"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!