sunday best

since fall is upon us and the leaves are starting to change, i am trying to get maddie the chance to wear all of her summery dresses at least once. luckily, we are headed to florida in about 2 weeks so she will get to wear a lot of things there that she wouldn't have gotten to wear here. she wore this orange gingham dress to church this morning. and what is a dress without a bow in her hair? i try to do a mini photo shoot before we leave for church each week.

it was interesting to go to church without matt because maddie has started napping at 9am which is when church starts. so i had to leave the service when she started to fuss and then came back when she began to dose off. i figured that my wallet would be safe left in my seat while i walked around with her for 10 or 15 minutes.


like i mentioned fall is almost here, so i bought maddie a warmer wardrobe this weekend. luckily everywhere i went was having a great sale and with coupons and gift certificates i hardly spent anything. i was really excited when i found a warm coat at baby gap for $12.99! i hadn't really seen any for less than $30, so this was a great find. and then with a stumbled upon sale and the use of a few coupons i was able to get a heavy cardigan and a second coat for about $14 each! maddie is ready, so bring on the cold weather...

love.

test video

i will be short tonight. i just wanted to try posting a video of maddie 'talking' to her mirror. she was really laughing, smiling, and 'talking' but as soon as i got the camera she settled down to what you see here. hopefully, i will get something better soon. love.

just us girls

today was just maddie and me. we took matt to the airport this morning. he rode in the back with maddie because he got home too late last night to see her and he wanted to spend some time with her before he left. she has started to lean forward when we sit her down. this creates a pose in her carseat that looks incredibly uncomfortable even though she falls alseep that way - it just occured to me that i should take a picture and post it so that you can see instead of trying to describe it.

anyway, maddie and i went out to run errands after i finished working this morning (i only work half days on fridays) and we bought her several fall outfits. its time to break out the warm clothes here already. it's going to be in the 40s tonight. i bought all 6/9 month sized clothes except for one 12 month sized pants. after trying them on her i am going to exchange them all for 12 month because the 6/9 fit now! she just has really long legs. we also bought her a mirror toy now that she can hold her head up so well. it is too cute! she just laughs at her reflection. we looked at two different mirrors while we were in target and she liked this one best (really - she wouldn't take her eyes off the box, even when i put it back on the shelf.

tomorrow we are going to the mall for books and window shopping. i just feel the need to get out of the house after being home all week. especially with matt gone. plus, maddie loves the mall. could it be a sign of things to come?

speaking of the mall... here are a few of the pics from jcp. enjoy! love.

poor baby

i tried to get a picture of the amazing first tooth, but i couldn't seem to hold her mouth open, tounge up, and the camera all at the same time. plus, the flash made it all wash out so i had to turn it off. here is one of my attempts. you will just have to trust me that there is a tooth in there...

we are taking her daddy to the airport tomorrow so that he can spend the weekend in atlanta for an alumni baseball game (but he is really going so that he can play in the golf tourney on saturday). looks like maddie and i will just have to have a girls' weekend at home.

first tooth!

maddie has her first tooth! matt noticed her lower, left tooth tonight because she was refusing to take her bottle. she is just taking after her mommy (i got my first tooth at 3 months too). okay, well i have to go now. i just wanted to record the date in the blog.

love.

tummy time

i guess that i got a little ahead of myself thinking that i had maddie's schedule figured out because after only a week, she has changed it again... i think that she has added a third one hour nap. only time will tell!

one thing that has been changing for the better is her love of tummy time and her ability to hold her head up. i have noticed real progress in the past few days. she rolled over back to front and front to back a few weeks ago and now she is really getting good at holding her head up. she can also scoot herself a full 360 while laying on her back by kicking her legs and rolling to her side. i think that she is going to be on the move soon.

another area where she has made a major advancement is focus and coordination. she can now see something and reach out and get it. what is really cute is that if she can't get it to her mouth (because its too big or attached to something) she starts to fuss and i have to give her something that she can hold.

oh and did i mention that all this new movement has lead to a larger amount of spit-up? i am on my fourth shirt of the day and she just spit up on this one while i have been typing this with one hand (which by the way is why i decided to write this in all lower case). at least she is a "happy spitter" and usually has a huge smile while i wipe her off. time ffor me to go change my shirt again and get dinner going. love.

