Outdoor Fun!

Last weekend we went to the Cahaba River Fry Down at Trussville Springs. Maddox had a great time playing in the water and he especially enjoyed watching the many "choo-choos" that went by. His recent obsession with trains has grown a lot over the past month. He is now very much into Thomas and Friends and loves playing with all of his toy trains. We look for trains every time we go over the tracks and his eyes just light up when he sees or hears one. Now every time he hears the train whistle he throws his arms up because he wants you to pick him up and take him to see it. He got used to this at RaRa and Poppy's house because he can see the train from the upstairs window. At our house he has to settle for opening the dining room window and sticking his head out to listen.

Watching the train coming down the tracks...

Family shot in front of the train. One day we'll get one where Maddox is looking...
Waving to the "choo-choo"!
In the Cahaba, throwing rocks with Daddy...
Whoa, I think I found a big one...

All in all, a day spent outdoors equals a day of fun! And an AU victory over SC helped make the day even better too. We watched the game at RaRa and Poppy's house that night and Maddox had a great time joining in with the crowd and cheering and clapping for the Tigers!

The Great Escape

It was only a matter of time, but Maddox has now figured out how to wedge himself out through the doggie door. I was watching him the other day and he was sticking his head out and he kept getting a little further out of it each time, before he finally just decided to go for it and crawl on through. Now he constantly is heading out to the backyard and he prefers this door to the real door. It is quite entertaining for him to just go in and out the doggie door about a thousand times in a row. You'd think it would hurt his little legs, but he doesn't mind. Needless to say, when Maddox is awake, the doggie door has to stay closed off for the most part since he is quite sneaky and brave too!

Notice how patiently Milo is waiting to come back inside...

I'll have to try to get a shot from the front next time!

Mmmm...pudding!

Maddox usually is much neater than this when he eats, but as you can see, pudding is a little messy (hence the reason he has no shirt on)...

So good, he had to lick the lid...

Curious George!

Over Labor Day weekend we took Maddox to Huntsville to see "Curious George Live". It was a musical and the first time Maddox has ever been to something like that so we weren't sure how he'd do, but he loved it. He loves Curious George so we figured he'd love this, but we were a little skeptical of how well he'd do sitting still with other people around, but he sat and watched the whole thing and only wiggled around a little bit the whole time. The show was good (the facilities not so though) and there was so much going on between the dancing, singing, and flashing lights, that it would have been pretty hard for him to not watch. Before the show we went and ate at Red Robin with our friends Doug and Christi and their two little boys. I think the highlight of the trip was the balloon Maddox got at the restaurant. I guess we could have saved a little time and money had we just driven up to the Pinnacle for lunch..haha!

I didn't get any pictures of the actual show, but here are a few of Maddox enjoying his balloon afterward...

18 months

It is hard to believe that Maddox is already 18 months old! He is just growing up before our very eyes! Maddox's daddy took him for his 18 month check-up last week and he did great! He weighed in at 29 lbs., 4 oz and was 33 1/2 inches tall. At his 15 month check-up they said he was 33 inches tall, but we are pretty sure that was off a bit since we measured him at home around a month after that and he was only around 32.5 inches. He only had to get one shot at his appointment and that was his flu shot. Hopefully we can avoid the flu this year. We've already been at the doctor, just two weeks after school started with bronchitis, so I'm hoping Maddox's immune system will hurry up and get used to being around so many little germs each day!

It is amazing to see all that he is learning and able to do these days. His new favorite word now is "no". He says no a lot of things like sharing his food or brushing his teeth (he still isn't enjoying this chore). It is pretty cute now, but I have a feeling the cuteness will wear off at some point. He also says "hot" and "cold" a lot. He will point to the stove and say "hot" or if he sees a candle burning he says it too. Another big favorite is "football" but he pronounces it more like the Europeans do and says "futbol". Everytime he sees a football, a helmet, or any clip on tv pertaining to football, he screams out "football". We are working on "War Eagle" also, but at this point it is just a "Waaaaaaaar E!"

