Maddie's First Birthday

Our baby girl is now a year old! Every day we're seeing fewer and fewer signs of "baby" and more and more signs of "toddler".

Maddie is now pulling herself up on furniture and starting to walk along the edge of furniture while holding on. She is developing a sense of independence that she didn't have before.

Our days of snuggling just for the fun of it are OVER. The only time she snuggles now is when she is tired... when she is not fighting sleep, that is.

She is learning the word NO and hears it often. Just a short month ago I made the comment that I'm afraid she is not going to learn that word because she never does anything that warrants us using that word!!! Go ahead and laugh - I realize now just how short-sighted I was!!

Maddie continues to show us that she is a very strong-willed child. We definitely have our work cut out for us to make sure that she channels that in the right direction.

Yesterday was her birthday and we had a party.

Our girl is just a touch prissy. She does not like to get her hands dirty (she gets that from her mother!). It took awhile to get going on her cake!

Once she figured out just how much fun it can be to play in icing, she had to paint everything around her with icing.

Libby, Mandy, and Zoe with the birthday girl... We had the most beautiful birthday crew ever!

Maddie recently learned how to blow kisses. She shares those quite liberally.

Don't blink when you watch this or you'll miss Maddie blowing kisses.

Maddie loves her Grandpa Tim!

Gotta love Darrin... he's a real man - NOT afraid to read instructions to get the assembly job done, no matter how much crap he had to take from Doug and John!! Thanks Susan for this fun gift and thanks Darrin for assembling it.

Maddie instinctively picks up her feet when others push her on this cart, but she hasn't quite figured out how to make it go by herself. I'm sure once she figures that out, I'll be getting LOTS of exercise!

Zoe and Libby decided that they have outgrown their car and handed it over to Maddie. It was such a sweet and loving gesture, one that was a little difficult for them. However, once they saw how much Maddie LOVES riding around in this car, they knew they had made good decision. Thanks, girls, for this awesome present!

Doug says things are just as they should be... her first car is a used car! LOL

Maddie was too busy playing with her new cell phone from Aunt Susan to pose for this picture. She is fascinated with all the little buttons that make lots of noises. I'm so glad we're even now and Susan doesn't have to buy us any more noisy toys!!!

Grandpa Tim also decided that Maddie needed a noisy toy so he bought her this xylophone. However, the joke is on him... it plays very soft sounds - not noisy at all! Now, the wooden building blocks and legos that are currently spread all over the living room floor may pose more of a problem! Maddie LOVES to watch us stack the blocks as high as we can, then she knocks them over and giggles and giggles. She's having a blast playing with all her new toys.

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Patrick, Peg, Susan, John & Sheila and Mandy, Darrin & Megan, Zoe and Libby for partying with us and for the thoughtful gifts. Thanks to everyone else who called and/or sent cards for Maddie's birthday, and for all the birthday wishes on FaceBook.

Much Love,

Beth, Doug, and Maddie