Pics from jessica

Jessica and Madeline take turns smiling for
the camera.
















Aw george, she likes you!
and you look like a pro!
Come be our babysitter
anytime.








Jessica's mom, Christine. I think she really
enjoyed spending time with a baby. She made some
real subtle hints about becomming a gramma. :)

xoxo

ah...remember

'member when we
looked young and skinny?
ah...those were the days.

Visitors

Madeline hangs out with Jessica but she is in awe of George. What a flirt!




















She is getting pretty good at sitting up as long as she can use her hands
to help her or has Mr Boppy pillow for some support.




















Madeline chats it up with Grandpa Bill. he came out to CA for a job
interview and got to hang out for a few hours with his favorite
(okay only) grandaughter!
Check out how they communicate with their eyes- incredible!

Monterey

We took a weekend adventure to Monterey and spent some much needed family time
just driving and wandering around. We drove down to Carmel and saw the breakers
and stayed in Monterey in a sweet little motel by the water.
The highlight was the Aquarium! We all loved it.

We saw the Otters being fed, the penguins getting their grub on,
we got to touch the sting rays and all sorts of things like starfish and
kelp and Madeline Loved watching the sharks and big fish in the dark tanks.
She like the lights and sounds in the whole place and did a great job of
going with the flow.
We had an amazing dinner one night at Hula's tiki near Cannery Row and
spent a beautiful afternoon walking the bike path through fisherman's wharf.
It was beautiful and sunny, around 70 the whole time and we had a blast!

Aquarium Pics

Penguins!

Gotta love that these guys jam to the carribean tunes all day.
These are African penguins. They each stand about as tall as Madeline.
And they are adorable. They bob all afternoon to the beats of the music
playing over the loudspeaker-
Check out those real starfish in the water
and the best is the little guy doing the bionce booty shake
up on the rock behind the water!

Happy Valentine's Day

 
 

Miss Madeline had many admireres this Valentine's and for Don and I it
was the first year we each had two Valentine's!

Date night

Don and I celebrated valentine's day in Mann style again this year:
We went to a pretty little restaurant in town and got our favorite meal.
dessert dinner!

Vanilla Bean creme brule made in a chocolate shell
Chocolate truffle torte with hazelnuts
Tiramisu
Mocha chip gelato
cappuccino
latte.

(yum- wonder why we haven't lost our pregnancy pounds yet...?)
then we went out and played pool at a little dive!


Thanks for sitting Shelly- Madeline never even knew
we snuck out after she fell asleep.

Thank you!
xoxo

Happy Valentine's Day

Everyone's favorite Valentine wanted me to
tell you Happy Valentine's Day from her to you.
Big smiles, big wet baby kisses and giggles.

XOXOXOX

update

Madeline has had an incredible week.
She is rolling and rolling.
As soon as you put her on the floor she is off.
She loves sucking on her toes and often cannot
decide between her favorite toys and her toes!

She is enjoying time in her excersaucer.
She squeals with delight that she has a new angle on things
and can get some work done in her "office".
She has practiced jumping in her doorway jumper
but is still sorta tipsy topsy and wobbles too much for my liking
but she Loves it!
And she sits with us at dinnertime, in her high chair now, practices
on her sippy cup and smacks her gums at us
solids are just around the corner!

here she is in her giraffe jumper making sweet googly valentine's faces to her buddy- rafi

She got 'em and i caught it

look how hard she works
i always just want to reach out and help her
but they need to feel as if they have
accomplished something on their own, right?

Sippy Cup

All by herself.
She is learning that when she tips it she gets a drink
how cool is it to watch them learn!

Giggles

Not a great video
but I posted it for the sound
more than anything!

BABY FEET!

This little girl loves her feet and i had to share these pics with you
Of course i can't seem to get one with the toes actually in the mouth
since she moves so darn quickly
but rest assured, sometimes she has both a thumb and a toe in there
at the same time!

New friends

Our friends Petra and Vivien came over today.
Vivien is about a month and a half older than Madeline.
She is so sweet and happy. Petra moved here from Germany
6 years ago. She is a great, easygoing, caring mom.
Vivien was very entertained by Madeline but today our little
girl cut morning nap short and was kinda blase about the whole thing.
The playdate was probably more about me
getting to chat with a great mom and less
about the girls "playing". they are so much more interested in doing
their own thing and smiling at the mommies anyway. I imagine that playdates will be more
about swapping stories and drinking lattes than "play" for at least a few months. but i have lots
to learn from my mommy friends and its great that madeline tends to be younger than her
friends so they can give me great hints about feeding/sleeping/crawling etc.
Thanks moms!

High Chair Time!

We finally put together Madeline's High Chair.

She seems to enjoy the toys and likes to sit up with us and watch us.

She has bee smacking her lips when i eat for a while now but we still

dont think she is ready for solids. But getting used to sitting up at the

table with us is a start!

Purple Hat

Okay...we had to take a pic of this hat

she is so silly like a little french pastry chef but come on!

how cute is she?