37 Weeks

Madeline is 37 weeks old today, which means she has been out of the oven as long as she was in it.  Pretty. Darn. Crazy.

For some reason, I don't remember a heck of a lot of my pregnancy.  The only part that really stands out is the summer months.  In retrospect, those eight months feel so quick!

I don't feel that way with Madeline at all.  The past 37 weeks seems years long...in the best way possible of course.  Seriously, she's the most awesome mini human on the planet!  Probably Mars too.    

I think the part of the reason that it seems like Madeline has been in our lives for-ev-er, is because she's grown so fast and learned so much in such a short amount of time.

She's no longer a helpless loaf of bread.  She's a person now.

Some person-like qualities she now possesses?

She pushes us away and scowls if we try to do something she doesn't like.  If she doesn't want her spoon...dirty look.  Pacifier?  Dirty look.  Want to cuddle?  Dirty look.

This new behavior shows up the most during meal times.  The baby who used to gobble down everything in sight now refuses to eat.  If she sees me as much as pick up the spoon, she cries, turns her head, locks her lips, and shoves my hand away.

I've been trying to get her to feed herself more, but she doesn't quite understand the process.  Her pincher grasp is developing well, but she doesn't understand the next step of putting the food into her mouth.  Still, she's her mother's daughter, so I suspect that her full feeding capabilities will kick into gear any day now.  

On the other hand, she's obsessed with cups.  She loves it when I hold up my water glass for her to sip from.  Her sippy cup?  Well, she hates that....obviously.  That's for babies, Mumma.

Madeline is now able to hold herself in a crawling position! Up on both hands and knees!  Exciting stuff.  I think we'll have a crawler on our hands this summer.

She's getting so wiggly.  If I have her on my lap, and she sees something she wants, she'll lunge for it...even if that means taking a nose dive off the couch.  I keep a tight grip on this one nowadays.

Maddie still continues to make us laugh and smile on an almost constant basis.  She finds any "Yuck!" sounds to be hilarious.  After she gives me baby kisses (aka slobbers all over my face) I say, "Bleck!" and she laughs like it's the funniest thing she's ever seen in her life. (Actually, it probably is the funniest thing she's seen in her life...37 weeks doesn't leave the gal much time to live a little.)  

Her new favorite sound is "Bah."  She repeats it in her crib every morning when I go in to get her.  I'm wondering if she's trying to say "Bub" because that's what we call her bottles.....curious.  

 !!!LATE BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Madeline has now decided that when she no longer wants her pacifier, it's necessary to throw it across her bedroom with all her might.  Which is why I'm so late in posting my weekly update.

Happy TUESDAY folks!




 

Long Weekend Fun

This Memorial Day weekend we...

Had a picnic in the park...

 Went to the Sowa Open Market in Boston...

(Where we learned that Madeline deals with heat the same way as her Mumma....by getting grouchy.)

We played in a playground for the first time...

(Which Madeline LOVED!)

 We went to the zoo...

(The Maddie Bear was not interested in these actual bears.)

(She has bigger plans in mind...) 

And what else???  Hmmm..

Oh yeah!  We put an offer in on a house, and it was accepted!

I'm not breaking out the champagne until the inspection is done, the paperwork is signed, and there's a big pink bow with my name on it on the front door, but fingers crossed, this will be our last summer in the apartment.

Pin Happy

Meet my newest obsession...

Pinterest

It's my new favorite thing. (Besides my child, obviously.)

It's perfect for someone like me who sees something I love on a random blog I've stumbled across, and then am never able to find it again.

Also, I didn't realize how deep my obsession with all things blue and yellow was until I started adding things to my boards and realized EVERYTHING is blue or yellow.

Fun, fun, fun.  

Have a pin-happy long weekend!

Oprah Who?

I feel a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of women's voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.....Oprah is OVER!   
[Cut to thousands of audience members ugly crying and falling to their knees.]

Take THAT Harold Camping!  THIS is what an apocalypse looks like. 

(Boo-ya!  I get 100 nerd points.) 

Sadly, I will not be able to watch the final episode until much later tonight because I am incredibly busy playing with my lightsaber being awesome this afternoon.  Although the past few episodes lead me to believe I won't be missing much. (As much as I love The Oprah, all that phony kiss-assery over the past week has been too much for even me to handle.  I threw up in my mouth at least three times while watching yesterday's episode.)

