Week Seventeen

Week seventeen is quite a memorable one...this is the week that Shawn finished his master's degree!!  Shawn has spent the last 2 years as a full time working husband and full time student..not to mention becoming a new daddy, a landlord, and a new homeowner!  Yes, we are probably a little crazy, but I can say that we do not lead a boring life!  Well, Saturday night, Shawn submitted his last final exam and is now a two time graduate of FSU!  What a great role model for our daughter!

• Eats her hands ALL THE TIME.  I'm actually surprised that she still has fingertips.  Her gums are quite strong!
• Rolls everywhere!  I'll put her down on her back and 20 seconds later she has rolled 3 times and is now half way across the room.  This was not working too well with only the play gym and blankets we have, so on Sunday we went and got some foam mats for the living room.  Now Maddie has a bigger space for her floor exercises.
• Doesn't use her pacifier as much.  We still keep it close by because it helps if she gets fussy or overtired.  Now she takes it and chews on it like a teething toy!  When we put her to bed she will hardly ever take it, so it just sits in the crib and she eats her hands instead.
• Is starting to say, "bababa".  She has only done it a few times, but it's much more of a "ba" sound than just random baby babble.
• Drools like a faucet!  Shawn keeps wondering if she's going to have any left.
• Loves to read stories at bedtime.  Now she looks at the pictures and tries to grab ahold of some of the books.  Sometimes she'll turn the pages...not always the right way, but that's okay! We try to pick out a new book each night and it's so fun to look inside and see the stickers from the baby shower...I always tell Maddie about the people who gave her each book. :)
• Took her first trip to the mall this past weekend.  On Sunday, Shawn and I decided to take an afternoon adventure.  We went to lunch, to Babies R Us, and the mall.   We tried to get her to take her afternoon nap at the mall, but that lasted about 15 minutes....typical girl wanted to shop instead! She did really well on our trip out and ate a whole 7 ounces of milk at the mall.  She never really did take an afternoon nap though, and I paid for that when we got home.  I ended up putting her down about 20 minutes early for bed and she did fine at bedtime, but boy was she a cranky pants before that!!!
• LOVES to be on her stomach.  Every time you put her on her back she immediately flips and props her little head up.  She loves to go side to side and check out everything around her.  On Saturday, Shawn, Maddie, and I sat in a circle on our stomachs just looking at each other and talking!  
• Holds her head up so much better.  She will sit on your lap or sit with you on the floor and keep her head up looking all around.
• Went for a walk forward facing in the Bjorn.  She loved being able to look around at everything this time.  
• Got her school pictures back!  They are super cute and of course we ordered quite a few.  I'm not sure how long it takes to get them back, but I'll share when I get them!!
• Was doing great at waking up around 6:30am and then the last 3 nights she decided that she liked it better when she ate at 2am!  I will soon be working to break this habit. :)  My newest book (Babywise and babywise II --- highly recommended for moms) talks about a parent directed feeding schedule and if you are breastfeeding that you may need to add in an extra feeding to make sure they sleep through the night.  I need to try that with her on the weekends when she doesn't get as many bottles.  With being at daycare she is on a pretty strict feeding schedule, so she doesn't have the ability to become a "snacker" which the book says can lead to poor sleep habits.  It also said that too much sleep can cause night waking and on Monday she took a 3 hour morning nap at daycare. At the beginning I had told them to let her sleep...I guess I need to be more specific and tell them not to let her sleep more than 2 hours for her morning nap because it interrupts her afternoon nap and causes her to sleep too much.   She is still taking 3 naps...her late afternoon nap is only 30 minutes and I almost always just put her in the swing.  It works well for me because it's right after we get home from school and it give me 30 minutes to clean bottles, change, put together stuff for the next day, and start dinner! I tell ya, this sleep training thing ain't easy, but we're workin' on it! 
• I have become quite the early bird.  During the week I get up sometime between 5-5:30am to begin getting ready for work.  I'm a little slow moving in the am, so it takes us about 2-2.5 hours to get everyone up and out the door!  32 days and counting til summer vacation!!  WooHoo!
• Next Monday is her 4 month check-up...I can't wait to see how much see has grown!

Maddie and I after we got home from school! Her dress and headband were so cute that day. 

Daddy dressed Maddie for school on Friday...she was so cute I had to take this picture at daycare before I left her!  She was smiling at her friend, Adalyn.

Our two kiddos!  

Everything is a chew toy!

She loves her little seat....thanks Chris and Kara (we promise to give it back)

Learning to chew on Sophie.  This was her mysterious gift...it came in an Amazon package shortly after we got home from the hospital and it didn't have a return name on it.  Did any of our readers get this for Maddie?  We thank you...whoever you are! 

Hanging out at lunch with all of her toys.  I just put these on last week and she loves them! 

Getting ready for our walk in the Bjorn and sportin' our new hat from Granny!

So happy to be home from school on a Monday afternoon!

Strawberry Shortcake

Yummy...fingers are tasty!

I had to wash all of the sheets and mattress cover before we left for school on Tuesday, so we were in a rush to put them back on before bedtime.  The sheets are a little difficult to change, so Shawn decided to take the whole thing out.  I guess he was tired and decided to take a cat nap while Maddie finished story time!

Quality time before bed

Daddy-Daughter LOVE! <3