Finally! Maddie says "MADDIE"

It finally happened last night (9/28 Wednesday) as I was putting Maddie to bed...

She said her name correctly!

Not "Mah Mah" but "Mah DEE!"  She had knocked something off of the table and I jokingly said "Maddie!" and she said "Mah DEE!" emphasizing the "DEE" sound. I asked her to say it again and she did!  I pulled my phone out and got it on video!!

Here's the video of her from last night saying MADDIE!

If you listen carefully, after the second time I ask her if she can say "I can do it" she says very quietly "I can do"

This morning I tested her to make sure she remembered, and she did!  Yay!

On another note we are also working on getting her to say the word Water better. Right now she pronounces it as "gnaw gnaw" but today she said "gnaw TER!"

Adorable Video Alert: Meowing like a Cat

I put Maddie in a super cute cat hooded sweatshirt on her way to the park again. She LOVED it and kept dancing and meowing in it. I grabbed my phone just in time to take a video of it.  I cannot stop watching this video, it is just adorable!!!

Cut and Bruised Cheek

On Tuesday we headed to the park before lunch time. As we were leaving, Maddie reached for a flower in our front yard, her food slipped and her cheek hit one of the cement planters. OUCH!  Maddie cried a bunch and we went inside to clean her off. I gave her a cookie which of course cheered her up.

At first it just looked like a scrap, but then around lunch a bruise appeared!  After nap time though, the bruise went away and it was just red.  Two days later and it's just a little red and you can still see the scrape marks a bit, but it's going away quickly.

Here is a photo and this is the worst it ever looked.

A couple of cute Fall pictures

It was a nice cool day so I put Maddie in a little University of Illinois jacket I got at the thrift store.

Fun at Maplewood Park

On Sunday Maddie did not nap all day - again! This is the second time she has not napped at all! I think we tried to put her down for a nap too late.... So we put her in her red wagon and walked about a mile to the new gym our friend is opening up! Maddie at first did not want to go in as she really wanted to go to a park that is nearby. After a few minutes though, she realized she would climb onto the gym equipment! She loved climbing onto an inclined bench and sliding down. Then she would run into the dance studio and look at herself in the mirror.

After our visit we went to nearby Maplewood Park which is amazing! It is so toddler friendly!  Maddie went up and down about half of the slides and also went on the swing.

Lately when she's on the swing she will yell out "Maddie!" (pronouned "Meh Meh!") and "Swing!" and sometimes together "Maddie Swing!"

Here are some super cute pictures and video of her saying "Maddie!" on the swing.

Shopping at Target

We went to Target over the weekend for a few things. Maddie was antsy sitting in the child seat so I broke a rule and sat her inside the main cart her. She absolutely loves sitting there! She's very good too, she does not try to get out.

She loved touching the cold milk. Every time she touched it she would say "Oh Cold!" so I tried to take a video. Of course when I did she stopped and started to put her mouth on it instead!

Play Doh Again. Counting and Cleaning Up!

Maddie played with Play Doh again! It took a while to find something she enjoyed doing besides smashing it with her fingers. I made little bowls and then little balls and she enjoyed putting the balls into the bowls and transferring among each bowl.

Here's a cute video of her playing. Around 0:40 you can hear her count!! She counts from one to four "on, two, fee, four."  She does know how to count to 10 with some help!! She usually gets stuck on "five" and she will say another number. In the video she says "1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 1, 2, 1, Yay!"

A little later on in the video she says "Clean Up" when she starts to put some of the balls away.  She has also gotten very good and cleaning up! At meal time we ask her to pick up her food from the tray and put it onto her plate before she can have dessert or leave her high chair. And she is usually good about cleaning up her toys, especially if she wants a new toy to be brought out.

She's growing and learning so much so fast!

Video: Playing with Legos

Here's a video of Maddie playing with her Legos. It's not the most interesting but it shows how she can play by herself quietly. She starts to talk to herself about 35 seconds in and you hear her say some words like: guy, up down, green, Elmo.

