Maddie 12 Months

I figure if I title the post 12 months then I don’t really have to admit the fact that she actually is one year old now. Oh geez. Maddie love, here is where you are now:

- Doctors appt.: you weigh 18lbs 10oz (15th percentile)
                                you are 28” tall (up to the 10th percentile!)

- You continue to take two naps a day still, each for about two hours each!

- You have really taken off with eating, usually using two hands! Your favorite foods are bananas, omelets (southwest style), turkey and cheese, grapes and of course eggplant parm., yum!

- Um lets check on the teeth situation . . .

. . . yeah, no teeth yet still! And yet you manage to eat!

- You still crawl but you love to take a few steps. You have been doing the 1, 2, 3 step fall for a while but are really starting to gain more confidence in walking (tear).

- You are a infant chatterbox. You are the biggest social butterfly ever – whenever we go anywhere you have to say “hi” to everyone so that they see you, especially those that are not paying attention or looking at you. Oh, and you have to say “buh bye” to people as they leave too!

- You love, love to read books all by yourself. Our TV table now doubles as a bookshelf where you will sit and “read” all the books that are there, it’s so cute.

Maddie, you are just the best little thing anyone could ever ask for! You bring us so much joy everyday and we love to watch you grow! Even if I do think it’s a little too fast, but that’s just this momma’s opinion who has a now 1 year old daughter!

Kids Birthday Party

Donny and I decided it would be fun to have some of Maddie’s little buddies over to enjoy the special day with her. Play with some toys, eat some cake, you know – just have fun! Well, out house isn’t super big and it also wasn’t super nice outside so us and six kids, oh yeah and all their parents ate food, cake and did presents in the house. I would call is “controlled chaos!” We had a blast and I think the kids did too. Little Park was napping at home so he couldn’t make it but here's what pretty much happened – Little Layna ate and slept like a little baby the whole time – Emery put some pretty nice bite marks into Maddie’s foam numbers (something she has yet to be able to do) – Sam found out his new favorite food group is my pepperoni dip – Charley found  fascination with Maddie’s shoes and laying in our bed – Noah showed to Maddie just how to ride her new train around the house and last but not least, Evan tested out the new car seat over and over. Oh, and all the parents ate food, fed their kids food, cleaned up spilt food (not necessary) and somewhere in there had some fun too. If you can imagine there was just a little bit going on around the house so I have a picture of the cake (adorable) and Maddie eating hers. Thanks to everyone who came to help make this such a special day, we all enjoyed ourselves for sure!

Birthday Girl with Aunt Melinda!


Birthday Kisses!


Santa’s “Last Day”


Enjoying some cake!



The cupcake-cake!

Family Birthday Parties

Parties?? As in plural? Yes, there were two – not to mention the party tomorrow with all our little buddies. We had Mimi & Dr. Pop, Carlie, Gran, and Bobbie & Pop join us at the house to have some lunch and do just a few presents. I don’t have many pictures of her doing presents because we video taped the whole thing and I know you don’t need to watch 45 minutes of Maddie looking at wrapping paper. Needless to say she got some great goodies. She got her new car seat from us and her cozy coupe (photos later). She also got tons of great books, a train that makes noise (duh) and a bassinet for her soon to come baby doll. Here are a few pictures of dessert that afternoon. . .

Did I mention we had a few balloons? Yeah, just a few.

Are you eyeing my cupcake? I didn’t think so.




 
Oh poor baby doll you don’t know what you’re in for – but that’s a pretty good preview.


Party #2 aka the “big” one
Saturday night we did the big Smith family party – I’m pretty sure there were 25+ people and Maddie may have loved it because she got some attention – ‘cause she hardly ever commands attention. Prepare yourself for a photo reel to commence. . .

Birthday party outfit and playing with her “car”

Maddie;s cakes – one to demolish and one to share

Maddie subtly ogling over Barry taking pictures.

Cake time!

