Happy Halloween!

Its been a long time since I've blogged... you don't want to hear my excuses, I'm sure, so I 'll just get back to business.

Before I post some pictures, I have to tell you about Madeline. She is saying words left and right, it completely amazes me. I mean, obviously I know babies learn to talk, but she just seems so smart. She counts- (usually starting with 4), recognizes some letters, repeats almost everything we say and gets a kick out of making us laugh. If you haven't seen her lately , you must, before MENSA gets to her. All this cuteness almost outweighs the whining and tantrums. Full on , kicking legs, limp noodle screeching tantrums. Good times.

Here's some pictures from recent days. My Dad will be happy to know she loves trains( or 'tains" as she calls them) They have a ride on train in our new neighborhood. Its actually built like the old steam engines, all the Lackawana , Erie lines are representin'. The kids go nuts for it. I wasn't sure if Madeline would like the ride, but she did. She was really good.

Now normally here I would insert pictures of my good girl sitting on the train, or maybe even a few solo train shots for my dad. But I don't have any. I had to take her by myself and to get any good pictures would mean letting go of Maddy, and she knew it. She was rarin' to go. I did catch some cute shots of her on a coin operated train smack dab in the middle of the woods. ( disclaimer, I have to take a good look at my camera. Alot of these shots are too bright and blurry. But the cuteness shines through.)

This is run by train enthusiasts one weekend a month. Dad, the next time you are down here, you'll have to go. For the trains and for someone to ride with Maddy while I take pictures. Really cool.

And now some Halloween pictures.

Halloween is weird for me. I grew up on a busy street that didn't get much Halloween traffic. Especially since there was a trend towards not trick or treating for a number of years due to sick tickets (footnote: mom) putting needles in candy bars.

Then I lived in an apartment for 7 years, and never had Trick or Treaters. My point is, now that we live in a new area, I really had no idea how to gauge the Hallween traffic. We bought a lot of candy. And at 8:30pm, we've had 5 trick or treaters. Note to self; buy less candy next year.

I felt kind of silly taking Madeline around the neighborhood. Number one, no sidewalks, #2- She can't really eat the candy #3- no one else seemed the be doing it. So I dressed her up in her costume and took some pictures. Enjoy... oh man.. its not letting me do pictures now. I'll update later.

I have been very neglectful

We moved last month and I have been a bad blogger. I have lots of pics to share, very little time however. Madeline has not adjusted to her new room and has not been sleeping well. Actually, ,now i think her wakign up at 3am is out of habit. I go in, sleep on the floor, and she goes right back down to sleep. Then she wakes up about 15 minutes later and if I've sneaked out, she starts to cry again. So guess where I've been sleeping from about 3:30-6- yes, she's getting up at 6am ? You got it , on the floor. Madeline is really enjoying our sleepovers, but I am Tired with a capital T.

Here's madeline with her cousin jack last weekend, sharin' some grapes.

Hurry Jack, I'm hungry!!Yeah, that one, I'll take that oneJust give it!

A Maddy Fix for the Grandparents

All of madeline's grandparents are in Florida right now, so I thought I'd post some pictures in case they're missing Miss Monkey. She is a toddler with a captital T. T stands for Tantrums, don't ya know? She freaked this morning when I wouldn't give her anymore food . She will eat and eat and eat, so someone's gotta stop her. Usually someone is me, and she is not happy about it.

Here's a few from the park last week, when she was in better spirits.

Maddy and Daddy

One , Two, Three... wheeeeeee ... she loves that!A reflective moment amongst the flowers and butterflies( after she tried to eat dirt)And look at that little monkey

See you soon Grandmas and grandpas!

Looking for birds...

Ahhh, I'm outta here...Where are the birds?
Excuse me, Mr Goat,no I don't have any food.. but have you seen the birds?
Yay! Birds!!

Hey you...

Hey you...with the camera...Yeah you, c'mere... You wanna peice-a me???





I took Madeline to the Farm Museum this morning. It was really cute, and a lot less smelly than I expected. You know, for a farm on a 90+ degree day. This is at the entrance to the Butterfly Garden. I braved my completely irrational fear of bees for a photo-op. She wanted nothing to do with the butterflies ("fies!") or the pretty flowers. She wanted to play with the pebbles on the ground. She picked them up and dropped them, picked 'em up, dropped 'em.. you get the idea.
Poor hens. They thought we had food. We didn't, and Madeline would like to know what all the fuss is about.

Sprnkler 'pool'

Well, its not really a pool, just a bunch a sprinklers with a drain in the middle. I've been looking for one of these all summer because Madeline LOVES sprinklers. I honestly think she could have spent the whole day here. The pictures were taken by Greg, I was busy running after her. We didn't know the park had one of these, so we let her run around in her diaper and pink crocs, saving her dress from getting wet. I love how happy she is in these shots. Every once in a while she'd look up at one of us , as if she was saying" Look ! Sprinklers!!!!!"

Our Town

We are moving next month. We bought a cute house about 40 minutes from where we live now.

I love the town we live in now. One of my friends referred to it as Mayberry. After living and working here for 5 years, I am familiar with most people that walk down the street- if not by name, definately by sight. If we had an extra 700K lying around, and about 13K in taxes, we'd stay.

This is where we brought Madeline home. This is where she screamed for hours on end, our nice neighbors telling(lying to) us they never heard a thing. This is where I stayed up at night, rocking my beautiful tiny daughter in my arms, looking out the window at the snow falling. This is where we celebrated her first Easter, Father's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas, her first smile, word, laugh and steps. This is the place we became a family of three.

I've been trying to capture some of our favorite local spots on film. Every morning I take her for a walk, where she says " Hi. Hi. HI. " to all the birds, roars like a lion at the lion statue in front of someone's house, and excitedly scans the street for a sprinkler to run through. Usually we end up at the grocery store because I forgot to buy something the last time I was at the store( the day before), but on the way back, we'll stop at the park. It has a gazebo in which to run back and forth , benches to sit on, and other people and woofs( dogs). Here are some pictures from this morning.

YAY! We're at the park !

Through the gazebo, Take One

On Bird Alert- 24 hours a day

"I'm just gonna sit a minute, OK, Mom?"

And here's a close up of those choppers I've been hearing so much about. At 4am. Every night. Poor monkey

Elmo Sprinkler

No words necessary, just my girl, enjoying her Elmo( or as she calls him " El-ma") sprinkler.

rhode island

We had a lovely visit to Grandma and Papa's house in Rhode Island. Here's Maddy and her cousin, Olivia. ( Look at that hair!Those curls!)
She is quickly learning how to climb, so getting up on this bench was quite an accomplishment. She was just beaming with pride. And here's Miss Maddycat with her Papa. A lot of people ask me how I get her hat to stay on, as toddlers are notorious for whipping them right of. The answer is, I don't know. I have two hats for her that she will just wear. I leave them on her a lot, like even if we go in a store, I'll keep the hat on, so maybe she's used to it? I honestly don't know what the magic words are...
Maddy in her...er.. Olivia's Fourth of July dress, with Jack and Papa in the background. Jack was spraying Maddy with the hose and she loved it. Until she decided to go off exploring elsewhere... Ahh, one of summer's simple pleasures... hose water.