Wednesday, May 13, 2009

National Champs 2009!

I think we know who the Tarheels really have to thank for their phenomenal season. I'm just sayin'....Maddie was born, then they had an awesome year. We're waiting on our thank you card, Mr. Hansbrough.

Bow ties are better than chocolate



Maddie had a fun first Easter. We went to church, where she continued her usual pattern of hating being left in the nursery. This time we were not "beeped" to come check on her, but it turns out they tried and our beeper just didn't work. Poor Mads. She is just not too sure about this nursery thing.

The week before Easter we attended an Easter Egg Hunt (Maddie was just SO excited to look for Easter eggs), mainly for the photo ops. What good is a baby if you can't take lots of silly pictures that they won't remember? We had fun though, it was a nice day and Maddie was very well behaved. Here are some of my faves:

I'm ready for some fun Dad!

Rockstar

Hey look, I found an egg all by myself. With no
help from my parents at all.
This bunny thing is kinda creepy looking- guess
I'll just taste his bow tie.
Easter is fun!!!



Sitting up!

I think the last time I posted, I was lamenting about Maddie still not sitting up. Of course, as soon as I wrote that, she started sitting a few days later. I guess maybe she reads the blog and wanted to prove me wrong. Here's her first official sitting picture, when she was a few days shy of 8 months:


It's taken her a while, but now at 9 months she's a pretty good sitter. She was still tipping over quite a bit for that first month, but she's getting the hang of balancing now. Although we do still usually have a pillow behind her, just in case!

Now that Maddie is sitting well, she's graduated to a "big girl" bathub (it even quacks!) and a portable high chair that is great for when we're eating out. She loves her new bathtub and also loves sitting right at the table with her mom and dad.

I won't lie though, I miss those days when we'd take her in her carseat and she'd fall asleep mid-meal. Or if she got hungry, I could just feed her a bottle and be done. Now she wants to be entertained and gets quite indignant if we even think about eating our food without sharing some with her. This girl LOVES to eat! (I swear she isn't drunk in this pic)

So we've conquered sitting, and although she was on the late side, she was still in the normal range. I'm really enjoying having a sitting, but non-mobile baby. I know that crawling, standing and cruising are coming up, but I'm in no hurry!

WAY behind!

Once again, I find myself behind in my attempts to blog all our latest happenings. So instead of doing one big mega post, I'm going to try and do a few posts to catch up on the last few weeks. Here goes!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Etsy Easter Egg Hunt

As many of you know, I am slightly addicted to the site etsy.com. It's a website that sells homemade goods, crafts, toys, clothing- pretty much anything you can think of. It's a wonderful place to go for unique gifts and purchases, and the coolest thing about etsy is that you are in direct contact with the person making the item you're buying- so in most cases you can completely customize anything you buy. Good for a control freak such as myself.

Anyway, the ACE team on etsy is having an Easter Egg Hunt contest. 21 local NC shops are participating, you just visit their stores online and try and find the hidden eggs. If you can find at least 10 of the 21 eggs, you can enter to win some fun prizes from the shops. And it's a great way just to check out some local etsy shops. Here's the link to the contest: ACE Blog. Happy Hunting! I'll let you know if I win anything :).

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Time for an update!

It's been awhile! My port surgery went well, I was pretty sore for a few days but it was actually much easier recovery than I remembered. My mom was a huge help, she came up and stayed with us here for a few days, and then Maddie and I travelled to SC to stay with her and my dad for a week so I could have a little break from full time baby duty while I recovered. Mike missed us both, but luckily he had March Madness to distract him.

Maddie had her first cold while I was recovering- it was so pitiful! She didn't actually get that sick, she just had a really stuffy nose for about a week. She did have a little fever one night, but it went down quickly with some Tylenol. Even though it (thankfully) did not develop into anything serious, we did have to endure many days of saline drops and the nasal aspirator to keep her clear enough to eat- and that was not a fun task. Maddie is NOT a fan and doesn't hesitate to let you know. On what was probably the worst night, she ended up sleeping in her carseat in her crib to keep her head elevated so she could breathe. Hey, whatever works!

But that's over now, we're home and life is back to normal! Maddie took a little break from solids when she was sick (and immediately got constipated again) but now she's back on track. She is proving to be way too much like her mommy when it comes to veggies. So far the only vegetable she will consistently eat is a sweet potato. We will keep trying them and hopefully she will get used to them, but right now she tends to spit them in my face. She's a bit more adventurous with fruits (although she doesn't really like apples- what a weirdo!). Pears are by far her fave, although she won't hesitate to gobble down some blueberries or banana.

