We've got a talker!

Since I got very much off schedule and failed to update this blog on a monthly basis, I've lost track of what week we're at.  I think we're at week 43 or so.  Anyway, I felt the need to update the blog this week because Maude seems to have grown and by leaps and bounds and impressed the heck out of us with what she's learning.

The most exciting development is that Maude said her first word beyond "mamma" and "dadda"!  She learned how to say "dog" and loves to exclaim it whenever she sees or hears a dog.  Our neighbor's dogs tend to bark a lot and she yells out DOG every time she hears them.  It delights us more than you can imagine!  In addition to saying "dog" she is also working on making the dog noise.  She says "woof" but it's not quite as clear as "dog."

She's learned a few more animal noises, too.  She can imitate a cow, an elephant, and she's working on a chicken.  Now that we know she can do it, we're constantly in her face, making animal noises.  I'm sure she's quite tired of our antics!

I mentioned in my last post that we've been doing sign language with her for the past 6+ months.  Since mid last week, she's started signing egg (which I mentioned was her favorite food).  As she's eating eggs, she'll clap and then sign egg.  It seems it's her way to tell us how much she loves those eggs!! 

I didn't mention in the last update Maude's habit of shoving food into her mouth and not chewing or swallowing it in a timely manner and therefore storing it for quite some time. It appears as though we've moved past that - thank goodness!  I was getting tired of digging food out of that little mouth of hers. 

Lastly, the past few nights as I've read to Maude, she's done the sweetest thing.  In one of the books we read, there is a picture of a puppy giving a little boy a kiss and the page talks about a puppy dog's kiss.  As soon as she sees the page, she brings the book right up to her face and gives that boy and puppy a kiss!!  Awww!  I love it so much that when we finish the book, I flip back to that page, just to see her do it again.

I can't wait to wake up each day and come home each night to see what else Miss Maude has learned. This age is amazing - I feel like she's picking something up every single day.  I've been keeping a journal, trying to document all of these fun developments.  I just hope that between that and this blog, I can remember it all!

We didn't take many photos this week, so I thought I'd share some of our Christmas card photo outtakes!

Mommy, Maude, and Stella taking some practice shots before we set up for the family photo. 

Not quite there yet...

Not yet...

This isn't quite it either..

There we go!

We got ourselves a new winter hat!  Our first hat was misplaced, but I think I'm kinda glad because we got to buy this one!

10 Months Old!

I guess I should just face it - this has become a once a month blog. I apologize to those of you that check back often.  I sure wish I could get to updating weekly or even twice a month, but this seems to be all I can get to.  Thanks for your patience and I hope you enjoy it anyway. 

As the title states - Maude is now 10 months old!  I can actually see her first birthday from here and it's coming up fast!  I have no idea what happened to the month of November and I'm positive the next two months will go by just as quickly.  And in between now and her first birthday comes Maude's first Christmas.  I'm fully aware she'll not have much of a clue what an event it is, but I'm still looking forward to it!  We've had a ball decorating the house, knowing this is her first time experiencing it all.  The first time Mike plugged the lights in for the tree, Maude started clapping.  Seriously, doesn't it just melt your heart? 

Our baby girl is indeed growing up.  Her general babbling of mamma and dadda are now definitely words she knows and uses when she wants us or is excited to see us.  We've also used sign language with her for a good 5+ months and I think she's starting to use some of them.  She's not terribly precise with the gestures but I can tell she's definitely trying to sign different things to us. 

In addition to the advances in communication have come some pretty clear frustration in not being able to tell us exactly what she wants (or rather doesn't want).  She can get pretty ticked off!  It's been a bit trying although I'm sure it's all even more frustrating for her.  I'm constantly trying to wade my way through the murky waters of what's normal behavior and what we should be trying to nip in the bud.  How did we go from simply growing a small human to raising a small human in such a short period of time?

For every difficult moment comes 100 amazing moments.  Maude learned about giving kisses and is pretty liberal in the smooch department.  She loves giving them out and comes out you all open mouthed and slobbery.  I adore it.  We play a little game where Mike and I kiss and then she wants in on it so she immediately puckers up to me, then Mike.  She gets within centimeters of Mike before she starts zerberting in anticipation of his scratchy beard!  We get such a kick out of it.  In addition to the kissing, she also started hugging.  I just noticed it this weekend.  I was busy trying to get some things done around the house and she clearly wanted me to slow it down and just hang with her.  She crawled to my feet and wanted me to pick her up.  As soon as I did, she put her little head in the nook of my neck and spread her arms and hands onto my shoulders and gave a squeeze.  Since then I can ask her for a hug and she does the same thing.  Awww. 

