Mad Gracie Photo Blog

We finally got started building our house in April, it really has been an exciting journey so far. I will usually take Madeleine to the lot with me when I go down to check things out. She is very comfortable walking around all the equipment and has had a blast walking around on the piles of dirt, throwing rocks in the basement and just wandering around through the yard. As the house goes up I will continue to post pics of the munchkin supervising the build so be sure to stop back for an update soon.

Our neighbor Roy enjoys gardening, he has made some very nice flower beds around the yards at the house. The best part is most of the time he has no idea what the name of the plants are but he knows they are pretty. A few weeks ago Maddie and I were outside just kicking around. We spotted Roy getting some flats of flowers out of his truck so of course Madeleine had to investigate. Before long she was helping Roy plant and water some flowers having a great time.

As I’ve said before one nice part of my job is that for some assignments I can take the munchkin, soon to be munchkins, with me. A few weeks ago I had to go to the Bel Air Kite Festival, tough assignment !! Of course Kathleen and Madeleine came along. It was literally a perfect day to fly a kite, nice breeze, blue skies with just the right amount of clouds and just a bit chilly. We took a kite with us but shortly after we arrived we found out that the sponsors were giving away kites. We made our way to the sponsors tent and luckily there were about a dozen kites left. They were really nice nylon kites too not just a plastic thing with a spool of thread that would be trashed in minutes in a good breeze. We grabbed  green kite, got it strung up and sent it skyward !  Madeleine loved it she had a great time running around and watching then kite dance on the breeze overhead. I got a few shots I needed while Kathleen helped Madeleine fly her kite and after some convincing and maybe a hint of bribery we talked Maddie into leaving. There are a few more pics on the Go Fly a Kite page.

So Madeleine has already been on the cover of one magazine last year. Okay so it wasn’t Vogue or Cosmo but ya gotta start somewhere right. She was on the cover of Harford Magazine in her cute strawberry hat, I will post the pic later once I find it !! A few weeks ago I had to shoot another assignment for the magazine at a local bakery called the Woodlea Bakery for a feature story and maybe the cover shot of the upcoming summer issue. Of course I had Maddie lined up already for the model, she works cheap !! We showed up in the morning as scheduled and Maddie was suprisingly cooperative. She actually ate a few bites of the donut and spent the rest of the time looking at everything, asking a million questions and helping one of the girls who worked there with folding the boxes. She didn’t end up making the cover again but she is in the inside with the story. She may even end up on the bakery’s web-site who knows. One thing I am sure of though is that I really don’t want to have her go into modeling as a profession !!!

(check the Easter 2010 page for a few more pics) Madeleine actually got started a little early with the Easter Egg hunting this year. We went to Eden Mill Nature Center the weekend before Easter for an egg hunt where Maddie had a good time scouring the grounds for candy filled eggs with all the other munchkins. We walked down to the “big water” as Madeleine called it and saw a gentleman and his wife fishing. He showed Maddie one of the trout he caught but she wasn’t interested at all. On Easter weekend she went to Aunt Ruth’s house and gathered a few more eggs and on Easter Sunday we rolled over to Grams & Gramps house for even more searching. Madeleine and Aydan had a good time wandering around the yard, of course Gramps made Maddie’s eggs a little harder to find than Aydan’s but they found all of them and we all went home with a tummy ache later !!

(more pics on the Terra Cotta Warriors page) So in keeping with our plan of getting a little culture for the munchkin last Friday we took a family day trip to Washington D.C.. It was Kathleen’s birthday and we had bought tickets to see an exhibit at the National Geographic museum called The Terra Cotta Warriors. Madeleine was really excited and had been talking all day Thursday about going to Washington D.C. even though she had no idea what she was really doing . We picked up Robert and Nicole and made our way the nation’s capital Friday morning. We arrived with some time to kill before we could see the exhibit so we took a look around at some of the other photo exhibits. One was a photostory about water and the other was portraits of rare or extinct animals and plants of North America. Maddie had a great time looking at everything and she was all in all pretty good for the whole trip. She did get a little fussy while we were in the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit but we rotated her around with all of us taking a turn keeping an eye on her. Maddie crashed hard on the way home after being so excited she couldn’t sleep on the way down. I really doubt she will remember that she saw one of the wonders of the world but we will always have the blog and pics to remind her someday !!

(few more shots on Big Girl Bed page) Last week Maddie took yet another step in leaving that whole baby thing behind. She got a big girl bed !! After a nearly exhaustive search by Kathleen to find one with no luck we decided to check out Baby’s R Us. They, much like every other store she tried didn’t have the style we wanted in stock !! We were next door to a Wal-Mart so figured at this point what did we have to loose. Well this time we scored…not only did they have a toddler bed, it was the style we wanted and almost $40 cheaper !! BONUS !!! so after a rather easy build and addition of  Tinkerbell bedding, we were in business. Of course by the time we got Madeleine upstairs to check it out Murph had already taken it upon himself to take a test nap. Maddie LOVED it, she had a blast hiding under the blankets and snuggling up with Murph. She is doing really well with it too though she still wakes up and wants to go “go see mommy” some nights. Patience I suppose, she’ll get it eventually.

 Maddie caught a bit of the March Madness this year and was cheering on the Terps as they headed into the NCAA tourney this year. She was showing her team spirit a few days ago after getting out of the tub trying on my “Fear the Turtle” T-Shirt. She knows that the Terp’s name is Testudo after I taught her to say it a little while back. Now whenever she see’s  him she points and says “Testudo” !!

(few more images on the Number Two page) The munchkin has turned TWO !! Last Saturday we had a little party for her second birthday at Grams & Gramps house. Madeleine had a great time playing with Eli and Aydan and of course she got lots of cool presents. Her Tinkerbell tent was a hit, even Uncle Jeff climbed in for a peek !! She had cupcakes instead of the typical birthday cake and even blew out the candle. It really is amazing some of the things that she knows and watching her discover things and figure things out is so cool. She has become such a little person !!!

 (Check out the Feeding Squirrels page for more photos) Madeleine was outside a few days ago just splashing around in a few puddles enjoying the day when we spotted a squirrel. He was enjoying a few peanuts in the feeder and just relaxing. Of course as Madeleine moved in for a closer look the silly squirrel headed for higher ground. Since the peanuts were a little low I figured we could give the little guy a refill, Maddie agreed. I gathered up some peanuts from inside and off we went, she had to carry the bag of course. She put some in the feeder then decided she wanted to hide a few just for fun. The next morning we looked out the window and saw our furry friend nibbling away which of course Maddie loved.