Summer's in Full Swing

Sorry no updates for over a month!!! It's been really busy around here. As most of you know, Matthew's graduation and commissioning is coming up quickly. He has been busy keeping his grades up and holding down the fort while I run around like a chicken with my head cut off. I have been busy playing event planner for Matthew's festivities, my cousins wedding, and the ever popular Madeleine.

Yes, we've been busy and Madeleine seems to just roll right along with us. She has managed to fill her days with playgroup on Tuesday, library storytime on Wednesday, and usually a playdate on Fridays.

One of our playdates with our friend Tommy, who visited from Colorado:

This picture is so sweet, but there is a story with it...Tommy had just shoved Maddie, so this is him giving her a "nice touch" TOO CUTE!

Our family will be vacationing to Colorado following Matthew's graduation and we're hoping that our dearest toddler can behave well enough on the flight that we don't get kicked off- pray for us!

We are including some pictures we've taken over the past month and a half. You'll see how much Madeleine is growing and at times, how tired we look.

It's a rule to wear "ears" during storytime in Maddie's room:

She can often be found in fairy wings or a tutu with her glitter shoes. She just comes out of her room with the items and whines until we dress her in whatever fantasy outfit she wants that day:

It's been pretty hot, but sometimes we make a park:

We have a child who LOVES lima beans. She will eat an entire can, if we'd let her!

Another sweet dress up picture....Granny brought her back this from DisneyWorld. The gloves were too big, but Madeleine loved them. We thought it was just too hysterical.

We hope this month's blog finds everyone doing well. We will update again following our Miller family vacation in a couple of weeks!!!

Hugs and Kisses!

The Princess Reigns

So much to share with everyone these days! Maddie has been walking since about three weeks after her birthday, so she's got that down pretty well now. Here she is walking around at the Farmer's exhibit at the children's museum in Houston.

These days she seems to be growing like a weed. Her legs are longer, teeth keep popping into that mouth like popcorn, and her hair is even long enough for pigtails!!!

She has begun to use her words now and seems to come out with something cute everyday. She has added the word "baby" along with several animal sounds and the color red to her vocabulary. She has even begun to sing to her baby doll (which she has 4 of). During nap time I usually sing "Rock-A-By-Baby" and now Maddie has begun to sing her own version to her baby and it's something like "By Babeeeeeee", it really is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

For those of you that see Madeleine regularly, you know she usually has something new that she comes up with as a theme for the week. For example, one week she would open her mouth and make an "OOOOHHHHH" face at almost anything, another week she would give a big smile and scrunch her nose while closing her eyes at everything. Well, we now have moved on to the obsession with the BUTTON, the BELLYBUTTON! She will at every opportunity pull up her shirt or dress and jam her index finger into hers and then procede to pull up your shirt and jam her finger into yours as well. What makes it even cuter is that she knows what it is. When we ask to see her button, she gets right to it.

She has also taken to riding her school bus. We find that she usually resembles a drunken bus driver though, because rather than turn around she would prefer to ram the furniture- hoping I guess that it will get out of her way (after all she is the boss around here).

Maddie is still interested in her potty and doing well when we get her to the potty on a regular basis. Parenthood has really gotten to be quite comical and we enjoy having our little loony tune to entertain us, although we would like to be able to mute her or turn her off at least sometime.

We hope everyone is doing well and enjoys the latest blog update and pics! We love you and will keep everyone in the loop as best we can. It is hard to find time to just sit and write now that Maddie is on the move and her little paws are into EVERYTHING!

HUGS & KISSES

Always a new adventure!

It's always something when you have a toddler.... Madeleine was given a toilet for Christmas. It's not just any toilet, oh no, its some super duper happy toddler toilet. It sings, it lights up, it cheers. Madeleine has loved the silly thing since we got it. We decided a few weeks ago to begin sitting her on the toilet when she woke up each morning. Every morning like clockwork, the child goes to the potty and actually GOES! She has done this from day one. Last week we heard her having the urge to go #2 , so we took her to the potty just to see what would happen and the child went without a thought in the potty. Just this morning after waking up and going to the potty, I needed to go to the restroom myself. As always, I took Maddie into the restroom and sat her on the floor with her bathtub basket of toys. As I was finished, Maddie went over to her potty and lifted the lid. I asked if she needed to potty and I took her diaper off and sat her. She immediately did her business and proceeded to clap for herself as her potty yelled " You did it! Now get the toilet paper" and began to sing the toilet paper song. I think the child is a prodigy now solely for the fact she is potty training herself before she can walk or talk!







She looks so darn cute reading her magazine while on the toilet I had to include a few pics.


