Sunday at the Parks

Here are lots of pictures and a couple of videos from our park visits this past Sunday.

We practically had the whole park to ourselves in the morning. Maddie loves going up and down this hill so much that a little girl (whose name was also Maddie!) and her grandma who were at the park with us commented that "she really likes that hill!"

I also found a new activity at the park for Maddie to enjoy. There are these spinning platforms at the park that she is much too short for but we'll sometimes put her on her tummy and spin her. I put a few flowers (weeds) in the holes and she loved putting the flowers inside the holes one by one, pulling them out one by one, and the putting them back in.  We finally had to leave as it got too hot to stay out in the sun.

After Maddie's nap we went to Dean Park and they had their water feature turned on!  Maddie was tentative at first and didn't want to get too close to the water.

Walking on Blocks

We gave Maddie these cardboard block bricks for Christmas. She rarely plays with them but we've starting to line them up in lines and she loves walking on them like a balance beam! It also reminds her of both Gymnastics and Music class as they had similar activities.

Brand New Backyard! Playground, Rock Pit and Pool Time!

Joseph has worked really hard on our back yard! He got Maddie a playground that has 2 swings (1 regular swing and 1 baby swing, and we have another regular swing for when she gets older), a plastic "rock" wall, a rope ladder, and a slide! He also installed a rock pit to the side of the playground!  He plans to add a sand pit and a shelf on one of the sides of the playground.  Maddie loves all of it!! While she doesn't love going down the slide herself, she loves to slide other things down the slide, like her cars!

Here is a video of her in the rock pit. Joseph was making faces at her in the background. You see we had to stop her from swallowing a pebble!

It was so hot this past weekend, in the mid 90s! It was too hot to go to the playground as there is little shade and everything is too hot to touch! So we set up the baby pool and a new sprinkler pad for Maddie to play with and she LOVED it!!!  She is a little water baby!  In fact, we have had to hide the baby pool and sprinkler pad when we are in the backyard because all she wants to do is play in the water!

Six Flags Great America - without Maddie!

I took a sick day on Thursday and Joseph, Uncle Jeff and I went to Six Flags Great America for the day!  Pau Pau came over to watch Maddie so we could ride some adult rides!

It was a great day, it was overcast and started to rain half way through our visit but that made for very short lines!!  We even went on a ride that had a 45 minute wait posted but it was actually less than 15 minutes from when we walked into the line from when we got off the ride!

We are getting older and these rides are taking much more of a tole on us now.  I started to get quite dizzy and disoriented after a few rides and had to sit out on the last ride Joseph and Jeff went on - called the Revolution.  I didn't take a single photo or video all day but I took a video of the ride while Joseph and Jeff rode on it. Just watching it is making me queasy!

We went to see the Chinese Acrobats perform (in a nice air conditioned indoor theater!) and after that we were spent and decided to go home.  It was a fun time and we're already try to plan on when to take Maddie this summer.

Do Division Fest 2016

This Sunday we went down the annual Do Division Street Fest. It was a HOT day in the 80s and was so crowded!   Here is the blog posting from last year when we visited the fest when Maddie was 6.5 months old!  We walked through the Kids Fest where most of the activities were too old for Maddie. She saw pony rides and big kids playing basketball and jousting.  They had a train you could ride, so Joseph and Maddie stood in line while I got us tickets.

I rode in the train with Maddie while Joseph took photos & videos and watched the wagon.  Maddie was pretty serious the entire train ride and I thought she might freak out and want to get out during the ride.  But she pretty much sat still the entire ride just taking in the signs.  At the end of the ride as we were getting out of the train car, she said and signed More! More!" We had to quickly deflect and take her away to avoid a melt down.

We walked around the fest a bit more then headed towards the kids stage were Mr. Dave would be performing.  We arrived in time to listen to the end of Ben Tatar and the Tatar Tots (this is their real name!).  Maddie enjoyed listening to the music and enjoying a much needed snack. During Mr. Dave I took her closer to the stage and she also enjoyed watching him up close!

Lots of pictures and videos below!

Here is an adorable video of Maddie dancing to the music!

\Rocking to the music with Dad.

Cute Video: Laughing in the front yard

Here is a cute video of Maddie laughing in the front yard.

Playing with Yarn and She Knows Her Colors! (Video)

Maddie has started to love playing with my yarn scraps so I've cut her strands of yarn in different colors. She loves moving them from one place to another and flinging the pieces around. It seems overnight she has learned her colors!  She will often pick up something or point to something and say the color.

This day before bedtime, Maddie was playing with the yarn and Voldy cat was sitting near Joseph's lap. Joseph put a piece of yarn on Voldy's head and she didn't move, so Maddie put lots of strands of yarn on Voldy's head, then would remove them all, then put them back on strand by strand. She did this for at least 15 minutes!

Maddie babbles in this video then tells us the color when I ask her what color it is!