Blame it on the rain!
Category Archives: Weather
Maddie’s Winter Wonderland
Here’s lookin’ at you kid!
This is great Mom
Can’t let a little weather slow us down!
You gotta love this stuff…
There is a nip in the air.
I’m taking time to reflect.
This looks like snow to me.
Maddie Battling the Night Crazies and Time Change Blues
But I’m just a little angel!
Since being driven out by the hurricane, this is about the longest stint Maddie has had away from home. She is in good spirits, but is definitely falling victim to the night crazies.
Maddie has also come up with a new move for her grandfather – it’s called the HULK! Her eyes bug out, she makes two fists and strains like she’s turning into the Hulk.
This is great entertainment for all who witness the transformation.
Maddie is also taking time to rub food in her hair and fire her sippy cup across the room like a missile during dinner. We have tried reasoning with her and disciplining her, but when the mood hits – there’s no swaying her from course of craziness.
Of course Maddie manages to be sweet even during her most ridiculous outbursts, but it’s important to record this behavior so we can share it with Maddie when she is a little older.
My father tends to exaggerate.
Maddie Gets Her First Taste of Cold Weather
Is something funny?
It’s been quite an amazing couple of days for the Amazing Madster! Just 24 hours after evacuating from the New York City area to escape the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, Maddie was already encountering a new weather challenge – Cold Weather!
Maddie was bouncing off the walls the morning after our evac and that meant it was time to hit the great outdoors. 38 degrees in Virginia was not quite what we bargained for, but we are very thankful to have power, hot water and heat.
Maddie is also making it her mission to entertain her grandparents while constantly rearranging their house. Her ability of infiltrate every drawer and cabinet might get us sent home earlier than expected.
Hurricane Sandy Can’t Fluster Maddie
Sandy is really quite a bore.
Since Maddie was born in July 2011, she has endured more than her share of extreme weather events. So far she’s already made it through one hurricane and one earthquake. So please forgive her if Hurricane Sandy doesn’t really grab her attention.
With a historic storm surge bearing down on New York City, Maddie’s parents packed up the car at 6 o’clock this morning and headed south. We hopped on the New Jersey Turnpike and Maddie was complaining to the beat of the band.
It was almost as if she knew we were going the wrong way. I had Maddie’s mom check the road conditions in Delaware on the iPhone and we got some strange news. The funny little folks in Delaware shut down all roadways at 5am – UH-OH!
“Way to Go!” thought Maddie. So now it was time for us to head west and find a new way to Maddie’s grandparents house. After a couple of hours, we pulled off to feed Maddie breakfast. As soon as we exited, Maddie fell completely asleep – UH-OH!
Time to recalibrate again!
About an hour down the road the princess woke up and was more than ready for a pit stop. We found a Mickey-D’s around Gettysburg and dragged Maddie out into the driving hurricane rain.
Mom and Maddie sat down while I was ordering food at the counter. Maddie could see me from the table and kept screaming, “Heyyy, Daaaa!” Most of the people line found this very entertaining.
We made it safely to the grandparents’ house and Maddie could not have been more pleased.
Soaring Temps Drive the Madster Indoors
Practicing my slide
Maddie has been enduring the heat like a champ this week. But the early morning walks and visits to the pool are taking a hit as the heat index flirts with the 100-degree range. Maddie has taken a keen interest in all of the geese in the area, but even the birds can’t compete with a 72-degree air-conditioned room with the shades drawn.
So the challenge now is how to keep an outdoor girl entertained while indoors. As always, trashing and shredding paper ranks high on Maddie’s activity schedule. But bumping her head on multiple surfaces is quickly moving up the list. The baby has also discovered the amazing world of yanking open up cabinets and raiding the contents inside.
This is how you work you work up a sweat
We also employed a new strategy of taking Maddie shopping at least once a day. The stores are cool and full of people for the baby to stare at and heckle. These trips also give Maddie a chance to sample new and exotic foods including goldfish and teddy grahams.
What been most impressive through out the week is Maddie’s good nature. It’s obvious that she does not care for the oppressive heat, but she’s not letting it dampen her moods at all. She’s been simply content to fight through the heat and appreciate all the time she is spending indoors.
Beach Baby on the Prowl
Anybody looking for the car keys, I’m ready to go
Are we in the right place?
My pacifier helps me cut down on sand consumption
It’s all about the shoes
I’m taking care of business here
4th of July Heat Drives Trouble Inside
Clear the runway, I’m coming in!!
The 4th of July was one of those dog days of summer that saw the temperature soar past the 95-degree mark. Long before the fireworks lit up the Hudson River for the Independence Day Extravaganza, trouble rolled into town in the form of my 11-month-old baby girl named Maddie.
She was not impressed with the oppressive heat and warned her parents early in the day that any long trips outside would be greatly frowned upon. However, the baby’s parents love to live on the edge and had a grand trip planned to good old Ellis Island.