just another monday

my mornings start at 5am (or a little later if i hit snooze) so that i can get showered, dressed, and eat breakfast before maddie gets up at 7:30am or so. plus it gives me at least and hour to get my work day in order before adding her to the mix. maddie just plays with her toys on the floor in my office while i get my work done. when she gets tired of that she moves to her bouncy chair. lucky for me she is a very content baby who lets mommy work.

she just started real napping last week and goes down for about an hour at 9am and then for 2-3 hours at 1pm. her legs get a little busy when she starts to wake up and often find their way out of the crib. the first time it really freaked me out, but now i just think that it is funny!

then we have dinner and playtime with daddy before her 8pm bedtime. matt does the bedtime routine while i clean up the house. once she goes down for the night, i get back in my office to finish up any final tasks and think about tomorrow.

she has made working while she is home so easy on me. i just keep praying for her continuing cooperation. the funny thing is that i have been managing to get in more hours with her than i did before she was born - even with the diaper and feeding breaks - go figure...

3 month photo shoot

okay. so today was our first photo session with maddie. after talking to jcp on the phone, i packed up a few outfits, favorite toys and blankets, and accessories per their recommendations.

first of all, i do not recommend going on a saturday! i knew it would be crowed, but oh my gosh! i felt so claustrophobic and rushed! we didn't even get to have her pose with her toys (a stuffed baseball and a soft elephant) and were disappointed about that. while we were waiting for our previews to be prepared, i was really getting upset that the outing had not been more successful and was totally ready to tell you all about how bad it was. but then we saw the proofs...

now don't get me wrong, there were a lot of not so great shots and our family shots were AWFUL!!! i don't think we could have taken worse pictures if we set a timer and did them ourselves at home. but there were some really cute ones of maddie and a few with matt and i kissing her that came out really cute. what we did learn is that you just need to go to as many sessions as it takes to get the shots you want and come prepared with ideas for what you want. we joined their photo club so that there are no sitting fees and since you don't have to buy anything we can just keep trying. so maybe it wasn't so bad after all...

plus, we ran into one of the neighbors who did their daughter's one year pictures today and went to a real studio (instead of Sears where she has always been happy) and they had an awful experience that included waiting for 45 minutes before their session even started. and you can just imagine how cooperative a one year old is after waiting for almost an hour. on top of that she had an obligation to buy some of each pose.

maddie was a perfect angel through the whole thing and i guess that we can't ask for more than that. maybe the 6 month pictures will go better.

this is a picture of maddie that i took this morning before we left for her session at jcp. i might be able to post on of her official pics in the next couple of days, so stay tuned...

love.

wind in the leaves

today maddie and i went to a neighborhood area for window shopping with a neighbor and her two sons. we walked around and maddie slept. but when we got to the park on the riverfront she woke up. the wind was blowing pretty good and her hair was blowing all over. she thought that the wind in the leaves was so funny! she stared in amazement at the branches and leaves of the weeping willows and other trees. i think she really enjoyed her afternoon. plus mommy got some time away from the house.

maddie also spent some time 'talking' with me this afternoon. i don't know what the sounds she makes mean, but whatever she is saying must be really funny! she just throws her head back and laughs and laughs. i think that she is going to be a chatterbox once she gets a handle on this language thing.

the picture is of when daddy gave her a bath and did her hair afterwards. let's just say is was pretty unruly at church on sunday.

trying to keep everyone happy

maddie is going to be 3 months this saturday! we are so excited to go get her first real pictures done at jcpenny's! she just started sucking her thumb last weekend and won't take a pacifier any more. her thumb has definately helped keep her at sleeping for 10 - 12 hours a night (i know you hate me).

a friend of mine recommended blogging as a way of keeping everyone uptodate on maddie without having to send out a ton of email. so i thought that i would give it a try since everyone lives so far away and we don't travel very much.

let me know what you think about the whole blog as a solution thing and what you want to know about maddie (or matt and i too).

love to you all!