Even better than her swing

I'm in a training class at Washburn this week, which is very convenient since my parents only live a block away from campus.  In the morning, I drop off Maddie with my mom, leave my car at their house, and walk to class.  It makes me feel like I'm in college again.  During lunch, I walk to my parents' house to say hi since it's not every day I get to see Maddie at lunch.  As I was walking towards their house the other day, I saw this...

 My initial thought was...no way.  However, as I got closer to the house, my thought was confirmed...

 My mom got the yellow swing out of the attic that my siblings and I all used when we were little.  It seems like just the other day I was pushing my baby sister Abbey (who is now 20 years old) in that swing in the yard.  Now, my little girl is swinging in it.  Crazy.  I would definitely say Madeline is a HUGE fan of it...

Considering how much she loves her motorized inside swing as well as how she loves being outside, I'm not surprised that she loves a swing outside.  It's pretty much like heaven for her...

She was fascinated with looking up at the tree and watching the leaves blow in the wind.

However, she isn't sure what to think when she feels a breeze from the wind, but she is getting used to it.

I am just amazed at how well she can hold up her head while swinging.  She's such a big, strong girl...

The gorgeous weather the past few days has allowed for lots of outside swinging time.  I love this picture.  She looks so comfy just lounging in the swing and enjoying the beautiful fall afternoon...

You might have noticed Maddie's bib in the last few pictures.  She has turned into a bit of what her dad refers to as a "slobber-monster" lately, so we broke out the bibs.  Here's a picture of her in the stroller (that was also used by her Aunt Abbey) wearing her "My First Halloween" bib from Grandma Emma...

She gave me a big smile because she was so happy to see her mommy in the middle of the day :)

Bumbo!

The Bumbo...such a simple invention (sure wish I would have thought of it!)  I first tried it out when Maddie was 2 months old.  She was able to sit and hold her head up surprisingly well for being so young...

At the time, she could tolerate it for small periods of time, but she wasn't the biggest fan of it.  However, now that she's almost 4 months old, it's great to have.  It's the perfect seat for Madeline right now.  She isn't quite strong enough to sit up by herself, so we put her in the Bumbo, and she loves it.  Well, most of the time she enjoys it.  Sometimes, she is in more of a mood to lounge in her swing where she can just kick back and not have to worry about holding up her head since holding up her head is an awful lot of work for little Miss Maddie sometimes :)  Here she is the other night sitting with us while we ate dinner...

 I love how she has her right arm resting on the edge.  She's just relaxing and taking in the world around her, which involved watching all the puppies run around, come to check her out, and lick her feet one at a time...

I was able to get another Bumbo from a friend who was getting rid of some of her baby things, so I gave one that to my mom to keep at her house.  Now, Maddie sits in her Bumbo while my parents eat breakfast and lunch.  Here she is just kicking it (with a hand in her mouth of course)...

You can usually tell when she's about had her fill of it though as she doesn't hold her head up as well, at which point she starts to get fussy if you don't take her out of it pretty quickly....

Since she isn't quite big enough to sit in her high chair, the Bumbo is great to use in the meantime!

Birthday weekend recap

As I mentioned on Friday, we had a weekend full of birthday festivities for Mathew.  Talk about one spoiled guy :)  After the three of us took a walk around Washburn's campus and enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon on the first day of fall, we met Gramps at Red Robin for Mathew's first birthday dinner.  Maddie slept like a little angel all through dinner, but she woke up to say hi to Gramps when we went to Orange Leaf for dessert...

 By the way, I know everyone in Topeka has been talking about Orange Leaf for months, but that was my first time there, and it was DELICIOUS!

After walking dogs at the humane society Saturday morning, we headed to Lawrence to have brunch at First Watch with our good friend Heather.  It was her first time getting to meet Maddie, so she was pretty excited...

 Unfortunately, Justin (Heather's fiance) wasn't able to make it back from New York this weekend, but Maddie will get to meet him in a few weeks when he's in town (YAY!)  When Maddie started to get a bit fussy towards the end of breakfast, Heather was even able to get her to sleep.  Justin, she's a natural :)

 We had to get a picture of the monkey on the butt of her pants (which was the primary reason Mathew bought her this outfit)...

