Over the following week, I looked around on the internet to see if I could find the costume for less and I also wanted to make sure she didn't change her mind... again. We took her to Party City one night and had her look at the giant board with all the costumes on it. She could have picked out any costume she wanted. She picked Dorothy... again. We said she could try it on but that she could also pick another costume to try on as well. Nope, she didn't want to try on anything else. She wanted to be Dorothy. So we tried it on and she loved it. And, I had a coupon! Yippee! And, this Dorothy costume was very sparkly. Super cute and totally her. Complete with two braids in her hair and ruby red sparkly shoes from Target which she now wears everywhere. Great choice Maddie!

My dad had bought Maddie a princess fishing pole for her birthday in June. It is all pink (her favorite color) and girly. We were all together tonight and talking about taking her fishing for the first time. Maddie randomly says that she wants a Darth Vader fishing pole even though she has been so excited about her princess pole up until tonight. And today her favorite color is black... like Darth Vader. She is so wacky.

And speaking of wacky, when she woke up from her nap today she did not want to go to the bathroom. She started a huge crying (whining) fit about how she didn't want to go. When we asked her why, her reason was because she didn't like the floor in the bathroom. I was trying so hard not to laugh because she was clearly upset. The floor? The floor hasn't changed in her three years of existence! She cracks me up!

First it was Alice (from Alice in Wonderland). I almost looked for a costume on ebay but decided to wait just in case she changed her mind.
Then came Dinah (Alice's cat). Then she wanted to be the Cheshire Cat.
Then it was a pirate with a hook, but she was very specific that she did not want to wear hat or bandanna. This one came on very randomly one day. She was in the middle of a sentence and switched her thought part way through to tell me she wanted to be a pirate for Halloween. This was back in May. There were no pirates around anywhere. She is so funny... and random.
Then I believe it was a tulip fairy, which she was for her second Halloween at 1.5 years old.
And the latest desire for a costume..... a band-aid. Yes, a band-aid. But she wants to be a band-aid with characters on it.

I am sure there will be a new desire for a costume next week. Stay tuned.

Maddie had her 3yr wellness checkup today. She was very excited to go and was telling me all morning that she wanted to get a band aid while she was there. I am sure that could be arranged!

So it came time to go to the doctors and she was so excited that she tripped and fell about 3 inches from the front door to the office. There we were outside, she was crying, her knee was bleeding, and I was trying not to laugh. I felt bad for her and wiped up the little speck of blood that was there. It was very ironic. She recovers and we go inside and she is immediately distracted with toys.

Then we go back and start with the eye exam. They do this at every wellness checkup until they are 4. They put three sticker probes on their head and a patch over their eye and make them watch a TV screen. It checks for lazy eye. Maddie didn't pass which was strange since she has passed all the other times. We did notice that she kept looking away during part of the test... maybe she was too bored with it because it wasn't a Dora cartoon... it is more like watching the static snow on a TV screen only it changes a little bit here and there.

Then we went to get weighed and measured and have our blood pressure taken. So far, she has barely made a peep. She just keeps asking, "What are we going to do next?" She came in at 28 pounds (12%) and 35.25 inches (13%). Still a little peanut, but on the charts! When the nurse put the blood pressure cuff on her arm, she told Maddie that it would give her a little hug. Maddie thought that was pretty funny.

We went back to the exam room and the nurse came into see us. She wanted a urine sample! Are you kidding me? She said it is routine once they are potty trained. This aught to be interesting. So we go in the bathroom and fortunately they post instructions on how to do this. I know how to do my own, just not anybody else's! Maddie was really excited over the idea of peeing in a cup! I sit her on the toilet backwards (so she is facing the tank and spread eagle) then ask her to start peeing a bit. Then I make her stop (which she did) so I can stick the cup in the stream. She starts peeing again but it was coming out so fast I had to say, "Stop stop stop!" because the cup was about to overflow! Then I take the cup away and she finishes up! Holy smokes! This girl can hold her pee in like there is no tomorrow. She is obviously really good at stopping midway through. I had to dump some of the pee out because there was just so much in there. She was so excited!

Then we went back into the room to wait a bit. Oh... and she had gotten some stickers from doing the eye exam and proceeded to put them on her body. Mind you she is just in her undies at this point (which is her favorite way to be). That is how she was walking around the doctors since they do the weight and height in another room. So cute.

So then the doc comes in and tells me she is perplexed that Maddie didn't pass the eye exam. She was going to refer me to an eye doctor but decided to have her repeat the eye test just to make sure since Maddie was looking away at times during the test.

The doc proceeds with the routine exam (not the eye exam since that is done in a different room) and everything comes out fine. I asked about the scabby stuff on her knees and elbows and she thinks it is a mild form of eczema and recommended hydrocortisone cream. She said it is going to take a long time for the discoloration to go away. She asked if psoriasis runs in the family which I didn't think it did. I forgot to ask how often to put the cream on, but I will just do it a few times a day at this point. And she said to keep sunscreen on those parts too... I am guessing so it doesn't scar. Great... it probably already has!

