Two Teeth!

We are at the lake for the weekend so I will update with pictures on Monday. Yesterday we left town and headed South. On the way, I was sitting in the back with Madeline and she opened her mouth and I saw the top of a little white tooth poking through. It is her front, bottom, right tooth. Today it is showing up more and her front, bottom, left tooth is coming through too. It has not bothered her one bit! I hope I did not jinx us!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!

xoxo,
Leslie

Can you hear me now?????

Madeline has mastered the attention grabbing squeal!! It is a very happy squeal. I could hear her while I was in the shower this morning. She was in our bedroom and the door to the bathroom was shut. Once I got out, I heard Ben laughing and asking her what she was doing. She was very impressed by her vocal ability.
By the way, she was bright eyed at 4:30 a.m. this morning!!! She sleeps in on the days I am off and wants to get up very early on the days I work. She usually wakes up when I do on the two days that I work, but today she decided that we needed to get up 30 minutes before my alarm. I opened my eyes and could see her big, bright eyes wide open looking at me with a huge grin on her face. Madeline and I got up, turned on the light in her room and she L-O-V-E-D looking at the chandelier with the lights on. Not sure she has seen it with the lights on before since she usually goes to bed and gets up when the sun is up.

I must say that if you have to get up at 4:30 a.m., the best way to do it is waking up to a sweet 4 month old staring at you with a big smile ready to start another day of firsts and adventures.

What we have been up to

Madeline and I had a lot of fun on Monday. We got up and Madeline helped me make my breakfast. She sat in her Bumbo chair on the counter and watched me pour milk on my cereal. I actually made the cereal (granola) on  Friday but she liked watching me get the stuff out and pour the milk. Seeing her in the kitchen and getting interested in food gets me excited about when we can starting making and experimenting with food for her! We did some laundry and then we headed to the library for Baby Bookworms.

At Baby Bookworms, Madeline got very stimulated during the song if your happy and you know it. She started jumping up and down in my lap, bouncing her arms and started talking very loudly! We then got to jingle bells during one song and the leader carried a bubble maker around during the song Baby Beluga. She loved looking at the bubbles. The first time around I blocked the bubbles from popping on her, but let them pop on her the second time around. She made the face she makes in the bath when she thinks  water is about to splash in her face. She did not seem to mind the bubbles at all, just made a funny face. The third time around I had to block her because the bigger kids were following the bubble machine trying to pop the bubbles with their jingle bells. They were swinging hard at the bubbles and I thought one little girl was about to whack Madeline in the head as the bubbles were coming down on her. The leader noticed and said for the big kids to be careful because this class was for the babies.

I think I have the lingering effects of pregnancy brain.....

Exhibit A: I was so proud of myself for starting early on Monday pumping milk for Betsy(a.k.a. Grandmommy) to use on Tuesday. Well, early Tuesday morning, I grab a bottle to take to work from the clean/sanitazited tray of bottles and realized I put the bottle of pumped milk in the tray instead of the refrigerator! I was so sad while pouring a whole bottle of liquid gold down the drain.

Exhibit B: As I was getting out of the shower on Tuesday, I thought my wet hair felt weird/not squeaky clean. I went on my way and it dawned on me that I forgot to use shampoo!!! I remember getting in and focusing on exfoliating my skin and then rinsing my hair like it had shampoo on it. It was too late once it dawned on me what happened.

or

Maybe I am just getting Old! I am turning 28 on Monday.

4 Months Old

Madeline turned 4 months old on Saturday, July 24.

During the past month she has started laughing A LOT (hysterically), she laughs when you kiss her and put your lips against her belly and blow air (makes funny noise), grabbing everything and........

Madeline loves putting everything in her mouth. She loves to grab my hair and tries to eat it. Very surprised I do not have a bald spot from her pulling out my hair. She grabs it and does not let go.... she has a death grip.

Happy Feet!

Her feet are always up in the air and moving. In the last week, she has started holding her feet a lot (happy baby yoga pose). She has never put them in her mouth, but she pulls them very close to her mouth.

She also loves to dance around and loves a movement when we go up and down (like a squat).

She has gotten very strong!

She rolled from her tummy to back for the first time on July, 15.

Still not sure what color her eyes will be. Sometimes they look hazel and sometimes they look brown. Ben says she invented a new eye color: Brazel.

Her hair has really grown in the past month. The hair on her head, as well as her eyebrows! She has had long eyelashes since she was born.