We headed to Iowa for Thanksgiving.  The trip was great, minus the actual travel.  The way there was rougher than the way back.  At one point, I got desperate and handed Maude my (locked) blackberry.  A few minutes later it was ringing.  I answered it and it was the Mason City, IA police.  Our little smarty pants unlocked the phone and was able to call 911.  Nice.  On Thanksgiving, Maude ate all the favorite holiday fare.  She loved the turkey and of course the mashed potatoes.  She also got to meet her great grandma Nancy.  I think they both enjoyed each other immensely!

We continue to try more foods.  I think eggs are Maude's current favorite food.  She also really loves pears and seems to be pretty into peas.  Feeding her real food has certainly made Mike and I more conscious of our eating habits.  It's pretty clear she's watching everything we do and as I'm shoving some chips into my mouth, I realize that's probably not how I want her to eat.  We also try to feed her whatever we're having for dinner so it makes for some more mindful meal planning.

We hope you all are having a very merry Christmas season.  We're enjoying our first with our baby girl.  Thank you for caring enough for her to follow this little blog. 

Bundling up for our first trip into the snow!

Snow!

Stella has surprised us by really loving the snow.  She's eager to get out and romp in it.

Four generations!  I'm loving the oldest and youngest, both enjoying their pointer fingers.

Mike's caption of this photo when he posted it to facebook was "Hello.  I'm here to audition for the role of a young Shirley McClaine."

 

 

 

10 months old.  Super cute face.

Maude is 9 months old!

Has it really been a month since I last updated this blog?  Woah - I really hadn't realized it had been that long.  Sorry for the silence!  Hope this post makes up for it!

We visited Mike's family in mid-October.  I had a business trip to Kansas City so it worked out for Maude and I to fly down there and Mike and Stella to drive.  The only time we've had Maude in the car for longer than a half hour or so was a three hour trip that didn't go so well.  She's definitely not a long distance traveler so I was super thankful we were able to fly. 

Maude met her Uncle John, Aunt Amy, and Cousin Noelle for the first time.  Noelle is four and was wonderful with Maude.  She occasionally thought Maude should be able to do more things like knock over a tower of blocks on command or understand something like not to knock over the tower of blocks in progress, but it was fun to see them together and know that the will grow up looking forward to seeing each other and be able to play together more and more as the years progress.  When Maude would come and play, Noelle would immediately put away all the small toys so that "Baby Maude won't eat them."  I'm not sure if she was concerned for Maude's safety or concerned over the thought that her toys might be eaten!!  Either way, I appreciated her diligence. 

The day after we returned from KC, it was my birthday.  We had a group of friends over for dinner - it was perfect!  If you had told me 5 years ago that my perfect birthday was having friends over, with their kids, to have dinner at home and to play some board games, I would have told you that's impossible.  It really was a great night.  The main dish was made by Mike's dad.  He made up some extra barbecue ribs and sent them back with us.  They were ridiculously good and everyone went on and on about them!  Dessert was butterscotch budino (pudding) with a layer of caramel, topped with sea salt and freshly whipped cream.  All of our special occasions in LA had butterscotch budino that we'd by from Pizzeria Mozza, a popular restaurant.  Mike surprised me by whipping some up all by himself for my birthday!  YUM!!

I think I mentioned in the last update that Maude's two top teeth came in with very little fanfare and I had high hopes that future teeth would follow suit.  She now has one more bottom tooth and is working on it's match and we've been quite aware of it.  There are days when she bites down wrong on the spoon as she's eating and we certainly know about it!  She's also had some general fussiness as well as more drooling which results in more action in her diapers which in turn results in some diaper rash.  Poor thing.  I had sort of hoped she was going out of order in the tooth sprouting process and was working on some molars or something.  Nope, just some little bottom teeth. 

