Mady's First Christmas

aka: Christmas 2011


We had such a great Christmas. It was so busy, but it was wonderful. My Dad came to stay with us for a week. He arrived on the 21st and left today. It was so nice to spend the week with him. Mady just adored him, and vice versa.



On Christmas Eve night, we all went to Brett's Mom's house. We had dinner and then opened some gifts with Brett's brother C, C's girlfriend and her daughter. (We're all hoping for an engagement announcement sometime in the near future!) Mady was up way past her bedtime, but she was having so much fun with everyone. I'm happy to say, she slept through the night that night.





(Despite, the face in this last picture, Mady was OBSESSED with the bows on presents.)


The next morning, Mady was up around 8:15 AM and we opened gifts at our house. Santa was VERY generous...Mady was a very good girl this year.





I can't even begin to think of everything Mady got for Christmas. Puzzles, books, My Pal Violet, an elephant ball popper, blocks, a play cell phone, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD, a Lion Kind DVD, ...the list goes on and on.

Then we went BACK to Brett's Mom's house to open more presents and eat brunch.



There Mady got lots of clothes, books, puzzles, stuffed animals, bath toys, a play camera...she got so much stuff at Grandma's house that I can't even remember it all. Grandma, Great Grandma and Uncle C definitely spoiled her!

After Grandma's house, we came back to our house, where we celebrated with Brett's Dad, Stepmom, Brother, Stepbrother and Stepbrother's family. We had a great dinner and opened MORE presents.







At this celebration, Mady received some clothes, a maraca (which she LOVES!) a baby doll, a purse, and a little ride on car. Mady had a blast with all of her cousins and the rest of her family. Again, she was so tired after the festivities, that she slept all night long. Woo hoo for 2 full nights of sleep!

We're still trying to adjust to "normal" life again. Things were so hectic the past week. Now that the shopping and traveling and celebrating is done, it will be nice to get back to regular life again. Even though I absolutely LOVED spending our first Christmas with Mady. I hope each Christmas is even better!

I hope everyone had a great holiday season!

A Visit With Santa

Mady met Santa for the first time today!

I was so looking forward to this. My mom took me and my sister to see Santa every year. Our pictures were legendary in our family because I would sit nicely and smile. My sister, on the other hand....she would scream, flail her arms, have a bright red face....it was classic! So, I was interested to see Mady's reaction to Santa.

She did better than I thought. I was expecting her to flip out as soon as I handed her over to Santa. But, she checked out the toys in Santa's workshop, took a while and stared at Santa...and just as she started to get upset, they snapped the picture.




Yay!

10 Months Old

Brett has been teasing me for months. "Double digits", he'd whisper while talking about Mady. And I'd tell him I'd cry when she reached double digits. I didn't cry. I beamed with pride.



As I posted below, we have a walker. Now she's turning into a runner. She can spin around, she can step over things in her way, she's a mover and a shaker. As of one week ago, Mady was exactly 17 pounds. I'll have to weigh her again. She's been a weight gaining machine lately. She's eating almost everything we eat. Chicken, veggies, fruit....her favorites are grilled cheese, sweet potatoes and blueberries. She prefers cups with straws to regular sippy cups.

She goes to sleep most nights with no issues. We've started incorporating teeth brushing (the current tooth count is 5....whith one looming on the horizon) into the night time routine. Mady is so cute with it. We take her into the bathroom and she opens her mouth and waits for the toothbrush. She's a fan of her bottom teeth being brushed, but doesn't like her top teeth done. (I attribute this to that looming tooth.) She goes to sleep without a fight. We rock for a minute or two, we put her in her crib, give her her seahorse and she goes right to sleep.

Mady is obsessed with the Christmas tree. Every morning when we come out of her room, we have to say "Good Morning" to the tree. If I don't stop at the tree, she whines and stares at it until we go back to it. I bought her a blown glass Mickey Mouse ornament and she can't get enough of it. We have to talk to it, touch it and kiss it several times daily. We put a gate around the tree and one of Mady's favorite games is to throw toys over the gate. She also like to try to climb the gate. My little monkey.



Her favorite songs are the "ABCs" and "The Wheels On The Bus". She can clap along with "Patty Cake". If you ask her where her nose is, she will either point to her nose or my nose. Mady waves "hi" and "bye bye". She says "Hi" to anyone that will listen to her. She flirts with the elderly men at the grocery store.

Mady has occasional tantrums. Full on, throwing herself on the floor, rolling around, screaming. How did this start already? Tantrums are most often thrown when we won't let her in the laundry room to play in the dog's bowls. (This happens often, so you can imagine how fun this is to deal with.) I won't get into detail on sleep....we'll just say it's improving.

I can't think of anything else right now. I can't wait for Christmas. I am so excited to share it with my little girl. 2 more months until she's a year old. Gosh, I have to start thinking about a birthday party!

We Have A Walker!!!!

She's 9.5 months old and she can walk. Where did my baby go????

Kreativ Blogger Award

A Huge Thank You to TWO of my girlfriends, who nominated my blog for a Kreative Blogger Award. Quiana, over at "Harlem Love Birds" has such a great business sense...I really admire her smarts. She has the cutest little girl, with the cutest little cheeks! And Nicole, with her blog, "Baby B Makes Three". Nicole has a little cutie named Austin who Mady is starting to rival for a love of Mickey Mouse. Nicole just found out that she is going to have a second baby and I'm so excited for her. Thanks for nominating me girls!

