09.11.11 - Why the long face?

I took Maddie and Nate to the Law Enforcement Expo this morning. We enjoyed looking at the different police vehicles but Maddie turned shy when she had the chance to meet C.J., a member of the WPD's mounted patrol. But the highlight of the day came when we bumped into Wichita Eagle photographer and friend Travis Heying, who snapped this photo of us and put it in the paper. It's below the fold on the front page of Section B or attached to this story at Kansas.com.

Special thanks to Travis - who's keeping a daily photo blog of his daughter Helen, link over there on the right - for sharing the photo with us to use on Maddie's blog!

08.28.11 - No more Maddies jumpin' on the bed!

Spending the night in Manhattan means gettiing a little creative on sleeping arrangements. We employ no less than two air beds and two pack-n-plays when we're there. On this trip, Maddie slept on a twin bed in Cayden's room. I really didn't think I'd have to worry about her sharing a boy's room for several more years. They held hands the next day while shopping at Target which gave her daddy another panic attack. At least I know Cayden's folks will keep him in line so I really shouldn't have anything to worry about. And Uncle Brian is her godfather, too, so there's that.


Cayden and his dad get doughnuts from "Grandma Dillons" every Sunday morning. Maddie's never had one but when he asked her what kind she wanted, she said, "Chocolate!" It must just be in a girl's DNA.


She wanted sprinkles, too.


We hit City Park before lunch where Maddie had a blast on the playground. That playground alone could get us to move back to Manhattan.

08.07.11 - Little helper

It's been well-documented on the boys' blogs that we went to McDonald's today. It was our first time to actually go inside and we invited Nan and Pop to go with us. Without asking, Maddie went to hold the door for Pop. It's quite heavy for a two year old so Nan helped. Still, it's another one of those melt-your-heart moments!

08.03.11 - A little heavy reading?

When we told Maddie that Angie works in a library, she got really excited and said, "I want to go there." Medical school libraries aren't known for their selection of kids material but Maddie grabbed a couple of review books and made herself at home.

06.19.11 - Dancing queen

Maddie tore up the dance floor at Mac and Amanda's wedding last night in Erie. With a couple of self-described wallflowers as parents, it's unclear where the lack of inhibition comes from.


The wedding was at a golf course in Erie. They sat (mostly) still for 20 minutes then we let them run free before hitting the reception.


Golf carts provided a lift to the parking lot for those interested. :)


Hold on!


At first, Maddie wasn't sure what to do. She just kinda walked around playing with the balloons.

But, she's very observant and figured it out pretty quickly.


Then she showed her brother.


They chased each other all night.


She kept saying, "I want my Nater-Tater," even when he didn't want to play anymore.


At times she was the only one on the dance floor. We're going to have to find a wedding to crash soon so we can let Maddie dance again!

05.31.11 - Scenes from the "bay ball dame"

Maddie's been asking to go to a baseball game all spring so when Uncle Tim called today offering us some free Wingnuts tickets that were given to him, we gladly took them off his hands. We even invited our next door neighbors who have a daughter a year younger than Maddie. Her name is Kenleigh and they're good friends. Maddie calls her "Kennel."


Some golden rim lighting highlights Nate's crazy hair.


The carnival is setting up in the stadium parking lot for the River Festival, which kicks off this weekend. Maddie is fascinated with big trucks and wanted to have her photo taken in front of one. Even though she's dwarfed by this 18-wheeler, she seems so big.

04.23.11 - "To the airport!"

Maddie and I had a father-daughter date today. We went to the Fly Day at Jabara Airport, a collection of WWII-era aircraft. It was Maddie's first time to see airplanes close up. She sees them flying above our house all the time. If she sees one and you ask her where it's going, she'll respond, "to the airport!" Now she says she wants to ride in one!

01.25.11 - More books

Maddie went to the library for the first time tonight. She was overwhelmed at first and why not? It's a room full of books! We checked out five books, due back in four weeks, and we read them at bedtime. We'll probably go back sooner than four weeks.

01.23.11 - What a busy day!

What a busy day! Maddie enjoyed a nice big brunch at Legends at the Airport Hilton. We can't go anywhere anymore without at least one baby dolls in tow. Today she brought Polly along for the ride.


While Nate and Daddy were shopping for groceries, Maddie and Mommy baked cookies. Here, Maddie gets her first taste of cookie dough out of the bowl.


Want some?!!


Come on now, Maddie. We really should bake those first!


And at bath time tonight, Maddie plays with her duck family. She lined up all her rubber duckies and assigned each one a family role. The daddy duck was the small one with pink and orange flowers. What's up with that?!!

12.18.10 - Shhh, Santa!

It took a little coaxing but Maddie met Santa (again) tonight.

11.20.10 - First haircut at the salon

10.31.10 - Happy Halloween!

Maddie and Nate pose with their "punks."


Dressed as a K-State cheerleader (because she refused to wear her original cupcake costume), Maddie's first stop trick-or-treating was at Grandma and Grandpa Shepherd's house.


She wasn't much into taking pictures. When Grandma Shepherd asked her to blow me a kiss, she made a fish face.


From there, we headed to Nan and Pop's house where we trick-or-treated in the neighborhood with Brent and Tori and their kids. Gramma Karen and Nan (and Harley!) went along, too.


Maddie held tight to her Tootsie Rolls.


Checking out her loot at the end of the night.


We thought she was going to want to sleep with her basket of candy. She didn't want to let go of it to be buckled in. We got home and she danced around the living room a bit but it didn't take her long to wind down.

10.16.10 - Headin' to the Punk Patch

In what's becoming an annual tradition, Gramma Karen and Grampy Keith treated us to an outing to the "punk" patch. This year, Gramma Karen won four free tickets to Applejack Pumpkin Patch. It's the only one we've been to but so far it's our favorite! It's located on Kellogg between Andover and Augusta. Maddie loved walking all over the place. In fact, most of the pictures I have of her are from behind because she wouldn't stay interested in anything longer than five seconds and I couldn't always predict where she was gonna go!


She found several that she liked although she ended up getting one from the patch with Grampy Keith.


There were a ton of activities and games in addition to the patch. While most kids were mesmerized by actually trying to push a plastic duck from one end of the water ramp to the other, our daughter was busy splashing in the water tanks below. "Wha-der! Wha-der! Wha-der!"


Really, she was only interested in walking. And walking. And walking some more. We switched shirts at this point because it felt more like summer than fall.


We photographed Maddie in front of this sign last year but, as you might have guessed, she's have none of that standing still nonsense long enough for me to get a photo of her this year. Nate, on the other hand, did great with a little help from his mommy.