10+ Months

I was looking at some old pictures of Maddie's first month and while she has changed a lot in the last 10 months she still has some of those same features but at the same time she has grown so much.

Here is a picture of Maddie when she was only about a week old.

And here is a picture of Maddie from earlier today.

As you can see she's definitely a bit more active these days. She has recently started walking and while she only goes a few steps at a time (at this point anyways) you can see her climbing skills are pretty decent. She is quick to go up the stairs if you leave the gate open and is very adventurous. I can't believe how quickly the past 10+ months have gone by and all the changes that have happened from those first teeth to the first steps to the next firsts that will come over the next few years.

Changes

Well a lot has changed since the last post and I can't believe how big Maddie is getting. She is almost 7 months old and the new things she can do daily is impressive. She's not crawling yet but she is definitely mobile and while attempting to crawl she does go forward although she also goes backwards just as often. She has also pulled herself up from sitting into standing a few times. And last night when she was in the bath on her hands and knees (in that crawling position) she managed to figure out how to get back to sitting. Now she's only done it that one time but I know our lives about about to change quite a bit.

It's hard to believe how much she has changed in the last 7 months from that helpless little infant who while never tiny was small to the little girl who is the center of our lives and makes us both very happy. I love her smiles and her giggles and even now I would say that most of the time she is a happy baby.

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So I started the above blog about 2 months ago. Maddie is now almost 9 months old and has changed even more since the last blog. She is crawling around like a champ and pulling herself up onto everything she can. She is even starting to get a little adventurous and she lets go with one hand and occassionally both hands but falls onto her bottom quite a bit. But she's a tough cookie and hardly ever cries when she falls although like some babies when learning to stand she does have some bruises.

Her personality is shining through more every day and I am happy to say that she is a pretty happy baby. I've found that since she has been sleeping better at night (not perfect but definitely better) that she's even happier during the day. She's also quite the talker and I love listening to her babble along.

It's hard to believe that in a few short months that she'll be one. I'm not quite ready for that milestone but I figure in the mean time we'll enjoy the next few months. Till the next time.

Time Flies

It's hard to believe that it's been more than 5 months already since Maddie came into our lives and even just the last month has gone by soo quickly. We've had lots of visitors and Maddie has learned to do quite a few new things.

In April Auntie Sara and cousin Arden came to visit. It was girls weekend and it was fun to watch the two girls play. They were so funny together. I can't wait till they are both a bit bigger and can talk and really play together.

This past week Grammy Sue and Aunti Kait came to visit. They were here for 41/2 days and even got to watch Maddie for a full day while both Jym and I were at work. It was great to see how Maddie interacted with them.

Maddie has also decided that she is a rolling fiend. She had been rolling front to back fairly consistently and from back to front occassionally. Now she rolls front to back to front to back to get places. She also pivots and is scooching backwards a bit as well. She will also every once in a while pull her legs up but hasn't quite figured it out as I think it's more on accident. The other little girl at day care who is a month older is starting to get on her hands and knees so I figure it's only a matter of time before Maddie is there. She's also been doing a lot better at sitting up by herself. She does sometimes fall and do a faceplant but for the most part does a great job at sitting up. And as always she is chatting up a storm.

We are currently working on getting her to sleep in her crib at night. We had two great stretches yesterday (4 hours and 5 hours) and hopefully tonight goes just as well. That being said as I haven't gotten a decent amount of sleep in months I'm going to bed! Till the next time.

4 months

Well it has been 4 months and a lot has happened during that time. At the beginning of February I went back to work. It was definitely hard but the daycare maddie goes to has been wonderful. Maddie has grown quite a bit and has some new tricks up her sleeve. She is now rolling over from tummy to back pretty consistently and has added in rolling from her back to her tummy. And she is quite the talker. I know with jym and I as her parents it shouldn't be surprising but it is super cute. She of course smiles a lot more now and has even started to laugh a bit. It's absolutely adorable and I love the gummy smiles.

She's normally a very happy baby which is great and makes our lives a lot easier. We're working on having her sleep in her crib. Last night we tried the cry it out method. I decided after an hour (and she fell asleep but kept waking up and crying) that I did not like that method and was going to do a different method. So we are trying the no-cry method. It will probably take longer but in the grand scheme fo things I'd rather take a few more weeks/months to get her to sleep through the night then to have to listen to her wail.

I'm sure it will have it's ups and downs but it's something I'm a lot more comfortable with and I think will work with our personalities.

And because it's been a while here are some new pictures of Maddie

Pictures and 2 months!

Well my baby is 2 months old. As I mentioned in my last post I have some weekly pictures. Without further ado here are weeks 5-8 as well as Maddie's 2 month picture. As you can see she is getting a lot more interactive and fun.

As you can see she is changing quite a bit and getting a lot more fun. She's a very sweet baby and has a pretty good temperment although when she is unhappy she does let you know it. She's been a little clingy with me over the last few weeks which we attributed to being a little over stimulated after our trip to NH and Maine and everyone holding her. I figure I'll ask the doctor about it on Monday when we go in for our 2 month visit.

