Category: Maddie

Maddie was a monster for Halloween. I figured I only have this year and maybe next to pick what she is without her telling me what she wants to be. So I found this blue monster costume (which matches her eyes perfectly!) and added a pink bow to one of the horns.

My mom babysat Maddie on Saturday so she dressed her in her costume and took some pictures.

Maddie with Grandpa Dave.

Maddie is such a ham with all the silly faces she makes!

My monster with some pumpkins.

And we tried taking a couple pictures at home before we went to visit some neighbors…but they didn’t turn out real well.

And we ran into our friends and one of Maddie’s future husbands, Owen. He was also dressed as a monster. Monster Mash! I have to keep the pictures of these two handy for their wedding some day!

The costume had a big tail on it, too. It was so funny to see her crawl around in it. I took this video a few weeks ago when Chuck’s mom was over visiting. She was still army crawling then, but it was too funny not to share.

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

I didn’t think Maddie was going to be much into carving pumpkins, but after a visit to my mom’s house and Maddie’s fascination with her pumpkins, I thought I should cut one open and see what Maddie thought of them.

Here is Maddie enjoying my mom’s pumpkins that my brother and his friend carved. (WARNING….There are lots of pictures in this post!)

So I put down some towels and newspaper and cut the top off a pumpkin to see what she would do. We even took out the video camera, but it wasn’t nearly as exciting as we thought it would be.

She liked the stem. She didn’t really like touching the pumpkin guts. But she LOVED the newspaper! Overall, it was a good time. And not nearly as messy as I was expecting!

Time hasn’t halted. It is still flying by. Which means that my little peanut is 8 months old already! She is such a sweet little girl. We are so lucky to have such a happy, social, fun baby!

She started saying “mamamama”. She was saying only this consonant for a long time. She says it when she is playing and especially when she is eating. It’s really cute. Then I heard a couple little “ba ba” noises. And one day she found her tongue! She can’t stop moving it, making noises with it, sticking it out! It’s hilarious!

Here are a couple videos of Maddie saying “mama”. She quits doing the noises as soon as the video camera comes out!

Here is a video of Maddie clicking her tongue.

And here is a video of her newest noise….lalalala. This video cracks me up. She does this all the time. It’s hard to get a good video of her doing it, though. I’ve tried!

I have gotten Maddie on a good sleep and nap schedule. I really try to stick to it and get her naps in at the same time every day. I am quite proud of myself for doing this. I wasn’t sure I would be very good at sticking to a schedule.

Just a couple days before she turned 8 months old, Maddie decided to start crawling on her hands and knees instead of army crawling around. It’s so cute. She isn’t very fast and looks a little uncoordinated doing it, but she is getting better every day!

Maddie stands at everything. She pulls herself up to walls, chairs, couches, her toys, your legs…. I got her a toy she can walk behind. It’s a little advanced for her yet, but she sure has a good time trying.

She’s also gotten better about playing by herself. She doesn’t need me to sit there with her all day. It’s more comfortable to sit on the couch part of the day instead of the floor. She just finds toys and bangs them together, crawls around with them, puts toys in bins or takes them out, plays with her books….it’s so fun to see her really turning into a little person.

We had to rearrange the furniture to keep her from playing with the curtains and getting into everything. She really keeps me on my toes. I am hoping I won’t be writing about her walking next month! I’m not ready for all this mobility!

My baby is growing up so fast! I can’t believe 8 months has passed already. This day seemed so far away when we got home with her. I had no clue what to do with a baby. And look! I have a happy, healthy little girl who wants nothing more than to play with the neighbor kids and run! Oh man, do we have our work cut out for us with her!  

Here are the rest of the pictures I have from the past month.

Last weekend, Chuck’s cousin got married. We traveled an hour and a half to celebrate with them and introduce Maddie to some family members she hasn’t met yet. The most excited of which were Chuck’s grandma and grandpa…Maddie’s great-grandparents.

Side note…All four of Chuck’s grandparents are still living. I am so envious of this since my grandparents all died many years ago. And I am so happy that Maddie gets to meet her great-grandparents. What a special thing!

Any how….grandma and grandpa came up here to visit with Maddie more after the wedding (they live in Iowa). They loved seeing her and playing with her. I really hope we will get to see them more during the coming holiday season.

Here are a few pictures of Maddie with her great grandparents.

Grandpa was sticking his tongue out at Maddie and she was copying him. It was really cute!

I don’t think grandma stopped smiling at Maddie the whole time. It was great to see them and I’m happy they got to spend time with Maddie!

Yes, I am already arranging marriages for Maddie. She has been promised to a number of little boys. This may pose a problem when she gets older. We might have to have an auction for her hand or something.  

We went to one of my best friend’s houses for dinner last week and she has a little boy who is a couple months older than Maddie. They had loads of fun together!

I think they like each other!

We have had a couple play dates with Trisha and Chelsea lately. A few weeks ago, they came over and played. Both girls were really into eating puff cereal. Trisha took out a container of them, and both girls went over to her and looked at her like they were little puppies begging for food.  

Then, the other day, we met them at the Mall of America to have lunch. We had the girls in high chairs and couldn’t get over how big they are getting.

It’s so fun to get the girls together to play. They were born only a few weeks apart and it’s so fun to see them growing up. Plus, I like going to hang out with friends for some adult interaction.

My dad was over one day and told me that I had to go to a garage sale he drove past on the way over because he saw the cutest thing for Maddie. He wasn’t kidding. I walked over there and I was sold! I was sold before I even saw the price tag. For only 5 buckeroos, I got this adorable little tree fort for Maddie!

Maddie loves it. We have since moved it to the upstairs playroom and it isn’t sitting in our living room anymore. And yes, Maddie is playing with a spoon. It made her happy.

I am really late in doing my 7 month post. Maddie is quickly approaching 8 months old and I haven’t even wrote about her being 7 months old! Yikes!

Time is flying! She is changing every day! She is climbing up everything….the couch, chairs, toys, laundry baskets, my legs…she is so busy! She has really learned that when she sees something she can go after it. She really likes to crawl to Chuck’s tools that are out from working on the porch. She also will immediately crawl to any shoes that are left in her sight. I’m not sure it’s good that she is obsessed with shoes at only 7 months old!  

I love how much her eyes light up when Chuck walks into the room. It’s so very sweet!

Maddie has started to snuggle just a little bit. Mostly when she is sleepy, but I’ll take any snuggling I can get!

Maddie is sitting on her own and bounces when she sits. It’s very cute. She loves to play peek-a-boo and loves when I read books to her. And she is also sitting in her crib now. So we had to lower the mattress in her crib so she won’t leap out!

She is also an extremely happy baby. Every comments on how happy she is!

Maddie also got two tiny little teeth, her bottom, middles ones on the same day. They came in just shortly after her 6 month doctor’s appointment.

Here are some pictures. Sadly, I didn’t take any pictures in her crib this month. I just kept forgetting and putting Maddie in her crib doesn’t make her happy since she thinks it’s time to sleep. So here are a couple others.

Maddie wasn’t happy in this last picture…but you can see her teeth!

My brother took more pictures of Maddie after she turned 6 months old. He recently gave me all the finished and edited pictures. They turned out great! Here is a small sample of the fabulous pictures he took!

HERE is a link to the rest of the pictures he took.

And if you need a photographer, he comes highly recommended! You can find more of his work at his website, NorlingImages.com.

This is how Maddie likes to sleep. She also usually burrows her head into one of the corners of the crib.

 

She looks so snuggly!