Maddie Says Hi and Go Broncos!

11 month photo.. it's getting harder to keep her in the chair for her monthly photo

We've been busy, busy, busy! The days are really going by fast. I think it tends to do that once we reach Fall and before you know it, it's New Years Eve! This year I plan on slowing down and taking time to enjoy every moment of our little one.

I've been busy working on ideas for her birthday party and also coordinating my grandma's 80th birthday in WI. We leave next week and I can't wait to see all my family and friends.. especially my Aunt Mary. We haven't seen each other since I was much younger. We've reconnected via email and it's been fun getting to know her.. almost like I have a new friend that I really enjoy sharing with. She's so great and I can't wait to give her a hug. Not only that, but most of family has never met Maddie so it will be fun showing her off. I cherish my grandma and can't wait for her to meet Maddie. We'll be staying at her house.. hope she's ready for some crying and poopy diapers! :)

Miss Maddie seems to be evolving every day. More and more, she's like a little person instead of a baby. She's starting to talk (when she feels like it). She's said "dada" for awhile and actually meant it. We heard "hi" out of her the other day (check out the video below) and tonight I could of sworn she said "baby" when pointing to her photo while she got into her jammies.

She's starting to actually use her sign language. She knows the signs for baby, more, eat, and milk. She won't do them all the time and so far, it's just mimicking us after we do them or say the word but it's certainly a start and so cute, especially "baby" which is holding your arms together and rocking a baby in the cradle. Everytime I try to capture on video, she hears the beep from the camcorder and tries to attack us.. lol.

She's very big into pointing lately. I try to reward her communication by commenting about whatever I think she's pointing to. We have had a balloon in our living room for two weeks or so now and she LOVES it. If we ask her where the balloon is, she points straight to it.. same for her Cheerios, the kitty, and her large stuffed teddy "Bob" and a Little People named "Roberto". (aka Crista's dad.. inside joke)

It's so much fun watching the little wheels in her brain twirl as she discovers all these new things around her and expresses to us that she gets it! She's a little ham, standing behind her exersaucer and poking her head on the side or through toys to make us laugh. At the playground, she makes all kinds of noise until someone looks at her and comments on how cute she is. :) "Look at me everyone, I can go down the slide!"

Wish us luck on our plane ride there and back.. I'll report on all the fun when we return.

Maddie's first big boo-boo and just two weeks before professional birthday photos. :) She's ok and healing well.. little mishap with the front door and the welcome mat not being so welcoming that day. As you can tell from the photo, it didn't keep her down!


Her newest Mary Lou Retton moves


Grabbing a snack and watching the Bronco game


Touchdown- Broncos!!! We're number one!


Maddie loves watching football with her daddy

All Done! and Safe Kitty

Tooth number six just poked through so we're finally sleeping a little better... Shoot!, every time I say that I jinx myself and to prove it, I mentioned it on Thursday night and couldn't find any wood to knock on. Today I was rewarded with only one 40 minute nap that didn't happen until around 2 pm.

Maddie must be going through a growth spurt, she's eating more food than ever before. Tonight she finished an entire jar of baby food (a large one- 6 oz) plus ground beef, some fruit, and a few Cheerios (I call it her appetizers, others call them Cheerios). The entire jar of food is a first for her and this one is going down in her baby book records. I usually give her a bit of everything but she only eats half a jar at most... this is the second day in a row where she's eating like a champ. She must be channeling a teenage boy right now. At least she isn't into Doritos and Mountain Dew just yet!

She is a big girl though so most meals she eats what we're having but somehow I didn't think burritos were appropriate. We're almost done with the "baby" food but it's convenient when we're having something she can't have and as gross as it smells and tastes (I've tried it all!), she loves it!

Here she is with Sloppy Joes a few days ago.. wonder why they call it Sloppy Joes anyhow?


Oh, that's why!!! All Done!


We had a little potty accident in our car seat (bad mommy for trying to go to one more store before changing the baby). What a pain to get this thing off. Anyhow, the car seat was in our room for a few days before we re-installed into Matt's truck. Mya checked it out each night and made sure it was safe. Pretty expensive pet bed.



For her efforts, Maddie rewarded her with a "nice kitty".


We love our girls!

Oh The FUN We Will Have!!!

I had no idea 10 months old would be so fun! Despite Miss Maddie getting a new tooth (or two) in, we've been having a blast lately! Be sure to check out the new top teeth in next month's photos. That makes number 5, and possibly number 6. (Doesn't she look older with a hair bow? She finally has enough hair on top for it to stay. Hopefully the old guys at the grocery store will stop saying how cute my "boy" is!- My "boy" that wears pink every day!)

