Blogging

Recently my friend Jenny, who I went to grad school with, asked me to write a post for her blog about air travel with kids. Maddy has flown more than most adults and Jenny has heard most of my advice but thought it would be cool to put it all together in one post. It took me a while to write it because life kept getting in the way, but it is finally done and up. The best part was finding all of the old photos of Maddy traveling.

Check it out my post on Jenny's blog, Growing Up Jacobson!

Gymnastics

Maddy started gymnastics again and is loving it even more than last session, if that is possible. On Saturday she literally RAN all the way from the car to the gym with us shouting, Maddy slow down and her shouting back, Maddy go gymnastics, hurry. She had a blast and was so involved in everything the teacher asked them to do. She volunteered to be the example a couple of times and was really vocal with answering questions. She's getting much better on the balance beam and doesn't want to hold our hands as much anymore. She especially loves the rings and the trampoline. Here are some photos of our visit this weekend.

On the left she is jumping on the trampoline with her arms up like a pencil. She would bound down the trampoline with the biggest smile. In the middle picture she's doing wall-sits with Coach Alex. They had to count to ten and she shouted the numbers, it was pretty cute. On the right she's on the low balance beam with Daddy.

New Office

Earlier this month, my department moved from an old worn down building with falling apart furniture, to a new space that we got to work with an interior designer to decorate. It was completely renovated and we got all new furniture. We had an open house yesterday so we finally got it all decorated and set-up. Here are some pics of my new space. It has amazing windows all on one side and I can even see the Space Needle from my desk. I love it!

Weekend Fun

As I said before, my friend Gina (who Maddy calls Gigi) was visiting this weekend. We had a pretty low key weekend, but it was still really fun. On Saturday we took Maddy to the park and it was beautiful and sunny and 50+ degrees. Great winter day! Maddy had so much fun swinging with Gigi and playing at the park. On Sunday it was the NFC Championship football game and the Seahawks did AWESOME and are now going to the Super Bowl. We did a family photo in our jerseys in the morning before Ted headed up to Seattle for the game.

Ups and Downs

It was a pretty eventful week in our house. Ted and I both had to work late a couple of days this week, we managed to get to the gym twice more, and Maddy started her new series of classes at the gym. She did swimming lessons on Tuesday and still really liked the water. She did better with keeping the ear wax in her ears because of the tubes and jumped in and went under water quite a few times. She's getting better with kicking and paddling at the same time and is well on her way to becoming a fish :) She also started back up with gymnastics on Saturday (see pictures below!). Maddy jumped right back in and had a blast. She was much better on the balance beam this time and the rings were a big hit again. Also, we were lucky to get assigned to Coach Alex again who Maddy really likes. He's amazing with the kids!

Unfortunately on Wednesday, we got a call that Maddy was sick at daycare and had already thrown up a couple of times. Luckily I was in Tacoma for an all day conference that I hadn't left for yet, so I was able to pick her up and stay home with her. Ted stayed home with her for most of the morning on Thursday and since it had been over 24 hours since she had been sick, and she was begging to go back to daycare, she was off. No more issues now!

Also, my friend Gina from Penn State (who is in my PhD program) is visiting this weekend. Maddy, Gina and I are having a blast hanging out! More pics to come from the rest of our weekend!

Here are some more funny things Maddy says!

January 14
Maddy helps me check the mail. Today when we came inside she was carrying an envelope from our insurance company. She opened it up and exclaimed, "it's calamari!"

Productive & Fun Weekend

We had a really good week. We did a good job using last weekend to feel caught up in life, so meals were made, laundry was done, the house was clean, etc. That always helps us have good weeks. Also, we were able to continue our commitment to going to the gym. Maddy had a milestone in that she didn't cry for our 3rd and 4th visit to the gym daycare. Today she even sprinted to the door and shouted bye bye Mommy and Daddy. It certainly makes it easier to go to the gym when we know she won't be distraught.

Friday evening we went out to dinner with Max and Tiff and Maddy stayed for the evening with Grammie and Papa. The bottom left square of the picture is Papa reading Maddy stories. Then on Saturday Ted went to the Seahawks playoff game with Max and so Maddy and I went to Papa and Grammie's house again to watch the game. We ended up staying most of the day and night and had a blast. The right two squares of the picture are Maddy, Grammie and Papa doing ring-around-the-rosie.

Lastly Maddy typically sings kids songs (Twinkle Twinkle, ABC's, etc) but recently she's heard a song that I like which is Brave by Sara Bareilles. It's on the radio quite a bit as well as it's on a Microsoft commercial on TV. Maddy constantly asks to "hear more brave!" Today while driving around running errands I played it (over and over and over) in the car and Maddy and I sang at the top of our lungs. By the second round, she had learned most of the words and was having a blast. The top left square of the picture is from our sing-a-long.

Here's another entry for the funny things Maddy says category!

January 6:
We were eating dinner in the dining room but the College Football National Championship was on in the living room. Maddy could see the TV. When I scooped up a forkful of her dinner from her plate and said, "Maddy take a bite," she said, "I can't, I'm busy watching football."

Relaxing Weekend - Maddy Style

Now that things have settled down a little, we were able to just have a relaxing weekend at/near home. Maddy and I went to the Children's Museum on Saturday while Ted was working. Sunday we all hung out cleaning the house and taking down Christmas decorations. We all played Hi Ho Cherry-O (Maddy's new favorite game which she got from Aunt Coley and Uncle Dan) and she painted with her new art set from Grammie Kim and Bumpa Larry. It's really cool because the markers and paint only work on special paper and won't show up on tables, walls or clothing.

Here are some photos of our fun!

Additionally I've decided to keep track of some of the funny things Maddy says. She is pretty hilarious and very random. Here goes!

January 4:

I burped at the table (a normal non offensive burp). Maddy immediately said "excuse you Mommy piggy."

January 5:

Maddy woke up from her nap and started shouting, "Mommy." Since I was downstairs, it took me a minute to get to her room. In the meantime she got more insistent shouting, "Mommy Davis," and "Mommy come see me!"

Day #365 - ONE YEAR!

Wow, it's been a year since I decided to post a picture everyday. I did it although sometimes I got behind and posted quite a few at once to catch up. Other times I had to snap a picture of Maddy sleeping just to "officially" meet my photo of the day challenge. Overall I'm really glad I did it. It was nice to be intentional about catching photos of special things, as well as silly or regular everyday things that happen in our life.

I will probably slow down a little and post weekly as an update of what we've been up to and I'll go back to posting for special events. Thanks to all of our followers, even though you're few and far between, I appreciate your investment in our family.

Here's the last photo of 2013. It is fitting that it is from New Year's Eve. We decided to spend it with Ted's parents since Grammie Merlene is still recovering (but doing great). Anyone who knows Ted's dad Rick knows that he's a tough guy. He's becoming a little bit of a softie thanks to Maddy though. This photo shows just how far  he's come :)