Foto Friday - Feed Me

She LOVED eating sweet potato this morning!

Unusual Day

To start: A video of Miss M rockin' and (not) rollin'

Today we had what I would consider a fantastic - ideal - out of the ordinary - probably never gonna happen again - kind of day. :) (Minus the fact that Josh wasn't with us.)

6:30am: She woke up and Daddy got to hold her and cuddle for a few minutes. Then I nursed her, and I laid her back down. I watched her play and try to crawl for 10-15 minutes in her crib, and then she went back to sleep (yay) so I had time to shower, start laundry, and eat breakfast. Wohoo!

8am: She woke up. ADT guy is here, so we followed him around and try to pretend we know what he's talking about as he's explaining stuff...

8:20am: She gets an impromptu bath once I realized some of her spit up from earlier this morning got in her hair and is crusty...ewww...sorry M! I did nurse her in the dark...so cut me some slack. After her bath, she played in her activity center while I picked up the house.

9am: I fed her cereal.

9:15am: Play time on the floor (gotta work on getting that crawling down!) I was able to finish laundry, load dishwasher, organize my day,, make shopping list, order a couple things on-line, FB, check email, etc.

10:15am: I went to Walmart, returned home, AND got everything unloaded, AND got a few quick things done down in the office, while she napped the WHOLE time in her car seat!

Noon: I scarfed down some lunch while M played.

12:15pm: I nursed her.

1pm: M ate some carrots

1:2opm: Madison played in her jumper for a bit (maybe for 20 minutes) while I worked in the office...once she's bored of that, it's more play time upstairs, we sang songs, I tickled her, we sent Daddy a picture of M playing, I watched some dvr'd show...the usual...

3pm-4:15pm She napped...the whole time. This is SO unusual for her to take such a long afternoon nap! I watched a bit of Oprah (10 minutes), thought about going down to walk on the treadmill, and ended up working down in the office instead.

4:15pm: I nursed her.

4:45pm: M and I played on the floor, read books, watched the dogs act crazy, watched the rest of the Oprah that I dvr'd, I started my post, decided what to cook heat up for dinner for Josh later...

6:15pm: Mmm.... Rice w/apple cereal for M!

6:30 pm: Normally, this is M's "iffy-crabby time," but I worked on this post for a bit while she played in her walker in the kitchen...she got antsy, so I carried and danced with her for a while, then I threw placed her in her activity center with Sesame Street on, so I can work on this post more. That lasted for about 5 minutes...

7pm: Ok, she's tired of entertaining herself. I abandon my blog post, and work on entertaining her for. We watch the doggies more, I let her pet Winky, let Winky lick her hands (they both LOVE this), immediately wash her hands, dance with her some more, bounce her on my lap, make funny faces in the mirror, check my phone every 5 minutes to see how long before Josh gets home, the usual...

7:50pm: Josh gets home! Yay! Baby and Daddy time for a few minutes, then I nurse her for the final time today.

8:30pm Lay my sleepy girl in her crib...night night!

NOW: Dinner for me and finishing this post, followed by some Bachelor on TV!

To Clarify: I am VERY thankful to be a stay-at-home Mommy, and I do value ALL my days with M...usually...haha...

She is changing and learning so many new things SO quickly! If I don't record this somewhere, I feel like I'll forget it! Just today, I realized how much she likes playing "peek-a-boo."

I just forgot something else about her that I wanted to record...geesh...oh yeah, oh yeah...she's found her thumbs, and I've caught her sucking her thumb briefly a few times this last week...as much as it annoys me...it's also annoyingly cute...I've been trying to catch a picture of it, so we'll see...ok, gotta go and spend some time with the husband!

Foto Friday - Makin' Progress

She's still working on figuring out what to do once she's up on her hands and knees...

(Yes, I'm a day late....)

Day of Firsts for M and M

This morning Madison tried carrots for the first time. :) And, I even prepared them for her. So, today was a day of firsts for both of us!

First, I steamed some organic baby carrots. Yes, I had to buy a steamer last week...and yes, this morning I had to google, "how to use a steamer basket." After they were soft, I used the good ol' Magic Blender and blended them along with some breast milk until smooth. Done! (I love my Magic Blender!)

Her first bite!

She loved them and ate the whole portion!

Lastly, I froze the leftovers for the rest of the week. Just a few minutes ago, I took them out (they popped out just like ice-cubes) and stored them in a freezer bag. Do you like the shot of M's angry face in the background?

After a few days, we'll try something new.

You tell me...what should she try next?

Sweet potato? Or banana?

Crawling update:

She's SO, SO, SO close to crawling. For the past couple days, she has moments where she gets on all fours and just rocks back and forth. It's hilarious. I need to try and catch it on video...