Then we go back to do the eye test again. Maddie was excited because it meant she got to watch the cartoon again. Really... it is like watching snow on TV with a quick flash of an animal at times. This time she got to wear a pirate patch over one eye instead of just a cotton patch. Arg! How exciting since this week she wants to be a pirate for Halloween... with a hook hand... and no hat on her head. And, she passed the test this time. Yeah!

Back to the room we go waiting for our shot! Yippee! Maddie held my hand while the nurse gave her a shot in the leg. She cried at first but then stopped when she saw the pink snoopy band aid go on! She couldn't give Maddie a shot in her right leg because there was a giant sticker there! Then the nurse walked out of the room and Maddie broke down. There were huge crocodile tears streaming down her face. I couldn't understand a word she was saying. Then she took a breath and said, "It hurts! It hurts!" I asked her what hurt, and she pointed to her knee... the one that had the speck of blood on it from falling outside the doctor's office. I almost started laughing again. She told me she wanted a band aid for her knee, but the nurse had already left the room. She was so sad that the nurse put the band aid where she got the shot and not on her knee. She started to take the band aid off and I asked her if she wanted me to put it on her knee. Then she saw the blood under the band aid (from where she got the shot) and didn't know what to do. So we put the band aid back over her shot and I told her that if we saw the nurse again she could ask her for another band aid. It took about 5 minutes to calm her down. I didn't realize she had her heart set on getting a band aid for her knee. I just thought she wanted one in general... which she got... for her shot! She even had little circle princess stickers (from the second eye exam) and I asked her if we should put that on her knee. Nope. Oh well.

At this point it was about 2:00 and she normally goes down for her nap around 1:30. So we go to the car and her thumb went in her mouth and she clutched her blanket.

Oh... and the most traumatic part (for me and soon to be for her) is the doctor could tell she is a thumb sucker. We have a dentist appointment next week and the doc is guessing that the dentist will try to have us wean her from her thumb. She is growing up. But it was so cute to see her in the car with her thumb in her mouth and holding her blanket. So cute... I don't want to give that up. But her teeth are a bit crooked from where they rub her thumb, so I am sure it is time. Did I mention I am sad! I mentioned something to her in the car (while she was sucking her thumb) that we won't be able to suck our thumb for very much longer because it is hurting our teeth. She took her thumb out of her mouth and started crying again. I told her she could suck her thumb now, but not very much longer. The crying immediately stopped and the thumb went back in. It will be a sad day for both of us when we start that weening.

And now she is sleeping.

Maddie turned 1 on June 29th. She had a birthday party and was very cute in her little birthday dress. She loved the cake. Now I just have to get James to post the pictures!

She has 6 teeth now... 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. She loves to smile and it is very cute to see her huge grin with her 6 little teeth!

Maddie is now walking! She started walking about a week ago. She can take about 20 steps at a time now. Sometimes she gets to where she wants to go and just stands there for a little while. Other times she is stumbling the whole way off balance and falls at her destination.

She is an absolute kick to be around. She is extemely playful and loves to giggle and laugh. She loves to be roughed up a bit sometimes and she is ticklish!. She shares toys with you to make sure you are interacting with her. She loves to sit on your lap (only for a little bit before she is on to the next thing). She loves to mimick what you are doing and she loves to get a reaction out of people. What a ham.

So tonights funny story. You have to picture our family room. It is an open family room... a great room style. We have a sectional "L" shaped sofa, and two gates that connect from our sofa to the wall. It basically makes one huge play room for Maddie. She can't get out of the family room area unless we take her out. (And our gates aren't really attached to the sofa... they are held there by our kitchen chairs... it is pretty ghetto). So anyway, if James or I are not in the family room with her, she loves to drop her toys over the gate and onto the tile to get our attention. Sometimes she does this while we are in there, but 99% of the time we are not. Sometimes there will be piles of toys outside the gate.

So tonight, James went to his show and Maddie and I had a little dinner together at the house. She was wearing a diaper and a T-shirt. I put her in the family room to play with her toys while I finished my dinner and cleaned up. I can see her if I look over (unless the sofa is blocking her) and of course I can hear everything. I took my time finishing my dinner then started to clean up. Maddie does really well playing by herself. I was about to walk in to the family room when I saw her at the gate ready to drop another toy over.... except it wasn't a toy... it was her diaper! What the heck? How did she sneak that one off! What a little stinker! There are times that the diaper does come lose when she is crawling around and doesn't have shorts or pants on to hold the diaper in place. Apparently it had come lose and Maddie didn't want it in there anymore. There she was... only wearing a little T-shirt, no bottoms, and holding a diaper over the edge of the gate about to drop it with a huge grin on her face! Fortunately it was just pee in the diaper and it had all been absorbed. I have no idea how long she had been without a diaper. It could have been about 10-15 minutes! She was just smiling and laughing of course. I am sure she knew what she was doing! I checked the room for any signs of pee and didn't find a thing! Maddie was quickly wisked upstairs to get a fresh diaper, a little cleaning, and some shorts to make sure that the new one stayed on! She just cracks me up!

