First Spring Trip to the Park

One of the things I really love about our village is all the great parks they have. We are lucky that two blocks to the east of us is a fantastic little park. It's also nice that two blocks to the north of this park is a much bigger park with a track, large playground and tennis and basket ball courts. It attracts most of the older kids leaving the smaller park for the little kids like Maddie. Last week we decided to take our first trip of the season to the park to play. I was so excited to take Maddie since the last time she went the only thing she could do was swing.



As you can see, Maddie was really excited too!


She decided to test out the bridge first and after some slight hesitation she was off!






Then Pepper and Daddy showed up to play with us to.


Next she wanted to try out the swings.


Can you tell what her new "excited" face is these days? It's usually accompanied by a "woah".




Finally, she decided that after months of practice on the indoor slide we have here at home that she was ready for the real thing. She loved it!




It was so great to be able to see her explore all the new things she could do and so fun to watch her as she tried each part of the playground.

This will definitely a spot that we visit a lot this summer!

We Love Spring

***I forgot to mention the scratch she has on her forehead in these pictures - don't worry, it's only from a fight. With a kid at school. Over a book.

Yeah, I told you she loved books. Apparently another kid tried to take a book from her and she was having none of it and they got into a "tussle" as her teacher said.

We are finally starting to get a bit of spring weather here in the Midwest! It's been great that since daylight savings time the sun has been out after we get home from work. We've fully taken advantage by taking walks throughout the neighborhood and playing in the back yard. We've even had a few days were no jacket was needed!


She kept stepping back and forth from the patio to the grass and she thought it was the funniest thing.




Then she got brave and began to run around everywhere.


That is until she fell and realized that she couldn't get back up without touching the grass. Not into it at all!

Maddie's New Play Area

So things are slowly but surely coming along with the house. We still have a ton of projects we want to get done but I wanted to share with you the new play area have been working on for Maddie. We had always planned on making this area in the basement Maddie's play space but had done nothing with it besides throw all the toys in the general vicinity of it. I had finally had enough of it, so here is what the space looks like now.




I wanted a creative way to display Maddie's artwork on the walls but still be able to change things out easily as she brought home new things from daycare. I saw something similar to this at Pottery Barn Kids but wasn't willing to pay $30+ for each set. A half hour and about $15 at Michael's and I had my own version. There are two bees on the other wall and I also have two trees that I'm going to put below the apples but the glue was still drying on them. And personally I think these are cuter than the stars I saw at Pottery Barn!




The girl LOVES books and we are starting a good collection for her but didn't have anywhere to store them so I went to Wallyworld this morning and picked up this book shelve to keep everything in order. We also have been working on having her put things back in place when she is done playing with them so this may help with that as well.


We still have a few toys in the playroom upstairs so she has some things to play with when we are upstairs. This summer I will be turning the upstairs extra room into her "big girl" room so some toys may go back into the living room but for now it is toy free so I can focus on getting it painted and finished.

I still have to get a lot of the art work up on the walls but I love it! Maddie was already asleep tonight when I put everything together so I have no reaction from her to post but I'm sure she'll love it just as much!

And since I know you come here just to see pictures of the munchkin here is one I took last weekend with my dad's awesome camera.

Pictures

Don't have time to write anything but wanted to add a few new pictures for y'all:

Having a snack at the airport, I didn't realize that I had picked up Oreo cakes and they were so crumbly and sticky. She left a trail of cake crumbs down the concourse and I later found some in her ear!


Getting our taxes done (Thanks, Carolyn!) And is it just me or does she look so grown up in this picture?


And driving our cart around at Kroger. Don't let this picture fool you though, she only lasted a few minutes in this. We don't have these kind of carts here so she wasn't to sure about it and preferred to sit in the seat. I'm sure it didn't help that I wasn't to sure about steering it and kept ramming things throughout the store.

Welcome to Toddlerhood

So this was how we spent our evening:

My offense? See that little pink car? It's her new favorite toy and tonight I picked it up to move it and she LOST IT! Notice the blurry legs that she was kicking back and full. Full on tantrum.

And then during dinner, this:

For taking away the banana that she was continuing to feed to Pepper after she had been told "no" a few times.

I don't think she napped well today so I put her to bed over a half hour early and am now enjoying a peaceful evening with a nice glass of wine knowing that this is just the beginning!

Mommy's Little Helper

This has been a favorite toy of hers lately. She tries to carry both the broom and dustpan around with her which sometimes prevents her from fitting through a doorway. Pretty funny to watch!







Now if only we could get her to do the dishes!

Friday Funday

Maddie had two doctors visit on Friday, her 15 month well visit and a dermatologist appointment. The first one wasn't until 10am so Maddie and I lounged around for a little bit after daddy left for work. Then we got up and had breakfast and coffee together (she had breakfast, I had coffee). Once I was ready to get her dressed I went into her room where I had laid out all her clothes for the day earlier and I could not find the shoes she was going to wear.

Side note: the girl LOVES shoes! One of her favorite things to do is go into her room and pull all her shoes off the shelf in her closet and pick out a pair to bring to you. And it's always a pair, never a miss matched set. Anyway, back to Friday morning - I knew she had only been in her bedroom, our bedroom and the kitchen that morning but I could not find them anywhere! I kept asking her what she had done with them and she just shook her head and put her hands up out to her side as if to say "I don't know." I searched for at least 20 minutes looking under beds, in closets and hampers before I saw her shoes here:

I made her pose with her handy work and her innocent "who me?" face. This is a small table I have just inside the back door for my purse and her diaper bag and apparently her shoes now too. She must have put them on at some point while I was cooking breakfast without me noticing.

Once we got to the pediatricians office she was in such a great mood! This was how we spent the entire time waiting on the dr.

She loved the sound the paper made and kept dancing and jumping all over it. Her visit went great, here are her 15 month stats but she is right on track with everything.

Height 31 in - 50-75%
Weight 21 lbs 12 oz - 25-50%
Head 46 cm - 50%

She's still not talking much but the doctor wasn't concerned and said we would revisit it and see how she was doing at 18 months and decided then what to do. Here she is enjoying some snacks before the dreaded shots.


In between appointments we barely had time to go home and eat and get a nap in so I had to wake her up in order to get to the dermatologist office in time. I have no pictures from there because she wasn't the happiest patient at that point in the day.

The dermatologist looked at the birthmark on her forehead but wasn't concerned about it at all. He said there is a slight increased risk (like 2%) of melanoma later in life and we could choose to have it removed if we wanted to or just keep an eye on it. So, we've decided we'll just keep an eye on it and will see him again in a year.

And since she was such a trouper for most of the day she, Pepper and I cuddled up that afternoon and watched most of Monsters, Inc before she fell asleep again for a short nap.


All and all a pretty great day spent with the munchkin!