Maddy loves playing with this school bus. She carries it around a lot and likes to roll it across the floor. She received this for her birthday form Grandpa Jeff and Grandma Anita. Maddy even tries to get Maizey and Victor to play with the bus by shoving it in their faces... that doesn't go over so well :)

Carousel Ride

Kevin took Madeline and I back to the mall today for a carousel ride. Maddy loves this ride so it was great to see her laughing and waving. Madeline also enjoyed a hot fudge sundae fron Dairy Queen before we went home.

I found Madeline inside one of her toy bins today. Her and Mickey were having a ball. Maddy will dump all the toys out of the baskets and climb in and out over and over again. She is going through a stage where she wants to climb on and in everything!

Madeline and I met our Friends Allison and Lauren at Paradise Valley mall. We all enjoyed a ride around on the carousel to start off our day. We then took a ride through the entire mall on the miniature train. The girls needed a big snack after that so Lauren and Maddy enjoyed a nice banana and Cheerios. We spent some time walking around the mall then made a stop at the pet store to see all the cute puppies! Madeline did not want to be in her stroller much. I let her walk and run and she was pretty good about staying near me.

Since the girls behaved so well, we gave them each a vanilla ice cream cone from McDonald's and they loved it!

Best Friends

Madeline has loved Mickey Mouse from the beginning. Now that she has a Mickey doll almost as big as her, Maddy doesn't go anywhere without him. Today Mickey went to Target with us and sat in the cart right next to her the whole time. When Maddy gets fussy in the car, we turn on the Mickey Mouse theme song and she starts singing and dancing along with the music and immediately gets happy.

Madeline can now point to pictures of a cat, dog, and duck and say what they are. She loves having me point to pictures in a book and repeat what the are over and over. She is getting very smart and I can see her learning more and more each day.

Maddy had her first pizza tonight. We ordered Pizza Hut and Madeline ate almost half a piece of pepperoni and sausage pizza! Of course I cut it into tiny bite size pieces for her but she seemed to really enjoy it!

This is Kevins favorite picture of Madeline so far and I agree! What a cuitie!

Madeline and Kevin had fun making faces at

each other last night. Maddy was laughing when Kevin would stick out his tongue at her and she would make funny faces back.

Madeline can feed herself now and usually has a fit when I try to spoon feed her anything. Tonight she enjoyed some cheddar and broccoli noodles and strawberries. She made herself really comfy for dinner by propping up her foot and sitting back to enjoy her meal.

Time is really flying by. She is already 13 months and 2 weeks old!! She is getting big... size 18 and 24 month clothes and we bought her size 5 shoes this past weekend! We bought her some pink and grey New Balance running shoes and she likes stomping around the house in them.

Maddy's appetite has decreased quite a bit. She usually has oatmeal and fruit for breakfast with about 5 ounces of milk. Then she has only 2 small meals and a snack the rest of the day. I mix whole milk and formula together to help her transition to milk only. It is working pretty well. I mix about 4 ounces of milk and 2 ounces of formula and she drinks it all.

Madeline had a yummy blueberry Popsicle today to cool off after swimming. Of course, she usually gets more on her face then in her mouth but she has fun!

Rough Day

Madeline had a rough day today. First of all we were up until after midnight last night playing and reading. We were rudely awaken this morning at 9 am by the doorbell. It was a box from USPS. Madeline usually gets between 11 ans 12 hours of sleep per night so this was not a great way to start the day.

We decided to spend the day as a family. We went shopping and had a nice lunch at Toby Keith's Bar and Grill down in Tempe. Maddy kept falling asleep in the car between stores but as soon as she would be asleep, we would stop at a new store and have to get out of the car...and wake up.

This kept happening over and over. Anyways....We then decided to make Maddy stay up with out a nap so she would sleep soundly tonight.

Maddy fell asleep while eating Cheerios' at about 9pm in her high Chair. Poor baby, I guess going non-stop for 12 hours wore her out!

Here is Madeline reading her animal book out loud. She points at the animals and says what they are...in her own language of course :) She does know which one is kitty and she points right to the kitty pictures and says kitty!

Madeline loves Books!

Madeline was sleeping on the floor in her bedroom tonight because she still wont sleep in her crib. As you can see, our pets are very protective of her and all wanted to sleep with her. Maizey is on the bottom, Victor is at the top and Snicker is on the right with Maddy smack in the middle. They have her surrounded in case she needs anything or tries to get up! What a crazy bunch!

