Yard Work

Madison has been so patient the past few days as we decided to re-landscape our entire front yard. She usually just sits in her car and watches us work. She loves to drink out of the powerade bottle like her dad and yesterday she gave me a hand painting the new mailbox post - oops!!

Shirtless Madi

These days it just seems easier to keep her clothes off - between feeding herself, helping us work in the yard, playing with markers and everything else she gets into! If you look real close at the last picture you can see the beginning of a curl!!

Gimme a Bump

Madi is officially ghetto and can give bumps now. I also thought I would include a picture to remind you of how much she looks like her dad!

Pretty Toes

So I snuck in Madi's room the other night and painter her toenails. She was so excited when she discovered them the next day. During our run yesterday she grabbed and then just held them in the air twirling them around!

Signing off

Madison officially knows all her signs and is using them all the time. She is especially quick to use them when it involved things like milkshakes! The third pic is "more" and the fourth pic is "please" - pretty cool to know what she wants!

More of Wilmington...

Warming up in Wilmington

After spending 6 weeks in the winter we were ready to get to the beach. We spent a few days recently visiting with Uncle Mike and Aunt Jaclyn at their house in Wilmington. Madison is slowly "warming up" to the ocean and sand!

Swim Suit Selection

Madi finally outgrew her swimsuits from last year so I went to Old Navy and every suit was halfprice and since I am indecisive I bought 8 of them home for Daniel to see. Madi gladly modeled each one. This string bikini looked cute on the hanger but a bit ridiculous on her!

Finger Fun

I decided it would be really fun to try finger painting with Madison completely forgetting that she has about a 2 minute attention span for any activity. I got us all set up outside and she loved it - for about 2 minutes! She liked painting herself more than the paper. She went over to show off her masterpiece to Daddy while he was fixing the car and then took a stroll around the yard in her cozy coupe!

Family Time

One of the "perks" of going overseas for the summer is that you get some time off when you return home before school starts. We have been busy cleaning up our yard, building things in the wood shop, visiting with family and friends, raising new support and of course hanging out with Madison! Last week, we went to feed the ducks for the first time at the lake. My Grandmother Rose (whom Madi is named after) used to love to take my brother and I to feed the ducks at the lake by her house. One day I hope to tell Madi all about those special times! That evening Madi took a bath filled with tons and tons of bubbles - which is a word Madi now knows very well!

A Fun Fourth

We usually are never around for the 4th of July but since we were finally here in north Carolina we went home to Greensboro to celebrate Grandpa Bass' birthday. Not sure how this works because nobody else got anything but Madison managed to get her own present at the party!

Leaving on a jet plane

For the plane ride back to America Madison got her own seat which was such a treat! She did not have to sleep on my lap the whole ride. Her favorite spot however was not in her seat but sitting on the tray table really close to the television while sipping on a soda! She is hilarious!

Could not think of a catchy title for these

Pics #1 and 2: After being in hotels rooms all summer you can only be so creative - anything on the head is always funny though!
Pic #3: Madison's summer family - they all did an amazing job wiht her!
Pics #4 and 5: Madison met friends everywhere she went. Here are 2 of her frineds from the ice cream and sandwich shop.

Raft Ride

Before leaving the Iguazu park we decided it would be fun to take a ride down the river. It was beautiful and we got to see toucans and alligators! The nice Argentine man promised that they took babies down the river all the time - as you can see from the gigantic life jacket I'm not sure that he knew what he was talking about! It was really shallow water and a super slow ride so it was fine! Everyone on board was supposed to be really quiet so we would not disturb the wildlife which is kind of hard to do with a one year old so we put Madi in the floor of the raft boat and gave her a whoel bag of "Horneadoes" - an Argentine chip like Bugles. After the boat ride we realized our bus was about to leave us so we had to run all the way back to the park entrance - I cannot believe Madison did not throw up everywhere!