All Dressed Up for Alek's Birthday Party

Sunday after her nap we got all dressed up and went to our friend Alek's 2nd birthday party!  We didn't get any photos at the party but here are some cute pictures of Maddie all dressed up in pink for the party!

All Smiles Watching TV

We try to limit Maddie's screen time so it's more of a treat when we do let her watch TV.  Here are some photos of her watching TV and loving it!

Midnight Circus at Wicker Park for Vickie's Birthday

A few weeks ago I got us tickets for what's called the Midnight Circus in the Parks.  It happened to be on my birthday and right across the street!  It's not at midnight but it is a circus that is held at various Chicago Park's across the city.  It's mainly acrobats, no animals. Apparently there was a dog in the second act but we did not make it that far....

Before we went into the tent, Maddie got her face painted! The lady drew a sparkly star on her cheek.  Maddie sat through it very patiently.

When we got into the tent it was packed! We had to cram ourselves onto the floor. It was very hot and crowded and it was hard for Maddie to see over the people sitting in front of us.  Maddie sat through about the first 25 minutes pretty well.  She seemed to enjoy watching the people jump and tumble.

However, about 30 minutes into the circus, and after going back and forth between me and Joseph, Maddie got super fussy and started to cry and wouldn't stop crying! She kept saying "Home!" as in "Go Home!" Even bribing her with a cookie didn't work! So we left and went to the playground. She calmed down as soon as we got to the playground.

Oh well, we will try again next year!

Of course I had to get a photo of her crying before we left!

Go Cubs Go!

Go Cubs Go! Go Cubs Go!
Hey Chicago, What do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today!

Drinking Milk in Bed

Look at those long legs!!

Four Word Sentence!

As posted before, Maddie's speech and vocabulary has developed so quickly! She repeats pretty much every thing we say and remembers new words.

She's now stringing 2 and 3 words together. Before she would only say one word like "car" or "red" and now she's putting them together "red car."  We went on a walk yesterday and she described every car that we passed as "red car" "blue car" "green car" so quickly!

This morning, she put together a 4 word sentence!  I told her I was going to change her crib sheet. I said "I'm going to take the clouds off, and put Mickey on" and she said "Cloud Off. Mickey On."  Amazing!

Picking Flowers at Dean Park

We went to Dean Park after work today. Maddie's favorite part was running through the big open field and picking flowers!

Playing at Eckhart Park (with Video)

This past Sunday we went to visit our good friends Julie and Paul and their 4 week old baby Ivan!  Maddie was great around Ivan, she was not jealous at all when I held him and would come up to us and say "Baby! Baby!"

After the visit we went to nearby Eckhart Park for her to run around. They recently renovated it and it's great! Lots of nice play structures and Maddie could do almost everything!

She especially loved swinging with Daddy!

Here are a couple of videos of her swinging with Daddy, and also of her climbing the slide on her own.

Trip to Brookfield Zoo!

Over Labor Day weekend we went to the Brookfield Zoo!  I got free tickets from work and it was the last weekend we could use them.  It was a lovely day for the zoo! Maddie was just getting over being sick (very high fever) so did not sleep too long the night before so she was pretty grumpy the whole time we were there.  We'll visit again on a day she's in better spirits.

Despite the grumpiness, we got to see a lot of the zoo!  We paid a little extra for a special exhibit that had some hands on experiences. We got to pet and brush baby goats! We also got to feed some beautiful parakeets! We saw so many different animals - lions, boats, wallabys, birds, monkeys, a polar bear, a brown bear, giraffes, and zebras!

Tons of pictures below.

Also thanks to Grandma Kathy for the adorable outfit she made for Maddie!

There is a sleeping lion in the upper right.

One of the few playgrounds they have there. So much fun!

Petting a baby goat.

Feeding the birds

So many birds!!

In the monkey house

She's making a fish face in this picture.

Another fish face.

Polar bear

Brown bear

Brown bear taking a swim

Polar Bear