Victor and Madeline

Madeline at age 13 Months and Victor who is now 6 years old

Just Another Day

Today the temperature reached 108 degrees. Our routine is being coming regular...breakfast, shopping, swimming, nap.

(today the nap was only 25 minutes! :)

This mess is the result of letting Madeline feed herself her lunch. She had ravioli and peaches and did a great job of getting it in her mouth...but as you can see she got just as much on her face as she actually ate.

Always Helping...

Helping me put the groceries away

13 Months Old

Madeline is now 13 months old and as always she is doing great. Madeline shares her 13th month birthday with her grandpa Jeff. This is a very special day!

Maddy is now eating all kinds of solid foods and discovering new things she likes everyday. Right now she loves bananas, spaghetti O's, blueberry muffins and green beans. She eats a variety of soups and fruit as well. Madeline uses a sippy cup most of the time instead of a bottle to drink her formula, juice, and water. She walks without help and is learning to run. She is very independent when playing. Maddy loves to swim, read books, play with the dogs and splash in her water table. Madeline still sleeps in our bed unfortunately and I am having extreme difficulty getting her to sleep alone. She falls asleep with me holding her each night. She will sleep alone in her crib for 1 hour but then like clockwork she is up crying and wants out after exactly one hour. Once she is with us in our bed, Maddy will sleep soundly for 10-11 hours. Madeline takes only one nap a day and sometimes no nap at all. Her hair is getting lighter as it grows and her eyes are still bright blue. We think Maddy's back teeth are finally starting to push thru as she has been having spurts of crying and chewing on everything. Overall Madeline is an extremely happy baby and is healthily and very loving.

Madeline loves books. She will sit in her play room and read several books for hours at a time. She makes sure to look at every pag and she "talks" like she is reading the book out loud.

Madeline loves pulling everything out of the refrigerator and freezer. Today she popped open a cinnamon roll canister by mistake when she was throwing it down onto the floor. Madeline also loves climbing on everything. She tries to get into the freezer, onto the TV stand and she tries to squeeze into her dresser drawers. Maddy points at what she wants and calls everything "Mickey" I am no longer momma, I am Mickey...Dad is Mickey.. and even Mickey means "Goodbye". We are so lucky to have such a happy baby. Maddy smiles and goes with the flow all the time.

Another day of us girls playing around outside. Maddy stayed up until about 2 am this morning so we slept in kind of late. First thing she wanted to do after breakfast was go outside to her water table. We spent about 2 hours outside before we got too hot.

Showing off her Baby Blue's

Kevin came home from his trip to Detroit so we all went to dinner at one of our favorite places, Island's. Maddy behaved very well and enjoyed eating from the highchair. At one point she made friends with the family sitting across from us and she showed her dance moves from on top of our table.

Turn up the Volume!

Maddy and Maizey love playing with each other. They chase each other around and play tug of war with all of Maddy's stuffed animals and even my clothes. Madeline has been doing a real deep throaty laugh lately that sounds really silly. I think its just a new noise she learned to make so she is doing it all the time.

Kevin is in Detroit this week for business so Maddy and I have had some great girl time together. Today we woke up around 10 and shopped at Target for awhile and had lunch. We spent the afternoon doing our favorite things: swimming and playing with the water table. Maddy bought some new sunglasses and enjoyed wearing them.

I had to spend quite a while cleaning the pool before we could get in because it was covered in dust form the horrible dust storm we had a few days ago. The entire bottom of the pool was brown with a thick dust layer and there were tons of dirt and debris all over the top.

Maddy has been trying lots of new foods lately. Today she had Macaroni and cheese and spinach. She really like spaghetti O's and she loves applesauce. I'm trying her get her to stop drinking formula and start milk but she still doesn't like milk. So i happily give her 3 bottles of formula a day and water and juice in between.

Madeline has learned to pick food up and feed herself now. We bought her a bowl that wont spill and we fill it with all kinds of snacks. Maddy carries the bowl around stuffing her face and of course Maizey follows her around picking up everything she drops.

Favorite Toy

Madeline bought this big Mickey from the Disney Store a few weeks ago and ever since she has been carrying it around. She loves it, talks to it and even tells it stories. this is the first toy she has latched onto like this so I am happy she finally has something that comforts her.