Oh sweet Maddie girl, Mama is writing this half asleep, on her third cup of coffee, because I promised myself I WOULD write this on your exact month birthday every single time. It has been a ROUGH week around here.. 102 fever, ear infections, teething, snotty, sneezing, coughing... we feel like we are back at the newborn stage with lack of sleep, and throw in unending screams, and lots of tears (from me and you), AND I have to go to work unlike maternity leave. And well.. we are a mess. But we see the light at the end of the tunnel! Your fever has gone down and you are on the mend! I will try my best to capture this past month of your life.. The first three weeks flew by in the blink of an eye and this last one seems like an eternity, but here we go!
EAT
You LOVE food. You love food so much, I think you are going to quit taking a bottle all together before your first birthday. We have been giving you some of our dinner (if you are still awake) mixed in with squeeze pouches and baby food. You will try anything and you like most everything. New things this month: spaghetti, cheerios (holy cow, the amount of cheerios you consume!!), tomatoes, chicken, meatballs, potatoes, mac&cheese, donuts (oops!), yogurt and rice. You have reached a point now where if you see me eating something, you grunt until I give you a bite. You pretty much always have some cheerios in hand and Molly constantly follows you around eating the ones you drop! You consistently get 6oz of milk every 3 hours at daycare, but you more or less just snack on bottles at home with food.
SLEEP
It's hard to remember what sleep even is... (I.e. we woke up last night at 11pm, 1am, 2am, 3am, and up for good at 5am!!) But as far as my foggy brain can remember, I think you were only getting up once during the night before this sickness rocked our world. And of course you little stinker, you will save your sleep-through-the-night nights for the weekends when we don't have to go to work the next day :) You have become a rockstar at protesting naps this month.. Sometimes you will throw down once we even walk in your room, because you know it's nap time! After some crying it out and one more rock in the chair, you'll usually wave the white flag. You are still very adamant about sleeping in your crib.. If I even try to sneak you into our bed for a little nap, you jump up and think it's play time! I know it's for the best you are a crib sleeper, but Mama sure wouldn't mind some snuggles :)
DEVELOPMENT
Can you please slow down in this department girl?!? This month you mastered crawling (you are so fast!!) and you are a pro at going from sitting to crawling and back to sitting again. Then all the sudden you started trying to stand up and BAM in like an hour flat you had it figured out and it's all you ever do! Mama has mini heart attacks every stinkin day with how mischievous you are! In the span of about 10 minutes the other day you dumped the humidifier over, pulled the sound machine off the shelf, and tried to climb into the laundry hamper and bumped your head! You are FULL of life and have two speeds - on or off - and no in between! You FINALLY said Mama this month and I was over.the.moon. (You can also say Dada, baba (bottle), hey and bye!) You babble allllll the time and Ms. Jenny says you are the loudest kid at daycare! Ha! You do well with independent play and will entertain yourself with toys and books. You have the BEST belly laugh and you think you are pretty hilarious. You are in size 2 diapers (About to move up as soon as we finish this box!), 9 month pjs, and a variety of 6-9/6-12 month clothes.
LOVE/HATE
As you can tell from this picture you HATE sitting still. You are our on-the-go girl. You LOVE your new found freedom of crawling and LOVE pulling up and pulling things off the shelves. You LOVE your puppy Molly and like to share your food with her, but HATE when she over does it on the kisses. You LOVE your huge book collection and "read" books to us all the time. You LOVE looking at your self in the mirror and you think you are pretty cute :) Sometimes you HATE your car seat.. probably because you can't move and it forces you to fall asleep! You LOVE Mickey Mouse!! If the TV is on, you will look at it every now and then, but if Mickey comes on you squeal in delight and are captivated! You HATE having your diaper changed... again the whole sitting still thing! You LOVE your Mama and Daddy and will lock eyes with us across the room.. and we melt in a big fat puddle.
Maddie Jane, you are our world! You have the sweetest personality and are a true delight. As Ms. Jenny says in her sweet South African accent.. "Oh Maddie Jane, you are so pleasant." Your squinty nose and big toothless grin brings so much JOY to our family. You are so happy. You always have a smile and are constantly giggling (which made this sick week 10x harder!!). Every month I think "Man this is the BEST stage yet" and then you go and prove me wrong every single time. When you looked at me and practically screamed Mama the first time, my heart exploded in a million pieces. You are a nut job - I mean you have more personality than your Daddy and I combined! You are so stinkin silly and are determined to be our class clown. You are so care free and easy going and holy cow so fearless. We love you so much sweet Maddie Jane - don't change a thing!!
9 Month Photo Drop
(Man oh man, these pictures are hard to get!! Most of the ones I have are just a big blur!)
 and headed out on a family hike! We have done several hikes around LA (and way ...){kind=link}
