First Sentence

I do have new pictures to put up....I will try to do that tomorrow! Just wanted to let you all know that she said her first "sentence". We called Michael today and she said "hi dadda" and "bye dadda". Cuuuutest thing. I of course had to prompt her.....but she said it :) Bet that was one of the best voicemails Michael has ever recieved.

New Book

Someone got a special new book! Michael helped his Dad clear out some old stuff from his house and he came home with a great box of old books. The box included about 20 books Michael made as a child. Apparently he was big into making books. Here is Mads checking out one of the books entitled "First Day of School".

First Trip to the Zoo!

Mads took her first trip to the zoo yesterday! She went with the nanny and H ( little boy she plays with all day). It looks like she had a great time. It was a bit of a bitter/sweet experience for me. I was so excited that she was going on this big adventure to the zoo (they took the ttc!) and I knew she was going to love seeing all the animals. But at the same time, I was bummed that I wasn't getting to see her reaction to everything. Apparently she really liked the camels and gorillas. She came home with souvenirs.....an awesome animal cup with her name on it and a little stuffed panda. She takes after Michael in souvenir department (I can't take michael anywhere without him wanting to purchase something....he calls them "heirlooms". Not even joking).
Here are some pictures from their day at the zoo. http://gallery.me.com/jeanguy/100038

Fun time at the splash pad

Friday night we headed to the splash pad in the beaches. It was hot and we felt like Mads deserved some fun with Mom and Dad. She loves the splash pad. I usually stand back and wonder how much pee is in that shallow body of water. Below are the pics.
In other news, our DCP says that Maddy took about 4-5 steps on her own today!! Woot woot! Today is her official birthday which means that she officially started to walk on her birthday. I have yet to witness it though...is this like a tree in the woods with no one around?

Touring the neighbourhood

When the weather finally turned nice Saturday afternoon, we headed out for a little stroll. Michael's friend Steve was staying with us for about 5 days. He's an RCMP officer in Northern Canada (REAL northern.....the type of place where they have to fly in your food and a 6 pack of coke is $20). He joined us for the walk and we showed him the neighbourhood. Maddy wanted to point things out to him, but clearly was too busy sucking her fingers.

Monkey Weekend

Maddy had a fun filled weekend! Friday night my parents came to watch her while Michael and I went to our new favourite restaurant for dinner. It was our 5 year wedding anniversary. Maddy seemed to have a great time showing Nana and Grandpa all the new tricks she's been learning. She especially seemed to enjoy when Nana played peek-a-boo with her. She even went to bed on time and didn't seem to have any problems falling asleep.
Saturday we went out looking for some patio furniture. Michael and I seem to disagree on the style we should buy, so nothing was purchased. I want living room-style furniture for the deck and he wants dining room-style. Hopefully we'll find common ground before the summer is over. Here are some pictures from Saturday around the house.....

More to come tomorrow

Gettin' Around

Hangin' out with Dad...

Weekend Sun

Ahhhh, the first long weekend of the summer. Oh glorious times!! We were planning on heading up north to the cottage but with the weather looking to be rainy and cold, we changed plans at the last minute and stayed home to do house projects. Here are some pics from Saturday. I got a great new outdoor blanket (it's like a tarp on the bottom side, but blanket on top side) for playing outside on. So we took that out on the deck and Maddy played with her toys in the sun while Michael did "man work". I think the blanket will be great for the park and the cottage this summer. Can't wait to get up there!!

Hm.

It's Easter weekend. I've been inside for most of it (even though the weather has been gor-ge-ous). I'm working away on my freelance project. Trying to get it FINISHED!!
Michael has been great and spent a lot of time with Maddy this weekend so that I could focus. I think it was a bit of an eye opener for him. After a couple of hours he was wondering what he could do to keep her entertained. I think he realized that my days aren't as easy as they may seem. I really need to go somewhere for a whole day - I think it will make him appreciate me more. Okay. Must. Go. Finish. Project.

Weekend Update

Was a busy weekend for us!! We started things off on Friday by ordering some pizza (wild times!!). We had officially run out of groceries that were suitable for dinner (unlike me, Michael won't eat pancakes for dinner.....he has dinner "standards") and Michael got home a a bit later than usual from work, so it just seemed easier order in. We have been trying very hard to save money by not eating out. I think in the past month we've now eaten out twice - which is pretty good for us. When we were both working we would usually eat out anywhere between 2-4 times a week. We then settled in to watch our favourite Friday shows: Wifeswap and Supernanny.
Maddy was asleep for most of the Friday evening activies. She now usually goes to bed without much of a fuss and just wakes to feed. So she's sleeping 7pm-7am with anywhere from 3 or 4 feeds in that time. She probably doesn't need to eat that much during the night....but sometimes I'm just weak and I want to cuddle with her. I will likely pay for this in the future!!

