We're back!

After a long but wonderful trip to Arizona, Madilyn and I have arrived back to Altus safe and sound. We planned to head out on Saturday morning and stop for the night in Albuquerque, but Mother Nature had a different plan for us. There were some pretty bad wonter storms going through the area we would be traveling, so we had to change our route. This added about 5 hours to our journey! Matt drove the entire trip. Every time we'd reach a large town or city, I'd ask him if we should stop for the night, and he'd always reply "nope, I'm doing just fine, let's keep going". Well, 19 hours after leaving Phoenix, we arrived back home around 5am.. He drove all day and night! Needless to say we're all still catching up on sleep around here. It's nice to be home again.

Madilyn seems to be growing by leaps and bounds these days. She's extremely interesed in her surroundings. Within the last week "dada" and "doggie" have become a regular part of her vocabulary, and she's even using them appropritely! On top of new words, she seems to have learned how to wave. As Matt was leaving for work today he waived "bye bye" to her and she waved back!

Well I think that about sums it up for now, Madilyn is up from her nap!

Baptism

Today we had Madilyn baptized at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Tempe, AZ. It was a wonderful celebration and we were so blessed to be able to share it with our families. Here are some pictures of the event :)

With Mommy and Daddy in her gown

Anointed with oil

Baptism

Megan (Godmother), Mommy, Madilyn, Daddy, and Bret (Godfather)

Here we are with the Deacon who baptized Madilyn!

Eight Months!

Happy eight-month birthday, Madilyn!

Our little girl just keeps getting bigger and bigger by the day it seems. At this point she has mastered "da-da", "ba'ba" and "hi", although she does not use them appropriately yet.

She continues getting herself on her belly and trying to crawl. So far we're still rocking, but I'm sure she'll be zooming around in no time at all.

Meal times are finally getting enjoyable! She often gets excited when she sees the baby food coming and loves to try different things we're having at meal times too....especially bread :)

It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital in labor, and now here we are, eight months later! This year has just flown by, and I'm sure all subsequent years will continue to go by quicker than the one before.

Madilyn Loves Bath Time

Just had to share some new bath time pictures :)

Playing in the bubbles

Playing with Aunt Bianna

Rocking her new hairdo (compliments of Brianna)

(look at all SIX teeth!)

And my favorite!
She's anxiously waiting for the tub to fill so she can splash away!

Playing catch-up

I haven't written in a while, so this is kind of a catch all as to what's been happening in our lives recently!

Madilyn is still happy as ever, and almost never sleeps. Well, at least she's a happy baby, right? Most nights we average around 5 or 6 wake-ups, but last night only twice...HOORAY!!!! Maybe it's because she's trying to learn how to crawl. She's a little ways off yet probably, but she can get on all fours and sort of rocks back and forth. I'm sure once she actually gets it, she'll be too quick for her own good!

Matt's grandparents are coming out from Florida tomorrow for a nice visit. It will be great to see them! Madilyn sure has changed since the last time they saw her in August.

With Christmas just around the corner, we've been quite busy. Matt will be joining us again around the 19th or so. We'll all be heading back to Altus near the end of December (probably around the 28th or 29th, but we're yet to finalize it).

We've had a wonderful time here in Phoenix, and while we're always sad to leave family behind, it will also be nice to be back with our friends and "family" back home and get back in the groove. (I can't wait to see how big all those babies are getting!)

Well, I think that's all I have for now....

Tubby Time!

Madi is such a big girl! She especially loves tubby time each night before bed. Here she is playing in the tub last night. She even took a bath in the big tub and sat up all on her own! In the second video, you'll she she has found her tongue. It's really quite funny to watch.

Pancakes :)

Yummy!

Madi really enjoyed Grandpa Don's pancakes. I just wanted to share!

I've been tagged!

Tagging seems to be one of those things going around at the moment and I've been tagged by Julie.

