tales from a far-land

This past Wednesday was Madi's 9 month pediatrician visit.  Per her doctor, she is developing very well and seems to be a very happy baby.  Madi received her normal vaccinations and also her flu shot.  Like usual, she only cried for a short period of time before she was smiling and ready to play again. Madilyn's stats as of this visit were: Head circumference - 17" (27th percentile) Height - 27.12" (49th percentile) Weight - 19 pounds, 7 ounces (62rd percentile)   Here are some of the things that Madi is demonstrating at this age ... Crawling all over the house, on furniture, through furniture, on people ... more or less where ever her little body can travel. She is pulling herself up using the furniture and has now figured out how to sit down afterward.  She is also beginning to take a couple of steps to cruise around the furniture. She is becoming pretty innovative.  Recently, she used one of her toy box lids to stand on so she could become a little taller

At the beginning of the November, one of my friends on Facebook challenged each of her friends to post one thing each day that we are thankful for up until Thanksgiving Day. I thought it was a great challenge, but am really terrible at providing status checks on Facebook. So, instead, I decided to make it one of my blog posts. I know some of the items below may seem pretty cliché, but I wanted to still include them because we often take so many things for granted.  I am thankful for … Ice cream. Yes, that’s right. Ice cream, especially chocolate. Thank you Dad and Uncle Ted for introducing me to this incredible treat. My health. Most of my healthiness is due in large part to the fact that I am very lucky to be able to exercise regularly at Boot Camp with some fun and like-minded women.  I firmly believe that exercise is the key to keeping me healthy physically and mentally.  Being an American. I have had the privilege to travel to several foreign countries and every time I return

Wishing your family a very Happy Turkey Day!  Love, Madi

This is too cute, so I had to post this right away. Yolanda just sent me this photo. Madi is mobile and can now pull herself up using any object she can reach. The unfortunate part is that she can pull herself up, but she has not quite figured out how to sit down from there. To quote Yolanda, "I have to rescue her at least 20 times a day. She knows how to stand up, but doesn't know how to go down. LOL!"  Look at the frustration on that face ... Also, while Madi was attempting to walk using one of her wheeled stride walkers, she mishappenly lost her footing sending her head first in to the tile.  Thus, experiencing her first "shiner".  Poor girl!  Her eye and forehead quickly bruised turning lovely shades of green, black and blue.  It is the first of many to come.  Josh and I found it absolutely adorable and, of course, had to take a picture.  Just the result of learning one of life's basic lessons -- walking.

Josh has been bugging me to add his *favorite* photo from our Laguna shoot to the blog.  He cannot believe how high he actually tossed her.  Her face is just priceless.  She doesn't even show any fear.  I, on the otherhand, am trying to smile for the camera without showing my true hysteria.  Anyway, here it is ...   As you can tell from the above photo, I have been dabbling and learning more about how to touch up photos with effects and special features.  I am really enjoying it.  Wait to see more of my creations!  

As you can tell from previous posts on our blog, this past October was crazy busy.  For three weekends in a row, we traveled out of town.  It was insane, but we enjoyed all of our adventures immensely.  For one of those crazy weekends, we drove over to California to visit with GP and GG in Laguna Woods.  However, that was the secondary reason for the visit.  The primary reason was to get family photographs taken by Noa Green.  Long story short ... Noa is a friend of one of my sorority sisters, Andrea Barber.  Andrea had arranged to have Noa take her family's photos while Noa was in town (she lives in New York).  In the midst of talking with Andrea, she had mentioned the upcoming photo shoot and had remarked how it was too bad that we lived in Arizona because Noa is an amazing photographer and if we lived in there we should have her take our photos as well.  Well, with that invitation, Josh and I quickly arranged our schedules so we could make the trip out to Laguna and crash in on

A couple of weeks back, we decided crazily to take Madi on her first camping trip with Josh's friends. In actuality, camping was just an afterthought. The main reason for the trip down south was to visit some of the Arizona wineries in Sonoita. After reading some pretty good reviews, we decided to check them out. So, we embarked upon our adventure. We spent most of Saturday wine tasting, enjoying good friends and great weather. After visiting our fifth Arizona winery, we ascended up the steep, narrow switchback road of Carr Canyon in the Huachuca Mountains outside of Sierra Vista. We quickly set up camp and settled in for an interesting evening. Unfortunately, Madi's first camping trip did not go as smoothly as we had hoped. Our poor little baby ended up being constipated all evening despite the numerous bottles of apple juice she drank. The night air also was a bit more chilly than expected. Madilyn was bundled up ready to weather the cold air, but I, on the otherhand, did n

