Madeline's Blog

Well, nowadays Maddie isn’t just eating cereal. Once she turned six months, we figured it would be okay to try veggies, too (we started cereal a few days before six months because she seemed to want something to eat when we were eating). Her first veggie is butternut squash, and I’m afraid it isn’t too big of a hit. She tolerates it okay when she’s really hungry, but otherwise she pretty much clamps down and won’t let the orange stuff past her lips. It’s strange; if you wipe off the squash and put cereal on the spoon, she’ll open up just fine! Can’t pull one over on her!

I’ll be honest, though, I don’t give her solids every day. I’ve read that at this point giving solids won’t replace any of her other feedings and that it’s just for practice, so a lot of times we just stick with nursing. It’s just so much easier to do that than to get the cereal and squash ready, get Maddie ready (bib, strapped in her seat with a large toy under it so she doesn’t bounce, shirt off, etc.), feed her the food, and then clean up her face, her chest, her hands, her feet, the chair, the floor, the wall, my face, her clothes, the dishes, etc., etc.

Another drawback to starting solids has been the poop and the gas! Man, my little six-month-old baby is FOUL! She can blast me out of the room in the morning! I’m sorry Maddie, I know you might be reading this when you’re a grown woman, but these are things you need to know; when a breastfed baby starts solids, watch out! It’s a whole new ball game!

That being said, however, I think that after we get back to Arkansas we’ll move on to carrots and see if she’ll like that better.

Here are more pictures of Maddie eating solids and of her first experience with vegetables:

Mmmm, I love the spoon!

There's nothing like eating lunch in the buff!

Maddie's first squash feeding. Will she like it?

Hmmm. It's not so great.

But she's got a smile for Daddy, who loves it when we come to visit him at work so he gets to feed Maddie!

Another short update. We had professional portraits taken for Madeline's 1/2 birthday. These aren't big enough to print out, but they are big enough to share here! Enjoy! (NOTE: This is as big as they get. If you want to save these pictures, just right click on the images on this screen)

Maddie's back is blotchy in the above photo because of the previous photo, where she was laying on the silk flowers. Can you say sensitive skin?

Madeline's first attempt at saying words!

Last night, while I was off doing lawyer things, Madeline found out that she had a tongue. We recorded this this morning...

Madeline speaks!

Hi. We've had some trouble blogging lately. We are actually running out of space on our current webhost. Some long-term fixes are in the works. In the mean time, here are some cool pictures.

Grandma Debbie was kind enough to come visit Madeline in DC. Everyone had a good time. She bought some nice clothes for Madeline . . .

Madeline was very sorry that she had to go, but she's looking forward to seeing her soon back home.

She's still working on the "learn to crawl" thing, but she's making progress:

In other news, our baby is eating solid food!!! (This was, I think, her first time ... rice cereal ...)

Stay tuned for more updates (hopefully from Darla - she's a better blogger)

Well, Maddie is five and a half months old now, and time sure does fly! She is now over 19 pounds and 28 inches, and she learns new things every day.

Just this last week I found out that Maddie could SIT UP ON HER OWN! And I mean without any support whatsoever -- she doesn’t even use her own arms to hold her up anymore. I discovered this at her Baby Steps story hour, and needless to say I was surprised because I had never seen her even try to do it before. I guess I just never gave her the chance. She’d been sitting up in her stroller for a while, but there she has a little bit of support from the back of the stroller and she holds on to the tray in front. Still, Maddie doesn’t do it very often (though she can do it indefinitely) unless she’s at her story hour, and there she does it the whole time. I think she sees the other babies doing it and wants to do it, too.

Maddie sits up in her stroller!

Sitting up all on her own and playing with a "diater."

Maddie is now an expert at getting up on all fours and rocking back and forth! She even sleeps this way at times! She is so proud of herself when she does this, and always looks over to an adult and says, “hah!” and waits for us to clap and yell. It is so much fun to watch her discover new things and then be so proud of herself! It's a little scary, though, too -- she'll be crawling in no time!

