Thursday, January 28, 2010

Peek-a-Boo

Maddie's favorite game right now is peek-a-boo...she just loves it! We've been playing it with her for a while, and we would lift something up in front of her face and then drop it down while we said "peek-a-boo!". As of this past Sunday, she has now mastered the peek-a-boo game all on her own! For the first time, she grabbed a little lovie blanket we have and she put it up in front of her face for a second and then dropped it down. David and I both looked at each other and said "peek-a-boo!" and she had a big smile on her face! She kept doing it over and over again - it was so cute! She would lift the blanket up...sometimes even on top of her head and not covering her eyes at all...and then lower it down and smile and laugh when we said "peek-a-boo!" to her! It was so fun playing a game with her! And one that she initiated! We sure do have a smart cookie on our hands!

Another new favorite of hers is to turn off the light switch. Every night when we're getting ready for bath time, we play in the mirror a little bit. The light switch for our bedroom is right next to our full length mirror and a few weeks ago she noticed the light switch and was interested in it. So we started practicing turning the lights on and off when we went to play in the mirror. She is officially a total pro at turning the lights off! As soon as she does it, she gets excited and starts patting your shoulder - it's so adorable! We're still practicing the motions for turning on the lights, but she has a great time turning them off!

All our love!
Nile, David & Maddie

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Is That Music I Hear?

For Christmas, Mama Teet gave Maddie a baby sized grand piano and it has become one of her favorite toys! She loves to hold on to it and pull herself up to a standing position and then bang away like a crazy little baby! She normally does all of that with something in one of her hands too...so she can really hit those keys hard! She loves the piano and we are having a great time listening to her and encouraging her to play...I am seriously hoping she inherited David's musical abilities! Mine leave SO much room for improvement!

David was able to record one of her concerts and we wanted to share it with you! In this video she is playing while holding on to Ms. Bear, a blue plastic block and a bathtub book! We are going to try and capture a duet to share too...Maddie on keys and David on guitar (or both of them on the guitar!). They did this the other night and it was just too cute! Of course we didn't have the camera handy right then, but we'll be sure to capture it soon!



Love you all!
Nile, David & Maddie the Pianist

Monday, January 11, 2010

Our First Family Christmas

I first have to apologize that it's taken me so long to get this post out! Life has been busy, but fantastic!

This Christmas was especially fun for us as our first Christmas as a family. Maddie made the holidays so much brighter and more special. It is wonderful having a baby around to share the joy with! We travelled out to California to spend the holidays with my family and Maddie was such a trooper! I was a little worried how she would do on such a long flight (and one we had to wake her up at 4am for!), but she is proving to be an awesome little traveller! She handled both flights really well. I think her hardest obstacle when traveling is getting used to sleeping in someplace new. She had a rough time our first night, but was into a good routine by the second day. We can't ask for much more than that!

We had a fantastic time seeing everyone while we were there! My mom arranged two big family get togethers - Saturday was a belated Christmas celebration with my mom's side of the family. Maddie absolutely loved playing with her cousins Paige and Emma! There were about 20 people at the house and she didn't bat an eye at all the new faces and people. She was her cheerful self and charmed everyone she met!

On Sunday, my mom hosted another open house (thank you mom and dad and Dawn!) for my dad's side of the family and our family friends. I think there were probably 20+ people there too and she had a great time! She was able to meet Addy, the daughter of Dawn's friend Courtney, who is just 2 months younger than Maddie. They had a lot of fun together!

On Monday, we visited mom's office and showed off our Maddie girl - she was a huge hit! That afternoon we went up to see my friend Deb, and her two little boys. The boys had grown up so much! On Thursday, we had a fun girls lunch with Kerri, Liz, my mom and some of her girlfriends. Kerri is my oldest childhood friend (I think we've known each other since I was 8...yikes, that makes me feel old!) and I've known Liz for almost as long! Liz, her mom (Karen) and her son (Jack) all traveled down from the Sacramento area just to see us at lunch that day! Thank you to everyone who came! Maddie loved playing with Jack's cars too and she may have developed her first crush! She loved watching Jack and laughing and playing with him!

For our Christmas gift, Dawn, mom and dad got us a professional photo shoot with an amazing photographer, Ashley Maxwell. David and I both fell in love with her eye and style and were so happy that she was able to do the shoot for us! We went over to Capitola on Tuesday and spent a few hours taking photos there and then had lunch in downtown Santa Cruz. It was a gorgeous day - probably about 65 and sunny - and it was so much fun to capture the family and Maddie at this stage. Thank you Dawn, mom and dad for this awesome gift! These photos will be treasured for a long, long time to come! I've included some of the favorites that Ashley had posted on her blog - I just love them!!

Thank you to everyone who made our Christmas visit so special and wonderful! We had an incredible time!!

Maddie is doing great too! She now has 3 teeth, is babbling up a storm and loves to pull herself up to standing on things! She has taken a few steps while holding on to the couch (or other object), but isn't quite standing on her own yet. She is just so much fun and such a joy! We just love, love, love her!!

And now, on to the great photos!!





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Love you all!
Nile, David and Maddie