Swim Lessons

Madison started swim lessons 3 weeks ago. She's a FISH! The lessons have gone really well from the start and she is all smiles and giggles (after she takes 5 or 10 minutes to stop being shy).

During the second lesson, I told the instructor that I felt she was ready for the head dunk (I declined during the first lesson.) She came up grinning! No problem at all! I'm so proud of how calm she is about the whole thing.

Since the swim center is only blocks from our work, Jase came by to watch and take some photos/video.

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

"Thank you Grandparents!!" - Maddie

Fun at the CDM

Jase got us as a family a year-long membership to the Discovery Museum for Christmas! Mads and I have put it to good use a few times already. Here are some photos and videos from our visit this morning.

Playing in the mirrored cube.

From 2010 - 01 - January

Watching the horsies go 'round.

From 2010 - 01 - January

"Look, Mom! They're running on the walls!"

From 2010 - 01 - January

All bundled up for our trek back to the car. It was stormy and cold!

From 2010 - 01 - January

12 Months

- Healthy Report from her Doctor. 21 lbs 10.8 ounces (60th Percentile). 30 1/4 in Tall (84th Percentile). Which means a mis-measure this visit or last visit since the Doc was sure she didn't shrink. ;)
- 8 Teeth (no new ones since last month.)
- Finally started real crawling instead of army crawling and is picking up speed quickly.
- Pulls up to standing on her own now.
- Actually, the first time she both crawled and pulled up was on January 1st. I guess she wanted to start the New Year off strong!
- Cruising slowly.
- Still not sitting up from crawling.
- New Signs: Bird, Frog, Airplane, & Pear (her favorite food). A note about airplane: Mads is great at noticing sounds that I have completely tuned out. When we're home, she'll suddenly start signing "Airplane." If I listen, sure enough... you can hear it in the distance. Though she does sometime mistake a leaf blower for a plane. ;)
- Understands "What's this?" or "What's that?" and replies with the word or sign of whatever we're pointing to.
- She's starting to interact more with other kids and it's fun to watch them surround the same toy and see which one tries to take it for themselves first. Luckily, she rarely gets upset if someone takes something she was playing with (for now.)
- Get increasingly more excited when Jason gets home from work. As soon as she hears the key in the door, she's ALL smiles.
- Her personality and preferences are showing through more every day. She can be very particular about what she does or doesn't want (whether it's a toy, food, or book) and she absolutely won't let us physically show her how to do anything. She is good about watching and learning, though.
- Madison is one tough cookie. With mobility comes some pretty rough bumps and bruises, but she just laughs 95% of them off (even the ones that make me absolutely cringe.) We make sure to cringe on the inside, though, and look happy on the outside. It's amazing how much she feeds off our reaction. In fact, when she was first learning to stand, she was falling on her butt a lot. That obviously a little startling for a baby, so when she fell I would look so happy/proud, clap, and exclaim, "YAY!!" She took the bait perfectly and soon she would fall and then clap for herself with a big smile on her face. It cracked me up every time.
- Schedule: The same as 11 months, but she has started to wake up VERY early all of a sudden. Jason and I are not amused. Pushing back her bedtime might be in our near future. (She's still sleeping through the night, though! Woo!)

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

Asking for milk.

From 2010 - 01 - January

A little mid-photoshoot snack. :)

From 2010 - 01 - January

First Birthday

Happy First Birthday to our sweet baby girl!!!

We absolutely cannot believe that an entire year has flown by already. It all went so quickly and she's not a baby anymore. Yet on the other hand, it feels like Madison has always been a part of our family.

It's hard to put into words how I feel about hitting such a huge milestone. I'm proud of the parents Jason and I have been this past year and for making it through with a happy and healthy child and a happy and healthy marriage. I'm thrilled to have met my goal of breastfeeding for a year (we'll continue as long as it's enjoyed by both Madison and myself.) I'm incredibly sad to have to admit to myself that Madison is pretty much a toddler now and that I'll never get those newborn days back that I loved so much. Finally, I'm happy to see the little person Mads is turning into; and while I do miss the baby days, we're having such a blast with our little toddler and 1 is a fantastically fun age.

The Day

After Mads' first nap, we unveiled her birthday present from Jason and I! We got her a play kitchen, shopping cart, wood play food set, and pots/pans/dishes/etc. It was a huge hit!

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

For lunch we went to Noah's Bagels in Willow Glen. We sat at a table next to these adorable girls who kept talking to Madison and saying how cute she is. It was so sweet and I teared up in the middle of Noah's at the realization that that would be Madison in a few short years. ♥

Here are a couple photos of M eating lunch with her Daddy. Notice her "Baby's First Birthday" onesie?

