shedd aquarium

like i mentioned in the last post, matt has been at a conference in chicago. he was going to be done around noon on friday, so we thought that it might be nice for madelyn and i to join him and take a trip to the shedd aquarium. sea life seems to be one of madelyn's favorite things and we thought that it might be nice to do with her before the baby is born.

it was a gorgeous day and we had a nice lunch outside before heading in to the aquarium. madelyn loved driving through downtown - she keep pointing out every bicycle she saw. she was also really excited about all the seagulls hanging around begging for scraps while we were eating our lunch.

(unfortunately, there is no flash photography inside the shedd and pictures were very difficult to come by because most of the rooms are on the dark side, but i tried.)

i had started talking with madelyn about our trip to the aquarium on thursday and we went through her curious george book about a trip to the aquarium to talk about the animals we would see there. she told me that she was most excited about the whales and octopus. the one octopus was 'sleeping' while we were there and she wasn't all that interested in the beluga whales (until we saw their show) after seeing them once, but we saw lots of other animals that were amazing and new to even daddy and me.

she really liked this tank of jellyfish on our way down to the "wild reef" exhibit - i have to say that i was pretty impressed with it myself. the shedd has three different levels so i would ride in the elevator with the stroller while matt and madelyn took the more scenic stair path down each level. madelyn really likes the sharks when we go to the zoo (she runs back and forth with them telling everyone near her that they are "sharks") so i thought that she would be impressed with the sharks at the shedd. not so much. i was impressed with how large they were and how fast they were swimming in their tank, but madelyn would barely even look at them. i guess it was mainly because of her fascination with the sting ray tank.

i wish that i could have gotten a picture of her face and reaction when matt walked out onto the glass floor over the tank. madelyn was holding his hand and when she got to the edge of the carpeting she slammed on the breaks and almost sat back trying to keep daddy from leading her right into the water. it took some convincing to get her to try stepping on it. i had her feel that it was glass/plastic and okay to walk on. the picture isn't great, but you can get a sense for what the setup was like. once she saw that it was safe she kept touching the floor and stomping her feet trying to test it out. i don't even know how much she looked at the sting rays in the tank.

madelyn hugged and 'kissed' any of the model animals she could get close enough to hug and kiss. here she is with a sea turtle and penguins.

we just lucked into seeing a show featuring the beluga whales, a sea lion, and the dolphins by being in the right place at the right time and having a staff person tell us that a show was getting ready to start. the 'show' was basically a demonstration of how they are training the animals for their performance show that will begin later this summer. madelyn wasn't all that impressed until the dolphins started jumping and flipping. mainly because she kept missing the tricks because she was playing with and dropping a dime she found on the floor right before we went in to find seats. once she saw the dolphins she never looked away - even when she dropped her dime again. she was really disappointed when they were done. she just kept saying "more" and "again" in a soft way while never taking her eyes off the water. it was a beautiful set-up for the show too. you can't really appreciate it from the picture - no flash - but it was gorgeous out and the tank/pool overlooks lake michigan and there were lots of sailboats out on the water too.

here are just a few more pictures from our day:

here is a shot of madelyn watching the beluga whales. she also really liked a room where you could hear noises made by a beluga whale. i had to ask her to stop with the high pitched one because it was very loud and the room was not very large.

this was one of the coolest creatures we saw. it is called a seadragon.

it is difficult to see, but madelyn was overjoyed to run and play in this camping tent set up in the local waters section.

all and all it was a fun day and madelyn did wonderfully without a real nap - she napped about an hour on the way there. i am glad that we made the trip with her. and as you can see, she wore herself out taking it all in. dad and i were pretty pooped too. it was a lot of standing for me, but i wasn't in too bad of shape by the end of the day. love.

15 months

madelyn is 15-months old today! i thought that she had a 15-month appointment, but i guess she has a 16-month appointment instead. so i still feel like this is a milestone age so here are my updates.

