Family Photos

Otis Cywinski Howell

Before the C-section

Maddie is excited to be a big sister!

Otis is here!

First cuddles!!!

First family photo

Big Girl on the Potty

We have been potty training Maddie for the past few weeks now and I'm excited at the progress we've made. It's been about two weeks without an accident and she's only wearing diapers when she sleeps. She's very good about telling us and wanting to sit on the potty. It's been my single most dreaded parenting task, so I'm glad that we've made such progress. I hope she doesn't regress once the baby comes!

Where is Maddie?

In preparation for our little boy, Eric and I set up the cosleeper in our room. Maddie immediately wanted to climb in it. We wouldn't let her for fear she's too heavy, but she quickly discovered there was a zippered storage compartment in the bottom she could climb in, which she immediately did. She soon had her lovie and a blanket in there and was "resting".

Halloween 2009

We have a great Halloween tradition of a potluck with the Fentons, Poasts, and Mapps, which we were happy to continue this year. As our kids get older, it gets more playful and boisterous, thus, we have no pictures from our potluck. We did, however, take photos of our pre-potluck fun. Maddie was a cute little bear and we took her to the Seattle Gymnastics Academy for an open/haunted house. She had a great time, as she always does there, but soon had to take off her costume because she was too hot from running around. In all, it was a really fun day and Maddie really seemed to enjoy the focus on fun and candy!