New Elmo Toy

Maddie absolutely LOVES Elmo!  Joseph got her a new Elmo toy from the thrift store who talks and sings!  Here is a video of her a few seconds after she first saw the new Elmo toy.  I missed her gigantic smile when she first saw it.

Sleeping Beauty

I normally don't sneak into Maddie's room to take pictures of her sleeping, but she looked so cute on the baby monitor all sprawled out I couldn't resist!

These were taken on two different nights.

Bath Time!!

You Spin Me Round

Afternoon giggles!

Easter 2016!

Happy Easter!

For Easter, we got Maddie a little push car to ride in!  I got it for free (!!!) through a local parents group. What a find!  It needed a quick wash and it was good to go!

As suspected, Maddie LOVED the car!  She loves a book she has about cars (Disney's Cars movie), and points out cars on the street whenever she sees them. At first, she didn't realize she could get IN the car!  We went to the park, went on the swing, and when we were done, she went straight for the car. I asked if she wanted to go on the slide or get in the car and walk around and she wanted to get into the car!  We walked around the neighborhood for 30 minutes in the car! She loved turning the wheel and honking the horn. At one point I even saw her lean in and kiss the horn!

When we got home, Joseph had filled plastic eggs with some treats (cookies, crackers, candies, nuts) and set up an Easter egg hunt in the backyard!  It took a while but Maddie eventually realized the eggs had treats in them and asked us to open them as she picked them.  It started to rain as just as we were wrapping up, so we all went inside and opened up all the eggs and enjoyed the treats.

We had a lovely Easter Sunday!

In her new car!

Mouth full of treats!

Wonder Maddie!

Maddie and the Rocking Horse Part 2. Bonus: Video Pointing out Features!

This morning as soon as she was done with her milk, Maddie said "nay nay nay!" I didn't realize what she wanted until I saw her pointing at the rocking horse in the middle of her room. She says "nay nay" because that's what a horse says, of course!

I was able to take a video of her pointing out the horses and her own features!  She normally will also say what the feature is (ear, eye, nose, tail) but she was quiet this morning.

Later Daddy came in and helped Maddie onto the horse!

Awww such a sweet moment

Maddie Says: Orange

Maddie LOVES oranges! Here she is saying "orange." She usually says it a little more clearly, but took the video after she was saying it so much, plus she really wanted the oranges in my hand!

Pants Off Snack & Bubble Time

 

Pictures at the Park

It was a sunny but chilly weekend, so we bundled up and went to the park!

She climbed up this plastic monstrosity all by herself!! You can see she's not done climbing!
She even scooted down it practically all by herself as well!

Maddie Loves Her Rocking Horse (also Maddie Says: No)

Back in May 2015, Grandpa Don and Grandma Mary Ellen came to visit and brought Maddie his old rocking horse from when he was a small child.  Here are the pics from that visit and our chubby baby on the rocking horse.

The rocking horse is in Maddie's bedroom and she loves to walk around it, play with its hair and pretend to want to get on it.  She loves to play with its ears, and when asked she will point to its ears, eyes, nose, mouth and tail!  I will try to get a video of it soon.

She will step inside the wood rockers like she wants to get on it, and we will ask her "do you want to get on the horse?" and she always answers with a simple "No."  She actually DOES want to get on it though!

Here are photos and a video of her playing with the rocking horse.  You can hear her say "No" when asked if she wants to get on the rocking horse.

Oh, have we mentioned yet that Maddie says "No" now?!?

Maddie Says: Eggroll

Saturday Breakfast at Colleen & Joe's

This Saturday we went over to our friend's Colleen & Joe's new house for breakfast!  Our friends the Basques were there too. We had a yummy breakfast and got to see their new house! They have a very friendly dog named Bailey who loved all the kids and eating the food that fell off of Maddie's plate.

Here are some pictures of Maddie and Lillian who took over Bailey's bed.

Video: Typical day of us being silly

Here is a cute video I took of Maddie and I being silly. This is pretty much a typical day. Any time you see her smile, I am making a funny face behind the camera.

Towards the end of the video you can see she knows her body parts! She knows many more body parts than on this video, hoping to get a video of that soon!

Maddie Says: Eighteen

Maddie says the word "Eighteen"!  It is the number of steps from the main level to the second level where the bedrooms are.  One time we went up a different flight of stairs somewhere else and I counted "twelve" and after that Maddie said "eighteen!"

February Videos from Pau Pau's Phone

Here are some cute videos from February from Pau Pau's phone

Maddie Long Legs

2016 Chicago Fire Soccer Home Opener

This past Saturday we went to the Chicago Fire soccer team's home opener game. It was a pretty nice day out, about 50 degrees and cloudy. Maddie did well the entire game!  Of course we fed her french fries and ice cream the whole time, but we lasted the entire game, the ride home, AND a trip to the grocery store all before going home.

We didn't get any pictures at the game but here is a photo of her in her Chicago Fire jersey that we got for her last year. It's a bit big on her so hopefully she can fit into it next year to...

Book Worm

Present from Grandma Kathy - JoJo and LuLu dolls!

Maddie loves a book she received from Aunt Corrie and Cousins Jordan and Kelsey! It's called Jojo's First Word Book. She received it around Christmas time when she was first born, and absolutely loves it now!  The book is mainly around a little boy bunny named Jojo and his sister Lulu. Maddie even says Jojo and Lulu very well (Lulu sounds like "new new").

We asked Grandma Kathy to make her Jojo and Lulu dolls and they arrived today!  Here is a video of Maddie opening the gift and picture of her and the adorable dolls!

Playing with Snow Indoors

It snowed today! Maddie loves the snow so I put some in a bowl and brought it inside for her to play. She loved moving snow from one container to the other! If you listen very carefully you can hear Maddie say "no" which is how she says the word "snow".