First word

"Burp" Yep, that is her first actual work (other than mom or dad) Every time she does it, we say the word and since those are easy sounds for her, the word just came out. Just now is she understanding the word "uh-oh" and is now trying to say it. She has her own sounds for thank you. She loves to mimic everything. I direct music a lot at church and she thinks that is a normal thing to do when she hears music. She loves to sing and dance. She even has her own dance moves. (she has just recently combined dancing and walking so it looks like she is penguin walking) No one taught her what dancing is, she started it on her own. That makes me think that music will be a big part of her life. One evening, she was over tired and wouldn't fall asleep so I put the laptop at her door to play some soft Christmas music. She immediately calmed down but the music stopped for some reason and she started crying. I fixed the problem and she quickly fell asleep.

The day after Thanksgiving, the town puts on a Christmas parade so we lined up to watch it in the pickup. Every time a float with Christmas lights came around we all oood' and ahhh'd. Now every time she sees Christmas lights, she ooo's in a high pitched voice. So cute!

Maci can point out where your nose is and also the eyes (she usually pokes your eyes) and we are working on the teeth. Her top molars kind of snuck up on us. She was having really runny diapers and I thought it was because she was loving her oatmeal. But a few days later, I thought she was chewing on a piece of paper and saw that they were teeth. She is still teething today and is quite fussy and clingy, which is a new experience for all of us.

She loves to play peek-a-boo and chasing and being chased. She growls really good and my personal favorite: she knows the sound a cow makes. When she sees a cow, she moos. Love it! Definitely my girl! She points at everything and makes a snake (sssss) noise.

I haven't found any cute Christmas clothes this year so we went outside to take some winter pictures. She loves to watch the snow fall. It was magical for her. Christmas will be in Kansas this year with 4 girl cousins to play with. Super excited for Christmas morning.

1st Birthday

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl. These last 365 days have been the best days of our lives!

Halloween

On Friday, October 28, there was a Trunk or Treat/Halloween carnival at the church. I never had to wonder what Maci was going to be for Halloween. I had her outfit in my possession in April. Yup, been planning it that long. I've been waiting a long time to dress my child up for Halloween. Now it was finally here!!!
I can't believe how good she was when I was putting on her face paint. When I put it on her nose, she would rub it off so I had to have David hold her arms for a few seconds to let it dry.
Here she is getting her onesie on so she doesn't get too hot.
Seeing her Tigger suit. I think she was excited for it.
Waiting in mom and dad's room for us to finish getting ready.
Dad putting on the finishing touch with her new Pooh slippers. She loves those things!
And here is the whole family. A momma Tigger, and a daddy Pooh makes a baby Tigger! The momma Tigger genes won. What a cute family we are.
I am just glad David actually dressed up this year. I think it is all thanks to Maci. I have had my Tigger suit for 10 years and each year that I wear it, I try to get David to dress as Pooh. He finally said, I will only dress up as Pooh if I have ears. Ya, right, how was I going to get ears in less than 24 hours with the town of Glendive as my shopping mall? So, I went to Kmart and bought a headband, went to the Attic (2nd hand store) grabbed the bear that I had donated a month ago for $.50. Then ripped the ears off (this is the time where I felt like an awful, vindictive person. I mean I was ripping the ears off a cute teddy bear!!!) I got over it and sewed the ears onto the headband and voila! Pooh ears! I had never been so proud of my non-sewing skills (until I made Maci's birthday tutu - coming in another post). We got so many compliments that night for dressing up as a family. Thanks, dear, for making two dreams come true tonight!
Here she is after dinner. I was afraid she would get too hot (b/c I was dying in my suit) I don't think she ever got uncomfortable in it. As always, she was a trooper.
This is what she wore for Halloween day. We were ready for trick-or-treaters. Each time the door bell rang, she would get all excited and race to the door so she could see the kids. There were probably 30 kids that came this year. That is a lot for us, but good, it got rid of the candy. We didn't want to take Maci around because we would be stuck eating most of her candy. Maybe next year.

9.24.11 Tractor show

Last month we went to the Threshing Bee Antique Tractor Show. This tractor show is every year in the fall in Culbertson, which is 90 miles or so from Glendive. He finally convinced me to take him, plus, he wanted Maci to see his passion for the love of old tractors.
Little did I realize that when I was taking a picture, she was perfectly holding up her button. Plus, this was a great opportunity for her to wear her John Deere outfit. She was ready to see all the old tractors.