Meanwhile, Eric is rejoicing that there is no danger of Madeline falling victim to Oprah's propaganda. (Eric has irrational man hatred for all things Oprah.) 

At least Eric will always have their hypothetical daughter to remember Oprah by. 

36 Weeks

Madeline was so busy doing gymnastics,

 playing peek-a-boo,

 screeching, 

 and rolling about

That I almost thought this month's bunny picture was not going to happen.  Luckily, she did manage to stop wiggling for a split second.  Ta-DA!

Last night, we realized all this rolling about means that Eric and I are totally screwed from now on.  Usually, when Madeline can't sleep at night, she has no choice but to lie there like a slug until she falls asleep from pure boredom.

Now that she can move around?  Not so much.

She amused herself for a good hour last night by rolling around, grabbing her feet through the bars of the crib, and trying desperately to get a hold of her noise maker.  This wouldn't have been too bad except she would cry holy murder unless one of us were in the room to watch her tricks.  Pretty soon she'll be able to pull herself upright in that crib.  I. smell. trouble.

I think she's going through a growth spurt.  She's always hungry, sleepy, and a bit cranky.

She's getting very, very long, but I don't feel like she's grown drastically over the past two months.  She's still wearing most of her six-month clothing...which she's been wearing since Christmas.  The nine month clothes are starting to fit well too though.

I know I say this every week, but I can't get over how sweet she is.  She's just so lovely!  She's only eight-months old, but I can tell she has a huge heart.

She's becoming such a kid. (I know, I know, I say this every week too.) She plays games, she's more independent, she has a sense of humor.....  

Madeline's going to be grown up before I know it.....sniff.

Twinsies

 Can we discuss how we wore the same exact outfit today?

I love how Maddie's face already seems to scream, "OMG, I can't believe I'm dressed like my mother..." Yup, we're only one step away from appearing in a JC Penny Catalog.

For the record, Eric was the one who found Madeline's shirt and insisted it was hilarious that it matched mine. (We have matching denim jackets too.)    

For the second record, I notice that there have been a lot of pictures of me wearing this shirt on the blog recently.  There are not twenty pairs of identical blue checkered shirts hanging neatly in my closet...I swear.  I own many shirts.  Shirts that I wear on regular basis.  I promise.  Pinkie swear.

Nursery Photos

I recently took advantage of all our spring organizing to take some pictures of Madeline's nursery while it was 100% clean.

We're not allowed to paint the walls, so I tried to bring color in everywhere else I could.  I got a blue crib, a wall decal, I painted the wooden alphabet on her wall, I decoupaged her dresser, and there are lots of bright boxes and toys littering up the place.

I have two small craft projects in mind to add to the walls, but her nursery is pretty much finished.

I really love Madeline's room.  I always feel so happy when I'm in there.  I hope she does too.

Le sigh.

This afternoon I spent a good hour writing a blog. It was brilliant. You would have laughed, cried, and then laughed at how hard you were crying. Then you would be so excited by my brilliance that you would have peed a little in your pants.

Then, I put Madeline in my lap. I was in the process of hitting the publish button, when Maddie grabbed the keyboard. I don't know what she did, but my entire post disappeared. The automatic save function went into effect at the same moment. Poof...gone. That's parenthood for you.

I didn't bother trying to retype my blog. (It wasn't that great to begin with.)

Maddie Bear's Bag of Tricks

Umm, apparently Madeline's  two "lessons" with early intervention have been well worth while because she's decided that sitting still is for the birds!

She flips...BOTH WAYS....she stands....she inchworms on her back...she kicks Dada!  She's pretty darn amazing if you ask me.

35 Weeks

Madeline's cold is already on its way out, and she's back to her normal self.  Hiz-ahhh!

Almost...

I think she's got another tooth sprouting, so she was a tiny bit of a cranky pants this afternoon.  That's okay.    I'd be a bit cranky too if I were teething.

During one of Madeline's "lessons," her "teacher" commented that it was probably a good thing that she couldn't roll because she's forced to spend time on her belly even though she hates it.  Well, today I put her on her belly, and she promptly flipped onto her back.  So exciting!  This may end up making tummy-time more challenging from now on, but I don't really mind.    

