Maddy the builder

Maddy LOVES to build. Whether it is with the blocks or this pegboard, her little brain goes right to stacking. And she gets very serious! She has great fine motor skills!

OH and did I mention she is now 18 months old!!! November will be here before we know it and poof.....we will have a 2 year old and a 4 year old....yikes! 

Anyhow, I took Maddy for her 18 month check-up yesterday and here are her stats:

WEIGHT: 25lbs, 8 oz (65th percentile)

HEIGHT: 33.3 inches (85th percentile)

The doctor was VERY pleased with her skills and progress!! 

Her vocabulary of real words now consists of :

*Da da 

*Cracker

*Thank You

*Mama

*All done

And of course she continues with her basic sign language skills!

And now she knows to point for EVERYTHING she wants. And quickly shakes her head no when you are not offering her the correct item. And if you insist, she pushes it away and turns her head to make the point! She knows what she doesn't want at least!! 

And her new favorite thing is swimming! She LOVES the pool and literally jumps at the chance to get in with Abby and I. With her floaties on, she's a regular fish just like Abby was at this age, not requiring any assistance, she floats along and does what she wants. 

This will be a fun summer for sure!

 

Timber.........

Okay, so here is an update from the crazy storm that went thru our city in 5 minutes yesterday with 70mph winds....Literally I was sitting in the living room with the girls watching a show, and all of a sudden I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the skies got dark and it sounded like pounding rain....NOT in the forecast!

Next thing I know, debris is flying everywhere, my lawn furniture are about to take flight, and then wham....my neighbors tree splits and falls into our yard/pool! NICE!!

Especially nice the week Mike is gone, of course! Why not!!! :)

Anyhow, my neighbor felt really bad and quickly was out there cutting it all down to clear the area.

Luckily the only "damage" was to the fence, knocking out a few boards which he also replaced. So all that Mike is left with is some tree debris to move to the curb when he gets back this weekend!

Luckily the pool fence was spared!!! Phew!!

 Tree laying in the pool!

The culprit tree (above)  After some cleanup you can see the damages. My neighbor's wife laughed as we were assessing it all and joked that it would be the perfect time to put in a gate, since our kids are always yelling and playing thru the fence when they are in their respective backyards!

 Finally back to normal minus the pile of tree branches in our yard

Bread.....bread and more bread!

So this bread machine has been quite a hit with us. We've made 5 loaves in 1 week (ouch on the carbs.......but its been a tasty new toy!!)

Abby loves being included in the ingredient preparing, and eating of course.

Today was busy, Abby had a swim lesson this morning, then we headed straight to the gym for mommy time, and back home for lunch/naps. Then I got right into my next batch, Challah! I found a recipe online and made the dough in the machine, then took it out after the kneading process, braided it, let it rise, and 20 minutes later in the oven......voila! VERY tasty too! Nice and doughy and soft in the center!

After that came out of the bread machine I put in my ingredients for loaf #2 today, Cheddar Beer Bread; except I replaced the beer with ginger ale (imagine that.....no beer in our house). Even though I added double the cheese than called for in the recipe, you'd hardly know there was cheese in it. But BOY did it come out fluffy and delicious! Mike gave it high marks! 

So today's count.....2 loaves of bread & 3 loads of laundry & 2 trips to the gym for me!! 

(hopefully that counteracts some of my bread intake :)

Suckers!!

Grandma Donna mailed the girls these Winnie the Pooh ring pop suckers last week.

Of course they were a hit. The girls ran off and hid in their tent to enjoy them. 

Thanks Grandma!!

Duck!!!!

We had some special visitors last weekend for mothers day!

We saw these two waddle into the backyard, and no sooner did they investigate the pool, and jump in for a dip. We saw a pair do this last year too, so it must be that time of year. Abby really enjoyed watching from the kitchen window dictating to us, every move the ducks made.

Air Show!

We had a very busy Sunday! 

First we headed out to Norfolk for their annual Greek festival.

We were mostly there to indulge in the yummy food which Mike and I both enjoy.

We devoured Gyro's, Spanikopita, Calamari & Baklava of course!! Mmmmmmm good!

Then we threw naptime under the bus and headed north to the Langley Air Show in Hampton. Today was the last day and you just can't pass up a free event with planes, right??

To my surprise.....I'm not sure why I was surprised...but Abby LOVED it! She got to be Mike's sidekick as he showed her everything. I on the other hand pushed sleeping beauty Madelyn around. She slept like a champ while we perused different aircraft. She only woke up at the very end when the Thunderbirds began their show......then things got REALLY loud and we left!

 Mike teaching her where the bombs are kept that they drop on bad guys......oh how to explain these things to a curious 3 year old.

  Daddy on stroller duty

 Beautiful skies!!

 Our seasoned aircraft visitor, got her wings!

 Waiting to board the Air Force AWACS

 She did her job for the day and slept! Such a trooper.

 In front of the Memphis Belle

 Last flight of the day with the Thunderbirds performance!

Mothers Day 2011

Happy Mothers Day to me!!!

Mike spoiled me with sleeping in, and a wonderful homemade breakfast!

 We have had a very uneventful & relaxing day at home.

 As I was reading the paper this morning Maddy climbed up and grabbed a book!

Abby wrote "MOMMY" on my mothers day card all by herself. Mike wrote it out and she copied it onto the card just right!

 And my gift this year was a bread machine! I've had a few friends/relatives talking about theirs lately and it inspired some thoughts to try it out myself. Mike surprised me with it today and we have a loaf baking as I type!! Abby got to help him make the first batch! I will report back how it turns out.

Botanical Gardens

It was a gorgeous but mild day today so we took the kids up and got a membership at our local botanical gardens where they have this fun water play area for the kids!! Although we have a pool at home, this will be a great wet way to get out of the house for a bit and avoid the sand/beaches!

The place was empty and the kids had a blast.

Mothers Day Lunch

Yesterday at Abby's preschool they hosted a Mothers Day Luncheon Picnic in the social hall. All the moms got to come and bring lunch for ourselves and the kids and spend lunch together on a blanket at school. It was so much fun, and I was able to leave Maddy with a good friend, so Abby got my full attention! Of course her first question was, "Where's Maddy??", so I'm glad she missed having her there so we could enjoy our time together.

They surprised us (which is why the video quality is SOOO poor, so I apologize otherwise I would have brought my good video camera, so my regular camera video had to do on short notice) the kids performed singing the ABC's, and ran thru the letters of each of their names!!

Abby is the last one on the far right in the photo and the videos FYI.

Video of them doing the letters of their names:


Video of them singing their ABC's:

Sleepyhead!

Today the girls were eating lunch, me too, and when I looked over to answer one of Abby's questions, I saw this.....Maddy sleeping in her highchair!!! This NEVER happens. And we didn't even do anything today. She ate her pb&j and dozed off to sleepyland! I cleaned her up and took her to bed.

Cutie

I caught Maddy watching TV standing with her hands clasped behind her back the other day. I've seen it often and finally got a shot of her cuteness!

Friends!

Its not very often that Maddy has a friend over, so last weekend our friends Dan & Jessica came over with their daughter Kolbey who is about 2 weeks younger than Maddy. The girls had so much fun (Abby too!) and ran around the backyard all night while we bbq'd!

Chocolate!!!

 I let Maddy dive into a pudding cup after lunch the other day.....she loved it and decided her tongue was the best utensil!

Picnic with "friends"

 Abby wanted to have lunch with her "friends" outside on Monday, and while I was making lunch, this is what resulted. In attendance were Abby, Raggedy-Ann, Teddy Bear and Abby Cadabby (all with their own cups and plates/food)