san diego-kansas city-home

the rest of our time in california was spent in the laguna beach area for a wedding (julie and joe's). madelyn got to go 'swimming' in a big pool for the first time at the hotel there friday afternoon before we went to dinner (where she enjoyed the flowers outside again). i took some video of her splashing on the steps but none of her actually 'swimming' - matt and i were both needed for her to go back and forth. she is so fearless! another lady at the pool was commenting on madelyn's bravery ("go girl" was the repeated phrase) and was surprised to hear that it was her first time in a big pool. madelyn was even kicking her legs and arms a little when matt and i would send her surfing on her belly back and forth between us - with a huge smile the whole time. she really liked that she could hold the railing on the pool steps to step into the pool. that was something new she did on this trip - walked down a flight of steps. she had started walking up steps (not crawling) about a week before we left, but refused to walk down more than 4 steps so this was huge! (particularly since we have stairs in the house.)



the wedding was lovely and the church was just what you would expect a beach side catholic church to be - very calming. (that is the ocean behind us in the picture.) we were lucky enough to be able to sit next to double doors that were opened to a little courtyard with a fountain. this came in very handy for a couple of reasons - one, there was a great ocean breeze since the church was not air conditioned. two, we could make a quick exit when maddie got too squirmy or chatty. and three, the water fountain made for great white noise to make maddie less disruptive to the ceremony.


madelyn really enjoyed watching malikai (sp?), aubry, and keturah at the reception and really took a liking to keturah. once the dance floor cleared for the cake cutting in the other room, maddie and keturah made their moves on the dance floor. maddie got her knees bouncing and roamed around on the dance floor. keturah was really good and twirling and that got maddie even more excited about dancing with her. it was too dark to get any video - i tried. they were so cute and both laughing.

we were so spoiled by the thought and effort liz and julie put into making maddie content during the reception! they had a 'goodie bag' for her at the table (and for the other children in attendance) that was personalized especially for her. her goodie bag had a stuffed dog, which she kissed repeatedly upon receiving it, a doggie book and a good night california book, and assorted snacks. these items were very useful for everyone at our table to have an enjoyable meal with a very content little girl. in fact, madelyn did outstanding that night! it must have been all the excitement and having other children to entertain her didn't hurt either because it was well after 10pm when we called it a night! and we left more because we had to get an early start back to san diego for our flights than that maddie was fading.

amazingly maddie was all smiles the next morning too with the monkey her uncle derek got her at the zoo. after a long ride back to san diego, we said goodbye to uncle derek and boarded our plane with papa and nana on our way to kansas city. thank goodness for laptops and dvds is all i can say about that flight! madelyn was starting to get cranky before getting on the plane and waiting for take off was torture. i think that is the worst part of flying - waiting on the hot plane for take off. matt and i have concluded that pre-boarding is not really an advantage when traveling with a lap child. once we got above 10,000 feet we got the movie going and after watching for an hour maddie fell asleep for about an hour - that was the only nap she had all day. she didn't even get to bed until around 10pm.

we just love how excited maddie gets to be back home after a trip. she must have pulled out every toy in the house just to say "hi" - literally. it is just so sweet. it is going to take a few days to get her back on central time but it was nice to take this trip and see everyone out in california. i know that madelyn enjoyed seeing her papa, nana, and uncle derek again too.

we start construction on our basement this week and since our personal computer is in the basement, i don't know how frequently i will be posting over the next month. (i say this, but with her doing new things everyday i don't know if i will be able to stay away other than from sheer exhaustion from my work project this month.)

just one more note and video. madelyn now really says "hi" - not in a soft, baby voice, but in a real speaking voice. that is the best way to explain the change. it is totally different from how she said it before even though it was clear that she was saying "hi" before too. she did it for the first time at our first hotel in california while playing with the phone. i didn't really get it video of her best "hi"s, but you should get the idea. love.

san diego z-z-z-zoo

today we tackled the "world famous" san diego zoo. maddie fell asleep in the car on the way over this morning and continued sleeping for more than a half hour after we got there. she missed a few of the animals near the entrance so we took pictures to show her later. the zoo is huge! there aren't as many animals as you would think for the size, but it was very nice. they are also a site for endangered plants and the 'landscaping' (i know that is not the right word, but i am too tired to come up with something else) was really great. they actually grow some of the animals' food in the zoo. including the bamboo for the pandas.

