HALLOWEEN!

This year on Halloween Brendan and I were among the very few and very lucky who were able to catch a glimpse of the elusive Pink Leopard.... luckily we were able to snap a picture or two of this magnificent animal...


We were happy to discover that this pink leopard was fairly tame and enjoyed having her picture taken! She even allowed us to take her to a few houses for some good ol' trick or treating. The only downside was when she discovered she wouldn't be allowed to eat the candy our neighbors were so nice to hand out to us. She was, however, allowed to examine the loot before it was taken out of sight, which seemed to please the Pink Leopard quite a bit! We had a fabulous evening & can't wait to see who we run into next year!

To the Pumpkin Patch we go!

We took our first Family trip to the pumpkin patch this October. Since Madi had just turned 9 mths old we thought a round of awesome pictures was in order! And where else would we go for that in October? The pumpkin patch was the perfect setting :0)
When we set off that day I had this vision in my head that since Madi could stand up on her own holding onto our furniture then why couldn't she do that next to a pumpkin instead? Seemed pretty seamless to me... I did, however, take for granted that Madi had NEVER seen &/or felt a pumpkin before and that this new "thing" might take her a minute to figure out.... so...I set her down next to a pumpkin and put her hand on the top of it ... she looked at me like I was crazy! "What the heck is THIS mom?" & "Why am I touching it?" She immediately took her hand away from it and sat down... to focus on yet another "new" thing... Gravel! It's amazing how fast those little rocks can make it into her mouth! She definitely had me on my toes that afternoon! It ended up taking her a few moments but she eventually was ok with being near the pumpkins and of course her Daddy got some excellent pictures of her to remember the day with....









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It's finally fall around here... summer didn't seem to want to let go...it gave us one last week of 90ish degree weather before fall took over and brought the 60's & the good 'ol Oregon rain (the grass was grateful for this though!)

It's been kind of nice to be able to open up the windows and let the cool crisp autumn air in AND with the cooler weather here it means that I can finally pull out some of the warmer clothes Madi has that have been tucked away in her closet.... it's kind of like getting to go clothes shopping in her own room, lol.... of course Madi takes no notice of this.... but it makes her mommy happy... haha...

Last week Madi had her 9mth well-child doctor appointment. She now weighs 16lbs 8oz & is 26 1/4 in. I can hardly believe she is 9 mths old already!!!!
Madi spends her days crawling EVERYWHERE & pulling herself up on to the furniture (and on Mommy!) Because of this we decided it was time to move our coffee table away from the couch so it wouldn't be such a temptation for her to climb on (it's a bit of a head injury hazard!) this opened up the room a bit and gives Madi a LOT more crawling... rolling... playing space... She recently discovered the bamboo floor in the kitchen/dining room & tries to make a break for it every chance she can! She loves to sit in there and kick her feet on the wood floor (oh, not to mention try to pull the magnets off the refrigerator!!)

Madisen has definitely found her voice! ( Although Mommy wishes she would find her "indoor" voice sometime soon! ) All day long she says Da-Da, Da-Da, Bay-bee Bay-bee, Ba-ba Ba-ba....sometimes she even throws in a "yeah" or her "biju-biju" (no, not sure what that one means yet...). She at one point was saying Ma-Ma... all the time.... but once she figured out Da-Da, she stopped.... I keep trying to get her to go back to it...."Madi, I'll let you have your bottle if you say Ma-Ma"...or "Madi-cakes say Ma-Ma please change my pants!" .... but nothing seems to work... haha... ;0) She makes up for it with lots of hugs for mommy & the lovely open mouthed extra slobber kisses throughout the day.... so I guess I can't complain too much!

It's amazing it is October already! I'm so excited for Madi to wear her Halloween costume!! It's SOOOO cute!! Usually this time of year I would be pestering Brendan to get our Halloween decorations down from the attic so I can "spook-i-fy" our home... but with Madi giving me a daily workout I'm in no hurry.... maybe we'll sit this one out, let someone else handle scaring the neighbor kids this year...We'll go get 'em next year! ;0)