Here are the rules:

• Link to the person who tagged you. I've been tagged by Julie. (She has a daughter Madeline who is just two weeks older than our Madilyn!)
• Post the rules on your blog.
• Write 6 random things about yourself.
• Tag 6-ish people at the end of your post.
• Let each person know he/she has been tagged.
• Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

1. I don't know how to ski or snowboard. I tried it once when I was in high school and swore I'd learn. Even living in Colorado I kept promising myself I would take lessons every winter and was always "too busy". One of these days I still plan to learn!!!!

2. I LOVE to cook. Some of you may already know this, some may not. I love spending time in the kitchen whipping up new things. I especially enjoy baking (which is terrible for my waistline!).

3. Given the choice, 99% of the time I would choose a vacation in a cabin in the snow rather than out in the sun on the beach.

4. I always thought my calling would be to work in pediatrics, but now I think I would like mom-baby nursing. Of course, right now I am loving being a stay-at-home-mom!

5. This one isn't really about me, but since it's more Madi's blog I'll include a little random note about her too. In the first 6 months of her life, she'd already been on 11 flights!

6. I love raw cookie dough. I know, kinda gross, but I can't help myself!

Time to tag a few. I don't know too many bloggers who haven't already been tagged, so here I go:
Melody
MomandDad


Hmm, I think those are the only two I know who have blogs. To the rest of you reading who don't blog.....it's time to start blogs of your own!

Happy Seven Month Birthday, Madilyn!

Our little princess is seven months old today! Every month seems to go by even faster than the one before. She's learning so many new things everyday, it's hard to keep up! Last week Madilyn weighed in at a whopping (for us) 15lbs 11oz!!!! We go back for another weight check next week. She's now eating three (2oz) meals a day :)

Madilyn has also learned to say "dadadada", "babababa", and "ooooooooo". During tummy time she is starting to try and scoot, although she has not been able to get anywhere just yet.

And just for fun, here's a comparison of Madi as a newborn and now:

Chatty Madi

Our chatty girl this morning :)

A Great Day!

What a great day we had today. Megan and Bret invited Madilyn and I over for pancakes this morning (Thanks guys, they were very yummy) and we got to see their apartment. Madi had a good time playing and was such a good little girl.


This afternoon I (again) tried some more solids with our little princess....

She gobbled them right up!!!! Guess we have a veggie girl. She ate 1/2 a jar of peas and brown rice for lunch and almost a whole jar of sweet potatoes/chicken for dinner!!!!! HOORAY!

Here are a few more pictures from our day. A bit random, I know... but I couldn't help myself :)

In her Sunday dress

Bath time!

Playing after her bath

Welcome Home Aunt Melody!

Today I took Madilyn to Grandma and Grandpa Merritt's house to see her Aunt Melody. She just got back from Spain and hadn't seen Madi since she was about hree weeks old. Madilyn sure has changed since then!

Aunt Melody, Grandma, Madilyn

Madi had lots of smiles for her Auntie!

Hanging out with Grandpa :)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Did you all have fun today? I had some grand plans to take Miss Madilyn out trick or treating to at least two or three houses, but our little princess had a better idea - SLEEP! Yep, She was in bed by 6pm. Poor kiddo still hasn't quite adjusted to the time difference and insists on a 6pm bedtime.

I did manage to snap a picture of her in costume at least. So here it is!

Carrots....blech!

I keep experimenting with solids for Madi. We've yet to find anything besides toast this kid actually enjoys. If she had it her way, I think she'd just nurse forever. We've been trying out carrots recently, but her face pretty much says it all. Guess we'll just keep trying!

Isabella, Thanks For Coming to Play :)

Natalie and Isabella stopped by for a little bit this afternoon. The girls are now just about the same size! I always love watching them interact together. It's so neat to watch them grow side by side. Here are some pictures from our playdate :)





Before Isabella came to play, Madilyn was playing on the floor with her toys. She is sitting up better and better every day. She played this way for quite a while! (Pardon her silly outfit, she's in part of her Halloween costume).

Yummy Toast!