Madi turned eight months old today.  Here are some of Madi's new milestones we have experienced this past couple of months: She is becoming quite the speed demon in her "car walker". She follows us all around the house and chases the dogs all over the place. Can now sit unsupported, leaving hands free for another activity. In fact, she lunges forward onto floor from the sitting position. Begun creeping backward or forward by pulling herself along with her strong arms on her tummy and her kicking legs drag behind or what we better call in our house as "army crawling".  She is everywhere!  We are not sure we are ready for full mobility.  Reaches and grasps a toy using her fingers rather than the palm of her hand. Will shake, bang, poke, push, squeeze, roll everything. Enjoys splashing toys in the bathtub. She doesn't stay still anymore.  It is nearly impossible to change her diaper or change her clothes. She has two full grown baby teeth on the bottom i

This past weekend we enjoyed the wonderful fall weather with a family trip to the zoo.  We were very lucky to have a couple of our friends join us.  Stephanie and Dan, we loved having you there with us! We also briefly spent time with the Gillis family, who were at the zoo at the same time as us.  Someday Madi will be able to bicycle around the zoo with them.  They looked adorable.  I am not sure if Madilyn really grasped the whole experience, but she seemed to enjoy being outside,watching the animals and soaking in as much information as she possibly could.  Check out the pics ... don't forget to hit the play button!

Madilyn wishes her Aunt Lynsey a very happy birthday.  She misses you and cannot wait to see you in December.   Enjoy your special day... Come on, Mom.  Enough pictures already.   Hmm, is this edible?   Sorry about the drool ...  

This afternoon Phoenix was hit by very severe thunderstorms which resulted in tornado-like winds, rain resulting in flooding valley wide and golfball sized hail.  It was insane!  Never have I experienced this type of storm.  It is being called the "Frozen Monsoon".  I cannot believe just two days ago the temperature was 108 degress and now it is a brisk 68 degrees.  The storm shut down several Phoenix highways due to underpass flooding and traffic accidents.  On my way home, I encountered several down powerlines and uprooted trees.  The news reported several damaged homes, vehicles and businesses because of the golfball sized hail.  My parents home and our home also fell victim to this storm.  My parents lost a skylight and suffered some minimal damage to their home.  I came home to find our front kitchen window shattered and our sunshades shredded.  We also had some minimal impact damage in the stucco on the front of our home.  There were several piles of residual hail all o

For the Labor Day holiday weekend, we decided to fly to Santa Cruz to visit Josh's parents and sister. So, while the Valley of the Sun was experiencing record heat, Santa Cruz was a beautiful eighty degrees. We had a wonderful time!  Great weather, fun times, and many new experiences for Madilyn.  Take a look at a slideshow of our trip.

A couple of weeks ago, we had Madilyn's six month photo shoot.  We returned back to JC Penney Portrait Studio to try them out again.  What a different experience!  Madi was in a happy mood.  Our photographer did a great making all of us smile.  We did not feel rushed.  And we were even given the opportunity to double take some of the photos we were not pleased with after previewing them.  A very satisfying experience overall.  Here is a collage of some of the photos taken. 

Madi turned six months old last Tuesday.  Can you believe it?  On Wednesday, we visited her pediatrician for her six month well baby check-up and shots.  Madi was a trooper, she only cried for a little bit after receiving her shots.  At this visit the physician shared that we could start adding more solids to her diets, like Cheerios and teething biscuits.  She also encouraged us to start teaching Madi to drink water out of a sippy cup. Madilyn's stats as of this visit were: Head circumference - 16.25" (18th percentile) Height - 26" (61st percentile) Weight - 16 pounds, 11 ounces (63rd percentile) Here are some of Madi's new milestones we have experienced this past month: She is sitting up on her own completely She is able to roll from front to back and back to front with ease She consistently talks to herself.  If only we knew what she was saying .... She has mastered the "riverdance" by bouncing in her playgym Two teeth have appeared on her bo

At Madilyn's four month well baby check, the doctor told us that we could start slowly introducing Madi to solid foods once she started sitting up on her own.  Well, she really started mastering that skill about a month ago.  So, off I went to the market to buy some Gerber baby food.  We are busy people and it was fast and convenient.  This trend lasted only a little while until one evening when Josh was feeding Madi and he decided to taste her food.  His critique was that it was bland, boring and tasteless.  Thus was born Mr. Cuisinart.  He decided that he could make better tasting baby food than what we were currently feeding her with our steamer and Cuisinart.  I was supportive, yet skeptical.  We both work long days and when we get home at night, we are tired and barely find time to make ourselves a homemade dinner, let alone her.  However, once Josh got this idea into his brain, there was no changing his mind and he was ready to get started.   I still had one little hesitati

Here are some photos from a trip we made to Pinewood in August to visit Grandma and Grandpa Farrell.  As you will see, we forgot to bring Madilyn's pack 'n play so we had to create a makeshift bed for her.  She didn't seem to mind.  We also experienced eating her first "cookie".  Her face shows how much she enjoyed it.