The next adventure we undertook this past week was taking pictures in the wildflowers. There is a story of my grandparents trying to get some pictures of me in the wildflowers when I was a small child. I threw a huge fit and cried and hated every minute of it. As karma goes, my child decided she hated wildflowers and would hang her head everytime I'd sit her on the blanket to get a few pictures. Some of the pictures did, however, come out pretty darn cute and we'd thought we'd share them.

So in conclusion, we ask that all of you pray for us and especially for me and my sanity as my
baby turns into a toddler with her own thoughts and opinions on life.

So much for "no gifts, please"!

Madeleine's birthday was perfect, (just as any other event I plan goes). All of our family and friends were there to celebrate with us. It just doesn't seem possible that a year has already passed. We are so blessed to have been surrounded by so many people to share Maddie's big day with! I would also like to state and once again thank all the guests for wearing pink! It was so fun to see everyone- even Paw Paw and Uncle Joe!

Maddie with Grandma & Grandpa

Maddie with Granny & Pop Seab

Great Grandmother & PawPaw with the birthday girl!

Madeleine enjoyed seeing that everyone was there for her - she thinks everyplace we go people are only there for her anyway, so it was nice. Maddie was slighty timid about the cake thing at first, but after just one taste, she was sold. I know it will be hard for some of you to believe since each day I make sure she has her veggie, fruit and milk servings right on, but I did let her eat her entire cake! AND as for the title of this little blurb on Maddie's life, she received more gifts than the marines get for their toys for tots drive! We had in mind that we would have people just donate to her college fund instead of giving gifts, but our guests had other plans. Not only did everyone contribute to the college fund, but they also gave her money!

Chillin' with Aunt Mickey & Adam

We videoed most of the day, so I only have a few pictures to share for now, but my mom has some more I will add later. I just had to get this silly thing up and going for all those who weren't able to be at her party.

Maddie taking after her mom with the cleaning up and keepin' it tidy

Maddie is doing well these days. She has stayed pretty petite for her age. As of her last checkup this week, she is 20 lbs and 29.5 in. She has started to walk some around the house. She takes about 5 to 10 steps and then goes back to the sure-thing and crawls. She has really started to love the dogs now and play with them. She says a few words like dog, bird, this or as she says "dis" with her little crooked finger pointing at things. Yes, it's sad, but we have moved from the baby stage to the child stage now. We have a little person with her own ideas, agenda, and attitude. It has been a great ride so far and we can wait to see what her little life has in store for the future, yes we are so blessed!

Back by Popular Demand

I know it's been about FOREVER since the last post, but life is busy. Rarely is there time these days to stop and type, upload pics and all while watching a most active child. Now that I've waited so long there is much to update.

We started out the month celebrating Great Grandmother Peggy's birthday. We had all four generations in town for the birthday dinner at Gaido's.

Maddie spent time this month with Daddy's family, too! Grandpa Ron was trying out for American Idol with Maddie's toys. Grandma Rita read to Maddie and showed her pictures of Aunt Mickey and Daddy when they were little people. Maddie also had big fun at Grandma and Grandpa's with the Mickey toy.

We had big fun at the beach before the cold rolled in.

Our little princess has really learned how to work the room with this new pouty lip she has.

We are still enjoying the bubble bath time!

Maddie was as sweet as could be in her strawberry sweater!

We had lots of visitors to the house this month, too! Aunt Mickey came to visit and brought Riley, the dog. Then my friend Paige visited with her twin boys. It was fun to see how Maddie reacted and played with the boys.

During a trip to the Woodlands, Maddie went to work with Mommy at Granny's office. She had no problem taking the entire office apart in under 5 minutes.

Maddie's newest adventure was to the Mardi Gras parade here on the island. It was lots of fun for all of us. Maddie had so very much fun that she asleep before we could finish the 6 block walk back to our house!

Maddie is taking bottles now and is almost completely weaned to whole milk and I have found freedom I haven't known in a whole year. I can't tell you how wonderful a whole shopping trip without baby can be. I actually tried on clothes, ate a meal and walked around for hours without worry of nursing, changing diapers, catching toys being thrown from the stroller or cheerios being flung around stores! Don't get me wrong, she is wonderful and I do love every bit of her. There is something wonderful to be said though about a whole day where Daddy and Maddie bonded.

We are excited about Maddie's birthday coming next month. Who would have guessed a whole year would go so quickly? Maddie is standing and cruising the furniture with a few steps here and there. Believe me though we are NOT trying to get her up and running....It's hard enough to keep up with her when she's scootin' on her knees.

We send our love to everyone and hope all is well. I'll try to get another update up and out before her birthday.

Hugs & Kisses!