I had to take the mobile out of the crib too. She was able to reach the little animals. I might have to take the bumper out soon as well. She pulls down on the bumper and peeks her head out to smile at whoever is coming into the room. It is so cute to see. And of course she watches us walk out of the room and cries as we are leaving. That is pretty hard to see... these cute peepers watching you go with big tears in her eyes. But as soon as we leave the room and close the door she goes right to sleep. She is just dramatic. I don't know where she gets that.

She is starting to crawl a little bit too. She "crawled" for the first time the other day (Feb 16th). It is more of an army crawl because she uses her forearms and kind of drags her feet behind her. She isn't that good at it yet but she is getting there. She also pulled herself into almost a standing position (her foot was crooked underneath her) in her little tub too. I couldn't believe it. She was trying to get to something that was out of reach. She was grunting so hard trying to pull herself up and support herself on her little feet. So cute.

She is very curious and into anything she can get her hands on. If I take my eyes off her for one second she manages to find something of Abby's (her toy, her bone, Abby herself) and attempts to put it in her mouth. She even grabbed Chai's tail (the cat) and attempted to put that in her mouth, but I grabbed it out of her hot little hand fast enough. And she is now at the stage where she screams if I take something away from her. It has all happened within this week. I think it is those teeth coming in!

She did steal a toy from another baby the other week. It was pretty funny. I go on walks and have lunch with a few neighbor girls who have kids around the same age as Maddie (Maddie is the oldest). They were all playing on the blankets on the floor but of course Maddie is the most active. I was just saying how nice it is that we are all going through the different stages together. I said I wondered what it would be like when the kids get to the stage where they don't like to share toys. Just then Maddie rolled over to a baby, put her arm around her, and grabbed the toy out of her hand with her other hand. Oh my gosh. It is my baby that is going to steal all the other kid's toys. We all just laughed... it was pretty funny!

Stay tuned for more updates!

I filled the tub with about 2-3 inches of warm water, jumped in, then picked up Maddie and brought her in with me. She sat right in front of with her back against my tummy. So cute. At first she looked around and didn't quite know what to do. Then she figured out she could splash!!! Maddie absolutely loved it. She would stick both arms straight out in front of her and splash down on the water really hard over and over again. Then she would smile and giggle. If I leaned her back in such a way so that her hands could not reach the water she would start to kick with her little legs and feet!

Maddie was having so much fun in the tub and it was very cute to watch. She has a little rubber duckie that floats around the tub and lets me know if the water is too hot for her. Of course Maddie grabbed it and tried to eat it... she loves to lick or suck on or "bite" anything she can. I think we were in the tub for about 20-30 minutes. It was a little difficult to wash her while holding her upright (she doesn't sit up on her own) and of course I was being so careful with her since she was around water (babies and water are only a good combo when carefully supervised). See... I do read books (and it seems like common sense).

I had to admit that it was cute seeing her naked little butt just sitting there in the tub. Babies are so cute! And her toes are adorable. She really found her feet yesterday and pulled them up to her mouth and over and over again. She just loves sucking on her toes and chewing on them.... no teeth yet so I am sure it feels good.

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.

I also feel really guilty because I don't have a baby book for her. Am I a terrible mother? No baby book for my first child!!! Someone suggested cutting off one of her locks of hair to put in her baby book. Oops. I was thinking that I would just write blogs instead of have a baby book, but I am so bad with keeping up on what she has been up to. I don't have dates of her firsts, little momentos, keepsakes, etc. I am terrible!!! I feel like I need to rush out to the store immediatly to pick up a cute baby book and try to think back really hard to all the things she has done these past 4.5 months. I think in the future it would be nice to have something tangible like that. Alright... I have convinced myself... I will go get a baby book!

Did I tell you that Maddie is just the cutest! I could squeeze her and kiss her all day!

After the disks came off, the nurse attached this sweat collecting thing to her arm. She then placed a heating pad over it and bandaged the whole thing up. It looked like my child was wearing a small cast. I have to admit... it was pretty cute. We had to wait 35 minutes, so I proceeded to stand in the sun while holding Maddie to make sure she sweats. Oh my gosh... it was SO hot outside. James didn't bring a hat with him, so I had the pleasure of being in the sun the whole 35 minutes. Don't worry... Maddie's skin was not exposed to the sun for that long... I just had to make sure she was really warm so she would sweat enough!

After the 35 minutes we went back inside. They collected the sweat from the thingy and put it in this tiny little jar. The stuff in the sweat collector turns the sweat blue... interesting. So that was it... then we went home and waited for the results.

We FINALLY got the call right at dinner last night (Nov 2) with the results of her test. Yeah... she doesn't have cystic fibrosis. I have to admit that I wasn't all that worried. A little part of me concerned, but I really didn't think she had it. I was small, James' mom gained weight slowly, she is an active little bug... I think she is fine... and the test proved it. Whew!!!!