And then, there was one.

Maddie loves fish. Everytime we would go to the store or someplace that had an aquarium, we would show Maddie the fish. She is always so amused by them. Being the good parents that we are, we decided to buy Maddie some fish. We only wanted a little fish bowl that could go in her room for her to enjoy.
Matthew went to the store and came home with the supplies we needed, the bowl, rocks, food and two goldfish. After letting them adjust to the water, we removed them from the bag, and put them in their new home. Our next task was to name these new pets. We decided on names from a morning television program Maddie loves, but as I was assigning them names, I noticed something amiss....One of the fish had only one eye. I was surprised that Matthew hadn't given them more than a once over, but I accepted the one eyed fish just the same.
So now Maddie had her first pets, Tyrone and Pablo. We were doing fine with them and feeding them, cleaning the bowl and giving them plenty of attention.
Of course, as goldfish go, one started to not look so well. Matthew told me that Tyrone was not doing well, but I said he was fine and thought he might just be tired. Well, sure enough Tyrone died today. I thought he was just resting at the bottom of the bowl on the rocks ( I thought they floated to the top when they were dead). Matthew scooped him out and took him straight to the bathroom. He is now resting where all good fish go sometime or another.
And don't worry about Maddie's reaction, she was napping. I am sure we will go through many goldfish in her life. It's just another wonderful step we are taking in life as parents.

Christening Pictures

Maddie got some God

Maddie's christening was so beautiful. It was wonderful to see how many people love and care about our family. We must have filled up half the church for just our family. There was 5 babies being baptized at the same time and each only had around 5 to 10 guests, our family and friends numbered about 30 people. I can't thank everyone enough for being involved in Maddie's special day.

The baptism took place at 1 o'clock, which is prime nap time for miss thing, so she was of course, none too happy. Just as she would drift to sleep on my chest, the deacon had another anointing of some type. We made it through and Maddie got her God. Besides, my friend Traci told me that it is customary in the Caribbean for children to cry during the baptism. Apparently, if a child does not cry, it is believed that the baptism "did not take". So, Maddie cried and let all the evil out.

We had a wonderful reception following the baptism for all the friends and family to eat and be together. At the reception Madeleine finally got to meet her long distance boyfriend Tommy. He's almost 8 months old, but Maddie likes her older man. From the pictures you can see Tommy smiling at her. We know it's a little young to start them, but we just know they'll be life long pals.

Madeleine is waking up from her nap, so that's about all the time I have for this entry.

So now we're on the bandwagon, too!!!

Matthew is correct that not everyone has a blog, but it sure seems like it. We plan to keep up with this every week or two, making it easier for friends and family to be involved in Maddie's life as she grows. Anyone with a small child knows that it is nearly impossible to keep every person in your life up to date with the latest bits of your life. This will be our best attempt at keeping people "in the loop".

This week has brought us to the wonderful experience of infant teething. There is no white caps to be seen, but with all the drooling, chewing on everything in site, and fussiness of our normally perfect baby, we know that teeth are in her near future.....Or atleast we hope.

We have been spending our days trying to teach Madeleine everything under the sun. It's amazing to think how much a person learns in a lifetime, to talk, to walk, to smile, to love. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed at this huge task in front of me to raise an intelligent, productive member of society. As of yet, she had managed to conquer the art of smiling, babbling, and rolling over.

Next weekend we are having Maddie christened, or as well tell her, we are going to "get her some God". We will update then and put some new pics from the blessed event.

The Beginning

Well not everyone has a blog. My 87 year old grandparents who live in Brooklyn don't have a blog. In fact, Im pretty sure they dont even know the internet is. I do think that this will be easier than trying to post all our picture to yahoo and then sending them out and updating and all that jazz. So, the purpose of this is blog will be two fold. One, we will try our very best to chronicle the life of our beautiful daughter. Second, we can chronicle our lives as parents and talk about the things that are going on in our lives and how we are responding to parenthood. So far all has been terriffic. I think we have the most beautiful daughter in the world. Hopefully we an keep this updated. Well Brandi will be better to tell the story so goodby for now.

- Matthew





Our sweet pictures before our sweet baby was born.........................