The last two weeks of the school year always seem to last for months. Standardized testing is over, the weather is nice outside, and everybody begins to shut down and move into summer mode. If you think that students are the only ones who get "summer-itus" then think again! Between umpiring and taming 12 year olds for the past 10 months, I have left my brain (and any desire to do any type of work) behind. I can already smell the salt water and feel the sunburn that's coming my way in early June. We are taking our first "family" vacation to the beach with Maddie! Lindsey has spent countless hours on the internet shopping for Maddie's first bathing suit, and I must say, she found two awesome ones. I know that nothing screams corny like a set of matching bathing suits, but I guess I had better get used to that with Ali, Claire , and Maddie being so close. Maddie looks like a regular parrothead in the making!
Kudos to the city of Gadsden for what they have done to Nocululla Falls. When I was a kid, all you could do was climb on the rocks and feed the ducks. If you were lucky you would get to take a train ride followed by some Jack's ice cream on the way out. Lindsey decided that today would be a good day for us to take Maddie up to see the new attractions. They have added a new welcome center/gift shop, new animal attractions, and a new petting zoo for the kids. We have decided that Maddie must have been raised by a pack of wolves because she absolutely loves animals. She went nuts at the petting zoo. There were some animals that were pretty sketchy looking (the emu scared the crap out of me), but Maddie insisted of handling all of the animals and having seizure-like fits when they came close enough for her to touch. She got face to face with the sheep, stuck her fingers in the bird cages (despite the warnings), sat down right beside the deer, and tried to touch the emu when it got close enough. To top the afternoon off, we took a train ride around the park. Maddie got her first lesson in the Spanish language, as she was more into the Hispanic family behind us than she was the actual train ride itself.
JULY:Maddie started sleeping better once we got back from the beach. On July 3rd, she slept on her stomach for the first time! This was awesome for us because up till this point when she would roll over to her belly she would wake up crying. On the 11th, she got her first tooth! She really wasn't too cranky either considering it was her first. Now she likes to grind her teeth (I can use the plural form because she now has two) on anything she puts in her mouth. July 21 was the first time Maddie slept through the entire night without making a peep! Maddie started making this funny growling noise and developed a fake laugh. She loves dogs and is starting to get the hang of Peek-a-Boo! As July came to a close Maddie started rattling on with her baby talk. 
AUGUST:The month of August was full of firsts! On the 4th Maddie said her first word (Momma). She had been making the "ma" sound over and over, but that night she was wanting to go to Lindsey and she just blurted it out. On the 5th we sold our house, and began searching for a new one! On the 7th she started waving to people. Maddie skipped over the awkward side to side wave and went straight to the beauty pageant wave. Both Lindsey and Maddie started school on Monday the 10th. Maddie started day care at Southside Baptist, and Lindsey started her new job at John Jones. Maddie likes day care so far, but she lights up when Lindsey picks her up in the afternoon. Maddie also started crawling on the 10th, and by the end of the week she was crawling over to things and pulling herself up to a standing position. Now she tries to walk a little but quickly finds the floor. On the 14th she started clapping when Sheila was playing patty cake with her. She loves swimming in the pool, being outside, and being read to.