Madeline has the meaning of "Mumma" and "Dada" down.  Whenever we say Dada, she looks directly to Eric.  The same for Mumma....except she looks at me, not Eric.  She can say both words too, but she hasn't quite figured that part out yet.  She'll say "Dada" all day long, but she won't say it in reference to Eric.

She also continues to be the most narcissistic baby in the universe.  She loves nothing more than to gaze at herself in the mirror all day.  She babbles at herself and smiles at herself and laughs at herself.  She even finds my sunglasses hilarious because she can see her reflection in the lenses.  I think her best friend is her reflection.

Not that I blame her....that baby in the mirror is the cutest baby in the universe after all.  

 

The Good and The Bad

The Good:

Due to a power outage in the building, we got released from work early today!  This was much better than leaving early due to a snow emergency because a.) it was a complete and total surprise! and b.) I didn't have to stress over driving home in a blizzard...in heels...because I'm usually too stupid to wear boots when it snows.  

Eric offered to pick up the baby at the regular time, so I had the afternoon free.  I had a delicious lunch, did the grocery shopping for the week, did some laundry, and made two batches of baby food.    

All in all, a successful day for the Momma Bear.  

The Bad:  

While I was busy having a pretty good day, Maddie Bear was having a no-good, very bad, terrible day.  They called me from daycare late in the afternoon to tell me that she had a slight fever.  

The poor girl looked MISerable this afternoon.  Imagine the saddest face you have ever seen.  Are you picturing it???  Now magnify that by a bagillion.  That's how sad she looked. I was getting teary eyed just watching her.  

Plus, she had an early intervention meeting scheduled at school today.  She usually likes her meetings because she basically just plays with toys for an hour, but from the looks of her the afternoon, she was not in the mood for putting on a pony show.  

The Good:  

When Maddie gets sick, all she wants to do is snuggle with me.  It makes me feel all squishy inside.    

The Bad:  

The poor girl's poops are rock. solid.  Ouch.  (Also, bad news?  I just shared that information with the entire Internets.  She'll thank me for that some day.  I also caught some epic grunting on video this afternoon....Haha, leverage!)  

The Good:  

Eric and I had a yummy dinner tonight!  He caught me a delicious bass.    

The Bad:  

If Maddie's still sick in the morning, one of us will have to stay home with her.  Usually that would be not so bad, but it will probably have to be Eric, which will make me jealous and sad, and make him frustrated.   

The Good:  

Even when she's miserable, Madeline still manages to smile for us.  We're so lucky to have been given the BEST baby in the entire universe.  

That's papaya on her chin, not boogies.  Just in case.  

  

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

It's been a wet, cold spring so far.  This means that come May 31, it will probably hit 120 degrees and stay that way all summer long.  So much for spring picnics with the Maddie Bear.

Gold Star for Amy!

***Amy found my lost blog for me!***

There was a time, before God invented the printing press and the Internet, where people learned how to raise a child through word of mouth.

I imagine it sounded something like this:

Neighbor: "Little Heinrich!  He is crawling already!?"  

Mother:  *Clicking Tongue* "Of course!  Only babies who have been spat on by witches don't crawl!"  

Neighbor:  "That's true.  I once had a nephew who was spat on by a witch, and sure enough, he did not crawl..."   

Mother: *Gasp* "How terrible for your family!  What did they do?" 

Neighbor:  *Shrugging knowingly* "What else could they do?  They tied some garlic around his neck and left him in the garden next to the turnips for three days!"  

Mother: "Ah yes, that's very good.  Garlic and turnips do it every time!"  

Neighbor:  "Yes, but it must be for three full days.  Two will not work.  I tell you, my nephew was helping his father in the fields within a week!"      

These days there are actual "doctors" who write books telling mothers what they should expect from their babies at every age.

I have five of them.  Not one, not even two...five.  Granted, one was published in 1968.  

When Madeline was a newborn, I poured over them, excited to find out what she'd be doing at four months, nine months, a year!

Around four months, what the books said Madeline should be able to do, and what Madeline could actually do, stopped matching up.  That made me start to panic.  So, I did what any logical mother would do.  I put the books away and pretended they didn't exist.

Lately, I've been feeling confident about Madeline's abilities!  She's learning so much!  So, last night, I dug out the books for curiosity's sake.  Dumb. Idea.

Actual line taken from one of my baby books: (Note:  This is not an actual line from one of my baby books.)

