Funny pictures for mother's day

For Mother's Day this past year, Maddie gave Sam and my Mom a bunch of her favorite pictures with her comments attached. Check them out below.

Cherrie blossoms

Every year the Washington DC has a Cherry Blossom festival. This past year we took Maddie down by the tidal basin to get some pictures of her with the blossoms.

Nice pictures

We had a professional photographer take pictures of Maddie and the family earlier this year. Here are some of our favorites. Hope you all like them.

This Past Month

Sorry that we haven't been blogging the past month, but we've been having Internet problems at home. Finally, after 3 1/2 weeks and lots of visits from Comcast, it's finally working again (fingers crossed). This has been quite an eventful month in the Garvin household. On Wednesday morning, February 18th, Maddie crawled four steps. She didn't crawl again until Thursday evening, February 19th. Will was getting her bath ready and she crawled in the bathroom while I was watching her. Then, after her bath, I was able to get her to crawl towards me when I enticed her with my watch. She then did it again (see video below). Our house has not been the same since.

We've had many other great memories this month, including Maddie's first real snow storm. I was so pleased because I had a whole snow outfit for her. She was not as pleased (see video below).

We've also had some spring-like weather (5 days after the snowstorm) and were able to go on a nice family walk together. We'll upload more pictures from the past month soon.

Hanging Out

This weekend we had some beautiful weather and we took Maddie on her first walking tour of Old Town Alexandria. Well, we walked, she rode in her stroller. She had a great time looking at all the people and then going out for an early dinner. Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera with us. But, here are some pictures taken this past month of us just hanging out and enjoying time together.

Exciting Events

The past week has had many exciting events in the Garvin household. First, Maddie got her first tooth last Wednesday, January 14th (see picture of her in her jammies taken that night). It was her bottom middle left tooth. Her second tooth came in on Thursday, January 15th, her bottom middle right tooth. Also on Thursday, Maddie was able to stay standing next to our ottoman for five minutes without falling. She leaned on the ottoman for support for some of it, but at some points, she was just smacking her hands on it and not paying attention to whether or not she needed it to stand. Maddie still isn't crawling per se, but she does get up on all fours and rock back and forth and is able to push herself backwards. Last night, Maddie did two other things for the first time. First, she clapped her hands together several times in excitement. This was the first time she was able to do it purposefully as a way to show excitement. Also, she was able to move herself from a sitting position to laying on her belly as if to crawl. She did this several times. She also came really close to moving from laying on her belly to a sitting position. I have a feeling that she'll be doing this any day now. And finally, Maddie witnessed (via television) the inauguration of Barack Obama. She even had a special dress to celebrate the occasion that Nana bought her.

Christmas

Better late than never. Here are some pictures from Maddie's first Christmas. It was a great day. Both sets of Maddie's grandparents were here as well as her Uncle Jeff. Prior to Christmas, Maddie received these pajamas as a gift.