February ~ 11 months

At the beginning of February,  Mommy and Maddie had a very nice visit with family in Pennsylvania.  While we were in PA,   Maddie got to take her first sleigh ride. She wasn't so sure she liked it at first, but was soon smiling and laughing!

Nana flew back to Florida with Mommy and Maddie so that she could help them set-up a play room for Maddie and all her toys (which were starting to take over). We turned the office into Maddie's playroom.  It was just what Maddie needed to be able to crawl and cruise around and pull all her toys out to play.  

Maddie and Mommy continue to enjoy storytime at the library and Gymboree classes.  Maddie loves fingerplays and songs and does the motions to many of her favorite songs.  She likes "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", "Patty-Cake", and "

Welcome Song".  Maddie gets a big kick out of doing "So Big" and likes to do it for strangers while out and about.  She also waves "bye-bye" and will sometimes say "hi".  

Maddie likes to be read to and really likes books with different textures.  She loves her finger puppet books!  One of her favorite reading activities is to pull all of her books off of the shelf onto one big pile!  It's sooooooo much fun!  

She continues to love music and her favorite toys sing a song or play a tune.  Leap and Lily (from Leapfrog) can frequently be heard singing their songs and her GloWorm is always in the crib with her.  One of her newest tricks is to pull herself up at the piano.  She's just tall enough to "twinkle the ivories" and thinks it's great fun to play a song for Mommy and Daddy.  She also loves the play her xylophone, which can be quite loud.  :0)

Maddie says "Mama" and "Dada" and sometimes says something that sounds a little like "Molly".  She also says "baby" and will give her stuffed animals kisses... or throw them on the ground and crawl over them.  Mommy's favorite is Maddie's hugs.