Since the ferry is just a hop skip and a jump away, we packed Maddie into her stroller and began our walk to Liberty State Park. Just about 500 yards into the trip, things started heading south in a big hurry. Maddie was swinging for the fences, amazed by the complete idiocy of her parents.
Maddie doesn’t speak yet, but made her point of view perfectly clear. “You can not be serious!” It’s 12-hundred degrees Celsius and these road scholar parents of mine are dragging me into a park where no one ever bothered to plant any trees.
As the sun relentlessly beat down upon us, we realized it was time to switch gears. We made a bee-line for a nearby restaurant that I know opens at noon. We marveled at the brilliance right up until we walked into the restaurant. “Sorry, because of the 4th of July, we don’t open until 1 o’clock.”
That’s just PERFECT – How Quaint!!
It was 11:45am and I told restaurant boy that they always open at noon as indicated on their door. He chuckled and said not today. We hid in the shade for about 15 extra minutes before making a hasty retreat back home.
Once we were safely ensconced back in the comfort of our air-conditioned home, Maddie regained her sense of humor and put on a wild child display for the ages. She ripped around the house making it very clear that this particular holiday would be better spent indoors. Once again proving that sometimes my 11-month-old daughter possesses more common sense than I do.
Mayhem, Chicanery Rule the Changing Table
You can’t handle the truth!
In the last two weeks, Maddie has mastered the commando-like maneuver of flipping from her back to the standing position. The flip is not a gentle or subtle action, it’s a flash of movement where the baby goes from being on her back to standing right up there in your face. This two-count process starts with the flip to her knees right before she stands straight up.
Maddie really shows off some great athletic potential with this action, but it is no fun at all on the changing table. Whether it’s a diaper change or just changing clothes, this wild bucking bronco is creating PURE HAVOC on the changing table.
The second I lay her down on her back, she takes that as her crazy cue to spin into action. I’m fine with all of that, but when I gently restrain these wild rolling tendencies, she goes absolutely insane. She starts screaming and crying as if she being lowered into boiling oil. This pattern took hold about three days ago and shows no signs of abating any time soon.
I love the enthusiasm associated with her stand and roll, but don’t really understand the temper tantrum that comes with it. I have tried multiple strategies to reduce Maddie’s mayhem including humor, distraction, soothing and restraint. It doesn’t seem to matter what I do, Maddie flatly refuses to sit still for any changing table activities.
Like anything else with the baby, you just have to ride the phase out to its completion. However, it would be nice if I could find a way to reduce the stress for Maddie. The baby really seems to get desperate, but once the diaper is changed or the new outfit is in place, she is all happy and bubbly once again.
We’ve gone through a few phases like this one in the past, but I’m really hoping for a speedy resolution. This behavior does not seem to be linked to hunger or sleep, for now it appears to be another control issue. So for now we are in the grin and bear it stage until little Maddie Sunshine decides that it is ok to have her diaper changed again.
Alaskan Cousins Spend Wild Day with the Madster
We’ve only just begun…
Despite all the trials and tribulations Monday had to offer, Maddie had a fantastic and magical day playing, wrestling and entertaining her cousins from Alaska. Never mind the fact that the weather gods have a mean streak about a mile long. Maddie’s cousins Porter and Catie just endured a a terrible winter season in Alaska only to come to New Jersey for some record cold weather and rain. Yet somehow, we were blissfully ignorant of this fact when we walked to breakfast this morning.
The four of us polished off our meals with great enthusiasm and were ready to catch a ferry into the city. As soon as we waltzed out of the diner, a heavy and cold rain set in. It pelted the area with a vengeance throughout the morning and our best-laid plans were torn asunder. We trudged home in the rain knowing that today’s travel plans were shot.
Maddie reasoned that her only recourse for the morning was to take a long nap and try to work things out while she was asleep. By the time her eyes popped open, it was just about time for lunch. Maddie reasoned that a bit of good company and delicious food was just the ticket to turn the day around.
Her dad packed her up in the stroller and set off in the rain while the grandparents drove the cousins to our lunch spot. Maddie feasted on fries and fruit, and made several loud crackling announcements to the lunchtime crowd. During lunch, the sun managed to peak out and Maddie thought she still might be able to treat her cousins to some pool time. However, as soon as we got to the pool about an hour later, the sun shriveled up into the clouds like a scared turtle. Maddie was more than happy to dip her feet in the water and kick around a bit, but without the sun, it was just too cold.
The baby opted for one more nap and try to pick up where she left off earlier. By the time she woke up, it was time to drive the cousins back to their grandparent’s house. About 30 miles into the trip, Maddie was treated to her very first flat tire experience. This led to an unscheduled stop at the Goodyear Tire Store off the highway. Between the rain, car trouble and unseasonably cold weather, Maddie is worried that it may be some time before her cousins dare to make their next trip back East.
