9 Month Check Up

Madeline is now 27.5 inches long and 16.5 pounds. This puts her in the 50th percentile for length and 13th percentile for weight. Still a peanut. This week she got her first top tooth! On top of the teething fun (sarcasm), she managed to get parvovirus, roseola, and two nasty ear infections, all within this week. Yay for daycare in winter! Other than that, she was pronounced healthy, happy, and developmentally sound. We also pronounced her adorable.

A Busy Little Girl

Malachi and Madeline on neighborhood watch.

I know, I know, yet another long stretch with no updates! We're a very busy family, especially now that the tornado named Madeline is sweeping through our house on a daily basis. She is in to EVERYTHING. She is cruising around the furniture and trying so hard to stand on her own. She is mastering the art of walking behind her scooter as well. She definitely needs some more leg stability before she'll be on her own (which is ok by me!).

Right at 8 months her two bottom teeth popped out, which is pretty darn cute. Her top two are busting through as we speak. She is eating meals off of our plates and drinking from her own cup. She'd be so grown up if she weren't so tiny! If you meet Madeline in the near future, don't be offended if she starts bawling upon making eye contact. She has developed a charming case of stranger anxiety that applies to friends, neighbors, and grandparents. Hey when your parents are this cool, why would you want to hang out with anyone else?

Halloween

Madeline had a blast with Halloween this year. We participated in our church's Trunk or Treat last weekend. As you can see from the pictures, we decided to forgo the run of the mill costumes and trying something a little more unique. Madeline actually sat in that pot for over an hour and let Brad carry her around in it! She would crouch down so that the only part you could see where her claws. Then she'd pop up and giggle. On Halloween we just passed out candy at our house and let her check out the trick or treaters (Note to self: teach her more manners than the rest of those kids...) Next year should be so fun when she can actually trick or treat herself!

New videos!

So Brad finally posted three new videos! There's plenty more to come, but at least there's a Little new material. One of them keeps suggesting some "inappropriate" material after you watch, but just ignore it.....

Crawling. Oh My.

Madeline finally figured out the art of forward motion this weekend! I was doing some stuff in the kitchen while she sat on the carpet talking to me. The next thing I know she is headed right into the laundry room! She's definitely not very graceful (it looks kind of like an epileptic worm), but the kid can move! She has already managed to get into the dogs' water bowl and start dragging it across the floor. She apparently doesn't know when to stop crawling either because she just goes until she hits her head on the solid object in front of her.

I also made a new discovery about my sweet, innocent daughter today. I worked in the church nursery for the first time. The kids were easily dividend into 3 categories. The babies that lay around like lumps. The girls playing with their stuffed animals. The 1 year old boys running around and climbing on everything. And then there is my daughter. Climbing right up on the boys and stealing their toys! I think we are in trouble......

6 Month Pictures!

Despite a failed nap and a super nasty runny nose, Madeline's 6 month professional pictures were a huge success. We've got a good one of the 3 of us. Here are our favorites. You can check out the rest in our Picasa album.

Best Product Ever

Ever since Madeline learned to roll over, she has become an unstoppable force in her crib. We quickly learned that she loves to bury her face in the bumper pads, so those were quickly removed. I was convinced she would suffocate herself and it was really impacting my own ability to sleep. That lasted all of about 2 days when Madeline started getting every limb of her body stuck in the crib slats. She would wake up in the wee hours of the morning, howling, because her body was contorted in an odd fashion and she was stuck. This was also impacting my ability to sleep. Enter Mesh Bumper Pads! They form a protective barrier that keeps all limbs safely inside of the vehicle. However, you can bury your face in them and still breathe just fine. They're also great when baby starts to stand up in the crib because you can't step up on them. Yay product geniuses! Yay happy sleep for all!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Madeline sporting her '80's garb

and posing for the Grove City alumni magazine

Half Year Mark

Madeline has hit the half year mark! It's unbelievable how much she has developed in 6 short months. She had her check up this week and checked in at 26 inches long and 14 pounds. This puts her in the 50th percentile for height and the 15th percentile for weight. She's a peanut!

She is now working on a sippy cup. She has started taking baths in the real bath tub. She loves to kick and splash and play with her bath toys. She is starting to wave back at us. Most recently she has started standing, using only her play table to balance herself. She can't do it for very long, but she get stronger every day. I can't believe that in only a little while my baby girl will be completely mobile!

