Our first hurrication

As most of you know by now, we had our first hurrication experience a few weeks ago.  We were in Dallas for a few days and then we were in Houston.  We didn't take a lot of pictures while we were gone, but the pictures we do have of our Maddox playing at the Children's Museum in Houston (which was pretty neat).

 And one from the hotel:

Talking on the phone

We got home yesterday from a whirl wind trip away... a hurrication as the locals call it.  It was exhausting, but we had a good time.  Maddox especially loved being in the car and seeing the big trucks, and exploring our hotel rooms.  I'll write more about our trip and post pictures this weekend. For the time being, here is a video of Maddox chatting on the hotel phone:

How is summer over??

The Fall semester starts on Monday, meaning my summer is officially over.  Unfortunately, that doesn't mean we are out of the New Orleans summer heat yet.  That could carry well into October. 

We recently returned from our last summer trip, visiting Grandma ("Ra Ma") and Tom ("Nom") in Minnesota.  We had a great visit.  The weather was amazing, so we were able to do a lot of fun things outside.  Here are some pictures from out Minnesota adventures!

We played at the park:

Maddox stepped foot onto a baseball field for the first time.

And went down the big slide many, many times with Dada

Family teeter-tottering!

Went to the Children's Museum:

Playing in water (I love his little apron!)

Mopping up the restaurant floor

 At the Children's Museum, there was a very popular conveyer belt:

Selecting his block....

Walking the block to the conveyer belt...

Block goes onto the conveyer belt...

"Ooooo, neat conveyer belt!"

Watching other blocks on the conveyer belt

And we spent a lot of time outside, playing in Grandma and Tom's backyard:

Walking.... caught him mid-step!

"This ball is sooooo heavy!"

We had a great time, and now we are home, settling back into our routine.

It's official-- we have a walker!

Maddox has been toying with the idea of walking for some time now.  He would walk back and forth between me and Luke, or between one of us and a piece of furniture.  But he has been hesitant to just walk-- to walk on his own without having one of us near him.  Then, last Sunday, he started doing it.  Walking around the house, like it was no big deal.  And just like that, in a single day, we graduated from cruising status to walking status.  And his walking skills have greatly improved over the course of a week.

Just about to venture out two Sundays ago:

Compared to video I took of him walking tonight (please disregard the mess... Maddox is our current interior decorator!):

Playing pretend

Maddox has started playing pretend.  It started with him wanting to play dress up (putting on Luke's shirts and putting on the play clothes at the play center) and flying his toy airplane.

Just the other day, though, he did something that really cracked us up.  Maddox was playing with a thin blanket and was wrapping it around his shoulders like a shawl.  But it kept falling off, so he asked for my help.  I wrapped it around his shoulders and tied a big knot in it right at his chest so it wouldn't fall off.  He was pretty proud of his new outfit and kept pointing at the knot.

Then he pointed at the knot and said "baybee!"  I was a little confused and wasn't quite sure what he meant.  "Baby?  Where is the baby?"  He pointed at the knot again and happily said "babybee!!"  Huh.  Luke and I looked at each other... "Is he saying that is his baby?" I asked Luke.  Luke asked Maddox, "Where is your baby?"  Again, Maddox pointed at the knot and smiled, proud of himself.  "Baybee!"  Of course, we don't know for certain, but Luke and I are pretty convinced that Maddox was pretending that the knot in the blanket was a baby, as if he was wearing a baby in a baby carrier.  We wore him in a baby carrier for a long time and they are common enough that he has seen babies in carriers out and about.  Now we ask him if he wants to wear his baby and if he does we wrap the blanket around his shoulders and tie a big knot in it.  He gives his baby kisses and walks around the house with his baby snug against his chest.  It is maybe the most precious things I have ever seen.  :)

 

Playing

I obviously love playing with Maddox, but I also really love just sitting back and watching him play.  It is so interesting to me to watch how he interacts with his toys, to see what he tries to do with them and how he manipulates them.  He's also began singing/talking while he plays, which is just amazingly cute.

Thus, witness Maddox in his natural habitat:

Sunday

Here are some pictures I took of Maddox this morning:

Love this face!

And the boys enjoying our front porch yesterday afternoon:

We took Maddox to the aquarium this afternoon in an attempt to do something fun while also staying relatively cool.  He loved it!  He pointed out all of the fish excitedly.  In some of the quieter areas of the aquarium we took him out of his stroller and let him walk around (holding on to Luke's finger).  He eagerly went from tank to tank to tank.  I think this might be a favorite destination this summer!