Hippies

Atleast it has not been over a month, but pretty close and even before her doctors appointment.

Madison is a rolling, smiley, solid food eating, super fast growing, nap fighting little baby girl. :) She is rolling over and over and over across the floor. I will put her on a blanket or her Taggies bear and next thing I know she is at my feet pulling on my pants. Oh and does she fight sleep! This past week has had some irritating moments, but eventually she just has to give in. You would think she would sleep for a good while after fighting it so hard, but no not her! 20-30 minutes tops! Then at night, she instantly rolls to her belly and goes to sleep!

She is eating very well. Peaches, apples, sweet potatoes, squash, ummmm....I think thats it? We ran out of her Gerber stage one foods just this weekend. I knew I was going to have to buy some more, but then started thinking about making some. Thanks to facebook friends for sharing their advice and resources, I have successfully made sweet potatoes(maybe a little too much), carrots, and pears. So far pears have been the easiest. I plan on making apples, avocados, bananas, and squash tomorrow. Also, the websites that tell you it takes an hour...FALSE. I spent 30+ minutes prepping the carrots--washing, peeling (yea, I peeled some skin on my finger too), and slicing. Thats just prepping them, not factoring in the time to cook and such. In the end though, I think I will be glad I have decided to try this out.

When I told John that I was going to make my homemade baby food he said "oh great...." and something about hippies. Haha, he doesn't want to be "one of those parents". I told him if it saves money and is better for then why not try it out. Hopefully she will like them. I am thinking that I will have to water them down and ease into the stronger taste of the homemade veggies and fruit. I will update with what I spent verse the Geber later!

Oh, and please forgive any typos and spelling....this laptop does not have word so I don't have the spell check. :/

The Latest

It has been a really long time since I have updated. Madison is growing and growing. Since the last post we have had our first sick visit, 4 month check up, and started on cereal plus veggies.
The beginning of January I took Madison in for her first sick visit. She had a cough, low grade fever, and she was going #2 often. Turned out to be nothing but a cold---but as a first time mom of a first time kid I wanted to be safe.
A about a week after her appointment we had her check up appointment. She was doing much better with her cold. She was in the 30 percentiles for her height, weight and head. Previously her head had only been in the 30's, but now they all are in the 30's and Dr. Smiley is ok with that. She said everything looks great. Madison also had to get her shots. She did very well with that.

A few days after her appointment, we started cereal. She kind of played with it in her mouth for about a week. After two weeks on cereal, we started veggies. Peas were first and she did not like them at all. She gagged and made the most awful face to it. We moved on to sweet potatos and she loved them. Right now we she is eating squash, which she loves as well. I did try the peas again and they are a no go.

Also, this month Madison has made a new buddy. Her name is Kinleigh Bree and I began watching her this month. She is 6 weeks younger than Madison. They do not really acknowledge each other at this point, but soon I am sure. Two littles? I know, I thought it would be hetic. Some days they are both fussy, but even on those days we make it. Then days one of them will be fussy and some days both are awesome, we like those days. :) Regardless, I just feel beyond blessed to be home with my baby girl. Then to make a little bit of money is just a bonus.

John has been home with us a lot this week. He is currently back working at fairburn. He now works 3 days one work and 4 days the next. As of now he is days, but will be going to nights....I think I might be bummed about this. The most important thing though is that John is happier now. :)

Thanksgiving

...was almost a month ago? I am just now getting/making time to update.

This year for Thanksgiving we had my side of the family over with some of Johns side of the family. It was so nice to not have to go anywhere for once. Also, first year taking on the task of cooking. It turned out really well and super yummy. I was nervous about the turkey, the rest I knew I could do and it was just the timing of it all. The turkey came out awesome too, and it was an awesome looking one. Bummed that we didn't get a picture, haha! I believe I have made two new staples for the thanksgiving meals---homemade mac and cheese and corn casserole. YUM! Also, my mother in law made an awesome cherry cobbler that is amazing and my moms sweet potato souffle will ALWAYS be a regular after last year!

What I learned from cooking a Thanksgiving turkey: *cook 25 mins for each pound
*if you like more of a crispy skin unwrap it and let it sit in the fridge the night before you cook
*it has to have many days to thaw (ours took 6days)
*you have to pull out the nasty stuff from the inside of it
*the skin is super thick and if you put some butter or whatever you prefer, underneath it then you have a much more moist turkey
*you have to get up super early to put in the oven

Madison was a little crabby that day. At this point I think that she is just not a huge fan of big gatherings? Although, she loves going to stores and the mall because she is perfectly content (I know we are creating a monster on the shopping deal).

Overall we had an awesome thanksgiving filled with tons of food and the people we love minus a few. :)

I did get some pictures of the food after everyone diged in in order to make up for it.

Let the Laughs Begin

I just wanted to share this post of Madison laughing. She started this last week. Now every time she laughs at something we repeat it over and over. A few mintues in I realized I kept saying Dookie Butt. Whatever it takes I guess! Now she likes the noises I make while acting like she is boxing.

Enjoy! Laughing Talking

Go To Sleep Little Baby

So the past few weeks I have been thinking about moving Madison to her crib. I told myself I was going to at 2 months old, that didn't happen. Then I said I was going to when she was 3 months old and that happened by accident!