Eating solids has really taken off for Maude!  She is loving food and gobbles up nearly everything we put in front of her.  I'm not sure if she just wasn't all that interested in food until about 8 months or if it took her a month or two of trying it before she figured it all out.  With her increased enthusiasm for food and her increased appetite, we've been pretty liberal with what we're feeding her which may have backfired.  On top of the diaper rash from teething, she's had a rash for the past week that just won't go away and I finally came to the conclusion today that it's an eczema rash.  I'm fairly certain it's due to a food she's sensitive to.  Our guess is that it's related to grains of some sort so we're cutting them out for the next few days.  Assuming it clears up, we'll add grains back in one by one and see if one is an obvious culprit.  I'm hoping that all of her food issues work themselves out over time.  I think it's pretty common to have some sensitivities to foods at this age and I'm thankful the worst of it has been rashes and of course the avocado barfing incident...

What's Maude's favorite thing to do you ask?  CLAP!!  She loves loves loves to clap!  She started out clapping and would clap to mimic us.  Now all we have to do is say "Yay" (and it doesn't even have to be in a very excited tone) and she'll start wildly clapping!  Anytime we are excited is another excuse for her to clap.  And when she gets food in her mouth all on her own, she's pretty darn proud and claps for herself.  We love it.  This probably helps to make her clap even more! 

Other developments she's working on mastering are pulling herself up and waving.  She frequently pulls herself up on me or Mike, but has only done it independently on furniture or other objects a few times.  The first time she pulled herself up to standing without using one of us, I shrieked like a mad woman because I was so excited!  I freaked her out a little bit so it was a while before she tried that again...  Maude also clearly waved goodnight to Mike last week. She's done really small waves before where we weren't certain that was what she was doing, but this wave was for real.  For some reason, it's now developed into some weird version of a wave where she takes all of her fingers and traps her thumb under them and then pops her thumb out and covers her fingers with it.  She does that over and over again. 

On top of all of that, our gal is a constant babbler.  She said "momma" for the first time on Halloween.  I know she doesn't know what it means but after hearing "dadda" for months, I was thrilled to hear her utter "mommamommama."  She's adding new sounds everyday and sometimes we swear we hear her actually utter real words.  She must think she's really saying something sometimes the way she goes on and on. 

Our little pumpkin dressed as a pumpkin for Halloween.  She was pretty darn adorable if you ask me.  We went trick or treating to some neighbors and checked out "Halloween Street" nearby.  The whole block is shut down to traffic and they go all out decorating their houses.  Mike and I enjoyed seeing all the gawdy spooky decorations.  Maude could have cared less unless it was really lighted up, but we had fun checking it all out.  We even had a decent number of kids stop by our house once we got home.  Mike did a great job decorating our place so I think it attracted a few more kids than we would have otherwise.

I think that covers it.  Oh, except for the pictures!  And a video.  The video shows off Maude's eating, some teeth, and of course the clapping!

Tuckered out after a walk with Daddy and Stella.  I love the cockeyed hat!  And note the pajamas.  Socks are not stood for in Maude's opinion so it's easier to leave footed pajamas on her when we need her to stay warm.

This was the first independent pull up.  We didn't get a shot of the standing because it lasted for a brief moment before my shrieking freaked the poor girl out.

Cousins!  Maude was enthralled with what we call Noelle's "movie star hair."

Our house all decked out for Halloween.

Maude and Henry.  He was Charlie Brown and she was the Great Pumpkin!

Can't you just see this as the picture on a Halloween greeting card?!

9 months old!!  Can you believe it?  She's now been on the outside as long as she was on the inside.  Woah.

8 months old!

Another month has passed and our baby girl is now 8 months old.  Everyone says that time flies once you have kids, and they truly weren't kidding.  There are days that seem long, yet the weeks and months go by in an instant.  Before we know it, we'll be celebrating her first birthday.  My good friend Jen is celebrating her baby Henry's first birthday today.  I very clearly remember when he was born last October and it sure doesn't seem like he can be one already!  I met him when he was a month old on my last business trip before I had Maude.  He's now one and Maude is close behind him. 

Since my last update, Maude got her two top teeth!  One came in just a bit before the other, but they're now both in and it's like seeing a different kid when she smiles and laughs so big that you can see them.  They're arrival was much less uneventful than the bottom two.  With those, she was clearly pretty fussy for a few days.  These suddenly appeared, with very little fanfare.  We can only hope future teeth are as uneventful. 

