"I O You"

Madeline's speech is taking off! She is saying so many new words lately and it's so cool to listen to her speech develop. The best of all is that she has learned to say I love you. Well, her version is more like "I O You" but it melts our hearts. At first she would just say it back whenever we said it to her, but now if we give her a hug or a kiss, she'll say "I O You." I tried to get her saying it on video and she says it a couple times, but she saw the camera and thought we were taking a picture so she kept saying "cheese"!

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That's a face only a mother and father could love!

I had to include this picture of our beautiful daughter. Ha! Maddie looks like she's been in a bar fight recently. She scratched herself one night and it left a cut. She's bumped her forehead three times this week all leaving bruises and she STILL has a red drool rash. So when Chris dried her hair with a towel during her bath tonight and gave her crazy hair, I had to get the camera. Hopefully this picture won't show up later in her life as a way to embarass her. Sorry Maddie!

Our Kitchen Helper

I'm afraid we've created a monster in the kitchen. Whenever we are doing something in the kitchen like cooking, doing dishes, or emptying the dishwasher, Maddie is right there. She pushes us away from the counter by pushing on our thighs, then says "up, up". She loves to be held up to see what we're doing. Well this has become difficult since she's heavier now and plus ties up our hands. So one day, I pulled a chair over to let her stand on it and watch me. Sure, just watch....what was I thinking? She wanted in on the action so we gave her a spoon, bowl, etc. and now she LOVES to do this. Instead of asking for "up" now she pushes a chair over to the counter and says "chair." Here are some action shots of her whipping up a masterpiece and playing in the drawers. Maybe she'll be cooking for us someday!

"No, No!"

Our discipline is actually working (sometimes)! The biggest problem we've had since Maddie started walking has been our plants. We moved most of them, but still have a couple big ones in the living room and dining room. After countless times, cleaning up dirt and telling her "no, no" it's finally sinking in.


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Go Hoos!

As we do ever year, we watched the UVA vs. VA Tech football game with my family. We pulled out Maddie's size 6 months T-shirt and squeezed her into it for the game, hoping it would bring the Cavs some good luck. It's a big rivalry game and even more so for us since Geordie went to Tech. My mom says she is rooting for the offense the whole game (so she doesn't have to choose sides). Well the shirts didn't do the trick, Tech won and went on to win the ACC championship (again). But UVA had a great season and will go to a bowl game. So we'll get out the T-shirt again! Wahoowa!

Oh the joys of self-feeding!

Maddie is starting to try and use a fork and spoon to help feed herself. Sometimes she's fine with us helping her and sometimes she just wants to be an independent toddler. The other night, she took over and fed herself spaghetti. It seems that Maddie follows Nora (my friend Mia's daughter in Colorado, who's 4 months older) and does so many similar things, 4 months later. So Nora and Mia, these pictures are for you! Look familiar? Nora's blog had a similar post a few months back. Needless to say, she took a bath right after dinner. What a mess she was! She's like her Mommy, she loves her pasta!

A Beautiful Fall Weekend

We spent last weekend down at Lake Anna with our close friends. Dre's parents were kind enough to let us use their house. We usually go down there every summer, but we all thought it would be fun to do a weekend in the fall. We had a pre-Thanksgiving turkey dinner, drank wine, played outside with the girls, drank beer, sat around the campfire, drank hard hot cider....lots of eating and drinking basically! It was so much fun and Maddie had a great time playing with the girls and everyone else's toys. Her favorite toy however, was Livia in her walker. She could not get enough of pushing Livi around in it. Chris got a few seconds on video.



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HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We hope everyone had a great Halloween. We had a fun one with our little Pink Leopard. Maddie had a blast being outside with all the kids. Our neighbor organized a parade again this year and it was a huge success. We all gathered in the court, had snacks, took pictures, then paraded around the end of the street. Paul, Michelle, and Livia joined us this year. Livi is the little pig. Adorable! After the parade, Maddie stayed in the house and loved handing out candy to everyone who came trick-or-treating.

"Elmo, is that you?"

The neighborhood crew, with the ring leader Amy and her 1 month old Tigger!

Pulling up the rear in the parade!

Here is a video of Maddie in her costume. We wanted to get her on video giving a big "roar!" It's hard to follow her around with the camera now. I'm going to have to start taking video in the high chair where she can't run around!


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Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago we took Maddie to a local farm to pick pumpkins and see the famous corn maize. We went with Paul, Michelle, and Livi and had a great time despite the 90+ degrees weather we were having in October!!! We took a hay ride and picked out pumpkins, played in the corn kernels, rode the slide, and baked in the sun! Since it was so hot, we did not attempt to get lost in the huge corn maize. Oh well, maybe next year!

Getting into everything....literally!

We keep finding Maddie in the funniest places lately, now that she's 100% mobile on her feet. She's starting to climb on things and IN things. Chris found her like this.....






And her new favorite thing to do is climb in and out of the bouncy seat and bumbo (yes, we STILL have that stuff laying around)! She looks like a giant baby in them.

"Are you gorgeous?"

My mom, Nana Flo, has taught Maddie the funniest thing. When you ask her "are you gorgeous?" she responds by batting her eyes. We'll let the video speak for itself.


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Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

We've often joked that there's something in the water here because it seems like everyone we know has baby girls! Well it works out nicely for us because Maddie has wonderful little playmates. We're all looking forward to the day when we can sit back and have some wine while the girls play together. For now though, we are enjoying being right there playing too! Here are some highlights of the fun things we've done recently with "the girls."

THE NATIONAL ZOO

We spent a gorgeous day at the zoo with the Marcoulliers. The animals were a bit lazy, but we had a lot of fun anyway. Afterwards we had dinner at their house and took the girls out back to the pond to feed the ducks. Marissa knew just what to do, but Maddie and Kaitlyn just ate the bread themselves! Maddie is getting so tall that's she's almost as tall as Kaitlyn who is 6 months older!

THE COOLEST PARK EVER
There is a park here that is so neat. It was designed to be accessible to all children, including those with disabilities. I have heard of it from my patients at work and was told I had to take Madeline there because it's perfect for toddlers. The whole playground surface is this rubbery track material, everything is very low to the ground and it's very clean. When Lisa and I were deciding what to do for our latest get together with Brooke and Maddie, we chose this park. The girls had a blast and we'll go back for sure! It's fun to see them walking around together!

PLAYING WITH "THE LIVSTER"
We spent an afternoon hanging out with Michelle and Livia. She is so cute and is already crawling! She started at 6 months! They really enjoyed each other and before we know it, Livi will be walking around with the older girls too!

"Livi, check me out....aren't I cool?"