"If your child is not performing quadratic equations by the time he is six months old, your baby may in fact be a loaf of bread.  If you suspect your baby to be a loaf of bread, get to your local bakery as soon as possible for an expert opinion.  If you don't have a local bakery, use to the following diagram."  

 Luckily, another one of my books is quick to remind its readers that every baby is different:

"Remember, this is only a guideline.  Every baby is different and develops at her own pace.  Many 'late bloomers' go on to have excellent careers pouring beer at Hooters.  With luck, someday your baby will too!"

In desperation, I turned to my baby book.  The one my mom kept and took notes in when I was a baby.  I figured in 1968 all the martinis and second-hand smoke the babies were ingesting during cocktail hour may have slowed down any developmental expectations.

Not so.

"If your baby is not crawling by eight months, it's because you have been paying too much attention to her.  If you want to avoid your child growing up to become a homosexual or a communist, I suggest you leave your baby alone in a room for long periods of time.  Once you make your baby feel that she is unloved and abandoned, she will crawl."  

(Okay, okay, so it didn't say the part about homosexuals and communists.)

While the new books make me panic that my child has some physical or mental defect, the old book makes me think that I'm simply a bad parent for spending too much time with my daughter.

Moral to the story:  Stop reading baby books, Summer.  

Blogger Ate My Homework

Blogger ate my most recent post.  Also, there was a 24 hour period where my entire blog did not exist.  I'm glad my blog still exists.  This morning will be spent making sure I have it saved twelve different ways.  

This is Madeline's baby book after all.

34 Weeks

I actually had to check the blog to figure out how old Madeline is today.  Good thing I've got this thing, otherwise she might be able to fool me into thinking she's old enough to go bar hopping with that bad baby from down the hall.

Madeline has been playing games a lot this week.  Last night, she cracked us up by initiating a game of peek-a-boo.  She'd put a blanket over her head and then pull it off all by herself.  Every time she found her way out from under the blanket, she'd laugh or squeal loudly at us.

She's trying to figure out how to go from lying down to sitting up without us helping her.  She's almost there.  She only needs to lightly hang on to one of our fingers to pull herself up.

We continue to be impressed by her "standing" skills.  (In other words, we prop her up against the couch and oooh and ahhh at her ability to not instantly fall over.)

Yesterday morning, I found her lying on her tummy in her crib happily playing with her pacifier.  This proves that both rolling and tummy time are becoming less scary for her.  She looked like such a little kid propped up on her elbows, cooing contently to herself.  

The most interesting new development is that Madeline gets upset over not getting her way.  Crying is no longer reserved only for physical discomforts.  She cries if we take away something she's chewing on.  She cries if we don't look at her. She cries if we leave the room.  She cries when I shut the door to the bathroom so that my giant orange jug and I can get some privacy.  (I keep it around for sentimental value.)

It can be pretty heartbreaking watching her smiling face turn into a blurry, teary mess just because Mumma needs to put her down for a second.  

Madeline is also learning the meaning of the word, "No."  That's a word we've never really had to say to her much before, but now that she's grabbing everything in sight, she's had to hear it quite frequently.

When I tell her no, she pauses whatever thing she's doing long enough to gaze at me with a befuddled expression on her face.  Then, she tries whatever she was doing again.  I tell her no and stop the action.  The confused expressions continue.

Most of the time, she seems to just resign herself to the fact that her Mumma is clearly crazy and tries to eat something else instead.  (Usually my arm.) Sometimes, she cries in frustration.

Le sigh. Life's hard when you're a baby.

My Favorite People

My birthday/ Mother's Day weekend was pretty awesome because I got to see almost all of my favorite people.

First, Eric took me out to dinner on Friday night to celebrate the fact that I'm almost as old as he is now.  I ate the entire restaurant.  No lie.

We were home by 9:30, and I told Eric that the best birthday present would be for him to just let me sleep.  By ten, I was in dreamland.  That's how I know I am now officially old.  I celebrated my 30th birthday by sleeping!

He extended the present into Sunday morning by getting up with the Maddie Bear while I slept in....till 6.

On Saturday, I had a girl date with Amy.  This was awesome because I feel like I never have time for girl dates anymore.   We saw a ridiculously wonderful chick movie...I was so excited!  She brought me a birthday hat and a hostess cupcake to celebrate!  That way, everyone in the theater knew it was my birthday.  Pretty rad.  After the movie, we went out to eat.  I ate the entire restaurant.