His little personality is just coming out more and more and I just fall in love with him over and over again each day. How did I get so lucky to be blessed with such an amazing little guy?

Just Lying Around...

Lately whenever Maddox gets tired he just lays down on the floor. Sometimes just straight on the hardwood floor and sometimes on pillows and blankets. I was running a bath for Maddox the other night and stripped him down. I went and shut off the water and came back to get him and this is what I found (warning: naked baby alert)...

I couldn't resist getting my camera and he proceeded to ham it up for me, but this time snuggling on his giant tiger stuffed animal.
After his bath, he went straight back to his tiger to snuggle a little more. I don't blame him though because this thing is pretty comfortable. The tiger is now his favorite snuggle spot. It has been with us a few weeks. That is what happens when you send Blake to Sam's for a few things...giant stuffed animals come home! Maddox is very thankful that Daddy is an impulse buyer though! :)

Big Boy Chair

It guess it might be time to give up the high chair. Maddox now prefers to sit at the table like a big boy! Today at lunch when I told him it was time to eat instead of running to his high chair like he usually does, he ran to the table and climbed up in the chair. I will be getting him a booster seat soon, but in the meantime, this pot will just have to do I guess.

Maddox has also started trying to do things with his eyes closed lately. He closes them a lot and just laughs. Here he is attempting to eat his lunch with his eyes closed. A good part of his lunch was eaten without looking. Not sure why he enjoys this so much, but it must just be a funny new discovery for him!

Oh and as you probably noticed, Maddox is sporting his new jersey in honor of college football starting this weekend! We are working on his war eagle cheers. This morning he was running around saying, "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr!" Maybe by the time football season is over, he'll learn the rest! :)

Maddox's School Days

Maddox has been in school for a little less than a month now. This was the best picture I could get of Maddox posing with his school bag and lunchbox on his first day of school. As usual he didn't want to stay to still that morning.

Going to school started out good, went from bad to worse, and now seems to be going well again (so hopefully it will stay that way). Maddox ran on in the first day and didn't seem to have trouble saying goodbye to his daddy. When I picked him up his teachers said he had a good day, but that he had cried some off and on, mostly when other kids cried though. All in all, a decent first day. After that, drop-off became pretty terrible for Blake for a while. I am thankful that Blake is willing to do this dirty job, because I just am not sure I could leave him. I would be too tempted to just put him back in the car and head back home, and that would probably not go over too well at work. Maddox began crying before he even got in the building because he knew that Blake was leaving him. Blake said it was pretty terrible because he could hear him yelling "Daddy" when he was leaving...brings tears to my eyes even now as I type, so I know that made Blake feel pretty terrible. Over the past couple of weeks though, Maddox has run inside his classroom on his own and began playing without much of a fuss, so we are pretty relieved that he is doing better in the mornings now.

Maddox loves all of the fun things he is doing at school and always gets good reports that say he has eaten well, slept well (blows my mind that from day 1 they have been able to get him to lay in the floor on a nap mat and go to sleep), and been a cheerful boy during the day. Some of the fun things that Maddox has been doing at school include playing with bubbles in the field, going on buggy rides, playing in the soft-play room and on the playground, shaking out his sillies (this is a song they sing where they shake around--he loves this), reading books and listening to bible stories, singing songs like "Wheels on the Bus", painting and coloring. Each morning they always have a craft time where they paint pictures or color things. Maddox has brought home quite the collection of beautiful artwork--we may have a budding artist on our hands, haha! It is so funny to look at some of his work. Some of it is very colorful and detailed and sometimes it is just a full sheet of paper with one little scribble on it. This past week Maddox has been learning about the letter A and the color red. Supposedly partway through the year, they are going to start learning some Spanish too, so we'll see how that goes. I'm hoping he will get a little more English learned before then so I can understand everything that he is trying to say, because this is one little boy with a lot on his mind!

Here is some of the beautiful artwork Maddox has created in his first few weeks at school!