playing with baby

Madeline gave us a good half hour of playing by herself.
she was entertaining herself with her "babies".
you can hear her saying "hug" with her rabbit in the stroller
and then she gave the baby a hug from the rabbit.



and then she spent 20 min trying to put her diapers on her
baby. it is so funny how she grabs the baby by her heels and lifts her
bottom. she is a little mimic! she didnt even notice when don and i came
in to film her- she was intent.


it was so nice to see her playing using her imagination and just occupying herself
while don and i got things done around the house.
she is very busy.

xoxo

easter remnants

love finding that old sd card with pics from weeks ago-
here is madeline at her other egg hunt in our local park
there were like, 1 thousand 2 year olds hunting for eggs this day
and we were lucky nobody knocked madeline down for hers.
so we kept taking her eggs and re-hiding them so she could find
them again and again. this is the fun part- she has no idea-
we thought we were so clever but
next year it wont be quite so easy, huh?

enjoy the clip!

yum

another gourmet dinner thanks to birthday gifts sent from afar!
don is loving these steaks, dad thanks!

Its the Wiggles!

So madeline had her first Beatles experience
...only it was with Wags the dog.

Big fan. Big big fan- who knew?! But when he came out on stage she
was starstruck and when they announced he was leaving... well just have a look
and listen.



needless to say, trimming her nails will be easy from now on because that
is when we let her watch the wiggles. and now that she has seen them live
and in concert its like meeting Ringo himself.

Also a big fan of Dorothy the Dinosaur. especially since this show had her dancing
with some lovely ballerina fairies!


We had a blast with Shane and Hayden at the show yesterday and are so lucky
to have shared our first concert with such good friends!
thanks for all the fun uncle shane!

xoxo

Easter

Here are a few pics from our Egg hunt on Sunday.
we marked madeline's eggs with an M so that the her older
friends would not pick those up by accident, look inside and
say "ewe, raisins and cheerios- yuck!".



She loved breaking into her eggs and especially
chasing her friends around the yard.




Allie kept putting Madeline's eggs in the basket for her. She
hardly had to do any work!

It was a great day spent with loved ones.
xoxo

A Tragedy

taking a break from the madeline/easter photo uploads to share this moment
of agony with you.

this shot was taken 2 blocks from our house.

easter

quick pic of us on our way into church yesterday... more to come

Signing time -top 10 contest

The top 10 reasons why Hip Moms watch Signing Time:

1. Hip moms know that signing helps develop spoken language: Madeline’s first spoken words were the signs she first used (milk, mama,more, kitty cat).

2. Hip moms like not having any tantrums- Madeline knows how to tell me what she wants when she doesn’t have the spoken vocabulary to do so!

3. Hip moms take ASL in their spare time and Signing time helps me get ahead! sorry honey I’m studying!

4. Hip moms like to watch Signing Time because its time to clip the kids nails and this keeps them focused on Alex and Leah instead of the clip clip.

5. Hip moms love PBS and signing time is on our local station!

6. Hip moms love supporting other hip moms- if we don’t, who will? Way to go Rachael!

7. Hip moms like to be able to communicate with kids and big people of all abilities and signing time helps us do that.

8. Hip moms like it when their kids and their kids friends break into “there’s singing time, and dancing time and laughing time and playing time” together. We all feel like we belong to a special club. Our friend sings “…laughing time and money time” when its time to pay at the checkout!

8. Hip moms like to be able to communicate with their hip husbands across a room with nobody else knowing what we are saying to eachother! “I’m bored, its time to go!”

9. Even hip moms need a break every now and then. thank goodness for Hopkins and his friends- all those adorable little kids!


And finally

10. The number one reason why hip moms watch Signing Time: its just darn good fun. Thanks for a great show!

St Patrick's day green

I had to post at least a couple pics of madeline and her friend eliana all greenified for st pat's day yesterday.
Eliana came to spend the morning with us as her new baby brother was being born! (Congrats to the Wong's for their new addition)



too bad madeline looks like she could be eliana's boyfriend in these pics

so i had to get a closeup of the flower barette- that she promptly pulled out of her hair.


harumf!


and then they played dress up and sat down in the book nook together- totally unprovoked. i caught this snapshot as they were sitting down and chatting to one another!

Easter Eggstravaganza!

Don took Madeline to the Easter egg hunt held by the mother's club to which i belong.


She had a blast with daddy and took her new Easter basket (sorry aunt veronica, i couldnt wait to give it to her- she needed a basket! i will give her the goodies that you sent too, on Sunday ;)



she collected a rabbit, eggs, a bagel and anything else she could put in there.

Here is her friend Kayla with her dad, Steve. they had a double daddy date!

An American Tale

Madeline loves to wear mommy's hats

Ava Marie

Ava Marie Mann was born yesterday! 6 and a half pounds, 20 in.
Madeline's second cousin! (Her first cousin, cody, is older than her and
he is Ava's big brother.)

Here is a proud picture of grandma Rose holding her newest grandchild.
Congratulations Carl and April.


xoxo

bathtime ...again

this kid loves having a friend over for a bath.

Last week our neighbors and friends had a new baby (they had a home birth and they already have a toddler). it was my job as part of the birth team to be there and help with the toddler, Eve. Well, Eve needed to come over our house for a bit and give mom a break in the early hours so that she would have the energy she needed later on.

Long story short, Eve and Madeline had a blas together and here is a quick video.

picnic

i realize i never posted these pics....
madeline got a great picnic set and explored it with vigor. she loves this thing!
she is so into putting things in and away and being a big help. it was a great gift.
check her out:



sorry its blurry- my toddler also likes to play with the digital camera with slimy kid hands!

Gibberish

okay
i am a big OPPONENT of baby talk and gibberish.
don and i both think that if you want your child to speak correctly and not use
silly words like Pasgetti when they get older you should foster proper pronounciation from the start.
BUT
Madeline had a different idea last week. She was all googly moogly this and that and i had to embrace it, one night. and let her think i was understanding her story.
it was too cute.

but only once :)

xoxo

playgroup

here are a few pics of madeline with her playgroup at Ryder Park. All of her friends are about the same age. check it out!


here is Matthew and Madeline. uhm he is wearing 4T clothes and she is still in 12-18mo. isnt that crazy! what are we doing wrong? :)






doesnt she look like strawberry shortcake? she has just about outgrown this hat but she always chooses it so we need a replacement floppy hat. the sun is strong here and she is always squinting unless we have a nice big floppy hat on her. it has become her trademark!

slacker!

we have had a few weeks of mayhem, illness and lots of work for daddy so i have been a lazy blogger. but i hope to make it up to you with a bunch of great new pics and a few oldies but goodies.

here is madeline gearing up for easter. we have been reading the Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes a lot this week and Madeline loves to say and sign "rabbit".




here is a pic from earlier this year, i just scanned, of madeline's class at Little Hands. the moms and dads are considered the students here bc we attend class with them and participate in parent education projects and discussions. The "lab" portion of the program through the sequoia adult school is the nursery school- it is a very cool idea but since its a co-op there is a lot of work for me!




xoxo