Our Little Matkin

Dollhouse Picture

2011-11-15T16:28:00.000-06:00

Here is a picture of the dollhouse I made for Maddy. Actually, I made it for her last Christmas, but she was too young to play with it. Now that she is three, it is just perfect!

Thank you!

2011-11-15T16:25:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to take the time and thank everyone for all of the wonderful presents for Maddy's birthday. Thank you! She loves them all too. :)

Maddy's third birthday!

2011-11-08T18:29:00.005-06:00

More Stuff for Maddy's Birthday

2011-10-08T19:17:00.001-05:00

Magnetic Circle Express $18.99

Maisy the Mouse Doll $17.25

Animal Markers $12.99

Beanie Baby Blues Clues Friends

That's all for now. As soon as something is purchased, I'll remove the link.

Maddy's Birthday Wish List

2011-10-06T20:58:00.002-05:00

All items have been purchased. So I'll find some more items to post!

Words in my world

2011-08-04T15:53:00.003-05:00

Maddy has been picking up a lot of words over the summer. She's to the point now that if you tell her, "Maddy, say _____." About half the time she'll say it. Here is a snapshot in time, a list of the phrases she uses and the words in her world. It's not exhaustive, but since it's getting hard to keep up with them, it's time to write some down.

Ma/Da
Mommy/Poppa
Up/Down
In/Out
Yes/No
Happy
Ice/Ice cream
Rice
Cat
Meaow (like a cat)
Orange
Hop
Numbers 1 through 10
Most of the Alphabet
Home/House
Nemo
Dumb
Simon
Chicken
Scissors
Soda
Rain
Chips
Hot
Ring
Eat
Diocese
Duck
Night-time
Pizza
Hot dog
Balls
Apples
Upside-down
Eyeball
Beany-Weany
Toys
House shoes
Set-up
Need help.
Is it hot?
Hold me.
Hi, Dad.
Thank you.
Up and down.
No, Momma.
Change me.
It's stuck.
Daddy's home.
One, two, three, four.
Shoo, fly.
I love you too.

Vacation pictures

2011-07-17T20:36:00.007-05:00

I wear my sunglasses at night

2011-05-19T23:42:00.002-05:00

Easter 2011

2011-04-25T23:19:00.006-05:00

Dancing the night away

2011-04-08T21:08:00.002-05:00

Recent pictures

2011-04-02T11:58:00.003-05:00

More fun around the house

2011-02-13T23:37:00.004-06:00

Almost 100 Pictures of Maddy from my Cellphone

2011-02-09T16:09:00.000-06:00

First words

2011-01-08T20:51:00.003-06:00

Today, Maddy spoke her first clear words. She "talks" all the time, of course (but nothing discernible), and signs in sentences. She'll give you an indication yes and no, but until now, nothing audible words we could be sure about. Sometimes she would say something that sounds like a word, but wouldn't repeat it, so it was unclear if she really said anything in particular.

At lunch today, Maddy was giving Momma some little pretzels, one after another. Momma would say "Thank you" each time, and before long Maddy was saying it too. So they went through a lot of pretzels. "Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!"

Dancing Christmas baby

2010-12-25T19:13:00.002-06:00

Christmas Day 2010

2010-12-25T18:52:00.008-06:00

Venturing out into the cold

2010-12-25T18:46:00.000-06:00

A little more hide-and-go-seek

2010-12-25T18:42:00.001-06:00

Coloring is so much fun!

2010-12-25T18:37:00.001-06:00

I can stick out my tongue

2010-12-25T18:36:00.000-06:00

Enjoying birthday gifts

2010-12-25T18:28:00.002-06:00

A nice hat and a coat from Aunt Mary and Uncle Matt.

Nothing like a good book to help you unwind.

How about a ride on Rodi!

A little hide-and-seek never hurts either.

Curiousity

2010-12-25T18:21:00.002-06:00

Maddy works on a puzzle in the playroom.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T21:51:00.004-06:00

Maddy's Christmas List 2010

2010-11-21T20:04:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Maddy's fantastic family, she received everything on her Christmas list. Thanks guys!

We now have a two-year-old

2010-11-08T14:48:00.004-06:00

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-18T21:53:00.001-05:00

It's about Halloween time. So we made our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch. Here is a preview of Maddy's toadstool costume. Enjoy!