Laughin' Machine

Madison thinks I'm pretty funny!

Six Months!

Happy Half-Birthday, Miss Madison!!!

I can't BELIEVE our baby girl is 6 months old!

After Pooh's honey...as usual.

Ok, on to some updates...

Food: She still nurses 5 (sometimes 6) times day. She gets rice or rice/apple cereal for dinner. We are starting her with veggies THIS week. I'm making her some sweet potato tomorrow! Can't wait for her to start trying new foods! Yes, I'm planning on making her purees...we'll see how long that lasts, but it seems pretty do-able. I'm sure there will be future blog posts regarding me making baby food!

Sleep: Still going well. She naps twice a day (but times vary from 30-90 minutes). Usually one longer nap and one shorter nap. She still fusses herself to sleep, although usually not for long...still has some bad days, but overall, we're pretty good. I'm so glad she's in her crib, but I have to admit I miss snuggling her.

Teething: No teeth. Lots of drooling and chewing. We think we see a tiny bit of her bottom left tooth in her gum, so I'm thinking that will be her first tooth down the road...we shall see.

Motor Skills: She is NOT crawling...yet...but she is SO close! Sometimes she manages to wiggle herself backwards. We think she will start moving forward any day now.

(Mom's cell phone is great incentive for her!)

She is able to push off the sides of her crib and she gets her self moving all around in there. She'll start her night laying in one direction, and she will have moved 180 degrees by morning.

She sits by herself pretty well, but still falls over after a bit, usually because she is leaning to grab for something.

She holds and shakes her toys, and tries to put almost everything in her mouth. It's hard for her germ-a-phobe, lysol wipe lovin' Mama to get used to...but I'm coping.

I can no longer wear my hair down, ever. If I do, she will constantly get her fingers in it, and she LOVES grabbing it and pulling it.

Like most babies, she loves playing and holding on to her feet. She even puts her toes in her mouth...it cracks me up! I've been told that Josh did that as a baby...like father like daughter.

Personality: She really is a very happy and playful baby. She loves giggling and smiling. She has definitely learned to use her voice and makes distinct sounds when she's frustrated or wanting something. But overall, she's pretty easy-going. She is a pretty content baby, but she has her chatty moments. No real distinctive words or sounds yet. I am strongly considering teaching her some simple signs though.

Size: She is about 19 lbs. and roughly 26-27 inches...it's hard keeping her still to measure her height. She is currently in 9 mo. clothes (Carter brand anyways). She has started to thin out, but is still rockin' the pot belly and thunder thighs. :)

Such a big girl. I can't believe how much she changes so quickly.

I am having her pictures professionally taken next weekend, and I am SO excited!

Also, I will post some new videos of her later this week, too!

Foto Friday - Holdin' On

Holdin' on to Great G'pa Louie.

Headbands and Books

Are you ready for lots of photos?! :)

I never thought I'd be so excited for hair accessories to arrive for Miss Madison!

Of course I had to try some of them out these past few days!

Madison has also become very interested in books these past couple weeks. I also ordered a few more board books for the girl last week. She loves looking at the pictures, and being read to.

She is looking more toddler-like and less baby-like, don't ya think?!

Video Monitor

We decided to get a video monitor for Miss Madison's room. I wanted to be able to observe her more while she was fussing during her sleep training. Let me tell you, I LOVE the video monitor we chose. LOVE IT, love it, love it! We've had it now for about a week, and I wish we would have gotten it a month ago when we started the sleep training! It's so reassuring to be able to get a visual on her!

I am even sleeping so much better at night knowing that I can "check" on her as often as I'd like and whenever I'd like without having to go into her room and risk my presence or the sound of the door opening waking her. I used to wake every hour or so and just want to listen and see if I heard anything coming from her room.

I would definitely recommend this product to any parents/parents-to-be!

The monitor is so clear that if I can even see her little back/tummy moving up and down so I know she's breathing ok! It's black and white when it's dark, but color otherwise.

Overall, we are now a month into her sleep training, and she's doing great. She only fusses for about 5 minutes max. for her naps, and her naps are now about an hour to an hour and a half twice a day. At night, she sleeps for about 10-12 hours (waking once for a feeding). Sometimes it takes her longer to fuss herself to sleep at night, but I'd say her average fussing time before bedtime is down to 10-15 minutes.

I can't believe she'll be 6 months old in a week! I'll do more of an overall update then.

Foto Friday - Food

"Give me more cereal, now!"

Toot!

Happy Blizzard 2011!

Anyways, towards of the end of this video, listen for Miss Madison tooting! It's hilarious!!! She does it right after I ask her, "How are you gonna get up?" She's definitely gonna love me someday for this video!