Madi LOVES dressup!

Madison loves to dress up. It can be daddy's sweater, mommy's sweater or even her own clothes. Yesterday she decided that she wanted to put her skirt over her pants, put on her "way too tight" purple hippo slippers, pull the headband she found over her head and then on top of that put the tiger hat that Aunt Bec got her from Korea.. all in all I think that outfit worked!!! I can forsee many interesting trips to the supermarkets in getups like this as she gets older... oh well...doesn't hurt anyone!!

Madi loves shoes!

Madison loves to dress up in shoes... any shoes.. they don't have to even be hers! She had a great time this summer at the cottage playing with all the water shoes that Grandma had. She would pull the tupperware container of shoes out onto the patio and line them all up and then try them all on!!! It provided hours of entertainment.

Madi also discovered Grandma's slippers! She had a great time inside with them!

And of course..what little girl can stay away from a purse eh!! She loves purses of any kind and Grandmas even went on her back! When Grandma went back to work she had to empty her purse out of animal crackers, lego pieces and whatever other little "presents" Madi had left for her!!!

What do you want for dinner??

I am sure all kids Madi's age are like this but right now she is going through a "yes" phase... well... she has been like this for awhile.. She knows the word "no" but she doesn't use it near as much as she does "yes". When Becky and Laura and Mom were here we were out in the car and headed home for dinner so Becky was asking Madi what she wanted for dinner... as you can see...everything warrants a "yes"!!!

Learning to slide

When Auntie Bec and Auntie Laura were here visiting Madison learned how to go down the slide at the park....not that she didn't know how to before but it usually consisted of one person holding her at the top of the slide and Madi not letting go off that person till the other one had her hands... she was a little nervous. But all of a sudden the girl liked living on the dangerous side!! We actually caught it all on video.. you can see in the video that the first few times she goes down she doesn't have the best balance and still sort of wants to hold on to a hand. But then all of a sudden something clicks and she keeps her balance all the way down!! Becky and Laura also taught her the word "scutch" ( not sure about spelling.. it means shuffle forward on your butt!) She uses this word all the time now. Any time she needs to shuffle forward on her butt the word "scutch" comes right out!! Too adorable!

Baby baptism

When we were down in Cambridge we were able to swing by Palmerston for the baptism of David's cousins baby girl. It was really great to see family and be there to help celebrate the special day with them. They had a BBQ after church at a big farm and we were able to go and enjoy that before hitting the road for the long trip back to Blind River. It was good to let Madi run around before the long ride!!! She looked so cute sitting here on the stairs!

Grandma, Madi and cousin Ryan hanging out on the stairs.

There was no way she was going in the sandbox in that pretty dress so after a quick change off she went!

Playing on the slide with Grandma

Fun toys

When we drove down to Cambridge we were able to stay at a really close family friends house. The Frey's used to live in Blind River when David was a kid and their son Ian is his best friend. They were in each others weddings and now we were able to introduce our daughter to them!!! Mary (mom) had gotten out a bunch of old toys that her boys had played with for Madi to play with while we were there. She had the old Fisher price toys that we used to play with when we were kids....it was so cool!!!

Madison loved the Fisher price camera that Mary had left out for her to play with. Since everyone was always taking pictures of her she decided to turn the tables and took some pictures of other people!!!

Photographer in the making!!

Sweet baby girl

Visit with Aunt J (Part 2)

Madi had a great time visiting in Aunt J's room. She discovered that the closet doors were made of mirror and had a blast "visiting" with the other little girl looking back at her!

Aunt J had pulled out some toys from when her boys were young and had them out for Madison to play with. She loved this particular one. She actually did a pretty good job of getting them all in the right holes.. but shes a super smart kid!

Madison began the afternoon by slowly opening the closet door and then closing it.. then she'd open it a bit more...then close it.. then she worked up the courage to actually step into the closet and touch Aunt J's clothes!

David, Madi and I looking at pictures with Aunt J! We had a super visit and can't wait till next summer at Mark and Nicole's wedding!!

Visit with Aunt J

When we were in Ontario we were able to drive to Fonthill ( near Niagra Falls) and visit with David's Aunt Jacqueline. We haven't seen her since our wedding so it was really great to catch up and introduce her to our daughter! She had a great time walking around Aunt J's beautiful garden and playing with Mark ( who by the way she kept calling Andrew... they are some similarities there!)

Aunt J and Dad (Bernard) sharing a good laugh!

Walking around the garden with Grandma..she loved this. The patio is all different levels so going around and up and down the stairs just fascinated Madi!

Just a really cute pic!

Playing with Mark. Madi would put a piece of a toy on his head and then one on hers and they would both shake it off at the same time. She got quite the kick out of that!

New play place

Madison has become somewhat obsessed with playing behind our rocking chair in the living room. She will crawl behind there..sit down on her bum..and just talk to herself... like a little clubhouse! The other day she took her stuffed giraffe ( Ziggy) behind there with her and a bowl and spoon and started feeding him! It was really cute. I tried to get some good pictures but this is as good as I could get. She saw me with the camera and wanted to come out and pose!

"Say Barb"

One day when Mom and the girls were here we decided to have Madi run through the names in the family that she knows and videotape it! She has yet to say "Sam" ( Becky's husband)...she usually just laughs or giggles and we aren't really sure why.... it would seem like the easiest name to get but for some reason its funny to her! The video gets a little shaky when Becky starts laughing really hard...but you can get the gist of it! Enjoy!