Yes, Maddie is actually sound asleep in the above photographs!

Maddie practicing "crawling" on the bed.

This movie is a little dark, but you get the picture!
Maddie On All Fours Movie The best way to view this movie is to right click and go to "save as," then download it to your computer. Just clicking on the link may not allow you to see the whole movie.

Matthew has dubbed another of Maddie’s new skills "calling Baby Court to order." Yes, Maddie has discovered banging one object into another. She may have discovered this after finding out that it’s really fun to wave her arms up and down repeatedly, really fast. Aside from making it very hard to carry her around, this motion makes her literally look like she is trying to fly away. Anyway, now she loves to bang her rattle, her shapes, and just about anything else on the tray of her exersaucer, or on the floor, or on someone’s shoulder. It makes a lot of noise, but it amuses her and us -- I don’t think there’s any motion more baby-like than banging stuff into other stuff.

Vocally, Maddie is making more sounds than ever. Matthew says that it almost sounds as if she is talking now, though you can’t understand the words. I think what he means is her tonality now sounds a lot like talking. She does most of her babbling, though, with her finger in her mouth. I don’t know why, but whenever she gets something in her mouth, particularly her thumb, she starts "talking." To figure this phenomenon out, I tried it myself, and sure enough if you put your thumb in your mouth and then make noise you create a very satisfying vibration, and besides, you can feel your tongue moving around that way too. Try it! I swear, it’ll become the newest craze.

This last month has truly been a month of firsts -- aside from sitting up and getting up on all fours, Maddie went to her first baseball game, and she also attended her first story hour, which she enjoys very much. At the ballgame, Maddie liked watching the field, but she did NOT like the screaming fans, and so she and I spent much of the game walking around the stadium part where all the vendors are. A very nice worker saw us going round and round and offered us a seat in an air-conditioned employee break room, and that’s where we spend the rest of the game. But, overall, Maddie enjoyed the experience, and played the part of a devoted Washington Nationals fan. Matthew would like you to take special note of her jersey in the following pictures:

Maddie loved looking at the bright green field!

Story hour is one of Maddie’s favorite things to do right now. She LOVES seeing the other babies, some of whom are learning to crawl like her and others who are walking and even running around (the age range is six months to sixteen months -- shhhh, I won’t tell if you won’t tell ). The activities she likes most are currently greeting Mrs. Perky Bird (a big goose puppet who starts the fun each week -- Maddie likes to honk the bird's beak when the leader lets her), and “bells.” “Bells” involves shaking a stick with bells attached while singing several songs. Unfortunately, Maddie pays no heed to the songs and simply inserts one of the bells into her mouth at the first opportunity. It is, after all, the perfect size for her mouth. Don’t worry folks, I checked it out and the bell is secure and, as far as I can tell, baby-proof. And the story hour leaders assure me that they wash the bells each week. I think they must do this just because of Maddie, since I didn’t see any of the other kids gnawing on the bells the last few times we went. Here are some pictures of Maddie at her "Baby Steps" story hour:

Maddie LOVES books. Honestly, she love for you to read them to her and then let her "eat" them when you're done! And look at how well she's sitting up without help (though as you can see I kept my hands ready in case she fell)!

Oh, and I have one last first to mention! This past tuesday, Maddie splashed in the bathtub for the first time. Again, I think it had something to do with the arm-flapping-thingey, but she continued doing it and enjoying it all the same. It started with a big splash that sent water everywhere, including in her face and hair, but she just looked a little surpised, then grinned and did it again. And again. And again. It was a bit messy but hey, she was entertained and it kept her from drinking the bathwater (which she LOVES to do). Honestly, she tries to dunk her face in the water to get big gulps of that stuff. GROSS! Don’t worry Debbie, we try our best to keep her from getting any swallows, and we are also careful she never goes under the water.

Well, that's it for now. Everyone else is in bed, so I'm headed there, too. We've had a rough time getting Maddie to go and stay asleep for the past week or so, so I'd better take advantage of the quiet while I can! Stay tuned for pictures of . . . Maddie's first cereal!