was in town last week, much to her delight. She played a few good games of "knock the blocks off" with him. New foods this week were Blueberries (big-hit), Strawberries, pieces of bread and Veggie Booty.

Walking

* New 11month slide-show and videos this week

Madelyn is slowing learning how to walk, she can't stand upright on her own for very long or stop after she starts walking, so most of the time she ends up falling on her butt or crashing into whatever she is headed for after 4-5 steps. Each days sees improvement so it won't be long before she's motoring around everywhere, this will surely freak the cats out.

Eating is still a challenge at times, she won't let us feed her anymore and giving her a spoon is just an invitation to watch her fling food all over the place, so it's on to the finger foods. Some of her favorites are black&kidney beans(this sounds strange but our child loves these to no end and will eat about a 1/4 cup of them at a time, cheese(string and cubed), pears, blueberries, raisins, grapes, bananas, avocados, raviolis, and of course what kid would not like Cheerios. All of these foods are subject to her mood at any given time, one week she'll be really into something and the next week she won't even touch it. We went though a stage where she really only wanted to eat crackers for every meal, now she spits them out and does not want anything to do with them. She still will offer you a taste of what she's eating if you show interest in what's on her tray and will gladly stuff as many beans or raisins into your mouth as you can stand.

Here are some more pictures from the photo shoot last week:

"I hate the Grass!! (well this week anyway)"

Toddling around

A few of the Pictures from the last Peps photo shoot with Sandi are in.

Guess who does not like Grass!?

Usually when we are not trying to help her Madelyn will take a step or two. She still prefers to crawl but is becoming more and more excited when she walks on her own. While it's only from the couch to a toy or from the window to the kitchen table, it's neat to watch the progress.

Yes - That's a pack of String Cheese in the Kitchen Gadget drawer c/o Mom. We both find ourselves putting things back where they don't belong lately. We've also found a few interesting items in the fridge that did not need to be there :)

No more Monkeys jumping on the bed!

Never ending box of Tissues

Karin has played a few songs so many times for Madelyn that she's starting to recognize them, her favorite so far is "5 Little Monkeys", who jump on a bed. Anyway it sounds corny but she loves the song.

First Haircut

Two more teeth are erupting in Madelyn's mouth this week. Teething must be a painful process for kids, I can only imaging what it must be like, her upper two teeth have started to poke their way though her gum's and we have our good days and bad days. She's recently figured out that feeding Mom and Dad one of her Cheerios or a grape can be great fun and gets pretty excited about doing so, maybe she's trying to get us back for all the food we have been stuffing into her lately. Her tastes are changing as well, she starting to like sweeter foods as well as her green beans, peas and spinach. "Happy Snack" is what we call her whole-grain fruit bars that she loves so much, this girl would do anything for one of these little treats, maybe the fact that Big Bird is on the wrapper helps out.

We went to the pool for the first time this weekend. Pools have changed radically since our childhood. This one had a huge kids area with only 1ft of water in it and rubber mats on the floor, I'm jealous that the pools of my childhood were not like this. After she warmed up to the place we splashed around for the better part of an hour.

Our first bike ride to the park this weekend went as well as expected. We'll still need to do some more work with the helmet but she seemed to do OK in her trailer.

Socket Wrench

It's been awhile since our last post, lots to report. Madelyn not walking yet but loves to hold on to your hands and try her best. She started clapping today and seemed to surprise herself by doing so. She's also better able to play with herself, often times rolling around in her crib with her "fussies" for 15-20 minutes after she wakes up in the mornings.

Always eager to lend a helping hand, and give advice on how to install the new dishwasher. Dad's socket set must look better than a pile of Christmas presents to her.

Feeding Mom for change

Pepe

I don't need no stinking bib

Kaitlyn asking, "Where did you get all that hair?"

The bike trailer was not a hit until it got moving.

"Well ok, I guess I like it"

Loving the backpack

Checking out the horses.