1st Birthday party invite and Zoo Trip

Maddox went to her first birthday party last weekend. Our next door neighbor turned 3 and invited her to his Batman party. She even got a cape! She's coming out of the batcave.

There was a pinata and M was the last one to get a change to pull the strings. She chose the right string and all the candy came falling. She was a little confused by this. But once the bigger kids got all the candy they wanted she had a great time gathering and organizing what was left. No, we didn't take it home!

On Monday Jeremy had the day off so we went to the zoo. This panther had his eye on a guy working in the woods because he thought me might have food. He was pacing back and forth in front of that window right by Maddox.

A helicopter in the Elephant exhibit.

I guess the rest of those didn't really need explanation. Typical zoo activities. We stayed until about 2:30 and she promptly fell asleep in the car. She had a good time checking out all the animals and got plenty of exercise running all around the zoo. So did I, carrying her on my shoulders and back! She quickly figured out the stroller was not half as fun as Mom's shoulders or back!

The now annual fall trip to see the Chiefs play and visit a new bball stadium!

I'm going to start this blog by documenting the fact that my crepe myrtle is FINALLY blooming after being in the ground for about 3 yrs. now. My dad bought it and put it there and is greatly relieved (as I am) to see it blooming finally. Yeah! So anyway, we set our alarms for 1am Sat. morning so we could leave by 2am to drive up to Washington DC. We wanted to spend a half day there before driving on north to Baltimore. And that way Maddox slept in the car. So we got to DC about 7:15 on Sat. which is a great time to arrive if you want a good parking spot right along the Mall. We wandered around and saw all the memorials and white house and ate our breakfast on the Lincoln memorial steps. Here's J and M in front of the Washington monument.Behind us is the new WWII Memorial and of course beyond that the Washington Monument again.

Maddox thought it was great fun to run with us. Especially after sitting in the car for 5 1/2 hours.

She's so tiny compared to the Lincoln Memorial!

Goofing around at the Korean War Mem. which is off to the left.

After spending the early morning wandering around all the memorials we went to the Holocaust museum for a couple of hours and then to the Air and Space Museum. Obviously the Holocaust museum was not much fun for Maddox so we found the hands on area in the Air and space museum and let her loose.

We then started walking back to the car where we had a picnic out of our trunk on a bench by the Mall. On the National Mall in front of the Capitol:

After DC we drove north to pick up my parents at the airport and drove on into Baltimore. That night we just went out to dinner and wandered around the inner harbor.
"Mom, this bike isn't really a comfortable ride."

When the science museum on the inner harbor closed they brought out all the left over bubbles for people to play with. She couldn't figure out that you didn't have to blow these bubbles, that you were supposed to wave them. Whatever, she was having lots of fun . . .

Maybe too much fun . . .

After getting up at 1am to drive, and a long day sightseeing Jeremy and I decided to utilize our free babysitters and go to Howl at the Moon. Can't pass up a chance to go to a dueling piano bar!! We only stayed a couple of hours and were home by 10. What partyers. But it was fun anyway. Short but sweet.

Sunday morning we got up and walked down to the Ravens stadium without any tickets. Since it was the home opener it was a lot harder to get tickets than expected and all the scalpers wanted $100/ticket. My limit was $75 (for 55 dollar seats). So Jeremy and I split up and left Mom and Dad and went searching. If you ever have to buy tickets like this be a woman and have a baby with you. Then you don't get picked on by all the Ravens fans and you get 4 tickets for $290 instead of the $400 they wanted.

It was pretty warm out there! Sometime early in the 3rd quarter I got Maddox to fall asleep and she slept until the end of the game.

In between drunk people falling on Dad and other drunks wanting to start something with Jeremy we had a good time! The Chiefs lost of course, but did better than i though they would!

Monday morning we went to the aquarium. We did it all including the Dolphin Show and the 4D theater show. We got warned that M would probably be scared in the 4D theater and we'd have to leave if she cried. She was fine and intrigued. She wore her glasses for the last half of the movie and only jumped when she got water squirted on her.
Grandma and M looking at the fish:

Found a sandbox--one of her favorites

Big fish . . . I think we have a picture just like this from last fall's Atlanta trip and the aquarium there.

Towards the end of the Aquarium visit Maddox was getting hangry (hungry/angry) so she threw herself on the floor and started kicking. That lasted about 10 seconds before she realized that we didn't care and it was more fun to laugh and be tickled.
Monday night after the aquarium we went to a Baltimore Orioles game. They played Tampa Bay which is mom and dad's new team and TB won. Maddox kept pointing and saying "bay ball". J and I and M stayed for the whole game until about 10:15. Then she kept saying "bye bye bay ball".

M knew what she was supposed to do with these binoculars, she just couldn't quite get it right. She tried and tried!

After a while Grammy, Maddox and I wandered down to the kid's zone where M played and got balloons ("boons").

On the drive home from Baltimore we stopped to have lunch at a park and play on the playground. Maddox's feet got really dirty but luckily one of her favorite things to do is clean. Giving her a wet wipe took up another 20 minutes.

We got her one of those drawing magnetic board toys for the car and she played with it for over an hour. She loves it! She also played with it this morning for about 25 min. in my bed while I kept sleeping. I'm liking this toy!

Maddox was so good the whole trip. A lot of long days, very late afternoon naps or just very short ones in the stroller or a lap, and late nights, and she never got grumpy or fussy. As long as she's on the go she's happy and so easy going!

It's another rainy day here in NC so I got out her Elefun which she's hasn't seen since she got it for her birthday. She just holds her net up in the air and hopes a butterfly falls in.

I am now going to be late picking up the kids at school . . . gotta shower and get going! Thanks Mom and Dad (Gammy and Papa) for a great trip! Let's do it again next year!

