Milestones

Our copy of "What to Expect: The First Year" says that at 9 months, most babies should be able to point, wave, and clap. We've been trying to capture each but for some reason the waving and pointing don't happen when we have the camera out. Instead, we have two quick videos. The first shows her clapping, and the second shows Maddie feeding herself lunch a few days ago (with a brief finger pointing somewhere in the middle).

Clapping:



Feeding herself:



..we'll try to upload more videos if we can get any!

Sometimes Maddie's no so happy..

The other day we noticed that all of Maddie's pics were smiling, happy, and picture perfect. ..but Maddie doesn't always smile and laugh. Sometimes events happen that cause her to stick out her lower lip, take a deep breath, and let out a huge wail. ..and while we feel bad for her, as when she was complaining a couple days ago about her latest new teeth, we also think it can be awfully cute and finally decided to document it:

The first pic follows the first wail:



This second pic shows a stage two wail (head thrown back for dramatic effect) which essentially communicates: "WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH THAT CAMERA WHEN I OBVIOUSLY NEED COMFORTING!!"



We have no doubt that she'll use these pics against us in the future!

Lather, rinse, repeat.

A few pics from Maddie in her bath today. A bath usually follows 4 steps: 1) Get in and play with toys while splashing water over as much of the bathroom as possible; 2) Washing of hair and other bits so they're sparkly clean; 3) the dreaded hair rinse; and a few more minutes of play before 4) Heading back to her room for some lotion, a fresh nappy, and some clean clothes.

Step 1)


Step 2)


Step 3 -- (we opted to post the "after" shot so you wouldn't call CPS)


Step 4 -- we wish we had a clearer shot, but couldn't leave out a pic of her wet head and her zany hair)



We forgot the "true" first step, which is where we undress her and run around the house screaming "NAKED BABY!" "NAKED BABY!".

Good day, sunshine (for a couple hours)

It's been quite wet in Santa Cruz for the past few weeks, so we decided to head to the beach during a quick break in the storms to catch a brief bit of sun. Maddie loved it, and was fascinated by the waves breaking on the jetty.




That's it. Just a quickie post between naptime and lunch!

Here, there, everywhere.

This past Monday (or, just 5 short days ago) we posted an update about Maddie's first crawl. Since then, she's pretty much found every corner of the house, as seen in the following pics:

Cruising through the kitchen:

Whee, Dad! I found the Martini pitchers and wine racks!

Rounding the corner into the kitchen after being dropped in the living room 15 seconds prior (she's soooo pleased with herself)

Perhaps the scariest and most surprising new trick is that she can pull herself up to her knees, giving her a bunch of new wrecking capabilities. Loads of books, knick-knacks, knives, guns, broken glass shards, explosives, poisons, and other no-no's have been moved to higher ground.

Note the evil "just wait!" look in her eyes..

***UPDATE*** Less than 5 minutes after publishing this post, Maddie suffered her first crawling "incident": She fell forward and bit her lip. A little boo-boo, some love, and she's right back at it.

Crawling Creature

Today, after placing Maddie on the floor and looking away for a few seconds, it appeared that She'd magically (and quickly) made her way some 10 feet across the carpet. So we tried placing the object of her desire, a magazine, about 10 feet away from her once more, only this time we happened to remember the camera! ..here's what we shot:




So fun!

More Holidays..

Following Hanukkah in Santa Cruz, Maddie dragged us down to LA to see her Cousins Aunts, Uncles, Nana, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, and lots of good friends.

Happy Holidays!!

With my Dad on Christmas morning in my beautiful dress!

Maddie amidst all her loot on the left ..although she seemed more interested in the bows and wrapping than the actual gifts, which'll probably change once she starts playing with them. On the right we see Maddie with cousins Megan and Rachel watching Bridget open gifts.

Here's Maddie with her Nana, Papa, and Cousins Taylor, Kaitlynn, Aaron, and Zachary.