several months ago, we started researching preschools for maddox.  we had heard about all the wait lists and that you had to start applying while still pregnant (or while our birthmother, kate was pregnant), but when maddox was just a little baby, preschool seemed so far off!  after she turned 1, we started thinking about it more seriously. 

after lots of online research and visits to about 10 schools, we decided on fair oaks preschool in pasadena!  it’s in a beautiful location next to the gamble house surrounded by huge pine trees.  also, their philosophy really made sense for us right now.  maddox is still so young, we didn’t want her to feel like she was really in school.  fair oaks felt more ‘free’ and actually the director described it as a little ‘bohemian.’  she said “don’t be surprised if she comes home with blue hair one day!  sounds fun to me…sign us up!

so we applied and put down our deposit and have been waiting for september to come when maddox will become part of the “busy bee” toddler class!  last week, one of the teachers, christina, called to schedule a transition visit for maddox.  i really appreciated that they offer this.  no other schools we talked to did.  we scheduled maddox’s visit for this morning. 

so today, we jumped in the car and headed to the school.  i was so excited to see how she would react.  i was pretty sure she’d jump right in and make herself at home…and she did =o)  they purposely scheduled the visit during outdoor time where they had different stations set up for the kids to choose from. most of the playground is sand, so there was a station with pots and pans and spoons and bowls set up to play in the sand.  there was a slide, bouncy thingamajigs (not sure what they’re called), on the concrete part there were trikes, and there was also a table set up with a paint tray and paint rollers where the kids could get messy. 

first stop was the slide.  maddox climbed the ladder and went down twice.  then the paint station…not for long, but  she’d come back to it later in the visit.  then she started warming up to the other kids and was interested in what they were doing.  they were interested in her too and there was at least one little girl that came up to maddox and just looked at her and smiled for a bit until maddox ran off to play with the bubbles the teachers had just put out. 

christina, said “maddox isn’t going to have a problem at all…she’s already so comfortable!”  nevertheless, we have another visit scheduled for thursday where the first half hour, i’ll be in the play yard…but then i’ll disappear for the 2nd half hour.  it will be interesting to see how she does when i’m gone…but i suspect she’ll be totally fine.  she’s so outgoing and independent, i know she will be. 

on the way out, she gave christina a hug and blew the directory, laurie, a kiss and said “see ya!”  she’s gonna charm them to death…i know it already!

i’m so excited for maddox to start preschool.  i hope she enjoys it as much as i think she will!  and i can’t wait for her to make her first best ‘busy bee’ friend =o)

Posted: August 10th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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maddox’s vocabulary has really grown a lot over the last few months and it seems like she learns several new words daily!  related to that, she has been able to learn the words to songs more easily and she walks around the house singing a LOT!  she has a whole repertoire of songs she sings including ‘the driver on the bus,’ ‘itsy bitsy spider,’ frere jacques’ (both english and french), ‘you are my sunshine,’ among others. 

but by far, the song she sings most is the ABC song.  she’ll walk around the house and just sing it over and over.  sometimes under her breath and other times, with enthusiasm!  i tried to get her to sing for the camera today but she kept getting shy or distracted when i’d try to record her.  i did get one pretty good version tho.  i’ll keep trying for a better one, but here’s the best from today.  even though the song isn’t perfect, she’s so darn cute that it doesn’t matter =o)

Posted: July 25th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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well, i still haven’t managed to get back into blog mode since our move, but i wanted to be sure to write a little bit about the 4th of july since kate came over and helped us celebrate =o)

at our new house, we have more room to entertain…so when we were trying to figure out what to do on the 4th, we decided to have a party!  inviting kate was a no-brainer.  we hadn’t seen her in a while and we really want to make sure maddox knows her as she grows up. 

and since maddox is now a little older, we were so excited for her to see fireworks and it turned out the rec center behind our house scheduled a fireworks show!  not to mention that uncle jeff came through with sparklers.  i have such fond memories of sparklers on the 4th as a kid.  i was really excited that he was able to find some to bring! 