From 2010 - 01 - January

Goober :)

From 2010 - 01 - January

The Party

The theme was pink and brown ladybugs! Her invitations were made by the talented Char of Fuzz Bucket Design (scan to be added soon) and included the same ladybug used throughout the rest of the party.

The Smash Cake

From 2010 - 01 - January

Big Cake I Decorated. Those are "cupcake toppers" from etsy.com.

From 2010 - 01 - January

Poms and the Banner. I ordered the banner from etsy.com and made the poms with a little instruction from Martha Stewart. Thanks to my Mother-In-Law for helping make with them and to Sarah for helping me hang them!!

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

Favors: Chocolate Chip Cookies in clear plastic bags with favor tags from the same Etsy seller.

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

We packed my In-Law's place pretty tight and had a ton of fun celebrating. Maddie seemed to have a really good time playing with her friends, and eating food (and cake!) She seems to like when all attention is on her. Shocker, I know.

There are way too many photos to post here, so if you want to see more, just click on the January album link. Here are just a few of the birthday girl in her fabulous tutu (another etsy.com purchase.)

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

Birthday Cake!

From 2010 - 01 - January

From 2010 - 01 - January

Opening Gifts

From 2010 - 01 - January

Happy New Year!

We had plans to drop the kiddo off with my parents and have a night out... until I caught a cold. So, like the year before, we stayed in and watched the ball drop on TV.

The thing was... It was our first New Year with the little one (outside my tummy, anyway), so I wanted to get a picture with the 3 of us together. Considering we aren't insane enough to wake a sleeping child at 12:01AM, we settled for this:

From 2010 - 01 - January

(Outside her nursery door.)

Yeah, we sure know how to live it up!!

Christmas Eve

Today, Jason and I had to work for the first part of the day (yay retail!). As usual, Madison tagged along. At 3, we headed over to M's Nonni's house to open presents and stockings.

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

Soon after, we left for Grandma and Grandpa Ridgways' house to celebrate Christmas since they are going to be out of town tomorrow. Maddie had more fun opening presents and hanging out with family.

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

Bedtime there didn't go so well, though, and we had to eventually head home so she could get some sleep. Since we were already out, we couldn't resist our traditional Christmas Eve tour of light and decorations. We stopped by our favorite house (two houses working together, actually) that sets their lights to music. It's pretty awesome and Mads LOVED it!

From 2009 - 12 - December

As soon as we got home, she went right to sleep and has been sleeping soundly since. Now to wait for Santa to come...

11 Months

- Little Flirt :: Mads loooooves to smile and wave at anyone and everyone when we're out and about. It's so fun to watch her make strangers smile. It's funny... I feel proud that my daughter is bringing happiness, however small, to other people throughout the day.
- Sign Language Explosion :: Madison has recently started to sign a LOT of different signs in a short span of time. She signs milk, kitty, tree, all done, more, puff, light, water, book, fish and dog. She has also been talking more and repeating words and sounds we make. She says tree, kitty, cheese, mama, and daddy on a regular basis and will copy a lot of words or noises we make. I'm trying to add more signs to my own vocabulary because she seems thirsty for more!
- Understands the question "Where is...?" and will point to object when asked.
- Absolutely obsessed with reading. You know how quiet usually equals trouble? More often than not, if Mads gets really quiet while playing, it's because she's wrapped up in reading a good book rather than getting into mischief. :)
- 2 new teeth just sprouted and she has 8 now! 4 on the top middle and 4 on the bottom middle.
- She's sleeping through the night!!!!!!!!!!! *knocking furiously on wood* We phased out her night feedings and she quickly went from 2-3 feedings a night to zero with hardly any fuss at all! I guess she was just ready. So now she sleeps about 13 hours at night and has the same nap schedule as last month. However, she is skipping naps more often, so I think this is the very beginning of her transitioning to 1 nap a day.
- Meal time is a lot easier than it used to be. She has started to eat more solids with less of a battle. I think that has helped a lot with the night weaning. Her current favorites are yogurt, puffs, and sweet potatoes. I'm still making the majority of her food.
- Mobility :: What mobility?? Madison is only slightly interested in doing the physical stuff. She's a pretty quick army crawler, but doesn't use it all the time. She's often perfectly content hanging out in the same spot for extended periods of time still. She's pretty decent at standing while holding onto something, but you have to put her there because she doesn't pull up. Sometimes Mads will take a step or two to the side, but isn't really cruising. She also doesn't sit up on her own from laying down. She's just taking her time and we're fine with that. :)

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

From 2009 - 12 - December

Laughs on Video

'Cause who can ever listen to too many baby laughs?

Daddy & Maddie playing.



Mommy & Maddie playing.