• here are all the words she uses in context as of today (in no particular order): mom, dad, ball, turtle, please, up, again, waffle, dog, stick, rock, hi, bye, balloon, duck, peacock, bob, bird, go, no, wow, ding, car, truck, clock, what's that?, bean, cup, comb, okay, uh-oh, gone, cracker, down, snacks, bug, bubbles, cook, baby, salsa, talk, yes, kick
• here zoo of animal noises is growing too - dog/"woof", cow/"moo/boo", tiger/"grrr", lion/"roar", snake/"sss", duck/"quack", sheep/"baa", goat/"maa", giraffe/tongue out, monkey/"ah-ah-ah", chicken/"cluck"
• signs - more, eat, water, book, dad, airplane, shoes, cheese
• other noises - she calls out "hi" whenever she sees a phone (picture or real), says "brroomm" when she plays with cars or sees a motorcycle, and says "woo, woo" for a train
• madelyn is down to two cups of milk a day - one first thing in the morning and one after her nap. sometimes she skips one or the other in favor of a snack.
• one nap a day for around 2 hours - for now

i don't have any pictures because i was really busy this morning and matt borrowed the camera for work today. not to mention that i am really sick - of the head cold variety. until tomorrow. love.

maddie goes to the zoo

it was a really nice long weekend here. we felt spoiled to have three gorgeous days! especially since today was very cold and they are warning of frost tonight! the joys of wisconsin...


we took maddie for her first "official" trip to the zoo on sunday. (we took her to the zoo when she was about two months old for a hospital picnic but don't count it because we never actually went in to see the animals.) it was a great day - not too crowded, a little on the cool side and not too sunny. she did take an interest in a lot of the animals and surprised me with how well she could find them in their areas. most of the animals were laying down and sleeping, but she could still find them (sometimes we had to point though when they were in a tree or a little hidden).

we stayed away from the petting area on this trip. i got a zoo pass for mother's day (with parking and two guest passes) and plan for maddie and i to go at least twice a month (if not more) so there will be other times for the petting area. we thought it might be nice to give her some time before having to see a goat up close and personal again, plus it was really crowded when we went by.

there was a "family farm" portion to the zoo and that's where we found out that maddie isn't all that crazy about roosters' "cock-a-doodle-doo". the rooster was back in the building, but you could see it behind the chicken and after its third crow maddie burst into tears and was ready to move on. but she did enjoy watching kids go on the pony rides and was even a lot closer to the ponies than at chocolate fest without any fear. in fact, she was calling out to the kids and waving as they went by on the ponies.



later in the day we went into the fish and reptile building. maddie wasn't really sure about the fish tanks and kept a really tight grip on daddy's arm. (matt is trying to put her down on the ledge to stand in the picture and she was not willing to let go.) after a while i took over holding her and found a smaller opening that she was willing to stand on. since the opening was smaller and she was standing close to the glass, she lost a lot of her peripheral vision. the fish in this tank were HUGE and one snuck up on her right next to the glass. she almost jumped into my arms she was so terrified! that one i understood because it surprised her - it would have startled me too.


all and all she really enjoyed the trip more than i thought she would. she even got out of her stroller and walked a little of it on her own. i am looking forward to taking her again. love.

chocolate fest

chocolate fest was not as chocolate-y as it sounds like it would be. although i did eat more chocolate before noon than i am comfortable with admitting. it was mainly a carnival with an exhibit tent with all things chocolate - from chocolate chip cookies to chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick. the theme for the year was "pirates of the carri'bean'". maddie got her picture taken as both a pirate and a mermaid (much to matt's embarrassment!). he really hates that i like to do the cheesy photo ops with maddie - oh well.

after we were starting to feel ill from chocolate consumption and matt was dying of embarrassment we decided to leave the chocolate area and see what else chocolate fest had to offer. we checked out the helicopter rides (just watching them take off), a middle-aged bmx biker (middle aged is being generous but he was entertaining), some tiger cubs, and then the petting zoo. and that is when things got interesting.

madelyn, our child who is not afraid to climb to any height and finds nothing too scary to try has met her krytonite - goats. we had no way to know that madelyn was terrified of goats. the girl who loves to have her two 55+ pound dogs double-team her with slobbery kisses was terrified when a very small kid (baby goat) that was behind a fence came over to say hello. it wasn't just the goats that she didn't like, but they made her burst into tears. luckily they had some chicks and ducklings that madelyn found a little less threatening. matt and i have never seen her afraid before. never. well, now we know.

here she is enjoying petting the chicks and ducklings trying to put the goat experience behind her:

we are planning on trying the real zoo tomorrow - maybe we will skip the petting zoo portion... love.

walking update: maddie is walking again. really walking. she was all over the place yesterday and when we went to the park last night i just set her down and she took off walking over to the swings. i think that she is influenced by all the other kids walking around and doesn't want to miss out. she did stop once she tried to walk with one of the boy's scooters and fell over it face first. then she switched back to crawling for the rest of our time there - for safety.