anyway, kate and the guy she’s been dating, chris, were the first to arrive!  so we got to meet chris and catch up with kate a bit while i was doing some last-minute food prep and while maddox was still taking a nap.  chris seems very nice and shares kate’s love of video games =o) 

as more guests arrived, the party got started.  and about an hour in, maddox woke up from her nap.  kate was excited and came straight into the house with me to see maddox as soon as possible.  maddox, sleepily, stared with a silly half-smile at kate.  chris was in the room too so i’m sure maddox was wondering what the heck all these people were doing in her room!  kate talked to her while she was still in the crib and while i changed her diaper and put her clothes on.  maddox seemed to warm up to her a bit.

we headed outside to join the party where maddox played on the climber with Stewart, but then proceeded to hop into the kiddie pool with her clothes on.  so we did an about face back into the house to change her into her swimsuit! 

we had a fun afternoon of food, watching the kids in the pool, and catching up with some friends we hadn’t seen in a while.  at one point, our friend jaymi grabbed my camera out of my hands and started taking pictures of me, bill and maddox together.  i was really appreciative as i’m rarely in any photos because i’m always behind the camera!  jaymi said her mom used to do be the same way and she was always bummed that she didn’t have more photos of her mom.  so it was really nice of her to take pics with me in them so maddox would have photos of her with me!  she also took a few of me, kate and maddox which i know maddox will also treasure.  thanks, jaymi!

it’s always awkward when maddox starts crying when kate approaches her or tries to kiss or hug her;  so we were hoping that in a more festive environment, maddox might be a little more open to kate’s affection.  shows you how little i actually know about toddlers =o/ maddox has begun her ‘NO’ stage so she’s not that open to much lately…lol.  at one point when kate tried to put maddox on her lap to talk to her, maddox wasn’t havin’ it and the distressed face made an appearance along with some tears. =o(  but kate has a good sense of humor and posed for a photo where she’s pretending to cry along with maddox.  awesome.

dusk came and it was sparkler time!  we broke out the sparklers and lit them and bill helped maddox with hers while i took pics with my phone — my battery had run out in my camera…=o( .  anyway, maddox had a silly happy face on the whole time.  it was so fun to see her enjoying my favorite 4th of july tradition!

at about 8:30, the rec center started the fireworks show and we had a pretty darn good view from our back yard!  it was past maddox’s bedtime and she was definitely fading, but she was excited to watch the fireworks.  a few minutes in, she said ‘up’ so i picked her up and she laid her head on my shoulder while watching the fireworks.  she was dead tired but determined to watch the display.  she was limp as could be, but every time i said “oooh…look how pretty!” she’d lift up her arm for a brief second and point to the fireworks and then drop her arm back down to her.  it was super cute. 

after the fireworks, it was straight to bed for maddox.  i changed her into her jammys and gave her her bedtime bottle of milk and took her to kate to give her a big hug and kiss before putting her to bed. 

i’d like to think she had pleasant dreams that night of the day’s events.  and i hope that we can make every holiday special for her.  and hopefully with each visit, kate will become more familiar to her.  i’m really looking forward to the day maddox runs to kate and gives her a big hug.  i know it will happen…maddox is just too young yet.

Posted: July 15th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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yesterday maddox was exactly 18 months old.  seems like yesterday  we were celebrating her 6 month milestone.  she could barely sit up on her own a year ago and now she’s walking, running, talking and leaving the baby stage behind and becoming a ‘kid’.  just about every day she learns something new for us to brag about.

so maddox decided to surprise us last night with a new trick…asking to use the potty!  i was giving maddox a bath when she looked up at me with a concerned look on her face and said “pee pee.”  i thought she was telling me she had just gone in the tub so i told her it was ok.  she looked up at me again and said it again and then pointed to her potty training chair. 

we had bought the chair several months ago just to get her used to seeing it around and thought she might become interested in it at some point…which she had.  on a  couple of occasions she’s sat on it fully clothed as a kind of game i guess.  but now, the look on her face told me she was serious about using it.

after another “pee pee” i finally put 2 and 2 together and figured out she really wanted to use the potty so i asked her “do you want to go pee pee in the chair?”  she said “yeah.”  i asked her again to be sure because i couldn’t believe it and she said “yeah” once again.  so i pulled her out of the bath and sat her on the chair and sure enough, she went! 

i was cheering so loudly i think i probably scared her at first, but she figured out she had done a good thing and she asked to go to the potty twice today…probably so she could hear our praise.  unfortunately both times she asked to go today, she didn’t really have to go.  or maybe we just got her to the bathroom too late.  nevertheless, it’s all a step in the right direction!

