The Scrapper Hangs in DC

Jess headed out on Friday to DC for a location scout for her pilot. This was Maddie and her first night apart. The Scrapper came with Jess.
(Jess is 19 weeks pregnant).

Scouting gorgeous DC was exhilarating, but the night ended on a high note even Jess had not expected. After mentioning to Mimi on Friday morning, that she would be in DC for the weekend, Mimi gathered up the family and they all drove down to meet Jess for dinner. It was noted that a dinner with just the six of us seemed rather small, what with the Kender clan usually being 9, soon-to-be 11.
As for Maddie - her and Sam went to the Farmer's Market and the beach, and had a great day as well.

Slappy Goes To The Beach

Some images of Maddie and Daddy's day at the beach with her friends, Lilly and ELF.

Slappy Has A New Guardian

Since Jess went back to work on a pilot for ABC, and Sam is still working on the movie "Green Lantern," Maddie needed someone to work on her development during the day. In came Silvia, and for the past 3 weeks her world has been opened up to an entirely new group of experiences. Some examples:

- Maddie gets to watch the trash truck go up and down the street on trash day which to an 11-month-old is awesome, and something Jess never has the patience for.
- Maddie has swung in a swing without crying, on Silvia's lap.
- Maddie has had a set tour of "The Office" and chatted with Steve Carell.
- Maddie now smiles when Silvia comes to the door in the morning, and claps when her parents come home at night.

We are very grateful she is in our world.

Slappy Takes Some Steps

Maddie has been walking back and forth between people for a few weeks now, but just this week her stability and distance has increased considerably. Enough so that Jess was able to capture it on film. Don't worry at the end of this walk, Maddie didn't fall. Jess just realized she had to catch her and put the camera down.

Slappy Has A Family Meal

While Mom and Dad ate dinner at the kitchen table, Maddie enjoyed one of her favorite kitchen activities. A steady banging and tossing of various metal cooking instruments.

Slappy Watches The Oscars

Alison hosted her annual Oscar watching party with Brian, who showed his support of his girlfriend by having everyone over at his place. He cooked, he cleaned, he napped on the couch during the actual show - not too shabby.

Although Maddie made it clear she would rather watch her Oscar, the cat, at home, she did enjoy Dad feeding her Brian's guacamole.

And for those of you wondering about the Scrapper - there s/he is!
(Jess is 18 weeks pregnant).

Slappy Is Still Waiting

Today is Tim's Birthday. It is also Edith's due date.

Shanna decided that if Edith wasn't coming, a surprise birthday party for Tim was in order. Tim was very surprised, and Maddie promptly forgot about Edith when she was introduced to the yellow balloon.

Then Tim began to show off his flying ability.

Kathleen gave hers a shot.

Eric joined in. Ok - really - this is a game Tim brought to the table, and hey, he's the birthday boy... You have to stand on one leg, arms not touching anything and pick up the paper bag with your mouth. Then an inch gets cut off of the bag. Yes, we realize we are all 30+. And no, we were actually all sober. We probably could have gotten lower on the bag if we weren't.

Slappy Has Dinner With Friends

Crackers taste better when Lilly feeds them to you.

Slappy Waits 1 More Week

After a delicious brunch at Paty's with Eric, Tim, Shanna, and K-Dub, Maddie stepped outside to really get a good look at her friend. It seems Edith is running out of room, which means we're going to meet her very soon.

Slappy Has A Happy Valentine's Day

The day began with bananas, blueberry pancakes, and oatmeal, which led us immediately into this fabulous bath.

After the bath was some intense reading time with Dad in her new Valentine's Day outfit from Taisie and Grandpa Toby.

Followed by attempt #2 at enjoying an LA Kings game. Now more experienced parents, Sam and Jess took Maddie to a matinee game, not a night game, and kept her stuffed with Alex's french fries and soft pretzel. This time around she actually enjoyed the cheering (sometimes we got the impression that she believed her clapping caused all of Staples Center to begin clapping).

Her first Valentine's Day ended with an Indian take-out and a quick stop-over from Arthur and Liza Mae, bringing baby tattoos. Now, clearly, this is the face of a baby you might expect to be able to pull off a tattoo, however it did raise a few questions for her parents. The top two being, how do you keep a tattoo on for 25 seconds to get it to stick, when your baby keeps moving, and where do you put it so that they won't pick it off. Jess says back. Sam says forehead.

Slappy Eats Spaghetti

Maddie has become more and more outspoken when it comes to her dinner, particularly when Mom and Dad are having theirs. Baby food has lost it's luster, and tonight's spaghetti was looking mighty fine. Especially because of it's versatility - one can stretch it, begin to learn that the cat can get fed it, squish it, and even eat it.

Slappy Waits For Edith

It's hard to wait for your new friend (Shanna is 38 weeks pregnant), so for some distraction Tim played a revised version of Maddie's new favorite game. It goes as follows: Maddie smacks herself in the head. Parents smack themselves in head. Maddie laughs gleefully. Repeat. In this new version Tim replaced "parents" with "Curious George Stuffed Animal." It was very well received.

However, it's still hard to wait, even if you do get to try out all of Edith's stuff.

Slappy Helps Her Dad

Sam is building a new computer. Obviously, that skill is genetic and passed on through the male factor (yes, Dedo, that also means you), as Maddie immediately butt scooted over to Sam to aid him in his task.

Our little system builder.

Slappy Watches Her First Superbowl

It was a busy Superbowl Sunday. Steelers fans to east and the west. Maddie began the festivities over at AK's house, please note the depth of the Steeler-fanhood in her tattoo. If you look closely, you can find the 3 Steeler's yellow, red, and blue asteroids within the dragonfly.

Then it was over to Steve-o's house, where a Steelers win had been promised. After all, when Marissa was pregnant with Lilly, the Steelers won the Lombardi Trophy, and Marissa is pregnant with little #2 right now.#2 comes through!Victory shots were had by most.Maddie was allowed only to raise her empty hand in victory.
My mom's birthplace rocks! Go Steelers!