The rules for this award are simple:

Share 7 random facts about me....and share this award with other favorite bloggers. Here we go:

1. I was blessed by the Pope when I was 6 months old.
2. I can recite the movie "Pretty Woman" by heart.
3. In my 32 years, I have lived in 2 states and 11 different "houses".
4. Through all of my travels, my two favorite places are Maui and London.
5. I didn't own my own car until I was 24 years old. I didn't want to deal with the maintenance. (Oil changes, flat tires, etc....)
6. I broke the same wrist twice in 3 months.
7. I've met one of my two favorite celebrities, Harry Connick, Jr. Now I need to get dance lessons from John Travolta and I'm all set.

And now, I share this award with....

Kami at The Mommy Diaries
Sarah at Absolutely Ridiculous
Brittany at The Suburban Princess Diaries

Have fun girls!

Mady Is 9 Months Old

9 months. 3/4 of a year. How time flies.

We have a crawler. A cruiser. A stander and a stepper. She's taken 7 consecutive steps on her own. She's not nearly officially walking yet, but she will be soon. She loves peekaboo with everything she has. She peeks out from the couch, from under a towel, from behind the dog...waiting for us to say, "Where's Mady? Peekaboooooo!!!" And then she giggles with delight and starts all over again.

She's still madly in love with "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse". As soon as she hears the music, her little body rushes from wherever she is to see the television. She only cares about the music, so once the theme song or "The Hot Dog Dance" are over, she's back to whatever she was doing again. Mady has also discovered Cookie Monster and the old school, "C is for Cookie" song. Thank goodness for YouTube, I can play both "C is for Cookie" and the "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" songs whenever she gets grumpy. Either bring an instant smile to her face.

Mady's first word is officially "Mama". She'd been babbling it for a while, but there's no question that she knows I'm "Mama" and she uses it to the full extent. She also says "Ni Ni" when she's ready for bed and "Hi". She's waving and clapping, although sometimes she gets them confused. When Brett leaves for work, he'll wave goodbye to her and she claps. It drives him crazy.

She loves bath time and her puppy.



She's still getting up once a night to eat....around 4 AM.

Her favorite foods are still pears and sweet potatoes. She's been very excited with sweet potato fries. Mady also enjoys avocado spread on toast.


We're working on water out of a sippy cup. She loves the cup, she just can't grasp that she has to tilt her head back to get anything out of it.

She got two new teeth this month, both front top teeth. They gave her a few problems but it wasn't terrible. She also had her first cold. We visited the ER for it, because she sounded like Darth Vader and it was a Sunday so the pediatrician's office was closed. She's fine but still sounds like Darth Vader 2.5 weeks later. So does Mommy.

She's becoming more independent. She plays in her room by herself for a while. She's climbing on her bookcase, much to Mommy's fear. She's trying to hang from the curtains. She's the Energizer Bunny. She's constantly trying to open the cabinets. We have all but one set of cabinets child proofed. She tries to squeeze into the locked cabinets. And she pulls EVERYTHING out of the unlocked cabinet.


Although I'm exhausted, Mady is so much fun. I love being her Mommy and there's nothing I'd rather be doing every day than spending time with her. She's just the best.

Update: As of 11/14/11, Mady weighs 15 lbs., 12.5 ounces. She is 26.5 inches tall.

Halloween

I just have no time to blog these days. Well, I guess I do have the time, but when I have that free time, the last thing I want to do is blog. So sorry for that. Not to mention, this house has been sick for almost a month now. We've all had a MISERABLE cold. It's been so bad that Mady has been to the ER once (just as a precaution when the pediatrician wasn't open on the weekend) and to pediatrician as well. She's fine, it's just a viral cold for all of us. We just can't get rid of it.

Things here have been busy. Mady is crawling like a mad woman. She's faster that I ever imagined. Here is the cutest video of Mady and I playing Peek A Boo:



We celebrated Halloween, and Mady wasn't too excited about her kangaroo costume. Not only did she not really like wearing it, she wasn't a fan of sitting still to get pictures. It was a struggle to get even these shots:




We spent some time in the leaves on Halloween too:



And we carved our pumpkin:



We didn't trick or treat this year, we just visited a few people at work or at their houses. It figures we weren't going out though, the weather was GORGEOUS. Next year, it'll be snowing, I'm sure.

All in all, Mady had a good Halloween. It was fun for Mommy, anyway.

8 Months Old

Yesterday Mady turned 8 months old and she had a BIG day.


She rode the swings and went on the slide for the first time. She wasn't interested in the slide, but she loved the swings.


(Don't worry, Brett was standing right next to her with his arms out...I just angled him out of the picture.)

She learned how to clap AND play peekaboo yesterday, too. Her peekaboo is so cute. She stands against the couch cushions and lowers her head so she can't see us. Then we say, "Where's Mady?" and she pops her head up so we'll say "Peekaboo". It's adorable.

She is 16.4 pounds but I haven't measured her length. HEr favorite songs are the "ABCs" and "The Wheels On The Bus". Still loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and hating finger foods. She loves pears and sweet potatoes the most but will really eat any veggie but carrots. She's not a fan of bananas or blueberries. STILL not STTN. In fact, lately she's taken to waking up twice before we even go to bed to SCREAM. It's frustrating. We keep trying.

Her new favorite past times are using the toilet as a drum (I promise, I clean it daily for her):


Crawling as fast as she can to the dog bowls (and the refrigerator/freezer and dishwasher):


Gazing out the window (which then turns into playing with and then breaking the vertical blinds):





Playing jailbird with Daddy in front of the new gate:


And trying to eat leaves while playing outside with Mommy:


In a few days, I hope to have a big picture update post.

Happy 8 Months my sweet girl. I love you more each and every day!