A Sad Day

It has been a sad day in the Barry house. This morning, Patrick's 93 year old Grandmother passed away. She lived a long and wonderful life. She was married to what I know was a wonderful man (although I never met Grandpa I can only assume he was great because he raised a wonderful family who have all gone on to raise wonderful families of their own) and they had 7 children, 15 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren to show for their long and happy marriage.

I feel so fortunate that Madelyn got to meet her Great Grandma and has pictures and videos of her holding her, kissing her, singing to her and loving her because I never had the chance to meet any of my Great Grandparents and I think these will be so special to her later in life (even though Madelyn will never remember those days).

Grandma Dulzer and Madelyn - 3 Weeks Old

Lots of Kisses

Four Generations of Dulzers

Grandma even made the trek all the way down to South Carolina to be at Patrick and my wedding.

Mark, David, Kristin, Patrick, Grandma, Mrs and Mr. Barry

July 17, 2004 ~ Daufuskie Island, SC

Grandma and her children

Grandma touched a lot of lives, even mine and Madelyn's, and although she didn't quite ever remember who we were in recent years, there will be many who will remember and miss her.

Happy Valentines Day!

It's been a busy Valentine's day. I opened presents from Grandma and Grandpa...see my new drum?

I ate some blocks on my Incrediblock...

I played with Kaiya (I tricked her into my clutches skillfully using my tissue paper)...

I also got a Mickey and Minnie doll, some clothes, some books, an inflatable boat and HALLOWEEN LEGGINGS...HAPPY DAY!!!! Christmas must come twice a year...I like this Cupid guy.


Have a great Valentine's Day!!!

Bye for now...

XOXOXO-
Maddy

January Was a Month of Firsts!

So I was sitting and filling in Miss Madelyn's calendar this evening and I realized how many "first" stickers I was putting on and how much we learned to do this month. She was a busy little girl...here is a recap of our milestones:

~First big people food- we love everything we have tried...grapefruit, lunch meat, spaghetti, pickles, all kinds of cheese (brie, roquefort, Gouda, cheddar, goat, Parmesan...you name it, we love it) and especially pancakes! Madelyn has them every Sunday (it is now called pancake Sunday in our house)...this morning we went to Cracker Barrel to meet a family friend and we loved restaurant pancakes too! Here we are at the restaurant trying out the rocking chairs :-)


~First swimming pool (we posted this pic last post)

~First teeth (our bottom middle two teeth)..notice there is no picture of this because everytime you try to catch the wiley little suckers on camera, Madelyn puts her tongue over them...oh well...maybe next post!

~First diaper rash :-( It was ugly too...it took sitting in the oatmeal bath twice and a lot of hydrocortisone and diaper cream!

~First waving...sadly this is not usually practiced on her adoring parents but Grandma's, Uncles, friends and strangers at the grocery store. We are non-discriminatory...we wave to everyone...just not usually mom and dad!

~ First pulling up - Aunt Amanda was here to witness our first pulling up on the Incrediblock...now we want to do it all the time. We have tried furniture but it is too high and we tried our big wood block but it falls over on our head when we try that....we will just stick with the Incrediblock (weighted down with a free weight to prevent the falling over part).

~Standing on everything from the blocks to chairs to ottomans- we hate sitting, love to stand! Here we are standing on the nasty wood block that fell on us- notice Uncle Jeffrey acting as the counterbalance?



Here we are showing off our standing skills with our favorite accomplished standers- Mia and Nick (notice the love of the Incrediblock...it is like baby crack)


~Claps at her self when she is excited or proud of herself

~Puts little food bites in her mouth (aka Cheerios and Gerber Puffs)- we usually miss but once in a while it gets in there. We are an excellent graham cracker putter inner though and have mastered the sippy cup!