Everbody's Song

2010-10-07T12:28:00.001-05:00

We've become quite fond of this little tune.

At The Park

2010-10-02T13:08:00.000-05:00

Having a snack on the counter

2010-09-29T15:42:00.002-05:00

A day in the life

2010-09-29T14:51:00.004-05:00

Momma's Angels

2010-09-24T18:52:00.001-05:00

Little Butterfly

2010-09-06T20:01:00.000-05:00

Hmm...What to read?

2010-08-26T22:11:00.000-05:00

2010-08-26T17:58:00.002-05:00

I finally updated Maddy's blog header with a more recent picture of her. Enjoy!

All ready for church

2010-08-02T12:13:00.002-05:00

Christmas in July

2010-07-24T22:08:00.006-05:00

Well I suppose it's never too early to ask what I'd like for Maddy this Christmas. Here are the top three things. All are under sixty dollars and are available by clicking on the link provided. So hopefully, there shouldn't be any problems. If you do happen to decide on one of these presents, be sure to let me know and I'll take them off of her Amazon wish list. One last request, no battery operated toys please.

Got it!

Wool Felt to Make the Animals

Got it!

Blankets and Woobies

2010-07-22T10:30:00.000-05:00

And just as soon as you see her...she's gone.

2010-06-21T00:42:00.002-05:00

Maddy and Her Doll

2010-06-11T16:29:00.000-05:00

Here is my little one playing with her Waldorf doll. I hope that as she gets older, she'll become more attached to the doll. I know I already am attached. :) She managed to get up in her rocking chair Maw Maw gave her all by herself.

Random pictures

2010-05-09T21:02:00.004-05:00

Bluebonnets

2010-04-15T22:31:00.000-05:00

Chalk

2010-04-13T16:15:00.000-05:00

Bell!

2010-04-11T19:47:00.002-05:00

American Sign Language (ASL)

2010-04-11T15:22:00.001-05:00

Did you know that Maddy can sign? She's ever so good at it. Last night, we were at a bookstore and all of a sudden, she was signing. If she saw a kitten, she'd make the sign. If she saw a dog, she'd tap the sign on her thigh. You should see her face light up when I agree with her. Here's a list of signs she has learned so far:

Tiger (her very first sign)
Fish
Dog
Cat
Baby
Time/clock
Milk/numies
Bear
Candy
Sleep
Bubbles
Bird
Ball
Girraffe

And that's just the beginning. She is really picking up speed now and learning very quickly. It is so cool when she signs "milk" and I can give it to her.

Maddy points and grunts (which means "what is that?") and I will say and sign what it is. I love and cherish teaching her and enjoy greatly watching her learn and express herself.

This is my favorite site for ASL.
http://www.signingsavvy.com/

Pictures from the Abilene Zoo

2010-04-07T13:25:00.005-05:00

Hey Diddle Diddle

2010-04-06T23:22:00.000-05:00

Hey diddle diddle,

The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The little dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T21:58:00.006-05:00

Walking and crawling

2010-03-17T23:00:00.002-05:00

Maddy's first steps

2010-02-17T23:17:00.000-06:00

Maddy walked on her own for the first time tonight. She stood up on her own and went about 7-8 wobbily steps before she got back down to crawl.

This is Maddy's Favorite Book

2010-02-09T12:24:00.002-06:00

Baby face

2010-02-07T20:34:00.002-06:00

Outdoor Fun

2010-01-24T17:00:00.000-06:00

As you know, living in Texas means warm weather in January. It's been in the seventies all this week and, as a result, it's been warm enough to wear sandals and shorts and play outside. While we were at the store, I picked up some sidewalk chalk. Today was just the perfect day to play with it. We had fun. :)

Snowing again

2009-12-29T13:23:00.002-06:00

Christmas Day 2009

2009-12-25T21:36:00.007-06:00

Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T20:45:00.002-06:00

Helping grandma around the house

2009-11-26T01:12:00.002-06:00

2009-11-25T19:06:00.001-06:00

More vacation pictures

2009-11-24T23:21:00.005-06:00

Watching TV

2009-11-24T21:33:00.001-06:00

A visit to Grandma's house

2009-11-21T21:57:00.004-06:00

The view out Grandma's front door.

