Driving Mr. Maddox

Maren:

What a great week!  The weather has been a bit cool but we still managed to get some fun activities in.  We have been missing the Trautz family lots... our mommy's are just too busy... but we were able to get together for a play date and pic-nic at the park.  It was fun to spend some time with Jace and Bella.  We all had a great time playing and hanging out.
As you will read below, my baby brother has a new fascination with cars.  He loves to play and can stay in there for hours!  Luckily, I like to pretend too and mommy is all in for the fun.  The other day, she was the "daughter" and I loaded her up in the car seat in the back seat.  I was the "mommy" and Maddox was the "daddy" and we all drove to Disneyland.  

Maddox:
I am BIG TROUBLE!  Holy cow!  Now that I am walking I am on fire!  I am growing up so fast and doing so many new things!
This last week we went to the park with Miss Heather, Jace and Bella.  Mommy was really surprised at me since it was my first time... I crawled all over everything and loved it!  I even went down the slides face first without anyone showing me how!  I loved that and wanted to do it over and over and over again!
My newest fascination is driving.  I could spend hours and hours playing in mommy and daddy's cars if they would let me.  My sissy likes to get in and play with me and we take pretend trips with mommy sitting in the back seat!  I love to play with the steering wheel and the keys.  Mommy's key chain is so fun because it beeps when I push it!  If I'm lucky I will sometimes set off the alarm which I think is hilarious!
I am doing a really good job at feeding myself, or at least trying!  It makes me very happy when mommy gives me a bowl of food and lets me go to town.  I of course end up with it all over me but sure love trying!
My vocabulary continues to expand and I officially have added: daddy, sissy, doggie, woof woof, and duck to the list.  I talk continuously but those are the ones mommy is sure about!

Sock Hoppin' Bubbles and Hot Dogs!

Maren:
Boy!  This last weekend was a busy one!  We had an big activities every day and lots of fun doing each one.
On Friday my daddy and Nonno took me to a "Sock Hop" at Table Rock Church.  My mommy made me a beautiful poodle skirt to wear and got me all dolled up in bobby socks and a pony tail to match.  I even wore my G.G's scarf around my neck to complete the look!  They served us burgers and banana splits for dinner and then we danced!  They even had hop scotch and hula hoop contests for us!
Then, on Saturday we went to an event at a local winery that my Nonna and Nonno are members at.  They had a really great band to listen to and we did some dancing, they had a group there that was flying some pretty awesome kites, but my favorite thing was an awesome bubble making contraption that some people had for us to play with.  The bubbles that it made were absolutely huge!  I had a lot of fun chasing them and popping them!
On Sunday we had a big bonfire and hot dog roasting party at our house.  Mommy invited some friends over, and lots of kiddos around my age to play with, and we had a blast.  Daddy built a big fire in the fire pit so we could roast hot dogs and set up another zip line for us to ride.  We had our slide down in the creek so we could slide right down into the pools of cold water and we went on a tractor hay ride!

Maddox:

While my sissy went to the dance the other night I got to spend the evening with my mommy and Nonna. We hung out at Nonna's house for the evening and I put on a fashion show. I put on every hat I could find and paraded around! I'm getting to be quite the ham! 

The next day I slept through the majority of the winery, balloon, and kite show and then did the same on Sunday for the hot dog roast! So, there aren't many pics of me because of it.

Nipples!

Maren:
The last few weeks have been pretty eventful.  Mommy, daddy, Maddox and I went over to Nonna and Nonno's house to help them do some yard work.  We were lots of help planting flowers and a few trees to make their yard look beautiful.  We get to spend a lot of time over there now that they are close and we sure have fun.
The weather has been really nice lately which means that we are able to be outside a lot.  We had our first pic-nic of the season!  It was kind of a big mess though because Maddox was crawling all over the place and grabbing everything!  We still enjoyed it though and then followed it up with some quality play time in the sand box.
Mommy went away for the weekend with Nonna and Auntie C last weekend so she could have some time to rest.  That was a bit rough, for everyone, but we all came out okay.  I had a really difficult time understanding why I didn't get to go and mommy had a really hard time leaving!  My Uncle Frankie came over to visit one night and so did my Grandma Ronnie.  Then, the best part of the whole weekend... I got to have my very first slumber party with my buddy Jace!  I was a really good girl for Miss Heather and we had lots of fun sleeping in Jace's new bed.
I think that I mentioned before that my mommy has been working on converting our guest room into a play room for us.  She bought a bunch of crates to stack together and use as a shelving system to store all of our toys.  Daddy and I were helping her stain them and I made quite a mess of myself.  I had stain splattered all over my face, arms, and clothes.  It was so bad that mommy jumped into the tub with me to scrub it all off but she was scrubbing really hard and I complained.  Mommy asked me "What if I can't get it all off of your face?  What are you going to tell people about these brown spots when you go to school tomorrow?"  I replied, very matter of factly... "Mommy, they're just my nipples!" 

Maddox:
I am a Mad Man!  Now that I am walking I am in to everything!  I still am sweet as can be with a touch of attitude... whenever I don't get what I want or get frustrated I have a tendency to try and hit or pull hair.  So far everyone is being pretty patient with me though and I haven't been hit back!
I am getting more and more of my teeth... my left side cuspids are both coming in now.  Upper appeared on April 3 and lower on March 31st.  They haven't been bothering me at all in comparison to the molars so I haven't complained a bit.  

I am starting to say more and more... words like Mamma, hi, and bye.  I am trying to sign a lot too... my colors (green, blue, red, and orange), and all done.  I use the sign, "eat", for a lot of things as well as the sign for "orange" (it is so similar to hot, cow, kitty cat... I have a hard time figuring it out!) which really confuses people, but I am trying.   

I really love my sissy and follow her everywhere I can.  I try and give her hugs and kisses a lot but I often times just slobber all over her!  I love it when mommy plays hide and seek with me too.  She will run and hide and I try to find her!  When I come around the corner she will jump out and say "Oooga-Booga"... and I giggle, and giggle, and giggle!