We have had a couple of helium filled mylar balloons left from Maddie's birthday. They had come loose from their strings and were floating against the ceiling for the longest time. They finally lost enough helium over the Christmas weekend! When we came back, they were still floating, but just above the ground, at perfect Maddie height!
Here are a couple of videos of Maddie playing with the balloons with sheer delight!
And it's no surprise Maddie loves bubbles. She says the word '"bubble" now so clearly and it's adorable! She even says "Pop! Pop! Pop!" Here are lots of videos of her with bubbles. She has gotten so good at walking and popping bubbles at the same time, and she can even blow bubbles now!
We spent Christmas in Tulsa! We landed the evening of Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning we opened gifts with Grandma Kathy. After Maddie's first nap, we went over to Jenny & Michael's for Christmas lunch with the entire family. Maddie's lunch consisted of probably 70% guacamole! She opened up a few gifts and we had a delicious lunch. It was in the 50s so we let Maddie wander in the backyard. The dogs came out and she enjoyed petty the furry dogs. While she napped, the adults played a game! In all, it was a lovely Christmas Day!
Lots of pictures from our trip below!
The next day we went over to Grandpa Don's and Grandma Mary Ellen's to open gifts. Maddie loved the new gifts!
Here are a few other pictures from the weekend.
Maddie met Jordan and Trent's guinea pig And E! She did not want to pet him.
We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve as we were flying to Tulsa that evening to spend the holiday with family. We set up the gifts the evening before so Maddie saw them when she came down the stairs. She got lots of great presents including a Cupcake Kitchen, cardboard bricks, lots of puzzles, and lots of Go!Go! animals.
Afterwards we went to the park as it was in the 50s! We wanted to tire Maddie out and get her 2 naps in before our flight.
Our flight was pretty uneventful. Maddie did pretty well the entire flight but we were glad when we landed! We headed to Grandma's and put Maddie to bed to get ready for the busy Christmas weekend ahead.
Maddie found these plastic reusable snack keeper cups in a cabinet. I purchased them a few months ago when she was too little to use them. But now she can use them! They have a flexible soft flaps that keep snacks inside if turned upside down. She decided to sit on the kitchen floor, take the puffs out and set them next to her while she kept grabbing more from the cup.
Maddie grabbed a new duster and dustpan I had laying around and I asked her to sweep and she moved her arm back and forth in a sweeping motion. Pretty soon she'll be able to sweep up the mess she makes at meal time!
Enjoying broccoli & peas for dinner! She doesn't like the small broccoli florets anymore. Instead, she enjoys taking bites from big florets!
We have to close the bathroom and pantry doors now as our little walker loves walking into them and exploring! I found her in the bathroom one day and she had unraveled some of the toilet paper. She loves tearing the toilet paper (and paper towels, and napkins, and receipts, and paper) into little itty bitty pieces.
And a super cute picture of her cuddling with Daddy and her stuffed giraffe on the couch.
On Saturday we went over to our friends house to bake cookies! Well, our friends baked cookies while Maddie played and I tried to keep her out of trouble.
Maddie loved playing with Lillian, exploring a new space and playing with lots of new toys! She especially loved the gigantic stuffed teddy bear they had! She would run up to it and fall onto the bear the same way she does with Joseph.
Oh Hello Bear!
On Sunday we went to Little Beans Cafe, which is a playspace not too far from us. We received a free visit voucher at one of the kid fairs we went to and it expired in a couple of weeks so we decided to finally use it! It was a very nice space. It hasa very nice cafe area with lots of food options and coffee! The main area was a big open area with lots of toys for mainly older kids. Maddie is just old enough to enjoy it since she is walking so well. She still needed a bit of supervision as there were bigger kids and she got ran over a couple of times. Her favorite thing was pushing the little pink piano back and forth across the entire room, babbling the entire time. She seemed to enjoy herself and we spent a little over 2 hours there! We will definitely be going back!
She LOVED pushing this toy around! Any time she saw another kid playing with it, she would walk to it and try to claim it.
I took Friday off from work, and we went downtown to visit Santa!
This is the same Santa we visited last year when Maddie was about 6 weeks old, at the Shops at 900 N. Michigan Ave.
Here are some super cute pictures at home before we headed out.
There was about a 45 minute wait before it was our turn to see Santa. We walked Maddie around the mall and she enjoyed looking at the plants and the Christmas tree and decorations. We even got some free popcorn samples at Sur La Table.
Maddie was fine was we reached Santa, and even gave him a bit smile as Joseph handed her over to Santa. I don't know when the turning point was, but I think she noticed Joseph and I were standing in front of her, which meant we weren't holding her. So whose lap was she sitting in? Here is a progression of photos. She starts off okay, then looks at him, and that is when the tears and screaming started! Poor girl. Her misery makes for some adorable pictures!