According to Mike, Maude continues to enjoy her ECFE class.  She seems to have made friends with a little boy named Lucas.  She apparently whined and grunted and wriggled around one day as Mike carried her into the school - Mike couldn't figure out what her deal was until he realized Lucas was just a few feet behind them.  Once they waited and let Lucas catch up, Maude was happy as pie.  She's also a bit of a show off from what I hear.  As one little boy sat in front of a toy and wasn't quite sure what to do with it, Maude went charging across the room and showed him exactly how to use it, even switching from one hand to the other as though she were saying "See, it's so easy.  You just do it like this, or this, or this!"  Agh, I wish I could see those moments!!

Food has been going well.  She seems to enjoy everything we put in front of her.  She even ate some Chicken Tikka Masala this weekend.  Dinner tonight was pork chops and potatoes.  Maude got a small helping of each and loved it!  She fed herself which was one of the first times we've tried that.  At one point Mike and I got so excited that she'd gotten a serving of pork chop in her mouth successfully that we both started clapping.  She dropped whatever was left in her hands and started clapping too!  This weekend was a first for feeding her big people food - we usually stick to pureed foods and are just now starting to get a bit more adventurous.  We tried dairy for the first time last weekend and that unfortunately didn't go so well.  Her face broke out in a rash so it looks like we'll hold off on trying dairy again until after she's a year.  Being the worrier that I am, I now fear that she'll have other foods she's allergic to.  So far avocados and dairy haven't been her friend so I'm being much more cautious about introducing other high allergenic type foods. 

We spent a lot of time in our front yard this afternoon doing some work like planting mums and raking.  Maude spent it on a blanket in the front yard and between she and Stella, attracted lots of neighborhood children.  Maude loved watching the kids and dogs play and also tried eating her fair share of leaves.  Really, she was just doing her part to help her daddy get the leaves off the ground!!

We only have a few pictures for this post.  As I've said, it's been a busy few weeks, but apparently not terribly photo worthy!

It's been so nice, we tried dining al fresco!

Stella was much more interesting than whatever food she was eating.

8 months!

So sweet.

33 Weeks - Happy Fall!

It's been a fun past few weeks.  We're feeling slightly more settled (still not fully unpacked), but are trying to enjoy our time here before the weather gets too cold to do much else.  I'm guessing we'll have plenty of time to complete the unpacking, hanging of pictures on the walls, and organizing once the temperature drops and the snow starts flying. 

Mike and Maude started their ECFE class last week.  It looked like Mike was the lone dad in the bunch, but the teacher called him this week to let him know a dad had joined their group.     It doesn't sound like they've hung out or bonded or anything like that yet, but I think Mike is glad to not be the only dad there!

The week before last, we went with a group of five couples to the Pizza Farm in Wisconsin.  The farm grows almost all the ingredients for the pizzas right there.  We set up a huge picnic area, ordered lots of different pizzas and had an amazing time.   There were two other babies and a two year old so Maude loved having others there close to her size. 

Yesterday we went to an apple orchard and a pumpkin patch.  I'm not sure Maude thought it was as fun as we did, but we loved showing her all the apples, pumpkins and other squashes.  She found a few that were just her size.  We also got lots of cute pictures!

In other news, Maude is really into clapping and is just starting to figure out waving.  The first time we noticed her waving was to the nurse that had just given her two shots.  I think she was waving goodbye, letting her know she'd had enough of her.  Her appointment went well. She's now in the 50th percentile for height, weight, and head size. She's 17lbs, 1oz and 26 inches long.  I think she also picked up a cold while at the doctor's office.  It's her first real cold and I hate watching her struggle to breath.  Poor gal.  She's handling it fairly well and I hope it's short lived.

Enjoy the photos from the past few weeks.  As I look at them and compare to photos from just a few months ago, I'm amazed at how much she's changed.

Pizza Farm!

She loves showing off her tongue!

Apple Orchard

An apple just her size.

Hanging with the pumpkins (with mom ready to catch her if she fell!).

Not sure why, but love this photo!

The Overmans.

Mini indian corn and pumpkin.

Our pumpkin in a patch of pumpkins.

31 Weeks / 7 months old!!

Maude turned 7 months old this week.  How is it that saying "7 months old" seems like I'm talking about a much, much older baby?  For as much reading as I did on child development prior to Maude's birth and in the months following, I somehow wasn't quite prepared for how quickly she was going to grow up,  change, learn new skills, become more independent, and begin developing her own little personality.  I think I somehow thought that for the entire first year she would still be very much a baby.  Not our kid.  I'm not sure how, but I swear to you she is stronger than me.  If I'm in her way or she doesn't want me doing something to her, she lets me know and moves me out of her way.  She's a determined and stubborn little gal.  And we love that about her.  I could use a little more of the snuggly baby she was in the beginning, but I'm enjoying the little girl she's becoming. 