In an effort to get Madilyn interested in food, I bought some Zwieback Toasts and decided to let her explore it while we ate dinner. To my surprise, she loved it! I think it felt really good on her gums. Those two top teeth look like they may break through any day now, and I bet chomping on the toat was soothing. I think she got most of it everywhere BUT her mouth, but thats okay. I'm just glad she was interested in something!!! Here are a few pics (I know thats what most of you are waiting for anyways, lol). Enjoy :)

A new seat for our princess

As you can see, Madilyn has outgrown her infant bathtub.


We ordered her a new bath ring and just had to try it out when it arrived! She's having a great time taking baths like a big girl now :)



(In case any of you want a seat of your own, they can be found here)

We Made Butternut Squash!

I've been meaning to start making Madilyn's baby food myself, but just didn't get around to it until now. I know the stage one jars are only made of the fruit or veggie and water, but have you seen some of the stuff they start adding to the stage two foods? Yuck! So, I started with butternut squash. So far she's not real excited, but hopefully she'll get better about it as we keep trying.

I baked the squash at 400 degrees for a little over an hour to make sure they were nice and tender.

I then scooped out the insides and put it into the food processor. I mixed the squash with some breastmilk to make it a little sweeter (in hopes she's take to the flavor). Then I pureed it for 3-4 minutes.

Afterwards, I filled ice cube trays with the squash, and froze it for about 4 hours. Two cubes make the equivalent of one jar of stage one foods.

Once everything was frozen solid, I took the cubes out and placed them in separate containers and put them back int the freezer. Now when we're ready for a meal, all we have to do is defrost.........voila! Homemade baby food!

Next I think I'll do avocados. After that, maybe some green beans.

Six Months

Madilyn turned 6 months on Sunday! We had her check up today, and it didn't go as well as I had hoped.

For those of you who may not know, Madilyn is having trouble with solid foods. Each time she has cereal, she gets ill a few hours later and proceeds to vomit profusely. Like, until she's dry heaving and gets lethargic. A few hours after that, she's okay again. I've even tried spacing out her solids to see what is causing it. We still don't know.

The doctor didn't seem too concerned about all of this, and encouraged us to try other solids and see if she has the same reaction. He wanted her to be up to 4-5 tablespoons of veggies 2x a day and 4-5 tablespoons of fruits 2x a day. If she doesn't tolerate these foods either, then they will refer her to a pediatric stomach specialist for further testing.

Too add insult to injury, she is still 26 inches (as she was at 5 months) and has gained less than an ounce in the past 20 days. I feel like I'm failing my child. She's been nursing practically around the clock like a newborn, and still no growth! She's even been up at least 4x a night for weeks now. The doctor says she should be able to go all night without eating and still grow. He said if she can't, then there's something wrong. He kept insisting that she can sleep through the night at this point. Ugh, it's all so frustrating....

Madilyn loves new toys :)

While we were home, my mom's friend Melody stopped by with a new toy for Miss Madilyn. Looks like she's enjoying it!!!



Thank you Melody!!!!

Matt's grandmother also gave Madilyn a new toy phone! I'll try to get some pictures of her with it when I can :)

Dog Days 2008

This past weekend was "Dog Days of Summer" here at the base pool. Right before closing the pool for winter, they let all the families bring their dogs down for some fun. They even have a retrieval contest and some dogs jump off the high dive. Since Duke is so crazy about the water, we brought him back again this year. Here are a few pictures from our outing.

We're back

On Tuesday we had a chance to see Madilyn's Great-Grandma and Grandpa (Sandy's parents), Aunt Tracy and Aunt Wendy.

Great-Grandpa, Madilyn, and Tracy

Great-Grandma

Mommy, Grandma Sandy, Madilyn, Great-Grandma, Wendy, Great-Grandpa, and Tracy

On Tuesday afternoon, Melody stopped by. She and my mom have been friends for many years. I'm so glad you finally got to meet Madilyn!

Madilyn and I got back Wednesday afternoon. We had a great flight home. The plane was next to empty, so we got our own row! Here's a little picture of Madilyn enjoying one of her books on the flight!



It was wonderful to see you all! We'll be back again soon:)