A Year in Photos

The full set of proofs from Maddie's one-year photo session are now online on the Solar's website, so feel free to check them out. As part of our package, we're choosing photos from the entire year and having them bound into a book, so the photos from all five session are actually available on the website, too. If you have the time, it's sort of fun to go through them and see how much she's changed. (Okay, it may just be fun for Jon and I. I don't know.) Anyway, the password is just my email address: alainawebster@gmail.com. Enjoy!

Party Like a Rockstar: A Photo Essay

What's all this? A party? Just for me?*


Oh, you guys! You really shouldn't have. I'm so happy I could squat!


And look at everyone who's here. It's my lovely and talented aunts!


Mommy, what is that? Why is there fire on it? Why is everyone singing? Why am I half-naked? Never mind, I don't care if I'm naked. Can I touch that?


Hmmm, I find this green and brown circle intriguing. It smells delightful...


Birthday cake rocks!


Step away from my cake. I am NOT sharing.


Everyone else seems to be enjoying their cake, too.


And then, like most good parties, there was an awkward and inappropriate make-out session in front of everyone. The whole school is going to be talking about this on Monday...


Then there were wagon rides!


I'm not sure what it says about our daughter, kissing one man at the party, and then catching a ride with someone completely different.


Oh, tissue paper! How rapturous!


I love football (and my new Reesing jersey from my uncle)!


#5, small but mighty


Oh, my head feels so much better without my pig-tails. I'm not sure why everyone's laughing, but I'm just going to go along with it. It can't be at me. I look fabulous!


Fabulous, indeed.

*(All photos by Larry Stoppel and Marc Webster.)

Jon and I would just like to take a moment to thank everyone who came to her party and most of all, our parents for all their help in getting ready, setting up, getting food, and cleaning. Maddie had a great time, and so did we. You guys are also rockstars! Thanks a million!

One-Year Photo Session

Yay! We have pictures from Maddie's one-year photo session with Josh Solar Photography! Yay! As usual, here are a few of our favorites, but you can find more on their blog. We'll also let you know when the full session is up on their website and post a link and password. Enjoy!

Birthday Party Pictures...

The big One Year Celebration pictures will be up very soon. We are compiling everything together, and hope to get it up by the end of the week. They are very good, so everyone knows.

Here is one picture of the birthday girl to start you off!

Happy Birthday, Monkey Face!

To my darlingest, dearest, most wonderful Maddie:

Today, in approximately four hours, give or take a few minutes and seconds, you will be one year old. Of course, you and I have been together for much longer than that. We got to rock out for a whole 40 weeks before anyone else knew you, and while I complained about being pregnant from the moment we saw those double pink lines, I'm so grateful that I got to have you all to myself for that short(ish) amount of time.

As your birthday has gotten closer, I find myself thinking about the day you were born, the most exciting and most terrifying day of our lives for your daddy and me. You see, you almost didn't make it. By the time you read this, I'm sure you'll have heard the story from several people, so I won't make you read it again, but those five minutes between seeing you for the first time and hearing you cry for the first time were the worst five minutes of my life. We had only just met you, and I couldn't bear the thought of losing you without even knowing you... And then you cried. And then everything was fine. And then the three of us were alone. And then your daddy and I cried.

You were so tiny and so perfect, with your huge eyes and insane black hair. Even now, I can't imagine loving anyone or anything the way I love you. I feel like I didn't know what love was until you were born, and sometimes it's almost frightening. The feeling is so primal and animal and unlike anything else that it almost feels like too much, like I love you so much it shouldn't be possible, as if you should be crushed and suffocated by the weight of my love.

It's not just emotional either. I can't get enough of you physically. I need to touch you, to kiss your little face, to hold your chunky, baby body and brush your crazy, baby hair. I even take a guilty pleasure in the times you get sick because it means you'll let me snuggle you, let me nap with you, let me just hold you without doing anything else. (Don't get me wrong. It also tears me up when you're sick, and I can't make you feel better. What good is a mommy who can't make it better?)

Now you're walking and talking, and it feels like each step you take is one step farther away from being my baby and one step closer to being my little girl. I know that as you get older, we'll fight, and you'll feel like I don't understand you, that I don't care about you, that I don't love you. So, I want to say now, and always, there is never anything you can do that will make me love you less. It's absolutely impossible for you to lose my love. It is unconditional, forever.

As you get to know me, there will probably be times you'll be surprised that I wrote this. I'm not always very good at expressing myself verbally, which is why I'm writing this now, and I hope to write you a letter every August 19th. Even now, I feel like an incredible cheese-ball as I sit here, trying to show you how I feel, trying not to cry, all happy and sad and unbelievably proud at the same time. You are by far the best "Oops!" your daddy and I ever made, and we can't imagine ours lives without you.

So Happy Birthday Madeline Olivia, my Money-Face, my Madster, my Maddie! Daddy and I love you so much!

Mommy

Whose "Genes" Are You Wearing?

As Maddie reaches the one-year mark, we thought it might be fun to compare pictures of the one-year-old Madster to pictures of her mother and father at about the same age:

First up, we have Jon, who seems to have developed an affinity for overalls and turtlenecks. Also, if you look closely, I believe you will see a certain blue blankie in the background of the last shot...

