More 6 Month Pictures

More Pictures arrived from our photographer yesterday, yippie. Madelyn has finally decided that she has something to say, please excuse her sentence structure, " cvbgfvcxxxxxxxxxxxxx b vxcv/4rtg vbgbg6tgfgv c 6 bbg6565t0m7mjn t465gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggxwhzznllllllqnnn vcccrggggz". Oddly enough she managed to type the name of one of her favotite cats, Tom :)

We are headed to Hawaii for a vacation, this may be it for a few weeks unless our condo has an internet connection.

6 month Pictures are in!

Our photographer, Sandi, came over a few weeks ago and took some wonderful pictures of Madelyn and a few of the three of us. Wow is the best word that I can come up with to describe these pictures. We can't say enough good things about Sandi, she's simply the best. If anybody is in need of baby pictures or pictures of any other type here is her blog address: http://sandiheinrich.blogspot.com/

Let it Snow

The Potter family is just about over the crud that hit us a few weeks ago. Madelyn's cold morphed into a ear infection but she seems to be doing ok now. We felt good enough to join our friends the Leatys and the Gustafsons in Leavenworth to hang out in the snow for the weekend. We had fun watching all the kids sled in the snow (5 of them between us now ,with one more on the way for the Gustafson Family!). Madelyn got all bundled up and actually fell asleep in the Bjorn.

As for her new tricks this week it's all about trying to crawl. Just in these last few days she's figured out how to get up on all fours and rock back and forth for about 10 seconds. Then she either plops down or does a face-plant. All of this makes bedtime more entertaining as she insists on practicing her crawling technique while she's trying to go to sleep or maybe you can call it sleep-crawling. She's still not terribly interested in eating her cereal or fruits yet, but she can make some very funny faces when trying a new food for the first time.

Back in Action

The Family is feeling better and we are almost back to normal. Madelyn has started to enjoy her sippy-cup. She thinks of it as more of a toy currently rather than a way to drink water or milk. The cats know already to hang around the high-chair while she drinking to lap up the puddles of water that magically appear while she's drinking. We try to feed her baby food a few times a day but for the most part she's not terribly interested in it yet.

Madelyn can sit on her own for short periods. She's not strong enough to recover from leaning over to one side or the other so more often than not she rolls on to her belly after about 30 seconds of sitting. Rolling all over the family room to chase a cat is one of her favorite games, the cats are getting scared of how mobile she has become.

Mamma, I'm Sick

Yikes, there is perhaps nothing more cranky than a 6 month old with a stuffed up nose at 2:30am. We been out sick since last Friday and have re-learned the definition of "patience" is as well as redefining the word "Grumpy". Happily we are on the upswing tonight and with any luck the whole family will get a good nights sleep.

Madelyn is very adept in rolling over 3-4 times to get to her toys or a cat. She can sit up on her own now for short periods before rolling over one way or another.

The heck with Rolling I want to Crawl

It's been another interesting week. If rolling around was not enough, Madelyn is doing her best to crawl. She can do a push-up with her arms or stick her bum up in the air but not both at the same time. To make things more fun she seems to practice this at night. It's not uncommon for us to go into her bedroom and find her with her head wedged into a corner of the crib with her bum up in the air, asleep and yet crying because she's stuck.

She's been sick with a cold since Friday so no new pictures.

Rolling....

Madelyn has figured out how to roll over more than once when she wants to go somewhere this week. It's funny to watch her. First she hikes her feet up in the air, wiggles them around and arches her back, then she smiles, flops over on to her back and does it again. We have found her in the crib some mornings turned 90 degrees and wedged sideways so she must be doing this at night also.

Her increased mobility has alarmed Wyatt who stays well past the 1 foot "no-touch" zone. Symon on the other hand will toss himself down next to her and tolerate having his fur pulled out, maybe because he's so attention starved. She got a set of Alphabet blocks from Uncle Andy and has decided that she likes them, if we give her two blocks, she'll rake them towards her, if we then show her 1 or 2 more, she'll want those as well. Take one or two away and she'll drag them back.

Christmas Time

Kids must be born with the present gene. Every time Madelyn got close to a present she wanted to rip it open and see what was inside, I guess I can't blame her. Our first Christmas as a family together will be a day to remember (It even snowed here in Seattle!) but it seemed to go by much to fast and was over in a blink of an eye. Madelyn is well stocked up on toys for the next year thanks to her friends and family.


This was a present for me but she enjoyed helping to open it up anyway.


Sitting on the Dining room table and acting cute again :)


Joy, an electronic toy drum - Thanks D&R :)



Our niece, Angelica, is in town this week as well.

Hips check out ok

We had another trip to Children's Hospital this week and Madelyn's hips were given an ok. The highlight of the trip was actually watching Madelyn tear up the white paper that they put out on the exam table. She loves that she can shake something and make such a huge racket, we must have gone though 10 feet of the stuff while we waited.

Thankfully this week she has learned how to roll on to her back from her belly, so now when she's tired of holding her head up she just flops over rather than getting annoyed. She also rolls around at night in her crib and prefers to sleep face down, occasionally she'll get stuck against the side of the crib but for the most part she's sleeping great. After taking a week off from want rice cereal she's showing some renewed interest. As with anything new, it will take some time for her to get the hang of it.

We have caught Madelyn and Symon playing together at times. He has far more patience than Wyatt for her jerky and less than gentle movements.