This is a 1918 Avery. The owner started it up when we were there. It was pretty impressive. David had been here 23 years ago and can remember this same tractor and a few others that have been lifers in the show. They do a tractor pull and a parade among other activities. It was a fun day, pretty warm for late September, in the mid 90's.
Maci didn't want to sit by herself. This is a John Deere R. David would love to restore one of these. A great uncle had one many years ago.
This is Maci's new love. When she is bored with her toys and books, she strolls over to the movies and takes down all that are in her reach.

Possible video

Here is a video of Maci on YouTube. For some stinkin reason, I can't get it to load on here. It is not working with the programs I have so I just uploaded it to YouTube. It's almost 4 minutes long if you want to watch it: http://youtu.be/VFC3-7LZA4I

Here is another which you all have probably seen. I sent this to most of the family. Maci is now walking, well sometimes running. She doesn't just take a few slow steps, she runs to wherever she can. Her confidence is building every day.




This is a video of Maci on 10.29. It is in the morning so she had bed head and pj's.

Mt. Rushmore

Maci has always been such a good eater and the good stuff always shows on her face!

No matter how often we see this, it never ceases to amaze me. What a vision that man had.
Maci has to walk everywhere now. She would Desperately love to do it by herself, but not yet. So, she takes off with whoever is willing to grab her fingers. She loves to run up to you and tickle your leg. And LOVES to play hide and seek. She is also gaining confidence because now she will walk holding only one hand. Sometimes, when she is walking along the furniture, she will let go and stand by herself for a few seconds. She is testing the waters. Maybe by her birthday she will be fully walking. If not, I am in no hurry.This is the best picture that we got with Maci and the Presidents. She is always on the move now and doesn't like to sit still for long.
Love this picture. This is a bookshelf that she frequents often. She occasionally pulls some of the books out and looks at them.
So, at the end of this month she has five teeth all together. She got her front teeth around Sept 11 and one on the bottom at the same time and another one on top and bottom is about to pop through. She makes teething seem easy. It is very rare that I have to give her medicine to help with the pain. She now waves on demand. Sometimes she waves to herself and then looks at her hand questioning "My hand is moving, am I doing that?" So cute. Then on the 24th, David finally got her to clap on her own. So every time we say "Hooray" or "Yea for Maci" she claps her hands.
Well, fall is upon us and I am SOOOO looking forward to October. It is my favorite month of the year. Halloween is fast approaching and I have had her outfit for 6 months. Can you guess what she will be??? Have to wait and see...

Train ride and Story Book Island

Over Labor day weekend, we stayed at a KOA behind Mt Rushmore called Pulmer Gulch. So fun! I highly recommend you google it and plan a camping trip sometime in the future. Very kid friendly and lots to do in the Black Hills. One of our highlights of the weekend was taking a ride on the 1880 vintage steam train. Our two-hour ride took us from Keystone to Hill City and back. Maci absolutely loved it. I think it was because she wasn't in a car seat with closed windows. On the train, she could feel the wind and be free!

The next day we went to Story Book Island. It is a free park that the Rotary Club has put together and stays in business solely on donations. What a wonderful idea! I am glad it is still free. Not many things are these days. This place was so magical. We will definitely come back when Maci is a few years older and when she will understand more of the stories. When you walk in, you come to a castle which has Rapunzel's hair hanging down. Then all the stories come to life for you. The ginger bread man, black beauty, the three little pigs, Jack and the beanstalk, Pinnocio, Pocohontas, the Wizard of Oz, Winnie the Pooh and friends, Robin Hood, the cat in the hat, Cinderella, every princess imaginable, and a big shoe from "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe, she had so many kids, she didn't know what to do..." And all this was only probably half of what was there. Then there was a huge playground at the end. We let Maci swing probably for 20 minutes and she cried when we took her out. She loves to swing.

This was a MUST picture! So cute and so true. This is the stork that stopped at our house with the cutest little girl on the planet!

She loved going around in this with her cousins.

And of course, she had to ride Toto.

It was a very fun, long day for her. She was pretty tuckered at the end of the day. I think she fell asleep before we hit the end of the driveway.