Good family pic!

I know Madi isn't looking at the camera but the smile is real!! And David and I look good too!! This will probably be the last family pic of just 3 people...not long till there will be 4!!!

Beach baby

We were able to go to Blind River,Ontario (David's hometown) for just over 3 weeks this summer..it was so great. We packed a whole lot into those 3 weeks but were also able to relax and enjoy being together as a family. Madison loved being down by the water.. she would wake up...look out the window and say "water?, water?" She had a blast playing on the chairs, splashing in the waves and playing on the beach!
Here is Madi in her cute swimsuit, hat and watershoes using the facecloth to "clean" her legs!
Already to hit the beach!
Mama and Madi down by the water! Check out that smile!
With Grandpa and cousin Ryan playing in the water!
Picking up rocks to throw

Ring around the rosie

I know this is sort of out of order..not blogging about our Ontario trip first but this is too cute to pass up!! My sisters and mom were up here this past week and Madison was spoiled rotten!!! She had a playmate all the time and people to just pay attention to her every move!! They taught her "Ring around the rosie" which she loves to play now and is a bit hard with only one person and that person being 8 months pregnant!!!

Neat picture

When we were in Ontario we had the chance to visit with David's Aunt Jacqueline. We have not seen her since our wedding so it was so great to be able to catch up and introduce our daughter. We had a great time walking around her garden and enjoyed a great BBQ together. We were in her bedroom looking at pictures and Madi discovered Aunt J's glass doored closet. She would open it a tiny bit and then shut it... look around and then open it a bit more... look around and then finally she would stand in the closet, say "clothes" and then step back out and shut the door. She was fascinated with the other "baby" that kept looking at her and David managed to catch this great picture during a brief period that she had the doors shut!!!

Grandma, Mama, Madi

We finally got a chance to introduce our daughter to her great grandparents (Eby) when we were in Ontario. We took this sort of generation picture (just missing my dad to make it 4 generations) and I love it!!!

BLOGGING BLACKOUT

Just a quick note... we are currently in Blind River, Ontario enjoying our summer vacation and don't really have time for blogging...that and my inlaws only have dial up so it would be an all day ordeal to upload any pictures!!! But when we get home expect lots of pictures and stories! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer... i know we are!!!

MISCHIEVIOUS!!!

Madison enjoys yogurt.. ok.. she loves yogurt.. and I bribe her with it. She normally is a great eater except for meat ( of any kind) she's not a big fan....I could see her becoming a vegetarian in the future. Well.. many a night I bribe her to eat her meat with the promise of a yogurt cup for dessert... terrible I now.. but it works! Well... tonite David and I were talking and not really paying attention to our little yougurt eater when all of a sudden David started laughing! Madison loves to pretend to put lotion on her arms and legs and gel in her hair... it must be a girly thing! She does it to herself, me, David, even her stuffed animals... she can spend hours a day doing it! Well.. she had decided since its normally pretend lotion and gel.. why not use the time that Mama and Daddy weren't paying attention to her to put yogurt in her hair and pretend that was gel. It was way better than pretending. Check out the expression on my little monkeys face.. pure excitement!!! Lucky for all those involved it was bath night!!!

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY....

It rained the other day in Yellowknife.
SIDE NOTE: That may not mean much to anyone else but we don't get much rain up here so it was a big deal. For the last 2 weeks it seems the weather channel has called for rain and then the actual day that they call for you wake up and its sunny and the weather channel has moved the rain "prediction" to the next day. And this continues day in and day out. I am fairly convinced that they ( the weather people ) just pick a prediction out of a hat cause they assume no one really cares or believes what is going to happen this far north!!!
So since it was raining I grabbed Madi.. stuck her rain boots on that she has worn once or twice and in BC (which is the land of rain!) and threw on her rain coat and out we went. She loved it.. didn't matter that she couldn't climb up or down any stairs cause the coat is 2 sizes to big or that she couldn't bend her ankles cause of the boots. Actually by the time we were ready to go out it had already stopped raining hard and was just drizzling and the sun was already started to peak through. Every store we stopped at I asked her if she wanted to coat off and each time I got a pretty determined "NO Mama" so on it stayed!! When we got home finally I asked her if I could take it off and she said yes.. probably cause she was dripping sweat under it!! She started walking towards the house with the cutest little waddle brought on by the fact she can't bend her ankles to walk in her boots!! And marched right through a puddle only to turn around with the biggest eyes and smile and march right back into the middle of the puddle laughing!!! It was adorable. The even cuter thing was when we finally got upstairs ( have you ever tried to climb 3 flights of stairs without bending your ankles?? not easy.. especially when you are a 1 1/2 yr old who is independent and wants to climb yourself!) and she took her boots off.. the bottoms of her pants where wet and she kept touching them and going ... "no mama....no.." till I took them off!! I think that I have the only 1 1/2 yr old who doesn't like to be dirty!! Yeah!!!

Wintertime in July!

I was cleaning up Madi's room (its incredible how quickly a 19month olds room can get messy!) and she of course was "helping" Mama and discovered this hat and sweater that friends of the family ( Grandma Mott) had knit for her. Even though it was like 20 degrees out she wanted to put it on and who am I to say no after receiving a very polite "Pease Mama"(the "l" is missing on purpose..can't quite pronounce it) I never actually got a picture of her looking at me cause she was twirling around ( her new favourite pasttime) but you get the picture!