Fashion Show!

Maddie got so many adorable outfits for her birthday that I decided to start a new blog post topic -- Fashion Show!
Maddie sporting a zebra print dress for a little indoor safari (Please note the ferocious King of the Mountain).

Hi There!

Hi Everyone! I know I've suddenly become terrible at blogging. It's been a world-wind month and despite working at a school, summer is only going to be busier for me than ever before. Happily, I can say that it's a good kind of busy. My creativity is in full gear.

Plus, things keep moving around here. There's nothing quite like being chased down the hall by a girl who can crab-walk like nobody's business. Of course she's not good at sneaking up on people because she's always too busy giggling.

I was lucky enough to have a dear, dear friend come and visit me last week. The one down side of living in Buffalo is that so many of my friend live far away and I truly miss them. BUT the up side of living in Buffalo is that my friend, Kat, is practically a Buffalonian and comes to visit. I've always loved friend-visits, they so remind me of the good old days...

Anyway, Kat was kind enough to spend a whole day with us. We had an indoor picnic (under threat of rain) and then Maddie, Kat and I headed to the zoo. And we ended the night at Duffs, joined by Rob and Seth. All in all a pretty fabulous day! But I wish it would happen more often.

Summer Plans

Every Fall I seem to lament the passing of summer without my really noticing it. Last year, I was a new enough Mom to be pretty conservative about leaving the house. I was always worried about the sun being too strong or given the weirdness of last summer, the rain coming on suddenly. All in all it didn't feel very summery.

This year I've decided to set some simple goals for myself and hopefully if I hit all of them, I'll at least have some sense of accomplishment and time-preservation. Here's my list:

* Go on a picnic
* Take Maddie to the zoo
* Go to Shakespeare in the Park
* Spend at least one long weekend at the cottage

Last Day of Being Zero

Tomorrow is Maddie's first birthday. I'm so ridiculously excited for her and of course she is oblivious. It's hard to believe it has been a whole year. And what have I learned in that year? Two things:

That I know nothing.

When you have a baby you know you're going to love her. You know you're going to love her a lot. And when you have that baby, you figure out that is the understatement of a lifetime.

We call her Chompers

In the past few days, Maddie has gotten not one, not two, but FOUR new teeth (yes, I know I skipped three but I figured you knew where I was going with this). Two her newbies are actually back teeth, you know the ones with dimension and multiple sharp parts that stick out. We've only caught random glimpses of these rare beauties (as if they were something mythical like the Lockness Monster or Sasquatch), but we know they're there. It's only a short time now before she'll be demanding steak.

Maddie seems to do quite well with teething -- either that or I'm completely oblivious. Her sleeping habits are so erratic that I can never tell if her nights are disrupted by teething or if she just doesn't feel like sleeping. I would think she would cry or be obviously in pain if teething was keeping her up. But she doesn't; she cuddles. Today though, she's cut a tooth on the bottom that has made her a little in need of relief. She's been looking for something good to chew, and thus popsicles are in order.

Other than that, this girl is on the go. Up and down the halls and back again. Stand at Mom's nightstand and pull out every tissue in the box. Then it's time to pull out dirty clothes out of the laundry and drag them up and down the hallway. Chase a cat, reorganize the changing table, pull every book off the bookshelf and start all over again. That's Maddie's day!