To say she's into copying is an understatement. She's a darn good impersonator! You cough, she coughs.. you wag your tongue, she wags her tongue, etc.. so funny! The tongue has been out alot lately.


Grandma Phyllis came by last weekend for a visit. Of course, I never took out my camera (I'm so bad at that!). It was nice to see her and Maddie enjoyed playing with Grandma. We live so close but don't get a chance to see each other much so the visit was long overdue. Hopefully we'll get together again soon, and next time I'll remember the camera!

We purchased a new toy for her upcoming birthday but decided to give it to her early. I figure why keep it under the bed when she can be playing with it now.. I'm going to be bad at Christmas time.

She likes the toy.. LOVES the box! She's been pushing the box around for a few days now. She uses it as a step-stool too.. how did she get so smart?


If we yell out, "How big is Maddie?", she raises her arms to say "SO BIG"!

Here she is with Daddy and her new toy. It's a Leap Frog learning table. It plays music and teaches basics in both English and Spanish. Very cool toy. I like that she can stand up next to it to play with it but of course, she wanted to push it around the living room.


We're all having fun with Maddie's toys. We bought this tent for her to sleep in when we went to Palm Springs.. yeah right! That didn't work out so well, but we bring it out every once in awhile to play in. Maybe we'll try again when she's older. If anything, she now owns a very expensive play tent!

Even Mom fits in the tent! Thanks Matt for grabbing the camera to catch this flattering shot! (At least I wasn't trying to back out!)


She also figured out that Mya's toys are better than her own sometimes. She adores this furry mouse. (Don't worry, I removed the eyes before she chewed them off.) She flings it around and rubs the fur on her face.

Hey, What happened to his eyes?!


I hope everyone had a relaxing Labor Day Weekend. Even though I'm not working anymore, I heart 3 day weekends. We hung out with friends on Sunday and Matt recovered (hee hee) on Monday. :) I just really enjoy spending time with my hubby.

This is MaryAnn, Matt's best friend Sean's mom. She considers Maddie a 3rd grandchild and is always buying her something cute.. oh boy! They had a great time and MaryAnn was loving having her all to herself while we were at the pool.


We took Maddie to the park for some "swing time". She's such a dare devil that she leans forward to propel herself down the slide. I catch her half way down and then fling her into the air. She LOVES it. Hopefully she won't be too disappointed when she gets bigger and has to just land on her feet. :)



This last photo is of Maddie and her BFF Isabella. We had a play date at our house. It was super hot that day but the girls had fun showing each other that they can now stand! Something new since they were last together. They're still working on sharing and of course, each other's toys (and sippy cups) were always better than their own. It's going to be so much fun watching these guys grow up together. (Gee do you think Maddie is going to be the short kid in her class? These two are only hours apart in age, but Miss Bella is about 3 inches taller! lol)


It makes me sad that Maddie isn't growing up with my great friend Heather's little girl, my friend Kathy's little guys or her cousins back in WI but it is what it is... I'm just glad I'm able to share Miss Maddie with everyone who's interested in watching her as she changes into a little lady. And yes, despite the conversations that I have with her about staying a baby, it looks like that's going to happen sooner than I'd like... especially if she keeps wearing those hair clips!

As always, thanks for reading the latest and we love you all!

Spaghetti and Cheerios

Spaghetti and Cheerios... Maddie's new favorite meal! Yummy..

She's decided lately that she's too big of a girl to have mom feed her anymore (except for the beloved nursing of course!) so we've had to get creative with our table food. It certainly is messier but has been allot of fun lately. I can handle blueberry oatmeal up the nose every once in awhile. We got smart and bought her some bibs with the pocket in the front.. Bumpkins brand are awesome! After each meal we find a nice pile of things that didn't make it into her mouth. I guess it's a numbers game.. give her 20 pieces of fruit so 10 make it in. :)

I am able to sneak in a few spoonfuls here and there to make sure she's getting the foods that would be too messy or dangerous to feed her like blueberries and applesauce.




Is there something on my nose?



The little devil herself getting a bath after dinner.

Papa and Grandma Lena Visit

Sorry I haven't posted sooner.. I've been working on Maddie's 1st Birthday invitations. Yep, I decided to design and print them at home.. it's like planning my wedding all over again! :)

Last week we had a great visit from Papa and Grandma Lena! Despite not sleeping great, Miss Maddie was in a great mood each day. (The day after they left she took a three hour nap! She was pooped!)
We went to the fair one day and to the Ventura Harbor another day. We also enjoyed Lena's famous chili.. Matt LOVES this chili and we ask her to make it every time we see them.

