Brooks

Lots of new stuff has been happening with Madelyn these past few weeks, but first a word about Brooks. Madelyn has known Brooks though Karin's Peps group since she was about 3 weeks old, he's a few days older than her. His mother Wendy, and their new daughter Georgia, come over to play from time to time.

These two have seem to have hit it off. Madelyn still loves to sit on whatever she can find and today it happened to be Brooks.



On to the new stuff, we must be in some sort of growth spurt. Madelyn has gained about a pound in the last month and she's weighs about 25lb 8oz now. She's not as much fun to carry around as she used to be. We also have four teeth on their way in. The first molars erupted from the gums about a week ago and have begun their decent. It's gotta hurt pushing that much out so we've been using Motrin on the rough nights. Lots of new words have begun tumbling out of her mouth. Hi! is still her favorite word to say but Dogeee, Katee, and dat(that) have also shown up, along with her first attempts at making animal sounds, panting for a dog, and trying to trumpet like an elephant. This usually ends up with her spitting all over the place. She knows what no and yes means in their general terms. Mom's tought her to nod her head yes if she wants more cheese and to wave her hands when she "All done" with her food, bath etc...

We've been doing little kids puzzles with her recently and it's amazing to watch her learn how to twist the pieces around to make everything fit. She'll clap her hands when she finishes a puzzle and expects us to do the same. The green couch in the family room has also been conquered. After tossing her leg onto the couch and trying and trying to get on it for weeks, she's finally managed to do so on her own. We put off teaching her how to climb on the furniture but it was only a matter of time. Meme has thankfully taught her what "On your belly" means in order to get off. On your belly also works at the playground with slides, I normally take her a few times a weekend and she'll flop over on her belly to go down. This has worked well for the last two months, but recently it's become obvious that I now need a spotter. I used to be able send her down and then go down the slide myself, but our last two attempts ended up with her going to fast and her flopping face first on the wood chips. Thanks to Dad she also got her first owie on her knee the other day while we were playing around outside in cute pink pants instead of her jeans. She knows the sound of an airplane now and will look up when they cruise overhead.

Food is always a challenge but she always manages to eat enough. Yogurt, bananas, pasta, cheese and raisins are her favorites. Bread, grapes, pears, and maybe peas get consumed depending on the mood. And of course she could eat her weight in Pirate's Booty if you let her.

Favorite bedtime books change from time to time but the sure winners are One Yellow Lion, Tails and Mrs Spider's tea party. Bedtime is as close to 7:00pm as we can get and most days she'll sleep into 7:30ish in the morning. One 1.5 hour nap is all we get now after lunch.