~Our last big first which came yesterday- which was February so I guess it really belongs in it's own post...not a post about the busy month of January firsts...but it is my blog so it goes here now- is our first puppy kiss. Our wonderful next door neighbors (Dan and Monique) have a little puppy named Oscar and we saw Oscar...like a Victorian romance...across the backyard and it was love at first sight...for Maddy anyway. Daddy took Madelyn down to see Oscar and he was so excited that he kissed her all up- most children would be quite panicked at this but not Madelyn. She is our own Dr. Doolittle- she loved it! Laughing so hard I could hear her in our yard. I am sad I did not get this on picture or video but to illustrate our future veterinarian's love of animals here is a picture of her favorite toy in all of Target...
Yes...you are seeing this right. It is the giant cardboard cat picture in the catfood aisle. We stand there for 15 minutes each time so we can kiss the kitty, pet the kitty, love the kitty, talk to the kitty and don't forget yelling at and smacking the kitty because it just sits there. That is our Madelyn- OSU Vet school here we come!

So that was my excitement for the evening- putting all those first in her first year calendar. She is just too big!

To end we will leave with a quote from one of Madelyn's favorite shows- Mickey's Clubhouse..."see ya real soon!"

Kristin & Madelyn

A Month Goes By So Fast

So in the chaos of the holiday season, Madelyn and I have not posted our adventures for the past month so here is a little recap.

Grandma Barry came to visit for a whole week, we started eating big people food and we went to Ohio for almost two weeks!

We also had many firsts this month:

We sat up for the first time (with Mia at playdate)-


We had our first graham cracker and juice from a cup-


We had our first Christmas and we had a lot of fun.

All the presents
Maddy very excited to get opening

We got tons of presents but out of the many rise a few favorites (in attempted top 5 order):

1. Messy Piggy- this lovable character is from Sandra Boynton's books and is Madelyn's favorite in all books that she appears in (Bath Time, Moo Baa La La La, Barnyard Dance, Pajama Time...just to name a few)- well Grandma Mary found a stuffed messy piggy and now they are inseparable (literally he comes to the store and rides in the cart, sleeps with us, eats with us, rides in the car with us, came to Ohio with us and went everywhere there with us...you get the point).

This is Maddy and Piggy driving home from Ohio- note Maddy and Piggy are driving

2. Incrediblock (you will see a picture later)- we love this toy that Mia had so Grandpa and Grandpa got us one and it is now the favorite floor toy to play with a pull up on

3. Fisher price gear toy- seen on the left of the picture- we love to hit the button and watch the lights and gears spin- only drawback...gears fall off...super glue anyone??


4. "Jesus" Lamb- we affectionately refer to this lamb as Jesus Lamb because it plays the "Jesus Loves Me" song and Madelyn adores it- she laughs when it sings and then must give it many kisses...see below:


5. Car....see below

Daddy let me read these directions for you...

My first car!!! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

We went to Ohio after Christmas and had a lot more firsts. First fever :-(, first overnight stay in a hotel (we went to Oglebay, WV to see the Christmas lights and petting zoo), first snow and sled riding and first yogurt and Gerber puffs to chew on- yum! We also got to see Uncle Mark and Uncle davey (and listen to Uncle Davey play his guitar).

Family Christmas with my "cousins" (Patrick's cousins' children- a few of his Grandma's great grandchildren)
Madelyn and "Santa" at Oglebay
One Pink Fuzzy Bear at the Oglebay Petting Zoo

Faster Grandpa!
Ok enough- it's cold...why is it this cold here anyway?

Uncle Davey playing Oasis "Wonderwall" (her favorite)

After our 2 week adventure, we returned home and had our first time alone in the bath tub (in a nifty boat intertube), we began trying to pull up on our block (another Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa) and we had our first time in swimming pool!!

This is Incrediblock and we love it!

Michael Phelps here I come...

