manning pretending

i love when the kids discover their imagination and playing pretend.  manning was walking around 'drinking' from a little 'cup' today so i had to share.  love.

yesterday's post

this is the post that should have been... i made a list during the day of all the things i was going to blog about but then i just ran out of day. and i just had to watch the american idol results show before i accidentally saw the results today. matt was finishing up the new concrete slab he wanted to put in place of our pavers under the deck and i was trying to entertain madelyn while cleaning up the house for our visitors today (more on that in the next post).

madelyn was having fun playing peek-a-boo during lunch and she actually did it with her palms over her eyes (instead of the backs of her hands) a few times. then because i like to keep my life interesting, i decided to see how she would do without her sippy lid on her cup. i hadn't done that with her in a long time, but she actually was more careful with the cup and didn't spill as much as she does with the lid on! i wanted to try it because she drank water really great on the airplane from one of their plastic cups - making me realize that drinking from a cup is a really useful skill for her to have. not only did she make less of a mess, but she was more interested in drinking everything in her cup. she never ceases to amaze me.

while daddy was working on the concrete, maddie and i went to the park after (her) dinner to get out some more of her energy. plus it was such a nice night that i thought we might run into some of her neighborhood friends. being the brave parent that i am i decided to try and take a few pictures while being on safety watch. she is a very good climber.

sometimes she is too good of a climber. and really fast! a few of the neighbors couldn't believe how quickly she can scale up 'rock' mountain like thing on the playset that i was trying to describe in my last post. and she did it over and over and over and over until she started to get mad at me for pulling her off the top each time she got there. one of the mom's was saying that maddie can get to the top because her legs are long enough to reach all the steps. we finally had to move over to the swings as a distraction. maddie is so over the toddler playset and moving on to the bigger one.

in addition to her park climbing, madelyn has also discovered pulling her dresser drawers open and climbing up them! that is too scary for me! thank goodness for straps to secure the furniture to the wall.

and that is the post i wanted to share yesterday. now i have to do my real post for today. love.

the blur

maddie has a new super hero name - "the blur". i have been having the most difficult time getting a picture of her lately! even with the action setting on the camera with rapid shutter speed a hand or something is a blur in the picture. not to mention the very sight of the camera sends her racing towards me to grab it. this was the best shot out of like 20 and even here the comb is blurry. please notice her new hairdo. i figured that it was appropriate for her overalls.

she has discovered that she can stand on her own. she has been testing this ability off and on for the past day or two. it sort of surprises her at first and then she gets excited and sits down to come get me. she will take a step here and there, from the coffee table to the couch, from the coffee table to me, etc. but no major walking yet. i think that she will be there within the next month, but we'll see.

she also took her climbing to the next level today - literally! she used her entertainment/activity table to climb herself up onto the ottoman. she was so proud of herself and kept clapping and squealing. she was even able to back herself off feet first without falling!

as promised here is some video of her intentionally shaking the water out of her sippy cup. if i give her the sign for "drink" she will stop and drink it instead - or if not, the cup goes away.



we take matt to the airport tomorrow morning so it will just be us girls until saturday night when matt gets home. and then nana (matt's mom) is getting here on sunday. so while i will be busy over the next few days, my nights will be free so i shouldn't miss many posts. thanks to all of you who read about maddie's day-to-day activites. love.

speaking or shrieking?

we just hung around the house today and played with madelyn. matt worked on his reviews (he is almost halfway done with writing around 40 reviews) and i cleaned up and did laundry. i had planned to start christmas cards, but they may have to wait to be done during the weeknights - the clock is ticking though and i am starting to get nervous if i will get everything done before christmas!

today i was reading about the "sixth month" in the what to expect book and it was explaining that babies should have "a-goo" type vowel/consonant combinations for their babbling. maddie was doing that at 3 months but has now moved on to a shrieking and grunting type of expression. she does make other consonant type noises, but being the perfectionistic, over-achiever that i am i of course wondered if she was still on track. (before everyone tries to reassure me that all babies develop at their own pace, i am not really worried. i just question everything.) here are some videos of her "talking" to dad today. they were at it for about 20 minutes before maddie rolled over in favor of a toy. since it was after 3 the sun was already starting to go down here and i didn't realize how dark it was (the final video always looks darker than it does in the preview screen while recording it) so this is more for listening than the viewing (which is too bad because she gets really excited and animated when she 'talks').





here is one more video of her 'dancing' with daddy for your viewing pleasure. standing is quickly becoming her favorite thing to do...

the only other excitement of the day was the introduction of pears into her food options this morning. they were a huge hit! she couldn't get enough of them! and she also drank the most water from her cup yet - maybe it was all the sweet flavor or the grainy consistency. the pears were so grainy that i had to run her hands under the kitchen sink instead of just wiping them off. she really thought that was great because she likes the running water. that's all the excitement for today. love.

the return of the all nighter

after 4 weeks of early morning and late night wake ups, maddie is sleeping through the night again with 12 hours on sunday night and 13 hours last night! i am so thankful for the return of the all nighter!