we got to see a mommy panda and her one year old baby (maddie's age). the baby panda was up in a tree, out on a branch, sleeping. maddie watched him the whole time. she really got excited when we left the exhibit and there was a panda mural painted by kids - she must have touched at least half the pandas on the wall as we made our way down the hill.

we made our way around on foot (or stroller in maddie's case) for most of the day, but then rode the skyfari buckets (i don't know what they are really called) and the bus tour. they have a 'children's zoo' there were maddie could run excitedly between exhibits and get a little more hands on. here she is playing with a little boy in front of a little monkey house (she didn't really care about the monkey).

its so funny for me how she just knows when she can run around wildly laughing because its a kiddie friendly area. not just at the zoo, she does it at malls, playgrounds, any where with a designated kid zone.

also in the children's zoo was a petting area with goats. maddie managed to overcome her fear and pet a goat!

we rode the bus tour last since it is near the entrance and maddie was asleep when we got there. it was really hot and we sat on the top out in the sun. madelyn fell asleep almost immediately because she was so tired and slept the whole time. matt and i were just trying to keep her covered up with our hats, arms, and hands so that she wouldn't get any more sun.

we were all pretty tired by the time we left the zoo and decided to go to nana's favorite mexican restaurant - el indio - for lunch. we were showing papa, nana, and uncle derek how madelyn can say "salsa" (matt taught her how when we were grocery shopping a few weeks ago) and maddie made her own salsa center piece for her plate - bob. nana had given maddie a plastic bob toy and maddie put it on her plate. she just left it there and ate around it. we thought it was pretty funny that she was saying salsa and then put a tomato toy in the middle of her lunch.

we are all tired from a day of fun in the sun. tomorrow we head up to laguna beach for a wedding this weekend. we are meeting some friends for lunch and then going to the beach where i got the rocks maddie plays with at home. i don't think that her hands will be big enough for all the rocks she will find tomorrow. love.

the pacific coast

madelyn took in her first view of the pacific ocean today in del mar, california. she was so excited! i didn't catch it in this picture, but she was squealing and waving her arms with excitement. we stayed for a while just watching all the surfers (sitting on their boards, there wasn't much in the way of surf) before going down a little ways to a kiddie park and maddie got a swing with a view! not only was there an ocean view, but there were train tracks so we turned her to face the other way in the swing when the train went by. she wasn't that in to the train. we didn't actually go down to the beach today we just walked down for a look after getting breakfast.

next we drove around going down 'memory lane' for daddy. we went by the house he lived in, the hospital he was born in, and so on. i don't think maddie was taking notes...

next we went to the scripps aquarium to prove to everyone that maddie really wasn't afraid of fish any more. she started out a little slow, but by the time we got to the seaweed tank she was running up, climbing up on the little step to see better and pointing out the fish to us. in the picture nana is showing maddie and papa some fish. the seaweed tank was one of the coolest things i have seen at an aquarium - it was around two stories tall! they even had a little theater seating built in so that you could sit and take it all in. maddie really liked these spotted fish and some bright orange ones in the tank.

they also had 'tide pools' set up outside to look in and older kids could listen to instructors tell about the sea life and touch a few animals. for real hands on action they had an area with fake rocks with plastic/rubber tide pool animals in water. madelyn was a little afraid to touch anything for a while. she would get real close, sometimes squat down for a look, watch the other kids, but wouldn't touch anything. she finally felt safe enough to touch a lobster leg a few times before deciding to pick up an octopus (i think that she picked the octopus because a little boy had just put it down in the water). she kept picking it up, turning it over and then dipping it back in the water over and over. once the front of her dress was nice and wet (and she was getting brave enough to try putting it in her mouth) it was time to move on.


as a final highlight of the day, madelyn got to have her first ice cream (well sherbet). the first two bites were more like licks because she didn't really like how cold it was, but once she got the hang of things she managed to eat the whole scoop! and the sugar didn't even keep her up later.

thankfully, madelyn has done really well with the time change. she did get up at 4:38am this morning but slept off and on until 6:45am so we got a little more sleep. matt and i were exhausted since we didn't get into bed until well after midnight and every extra minute helped. then she went until almost 3pm before getting a nap. she has been such a trooper and hopefully she will keep it up for the rest of our trip. tomorrow we are headed to the highly acclaimed san diego zoo - i am hoping that it lives up to the hype. love.