1 Year Pictures

It's VERY hard to believe that our baby girl will be 1 year old in less than 2 weeks!  Since we have never had professional pictures taken of her, that's something I definitely wanted to do around her 1st birthday.  However, between work, house buying/selling, vacations, teaching a night class, and everything else we've had going on lately, I had not figured out a time to schedule them.  Fortunately, I have an amazing husband :)  A few weeks ago on a Sunday morning, I left him with Madeline, so I could go to the Designer's Showhouse tour with my mom and one of my sisters.  Unbeknownst to me, he had made arrangements with my mom and sister for them to take me on the tour at a specified day and time as he scheduled Maddie's pictures for that same morning.  He gave them to me on Mother's Day, and I could not have been more pleased!  Here are a few of my favorites...

 Maddie LOVES to rock in Maddie-size rocking chairs (both our mom's have one), so this picture is perfect...

 I think she looks like such a big girl in this picture, not like a 1 year old...

 Our little cutie with her big blue eyes...

Additionally, Mat arranged with his sister for her to come to town with our nephew Brody in order to have some pictures taken of the two of them.  This turned out to be a fantastic Mother's Day present for their Grandma Emma...

What a fantastic gift for my first Mother's Day.

New Favorite Skill

Madeline has officially mastered the ability to climb steps.  When you set her down, she heads right for them.  Once she gets to the top, she proudly giggles at herself.  Then, she wants to do it all over again.  Here's a video we took this evening...

Her 18 month pj pants are a big long, so those slowed her down slightly compared to earlier in the evening when she still had on her shorts.  Several repetitions of climbing the steps is a great way to wear out an almost one-year old little girl!

Maddie lately

Between working full-time, teaching a night class, buying a house, trying to sell a house, and having a family to take care of and spend time with, there just haven't been enough hours in the day for much blogging lately! However, in the past month, Maddie has gotten even more cute and more fun :)  She has quite a personality.  She can get quite sassy when she is unhappy about something, but she's generally a very happy little girl.  She figured out how to open cabinets, so she's into everything...

 However, the lazy Susan cabinet pinched her fingers a time or two, so she generally stays away from them now...

I love this picture.  Someday she'll be taller than Edison (but she has a ways to go!)...

 She loves to stand at the glass doors and watch the dogs run around the yard...

 When she wakes up in the morning (usually around 5 AM), she tends to fuss to let us know she wants up.  One morning, I heard her down there babbling away and thought it was odd...something must be different.  When I went downstairs to get her, this is what I found...

She was proudly standing up in her crib talking away!  Considering she still can't roll from her back to her tummy (her daddy calls her a turtle since she flaps her arms and legs around and can't get up when she's on her back), I was shocked to find she had managed to get herself from laying on her back to standing!  It looks like we will be dropping the mattress on her crib down sooner than anticipated.

She sleeps through the night (most of the time), and she eats just about anything.  Her favorites are avocado, mandarin oranges, and oatmeal cereal.  She likes to feed herself, so she's a bit of a mess by the time she's done eating, but that's just what babies do!  It's hard to believe that her first birthday is just around the corner!