Author: Andi

I was looking through my phone and found some silly pictures of Maddie that I thought I would share. (With Maddie captions.)

I found my feet AND my pacifier!

I could play with my feet all day!

Um…you’re upside down. How did that happen? (Or maybe mom just didn’t flip the picture.)

Yeah, I’m cute. I know it!

Look Ma! I roll over now!

This bar is kind of in my way.

I have absolutely no idea how I ended up here. Last thing I remember was being on my back in the middle of my play mat. Oooh….BIB!

Mom cracks me up when she tickles my tummy!

They call me Pebbles.

I LOVE my feet. Where have these been all my life?

And I’m spent! It’s hard work holding these feet and chunky legs up!

Last year on Memorial weekend I found out I was pregnant. I was reminiscing about it last weekend over Memorial Day. I remember taking that first test and how nervous I was. And how I wanted to take a dozen more just to check, but I was also scared that they might not show the same result. I remember going to a friends’ house for dinner the day I took my first pregnancy test and coming up with excuses as to why I couldn’t drink (we just made sure Chuck drank enough that I had to be sober to drive home. He didn’t enjoy this task!) I recall one of my best friends coming over that weekend and needing to tell her even though I had only taken the test a couple days before, hadn’t seen a doctor and hadn’t told anyone else. Or sending another best friend a text message right after I told Chuck.

What a difference a year makes.

Since that little test, our lives have changed. All for the better, of course. We have our little Maddie girl. I can’t remember what we did before she was here. It’s like she has always been a part of our lives.

She is the best baby and I am so thankful God gave me this beautiful little girl to be a mother to. I can’t count how many times a day I pick her up, kiss her and tell her “Mommy loves you”. I am sure she’ll be sick of hearing it. But for now she just looks at me with those big blue eyes and smiles that gummy little grin at me. And then I tell her again!

She is getting such a fun personality. She is learning so much every day. She isn’t even 4 months old yet and I can hardly remember how tiny she was when she was born. She just learned how to grab her feet. She doesn’t know what to do with them yet, but she grabs them. I grab her hands and help her sit up and when she’s up, she just looks at me and grins from ear to ear. She acts so proud. She’s also just a couple days away from rolling from her back to her stomach. She got her body there the other day, but doesn’t have the arm strength quite yet to lift up her head. She has also started to really grab for toys when you dangle them in front of her. She puts everything in her mouth (mostly her hands). She’s also getting more vocal and making lots of funny noises. She will smile at us and at other people and she LOVES to sit up and see the world.

So now that I have babbled on and reminisced, I have to share some recent pictures of her!

What a difference a year makes. I love my Maddie girl!

My wonderful brother came over to take some updated pictures of Maddie. He sent me a few preview pictures. I had to share them!

There are more to come! I love that my brother likes taking pictures of her! We did find that pictures are a little more challenging when she doesn’t sit still anymore and has a mind of her own!

If you like Adam’s pictures, visit his website: NorlingImages.com

Last weekend we got together with the people from our baby class and their babies. Maddie is the youngest in the group. It was really fun to see the moms and dads, hear their stories and meet all their babies. All the babies are within a couple months of each other and they all have their own little personalities. It’s so cute!

We put all the babies in a circle and took their pictures. The boys were not impressed. Maddie is just sucking away on her hands.

And in this one, Maddie is grabbing Charlie’s hand and he is NOT pleased.

Here’s a picture of Charlie….he was posing for his Senior pictures. And was very sad after laying on the floor.

And here are the mommies with their babies from oldest (on the left) to youngest (Maddie).

I should have grabbed a bow for Maddie’s head, but I was concentrating on giving her a bath before we left, that I forgot to grab one.

All the babies were really good. Every one of them slept while we were there and most of them ate, too. Only a few tears. Not too bad for a group of 6 infants! We did get a number of looks from some of the customers at the restaurant. I am sure they were just looking at how adorable the babies were, though!

My baby is 3 months old already. Where did the time go? She’s getting more fun each day. She is learning how to play with toys, she puts her hands, toys, bibs, burp rags, my fingers…anything she can find into her mouth. Maddie is smiling more and more and has been sleeping like a champ.

It’s fun to see more personality out of her. We got together with our baby class and met all their babies. I loved seeing how each of them are at similar milestones, but have different personalities at the same time. (I will post pictures and more about this event tomorrow.)

She has been playing on her side a lot on her playmat and has a tendency to turn herself 90 or 180 degrees by throwing her legs in the air. I am sure she is going to roll herself to her stomach before I know it! Then I’m in trouble!

She also has a lot more hair. I noticed that by comparing her pictures from this month and last month. She sure has changed a lot in a month! Maddie is also quite the mover. She kicks her legs like a wild woman and you can really tell in some of the pictures that she wouldn’t sit still by the blurriness of some of the pictures.

We love her more every day. She’s such a happy, good natured baby and we are so happy to be her parents.

Here are the rest of the 3 month pictures I took.

2 month pictures & 2 month post

1 month pictures & 1 month post

I found this funny app for my iPad that lets me add funny things to pictures. I thought this picture of Maddie would be fun to play with. I couldn’t help but laugh when I was done. Does this make me a bad parent to laugh at my child?

Just a little picture of Maddie I thought I would share.

I love her!

The last few days I have been so close to getting Maddie to laugh. She makes little squeaks, but no laughs. Then today, she was full of giggles. Thankfully Chuck was working from home today and was able to hear her giggle and catch it on video!

It’s hard not to watch this and laugh. She just makes me smile. And baby giggles are so darn contagious!