THEN, even more awesomeness!  My good friend Sarah was back in town for the weekend, so she came over on Saturday night.  I told Eric to beat it, and because he's the best boyfriend in the world, he obliged and found a bar downtown to watch the Celtics game so that I could enjoy even more girl time.
(There's so much estrogen in my body right now that I think my ovaries are square dancing!)

Eric let me sleep in again on Sunday, and this time, I slept till 8:30.  Ama-zing!

My parents came over for a late breakfast to celebrate Mother's Day.  I cooked without any major disasters, which is reason enough to celebrate.  They also brought champagne, so we got to drink Mimosas!  Good. idea. parents!

 The rest of the day was spent cuddling with Madeline, taking a walk in the nice weather, and napping on the couch.

It was such a fantastic weekend, that if I close my eyes and try reallllll hard, I can almost forget that Mondays exist.

Happy Mother's Day

Today was my first Mother's Day!

Some cards were homemade...

Like this one that Madeline "made" in daycare.  I die!

 Some were heartwarming...

Like this one from my mother  

And others made me just plain laugh...

Like this one from Amy of Everyday A

Thanks for making my first Mother's Day special!  


Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mother's out there!  
(Especially to my mother, Nanny, Eric's mother, Hollie, and Dawn.)

Thirty, Flirty, and Thriving~

Last night I was feeling a bit of nostalgia about my past, so I wrote a post about what I've learned from my twenties and what I hope to learn in my thirties.  I was thoughtful and reflective.  I re-read it this morning, and um.....snoozefest!

So Instead I Bring You:

Thirty Reasons Why I'm Awesome!!!

I'm not crying over being old in the last one.  I'm laughing at myself on the monitor.

1. I'm crafty, not in the Beastie Boys kind of way though.  

2. I take ridiculous photographs of myself on my computer.  

3. I take ridiculous photographs of my baby.  

4. I'm a good Mumma

5. I'm a patient teacher

6. I am not a patient girlfriend, but I try  

7. I'm smart 

8. I think I just heard a duck dying outside my window and I tried to look for it...that shows I'm caring.  

9. I'm good at drawing

10. I come up with good ideas for books....maybe someday I'll actually write them.  

11. I read really fast

12. I'm a ginger, and somehow, I still manage to have a soul.  

13. I'm a human jukebox  

14. If pressed, I could probably recite most of Romeo and Juliet 

15. I'm persistent (some people may call this stubborn) 

16. I'm a good whistler 

17. I'll watch anything that involves a corset or a vampire  

18. My hair smells good 

19. I gave birth to the cutest baby in the world! 

20. I'm good at keeping secrets

21. I'm loyal

22. I can touch my tongue to my nose

23. I'm polite to everyone 

24. I'm up to date on current events

25. Eric says I'm pretty....awwwww. 

26. I wake up with the baby with in the middle of the night and let Eric sleep.  

27. I'm a good dancer...at least Madeline thinks so.  

28. I can walk around in high heels

29. I now wear pants!!! (Most of the time.) 

30. I'm actually excited to turn 30!

Will She Eat It??

Madeline's baby food supplies were starting to run low, so I spent a full day throwing a baby-food-making party for me, myself and I.

 I made so much food that I had to run to the store to get more ice cube trays.  P.S.  Not very many places sell ice cub trays.  It was an epic search.  It ended at Sur La Table where I was tempted to buy everything in sight.

New to Madeline's repertoire:  Mangos, Sweet Zucchini and Carrot, and Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal Raisin.  Also new: peaches, sweet potatoes, fish, and yogurt.

The most adventurous new food she's tried is fish.  Eric and I were eating it for dinner, so I decided to blend some up for her.  I mixed it with some carrots and she ate it all up!  Yum, yum, yum.  In fact, she eats all of her food all up.  She doesn't seem to be too picky.  

I also gave her some yogurt for the first time last week.  Unfortunatley, she developed a nasty face rash on the days I gave her yogurt.  She gets the same face rash when she drinks regular formula instead of soy.  Not looking good for the dairy department, but I'll try again in the future to see if it really was the  yogurt of it was something else causing the rash.  

Future foods coming Madeline's way:  baby guacamole, cauliflower, chicken, and salmon.