4th of July

Here's our little firecracker in red, white and blue on July 4th.

Asleep

Sometimes we check on Madeline before bed, and sometimes we find her like this... knees tucked under her and behind sticking up. At the risk of waking her up, we had to take this shot a few weeks ago. She was left undisturbed, thankfully, but it would have been worth it regardless.

Bookshelf Frog

Believe it or not, Madeline (sometimes-not all the time) actually likes to put things back after she gets them out, which is a trait we're encouraging and modeling, though we don't necessarily expect her to continue this enthusiastically. In the meantime, I'm loving it. Here's a picture of Madeline's bookcase, after she's pulled books out and put back on her own while I was in a different room (incidentally, just this week Madeline knows and says the word "back":) She also pulled Frog out from her crib and stuck him in along with her books.

Wimbledon 09 and 10

What a difference a year makes... Last year watching Wimbledon, Madeline looked like this:

And here is one year to the day (June 26) later:

We think it's pretty cool that Madeline's birthday will always be around Wimbledon, and are looking forward to taking her there someday to celebrate.

Party Swim

Madeline just loves the water and kicks, splashes and has a great time. She can even say "pool" now when she sees it.


Her eyebrows show she's set on doing something purposeful with that ball.

This picture is funny... Here we have Dave's friend Kevin and his son Michael, who was said to have been flirting with Madeline this day. In this snapshot Madeline looks like, "eeh what's next," while Michael tries to get her attention, while Dave keeps a wary eye on him and Kevin thinks it's funny.

Backyard Party

Madeline hosted a little party for a few friends the weekend after her birthday. Here she is right before heading out to enjoy the festivities.

Miss Brittany came too - We're happy for her new nursing job, but I know Madeline will miss her too! :)

She suited up in her swimwear and got to try some cupcakes.

I think she's getting the hang of and starting to like this cake eating stuff!

No Hat

Madeline has some adorable hats, but prefers not to wear them. She likes to say "hat" when she sees Dave put his on before our walks (and in this video she's looking at his hat on the table next to her), but when it comes to wearing one of her own, she has a pretty strong opinion illustrated here.

Father's Day

Madeline got her daddy a special present for Father's Day... a cordless power screwdriver. Now that she's walking around so much, she's going to need some more babyproofing, including cabinet protectors that have to be screwed in one at a time. This should make that job (and assembing various other toys for her in years to come) a lot easier.

More Birthday Cake

We had to get a few more pictures of Madeline's first birthday cake... here her eyebrows are furrowing over it.

She seemed to like it pretty well - this face is just precious.

We realized she didn't need a bib at all since she wasn't a bit messy about eating her first piece of cake.

She got the hang of it after a while...

... but I think she was wondering what all the fuss was about.

Birthday Cake

Here we are lining up for a family self-portrait before cake.

Madeline has quite a reach... she can get to things we don't expect her to be able to get to, as she demonstrates here. She really wants a piece of that cake!

Well, she really wanted to check it out, even though she might not have realized she wanted to eat it yet. Here she managed to get some icing on her fingers and isn't quite sure what to do with it.

So she scooped a bit with her right hand to taste it instead of shoving her left in her mouth. What a little lady.