High Chair

It's been fun to watch Madelyn improve her roll-over technique this week. Two weeks ago it seemed to take lots of concentration and effort for her to hoist her legs up and then decide to roll them to the left or the right and then finally twist the rest of her body, sometimes getting stuck along the way. Now she has it down pat and seems to roll over whenever she wants. In the blink of an eye she tosses her legs up and poof she's on her belly. She's also learned this week that she can make a funny sound by trying to jam her entire fist into her mouth and sucking on it. One or two fingers won't do, it has to be the whole fist.

A few toys have become her favorite recently, one of them looks like a cross between a stuffed giraffe and a small yellow blanket has been nicknamed her "Fussy". Madelyn absolutely loves to rub it all over her head and shake it all about. An X-mas present from the Grandparents in the form of a High Chair has shown up this week and she's definitely ready to eat. She gets a small serving of rice cereal or perhaps sweet potatoes once a day.

Yippie I'm 5 Months old now

We've had a good week. Mom was able to sneak into Babies R Us for another holiday picture opportunity. We are continuing to feed her rice cereal each evening and she loves the change in food so far. I'm thrilled because I finally get to feed my daughter and have something to do around mealtime beside coaxing burps out and cleaning up spit-up. She still loves to watch the cats, but they are wise to her and give her a wide berth when they walk on by.

First Food

We decided to start rice cereal yesterday. Madelyn is continually reaching for our food when she sits on our laps while we eat. She's just getting the hang of it but seems to like the taste of something new. The spoon routine is going to take a little practice and getting used to.

Rolling over is her other skill of the week, she just loves to pick her legs up and flop on over to her belly, it's great fun to watch. She's still working on how to roll back, maybe next week.


Our holiday photo shoot at home last night did not seem to go as planned, but she seemed to have fun despite two parents who desperately wanted some more cute pictures of her in her holiday outfits.

Another Santa picture at Memere's church last weekend.

Santa!

Our Santa pictures arrived today! I suppose that only Madelyn knows what she asked for, maybe she'll tell us someday. We consider ourselves lucky in that we made it to see Santa without and major wardrobe, parent or child breakdowns.

New tricks of the week continue to be more laughter, mainly at Symon our cat and occasionally she'll laugh at one of us if we act funny. She surprised Mom today and rolled over onto her tummy for the first time while she was reaching for a toy, it's amazing how fast kids grow at this stage and the daily surprises that you get to see. We must have hit another growth spurt because her feedings have stepped up a notch, a few nights this week it was almost like having a newborn again.

X-Mas Tree farm

We picked up a X-mas tree last Friday. The next day Madelyn finally succumbed to the cold that Mom and Dad have been stuck with recently and ran a fever. Until last weekend I thought that I was the biggest grump when I got sick, Madelyn now holds that distinction in our family :)

Happily she's back to normal now and flashing that big smile of hers. Memere came over today and stuck Madelyn in the pile of clothes that she was helping to fold.

Turkey with a side of Razzzberries

It was bound to happen, all those razzberries that we have blown on Madelyn to make her try to giggle have come back to bite us. Laying down on the changing table the other morning she starting making her usual noises. It started with something that sounded like "AAAABuUghhhh" and then moved to the full on "PHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT." I was honestly startled for a moment and thought where on earth did my child pick that noise up from? She then blew another razzzberry and that jarred my sleep deprived mind out of its fog...me.

The tongue has now emerged from her mouth, she'll mimic what you do at times to get a reaction from you. Stick out your tongue and make a silly sound and she'll try to do the same. I'll try to get a picture of this as it's quite cute. Giggles and laughter are still hard to come by. I coaxed several laughs out of her this morning when our cat pounced on a paper bag to get his feather stick, apparently she likes being startled.

The slide-show on the lower left is a new feature from Blogger. Click on the picture to view it a larger size.

Everythings new to me :)

Sitting up is a new thing for Madelyn, but heck most everything is new to her at this point in her life. She needs help to sit up so that's why you see all the shots of her in the Bumbo. Our Dr. suggested a new position where we put her hands inside her legs while she sits tripod style. This always seems to bring about wide eyes and a great big smile. The cats are becoming more interesting to her and she can reach out and pet (maybe pet is the wrong word, it's more like grab a bunch of fur) them when they check her out.

For the most part bedtime and sleeping are becoming more regular, you just don't know how much you take sleep for granted until it's taken away from you in large doses. We seem to be getting 8 hour stretches on a consistent basis. She kicks around so much in the crib that she ends up at the bottom of it each morning, three feet or so from where I leave her every evening.

4 Months

Madelyn turned 4 months this week, it's hard for us to believe that she sleeping in her own room now. We are still surprised day by day with her new behaviors that come and go. This week she decided that lip smacking was a good thing and for two days it seemed like that's all she wanted to do, "SMACK, SMACK, SMACK." Maybe she liked the sound her lips made or the way it felt? Then as soon as the lip smacking started she stopped.

She is becoming more aware of her environment day by day as well. When we walk into our pantry and see the same old boxes of food on the shelves we tend to think in terms of, "whats for dinner?" She on the other hand will be endless fascinated by all the shapes and colors that she can now see. Our friends the Fishers came over for dinner last night, their 2 month old daughter Kaitlyn and Madelyn babbled back and forth to each other a few times, it was as if they were saying, "That's a cute outfit you have on, where did you get it?", or "Are you as tired of drinking milk as I am?"

The Jumper-Roo continues to be a huge hit. It's nice that she can bounce around to her hearts content. She gives it such a run for its money that I sometimes wonder if she will pop out of it someday. Its very entertaining to watch.