We went to see Dr. Satterfield for our 6 month checkup and we got the all clear for more big people food (so we are trying it all now from spaghetti to grapefruit to pancakes and we have not found a food we don't like yet). We also weighed in at 18 lbs. and 10.6 oz. and 29" tall- no wonder we are in 12 month clothes already! Here is Madelyn and Messy Piggy (notice Piggy is at the Doctor's too...it's like Where's Waldo) at the Doctor's BEFORE the vaccines- after was not quite the same picture...



Finally, to round out our month, it snowed in Charlotte today and Madelyn got to see snow at home for the first time.

Our Backyard this Morning

Phew! We were busy girls this month- we promise to post more now that the crazy holidays are over. We would now like to leave you all with our favorite picture of Madelyn and her most favorite thing under the tree this year...Kaiya




Happy New Year!
Kristin and Madelyn (and Messy Piggy)

Baby's First Thanksgiving

It was a big week for us here at the Buckeye Barry Household. Grandma and Grandpa Barry came to visit, we had not one, but two, Thanksgivings and we turned 5 months old! Here is a little bit more details about our week!

So on Saturday (the 22nd) we had what we now affectionately refer to as "faux-giving". Since Grandma Barry has to work most Thanksgiving days (or the day before or after) as a NICU nurse- we have begun "faux-giving" as a way to still celebrate the Holiday. So mommy, Madelyn and the Grandmas cooked up a yummy dinner of turkey, gravy, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, rolls, berry jello mold, pomegranate-cranberry sauce, apple tart and pumpkin pie with butterscotch whipped cream. Mommy got a bit over zealous in her turkey proportions and bought a 17 lb. bird. Since Madelyn is about the same weight, we thought it would only be fitting to show both 17 lb. turkeys next to one another.

We spent the rest of the day watching Ohio State clobber Michigan for the fifth straight year (a school record I might add)....GO BUCKS! Oh yeah, and we played with Grandma and Grandpa too.

Then, before bathtime, Madelyn got all dressed up in her pretty party dress and got to eat her dinner in the dining room- ooooooo. Madelyn had two of her favorites- sweet potatoes (which Mommy and Grandma Mary made while making the big people their sweet potato casserole) and pear/blueberry/oat- yum! You can see below that Madelyn enjoyed her bowl much more than the food to come...

Then all the adults sat down to eat on Madelyn's first faux-giving. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Uncle Jeffrey, Grandma and Grandpa Barry, and Aunt Amanda and Uncle Wayne (we needed to bring in Uncle Wayne as reinforcements to assist with the eating of the 17 lb. turkey because NO ONE can eat turkey like Uncle Wayne).
All of these festivities wore out Miss Madelyn so she took a little break on Grandpa!

Not that this part of the story has much relevance but I think Grandpa looked just fabulous in his pink apron :-)

The next day Grandma and Grandpa, Daddy, Madelyn and I went shopping for Christmas presents that are too big for us to take back from Ohio so Maddy will open them here. Here is Madelyn in her "snow" fighting gear (ok we had no snow here but it was in the 40's and that is REALLY cold for us).
On real Turkey Day Madelyn spent the morning bouncing in her jumper while Grandma and Mommy made another tart (Uncle Jeffrey eats them like they are going out of style). This one was apple, pear, plum and was quite tasty. Madelyn mostly like the bouncing, she didnt much care about the tart.

Since Uncle Jeffrey had to work on Thanksgiving, we ate later and Miss Madelyn did not make it until dinner time but here is her little Thanksgiving dinner. She had peas and pear-plum which we made her using the fruit we bought for the tart- she liked this fresh fruit stuff!

One last hug before going up for bathtime...

A little less crowded but here was Thanksgiving dinner #2- crown roast of pork, stuffing, potato gratin, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, homemade applesauce, and berry jello mold (a staple).

To close here are some of Madelyn's favorite things this week (we shamelessly stole this idea from Holly and Nick's blog)- Grandma's flavored water bottle, the diaper on her head game and Kaiya- her favorite kitty (who does not like her nearly as much).

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Kristin and Madelyn