Dancing!!

Here is a small, small clip of Madison dancing. I guess she gets camera shy. I'll keep trying to get a longer, better dance from her. Its too cute!!

New "Trick"

This is what Madison likes to do most of the day now. .. Whatever keeps her entertained ..

Not for Madison

Madison DOES NOT want this toy!! I was walking around Toys R Us with my mom last weekend and we saw this toy. Madison was sitting in the cart and I didn't ever notice it, but all of a sudden there is the little wimper and terrified little eyes just staring at it. Then she reaches up for me, wanting me to protect her. So I walked over with her and was trying to get her to "pet" it (mean mommy, I know). ;) I showed her what to do and told her to pet it, she wouldn't move. So, I took her hand and made her fingers touch the face - and she almost burst into tears!! Poor girl! So I quickly diverted her attention and set her on a tricycle - might be her next birthday present, that was a much better toy to be playing with!!



Just a side note, at the last Family Camp, Madison would have been 8 months .. she hated the horses there too. I hope we haven't scared her for life with horses. Mommy loves horses, if I wasn't so allergic to them!! ;)

My new favorite word...

My new favorite word that Madison has started to say is ... Mama!! Aww, I love to hear her say that. ;) She's been saying it for awhile now, but not associating it with me. But in the last couple days, when ever she wants my attention (when am I not paying attention to her?! haha) she just yells out mama or mom! I love it, even if she is already yelling at me at the age of 1! ;)

Silly Girl

Madison is a wild woman!! She does lots of things that she thinks is funny ... and well, it is!! Well, we think so.

These are on the way home from church one Sunday. She was drinking her bottle while sleeping. Now thats talent! ;) She would keep dropping her arm slowly until the bottle fell and she'd grab it and hold it really high - all with her eyes closed. Poor, tired baby!

...

...

Look at this wild woman!! One sock on, one sock off. And that hair is absolutely amazing!!

...

...

Apparently she was stretching for the big game while Mommy was at Ladies Workshop. I didn't know her and Daddy had a game they were playing in. I hope daddy's shoes worked out alright for her!

...

...

Where's Madison?!?

I think I see her!

There she is!!!

...

...

Over the last month to two months I am realizing more and more every day that Madison is not a "baby" anymore! She is getting to be such a big girl!! She has always been very alert and now is just soaking up everything. She points all day long and I try to tell her what I think she is pointing at. ... ... ... She talks a lot!! There are about 15 - 20 words that she says regularly, that Mark and I understand ... I don't know if you would understand them all. And there are probably 20+ words she's said just a few times or repeated after us. ... ... ... I am absolutely amazed at how much SHE actually understands of things I tell her. I can ask a question and she'll shake her head yes or no, to things I didn't know that she knew what I was talking about. ... ... ... If I ask if she wants to go outside she points for her jacket and turns around and crawls backwards to the stair to the entry. ... ... ... She gets so excited when she hears the garage door opening - she points and says, "da, da, da" and she's practically jumping. ... ... ... She mocks a lot of what I do - talk on the phone and clean mostly. ... ... ... If I ask her if she wants a drink she walks over to the fridge, and she prefers to feed herself. ... ... ... She is just amazing, all this stuff she is learning!! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE those little hugs she just walks up and gives me, and the kisses (she's not giving those out much lately). :(

Her new absolutely FUNNIEST thing is dancing!!!! I am going to try sooo hard to get a video of her dancing soon, it is the funniest thing I've ever seen.

Tay

I have been watching Krista and Justin's baby, Kate, in the mornings for about a month now. It has gone easier than I expected, as far as Madison is concerned. Kate is a pretty easy baby to take care of and has been very happy while over here. I was worried Madison would be jealous when I would feed Kate or try to rock her to sleep, but Madison LOVES Kate!! She gets sooo excited when she is here, when she sees her she's almost hyperventilating saying "tay, tay, tay,tay".... or "tate, tate, tate".



One time I let Kate lay in the boppy for a little bit, until she got sick of it. I fed her her bottle, she started to fuss just a little. Madison picked up the boppy and brought it over to me, by my feet and reached up like she wanted to take Kate and lay her in the boppy. I thought it was pretty stinkin cute!! Over Thanksgiving Madison played with a doll at my grandma's house - it was pretty close in size to Kate and we wondered if we should let her play with it .. but we did. Last week when Kate started crying Madison walked over and put her arms around Kate's waist and tried to pick her up; unsuccessfully Krista!!! ;) So I said if she sat down she could hold Kate for a second. This is what we got: (I promise I'm careful, we only did this once)


Madison is loving it; looks like Kate not so much. I think she's saying get this girl away form me, she's too wild for me right now!.