I started putting her into her stroller seat this week instead of taking the carseat out and attaching it to the stroller. The carseat+Madeline is so heavy. She seems to like the stroller seat because she has more room and can look around easier. The first time I put her in the stroller seat we were at Ozark Natural Foods and she loved looking around. I do not think she will sleep in it like the carseat because she is not as snug, but it is perfect for walks and stuff. We were walking her to the park yesterday and I told Ben she is not a little baby anymore. She looked so big and mature sitting in the stroller taking in everything around her. She LOVED the breeze and laying under a tree watching the leaves blow in the wind.

She gets very excited when she hears and sees her Daddy walk in the door from work. She makes a high pitched noise/laugh and flashes a big smile at her Daddy. She is communicating how much she loves and adores him.

I still stare at her all the time when she sleeps! Ben always starts laughing because of the funny faces she makes while sleeping. She looks so beautiful and peaceful. We love her soooo much.

******By the way, Ben had not seen Madeline roll from tummy to back yet. I have seen it several times, but she would never do it for him. He just yelled from the bedroom that she just rolled for him!!! Way to go Madeline!

Celebrating

On Wednesday, we went with the Karnes and Reeds to celebrate Jack Karnes birthday. I have heard so many wonderful things about Jack. Every one loved him. I noticed people posting messages on facebook wishing Jack a Happy Birthday and how much they love and miss him. I wish I had gotten to meet one of Ben's best friends. Ben's mom said he was the best kid and she would always ask Ben if Jack was going. If Jack was going, she knew it was okay for Ben to go too! Even though he was not physically able to be apart of our wedding three years ago, we felt him in spirit and had a candle placed on the alter in order to acknowledge his presence.

The Karnes are amazing parents and people. They  love to celebrate Jack's life, his friends lives and their children.

Amanda and Big Sister Addison. We look forward to meeting Baby Boy Reed right before Thanksgiving!

Dr. Hardman delivered Madeline and came over to see her. She had a little girl three weeks after Madeline was born. Ben caught her off guard and wanted to get a picture of her and Madeline together. She was embarrassed and I felt for her, but I am so glad Ben got a picture of them together. Lots of people told me you will love the doctor that delivers your baby and I agree with them now.

Wednesday night was a very special night to us and we enjoyed spending it with people we care about and love!

Party Time

Madeline went to Olivia's First Birthday party on Saturday, July 17. The birthday girl was adorable and we got to hang out with her Aunt Sarah and cousin Lila since they came to town to celebrate. The party theme was a fiesta and Olivia wore a cute dress her grandparents brought back from Mexico. There were tons of babies! I think there were around 11 babies and the birthday girl was the oldest.

I am sooo sad I did not get a better picture of Olivia at her Birthday party!She was a very popular girl that day. She is in the corner of the picture below. Maybe I can steal a picture from her mom or Aunt Sarah's blog once they post about the party.

The next few pictures make me laugh.... We were trying to get a picture of all the babies together. I was just snapping away not really noticing what was going on. I heard Ben say Madeline was in a twin boy sandwich, but I did not get a picture of both sets of twins on each side of Madeline.  Rowe and Rider are the twins on the left side of Madeline (love their monkey outfits and their mom calls them her chunky monkeys).  Rowe and Rider are 10 months and the twin boys on her right side are 6 months old.

After picture time, we headed to the bedroom to have some quiet time with one of Madeline's BFFs Lila.Holding hands!

The End!

Cook out

As I have already blogged about, we found out that I was pregnant on July 15, 2009. We celebrated the year anniversary and grilled steaks on July 15, 2010. Madeline and I had fun outside while her Dad grilled. Madeline attended the steak dinner in her Diaper only attire.

As you can see, she loves putting stuff in her mouth. She was putting her hands so far down her throat she was gagging. She does not do it anymore, so I guess she associated hand shoved down throat = gagging. Lulu likes the picnic blanket Ben won in a golf tournament too!

Since I mentioned her diaper only attire above, I will give an update on her cloth diapers. I love them!!! It does not bother me at all washing them every night. I was a little worried after the first day or two, but Ben and I both love them now. We are so glad we switched. We are still using a disposable diaper at night since they absorb/hold more pee. We also love the disposable wipes we switched to.  Ben was telling some of our friends that we use disposable diapers and wipes and they were a little shocked. Ben said he was surprised his wife went from working at Tiffany & Co. to using cloth diapers. I love Madeline's rattle/teether from Tiffany & Co. and I love her cloth diapers. I want the best for my sweet girl, and I feel cloth diapers and Tiffany &Co items are the best for her even though they are at two different ends of the posh spectrum. By the way, silver it a natural disinfectant which makes it perfect for baby items (selling tipbit I used on the sales floor for baby items)!

