Madeleine's First Halloween (Parade)

Madeleine got all dressed up for her first Halloween today. Our neighborhood has an annual Halloween parade on the Sunday before October 31. All the little ones and their parents can march in the parade, which goes for about 8 blocks. The whole thing is over in less than an hour, but about 5,000 people participate (according to the local paper).

Some of the other kids (and parents) in their costumes are pictured here. As you can see, Madeleine decided to go as a beautiful ballerina.



We also received a visit from Uncle Tony from Cincinnati, who took time from his visit to read one of Madeleine's favorite bedtime stories.

More Autumnal Pictures and a New Habit

Here's another shot of Madeleine at last weekend's pumpkin carving party, courtesy of our gracious hosts.

Also, Madeleine got to catch up with our friends Rachel and Jim, who tried to get her interested in football. Unfortunately, her interest was limited to trying to chew on it.

Madeleine has developed an interesting new way of expressing affection. She used to give us kisses - especially Mommy. Now, whenever she looks like she's swooping in for a kiss, she is more likely to give us a head butt instead. The head butt doesn't seem to faze her that much, but Mommy and Daddy definitely get the worse end of those collisions every time. Not sure exactly when or where she acquired this interpretation of how to express affection, but Daddy hopes that she keeps the habit at least through her first few dates as a teenager.

Madeleine Achieves Anthropological Breakthrough + New Nicknames

One of Madeleine's favorite toys is a set of rubber blocks with animals, numbers, and symbols in relief on the sides. Mostly she likes to chew on them.

But she finds herself strangely fascinated when Daddy stacks them up on top of each other (actual video clip of Madeleine's reaction to seeing Daddy's construction effort here) and strangely compelled to knock them over. If I stack them up 20 times, she will knock them over 20 times just like clockwork.

So, today, Daddy was shocked to see her trying to put one of the blocks back on top of another one after knocking them down. Yes, she's reached a critical phase of mental development -- learning to use tools (a phase that her father never reached).

And thankfully, we've captured the moment for posterity.

Madeleine has also acquired a few new nicknames. As she's gotten more mobile, she finds herself getting into trouble more often - to the point that Daddy often calls her the Trainwreck.

And as she is able to express herself verbally more often, she has gotten more and more demanding -- particularly when it comes to having even the slightest bit of hunger. So, during these special moments, Mommy and Daddy have taken to calling her The Tyrant and The Dictator. But we use those nicknames in only in the most loving way possible.

Pumpkin Carving, Baby Jail, & Miscellaneous Updates

Madeleine's had a very active last few weeks, filled with music classes, play groups, and new adventures.

Madeleine's friend Mark had his first birthday party last week, with a pumpkin carving theme. Our little girl is an expert pumpkin carver.




Madeleine also hosted some friends for a playgroup. Since she's close to crawling - and her friends are already doing it - we decided to get a baby gate to keep her from getting into trouble. It worked out well but it does kind of look like baby jail.

Madeleine had a followup appointment with the cardiologist for the hole in her heart. The doctor said that the hole is still there but it's getting smaller. He thinks she's going to outgrow it by the time she's two or three and that they won't need to do anything medically beyond monitoring it. We have to go back in another six months for a followup but that was great news.

Madeleine's diet is getting more and more diverse. Lately she's been eating things like beef rice pilaf, apricots and applesauce, and turkey. One of her favorite new dishes is something that Mommy makes called zucchini millet. Daddy didn't know what millet was until he had to find it in the grocery story. Where Daddy's from, mullet is much more common than millet.

p.s. We also have some new pictures of Cousin Shae's wedding.

Road Trippin' Girl

Our little champion traveler racked up another 1500 miles on her personal odometer last week as we ventured down to Florida for Cousin Shae's wedding.


We decided to split the drive up and do it over two days each way. We had a fabulous stay in Myrtle Beach on the way down. The hotel room we rented was literally bigger than our home in Virginia but was ridiculously cheap since it's "off-season" there. When our little road warrior went down for to bed in her palatial bedroom, Mommy and Daddy indulged themselves in probably the best room service they've ever had.


The next day, we rolled the dice on a place to stop for lunch and not only wound up finding a place for a good down-home Southern meal, but also lots of entertainment for our girl. The restaurant, Jasper's Porch, is built on a little pond with a decent sized fountain in the middle and some gigantic carp. There's a jogging trail around the pond with some front porch-style swings, and the girl went crazy swinging with her folks before we had to hop back in the car again.


Then, it was on to Amelia Island for the wedding and family get-together. The town of Fernandina Beach was really charming and the beach house we rented was ideally situated. While half of us were off at the wedding festivities, Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Sheree and Uncle Jonathan took care of the babysitting duties.


Despite racking up so many miles, Madeleine was really happy to see the family.


When he was single, Daddy always dreamed about picking up a beautiful bikini-clad girl at the beach and entertaining her in the hot tub - he just didn't realize it would work out like this.



Uncle Derek was a little nervous handling the baby (mercifully for him, we didn't make him change a diaper) - but Aunt Sheree was always there to keep her entertained.

Aunt Kim has agreed to serve as Madeleine's fashion consultant.

Madeleine couldn't take her eyes off of Uncle Jonathan - she's not used to seeing men with facial hair!

The wedding itself was really enjoyable - a nice location, great food and music, and a bride and groom who are obviously made for each other. We had so much fun seeing the family and catching up with old friends who we haven't seen in awhile.


Our weekend flew by and we were back on the road again before we knew it. We stopped for lunch in Savannah (BBQ - Daddy's favorite) because it was high on Mommy and Daddy's list of places to see - it was every bit as good as advertised. Our accomodations for the night were kind of a dud but the people were nice and the drive back was a lot shorter than the drive down.


It was a great weekend with lots of good memories. And, our girl has officially conquered I-95!

Pumpkin Patches, Exersaucers, Carnivores and First Word (?)

There have been lots of changes in Madeleine's world since Delinquent Daddy has had a chance to post pictures to the blog.

One of the biggest changes is in the eating department, where Madeleine's diet has diversified a great deal. In addition to the organic veggies that Mommy has been preparing for a few months now, Madeleine is also eating string cheese, Cheerios and MEAT (mostly ground chicken and ground turkey mixed with applesauce or other sweet things to make them tastier). Her appetite has definitely grown more and more now that she's a full blown carnivore. She's also beginning to use a sippy cup.



Madeleine continues to be a very active little girl -- doing activities ranging from swim classes to music class to yoga. Here she is in another pair of her kung fu PJs.

Madeleine has also kept up a very busy social calendar. She loves being around other babies. Here, she's attending her first birthday party for her new friend Tess.


Madeleine loves spending time in her exersaucer. It was a little freaky to see her standing upright in it for the first time, but she loves playing with the different toys and turning herself a complete 360 degrees around.



Of course, at this age, just about anything can become a fun toy.

This weekend, Madeleine began to celebrate her first fall by accompanying her friend Isabel (and her parents) to a pumpkin patch on a local farm. Madeleine thought the pumpkins were OK but she mostly wanted to eat the straw. She loved her first hayride and her first trip to Goat Village.



She is making more and more noises that are getting closer and closer to being intelligible. We both heard her utter something that sounded a lot like "Dada" three times this weekend, including twice while looking right at her Daddy. Not sure if it would stand up in a court of law, but it was pretty exciting to hear!

She's not crawling yet but she does a movement that is very similar to the old 1980s dance called the Worm. When she gets tired of trying to figure out crawling, she likes to roll over to where she's trying to go - like a beer barrel.