The past few weeks have been as busy as ever.  We're still not unpacked and other, more appealing plans seem to surface so they take precedence over hanging out inside, organizing and unpacking our house.  We also realize that in a few short months, we're going to have no desire to be outside so I assume our full unpacking will happen then. 

We've fully immersed ourselves in the Minnesota experience over the past two weeks.  We attended the great Minnesota get together (the State Fair) and Maude got to see lots of animals, large and small.  They have a barn with lots of baby animals - some born just that day.  That was my favorite part, showing Maude the lambs, piglets, and baby cows (there were twin cows born the morning we were there!). 

Over Labor Day weekend, we spent some time at our friends' cabin a few hours north of here.  Maude enjoyed all the activity and she made friends with Olivia, who is about 6 months older than her.  They even gave each other goodbye kisses when we left.  Her favorite part of the weekend was a sunset boat ride on the lake.  She even got to drive the boat!

Maude is getting the hang of food.  I'm not sure if it was watching Olivia eat real food all weekend or if the apples we were feeding her were just that much more appealing than the veggies she had been eating, but she started gobbling up her food about a week ago.  We even got her some little baby crackers that she loves to hold and suck on while we are feeding her whatever the puree of the day is. 

Mike and Maude are starting an ECFE (Early Childhood Family Education) class this week.  I'm excited (and a little jealous) of all the fun they're going to have together.  We went to the open house this week and the teacher seems great, she even told Mike they usually have other dads in the class.  A friend of mine from work told me that his wife had a retired NFL player in one of her ECFE classes.  I shared that with Mike and I think he's holding out hope that will be the case in his class, too.

That's the quick summary of the past few weeks.  Lots of pictures are below - enjoy!!

Hi.  I'm Maude.  I look like my daddy.

Sweet potato!!

Why is Mom petting that massive animal?

This one's more my size!!

Driving the boat with Jeff.

Loving the cool air and the beautiful sunset while on the boat.

First time in the big bath all on my own!

Hair washing!

I'm 7 months old!

MOVE and Photo Catch Up

Long time, no write.  We haven't had the time recently to even shower some days so the blog has obviously taken a back seat to things more necessary.  Moving across the country,  for example.  Or unpacking a house with a 6 month old who doesn't allow us much time to really plow through a bunch of boxes at once.  Or the two business trips I've been on since we moved in less than two weeks ago.  It's been an intense few weeks and we still have lots of boxes to unpack, but we can at least function in our house.  Not every meal has to be take out from one of the many restaurants in our neighborhood, although it's still our default way to get dinner as we're working on getting settled.  I finally found my shoes last night so that's a win! 

Maude was a different kid for a week or so during and after the move.  Our normally very happy and great sleeper was a crabby, fussy, non-sleeping baby.  We've worked pretty hard on the sleep which has automatically helped the other issues as well.  We also started solids last week.  As you'll see from the photos I'll post, Maude is not yet a fan.  We waited on the longer side of when most start solids with their babies so I assumed she'd be near ravenous for something other than my milk.  Turns out, my kid loves her milk and could really care less for other food.  She seems to becoming very slightly more interested than she was a week ago, so hopefully she's coming around on the food thing.  I'm afraid I'll be exclusively nursing this little gal until she's 5!

There are many stories to tell and rather than trying to document them here, I'll post some photos and along with some captioning, let them speak for our moving adventure!

Reflecting on her last day in LA.

She's decided she's over it.  LA is so boring to her now.

Soaking up some last minute LA sunshine!

We celebrated her 6 month birthday in our hotel room the day before leaving for Minnesota.

Being 6 months old is pretty cool!

Ewww!  Avocados?!  Are you kidding me, this is awful!!

Maude has gotten very good at zerberting her food.  It makes a wonderful mess.

New friends.  I think they've bonded over the fact that they have no idea what happened to their peaceful little world.

True love.  Stella doesn't let anyone mess with her paws.

Enjoying our new backyard!

Concentrating on a squirrel or bunny or other critter in our backyard.