Kate is going for her escape, but Madison is holding on!



Look how excited she was that she got to hold Kate. Think she'll be a good big sister someday?!?

WSU Basketball

Last year Madison went to almost all of the WSU Home Basketball games. When the season started she was probably around 6 weeks old.!. We sat in the student section, which is near the pep band and somehow she managed to sleep at least half of the games. We're not so lucky this year .. she is all over the place. She wants to walk everywhere and she will watch the game on the big screen; sometimes she'll watch the court. We've only been to one game so far, but there are a bunch coming up soon. The first game we went to we tailgated with some friends, here are a few pictures (we'll try to get more posted throughout the season):

Thinking she's a big girl, trying two hold to footballs. She wanted to throw them with the guys, she thought that was pretty cool!

Maddy and Daddy

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was a long, fun weekend. We were in town for lunch on Thanksgiving Day and had lunch with my family. Then went to Pratt Thursday night - Sunday night. Madison had a lot of fun playing around ... and of course, eating! :)

I am very lucky Madison is not as picky of an eater as I am! She will eat anything as long as she knows its NOT baby food.

Making sure she didn't miss any; I don't know if you can tell, but the food is all over her face, arm, hand, and the table. ;)

Look at what I'm eating!!

Yummy! Tea!! She also prefers a real straw.

Playing outside; going for a drive.!.

Yes?! I'm tyring to drive here ... no pictures, please!

And we're off!! ....

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! ... ... ... A week ago at church we had the fall festival. Madison dressed up as a Wichita State cheerleader. She wasn't sure what to think (and she was already tired) - it was very busy, she pretty much just watched everyone play the games and walk around. She did get a little butterfly tattoo that lasted all of two days; she wasn't too sure about that on her arm. Maybe next year she'll enjoy herself a little better!!

Tonight we are just going to a football game with some friends (Brett and Christine; Jesse and Stephanie). Madison wouldn't be eating any candy and mommy certainly doesn't want it sitting around the house. Next year I'm sure Madison will be more into getting candy. She is going to wear her "Little Monster" shirt to the game tonight - we'll post pictures of that later. :)

What A Month

It was a LONG month with Madison's reactions to her shots, burning her finger, and just generally not feeling good. Just in the last couple of days has she returned to her old happy self!! So, we are hoping November brings a much calmer, fun month!

OC Visit

Yesterday Madison and I went down to Oklahoma Christian to visit Aunt Tara. We had a good time, a nice break from being at home doing the usual. ;) Madison did pretty well on the drive down. She finally fell asleep right before I had to pay the toll and then woke up - I think because the lady said hi pretty loud. *shrug* Then an hour later she finally fell asleep again and slept until we got to the the exit. She was VERY confused when she Aunt Tara and Whitney.

We went to the mall to eat and shop and went back to Tara's apartment to hang out for a while. Madison was pretty cute at the mall - you can really tell she watches EVERYTHING now - when I let her out of the stroller she would walk up to the clothes and push them around like she was looking at them and she even grabbed the price tag like she was looking at it!.! It was pretty cute!!

The drive home was very nice - for me! Madison slept the whole way home! She was VERY excited to see her daddy when we got in the door! She missed him with our little adventure yesterday! :)

... ... ...
These pictures are from the mall - Madison pulled her bow out and her hair was standing straight up. She is also obsessed with anyones drink who has a straw (she just figured out how to use a straw in the last week or two). She was trying to get something from my empty cup and then moved on to Tara's sweet tea. :)

Talking?!

If any of you have listened to Madison 'talk' I'm sure you find it as fun/funny as I do. Sometimes, it really sounds like she is saying words that make sense and fit into the conversation. And the way she uses her hands while she talks makes it soooo much more fun to watch her. I talk to her all day long, repeat things if it actually sounds like a word, and if she points I say what it is that I think she is pointing at. I'm sure she doesn't know as many words as it sounds like she is saying, but it is still cute!

For example, yesterday I was at church helping with people getting their pictures taken. Ryan Corcoran was there too, he's in charge of it all, and I just sit there and help him get people signed in. Madison is getting very comfortable with him because yesterday was our 3rd day of helping. She would just walk up to him, look at him very seriously, and just start talking. For a couple of hours it sounded like she was saying something about 'fried rice'. Now, what she has to say about that, I have no idea. But several people thought that's what they heard too.


Anyway, the reason I started this whole post was because when I went in to get her out of her crib this morning I swear this is what I heard: 'I love you so much'. She greets me every morning standing in her crib and either reaches for me or just waves and smiles. So, whether she said it or not, I'm going to act like she did! :) I love her so much too!

