things that go

madelyn has been all about her toys on wheels today! here are some videos with her firetruck, tractor, and phone (the old school toy) powered by maddie. it was so cute to watch her push them all over the house. she even figured out that she has to flip them back on their wheels when she pushes them so hard that they turn over.

they have even been more interesting than looking in the cabinets (her current obsession). she pushed the firetruck into the kitchen and started opening cabinets. all i had to do was push the truck with my foot a little and she was all over it again. it definitely made my kitchen duties a lot easier tonight! (not to mention that my sweet husband had cleaned up last night because i wasn't feeling well.)

i think that her molars are making some more progress because she has been chewing on her pointer finger almost constantly and acting clingy and whiny. hopefully some will come in soon so that she can have a little relief.

another recent habit madelyn has is climbing into the toy baskets and sitting on the toys to play. she will stay in there for a while too, just playing with whatever she can pull out from under her. of course the other advantage to playing in the basket is that she can get up on top of the coffee table - well at least she can try...

that's it for tonight. i am off to bed early to see if i can shake this bug i picked up before maddie gets it. love.

grandma has landed

as you can see grandma is here! and she brought a late Christmas with her. she is spoiling us all rotten and madelyn doesn't know what to do with herself she has so many new toys to look at and play with.

we spent all afternoon shopping today. i am exhausted! maddie did really fantastic. we were out from 12:30 until around 7:30 without any really crying from her. she ate two meals and snacks on the road. napped a little in her stroller, in the car, and in grandma's arms.

i love these disposable place mats for dining out. it is so great to just stick them on the table and maddie can eat her finger foods by herself, just like at home. i had a whole lunch box to carry around with all her yogurt, bananas, avocado, snacks, and water today. it actually worked out better than i thought. i think it helped that it was pretty cold today so the car itself was like a refrigerator as we ran around.

grandma is having fun feeding maddie:



grandma is also really having fun making maddie laugh! here is some video of them playing in maddie's room while i was working. i could hear them laughing so i went to see what was up. later grandma told me that she was teaching maddie to dance.



in un-grandma news maddie was grinding her teeth yesterday! i checked my "what to expect the first year" book immediately to see what i should do about it (because i am that sort of spaz). i guess it was just a new fun trick for her. she did it off and on during the day, but didn't do it at all today so maybe she is already over it. i hope so - that noise makes me crazy.

maddie continues to sleep pretty soundly for 10+ hours so i think we might be out of the bad trend i had created of feeding at night. cross your fingers for another good night tonight!

love.

capturing Christmas

i haven't been feeling all that Christmas-y this year. i think its because we won't be home so there are no decorations, or cookies, or anything resembling Christmas that i can see on a daily basis. i also do almost all my shopping on-line so there hasn't been much shopping either. but what we did do was go out for family portraits today with maddie in her Christmas dress. she looked so grown-up! and i think we actually got a decent family shot this time. i can't wait to get the prints. they also had some 'santa sleeves' and white gloves for matt to wear while maddie held his hands and stood-up - very sweet... we got this very pretty dress and hair bows (with jingle bells) for only $0.86 thanks to a gift certificate we had been hanging on to for the purpose of buying her a Christmas dress. i was really excited for such a bargain! and maddie liked the dress so much when we tried it on at home that i couldn't get her to look up at the camera! luckily, she did better at the portrait studio.

maddie and i did some other shopping today before heading to the mall for pictures including home depot and target. since she is getting to be such a big girl i decided that we would try sitting in the cart by herself and it couldn't have gone better! she did great the whole time we were shopping (and since it was target you know that we were there a while). i was afraid to get kicked out for using my real camera so the picture is from my cell phone.

she is also getting her arms straight out while she does her rocking. before she was just getting up to her elbows, but now she can get all the way up to her hands. she isn't quite crawling, but she has figured out that if she gets all the way up to her hands and rocks back a forth a few times, she can lunge herself forward enough to reach a toy (or her daddy) that is too far away.

she is also ready for some new toys. but i am trying to control myself until the grandparents do their gift giving. it just seems like she is ready to move beyond her rattles and stuffed animals. especially now that she can sit and move more. she has also taken a great interest in standing on her own (she doesn't want to be in her exersaucer, she wants to be outside holding herself up while playing with the toys) so we might look for something that will help her pull herself up to a standing position. every time i go to get her from a nap now she has both hands on the top of her bumper or on the crib bars themselves trying to pull herself up so she is definitely getting ready.

since i didn't take any video today, here is one from yesterday. i was trying to get her doing this soft "singing" with the keys in her mouth, but when the camera went on she realized that she wasn't alone and started to get fussy because it was nap time. oh well. love.