Happy 1st Birthday!

We had a wonderful birthday weekend with Madeline. She turned 1 on Friday and we spent the day playing, getting her picture taken and then after dinner we took her to the playground. Here are some pictures we took at the playground. She loves the slide and swing and says "Weee!"

Funny story: I was out last night and Chris took Maddie on the swing under our deck before he put her to bed. He put her in the crib and closed the door and she started crying hard. So he went back in and picked her up and she kept pointing to the window and saying, "Wee, wee!" He finally figured out that she was talking about the swing! Anyway....I digress. Here are some of the portraits. The bear in the first picture was made by Great Grandma Cronin (Chris's Grandma).

Her actual birthday was very nice and low key; it was a great day. Then on Saturday was her birthday party. Maddie had lots of fun playing with everyone and eating her cake. HER cake was a homemade carrot cake that I made from scratch with all "good for you" ingredients. It was my gift to her since it seemed silly to buy her toys or clothes. Oh, we did buy her an inner tube since she loved Lourdes's in Orlando! She enjoyed the cake, but sorry to disappoint everyone.....she was very neat. The cake, being very dense, stayed together so well that she barely had any on her face. So no messy cake-face pictures!

Showing off her walking to Grandma

Playing with Kristen

Peek-a-boo, I see you Aunt Kim!

The inner tube!

Marissa showing Maddie how it's done

Sitting in her new chair from Nana and Grandpa

Lion push toy from Aunt Kim

Beautiful new table and chairs from Grandma and Grandpa

Our Baby is 1!!!!

I can't tell you how many times people have told us during this past year, "Cherish the moments, the first year goes by so fast....She's only a baby for a little while." Well I have to say, as I sit here reflecting on the last year of our lives, in some ways it did indeed go by very fast. But in some ways, it was the one year that we slowed down and "stopped to smell the roses" so to speak. Last year, before Madeline was born, there was so much anxiety and worry that she would come too early. Well she certainly did come early, but we feel so blessed and lucky to now have such a vibrant, happy, healthy little girl. And watching her grow this past year has been amazing. She grew fast, the weeks passed quickly, but we've learned to slow down and enjoy the little moments in her life so much. We now stop to look and point at airplanes, listen to the birdies, hear a dog going "woof" in the distance, and just sit at the window and watch Daddy mow the lawn. My favorite time is when all three of us just sit together in the family room and play. My job is all about helping children with disabilities meet their milestones. What has been amazing about watching Maddie develop this past year is that we didn't have to "help" her. Amazingly, all we had to do was keep her fed, clean, rested, love her, and provide the opportunity for her to learn. The rest happened so naturally and I marvel at each new skill she acquires with ease.

This past year has been full of change and don't get me wrong, it has had its challenges. But the joy has far outweighed any of the tough times. And we could not have survived this year without the love and support from each other and from our friends and families. We are so lucky to have both sets of grandparents in Maddie's life and her aunts and uncle close too. Maddie was also able to meet all four of her great-grandparents and many of her great aunts and uncles and older cousins this year. And she also spent time with all of our friends and our friends' kids. Thank you to EVERYONE! What a wonderful first year. As my mom says about Maddie, "She loves life!" And we love our life with her and all of you in it!

First Steps!

Madeline officially took her first independent steps on July 3rd! She only took about 3 steps for a while but this past week or so has been taken lots more. It's taken a while to get it on video. And of course, she doesn't perform as well when the camera is rolling. But here is a look at her new skill! It looks like maybe she will be walking at Geordie and Mary's wedding!



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Trip to Orlando

Madeline and I recently went to Orlando to visit with the Fab Five (my college roommates). We are now the Savvy Seven with the little ones Lourdes and Maddie. It was the first time Lourdes and Maddie were together and we had so much fun. We stayed in a time share near Disney and although we didn't go to the parks, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and saw lots of cool Disney things there. Lourdes is in love with Disney Princesses and showed Maddie her princess book and Ariel doll. In this first picture, Lourdes kept saying "ARIEL!!!" as we took the picture and Maddie kept looking at her! It was so great to see all the girls. Sarah was a wonderful host and we got to see her future home in Melbourne at the beach. Maddie loved the beach and was covered head to toe in sand! Jess is 3 1/2 months pregnant and we got to see her growing "bump." And we celebrated Jennie's 30th birthday, Lourdes's 2nd birthday, and Maddie's upcoming 1st birthday. So it was a great weekend and Madeline was an angel on the plane both flights. Here are some pictures!

The Savvy Seven

Beach girl!

I love the sand!


Check out my hair! Aunt Shelley gave me pigtails while Mommy was in the shower!



"Maddie, this is Ariel!"

Belly Laughs

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Did I Say We Need Cabinet Locks?

Enough said..........


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Maddie and Nora Finally Meet!

Mia and Nora were in town last week from Colorado. After 11 months of talking on the phone about our 2 girls....they finally met! Nora is 4 1/2 months older than Maddie, but only about 2 lbs. heavier. She is walking and running like a big girl now. They got along fine, except for Maddie pulling Nora's hair a little, until......Maddie took Nora down! She thought she could pull up on Nora like she does on us, so she grabbed a hold of Nora's dress and tried to stand herself up. Next thing you know, the two of them were on the floor in a pile. Nora was not happy at all and our little one (not showing an ounce of empathy) just thought it was hilarious! Other than that one incident, our visit was great. We really wish they lived in Virginia still! But we are hoping to make it to Colorado some time next year. Here are some pictures that Mia took with her new camera. She got some really great shots and was nice enough to share them with me. The slideshow is a sequence of pictures that Mia took and each one shows a different expression on both their faces. I couldn't choose, so I put them all together!