Burn

Madison burnt her little finger. :( We had some friends (the Harrold's) over last Friday night. Addison and Madison were playing ALL over the place and Clark was eating. The guys were watching and talking baseball. We were making cookies and all of a sudden Madison is screaming. She is into pulling out every drawer she sees, well she thought she'd try to pull the drawer under the oven (I'm guessing this is what she was doing). Well, if you reach back enough, where the drawer stops there is a little part (about 1/2 in) that is hot when the oven is on. I guess she was trying to reach her hand around the top of the drawer and her hand touched the hot part. She wouldn't move her hand either, I don't know if she thought it was stuck or not. If it was stuck I just pulled on it, I don't really remember. She got a blister on the top of her middle finger and on the end of it (so, if she points you can see it).

She cried for about 45 minutes. Mark got her into a bath and I went up to Walgreens to get supplies to doctor her up. ;) Mark said she was fine in the bath, she just pointed at the blisters and said, "that", "that". After bath, we got her all fixed up and a bottle and she was out! She doesn't even notice it anymore. She doesn't mind just a band-aid on the blister that has popped already, but she hates me bandaging her whole finger up at night. But, I just get her a bottle and she goes to bed and forgets about it. :)

Poor baby :(

Stupid Shots

Madison had her one year shots on October 1. She has always done very well with shots, all we had to do was keep her on Tylenol for the rest of the day and she was fine; but, not this time!!! This time she got the first MMR shot, they told us the usual, she may get a fever. Well, later that night, after Mark's softball games, I was getting her ready for bed and her body was BURNING up!!! I took her temperature and it was 103. We ended up calling the doctor and he told us to alternate Tylenol and Motrin every two hours and give her a lukewarm bath several times throughout the next day or so (he thought the fever would only last 24 hours). Well, it lasted 72 hours - for three days her temperature never went below 100! And I felt HORRIBLE giving her those baths, it was so cold against her little body, she just shivered the whole time and looked at me with the saddest eyes and reaching up for me.!. :( We were excited her temperature finally went down on Saturday night, then on Sunday she woke up with a red spot above her eye. It "spread" throughout the day, not bad! I took her in to see the doctor on Monday, just to be sure everything was ok. She was fine that morning, just the same spots on her head and face, by the time we got to the doctor (1 hour later) she had spots ALL over her belly. He said it was jut a rash, reaction from the shot, he wasn't worried about it at all. Anyway, she had that a couple of days and now is fine.

On a side note, for her one year check-up she was 21 lbs and 29.5 inches. She is doing great!! Walking everywhere and talking ALL DAY LONG!!!! ;)

Birthday Party

We had Madison's birthday party on Saturday. We just had family come over this year - which was plenty, there wouldn't have been much room for anyone else!! It took Madison a while to get used to everone being there - she went down for a nap with just Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Tara there and woke up with about 8 other people there and more on the way.

She just walked around a little looking at everyone while we had snacks. Then we opened up presents - well, I opened most of the presents - Mark said on the video that "Mommy thinks its her birthday" haha. I thought Madison would have been more in to opening the presents, but I guess she was in to what was in the boxes. She is a very lucky one year old - she got a TON of clothes, books, and toys. Oh yeah, and diapers (I was excited about that one).

And we finally got to cake after that. I made cupcakes and a chocolate cake. Madison LOVED the cupcake, especially the icing.!. She got a little messing, but not near as bad as I thought she would. My mom said for my first birthday I was "very lady-like" when I ate my birthday cake.

After all the festivities, we just played games and watched games with Mark's family. We all went to dinner for Marie's (Mark's grandma) birthday, which was on Monday, Sepetember 29.

Here on some pictures of the birthday party:

She's ready to open those presents!

Madison LOVES her new seat for the table!

Reading her birthday card.

Yay, two toys that make noise! ;)

Almost has it figured out!

Yummy cupcakes!!!

"Thanks for actually letting me have a cupcake mom!!" ;)

She started pulling the cooler with ice, all around the house when we got home from dinner.

Madison is One Year Old!!!

Well, I've finally joined all my friends in the blog world. Today is Madison's first birthday, it has been the fastest year of my life!! What an amazing change it has been - I must say she is the most perfect, amazing, wonderful, thing that has happened to us! We have been absolutely blessed with how easy of a baby she has been (I'm just hoping it continues to be this easy, haha). ;) She has been quite the entertainment from day one- she seems to do something new all the time. She is very fun to just sit and watch - she is very expressive when she "talks" to us. Here are some pictures from one year ago:













I will post more later this weekend - we're having a birthday party tomorrow afternoon, so I'll get some more pictures up.