Posted: June 20th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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so, i know we’re a little behind in our posts…mostly due to the fact that we bought a new house and have been busy with escrow, the move, unpacking, etc… (more on the move later when i really get serious about catching up on blog postings). but today we had a nice surprise in the mail so i had to jump on the computer for a quick post!

when maddox was born, her last name was documented as kate’s last name on her birth certificate. once the adoption was finalized last october, her name was legally changed, but we were told it could take close to a year to receive the new birth certificate with her ‘new’ last name only 6 short months later, the birth certificate arrived in the mail today! bill and i were so happy to see the document with maddox’s new official name on it…Maddox June Davis!

gonna put it somewhere safe and keep smiling thinking about it tonight =o)

Posted: April 13th, 2010 under jill's posts.
Comments: 1

for maddox’s birthday, her uncle jeff gave her 2 beautiful chinese outfits. one was a set that included a red top, pants, and shoes. the other was a lavender dress and shoes in a bigger size for her to grow into. we had been looking forward to the chinese new year so we had something fun to do with her dressed in her outfit. yesterday was the new year’s parade and festival in chinatown so we planned to meet jeff there to watch the parade.

i had maddox’s outfit all pressed and ready to go. once she woke up from her nap, i dressed her while bill put together her snacks and other necessities for the outing. she looked soooo cute all dressed up for the parade that i couldn’t wait ’til we got to chinatown to take pictures so i took a few…ok…quite a few…before we left.

maddox was the hit of the festival! lots of people stopped to comment on her and say how cute she looked. we were such proud parents and jeff was the proud uncle for sure!

Posted: February 21st, 2010 under jill's posts.
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about 3 weeks ago, maddox started getting really affectionate. she started blowing kisses on a regular basis and giving lots of hugs. in the mornings when bill leaves for work, maddox and i go outside to say goodbye and she waves and blows kisses until he’s out of the driveway and on his way down the street. also, she’ll pick a flower from the garden and run toward the car holding the flower up for dada. bill rolls down the window and she hands him the flower. but then she wants it back. it’s really cute anyway =o) here’s a video of her blowing kisses…

Posted: February 19th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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it seems like maddox is learning a new ‘trick’ a day lately. she knows most of her body parts, she blows kisses, she knows quite a few spanish words, she can snap her fingers (well, she tries anyway). it’s just so fund to see her learning new things. she definitely keeps us entertained. here’s a short video of her showing off a bit…

Posted: February 19th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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a fun-filled day of baking valentine’s day cookies, coloring with her new crayons, and playing in the yard!

Posted: February 14th, 2010 under jill's posts.
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when we got maddox’s first car seat, we assumed it would last her for a full year. but since she’s been off the charts in weight and length?height, we had to replace her first car seat with a bigger one over the summer. even though it was a bigger seat, we of course had to keep her rerar-facing…and she wasn’t happy about it. pretty much every time we put her in her car seat, she put up a fight…no fun for any of us.

we were looking forward to her first birthday when we could legally face her forward. i know they say to keep them rear-facing for as long as possible, but maddox has always been a strong little girl and we felt her muscles are developed enough to support her in the event of a crash. plus she’s so long that her feet were hitting the back of the seat her carseat was hooked to so we thought she was ready to be turned around.

sunday, before heading out to lunch with uncle creepy, bill went out to the car and did the official “turning of the seat.” when it was time to load up the car, bill and i were both really excited to see maddox’s reaction knowing how much she hated facing the back. as i sat her in the seat and started to strap her in, she had a slight look of confusion. like she was fully prepared to start fussing and fighting me, but since she was facing forward, she didn’t have anything to complain about. bill and i jumped in the front seats and turned around and just watched her and asked her if she liked facing forward. she kept looking around and then back at us with a bewildered smile on her face. she was so cute. the entire way to the restaurant she just kept looking around with that silly smile on her face. i think bill and i gof as much of a kick out of the whole thing as she did!

and now, as bill points out, we have one more distraction to worry about while on the road…trying to keep from staring into the rear-view mirror the entire drive to look at our beautiful daughter! =o)

Posted: December 28th, 2009 under jill's posts.
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