Maddy's Crawling

She's been on the brink for weeks, rocking back and forth and stumbling over that darn right arm, but today she is officially able to make multiple "steps" on her hands and knees without falling to her tummy! She's pretty excited about this new feat, and she's awfully quick!

Maddy's First Dinner

Tonight Maddy ate rice cereal for the first time! She's been enviously watching us all eat for about a month now, and last week started waking in the middle of the night to eat (a break from her normal 8+ hours of sleep), so we took the cues and gave it a try early. She didn't have any trouble physically eating it, but she looked like she just bit into a lemon! Max never did like rice cereal, no matter how many times I tried, looks like his baby sister might follow in his footsteps!

A Trip to the Pumpkin Farm!

This past weekend we took a trip out to Snohomish to go to "The Farm" to get our pumpkins! We went a little overboard, and by the end we had an entire wheelbarrow full of pumpkins (and Max). There was a playground, farm animals, a tractor, and lots of other fun activities and Max had a blast. Maddy wore her pumpkin shirt and orange hat in celebration!

Maddy supervising in the kitchen

Maddy is getting so big and did a good job supervising in the kitchen while Jeremy prepared a great salmon dinner to celebrate Grandpa Bob's birthday. Thank you Jeremy!

Mommy's last day of the best summer vacation ever!

Today is my last day of maternity leave and we had a nice day bringing my summer break to a close. Maddy laughed for the first time today, it is such a cute giggle! She is rolling all over the place, too. Only a few days after she rolled from back to front, she rolled front to back, now we can't leave her anywhere! Max also had an exciting day, he got his very own Black and Decker tool kit. It has a battery powered drill, saw, screwdriver, and flashlight, he has been fixing everything today! We finished off our day with a picnic at a park, such a nice day! Now it's back to work and back to reality!

A Big Day for Madeleine!!

Madeleine had a big surprise for grandma today.  She rolled over from her back to her stomach several times!!  She worked so hard and wore herself out but she didn't like it if grandma tried to help.  She wanted to do it herself.   We had a great day.

Grandpa Bob & Max at the antique tractor and steam engine show in Lynden, WA.

Madeleine's Birthday Present for Daddy!

Madeleine gave Daddy a great birthday present, her first smile! They were chatting and she looked right at him and gave him a beautiful smile. The next morning she gave one to me too! So sweet. She is doing great, she is up to 7lb 12oz and 19 3/4 inches long, and starting to find her voice by giving us little squeals :-)

Max is also doing wonderfully. He is talking up a storm, his favorite sayings now are, "I have an idea," "Somethings happening here," and "I'm happy to see you!" among others. Favorite toys right now are his construction toys, and his train sets. He also is loving books, especially Richard Scarry's books and Dr. Suess. He can count to 10 in English and Spanish, and he can sing the alphabet song. He also loves to sing "I've been workin' on the Railroad," "Farmer in the Dell," "London Bridge is Falling Down," and "The itsy-bitsy spider."

Anyhow, that's what is going on in the Schroder household, lot's of changes!

Max has a new baby sister!

Boy is Max in store for quite the change! This weekend we welcomed his baby sister Madeleine to our family! So far Max loves his baby sister, he is gentle with her and likes to give her hugs and kisses and makes sure she has her blankie on her when she's in the car seat. He is certainly a big helper, however he does want to carry her in his arms and tries to pick her car seat up when she's in it, so we've got to figure out a way to discourage this!

Madeleine was born on May 16th at 4:07am, 6lbs, 3oz, and 17.75 inches long. She is a little sweetheart and we all love her very much. We'll have to change the blog to "The Adventures of Max and Maddie" or Maddy, or Madi, or whatever way we decide to spell it!

Soccer Time!

As Max's second birthday rapidly approaches, we decided now would be a good time to get him into soccer to help him burn off some of that energy! He just started in an indoor soccer class for 2-3 year olds and loves it. They practice kicking the ball, kicking a tower of cones (see above), running laps, stomping on bubbles (with "no hands!") and playing with a big parachute. He's one of the quickest in his class so far!

Getting outside!

It has been an unusually warm winter so we have been making frequent trips down to our neighborhood park so Max can burn some of his never-ending energy! He loves going down the slides (particularly by himself) and playing in the sandbox with the dump trucks. He isn't really a fan of the swings, but he's slowly warming up to them.

Also, because of the unseasonably warm weather, we decided that we needed some snow exposure a few weeks ago. Max LOVES to wear his snow boots that Grandpa got him for Christmas, he wears them around the house all the time, and insisted on wearing them today on a quick trip to Bartells (yes, while it was 55 degrees out). Needless to say, he loved them even more when he was able to use them for their true purpose, the snow! We took a trip up to Steven's Pass one afternoon and Max had a blast. He cried so hard when it was time to leave, that for Jeremy to get him into his carseat, he gave him a snowball to hold...yes, in the car. Happy as could be holding his snowball, eventually it began melting all over and mean old mom had to throw it out the window, we did say "bye, bye" to it first, and Max cried for a solid 15 minutes about his lost souvenir. Anyhow, here are some pictures of Max at the park and playing in the snow!

Max's New Train Conductor Hat

A big thanks to great-grandma and great-grandpa Taylor for Max's new Train Conductor outfit! He loves wearing his hat, and even wore it today when we were out running errands!

Late Holiday Update!

Well, it's been far too long since we've blogged, once again! To update you on the holiday's they were a whirlwind, in a word. Thanksgiving was over at Jaja and Bob's, Max thoughoutly enjoyed his turkey, and olives even more! He loves putting them on all of his fingers :-)

For Christmas we had a small dinner at our house, then went to Bellevue to look at the Botanical Garden light show, it was beautiful! Max really enjoyed this Christmas, and he was opening gifts for about 12 hours straight. He is still really enjoying all of his new toys, books, puzzles, art supplies, train set, and was tromping around the house just this morning in his snow boots from Grandpa.

Here are a few pictures to sum things up! The first is from the tree farm where we were fortunate to get snow!