Here are pictures of Maddie hanging out at the park. She loves the swings! She also got to go swimming with Grandpa Webb. She is so happy in the pool. I'm sad there are only a few more opportunities to swim this season.

We are getting family pictures next week, so hopefully there will be lots of new photos to share. The last time we had professional pictures, she pretty much slept the entire time. I hope it goes as well this time. Don't forget to check our Picasa site (by clicking over on the left). We're far better at updating pictures than the blog.

So I have been horrible with the blog lately. What can I say, it's summer time and I'd rather be playing with my baby (or sleeping) then blogging.

We have some great new video. And as soon as ATT hooks up our Uverse, we'll have enough speed to upload them.

Here are the highlights:

Almost done with physical therapy!

Sitting completely unassisted for 15 minutes at a time

Says Dadda and I think I heard a Mamma a few times this week (not that she has a clue what that means)

Eating veggies like they're candy

Pacifier free!

Completely into toe biting and finger sucking

Holding her own bottle (when she feels like it)

Crawling backwards!

And my precious baby girl is putting in a solid 12 hours at night.

She's is pretty much the cutest, funniest little monkey ever.

Note: I wrote this last weekend and still haven't managed to find pictures...sorry!

Sorry for the lag in posts and pictures. I believe Brad is working on several new video clips.



Madeline is 4 months old now! It's unbelievable how fast she changes. At her 4 month appointment, she was 24 inches long and 13 pounds.



She is now rolling over incessantly and sitting up on her own for small chunks of time. Last week we started giving her cereal, which does not seem to impress her. Bananas are much tastier! She is trying really hard to move around while on her tummy, but her arms just aren't quite strong enough to propel her yet. She is good at pushing her butt up in the air and pushing backwards.



Most of the time she is just chattering away and laughing and happy as can be!

Today we had an absolutely wonderful day with Madeline. It was so nice not to have any obligations and just to hang out at our house. She has started rolling from her back to belly and loves to play on her tummy for ridiculously long periods of time. We tried out the doorway jumper and she loves it! She also is able to sit up while using her hands to hold herself steady. (More pictures to come on these).

Today's big event was the SWIMMING POOL! First off, the swimsuit that I got her a while back that was big on her...definitely too small now....I guess we'll be doing some shopping this week. Second, even though it was an absolutely gorgeous day, the pool seemed to be about 40 degrees. Despite the fact that Brad and I were freezing, Madeline didn't seem to mind. She had fun kicking, splashing, and riding in her inflatable boat. I think we'll be back again soon!

Welcome to Ohio

We ventured on our first major car trip with Madeline this past weekend. I was very worried about being in the car around bed time, so we just waited until bed time and let her fall asleep in her car seat, which worked out perfectly. This was our first trip back since Christmas - yikes!

We had a crazy busy weekend meeting all sorts of family and friends. Highlights of the weekend included a cookout with ALL of the grandparents, meeting our Ripley friends, and celebrating cousin Seth's graduation from West Point! Despite all the running around and being mobbed by people, Maddie did a great job of staying on schedule.

I totally forgot about the Madeline books!

The best part of the weekend was getting to hang out with Aunt Brittany, who has a knack for making Maddie laugh. Britt and Matt have only been able to visit once since she was born and NO ONE was feeling so hot that weekend, so it was kind of bust. Here's a great picture of Madeline with her Aunt Brittany. (Uncle Matt still needs to work on his baby handling skills.)

If we didn't catch you on this trip, we'll be home again for 4th of July (Note: This is also my birthday and presents are always welcome ;) Please consult our secretary for an appointment!

3 months

A quarter of the way through the first year....These days Madeline is up to shoving her entire fist in her mouth, blowing raspberries and drooling like nobodies business, and just generally being adorable and smiley.

She started day care a week ago and is doing wonderful. Our deepest appreciation to Nikki, babysitter extraordinaire, for getting Maddie on a daytime schedule finally. She is doing a lovely job of sleeping from 8:30 p.m. until Brad gets her up at 7:15. It's definitely rough going from 24/7 together to a few short hours in the evenings. I guess it just makes that time even more special.

We recently put together Madeline's exersaucer. She's a little small for it, but she loves the toys and is completely fascinated by everything.

Next weekend will be her first big car trip to Ohio for Memorial Day.

Running errands with Mommy is exhausting! Madeline's favorite place to nap is in the laundry room in her car seat after a nice trip to the grocery store.