Next, we have me and my blue ruffles, courtesy of the early '80s. By the way, feel free to make fun of my dad's awesome 'fro. We always do. (Love you, Dad!)

Finally, we have the lovely and talented Madeline Olivia who can always be counted on to bring a certain amount of "goof" to any occasion (unless the occasion is an outdoor photo session, that is.)

So, what do you think? Seeing what we had to work with, we think she turned out pretty well. Any thoughts on who she most resembles right now?

That's All Folks

It hasn't really been mentioned on the blog yet, but Maddie is talking a little bit. She has been for some time, and she's mastered a handful of words, but for some reason, we've failed to mention it here until now. Part of it is because it seemed to happen so naturally (and to be fair, so slowly), and part of it has to do with what I mentioned in my previous post--we're busy and lazy. Her first word seems to have been "kitty", which started out as "dee!" and then progressed to "bi-dee!", and last night, I think I heard "itty!" Since then, she's picked up a sizable vocabulary that includes uh-oh (ah-doh), oops (ups), Elmo (Ah-bo), up (it actually sounds like up), Maci (Bay-see, the dog at daycare), book (ah-boo), ball (baaaw), and Daddy (Dah-dee). (No Mommy yet. Whenever I try to get her to say it, she either laughs at me, or she comes up with something that sounds like baby or bobby. We'll get there...)

However, none of the words above can compare to the all-time favorite, the godfather of all Maddie-isms: Ah Dah! That's right; Miss Thing is frequently all done. I mean really, absolutely, 100% completely finished.

Awake in the morning, and Mommy or Daddy is not in to get her quickly enough: Ah Dah! with sleeping

Half-way through almost every diaper change: Ah Dah!

Reached the end of a book: Ah Dah!

Finished eating, drinking, nursing, bathing, sitting in her car seat: Ah Dah!

Ah Dah! Aaaah Dah! Ah dah! This is one word she gets. Up, for instance, is still for lack of a better phrase, up in the air. Up does mean up, but up also appears to mean down, and in some cases, home, strangely. Kitty is another multi-purpose word. It does refer to our cats, but it also refers to all four-legged furry animals, including "Bay-see" at daycare, when she's not being referred to by name. Daddy does mean Jon, but it can also, I think, mean me, occasionally, and oops and uh-oh are often uttered several seconds prior to whatever disaster they are supposed to describe. All done, though, always means, I'm finished. Whether or not being finished is convenient for other people does not concern Maddie in the slightest. She is Ah Dah!, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is that.

N-O Spells...

Do it again, apparently. If there were a Maddie dictionary, I believe the definition of the word "No" would be as follows:

No: a directive frequently spoken by parents or caregivers that, while being acknowledged, should usually be ignored while continuing to enact undesired activity. If parent or caregiver can be defiantly stared down while continuing undesired activity, so much the better.

"No" would probably be accompanied by a picture, or better yet, a video of Maddie hitting Mommy in the face repeatedly while being told, "No! We do not hit."

Before I go any further, I should apologize for the blog silence as of late. We've been both very busy and very lazy, mostly the latter. We have a couple of posts in the works, ones that involve pictures and maybe some videos; we just need to get it together and get them up. Sorry...

Anyway, back to "No." Really, I'm not sure what else can be said. We say it. She ignores it. Before you begin to doubt her intellectual prowess, she absolutely knows what it means. If you say no, she will, briefly, stop whatever offending activity she is currently engaged in (hitting the cats, touching the picture frames, trying to electrocute herself by munching on cords, slapping Mommy/Daddy across the face and laughing about it), and look at you. Then, while maintaining eye contact, she will commence said banned activity again. It's the eye contact that makes me completely sure she knows what she's doing: I heard you, and I don't care. Watch me demonstrate your lack of authority!

The problem is, aside from saying no, what do you do with an almost-one-year-old? Obviously, if she's about to endanger herself, others, or--it must be said--valued possessions, we remove her from the situation, but that's about our only recourse, and it's not always possible. There are times when I'm being smacked in the face that putting her down and walking away isn't an option, the check-out line at the grocery store for example. (This particular instance is especially infuriating because there are always other people in the line who think that a young mother admonishing her adorable and chunky little girl is too cute for words, and they smile and laugh, encouraging more mommy-abuse.) We just don't have any other means of communicating to her that when we say no, we mean it. We already decided that we're not going to use force as a means of punishment, so no spanking. (And I would hope that even those people who do spank their children would agree that she's too young for it, in any case.) We also think she's too young for time-outs; I just don't think she would get the concept. By the time I got her to a place where she could be trusted to be alone for a short period of time, she would probably have forgotten what I said no about in the first place. Plus, those locations are limited, and I don't want her to start associating her high-chair or her crib with being in trouble. High-chairs are for eating, and cribs are for sleeping (or talking to yourself while Mommy and Daddy are sleeping for another 15 minutes or so). They are not for screaming because you aren't allowed to eat your books.

So, if anyone has any ideas of non-corporal punishment that might be comprehensible to someone under 18 months, please feel free to share. I think as we near the 1.5 year mark, we may start trying time-out, but until then, we're open to any suggestions anyone might have. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go practice looking stern and unsmiling in a mirror.