I haven't been to the fair in several years. Matt took me once when we were dating but since he's done "woo-ing" me (hee hee) he no longer has to go. I will say, the fair is VERY expensive. $10 to park, $10 to get in.. geesh! My favorite part of the fair is FAIR FOOD! Yummy! Where else can you get chocolate covered bacon. Oh yes, that was there but I chickened out and couldn't do it. Instead I ate this disgustingly good fried indian bread covered with whip cream and chocolate.. oh my! Alyx said fair food doesn't have calories so I feel better knowing that.

Papa and Maddie enjoying the fair


Tom had an awesome Turkey leg (I told him to pose for the blog!)



Maddie had the best fair food she could find.. her foot! mmmmmm



We had a great time watching the pig races, playing games, and walking off all our yummy food. We were all pooped at the end of the day. Papa and Maddie took a little snooze on the way home.

The day before they left, Alyx, Papa and Grandma, Maddie and I went to the Ventura Harbor. It's a cute little area where you can check out the boats that are docked and eat at a variety of restaurants. They also have a game area with a carousal.




Maddie's first carousal ride! She held on like such a big girl.




The Harbor is right by the beach so we stopped by to show Maddie the waves. Papa D took her down by the water.. as they were going, she kept looking back to make sure Mom was still there. She heard all kinds of stories and even got her feet a little wet... anyone ever tell Papa the Pacific Ocean is freezing!? :)



Just checking!


What a great trip! I'm glad Papa and Grandma Lena were able to come out. Maddie has changed so much since they saw her in March. She seems to change every day! They're going to try to make it back out for her 1st Birthday Party which is coming up very soon.

A Girl and Her Balloon



We ran some errands the other day and a lady at Ralph's (grocery store) gave me a balloon for Maddie. She LOVES balloons and couldn't take her eyes off of this one. The second photo is dark but if you click on it you can see the admiration in her face. Gosh, I love this kid!!!

Feeling Better

As of Sunday morning, Maddie's fever is gone.. it went as quickly as it came. By Tuesday we were back to napping well. We may never know if it was teething or a virus but all that matters is Miss Maddie is feeling better which also means Mommy is feeling better!

Disco Fever

Ok, we aren't exactly dancing over here but Maddie does have a fever... she's been at 100-102 since Friday morning. She woke up burning hot. We recently had a friend who's little boy had a febrile seizure so that was first in my mind. (Thank you Heidi again for sharing your story!) We've been giving Motrin every six hours but it hasn't seemed to make any difference. We also have been giving her luke warm baths and placing a washcloth on her forehead when she's nursing (which has seemed like every waking minute during the day). Sleeping has been nil in our household but I guess every parent goes through this at some point, right? And it's surely bound to happen again.

Being new parents we did take her into the doc this morning (Saturday-hope they don't have emergency plumber rates!). Of course she didn't have a fever the nano-second it took the doctor to take her temperature but she did have swollen lymph nodes and enlarged tonsils. He checked for strep but that came back negative so he said it's probably just viral and to keep an eye on the fever and watch for any other symptoms. It could be teething but I'm glad we went to rule out ear infection or something more serious.

Unfortunately we missed Shane's 2nd birthday party.. darn it! We just got into the "birthday party" club and had to miss our first event! :) I'm sure everyone had a great time, so sorry we missed it.

Hopefully she'll be feeling better before Papa Dimino and Grandma Lena arrive on Thursday. They're coming out from Denver to see Miss Maddie and we're just starting to get good sleep at night and be a "happy baby" during the day. She is also scheduled to get her vaccinations on Thursday afternoon.

Other than being clingy, we have had some giggles out of her so it could be worse!

Here are her 9 month JC Penney photos I promised you. The scans aren't so great (I made them lower resolution to get them to upload) but the copies of the photos turned out nice, now I just need to cut them out and distribute. I'm not very impressed with their photos but they're a cheap option and it's relatively easy for us to make an appointment and go.

Here's my attempt a few weeks ago.


Here's their attempt.. ok, a little better. lol






This one sums up how the appointment went! :)



We're going to have her 12 month birthday photos taken while we're in WI by my friend Trisha Faber. She just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Kora Lynn. (She's actually the daughter of my parent's friends but we didn't meet until we found each other online while planning our destination weddings.. so technically we haven't actually "met" yet!) She's very talented and I can't wait for our session!