10 months today

madelyn is 10 months old today! which means that i better get on her "9 month" pictures before it is time for her 1 year pictures. oops...

today's trick was actually using her hands to cover her eyes for peek-a-boo. the cute thing is that she uses the backs of her hands instead of her palms. i couldn't get her to do it when i was filming video, but you can get the effect through these still shots.

she can also clap at the appropriate times when i sing "if you're happy and you know it". she started doing this last week, but is really good at it now. that is the next activity that i hope to capture on video to share with you all.

now that she is getting better and better about climbing all over and 'walking', she can crawl over to the playset at the park and climb up the stairs to go down the slide all by herself! well, sometimes i have to help her sit down. mostly she just turns around and goes down on her belly. this is on the 'toddler' playset, but she is now climbing up the 'rock' stairs (i'll have to get a picture because i don't think i could explain it right) on the big kid playset and its too high for my comfort. i have to quickly go up and get her to be carried back down.

lastly, she is saying "duck" and "dog" - at the right times. that is the way i know what she is saying. sometimes they are clear, but mostly they sound very similar to each other. i can ask her where her duck block is and she will pick it out from the other blocks and say "duck" (well at least her version). i am so excited to hear what she thinks about things! and, yes, i know that i have a little while to wait for that, but every little bit of progress is exciting for me.

that's it for today. i am ready for bed. love.

crying break

this morning was great. we got matt off to the airport and maddie did great at playing and being her happy self while i worked. then she took a two hour nap from 11 to 1 and that was the end of normalcy.

she has just been off all afternoon and evening. she refused to go down for an afternoon nap even though she was exhausted. so it was a mix of laughing and crying all afternoon. after work i went to the grocery store to pick up a few things and she slept for a few minutes in her car seat on the way home. she even let me transfer her to her crib for another 30 to 40 minutes of sleep.

here is a video of her happy after that short nap. she really likes crawling behind our curtains and playing peekaboo although the camera distracted her a little. sometimes she peaks from the side and sometimes she lifts it over her head. this is one of our favorite after dinner games.

right now she is up in her room crying. she won't nurse, she won't feed from a bottle, nothing. she just wants to cry. so i am taking a break and blogging. she is starting to settle down so we will see if she goes down for the night or not.

i am hoping that this is just an adjustment to the time change and not a prolonged new phase. only time will tell...

i am heading back up to check on her and maybe trying feeding her again now. before i leave i had to take this picture of her sleeping last night. isn't she sweet snuggled up with her teddy bear? love.

catch-up

sorry for not posting in a while, maddie is feeling so much better, but i, on the other hand, have been drained the past few days with a migraine today. not to mention that i am going in a hundred different directions and just haven't had the time to sit down and collect my thoughts. but tonight i am making the time - enjoy the update.

this picture is from today while i was resting on the couch and maddie was climbing all over me. she has been biting her bottom lip so much that she has a chaffed spot about the size of a dime on the right side of her chin and a smaller spot on the other side. it looks painful (she even scratched it today so that it bled a little), but she doesn't even seem to notice it. even when i wipe off her face after meals - nothing. so i guess that is good.

she continues to enjoy playing peek-a-boo. she has gotten better at hiding herself. in this picture she was hiding behind an end table in the living room. she just kept going up and down 'hiding' from me. you can see how much she was enjoying herself. also note the drool on her shirt from her molars coming in (i can feel one on the upper right about to cut through) although this is only half the size that it normally is because i had just changed her shirt.

yesterday her teeth were hurting her and she was being a little clingy as a result. i was trying to get some work done so i would put her back down on the floor. well, maddie wasn't going to have that and she would cry (fake cry) a little and put her forehead on the floor - her first temper tantrum. i say it was her 'first' because if she is as strong willed as her father and i are, there will be many more to come.

i love this picture of her from sunday morning before church because that is how she is most of the time - hair disheveled and a big, excited grin on her face. matt and i get so much joy from watching her enjoy each day.

lastly, maddie is taking more and more steps on her own each day as she grows more confident in her balance. we play the 'free standing' game every day and count "1-2-3-ta-da!" and then she will occasionally take a few steps towards us from her 'free stand'. maddie enjoys this game as much as we do (okay we probably get a little more excited about it than she does). its so cute because she whisper 'talks' the entire time and gets ready to balance with each count. i am hoping to get some video soon, but it is still too new to distract her right now.

okay. i have got to rest up. more later. love.

oops-a-daisy

as you can see maddie wore herself out playing in my office today. i turned around to check on her and she was just chillin' like this taking a break from crawling all over the improved floor space in my office and checking out all the office furniture that she couldn't reach before. she was particularly fond of the wicker baskets on my bookshelf and the magnets on my file cabinets.

she was sort of cranky today, but we still had a good day. she has finally gotten the hang of peek-a-boo. if i put a burp cloth over her face and say "where's maddie?" she will pull it off and smile/laugh. since she finally gets what all the excitement is over saying "peek-a-boo" i started hiding behind the furniture and peeking around the corner. she thought that this was a lot of fun and sat herself behind the ottoman so that she could peek out after i poked my head out from behind the couch and said "peek-a-boo". she would even go back to 'hiding' after she saw me.

with all the traveling and Christmas excitement i forgot to write about her first major accident - there was blood. i was running around trying to get everything ready for our trip and we were getting ready to get in the car for dropping Christmas cards and other items off at the neighbors' houses. i was trying to sign a birthday card and maddie kept grabbing the card and the pen so i set her on her back on the carpet. she rolled over and crawled out onto the hardwoods. since we were going out she was wearing sweatpants and her knee slipped resulting in bloodied gums and lots of tears. it was her first experience on the hardwoods. i didn't even notice the blood until i got her to stop crying, but then i was a little upset. i think the fall just caused one of her top teeth to push all the way through the gum causing it to bleed. i figure that this is the first of many injuries to come and a pretty minor one at that. plus, she was chewing on hard toys only moments later without any hesitation.

i am happy to report that she now catches herself when she starts to fall. love.