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!