we are still waiting to see which tooth comes in next, but you can see her two teeth very easily when she talks or smiles. her hair is always hanging in her face now so we have to use barrettes and headbands everyday now. they are a loosing battle most of the time though because she is becoming more active.

today she has gotten to where she can get herself up on her knees and elbows, but she just rocks back and forth for a few seconds before just dropping her belly down and kicking her legs. she's getting closer to crawling, but not there yet. she has made some progress with her sitting though. she can now get herself back down on her belly without just tipping over. she sort of rolls forward and uses her arms to ease her body down when she is ready. she has also discovered that she can reach for things to pull herself up with! this was something she figured out just before bedtime and every time i tried to take a picture she would get so excited that she would fall down leaving me with a lot of these 'in motion' pictures of her holding on to her basket.

lastly, here is a video of her playing with her water cup that i thought was cute. its not in the video, but since we always end our highchair time with the water cup she has figured out that it signals the end of a meal. after her cereal tonight i got the cup out and she started fussing and refused to drink it. after a few tries i realized that when i took the cup away she would stop fussing so i decided to mix her up a little more cereal. she was so excited to have more to eat and ate it all before she would gladly drink her water without complaint. its just amazing how they figure out their routines! love.

got to be quick

my boss is coming tomorrow to stay with us until thursday, so i have to be quick tonight so that i can get back to cleaning... now that maddie is drinking from a cup, she keeps trying to drink from the cup i use at bath time to rinse her hair! i guess that i need to change the rinsing vessel so that she doesn't start drinking the bath water.

it has occurred to me that i haven't been taking any pictures of her once she is in her jammies (unless it is one of my stalking pictures from when she is sleeping) so here is one of her in her owl pjs - note the owls on the bottoms of her feet...

we went to the dentist today and since matt and i coincidentally had back-to-back appointments (he rescheduled his a few times) so matt stayed for my appointment to watch maddie and then we all went out to grab a quick lunch together which was really nice! (the dentist said that he would see her when she is two.) since daddy wanted to play, maddie didn't get her normal morning nap and passed out as soon as she and i headed for home. she even transferred to her crib without waking up and slept for another hour and a half.

here are two pictures of her dressed for her outing today. doesn't she look like such a "big girl"? i had to change her into short sleeves because this shirt was just too stretchy and kept getting caught when she rolled over. she doesn't get mad though, she just pulls her arm out of the sleeve! ohmygoodness - i just realized that in the one on the left she is giving a "thumbs-up"!

she has also discovered reaching. she has realized that she can reach for something that she can't really reach - including us when she wants to be lifted up. in combination with this she has begun to grunt for help when she knocks something too far away - like a toy on her high chair tray. it is so exciting to watch her discover her abilities and limitations each day as they constantly change.

time to run. love.

i'm here and i'm loud - get used to it!

i have mentioned before that maddie really loves the sound of her own voice... well now she has taken it to a whole new volume level! she sounds like she is stuck or angry half the time, but she is actually happy and enjoying the noises she can make. yesterday we went to the grocery store and she wanted everyone to know that maddie was in the house. i had read that when they go through this volume stage that you should call it "singing" when out in public because it makes people less annoyed by what sounds like screaming. she was really going at it after her mid-morning meal, so i got some of her noise on video but she had definitely settled down a little by the time i got the camera. enjoy...

i found some smaller cups for maddie to use. it was more difficult to find them than i thought it would be. everything is spill proof or too big. i found these at toys-r-us and they are old school with the snap-on lids with spouts like i had as a kid. she loves them! when we use a sippy cup she has no interest in holding it to drink, but the second a real cup comes out she is reaching for it and has her mouth open. i will admit that more of the water stays in her mouth with the sippy cup, but not much more. she was actually holding the cup with both hands and putting to her mouth on her own today but when it occurred to me to get some pictures or video of it she was done with eating and drinking for the time being. i did get one picture where you can see how she puts her mouth on the rim.

i am going to close with the one thing that i have been having a lot of trouble with...baby straps and buckles. every single thing we have for maddie that has a buckle i have caught my finger in and drawn blood! tonight it was her bouncy seat. in trying not to catch her belly or bare skin in the buckle i cover it with my own hand and catch a fingertip. i have done it on the bouncer, both strollers, and the baby carrier. its probably just me since i could hurt myself with just about anything, but, man, i am running out of bandaids!

that's all for tonight. love.

just another thursday

nothing too exciting today. i moved her up to two meals (oatmeal cereal and sweet potatoes) and she is really liking drinking from a real cup. it is pretty cute to see her try to get her mouth to the top of the cup - it takes some help from me to actually get the water into her mouth, but she tries really hard to do it herself. (maybe i can get some video this weekend with matt's help.)

the other thing that provided her with loads of entertainment was kicking her heels on our console under the t.v. i am not sure if it is the feeling or the sound that entertains her, but today was the first she has kicked her heels on this piece of furniture and it got a laugh or two before the novelty wore off.

this last picture is of her in her high chair while i made dinner. like i have mentioned before, she really likes her feet. this results in her getting to them any way she can. i kept having to come over and put it back through the leg hole. i finally went and got one of her toys so that she would stop trying to play with her feet.

i am exhausted, so its bedtime for me. have a great night! love.