Mount Si in Snoqualmie, Washington.

Grandma's house.

Momma's baking some bread from scratch.

Sitting on the floor.

Playing in the kitchen.

Snacking on a fresh green bean.

Mmmmmm.

A tasty treat.

Ticklish

2009-11-21T21:20:00.002-06:00

Birthday cake

2009-11-09T11:37:00.004-06:00

Happy Birthday Madeline!

2009-11-08T20:18:00.003-06:00

Something is watching

2009-11-02T12:15:00.001-06:00

Happy Halloween

2009-11-02T12:03:00.003-06:00

A day at the punkin patch

2009-11-02T01:08:00.006-06:00

Maddy Loves Goldfish

2009-10-30T22:50:00.002-05:00

Busted!

Some pictures Mommy took

2009-10-26T16:22:00.009-05:00

To begin, we went to this awesome kid-friendly toy store called Terra Toys. I highly recommend it. The staff were extremely nice and the store was very clean. Maddy is sitting on this adorable rubber dog. She was having so much bouncing up and down on him. Mommy had a great time looking at all of the stuff. Something I found very cool was a pretend play church made by Playmobil. We bought Maddy a fabulous ball made just for little hands and this little squishy guy with buggy eyes.

At Terra Toys they had two glass display cases with filled with special collector's items. One was filled with lovely Russian nesting dolls and the other with tin robots.

On Friday we went to the Austin Zoo and Animal Sanctuary. They specialized in rescuing exotic animals.
Here is a tiny little monkey. I can't remember what kind he is but he sure is cute.

Here are a couple of cousins of the lemur keeping warm.

If you look closely, you can see a two lions in this picture.

My favorite animals I saw were the giant tortises. They are so beautiful.

There were peacocks roaming all over the place. Here is one getting himself a drink of water.

Tim loved all of the roosters and chickens running around. There were all kinds of them too.
Here's my sweetie.

And here is my little angel. I think she had a good time. She got to see all kinds of critters. There were llamas, the cutest potbellied pigs, some sheep, goats, parrots, a talking cockatoo , the biggest iguanas you ever laid eyes on, a jaguar, panther, bear and of course there was a tiny prairie dog town.

This is Maddy at Cameron Park on Thursday.

Wedding pictures in Austin

2009-10-25T17:30:00.002-05:00

Papa went down to Austin to officiate at the wedding of Courtney Vinson and Michael Saenz. Here are some pictures.

Story time

2009-09-29T18:51:00.002-05:00

At 10 months, we've gotten good at turning the pages.

Crawling around

2009-09-29T14:41:00.002-05:00

Sometimes you end up in a tub

2009-09-29T14:17:00.003-05:00

Just to prove it's a pleasant experience, here's the video:

Time to play

2009-09-21T21:08:00.004-05:00

Just a hard day of sleepin'

2009-08-13T16:11:00.003-05:00

A visit from Aunt Mary

2009-07-12T19:03:00.004-05:00

Papa's sister was able to come over on July 4th and see the baby. Despite what it may look like from the picture above, Maddy was happy to see her. Here are more pictures.

A day in Abilene

2009-07-10T23:43:00.003-05:00

Maddy picked up a rattler and then we went to the Mexican (food) Embassy for dinner. Maddy tried out a tortilla for the fist time.

Random Cuteness from the Past Month

2009-06-09T15:49:00.007-05:00

Jump for joy

2009-05-20T15:35:00.003-05:00

A new house is something to get excited about, so just hop in your jumperoo and dance the day away.

Having fun with paper

2009-04-27T22:54:00.002-05:00

She Caught the Foot In Mouth

2009-04-23T22:45:00.001-05:00

Mommy Loves Thrifting

2009-04-18T19:15:00.002-05:00

This past Thursday, Mommy and Daddy went thrifting for toys. We found some great toys at great prices. I think my favorite score is giant bags of Mega Blox for three dollars. Man, I never knew how expensive those things are.

Nap time

2009-04-18T15:51:00.001-05:00

Visit to Greatgrandma

2009-04-18T15:48:00.002-05:00

I'm ready to go, Dad

2009-04-09T23:34:00.002-05:00

The Monkey Has Been Resisting Naps All Day

2009-04-08T19:16:00.001-05:00

Rubber Ducky Never Saw It Coming

2009-04-07T23:17:00.003-05:00

At bath time tonight, Maddy totally owned her ducky.

