Author: Andi

Recently, I wrote about Maddie and her foam letters. I finally caught her goofiness on camera when she was playing with her letters and had one hanging out of her mouth.

I love her little personality and how she does funny little things. She just makes me laugh and I love her so much!

My brother came to take 6 month pictures of Maddie last weekend. He sent me a couple right away. There are more coming, but I had to post the first ones he sent me!

I can’t wait to see the rest of them! I think they are going to turn out great!

Thanks again to my wonderful brother! You can check out more of his work at NorlingImages.com.

My mom gets the summers off and it has been so great having her home this summer so Chuck and I could go on a couple dates while she babysat, going on walks with, hanging out at her pool, having lunch together and just hanging out to play with Maddie.

Last week we went to the zoo with her. My brother, my mom’s friend and her friend’s son (also, one of my brother’s best friends) came, too. It was fun to push Maddie around the zoo and have her look at things. She liked the animals that moved….the fish, the sea lions…most of the animals were sleeping when we came so she didn’t really understand that a huge sleeping bison was cool to look at. But we had a great time.

Here are some pictures.

HERE is the gallery with the rest of the pictures. My mom took some pictures, too, but I can’t remember where I put them at the moment. If I find them, I’ll add a link to them.

We had a great time. I can’t wait until she is a little older and will appreciate the zoo more. I am kind of a zoo addict add need to see the zoo in every city we visit!

Today I am leaving for a girls weekend with a bunch of friends. I am excited…and scared….and excited. This is my first time away from Maddie for more than a few hours. I know we will both survive, but I am still nervous to go.

I started trying to get Maddie to drink from something other than me on Monday. I am happy to say that she is still alive! She didn’t starve. She also still won’t drink from a bottle. Here are a couple videos.

First, Maddie has gotten really good at eating. Here is proof.

And here is Maddie drinking from a cup. This is her preferred way to drink milk. 6 month old babies are not supposed to drink from a cup. But this is what she likes.

And here is a funny video…and proof that she doesn’t like bottles. She likes the top and the bottom of the bottle separately, but you put them together and she hates it. I can’t wait to show her these videos when she is older!

So I am still hopeful that she will drink from a bottle or something more efficient than feeding her out of a cup. At least she likes eating food!

At least she knows what she wants! Stubborn little Maddie.

So Chuck is on Maddie duty this weekend and I’m running off to hang out with my friends. I feel like I am being selfish somehow even though I know it’s good for me. Chuck will do great and Maddie will have too much fun to even notice I am gone! That’s what I tell myself at least.

Here’s a little video of Maddie snorting. She does this all the time. When she wants more food, when she is playing with a toy, when she is just sitting there, when she looks at you…she’s a goofy one!

Sometimes I like to sit Maddie on the counter in her bathroom. She likes to talk to herself and kiss herself. She just cracks me up.

And this one…she looks angry, but she is really just snorting! I took a video of the snorting and I will share that as soon as I get it uploaded.

Who do you think will win? I hope it’s me! I leave in a few days for a weekend away with a bunch of girl friends. This will be my first time away from Maddie for more than a few hours. To say that I am nervous is an understatement. My friends riding with me have promised they won’t let me drive home if I get lonely and Chuck promises that even if things aren’t going well, he will lie and tell me everything is great. I guess my wonderful family and friends think I deserve a little adult time!

Monday I started “Operation Maddie needs to eat from something other than mom”. The first day couldn’t have gone better. Maddie still doesn’t like bottles, but she will drink milk out of a cup. (I think she is far too young to be able to do this, but she does great at it!) I was sure she would be up in the middle of the night, but nope. She slept from 8pm – 7:30am. She only woke up briefly at midnight and 5, then promptly fell back asleep. I was impressed.

Today she was a little more upset in the morning. I think she thought yesterday was just a big joke. She is still incredibly happy and I am getting as much food in her as she will tolerate.

Now it’s just a waiting game to get her to take a bottle….or cup, or anything to drink more than an ounce or two of milk at a time. But she has to want to do it.

Maddie’s doctor assured us that Maddie won’t starve. She will drink from a bottle when she wants to. She said there were two options…I could be strict and diligent and cut her off from nursing. Knowing that it would take a couple days since Maddie won’t want to take a bottle from me. Or I could just wait until I left and have Chuck deal with it. Which might be faster. I just wasn’t going to have a very good weekend away if I left saying “good luck, I’m outta here!” So I took the other, longer route. Who doesn’t like a good challenge anyway, right?

So the first battle of mommyhood has begun! Now I just have to be strong and not give in. I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!

Maddie likes her foam letters I got for her to play with in the tub. She does the funniest things with them. Her newest trick is to put one in her mouth and keep playing. So she has a letter sticking out of her mouth. When I went to take her out of her car seat and she had the letter “I” shoved in her mouth, I couldn’t stop laughing at her! What a goof!

Our baby girl is 6 months old! I can’t believe how fast she is growing up! But at the same time I am so excited for her to get older. She gets more fun every day.

Maddie was 14.15 lbs. and 27.25″ long. She is still very long and thin for her age. Her growth charts make me laugh. She also got a couple more immunization shots and was a good sport! She only cried for a few seconds, then was happy again. The doctor’s office also sent us away with a little fabric book for her. It’s cheap for them to do, but the parents like it! And it kept her happy after her shots while I made her next appointment (which will be at 9 months old).

Maddie has learned lots this month. She has gotten very good at sitting on her own. I still put a pillow behind her because she has a tendency to flail her body when she gets really exciting and fall backward. And she sometimes takes nose dives, too. I laugh at her.

And of course, she is also army crawling all over the place. She is speedy! It’s so cute to see her mobile. She will crawl into the kitchen to “help” me and she likes to bang things on the wood floors.

She has learned that she can reach for me. Therefore, she has started to be a little clingy these days. But I think part of the clinginess is because she is close to getting her bottom teeth. I feel like we have been waiting forever! The doctor told us at her 4 month appointment that she could feel her teeth and now, at 6 months, they still aren’t in. Oh well. They will come eventually. And won’t she be cute with a couple little teeth!?

Maddie has started eating solid food. On August first, a few weeks shy of her 6 month birthday, we started rice cereal. So far, she has also tried pears, green beans, carrots and bananas. She is a great little eater and says “mmmm” while she eats. She even helps and grabs the spoon and shoves it in her mouth.

Here are some pictures I took. These pictures are getting much harder to take. Maddie doesn’t like being in her crib because she thinks it’s time to sleep. So getting her to play in there isn’t easy. And she doesn’t sit still for even a minute! So I keep getting lots of action shots!

A little note: I put all the pictures I take of Maddie, for example, between 5 and 6 months, in the 5 month album. So there are lots more pictures there to look at from her previous month. Basically, it’s the pictures I took of her while she was _x_ months old. Just an FYI.

Here are the 6 month pictures I took.

5 month pictures & 5 month post

4 month pictures & 4 month post

3 month pictures & 3 month post

2 month pictures & 2 month post

1 month pictures & 1 month post

I also have a few more posts for the next couple days with some silly pictures of Maddie. So stay tuned!