11 Months

I think I've been avoiding doing this blog post because I know that only means that the next "month" blog post will be for her one year birthday.  Since last Thursday when Mady turned 11 months I've started having this inner battle with myself.  I am loving this stage she is going through.  She is so much fun right now and I love watching her become her own person and seeing her personality really come through.  But I'm also sad that a year has already passed by.  I can't believe that this time last year we were so excited to meet her.  I realized that we'll never again experience the first year of our first child but we still have a lot of great times ahead of us!

Mady has now in the past week started taking her first steps.  She started small with a step from the coffee table to the couch.  Now she is getting braver and will try and walk any chance she gets!  The most she's done at once is twelve steps!  I wasn't quite ready for this milestone but I love watching her face light up when she takes those steps.  She looks so proud of herself!

She has also started saying her first words.  Her very first word was bubble. We bought her bubbles for her Easter basket and she loves them!  We will sit there for several minutes (which for Mady is a long time) and I will blow bubbles while she smiles and tries to grab them. I kept calling them bubbles and she repeated it after me and now says it anytime they come out.  She also says ball, mainly for Lucy's ball.  She will also repeat random words here and there that you say to her.

Her personality is really coming out and my belief that she would be a strong willed girl is starting to prove true.  While she was such a great eater when starting her purees, she has become a lot pickier.  It has been a battle lately to get her to eat her vegetables.  She would not eat them so I started dipping them in yogurt which helped for a while.  Now, she will put the veggie in her mouth, lick all the yogurt off and then take the veggie out with her fingers!  And if you leave the vegetables on her tray and don't give her something she wants (like fruit which she loves) then she will get quite an attitude with you.  She will get real loud and say "dadadadadada!!"  Oh, I can't wait to see what I have ahead of me!

For the best part:

She's so cute when she's sleeping

We've been enjoying the great spring weather

She loves to stick out her tongue

Getting her 11 month picture was a little harder this month

Opening her Easter basket

Isn't she cool!

Wasn't a big fan of the hat, haha

Little Reader

Lately, Mady has become a lot more interested in her books.  We would always read to her, usually before her naps or bedtime but she wouldn't pay much attention.  But lately she has been paying more attention to them and if it's one of her favorites (yes she has favorites) she will sit quietly as you read the whole book.  She even turns the pages for you.  It's so cute! 

Here are a few of her favorites right now:

 Snuggle Puppy is really fun to read to her because the book sings a song to Snuggle Puppy and several times throughout the song will give him a kiss.  We'll give Mady a kiss too, so now when we start reading that book she'll give it a kiss.  Love her!

Now that the weather is nice and the days are longer we can take her to the park close by and she loves the swings.  We got some really cute pictures the last time we went.

Can't believe she'll be eleven months in about a week!

Ten Months

Well, we're in the double digits!  Mady is ten months old now.  I will go back and look at her pictures when she was born and when she was just a month or two old and I miss those days when she was so tiny but I do have to say that I am so enjoying her at this age.  She is so much fun and learning so much everyday.

Right now, she does not stop for one second.  When she is up, she is on the move the entire time.  She goes from one toy to the next.  So much to do, so much to see, and so little time!  She can high-five, and when you ask her how big she is she will raise her arms high up in the air.  She has become a lot more interested in her books lately too.  She has a few favorites and will sit and listen to you read them and she'll turn the pages for you.   One of the books she likes says "Reach for the sky" and she will raise her arms up.  Then it says "Now reach for your toes" and she will put her arms down and touch her toes.  It is so cute!  She's had a few times now that she's stood on her own.  It's just for a few seconds but it's becoming more frequent.  She'll be standing up against her activity table, or the coffee table, and then let go to use her arms and she stands there on her own for a little while.  She's getting a lot better at walking with her dino walker too.  Only on the carpet though, because it still rolls away from her on the tile and wood flooring.

She is still a great eater but she is not eating her purees as much as she use to.  She would much rather have her finger foods so I think we'll be moving to just table foods soon.  Her favorite food is strawberries.  She gets so excited when you put them on her tray.  If we have strawberries on her tray with other foods she will pick the strawberries first to eat and they will be gone quick!

Her routine is still pretty much the same as its been for months.  She wakes around 7-7:30 and has her morning nap around 10.  Her morning nap has gotten shorter lately to where she will wake up around 11:00.  Her afternoon nap is usually longer from around 2:30 to 4 or 4:30. and then down for the night around 7:45.

She is such a joy and we are enjoying every minute!

Hi Lucy!

Hanging out on the porch

Her other favorite thing to do

Love her

My new helper

Puppy Love

In the last few weeks, Mady has become very attached to this puppy toy.  Anytime you ask her "Where's your puppy" she knows exactly who he is and goes right over to him.  She loves all over him, giving him slobbery kisses and big hugs.  We have a ottoman in our living room that opens up and we keep all of her toys in there.  When she pulls up on it to see her toys (and start pulling them all out) she lights up with a big smile when she sees her puppy in there.  It's really cute to see her love for this toy.  He's such a lucky puppy!

