The Adventures of the Two M's
More and more we Love the Crabby pictures :)
It's been fun to watch Madelyn romp around the family room lately. She wakes up most mornings and is absolutely on fire, dashing to all her toys, tossing them aside and sticking others in her mouth to make sure they still taste the same. She's figured out how to squat down and pick up toys while standing and take a few side steps while holding on to the couch or the hearth. Baby gates have gone up as her crawling speed has picked up another notch. Perhaps the best trick she learned this week is how to put herself back to sleep. A few times this week she's started crying in the middle of the night and then after a few minutes it tapered off and she fell back asleep. I think we both did a back flip when this first happened, the "cry-it-out" method never worked with Madelyn. We also have been able to give her a bottle a few times before bed, something that we have been unable to do for the last 8 months, life is good.
Naptime again... 
Since Madelyn is getting heavy we finally decided that she might be big enough to try climbing the stairs. (She is far, far away from being able to do so without us right behind her, so no worries) I plopped her down on the bottom step a few nights ago with a toy a few steps out of reach. She made a good effort at climbing a few steps. I thought that it might take a week or so for her to get the hang of it, then the next day she managed to climb all the way up to the second floor for Karin, and again for me that evening. Sleeping is starting to settle down. She's back to waking up once a night and getting about 12 hours of sleep per night.
Madelyn and Kaitlyn 
Much to our delight it appears that many of Madelyn's toys double as cat toys and vice versa. Simon and her will hang out on the floor while she tosses a ball down the slide. Wyatt is still hesitant to join in on the fun. Notice the crazy bed head. Maddy has learned to open up a few drawers in the kitchen this week, followed shortly there after with learning how to slam her fingers in the same drawer. It's funny how these new experiences go together sometimes.
Karin's Peps group met at our house this week, this is Evan and Phoenix. All the kids are starting to play with each other rather than roll around on the carpet and play by themselves.
"What do you mean my friends have to go home!?"
Madelyn is thrilled beyond belief that she can crawl. We sit(exhausted) every night and watch her play in the family room as she crawls to every toy in the room to either gums it or tosses it aside for later. She's also learned to play a small game of Hide n' Go seek with her Mom. Karin will sit her down in the upstairs family room and then crawl to one of the bedrooms. Madelyn will flash a big smile on her face and charge off to chase Mom. Just as fun to watch is her make an escape from any room that Mom is in. She wiggles her way into the hallway smiles, looks back at Mom and keeps right on going. Another discovery this week is how much a bouncing ball can make her laugh. We had her and ourselves in absolute stitches when I bounced her small green ball this week. Why this is so funny to a 7 month old we don't really know, small bounces got small giggles, big bounces left her cackling for several seconds. If she likes bouncing balls that much we'll have to take her to a Basketball game sometime soon.