At least it matched her hat!

Hey Aunt Melinda!

Just a few presents to top off the night!

Maddie “reading” one of her new books!


A new adorable blue smocked romper!

A pink and green seersucker dress

A new bathing suit!
A real baby doll with . . .

a stroller!! How cute is that?!


All the presents, oh my!!

Needless to say Maddie got a ton of great stuff and we are so appreciative to everyone! I even snuck a couple things into the basement for her to “re-open” later in the spring! We had such a blast and all slept well, which is important because we have another party tomorrow!!

Birthday Lunch

We went to SoRo Chill & Grill for Maddie’s birthday lunch which she loved. It was small enough we could all hear each other talk but with enough people that Maddie could say “hi” to everyone there over and over.


Yes Maddie wore her enormous bow flower the whole lunch
Yes she loved it
Yes Donny picked it because it matched
No that is not her Heineken


Sweet Birthday Girl!


The next morning Aunt Melinda arrived to celebrate too! Maddie was so excited to see her and try on her shoes!



And then the balloons arrived and all we heard from then on out was “bbb . . . bbb” Oh, and Donny said he was embarrassed to pick up the balloons (2 dozen) and that they “made fun of him.” Such a drama queen!

. . . .more to come . . .

Happy Birthday–Part 1 of many

So I basically have a thousand pictures of Maddie’s birthday weekend – so it will be coming in parts instead of one super mega post. Here is our plan for the Queen Bee:

Friday – birthday lunch
Saturday – small family party at our house
large family party at Mimi and Dr. Pop’s house
Sunday – kids party at our house

We have our work cut out for us – you only turn 1 once Maddie and we are going to live it up! Thank goodness you are over all your sicknesses from the previous weeks!

Birthday morning love with dada mowing the lawn!

My Birthday Love

My Dearest Maddie,

I try to hold back the tears as I cope with the fact that a whole year has gone by so fast! How has this happened so fast? It seems not too long ago that I was watching American Idol feeling you kick around. When I was in labor and “walking” into the hospital I caught myself crying outside the nursery seeing the little babies thinking “my baby is coming, right now!” I couldn’t have imagined anything better in my life than you being born. You have brought so much joy, so much happiness and love into my heart it makes me cry. Everyday I am so excited to see you and your smile and every night I count my blessings that you are a happy and healthy little girl! Your dada and I love you so much and cannot wait to see what the years will bring, but for now, just slow down a bit! I remember at one month when you rolled over and I thought, oh my goodness she is already rolling over. Then it was laughing. Then it was sitting up. Then it was big girl food. Then it was talking. Then it was crawling and cruising. Then it was table food and waves “hi.” Every milestone is an exciting joy and yet I cry because you are growing up so fast! So, one year has gone by and you are still my little baby girl who made me slow down and realize what life and love is really all about. I will spend my whole life thanking you for that! So happy first birthday little love!

Love, love,
Mama

 

How fast we have gone from

13 weeks . . .

two days before you were born . . .

day 1 . . .


to this . . . 1 year!


”And when she wraps her hand around my finger
Oh it puts a smile in my heart
Everything becomes a little clearer
I realize what life is all about
It's hangin' on when your heart has had enough
It's givin' more when you feel like givin' up
I've seen the light
It's in my daughter's eyes”

Pre-birthday sickie

I really have no pictures of Maddie from this past week because she has been sick. By sick I mean a double ear infection plus a cold and a little GI bug that runs blow-out diarrhea up her back to her neck – hey, you asked! So no, I don’t have an cute sickie pictures to show you, and, for the record S-A-N-T-A (‘cause we spell his name around here) has been retired ‘til the holiday season comes back around. Once Maddie was feeling a little better, enough to actually ingest food, I did what any good parent would do – I gave Maddie some cake to see what she thought. Obviously this is in preparation to the fact that her birthday is around the corner . . . obviously.

Cake . . . .what cake?