 Mathew making funny faces at Maddie, which she wasn't so sure what to think of at the moment...

 After brunch, we headed to Leavenworth to look at some cars before going to Tonganoxie to have dinner at Emma's house.  Here's a cute picture of Maddie and Grandma Emma when we were outside looking at the garden...

Family photo...

 We even got a few pictures of Maddie and I, which we have very few of since Mathew rarely takes pictures.  In fact, when I handed him the camera, he simply put it in his pocket.  I had to ask him to take a few pictures of his two ladies.  Boys!

 After dinner, Jim built a small fire in the driveway for us to enjoy as it was a cool evening.  Here's Maddie and her Aunt Sarah in their KU apparel...

 Finally, we had birthday cake and ice cream.  As always, Mathew requested a lemon cake, and Emma successfully made a delicious one.  Maddie wasn't sure what to think of the candles...

 One more family picture at the end of the day.  Notice the dancing monkey in the pink tutu on Madeline's shirt.  This is one of my new favorite outfits...

 Impressively, Maddie stayed awake for pretty much the entire day, starting at 6 AM when we got up to walk dogs until we got in the car to head home a little after 8 PM.  She was so exhausted that she slept until 7:20 Sunday morning and then took a morning nap from 9-12!  Sunday evening, we went to Lawrence and had dinner at the Salty Iguana with Abbey and my parents.  It was a jam-packed weekend, but it was a lot of fun getting to see everyone!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

In case you didn't know, Mathew is a HUGE fan of his birthday.  In fact, it's birthday week around our house, and we have three days of birthday festivities starting tomorrow.  Considering how much he loves his birthday and how much he loves Madeline, I can only imagine what her birthday is going to be like!  In honor of his 27th birthday, I thought it would be fun to put together a compilation of some of my favorite photos of Madeline and her daddy over the past 3 1/2 months.
First time holding his baby girl...

Home from the birth center (she was so tiny!)...

I love those big blue eyes, which Maddie also has...

 First story time...

 I usually lay Maddie in bed next to her daddy after her morning feeding, and I take lots of pictures of them snuggling because it's so cute...

 Napping together on Father's Day...

 Another morning cuddle time.  However, Maddie is a huge bed hog, so there isn't room for the three of us anymore since she loves to stretch out.  It's amazing how much room a 15 pound baby can take up when she stretches her arms straight out.  As Mathew says, we need a bigger bed!

 First time swimming...

 Daddy and Maddie on mommy's birthday...

 One of my absolute favorite pictures...

 Daddy and our little lady bug :)

I had to throw in one more picture that shows the front of Maddie's outfit because it's SO cute...

After our weekend full of birthday festivities, I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures of Maddie with her daddy to post next week!

Hats and Bows

Maddie's Grandma Emma gave her a couple of adorable sun hats that she wore this summer.  I know I have posted one of these pictures of her in the hat before, but these are some of my absolute favorite pictures of her.  I have a 5x7 of one of them framed on my desk :)  She has some of the cutest faces...

 

Last week, we finally got out the package of bows we had purchased before Maddie was born.  Her daddy thinks baby girls with bows in their hair is one of the cutest things ever, so Maddie has been wearing lots of bows lately.  I've also heard that you should put bows in a baby's hair at a young age so she gets used to them and will (hopefully) not mind them as she gets older.  Other than the other day when she pulled the bow over her eyes while she was sleeping, Maddie doesn't seem to mind them.  Here's a few of my favorite recent pictures of her sporting the bows...

 

We've gotten some silly pictures of Maddie in hats as well.  Here she is wearing her daddy's Washburn hat a few different ways...

My parents take her for a walk every day, and my mom wanted to get her a warm hat and some mittens to wear so they can continue to go for walks as it gets cooler outside.  Here she is trying on the hat and mittens we found at Kohl's (Lindsay and Abbey, we were definitely thinking of you two when we found them...notice the pink pom-pom on the head)...

It's a little big...size 6-18 months, which I think is a really odd size, but she's ready for the cool weather now!