Jym has had a few experiences of being by himself with Maddie and has done fairly well. The first time she cried for the majority of the time but had calmed down by the time I got home. I was only gone for an hour. The second time I was gone for 3 hours and while she cried for a bit he figured out what she needed and did better although he was definitely glad when I got home.

I go back to work on the 7th which is a little over a week away which is kind of sad but it's time. The first two weeks I'll be doing some work from home and the third week of February is when Maddie starts daycare 3 days a week. I'm still going to try to work from home 2 days a week just till Jym gets a bit more comfortable.

Anyways we head up to NY for Maddie to meet the rest of grandparents, great grandparents, and second cousins (i think that's what we call my cousins). It will be a long weekend but should be good and we're looking forward to it.

Trip Recap & Resolutions

So we have gotten back from our trip up to New England and it was very productive and great to visit with everyone. We left on Monday the 3rd at midnight (so technically the 4th) and drove straight through the night and arrived in NH at a little after 10am. My dad had taken the week off so he was home. He held Maddie while she slept (don't know why she was still sleeping as she slept most of the ride to NH but no complaints here!) and we chatted and caught up.

When Diana came home from work we headed out to lunch at this little restaurant in town and to pick up a cake for Zack's belated birthday celebration on Thursday night. We just hung around for the afternoon and relaxed. On Wednesday Sara came over with Arden and Talon and Maddie got to meet her cousins for the first time. It was great and I couldn't believe how much Arden had changed in the few months since I had seen her. We had a Christmas celebration on Wednesday night and then Thursday was another day of hanging out and then another family get together to celebrate Zack's birthday and let other relatives meet Maddie.

On Friday we made our way up to Maine to introduce Maddie to everyone. We stopped at Jym's grandparents house and it was so cute to watch them interact with Maddie. His grandfather was absolutely enamoured by her. He normally has a very rigid schedule but twice he broke that to play with Maddie and to go to lunch with us. Also I think I saw Jym's brother Mike more in the four days we were there than I had in the last four years. Part of that was because his schedule had changed (he used to work the night shift so he was either working or sleeping) but it was nice to see so much of him.

The weekend went by quickly and Maddie hit a milestone as well of finally starting to smile when not going to the bathroom. She also is recognizing both Jym and myself and greeting us with smiles which was wonderful. We left Maine on Tuesday and headed back to NH ahead of the storm that was supposed to come in. We had dinner with Krissy and Steve Tuesday night and headed back to my parents where my sister was already there with Arden and Talon. The snow started early Wednesday morning and the boys didn't have school so we hung out for the day and then went to the mall to get pictures taken seeing as the boys didn't have school. It was a good time and Maddie behaved herself for the most part and we got some really great pictures.

Friday we left NH around 3:45 and headed down to Boston to have dinner with Kait, her boyfriend Sam, her roommate Emily, Jym's friend Mike, and my friend Jon who are all in Boston. We stayed till about 9 and then got on the road to head to Jersey to Risa's where we were going to crash for the evening. We got there about 2:30 (it would have been earlier but we had some issues with the directions and taking the wrong exit twice). Saturday morning we had breakfast/lunch with Risa and Pat and then got back on the road. We got home around 5:15 and I think all of us were glad to be home. The last few days of the trip Maddie had been very clingy and not wanting anyone to hold her except for me (not even jym) which I think was because she had been passed around so much over the prior week. I'm hoping a few days home with me will help with that and getting back into a routine.

We've missed the last few of her weekly pictures but I will be posting those this week once we go through them all. She's growing so quickly and I love watching all the changes. The time has gone by so quickly. It's hard to believe it's already been 7 weeks. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday however i know it will continue to go quickly especially once I go back to work.

As far as resolutions I normally make the ones that everyone makes and don't normally get very far so this year I decided to not make my resolutions till after our trip to New England. As the return of work is coming quickly (not sure the exact date yet but should know this week) I figured the best resolution would be something that I've been thinking about doing anyway. Normally I leave all my cleaning for the weekend. I have found that since Maddie has been born that isn't the easiest thing to do especially because once I go back to work those will be the only full days that I get with her and Sunday's will just be the two of us as Jym works for 13 hours on those days. I know that I won't want to spend the weekend cleaning. So my resolution for 2011 is to start doing a little bit each night in relation to cleaning. I figure sometime in the next few months Maddie will start going to bed at a decent hour (read before 11pm) so I'll be able to get home from work, have dinner, play with her and then once she goes to bed spend 30 minutes doing the designated chores. That way I'll get to spend lots of my weekend time with her and the house should stay relatively clean.

As far as the rest of my resolutions - well those are the same as everyone else. Loose the last of the baby weight (probably 10-15 pounds), pay down debt, and find more interesting things to cook for dinner. We'll see how those go. I figure I'll do a resolution update in April after I've been at it for a few months. My hope is that it's all going well. Till then we'll just do our best.