Madeline is 10 months old!

Madeline, or "My Baby", as I like to call her, is now 10 months old!  She's getting so big, and is full of personality!  Her hair is blonde and curls around her ears.  She still has her 'pretty blue eyes' that I love so much!  She says "Mama", she waves and says "Bye-bye", and when she sees me, she says "Buh-Buh" (but I don't like when she calls me that!).  She plays patty-cake and can do the motion for the Itsy Bitsy Spider with me.  

She tries to feed herself with a fork and does really well.  She love to feed herself, so usually we just put her food on her tray.  She's drinking from a sippy cup, but doesn't like any juices or regular milk, so it's usually just water.  She does really well with a straw, too.  She eats just about anything we give her (or anything within her reach, including the "trash" for my trash trucks!).  

And she's on the move, too!  She's crawling and going FAST!  She is practicing standing up, usually when she's next to a big person or on their lap.  I know she's going to be walking soon, so I've already warned Mommy and Daddy that I plan on keeping my door locked to keep her out.  All the girls have to stay out -- except for my twins, Izzy and Sophie.  They can come in.

She giggles and laughs a lot, especially at me!  It doesn't matter what I do - she just loves my attention and gets so excited when I come to her!   She tries to get my toys.  I share with her really well, but I also know when it's something she isn't supposed to have, too.  And she just adores her bath time, too.  She splashes like crazy in there!

So... in honor of her 10 months, this post is mostly pictures of My Baby!

View from up High!

Last Friday, Mommy had to work, but Daddy had the day off.  (Holiday weeks make their schedules strange.)  We played at home most of the day, and when Mommy was getting off work (around 2 PM) we headed down to her office to meet her.  We parked our cars in Arsenal Park, then started taking a walk.  Mommy and Daddy brought me and Madeline to the Capitol!  We got to ride on two elevators for a really long time.  The second one was really small - our stroller barely fit in it!  

When we got to the top, we had to get out of the stroller because the doors were really narrow.  We walked outside onto the observation deck.  I was really nervous.  It was kind of scary.  Mommy and Daddy held me and Madeline up so we could see.  Once I got over my nervousness, I immediately pointed out and recognized the Mississippi River Bridge!

We walked a little further around, and there was Daddy's office!

(bottom-left corner)

 Then we saw Mommy's office - and the train tracks next to it, too!
(tall white building right in the middle of the picture)

Here's me and Daddy with the Mississippi River Bridge behind us!

And me, Mommy, and Madeline in about the same spot!

We went back downstairs.  Mommy wanted a picture of us in front of the Capitol, so Daddy climed the stairs with us and helped perch me and Madeline right on the ledge.  (Don't worry, he was right behind us, the ledge is really super wide, and he had a hand on us both the entire time!)

About two years ago, when our friends, the Kipps, came down for a visit from Michigan, Mommy took a picture of me in almost the same place.  I sure have grown up a lot!

When we were walking back to the car, Daddy pointed out the building we had just gone to the top of.  It's really tall!  Mommy took my picture in front of that building, much like one she took the last time (two years ago).  We couldn't take it in the same spot because the trees have grown too much and you can't see the Capitol anymore.  But this was pretty close!

 

Not Your Ordinary Flap Jacks!

For nearly two years now, all the pancakes made and served in our house have been green.  No, they're not spoiled and don't have mold - it's food coloring!  See, one day for St. Patrick's Day, mommy made some green pancakes for me.  Well, green is my favorite color.  So from then on I begged for all my pancakes to be green.  Mommy usually makes a large batch on a weekend, then puts most of them in the freezer.  During the week, it's easy for Grangie to take out just a few, heat them in the microwave or toaster, then serve them to me and Madeline.  Yep, Madeline LOVES green pancakes.  In fact, I don't think she's ever eaten normal-colored ones!

Well, Daddy was telling his coworker about our green pancakes.  He told Daddy that at their house they put a colored batter in a squeeze bottle and draw pictures on their traditional round pancakes.  And that got Mommy's wheels rolling....!

That night at the store we bought a couple squeeze bottles.  With all this pancake talk, I wanted some, so we decided to have "breakfast for dinner" that night.  Armed with a few squeeze bottles, some pancake mix, a bunch of bowls and spatulas, and a griddle, Mommy and I got to work!

We made the batter, then added colors.  I got to stir them all up!

Mommy poured them into the squeeze bottles, and went to town!

I bet you'll never guess what she's making....

Mommy is SOOOO good!

Check out these garbage trucks that are cooking!

WooHoo!  Garbage truck pancakes, complete with little garbage cans!

Even though we only had two squeeze bottles,
we couldn't leave Madeline out.  So we made her some ladybugs!

It was the best ever!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Just a few short weeks after Mommy's birthday, it was time for Daddy's birthday!  I was having a lot of fun with all this birthday celebrating.  Unfortunately Daddy's special day fell smack in the middle of the week, so we couldn't devote a whole day to him, but we did our best!  The night before his day, Mommy and I baked him a giant cookie, like the ones at the mall!  It was a peanut butter cookie with little Reese's Peanut Butter cups mixed in!

First we had to measure out all the ingredients and put them into individual bowls.

Then we started the mixer and added the ingredients one-by-one!

(Of course I had to sneak in some quality control tests!)

Once the cookie was baking and the icing was made, it was time to color it.
I chose green and yellow for Daddy's birthday cookie.

When Mommy got home the next day, on Daddy's birthday,
we had to hurry to decorate it before Daddy got home!

Happy Birthday Daddy Jer!!

I had insisted all day long that Daddy needed balloons for his birthday.  So Grangie and Paw-Paw Mike took me to the party store to get some.  I got six green balloons - I insisted on having one for each of us.  After we all went to dinner at Sammy's to celebrate, we came home to have cake and let Daddy open his presents.  Madeline LOVED the balloons!  She was crazy silly over them!

My Kitchen is "Madeline-Sized!"

Madeline isn't quite crawling yet, but she sure gets around.  She's going to be crawling really soon -- she's trying soooo hard!  The other day while Mommy was cooking, Madeline made her way over to my kitchen.  I was handing her things to play with, and she was getting some things on her own.  She'd discovered a new world to play in!  Daddy explained that my kitchen can be lowered so that she could reach it all.  So we did it -- we made my kitchen Madeline-sized!  Now we can play in it together!

More Pool Fun

Off an on, when the weather's nice (not too hot, but not raining) I beg Daddy to set up my pools. I have so much fun playing! It's like a mini-water park in my backyard! Even Madeline gets to get in the BIG pool with her floaty-seat.