How fast 3 months has gone by! Madeline started daycare this week. She is doing great. Heather is not. She will be spending the work week with Niki, who lives just down the street from us. She only has two other kids, both 2, so Madeline will get lots of attention and have some play mates in the future. The big kids are absolutely in love with her. It's also nice to get a walk in while picking her up. In other exciting news, Brad starts a new job next week! It's here in Fishers, so he's going to drop about 1.5-2 hours of commute time every day. He is getting Madeline ready for the day and dropping her off at daycare. This is great as long as he doesn't have to pick out clothes ;)

Madeline really has no interest in the dogs at all. She never even flinches when they go on a barking tirade (thank heavens!) The dogs, however, think she's pretty great. We agree.

Someone commented on the picture a few posts back. NO Madeline does not have a tooth. I am pretty sure that's spitup just sitting there.

Biker Babe?

Madeline got a new toy from Gigi and Papaw Branam.

It's hard to say who is more excited, Brad or Maddie?

And no, Brad will not be getting one any time soon, despite his pleading.

New Videos

There's a couple of new videos of Madeline on Youtube. The best one is of her talking after bath time. Click on the link above to access them!

Where does the time go?

Sorry for the lag in new posts! I've been really busy gearing up to go back to work. Last week was Madeline's baby dedication at church. She pretty much cried on stage the entire time. I don't think she was a fan of the lighting (I know I wasn't!). I'll have to figure out where the pictures are from that. Today is her first day of physical therapy for torticolis. The poor kid's neck has been kinked over at least since my 20 week ultrasound, so now we're taking drastic measures to straighten it back out. She has turned into quite the chatterbox. We have a video of her talking, but gives us a few days to get it up. She has spent the last 3 weeks in the church nursery and is doing a fantastic job of chillin' with the other kids. She has made two trips to American Funds and had a blast distracting the entire department (as well as the next department who I don't think was quite as amused.) This is our last full week together so I'm going to go hang with my baby instead of blogging!

TWO MONTHS!

Holy cow, it's been two whole months already! Madeline checked in at 10 pounds 11 ounces and 23 1/4 inches long today. That puts her in the 75th percentile for length and 50th for weight. I think maybe her hair is getting some red highlights to it. She has started to roll to the other side and started trying to repeat sounds. Aside from the four shots she got today, she's doing great!

Happy Easter!

It's our first holiday celebration with Madeline! (Technically she was born on a holiday, but who celebrates President's Day? And we sort of blew past St. Patrick's Day...)

Grandma Long kicked off Easter week by bringing us several books all about Easter and books about bunnies. She even gave Maddie her very first Bible. Grandma and Grandpa Webb visited this weekend and brought an Easter basket full of rattles, teethers, and a stuffed bunny.

(not sure why Madeline is hating the card so much?)

Our good buddy Heather Dickerson handpicked this outfit from Gymboree and we've been waiting for a good excuse to wear it. Even thought it's pink, she looks pretty darn cute!


We celebrated at church and had a nice lunch at Olive Garden. Madeline is quite the thoughtful participant at church.

The Swimsuit Edition

I bought Madeline her very first swimsuit this week! It was a tough call, but red always seems to win with me. It's a little big, but I figure we have close to two months of growing before swimming season really kicks in. My boss even got us a cute inflatable boat for her to chill in at the pool. I have an unreasonable dislike of water, particularly any water anywhere near my eyes. I am hoping that Madeline does NOT grow up this way, so I want her to have lots of positive water experiences. Now if I could just fit in my swim suit...or if it would just warm up!

So I'm sure my last post revealed the absolute elation in my tone over the better sleeping habits...this week we've moved to 8-9+ solid hours of sleep!! Have I mentioned I love my kid? She has also started rolling over from tummy to back. She is most consistent when she's naked though, which I find interesting. It kind of makes tummy time a little tricky though since she likes to keep flipping every time we put her on her tummy now. Her head control has drastically improved. She's doing a great job of keeping her head steady as long as she's not tired. I even tried her in the bumbo seat this week and she loves it because she can check everything around her out.

This past Sunday was the first church service that she didn't sleep the entire time. She spent about half of it wide eyed and checking out our pew neighbors. I heard giggles from the back row so I know you people weren't paying attention! She spent the other half with her hand under her chin, looking deep in thought. (I wish I had a picture of this because it was pretty stinking cute.) Then just as they started to pray for communion....my precious little angel starts to scream her head off. Sorry Pastor Mark!

And finally...somebody managed to take a picture of me with Madeline. You wouldn't think it would take two months to get a picture of a kiddo with her momma, but alas...