Maddie Updates
I haven't written a blog about Maddie in awhile so this one is going to cover a lot.
October 17th: Maddie is grabbing her feet a lot. She doesn't stick them in her mouth yet, but I am sure that will happen soon. She loves to smile a lot! It is so cute. She loves peek-a-boo. She will even pull the blanket over her face if I stop playing for a minute. She is grabbing for objects and grabbing her hair. She can sit up assissted and uses her tummy muscles to pull herself up. She loves to stand up on my lap assissted of course. She looks around at everything and studies things carefully. She is very aware of her surroundings. She even loves Monday night football. She had the entire game explained to her. It really did keep her interest!
December 25th: It was a great Christmas. Lot's of laughs and she was SO cute in her little outfit. I am sure there is a picture in the gallery. She laughed a lot when we tickled her tummy... especially when you do raspberries on her tummy. She is grabbing for everything in sight and putting it straight in her mouth. She did tug on the ribbons to her presents and tried to eat the ribbons... mommy ended up helping her open her gifts. So cute... so fun! Maddie wore a cute little red dress with white fur trim and a matching hat with white fur trim. So cute! She even sat on Santa's lap on Christmas! My dad (pop-pop) dressed up like Santa in the full Santa suite. It was very cute.
January 1st: While sitting up in mommy's lap, Maddie bent forward and put her toes in her mouth. She really enjoyed sucking on them. On and off since then she will put a foot in her mouth while on the changing table. She loves to be placed on a large blanket on the floor so she can roll around and wiggle a lot. She started rolling over both ways! She has some problems rolling from her tummy to her back because one arm gets stuck under her, but she doesn't seem to mind!
January 4th: I was holding Maddie one night while sorting through mail and she caught a glimpse of Chai (our cat). She spontaneously combusted into lots of laughter and couldn't contain herself. It was really funny and her laughs are so little and cute.
January 12th: She crawled! It was only one inch and I don't even think she realized she did it. She was up in her knees and supporting herself on her hands (in the crawling position) and actually moved! It might have been a fluke, but I have all the confidence that she can now crawl. I better start baby proofing!
Maddie is actually wearing 3-6 month clothing now! She still wears the 0-3 month sleepers. I have retired some of the 0-3 month clothing... not that she has grown out of all of it, but I want to make sure she wears all of her 3-6 month clothing. There are still some 0-3 month clothing that she doesn't fit in yet. It is really funny.
We are going to Victoria, BC on January 22nd for a 6 days so we got Maddie her own little passport! It is really cute! We had to get it expedited so we could get it in time so we plan on taking her all over the world just to get our money's worth out of that thing!
She is eating a lot of baby food now (from the jars). She is done with phase 1 and is now on phase 2. That girl can eat. She can eat two jars at a sitting and then nurse afterwards! The jars are pretty big too. Vegetables are her favorite (peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, mixed veggies, squash) but she doesn't care for the fruit too much (pears, prunes, bananas). We tried to give her real banana but the little chunks just came right out of her mouth. I then mushed it up pretty well but she still had some problems keeping it in her mouth. The jars of bananas don't smell very good since they had all the citric and ascorbic acid in them so I don't feed her that very often (if at all).
Maddie did have a teething bisquit for the first time today (1/12/06). For those that don't know (I just found out today) a teething bisquit is almost like a little cookie. It is pretty hard and gross. Babies gum it to death. It gets pretty messy... king of like a soggy graham cracker. She loved it! She had it all over her face, her hands, her clothes, and part of the car seat! She wouldn't hold it herself so I had to hold it for her. Anytime I pulled it out of her mouth she would fuss and cry and sit there with her mouth open wide waiting for me to put it back in. She was able to "bite" off a chunk of it and I had to fish it out of her mouth! I am not going to give it to her anymore because I am afraid she will choke on it. The chunk was pretty large. Even I would have choked on it!
She scoots all over the crib when she is sleeping. She hasn't pulled herself up yet, but I am sure that is not too far off from now. Sometimes I find her on her side against the bumper holding onto the railing! She likes to smash herself in a corner and sleep there... with her butt in the air.
She grabs anything within reach. She has almost pulled plates of food off the table, but her mommy is pretty quick to rescue! She loves to grab things while on the changing table. Our's is pretty large and has everything on there from diapers, to wipes, to clothes I have just taken off her, some socks, shoes, anti-bacterial stuff, etc. She grabs anything within reach (normally flinging clean diapers everywhere) and puts it straight in her mouth. I grab one thing out of her hand/mouth while she is getting something with the other hand! I know she will keep me busy! I think I will have to baby proof everything... even the dog food and litter box! She tried to eat a button off my PJs the other day, but it was pretty well attached.
Maddie does spit up a lot. She can spit up straight until the next feeding. She was doing really well for awhile, but she started spitting up a lot right around 4 months. I thought it might have been due to the baby food, but she will spit up even if she only gets milk! I have had to go through many a clothes changing at times! And I have had to walk through stores while looking like I peed in my pants. Yes... Maddie has great aim! The hard part now is that it will be the color of the food she most recently ate and all (most) baby food is either green or orange! Not so pretty! I gave her prunes the other day which looks like molasses. Of course she spit up on me right when I was about to leave the house. It looked like I had poop smeared all over my shirt and pants... real cute. Maybe she spits up a lot because she is so active. She is a pretty wiggly little child. She shakes her head a lot, sticks her tongue out of her mouth, looks like she is viciously swimming while on her blanket... I would probably spit up too if I were doing all of that.
She actually has thrown up. That was a great experience. I was sitting in the county clerk's office waiting to get her birth certificate. Since I wasn't going far I decided not to bring the diaper bag in with me. Bad move. We were just sitting there waiting and of course she was standing up in my lap facing me! Oh my gosh... buckets just came out of her mouth. I just sat there in shock for a minute. The embarassing part was that she had done this really loud burp seconds before so everyone in there (it was crowded) had just turned to look at her. The lady next to me kindly offered me a tissue! Seriously... a tissue for a flood? It was all over my shirt, my pants, her, the chair, the floor, the carseat that was on the floor. Oops. I am telling you... it was a lot!!! I quickly ran out, changed her, wiped me up, then waited outside until they called my name. I stunk so bad!!!!
Maddie has become extremely vocal. She just talks and talks. She loves hearing her own voice... especially the happy little shrills. She loves doing that when we are out shopping... maybe she likes the echo. It is really cute. She loves to say dadadadada over and over again. I don't think that constitutes as saying "da-da". James thinks it does, but I am the boss... it doesn't. (Ed. note: "You're not the boss of me!") Plus, she is normally shaking her head no while saying it, so I think she is really saying she doesn't like daddy. "Ma-ma" *will* be her first words!!!
I told you this would be a long one!
We went to the Wild Animal Park for the first time on December 29th. I had her in the Baby Bjorn most of the time. She didn't really take note of any of the animals until we got to the Flamingos on the way to the Savannah (not the ones near the front). She LOVES the flamingos. She was kicking her little legs and waving her arms and sqeeling. It was so cute. Just smiling and giggling at the silly flamingos!
Her favorite thing to do now is to play on the blanket on the floor and for mommy to sing itsy-bitsy spider to her. I pretend she is the spider and lift her higher and higher into the air as the spider is climbing the water spout. Then I bring her down close to the ground when the spider gets washed out... then back up when the spider climbs up again. She loves it! She loves it when mommy reads stories to her.