Saturday, Michael and Maddy spent the day together while I went to lunch with Cora. We hit up a favourite of ours in Yorkville - Cafe Nervosa. We had our usual favourites along with a few cups of coffee and a glass of wine. We did a quick tour of Indigo books (more coffee) and then headed our separate ways. It's always nice when we get to hangout....just like old times!!
Saturday night I cooked dinner for Michael (had finally found time to pick up groceries). I made stuffed pork tenderloin .....it came stuffed from the butcher so it was tres easy. I went to bed early and Michael stayed up to play some video games.

Today (Sunday) my friend Lindsay (Linz and I go way back to our first year of University. We were on the same floor in residence and also in the same program - Kinesiology. We often had "study parties".....there were many cue cards involved) and I went for coffee at Starbucks on Queen St. I then picked up Maddy and headed to Amber's house for brunch. Mad was very well behaved and just chilled in her car seat with her toys while we ate. Amber then dressed Maddy up in the new outfit she bought her for Christmas. Naptime approached quickly so we had to bust on outta there to get home. After a quick nap we (M&M and myself) headed to a store in the west end to check out cloth diapers. I'll post more about that in a bit. Off to get some juice....maybe watch the Duggar wedding special. LOL

New Years, Sickies & Sleep

Happy New Year everyone!! We brought in the new year here at home with a couple of friends. I ended up getting the flu from Michael and was in bed by 10pm....but I hear there was a great hockey game on and I do recal Michael waking me up at midnight (was a nice gesture but I don't think I was too responsive). Here's Madeline getting ready to party

In other news, Mad's 2 bottom teeth have now broken through her gums and she seems to be in less pain. It was getting a bit rough there for a while!!
Speaking of rough, we're currently battling some new sleep issues that Maddy seems to have developed. Apparently a "4 month sleep regression" is very common....it has something to do with her maturing sleep cycles. For us, it means that our baby who used to sleep through the night is now up allllll night long, sometimes only sleeping for 10 minutes before she's up again. It seems that the only thing that helps her sleep is to be in bed next to me. This means that Michael gets kicked to the couch. We're hoping to try the Feber method this evening to see if it helps. Pic from story time last night....

Story Time

Here are a couple of shot of Maddy enjoying her books. Her fav these days seems to be "But not the Hippopotamus"

Family Sunday

Had a busy Sunday today. Since Michael was away last week I decided I deserved a little break and had brunch with Cora at one of my favourite brunch places - Universal Grill. They have the most amazing pancakes.....I can't get enough of them. I could eat one everyday. As the waitress described them - "they're like a cake" and I agree with her. They're like a delicious cake filled with fruit and then smothered in syrup and whipped cream. But enough about the pancakes.

Michael's Dad, brother and uncle came over for an afternoon visit. Here's a pic of me trying to give Mad her bottle.

We then headed to Stouffville to celebrate my brother's 19th birthday at The Steakout. Madeline's teeth were bothering her and she was fussy so Michael and I ended up trading off the bouncing and soothing duties for most of the meal. Fortunately, there was another family with a kid in the restaurant. We weren't the only ones crazy enough to bring a baby to a nice restaurant.

Matt and his niece at the restaurant.
The ride home got even more interesting. My sister Jenny and I had to sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" the ENTIRE ride home. It was the only thing that would stop Maddy from crying. Just imagine 40 minutes of non-stop, out of tune, "itsy bitsy spider".

Date Night

So on the weekend my Mom and Aunt babysat Maddy so that Michael and I could have our first night out. We brought Madeline to Nana's house around 4pm and went to dinner at 6pm. I used to make fun of people for eating at this hour on a Saturday....but now it all seems to make sense. 6pm actually even seemed a bit late given that I wanted to be home at a good time to put her to bed. My how things have changed :)

Anyhoo....so in our excitement for "date night", Michael and I went skipping to the car from Nana's house. I managed to then fall on the pavement and ripped my pants open and scraped up my knee. I now have a huge scab forming on my knee and I no longer have my favourite pair of cords. We still made it to dinner on time and it was lovely!!