2009-04-06T11:52:00.001-05:00

The Gelatin Experiment

2009-04-04T13:43:00.004-05:00

While I was still pregnant with Maddy, I bought a book on games to play with babies. The other day, I was thumbing through it and came upon a game to play with jello. It is supposed to enhance their exploration skills. Now the book says the game is appropriate for three to six months; however, I was still concerned whether or not it was safe for her, because she is strictly breastfed and I will not introduce solids for at least another month. So I searched the internet for any information and yielded very disappointing results. In other words, I could not find a definitive answer on whether or not it was okay for her to play with this stuff. The next thing I did was to check out my books on infant nutrition. Yet again I was met with no information.

To be safe, I called my pediatrician's office and spoke to a nurse. She'd never heard of anything like it. The main concern she expressed was the sugar content of the jello. I told her that I was using unflavored gelatin (I am aware that one shouldn't give their baby any sweets/fruits until seven to eight months of age). The conclusion was it is okay as long as there was sugar.

Tim filmed the gelatin experiment and provided his profound wit as usual. Enjoy.

We love to laugh

2009-04-03T23:31:00.004-05:00

Happy

2009-03-28T18:35:00.000-05:00

These Are The Moments That Make Life Worth Living

2009-03-27T19:58:00.001-05:00

Just Some Random Cuteness

2009-03-24T23:04:00.003-05:00

Oh Frabjous Day!

2009-03-22T15:03:00.005-05:00

I just witnessed Maddy turning onto her tummy. It was amazing. Now it won't be long until she is crawling around the house. Maddy managed to do this twice before I was able to get the camera out. So unfortunately I do not have a picture of her on her belly, today at least. I know I shall have ample opportunity to snap a picture in the near future.

Other notable news, Maddy had her four-month check-up last week. She weighs two ounces shy of fourteen pounds and measures twenty-four inches long. Also, she really has developed a great laugh, enjoys kicking her legs (especially in the bath tub), likes to play contingency games (peek-a-boo) and loves to talk, talk and talk. In that regard, she really takes after her mommy.

Yesterday, we went thrifting and I found her some awesome toys. A huge bag of mega blox, a recorder, some soft blocks, a neat toy giraffe and a large batch of really cute books were just some of the loot I scored.

Lastly, Maddy has outgrown her pink shoes, so I made her some new shoes. I was thinking of Springtime and the little robins hopping around in our backyard.

Playing Paddy-Cake

2009-03-05T15:21:00.004-06:00

The Toofers Are Coming! The Toofers Are Coming!

2009-03-04T21:31:00.003-06:00

"Poppa, gimme something to chew on. My gums are killing me."

" I got the kung-fu feet. Judo chop!"

Well the time has come for Maddy's teeth to start slicing their way up through tender pink baby-gums. Poor thing is coping with it for now. Sometimes we chew on a washcloth and other times we chew on our teething froggy, fingers or Mama's knuckle.

In other news, we purchased some new clothes for Maddy. Despite being only three-and-a-half months old, she quickly outgrew her three-month clothes and has moved on to size six-months clothes. Featured in the pictures above, is one of her latest outfits. I just love it on her.

Maddy holds her head up really well now. When she is on her tummy, she is able to hold out her arms and arch her back. She looks as though she were swimming. Soon, I suspect, she'll be able to turn over. She is able to grasp toys and hold them and turn them around in her hands. And oh boy does she ever talk. Granted it is still babbles and grunts, but she most definitely has a lot to say.

Say "Cheese!"

2009-02-21T16:07:00.000-06:00

2009-02-20T02:23:00.000-06:00

At the moment, Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book is a huge hit for our tiny one. I wish you could be there with us as we read it to her. Each page brings about little jumps of joy and the cutest grunts of enthusiasm you've ever heard.

Bedtime stories

2009-02-15T20:37:00.000-06:00

Little Maddy loves bedtime stories.

Three months old

2009-02-08T23:14:00.001-06:00

Little Madeline turned three months old today. She spent some time celebrating on her jungle gym. We also took some video of Maddy's comments on the blessed occasion.

Madeline's baptism

2009-01-11T20:08:00.001-06:00