Dancing Girl...

Madeline loves when we have a dance party. Daddy grabbed the camera the other evening and took some pictures of us. She LOVES when we are dancing and I do a squat. This girl is going to love rollar coasters!

Sleepy Girl

Yesterday, Ben's mom treated Madeline and me to lunch and then we went shopping. I guess we wore Madeline out! The picutre above was taken at the reataurant right before we left. She loves to cover her face while she sleeps. (She has her stuffed elepant over her face and eyes right now in her swing) Guess she got bored and wanted to take a little power nap before we left the restaurant. As soon as we left, she was wide awake again. We got her out of the stroller and carried her around Pinnacle Hills Promenade and she loved looking at the trees blowing in the wind and the blue sky. She was great and Madeline got some new things. Betsy bought her a book for the bath and I bought her a cute swim cover up, new sun hat and another Sophie the Giraffe. I  got something too! An apple corer. You know you are a mom and getting older when you go to Williams Sonoma and only kid stores to get some things instead of going to the dress shops! I am not good with knives and needed a corer for when I start making Madeline's baby food. I would probably slice my hand or at least a finger off trying to cut the core out of an apple.

On our way home

One year ago......

One year ago today, we found out about our sweet little butterfly! We have never called her a butterfly, but I thought it was appropriate because Ben said Madeline looks like a caterpillar in her woombie (pictures above) and she kind of did go from a caterpillar at this time last year to our BEAUTIFUL butterfly today. We did a little celebrating and went shopping for her and then we went to get Olivia a birthday present. Happy Birthday Olivia!!!

A year ago today I was sitting at work wondering could I be pregnant? Am I pregnant?? I had been so tired and had told my mom the week or two before that I thought something was really wrong because I would get up and be exhausted an hour or two later. Later, my Mom said it crossed her mind that I may be pregnant but never said anything and somehow it did not cross my mind. We were ready and decided that we wanted to get pregnant after our second anniversary, which was May 5, 2009. Well I went to the hairdresser on my lunch break and I was talking to her about how she found out, how soon she took a pregnancy test, etc..... I did not mention anything to her about myself, but talking to her convinced me that I should go and by a test. Well after work I went to Walgreens to buy one. I was so embarrassed looking at them and looked around to make sure no one was around (stupid, I know) and rushed to the check out. I just wanted to buy it and get out of there! The cashier brought up that I was buying a pregnancy test and politely told me that she hoped that I get the answer I was hoping for.... Thanks, but I wanted to tell her to mind her own business and to just put it in a bag so I could get out of there. I came home and immediately took it. I went back after a minute or so and it said POSITIVE! I was so excited, started jumping around while running to the phone saying Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh..... I called Ben and asked where he was and he said he would be home in a few minutes. I called him several times in about 5 minutes to see where he was! He probably got the idea after the third call. I could not wait for him to come in when I heard the garage door opening so I ran out, started crying and told him I was pregnant and started showing him the test. He was sooooo excited. Ben had wanted to become a Dad since the day we got married, but we knew we needed some time alone as newly weds. We went to dinner to celebrate and then headed to the hospital to take Erica Baker some Chick-Fil-A. She was starving after delivering Olivia. I wish I felt good enough to eat Chick-Fil-A after Madeline arrived!! At the hospital people asked us when we wanted to start having kids and Ben and I looked at each other with a smile and loved that we were the only ones that new our wonderful secret. We looked at them and said  "we've been talking about it".

I Love my Doll!

Some more first....

This weekend Madeline.........

Jumped in her jumper

Madaline's jump area was not level so Dad solved the problem for her...

 Now she is happy!

Got invited to her first birthday party!!

We are looking forward to celebrating Olivia's first birthday! We found out we were pregnant with Madeline a few minutes before we headed to the hospital when Olivia was born. Her birthday will always be a special day to us.

Watched football with her Daddy. She looks so big in these pictures. She is not as big as she looks! She also got a misquito bite on her eyelid.

Madeline and her daddy saved their first turtle together yesterday. Ben loves to save turtles. He will turn around on a busy road to save a turtle. We were walking around the neighborhood yesterday and there was a turtle in the middle of the street so he picked it up and we took it to a nearby creek. I made him use a baggie over his hand since he was strolling Madeline and I did not want turtle germs to get on the stroller or Madeline. Pucci and Lulu could not have cared less about the turtle.