Nine Months

Our little girl is now nine months old and this past Monday we visited the doctor and got Mady's stats:

Weight: 17.7 lbs (35th percentile)
Height: 26.5 inches (15th percentile)
Head 16.75 inches (15th percentile)

She is still looking to be a short little girl like her mommy.  Her weight has gone down to the 35th percentile but the doctor says that's normal to slim out some.  It also makes her more in proportion with her height.  We also got some great news related to her reflux.  The doctor thinks we can stop giving her prevacid once we finish this last refill.  We won't know if she'll be fine without the medicine until a couple of weeks after since it stays in her system for a while.  Fingers crossed, she'll be ok.

No more army crawl for Mady.  She is a professional crawler now and my job has gotten a lot busier!  She is fast and very strong willed.  If she wants to get to something (even something she shouldn't) she will.  Right now I am battling with her to not go after Lucy's food.  Lucy has always been a grazer and we've always left her food out all day and she eats whenever she wants.  Well, Mady has now discovered this bowl of amazing little pieces of what look like finger foods.  She wants to eat them so bad!

She pulls up on everything and cruises along anything!  She recognizes a lot of words now too, mainly related to her toys.  She knows puppy, teapot, bumblebee, and baby doll.  Anytime you ask her where these toys are she will go and get them.  She still waves hi and bye, she can reach for the sky (which is the cutest thing), and high five. When you ask her what the cow does she says "Boooo".  She can't quite do her M's so instead she says Boo.  Nick said we should ask her what the ghost does instead, haha.  The one thing she's learned that just melts my heart every time she does it is how to kiss.  When you ask her for a kiss she opens her mouth up and plops it against your face.  I love that she can do this.  It is the sweetest thing.

As for her eating, she will eat anything.  She is eating three meals a day and we are giving her a lot more finger foods now too.  She loves everything which makes life a lot easier. 

No, I'm not trying to get to Lucy's food Mommy

She loves her dino (Thanks Aunt Dee)

I can start putting bows in her hair without a headband

Her first snow!  She didn't really seem to care, haha

All done!

On we go to ten months and one year is creeping up way too quickly for me.  Looks like I need to start planning her one year birthday!

Eight (and a half) months

I'm a bit late on the eight month update. Life has just been keeping us busy. Last week I started teaching again for the spring semester. As much as I LOVE being home with Mady I do really enjoy being able to teach. I think I have a great group this year and am really excited.

One of my best friends, Mady and I also took a trip this past weekend to San Antonio to visit our other best friend. It was Mady's first girls trip and she had a great time! Our other big news is we got a new car this week. After a couple of trips out of town we realized our car just wasn't big enough so we traded it in for a GMC Acadia and I love it! I never thought I'd be able to drive a big car like that but it drives surprisingly well.

Lunch by the riverwalk

As for our little girl, she is a mover and a shaker these days. She can army crawl like a pro and gets anywhere she needs to go. She gets up on her knees a lot more now and crawls on them for a little while and then gives up and goes back to her army crawl. She also is pulling up a lot more. On the coffee table, bookshelf, toys, crib. She has such a look of accomplishment once she pulls up to standing. Mady can also wave, shake, kiss, drum, dance, and somewhat clap. Clap to her means hit her hands against her legs. My favorite has to be her dancing. When she hears music she starts bouncing up and down. It's so cute:)

Her favorite word these days is dada. She says it all the time and as much as I try to get her to say mama, dada is all that comes out. Her daddy loves it of course! They say dada is a lot easier for them to say so I'm giving her a pass...for now ;)

She's still a great eater and loves everything. She eats three meals a day and soon I'll start giving her little finger foods. As for sleeping we are doing great in that area too. She normally has two naps a day around an hour and a half and sleeps about twelve hours at night. 

A couple of weeks ago Mady's first tooth started cutting through.  Luckily, it didn't seem to affect her too much.  She still slept normally, and we didn't have any fever.  The reason I had a feeling she might be was because of all the drool coming from her mouth.  When I went to feel her gums, sure enough it was the bottom one popping up.  The second tooth on the bottom started coming up this past weekend so she now has two teeth!  I'm so glad that it hasn't been too hard on her because I've heard such sad stories of other babies while teething.

No doctor appointment this month, but there will be one next month when she turns nine months!  I can't believe that.  Where does the time go?!

Holidays 2011

Holidays are now over and we had a great time celebrating with all of our family.  We spent actual Christmas day here because Nick had to work but we had a great time.  Mady was able to open her presents and spend the day at home playing with her new toys.  We got her a dino ball popper toy and an outfit.  Santa brought her a push walker that she can also ride on which she loves, a piano toy, some new books, and a few little stocking stuffers. 

The day after Christmas we headed down to Port Arthur for about a week but first we had a pit stop in The Woodlands to celebrate Christmas with Nick's side of the family.  The week went by so fast and we had such a great time with everyone. Sometimes I wish we lived closer so we could see each other more!

Last year was the best year of my life because of Mady's arrival and it will be hard to top but I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for us!

Here are just a few of the many pictures we took:

She liked the paper more than the gifts

Our nephew Beau.  Love this game!

Isn't our niece Claire so cute?!

Love this picture!  Looks like our nephew Trevor liked his dinosaur!