Every night I give Madison a bath around 8ish or 9ish. I usually wait until she has just ate or right before she is going to eat, that way she is nice and full after her bath. Well on Tuesday while I was setting up her humidifier, I laid her down in her crib with the mobile going. After reading the directions and getting it running I went back to get her to bring her downstairs with me for a little bit. She was asleep! I ended up leaving her in there, but she did wake up shortly after and I ended up putting her in her bassinet to sleep.

The next night I did the same while I changed the water in the humidifier after her bath. She was on the border line of sleep, so I sat in the glider to make sure she was actually going to go to sleep. She did and she slept in her crib that night for the first time. She also slept in it last night and she is currently sleeping in it tonight. Granted her crib is still technically in the room with us, just over in the little nook area, but still it is different not having her next to me in her bassinet.

Also, Madison has slept through the night as early as a little before she turned 2 months old. The first night she did sleep through the night I was up checking on her and a few nights following I still continued to check on her in the middle of the night. It is nice now though, because I can really enjoy a good nights sleep or atleast more than 4 hour naps. One night she slept from 10pm to 7 am and this was before she was 3 months old. Her typical schedule is 10ish bedtime and she wakes up around 5am at the earliest and 8ish at the latest. Occasionally she will wake up at 2ish if she doesn't eat enough before bed.

I am for sure thankful to have such a good baby. She is so happy in the mornings and I am known to be the opposite. We balance each other out! :)

Update on MOV

I feel so behind. I am trying my best to stay on top of updating this blog. I don't want to all of a sudden stop, like the many of times before. Madison is my reason for this blog now. I want her to be able to go back and read these post about her life if she chooses to. I know I would love to have something like this to look back at and read.

Madison is hitting so many milestones on a day to day basis. It is hard to keep note of them all. She is smiling now and it is so heart warming, especially when she smiles directly at you. I find myself making the craziest sounds and faces just to get a grin or smile from her. She has had a few out loud laughs, but the laughs are still happening on accident and mainly in her sleep. She has also started the adorable cooing noises. No matter what sound comes from her it is nearly impossible to not smile. She is usually all smiles in the morning and the most alert then as well. It is usually around bath time that she begins talking up a storm. I try to get the noises and smiles on camera or video. It is tough because once she sees the lens in front of her face she just stares at it and it is usually hard to get her attention back.

Lately I have been trying to get in tummy time when I can. When she is in a good mood she will stay on her stomach for longer periods of time before getting fussy. The very first time I put Madison on her stomach she actually rolled over (10/23/12, exactly 2 months old). I was super shocked because I was not expecting it and I was way excited. It is crazy what things make me excited these days. I never imagined a baby rolling over would be so exciting to me, but I absolutely love it. I think it goes without saying that I love her so so so much.

Since my last post, we have also been back to the Doctor for her 2 month appointment. We are actually falling about 2 weeks behind her actually being 2 months when we go, but that is because I wanted Smiley as her Doctor. We had to wait a week later to get an appointment with her and we were a week behind from the very beginning. Anyways, her check up went great. John was able to go with us as well. I was happy about this because she got her shots at that appointment. She did pretty good and I don't think I did so bad myself. I had John stand with her though because I didn't want to see that shocking face. :/ As for her measurements she is still pretty average. She weighs 11lbs and 3 ounces (44 percentile), 23 inches long (58 percentile), and 15 for the circumference of her head (20 percentile). She still has a clogged tear duct, which is very common in babies and usually they open up as they grow. The clogged tear duct just makes her eye water. I asked Dr. Smiley about her dry patches on her skin and she recommend Aquaphor. She said this weather makes the dry skin worse.

I also asked Dr. Smiley about Madison's eyes. I was just curious if it was common or if she has ever seen eyes change colors at different times. I am not sure if I have mentioned it on this post, but currently she has two different color eyes. I believe I posted a picture in a previous post, but I will go ahead and post another. Her left eye began changing from blue to brown at two weeks. It started out with getting darker around her pupil then spreading to the outer edges of her eye. Although, the entire area did not change to brown. There is still a chunk that is blue. Her right eye is completely blue. Anyways, Dr. Smiley said her eyes can change a lot over time and she said you know some people have two different color eye. I am very interested to see what happens! I am totally fine with this and I actually think it is very unique as it is very rare for people to have two different color eyes. If for any reason this were to bother her she could always get contacts if she chose to. From a distance the brown eye just looks greyish blue though. It is only in the sunlight that you can see brown.

Madison's next appointment is in January. Between now and then we will have Christmas and Thanksgiving. I am so excited this year for the holidays. I am anxious to pull out the Christmas decorations and I glad that John has 4 days for each holiday coming up, including New Years Eve. :)

This is her new mobile. The one that came with this bedding looked like pepto pink color, I did not like it at all. I found this one at TjMaxx and it matches better! She loves it too.

She has also been looking back and forth. She does it often, often enough to get a little bald spot lol.

I have been taking her pictures monthly. One just plain and another with a theme for the month.

First Halloween

Here are a few pictures of Madison's first Halloween. We were given a cute outfit for during the day and she wore her custom that night. Halloween day we went to visit with my Granny, her great granny, and we went to K-mart. That night my brother came to help pass out candy with us. He actually sat in front of the door, in a chair wearing a mask giving everyone a little scare. It was fun though to see reactions and it seemed like everyone enjoyed it too..

This was a test run to make sure the pumpkin was going to work out.

We had to settle for the bumbo chair because the second go round didn't go as well.