First Father's Day

So I've taken the opportunity to hijack Renee's blog to talk about my first Father's day experience. I'll start by saying I had no idea what I was missing. I was really looking forward to the day in general because Renee' was being adorable and building the day up.

The day started out with presents. Renee' got me some cool miscellaneous stuff and cards. I have this adorable card from Maddie where Renee' helped her sign it. I will always keep it.

From Madison Kate

Next up was going to our favorite breakfast spot Stacks. Foods always good, good atmosphere, I usually run into someone I know, etc etc. Fun times. We didn't make any concrete plans (Which is the way I like it) so after breakfast I wanted to hit up my comic book shop (Yes I love comics...) DC killed off BRUCE WAYNE!! Aka Batman for the non cool people. OMFG DC! Sorry rant off.

Next up was my little sisters championship softball game. Technically it was a qualifier for Nationals. Long story short we went up 6 in the first inning, then gave up 7 in the 5th. There are seven innings so I was kind of freaking out. Its all good though because we scored 3 in the 6th and held on in the 7th. Good times man. Winning the tourney they now get to go to Nationals in Vegas the end of the month. Go Sammi!!

From Madison Kate

"Mads...the game is the other way silly..."
After that we headed home for a little while to recharge we met up with Renee's family at Oakridge. The men saw Terminator Salvation while the women folk cruised the mall. I liked Terminator. I secretly have a man crush on Christian Bale (He's Batman people!!) And if you haven't seen American Psycho go see it.... Now... I'll wait. No seriously go freakin watch it. Watch it then tell me straight faced hes not a damned gifted actor. "Yah but he's crazy Jason!" Yah well so am I. Oh snap!! See what I did thar? Back on point: Terminator was good however I wished they had a little more character development and I had to throw the BS flag a couple times but oh well. Im really excited to see where they go from here with the rest of the new trilogy. Good lord this post is long.

Anyways my first Fathers Day was amazing largely due to my beautiful wife. I had no idea what I was missing. Being a father is something that I have always wanted but I had no idea it would be so incredible. Everything from watching my daughter grow to sharing the whole experience so far with Renee' has been remarkable and it still feels so surreal. Thanks for reading and if you people reading want me to do more posting say the word.

Baby Sign Language

We have started sign language with Madison. We started signing about a month ago when I noticed that she understood that the clicking noise of my nursing bra meant she was about to get fed!

We don't expect her to start signing back to us until about 9 months, but we like being able to already get the lines of communication going.

Signs we are using now:

- Milk. She definitely understands this one now. When she's not paying attention and I sign and say "milk", she immediately turns toward me mouth open. :) I'm fairly consistent with this sign.

- Kitty. This is the other one she definitely understands. We're also pretty consistent with it. She's still REALLY interested in the cats and gets excited when we do the sign / say "kitty."

- Diaper. We're having a tough time being consistent with it, so she doesn't know what it means yet.

- Sleep. (Same as diaper change.)

- Mommy. (Same.) We aren't being consistent, but I think it might also be a harder sign to grasp the idea of.

- Daddy. (Same.)

First Time Sitting Unassisted!

Today Maddie stayed sitting without any help for quite a while!! Daddy was right there to watch her, also. Here's when it happened:

From Madison Kate

I'm so proud!

The Amazing Spinning Baby

Mads is not mobile yet (thank goodness!). She has rolled from front to back maybe 10 times, but hasn't figured out back to front, so she can't keep going once she lands on her back. She can scoot side to side and front to back a LITTLE if she's really motivated, but nothing major.

She can, however, spin impressively fast circles. Witness:

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

Maddie also enjoys doing many "baby push ups" as part of her tummy time workout!

From Madison Kate

Tooth Watch 2009 Continues

And so it continues.

I was really hoping our kid wouldn't be the kind that is teething 3 months before a tooth finally shows, but it appears she is. As recently as a few days ago she has had off and on spurts of full-on teething. This last one was so bad that I was convinced that tooth was going to pop through in a couple days. I could even feel the swollen bump.

The poor girl has been:
- Pooping like crazy. She would go from once every 3 days to 3 or 4 times a day. It was like having a newborn again!
- Drooling like nuts and getting bad drool rashes as a result. The hubs and I do everything we can to keep her chin dry, but it's next to impossible at the rate she produces new spit ammo.
- Suffering extreme fussiness that is the worst when she's put down to sleep. There were a few times that the only way she'd sleep was on me or with my snuggled next to her. She was back in our bed for a few nights. We HAVE found that the Hylands Teething Tablets are awesome and help her a lot.
- Increasing her comfort nursing.
- Gnawing on anything and everything. She seems to prefer the wood teethers and the refrigerated and liquid-filled rings.


Where she napped. (I obviously didn't mind!)

From Madison Kate

Chew chew chew chew.

From Madison Kate

5 Months!

Madison is 5 months old today. She's growing so fast and becoming more and more "interactive!" Here are some notes about where she is and what she's doing right now:

- 17 lbs 4 ounces
- At least 27.5 inches long
- Wearing 9 month clothes. Still squeezes into a few 6 month items and is already wearing some of her 12 month summer stuff.
- Size 3 diapers.
- Maddie is still very sparse in the hair department, but the new growth that is coming in is still RED!! I really think she'll be a full-on red head or at least strawberry blond. <3
- She touched her feet on her own for the very 1st time on June 3rd while sitting in the Bumbo. Then she found them while laying on her back the morning of the 7th. Since that morning, she LOVES to grab on them, play with them, and put them in her mouth.
- Very grabby! She is reaching for EVERYTHING (faces, hangs on to your arm when carrying her, food, laptop, toys, etc.) She has impressive accuracy and a strong, precise grip.
- Does this thing where she leans/lunges forward. It equates to her constantly pulling against her car seat straps while trying to sit up straight instead of reclined and some very impressive baby crunches while on someone's lap.
- Mastered tracking objects. She can easily watch and track us from across the room and she understands where to look when someone (or the cats!) walk behind her and out of view (knows to turn the other way... the way they were headed.)
- She's babble talking less now in favor of full on screech talking/yelling instead. It was adorable at first (as you could see on the videos!), but is beginning to lose it's appeal. ;)
- All toys/blankets/clothing go STRAIGHT to the mouth. Chew chew chew is her favorite way to explore the world around her. She has been teething in spurts. For a few days she'll be drooling extra, have LOTS more dirty diapers, very cranky, biting her teethers very hard, and we can feel swollen gums. However, nothing has broken through yet and we're just waiting. Tooth watch continues...
- Mads laughs a LOT and is starting to enjoy peek-a-boo. She likes being quickly lifted up and down above Mommy or Daddy's head and laughs when you get in her face and are silly. She also cracks up when we quickly grab and move one of her arms and legs while making a noise. Maddie seems to be favoring Mom for laughs right now and I'm loving every minute of it.
- She does not like to be tickled. She definitely has a reaction when you tickle the bottoms of her feet or ribs, but not a great one. In fact, I tried giving her a nice big tickle to the ribs and she burst into tears!! I felt so terrible.
- She lifts head/shoulders when being picked up from her back. I think she's just trying to make it easier for us and to get into our arms faster. :)
- Still loves bathtime and knows when it's coming. Jason usually does this part of the bedtime routine.

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

Showers & Flowers

Little Drummer Girl

Air drumming session at Zak and Sarah's house.

Love for the Kitty

Madison absolutely loves the cats! She watches them walk around the room and ALWAYS reaches out to them when they're near enough to touch. And now we have proof that Thor has finally warmed up to her. :)

From Madison Kate

From Madison Kate

Napping on Vacation?? No way, Mom!