End of the Summer Fun

I'm about to put Maddox down for a nap but I thought first I'd try to see if her hair could go up in pig tails. The top is still so short so it doesn't look quite right, but the back view is adorable! it looks like she has bangs from her forehead to about 3 inches back off her forehead. Sort of a mullet look. I can't wait until that top stuff grows out too. ----- and in the 30 seconds it took me to type these previous sentences she pulled one out. She never leaves anything in her hair anymore unless she's highly distracted from it being there. She was trying on last year's Chiefs jersey to see if it fit in preparation for going to Baltimore for the season opener in a couple of weeks. Still fits. Maybe if I put her hair in pig tails for the game people won't say what a cute little boy she is like they did last year.Grady came over for a bit the other night so I blew up 2 beach balls for them to play with. Guess who's hiding at the other end of this curtain? Peekaboo!

This is how she goes to bed every night now. I read her a couple books and of course she wants more so I give her one in bed. She'll lay there in the dark for at least 20 minutes reading, babbling and fall asleep with the book firmly in her grasp. It's also there for the morning when she wakes up so she's happy for another 20-30 minutes without waking me up yet! Yesterday our church had a picnic out at Tanglewood Park with inflatable jumpers, car show, volleyball, playground, music, and food. We headed out for the last mid 80s day, at least for this week. Today it's a high of 65, 20 degrees colder than yesterday!

First we went to the pool.I told Daddy to hold her hand as she got up to the chest deep water but he refused saying she was fine. She wants to hold someone's hand, she knows she's wobbly. 3 seconds later she was completely underwater. We grabbed her fast and she ws surprised and frightened, but fine!Now Dad will hold her hand, point proven. Maddox and Dad both crying because they blew the whistle for the hourly sit-out time.

Trying her best to do something interesting and fun with these goggles.

She's trying to grab my tongue while sticking out hers. Finally figured out what to do with those goggles:

The inflatables were only for kids over 3 which Maddox was not happy about. But once we showed her the playground with the huge sandbox she was content and would have been for hours.Before we left I took up her to the top of one of the slides so I could let her try it just once. The rules were right, there's no way a 1 yr old could have done that by herself! WAY too squishy! She did have a big grin on by the bottom of the slide.Video of Maddox and Grady dancing and playing:

In other news, she has all 16 of her teeth as of last week. The top two canines have just the tip sticking out, but they're there. No more teeth until 2 yr molars!! And she's feeding herself about most of the meals that I give her. I just have to try not to look to much or I take it away and do it myself. But she's not too bad at it. She just has some problems scooping up the more difficult things which I hold her hand and scoop for her and she feeds herself. But she can spoon up the easier things by herself. But last week she picked up her big girl cup of milk and tipped it too much and spilled it (which she's usually successful at) and now won't even try. She picks it up and hands it to me with a whine. She was pretty upset about the spilt milk even though I kept saying "it's okay, it's okay, we can clean it up." I can hear you all doling out your advice as I type . . . Don't cry over spilt milk! It's true!

She's saying some new words if I ask her to repeat after me. I'm glad that she finally feels like she can try to copy me and isn't so unsure about it. Today I told her where the toilet was so I could teach her about that object and I said pee pee goes in it. Can you say pee pee? She said "pee pee" in her cute little high voice. I said can you say poop? She said "poop". She's attempting some words today anyway!

18 months old!

Maddox turned 18 months old a little over a week ago. It's hard to believe my little girl is 1 1/2 years old! But time does move on doesn't it? She went to the doctor a couple days ago for her check up and shots. She's still in the 90%ile for height and about 10%ile for weight. She weighs only 20 lbs and 6 oz., a half a pound more than she did at 15 months. She got her hemaglobin checked again and her iron is fine now so she'll start taking just normal daily vitamins. She popped her second lower canine through a couple of days ago and the top two canines are working hard at doing the same. She has good days and bad days regarding that, but really hates it when I brush her upper teeth.

She's starting to use words regularly now and repeating new words sometimes. Tonight she went to the garage and pointed to and asked for "ball?", asked me to take off her "shoe?" (always with a question sound to it) by lifting her foot up to me, uses the words with the the sign language for "mo" (more) and "peas" (please). She'll point to and say "eye" "ear" "ose" (nose) "knee" "aaa" for mouth, and "oo" for foot. She likes the vowels much more than the consanants. She still loves to go to her room, close the door, and read to herself. She also loves to play on her toddler slide in the yard, or the neighbors. she can go up and down all by herself and loves the attention when we watch and applaud.

About a month ago she easily gave up her pacie at night. We had been reading a book for a couple of months about no more pacies, so one night I just took hers out and hid it behind me and she didn't look for it. So I put her to bed and she fussed a little but never even really cried. It wasn't that important to me so I said if she really cried I'd give it back and try later. But she went to sleep after about 10 min. of whining and that was that. No more problems after that one night! I still give it to her at nap time because we have much less consistentcy in that. Sometimes here, sometimes at the Bacons. She needs that to make her feel comfortable and I know that time will be harder for her. But I might try after our trip to Baltimore, before Thanksgiving. That'll give me a couple of months. Again, not really important to me. And if it means she doesn't cry in the car on long trips, she can have it!

I really don't have many pictures. We haven't done many exciting things lately that warranted taking the camera with us. We watched Grady a couple of days this week so they got to play a lot. One day she was sitting on the couch (which she can finally get up on on her own) reading and I guess he wanted to do that too. So he crawled up and sat in her lap. I don't think that's what she had in mind.

So I put them each in their own spot to read and they were content for a bit.Well, until something more exciting happens . . . I'm off for a quiet movie night with myself! i don't have to worry about Jeremy falling asleep during my rental for once since he's at work until 11!