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Maddie Revises Her Napping Schedule

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Maddie’s new nap schedule taking it’s toll.

Maddie is in the process of dropping her second nap, but it’s not shaping up to be a seamless process. We are trying to let Maddie guide the process, but so far, she’s changing the rules on a day-to-day basis.

 

The napping process is up in the air for now. There are days with short naps, longs naps and even days with no naps. The days with no naps produce one cranky little muffin who is ready to snap at a moment’s notice.

 

The transition period has been bumpy, but we are hoping the end is in site. As for Maddie, you know she wants to sleep, but she is fighting it left and right.


You’re the Only One I can Talk To

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What else did they get me?

Mads Trying to Get Organized for Big Holiday Adventure

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The airlines lost my pants before I left?

Maddie is packing up her gig and heading out west.

So what do you pack for the demanding baby for a six-hour flight? Basically anything you can think of.

Maddie is always on the move and has the attention span of a chipmunk with a Mountain Dew addiction.

At this point, we can only speculate what surprises the baby has in store for her parents and of course her fellow passengers.

Maddie has flown before, but that was months ago and before she was mobile.

Now that she can run around with reckless abandon, it will be fascinating to see how she reacts to being strapped in for the long haul.

Get ready for takeoff!!

Is Uncle Jim Ready for My Visit?

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My manners are still a work in progress!

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.

Maddie Taking Her Credentials Very Seriously

My credentials are in order

Years ago when Maddie’s dad worked at the U.S. Open Tennis tournament, he had to wear his credentials at all times. Once the tournament ended, the credentials were retired to some dark corner of a bookcase until Maddie uncovered them during one of her many investigations.

 

Since the discovery, Maddie has taken to sporting her credentials all around the house. The funny thing is that she treats the credentials a little differently than her other items. What’s odd is that Maddie takes great pleasure in sharing toys, magazines and food with her relatives – but she never shares her credentials.

 

Maddie takes them on and off, but likes to keep them to herself. Maddie will show them to you, but only to visually inspect them, not handle them. She also likes to lie on the floor and examine them very closely herself.

 

She flips through them, looks at dad’s picture and examines the information printed on each card. We don’t know what Maddie’s attachment is to these credentials, we just know that she really likes them.

Maddie Dials Up the Charm for 1st Day of School

Sorry, I have to take this!

So Mom and Dad dropped off Maddie for her first day of school. It all happened far too fast as we left the building already stressing about what Maddie might be up to. The teachers kept their word and called us with an update about 45 minutes later.

They said Maddie cried for about 2 minutes and then started running around with the other kids. She was digging into her little lunch when they called and I was chomping at the bit to pick her up.

 I held myself in check and picked up the baby right on schedule. They told me that when the other children were sitting down, Maddie made sure to give them each a kiss on the top of the head. Once again proving that she is the sweetest girl anyone could have ever wished for.

First day and I caught a squirrel!

I’m getting the hang of this

Who’s up for a little catch?

 

Maddie Not Sold on the “Pebbles Look”

This was NOT my idea!

Maddie starts a mini-version of nursery school tomorrow. So today she was auditioning several looks for her school debut. I don’t think the “Fruity Pebbles” look won the contest – but Maddie was brave enough to give it a try.

Now that we are occasionally able to keep shoes on Maddie, we have been taking a series of short walks outside. Tomorrow we will be walking Maddie to her new school where she will spend a couple hours playing and interacting with other kids two days a week.

It’s going to be pretty tough on her dad – he already feels like he’s sending her off to college. But he realizes that spending dad after day with her Dad might not be the best tool to help her socialize with other children.

The only question now is will Dad be able to leave Maddie there when she starts crying. Tune into tomorrow for updates from Maddie’s first day of school.

Maddie Lifts Off at Lunch

Is there something on my face?

Sometimes parents know they are playing with fire, but still decide to crack open the old gas can. Little Maddie-Bean was in rare form this morning. When that happens, it always a good idea to keep Maddie under wraps and out of the public eye.

But Maddie’s parents were determined to go out to lunch and hope for the best. We walked into the restaurant like the all-American family. Maddie was smiling from ear to ear as Mom and Dad walked her to the table.

We ordered Maddie’s meal before we even sat down. Time was short and the longer we could keep Maddie engaged, the better chance we had of getting out unscathed. Maddie’s kid’s lo mein came in a flash and we were in good shape.

Or so we thought. After just a few bites, Maddie began to let the noodles fly. And once the noodles gained sufficient orbit, Maddie needed more. Anything that was within reach was suddenly fair game. That included crunchy noodles, her sippy cup and little bits of chicken.

Then Maddie switched into flirtation mode. She directed her attention to at least three separate tables and caught the attention of at least two other restaurant patrons who were enamored with her angelic smile.

Even though lunch was a little messier than anticipated, we all had a good time and left with a minimal amount of embarrassment.

Baby Won’t Walk for the Camera

Don’t make me get a restraining order!

She may not be talking about it, but Maddie is taking more and more short walks around the house. Three steps here, ten steps there and so on. But trying to catch these images on video is proving to be nearly impossible.

The little vixen is on to us and has decided to keep any video taped evidence of her walking out of the public spotlight. TMZ and Extra have offered great sums of money to see Mads strut her stuff, but she says they can keep it.

I have to admit, it’s humbling to be outsmarted by my one-year-old. Every time I point the camera in her direction, she drops to the floor and starts crawling straight for the camera. Her mother and I also failed in a photo-ambush attempt. Maddie’s mom set her camera up one side of the room and I set up on the other.

As soon as one of us attempted to hit record, Maddie was on the floor in a flash crawling away with a smug grin on her face. It’s become contest to catch the baby in the act of walking before she starts running wind sprints around the house. It’s obvious now that the baby will demonstrate her walking capabilities for the camera when she is good and ready and will not be coerced by the paparazzi that lurk behind every corner.

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