Meet the band

Here are the Xbox Rockband extravaganza pictures that I have been meaning to post for about two weeks now... tsk tsk tsk... shame on me.
This game is something else... Strangely enough, Madeline slept through most of it. You may notice how I am strategically behind the camera... Mwa ha ha.

Landon the rocker with his trusty guitar...

Landon, David and Eric doing their thing... Aaron is in the background on vocals, Jennifer is assisting with moral support

Wayne drumming like a mad man and Eric...
looking serious.
It's all about the music, dudes!

Jennifer ready to blurt out some lyrics.
(Seriously are there any songs you don't know?)

GETTIN' DOWN!

Ready to take this show on the road...

I'd buy his record! Wouldn't you?

Thinking about being a mom...

Maddie is sleeping right now... I'm always amazed at how pretty she looks when she sleeps.

Since hearing the news that a person in my life is expecting (I won't tell too many who that is for fear of giving away the news before the person is ready) I've been thinking about how very fortunate we are to have her - Our Sweet Madeline.
What a gift!

"The moment a child is born,
the mother is also born.
She never existed before.
The woman existed, but the mother, never.
A mother is something absolutely new."
— Rajneesh

This week, we added music to the blog. It is located on the right side. It is a bunch of "girly" songs... The very first song is my favorite mommy song of all time called "Lullaby" by the Dixie Chicks. I heard this song when I was pregnant with Madeline.

Oh, how I cried the very first time I heard it. I knew I would sing it to her someday! (Must have been the out-of-control hormones!)

Peas...

Madeline is not too crazy about peas. We've tried... three times now...

But they say you have to keep introducing food to babies multiple times before they like it, so I may try to keep feeding her the green goup.

She has now ate applesauce, bananas, pears, peaches, sweet potatoes and peas. In addition, she has ate rice cereal, rice cereal flavored with apple and baby oatmeal.

Green beans, squash and carrots are on the menu next...

Reaching to new heights

This is part of a three-stage excersaucer that Madeline plays with from time to time. She gets to lay underneath it and grab at the buzzy bee, an orange butterfly and a blue bird that vibrates and buzzes when it gets pulled.

It just so happens that every time I think this little gal is just a tiny, "helpless" little baby, she proves me wrong.

For the past few months, she has only batted a little bit at the blue bird, which is situated higher than the other two toys. It also doesn't pull nearly as easily as the butterfly and the bee.

I thought to myself, "Why would they put that bird so high? And why would they make it so hard to pull? She'll never be able to reach it and pull it down."

This is why I don't design toys.

Lastnight, Madeline grabbed the blue bird and gave it a good yank. I laughed out loud... shocked that she finally reached up and yanked that little guy all the way to her belly and then let it go.

It buzzed back up to the top.

She grabbed it a few other times after that, not letting it go quite as quickly, which caused it to make some funny noises... Bzz.. Bzzz... Bzzzzzzz.... Bzzz

She is something else. Everyday is a new milestone and a new memory.


She's almost sitting on her own... kinda. She has started to prop herself up with her arms if she is left to sit on her own, but she still wobbles on her little round butt so she needs to be supported or propped with a pillow.

Lesson learned: Never doubt the power of the baby...

Toes... Mmm...Mmm... Good...

Wouldn't it be something to be this flexible again? How does she do it?

For the last couple of weeks, Miss Madeline has taking an extreme liking to sucking on her toes. She looks at them, grabs them, looks at them some more, tugs at them, looks at them a little more and then SLIRP... in her mouth they go.

Everytime we change her, we have to wrestle her legs down and pry her toes out of her mouth to get the diaper off and on. As soon as the pants come off, the toes go in the mouth. SLIRP... SLIRP... SLIRP...

Sometimes, she sings while she is enjoying her toe slirping feast. Sometimes she is just quite content with looking at them, slirping and then looking at them again.

Either way, it's funny to watch her.

One time she actually kept her suction on her toes when I put her in her bath. She was quite compact... like a little clam, as Jen Trahan pointed out!

Here's looking at you, kid

Doesn't she have amazing eyes?

Madeline went to the doctor yesterday (Jan. 5). She is now 19 pounds and 28 1/2 inches long. She's our tall girl! They said she is very healthy! Afterward, we took her K-Mart and she got to ride in a shopping cart for the very first time! Strangely enough, she fell asleep pretty quickly. Aaron took a picture on his phone, but I didn't have my trusty digital with me... So I don't have a high quality pic to post.


Big Girl Bed: We moved her crib into our room to help her get used to it. She seems to really enjoy hanging out there! She loves to stare at her mushroom and flower mobile that plays Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Peeeeek: I had to snap a few pictures of her in the crib, just hanging out, looking at the mirror next to her. She likes to coo and chat with herself when she notices the little girl staring back at her!



Too cool: Thanks to all who have taken the time to leave little messages on our blog. Madely Poo will have fun looking back at them someday when she is a big girl!

We're trying to keep this up to date a couple of times a week... We have lots more ideas for fun posts in the future!

This girl knows how to eat!... Almost!

Since October 22, Madeline has been eating mushy gooshy baby foods. She started on apple sauce, then bananas and then pears and finally, we've added peaches. The peaches have proven to be her fave.

She's also sampled some whipped cream on her binky.



The more she eats from a spoon, the better she gets... unless she bobbles her head at the last second as was the case with this mondo spoonful of peaches (pictured above). They were everywhere and of course, grammy Joles had to get a picture! It was too cute!



And of course, Madeline still loves her "bubba". She can't quite hold it up yet, but you would never know from this picture. She thought it was pretty cool to hold it up for herself for a few seconds.

But, mommy still looks forward to rocking her to sleep at night. It's one of the best parts of the day!



Mommy usually goes to bed right after Maddie! Don't we look tired???