She also loves pretty much anything you put in her mesh feeder, so far I've tried ice, green apples, red apples, blueberries and black beans. For snacking, and practicing feeding herself, she loves puffs and Mum-mums. I let her feed herself some table foods if I think she won't choke on them, and so far she seems to like that- although WOW what a mess! Baths are becoming more and more frequent.

Maddie still isn't sitting up unsupported, but I think she's getting really close now. I haven't gotten a pic or video of it yet, I'll have to do that soon. I think she's going to be really late to walk too, b/c she still doesn't put any weight on her feet if you try to stand her up. But I've decided that it's fine with me- just means I'll be able to enjoy having a non-mobile baby a little bit longer than most people!

Here are some new videos I took recently:
Eating a pickle at Bruggers- eeewww (she liked it, I thought it was gross)!
Eating a slice of avocado- she loved it! And officially become a professional mess maker

When I was in SC, my mom and I had a dress making competition to see who could make Maddie the cutest dress. We went the easy route (good for me b/c I've never made any clothing before!) and bought t-shirts at Target. Then we just made the skirts and ironed on a cut out design. I think mom won the contest, but I'm very proud of my first dress too :). We both made them a little too short, so the search is on for matching bloomers I guess!

Mom's dress

My dress

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Videos galore!

Mike got me this for my birthday (well, birthday/Valentine's day, that's why I already have it!) and I've been going crazy making videos of Miss Mads. I'm going to include some links for the videos I've uploaded to You Tube (see end of post for links).

Maddie has gotten so much better in the last couple of weeks with her head/body control. She still isn't sitting up on her own, but she's getting close and she can sit up well enough for us to put her in shopping carts and high chairs when we go out.

She figured out how to make a "buh" sound in the last couple days, and she can't seem to get enough of it. It is SO cute! I can't believe my little tiny baby is on her way to talking. I have a feeling she's going to be quite the chatterbox :).

We had another snow (pretty, but I am SO ready for warm weather!) and Maddie was much happier about being outside in the cold this time. Here's my favorite pic of her in the snow this time, plus I'm including the picture of last time for contrast, lol! I also have to include the picture of her wearing this same hat the day after she was born- she has finally grown into it!




Mike and I took her to the doctor last Saturday b/c she was being very fussy, screaming when we put her in her crib (very unlike her), letting me rock her to sleep (also very unlike her) and pulling on her ear a lot, so we thought she might have an ear infection. Turns out she did not, but they weighed her and she was 14 lb 7 oz! That's only 2 weeks after her 6 month appointment when she weighed 13 lb 10 oz. Quite the gain in 2 weeks! Guess those solids are packing on the pounds.

Speaking of solids, feeding them to Maddie has been nothing short of hilarious. So far we've given her oatmeal (likes it), sweet potatoes (loves them- her favorite food), avocados (hates them), carrots (likes them), peas (doesn't like them), pears (loves them), apples (likes them) and green beans (hates them). We've got to work on those green veggies, it looks like she's got her mommy's taste buds right now.

I am having surgery to replace my portacath on Tuesday, so my mom will be coming up to Raleigh to help me take care of Maddie for the rest of that week (I don't think I'll be able to pick her up for a while b/c of soreness). Then Maddie and I will be headed back down to Greenville with mom for about a week and a half, so she can continue to help while I heal. Mike is already so sad about spending such a long time away from Mads (and me....but mostly Mads, lol!), but I think he will enjoy watching the ACC tourney in peace and he will be coming down to Greenville for my birthday weekend. And since we'll be in Greenville on the 22nd, we'll have free babysitters and can go out for my birthday! Then mom and I will be seeing Legally Blonde (SO EXCITED!) on the 24th before I head back up to Raleigh.

Guess that's enough info for one update! Enjoy the pics and videos and I'll be sure to update when Maddie has her 7 month appt next week with her gigantic height and weight!

Video links:
Maddie laughing/being silly this is my fave!

Watching Baby Einstein #1 she LOVES the puppets on these videos

Watching Baby Einstein #2 gets very excited when watching this

Trying to eat non-pureed apple FAIL

In the snow she loved the snowflakes hitting her face!

In her jumper this was after she had been in it for about 10 minutes, so she was starting to lean, lol