Madison & Tyler reunite!

We spent the weekend in Richmond, VA with our good friends, the Sneads! Last time we were there in October, Tyler wasn't crawling yet. Fast forward to February and the little guy was definitely on the move! He wasn't going to just sit back and take nonsense from Madison this trip. Which means we had some really funny moments between the two of them. (Madison has a boo-boo on her finger and wanted to eat the bandaids, which meant the whole finger had to be wrapped up.)

We drove up Friday night, late, and Madison did SO well in the car. Slept the majority of the way there. Got there around 2:30 AM and Mad played with some of Tyler's toys while Tyler slept, then we all headed off to bed. On Saturday morning, the two little ones finally got to see each other! They played together for awhile, then all six of us piled into ONE car for the drive to Arlington for Claire's first birthday party! Didn't take long before the little ones konked out, which made the ride up pretty nice (not so much for the ride BACK).

Claire's party was SO much fun! All the little ones seemed to really have a good time with each other. They played really hard,

ate some cake,
(each child had their very own cupcake, complete with their own name! Thanks to Jamie)and then they all actually took NAPS at the same time!

Then, after the party, we all went out to eat at a yummy Mexican restaurant. Mad did pretty well and ate lots of her chicken quesadilla, but the exhaustion from the day was starting to wear her down. So by the time we got to the car, we figured the little ones would fall right asleep. (After a quick front-seat diaper change!)

They apparently had other plans.

Tyler fell asleep. Madison wanted to sit and chat for awhile. Ends up waking Tyler up, who is NOT happy about this. Tyler cries for the next hour and Mad yells AT him. Quite a peaceful trip.

Next day was Super Bowl Sunday. The little ones dressed in their Sunday football best. Before the big game, Travis & Stephen took the little ones for a wagon ride to the park (Excellent practice for the wedding in May. Mad & Tyler are going to be the flower girl & ringbearer and are riding down the aisle in a wagon together!)...then we all came back and had some dinner before the game came on. Mad & Tyler split a tuna & black olive sandwich and a ham & black olive sandwich. Quite the fans of black olives, they are.

Madison was an angel on the ride home that night. So glad we got to spend the weekend with the Sneads & were able to celebrate Claire's birthday with everyone as well!

Fun at FunZone!

On Monday, Mad & I went to FunZone with our HipMamas playgroup! Madison had a blast. Walked (!!) around a little bit to investigate everything and kept trying to escape the toddler room for the big kids area. She had a good time playing with the other babies, Alex & Dolly, and even pushed Alex around on one of the little cars! After some of the big kids cleared out, we went into the big room with the huge inflatable playground and jumped around and even went down the giant slide!

Here's some pictures of our fun!

The calm before the storm...

Not a whole lot going on around here. Mommy started back to school on the 14th and Daddy's been pretty busy at work. Mad's been busy watching sports on TV! Her newest favorite is watching the NBA highlights on Sportscenter. Dunk? Mad cheers. Nice little 3? Better luck next time, man. Dunk & she'll cheer for anyone. And of course the NFL playoffs are on, so she's enjoying those as well. (Especially with her new shirt: "Shhhh...I'm watching the game with Dad.")

We're in the final countdown coming up to her birthday. We're slowly introducing REAL "big people" milk and coming off her Good Start formula. She seems to like it well enough. At the same time, we're working on drinking from our "big girl" cups. Her new favorite is her Blue's Clues smoothies from Yoplait. Sucks them right down.

We're also getting dangerously close to walking, as in using walking as a mode of transportation. Right now, crawling is still much faster, but she's starting to get braver and braver each day. Just yesterday she took at least 6 steps or so by herself. I think her Winnie the Pooh choo choo she got from Gran & Papaw for Christmas and her lion walker that Santa brought her are strengthening up her legs really well. Looks like a decent leg workout to me!

We're going to be super busy the next few weeks. This weekend is Madison's friend Alex's first birthday party. Next weekend is her friend Trent's 4th birthday party. Then the NEXT weekend we're making a Virginia trip to see Mommy's friends and their little ones! Mommy's friend Julia has a daughter named Claire and we're going to be there for her first birthday on February 2nd. Plus we get to see Tyler again!! (And his new teeth!).

Then on the 17th we have Melissa's baby shower, the 20th is Madison Michael's first birthday, and then the 23rd is Mad's first birthday PARTY at Nonnah & Poppy's house!! We're SO excited!!!

Look how big I'm getting!!

Mad's Christmas Video

Hopefully this will work. No guarantees, since I don't know what I'm doing really...but I'm going to attempt to add Madison's video I made for Christmas. I plan on finishing it for her birthday, but this is her first 10 months...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Madison Michael's first Christmas

Definitely a success in Mad's book. She had a blast. The excitement from everyone else seemed to rub off on her and she seemed to realize something BIG was going on. Christmas eve she didn't nap well, but she was still in a wonderful mood when we got to Nana & Poppy's house. Mad wore her fancy new red velvet Christmas dress with her special Christmas hair bow. She got to open one present early, from her great grandparents in WV. After Nana & Poppy's house, we went to church, where Mad got to play and get out her last bit of energy.

When we got home, we set out Santa's cookies and milk. Apparently, Madison felt that Santa didn't NEED both cookies, so she helped herself to one of the cookies. Of course Daddy didn't stop her because he thought it was funny, and I certainly didn't stop her because I had to take pictures of it! At least Santa still had one cookie left. 5 minutes later I discovered that Joey had snatched Santa's last cookie. Oh well. At least he had a cup of milk to drink.

Christmas morning, the three of us got up and went through the presents Santa brought for Madison. Then, Nana & Poppy and Uncle Matt and Tess came over for breakfast and to open presents. Thank goodness Uncle Matt was here so he could put together some of Mad's bigger gifts. Mad also gave Poppy & Nana a special DVD with photos and music from her first 10 months.

After we finished with the morning, it was off to Aiken to celebrate some more Christmas at Great Granny's house with Gran & Papaw, Great Granny, Uncle Brett, and Aunt Nancy & Bruce. Madison got a ton of really great presents! It's a good thing we took the SUV! I don't think we could have hauled all that back in a car any smaller! Gran & Papaw got Madison a lot of new PJs, which she really needed. They're all SO cute and comfy!

Watching her unwrap her presents and playing with all these "big girl" toys (like her kitchen, her baby dolls, and pushing her walk-behind toys) has made me terribly aware that she's nearly a year old. In less than 2 months, my tiny baby girl will be an entire year old and I just can't believe it. I'm not ready for it yet. I always thought the people who said "They grow up so fast" were just being ridiculous. But it's true. I just can't seem to slow her down.

Greetings!

I get lots of complaints from people saying I don't keep the world updated enough with how our family is doing. So ten months into Madison Michael's first year, I've caved to the blogging world. I don't like the word, but I suppose I'll suck it up in the interest of keeping the masses informed. So here we are world.

Meet the Clarkes.