Week Twenty-Five

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

• Started eating oatmeal and brown rice cereal 3 times a day.  We eat breakfast at about 7am, lunch at 11am, and dinner at 5pm.  
• Went with mommy and daddy to the store and bought our Vitamix blender, so we can make her food!  It is such a wonderful kitchen appliance and so far all the food has been so easy to make...and cheap!  One sweet potato (probably about $.75) made enough food for a whole week!
• Added in vegetables during lunchtime.  Our first vegetable was sweet potatoes and she loved them!
• Is really getting the hang of eating.  She is still messy, still sticks her fingers in her mouth, but she loves to eat!
• Bangs on the highchair tray when she sits down for mealtime.  As soon as she gets in the highchair she knows what's coming and gets super excited!
• LOVES her daddy!  Now that I'm home with her all day, I'm much less exciting, so when daddy gets home it's super fun time with lots of smiles!
• Took daddy to dinner for his first father's day.  We went to Bahama Breeze and she did very well.  She is still a little too small for the highchairs there since there is a small back, so we held her in our laps.  She ate her cereal there and luckily didn't make too much of a mess.  
• Maddie made her daddy a nice card for father's day.  She did her own artwork and managed to get very little red paint on the ground!
• Went for a fun day of shopping with Courtney on Father's Day while daddy went golfing with his friends!  We didn't get much, but we had fun strolling around!
• Got a new toy...my pal Violet.  I saw this at cousin Kalia's house and decided that my little girl had to have this!  You can program it from the computer and personalize it.  Violet knows Maddie name and all her favorite things.  She loves playing with her pal, Violet.
• Had a playdate with Candance, Kelly, Brayden, Catherine and Jacob.  Our friend Candance from FSU is a military wife and is back home for the summer before she moves to NY with her hubby.  We haven't seen her in almost 2 years, so we all had a big lunch party with the kiddos!  This was her first time meeting Maddie or Brayden...oh how things have changed since college!
• Went to lunch with mommy and her friends, Lindsay and Chris.  She gave Chris a wonderful greeting by spitting up milk all over his shirt, but he was a great sport about it!  After lunch, I attempted to make a trip to Hobby Lobby for some house decorations, but Maddie let me know what she thought about shopping (after missing her afternoon nap).  I carried her while pushing the stroller with the other hand, bought my one item I already had in the cart, and promptly headed home.  She immediately fell asleep in the car for our ride home.  I had messed up both naps that day and Maddie let me know by screaming for about 15 minutes before bedtime!!
• Started walking with some of the neighbors.  Our neighborhood is like pleasantville...you can find families walking with their kids and dogs anytime of day and everyone waves when you drive by.  We also have TONS of kids all the same age.  Depending on everyone's schedules, we sometimes do our morning walks with one of our neighbors, Kristen and her 3.5 month old daughter, Addison. It's nice to have some adult time during the day when your entire day revolves around an infant! 
• LOVES the jumperoo!  She jumps non stop in that thing!  
• Found both of her feet and enjoys putting them in her mouth whenever she gets the chance.  It actually comes in handy on the changing table! :)
• I have officially become a SAHM (well for 9 weeks)...I have only used the blow dryer on my hair once in 3 weeks, I only wear shorts, tank tops, and flip flops, I live with smell of milk on me, and I do at least one load of laundry a day!  I have SO much respect for anyone who does this job 365 days a year.  It is truly not a 9-5 job, but it's a great one!

Maddie and her friend Violet

In the stroller heading to dinner for Father's Day!

Happy Daddy's Day....We love you!

Sweet Potatoes for the first time!

All Done!

"Mom, that was good!"

"I'm gonna get you birdie!"

In my new pool with my friend Brayden

"Brayden, what are you doing with that thing?"

"Mom, why is the bathtub outside and why is this boy in here?"

"I'm not so sure about this!"

Happy Daddy's Day dinner!

Mealtime out in public...a tab bit messy!

Maddie's artwork for daddy

Green peas!  Yummo

Homemade sweet potato puree....only the best for my little girl!

Brayden and Jacob 

Brayden says, "Hey...this use to be at my house!"

Week Twenty-Four

A week of celebrations!

June 7th was a happy day...we celebrated...

Happy Last Day of School and Welcome to Summer!
Happy 1st Birthday to cousin Kalia!
Happy ??nd Birthday to Grandma!

• Said goodbye for the summer to her teachers at Ladybird Academy.  We love Ms. Tracy, Ms. J, Ms. Solach, and Ms. Kaitlyn!  
• Spent the weekend with lots of family in Tampa for cousin Kalia's first birthday party!
• Slept through Kalia's entire party.  She enjoyed playing before and after the party, but decided that she didn't want to be a part of the crowd!
• Went in the pool for the first time.  On Sunday when Grandpa Hart came over, we decided to take both Maddie and Kalia in the pool.  Kalia is a little fish and loves the water...Maddie was a little afraid at first, but I think in time she'll be just like her cousin.
• Started eating solids!  We tried rice cereal for the first time on Saturday morning and she did super well!  We made it with a lot of milk, so it was almost just like milk on a spoon.  Everyday since then, we've made thicker until we reached the actual consistency.  We have incorporated oatmeal as well.  Now that the rice and oatmeal is thicker, she isn't doing as well as at first, but we're working on it!
• Has started learning highchair manners and sign language.  We are working on keeping her hands either in her lap or on the tray when we fed her, so she doesn't put them in her mouth or try to toss her food or the spoon.  We are also teaching her please, more, and all done in sign language.  
• Tried a sippy cup with water!  She likes to chew on it instead of really drinking from it, but she knows how to hold it and put it up to her mouth.  Occasionally, she will suck from it, but not too much now.
• LOVES to jump!  She jumps in her jumperoo, Kalia's jumperoo, the floor when you hold her standing up.  Just like said in the 90's (I believe is was Kris Kross- anyone...am I right??) "Everybody Jump Jump"!!
• Enjoyed her first few days of summer with mom.  We get up and have breakfast in the highchair, go for a morning walk in the big girl stroller, take our morning nap, play, have lunch, we usually run errands in the afternoon, and then come home for dinner, playtime with daddy, bath, and bed!
• Is going to bed a little later (between 7:30-8pm).  
• Is really teething...she has been chewing on everything, regardless of whether or not it's a real teether.  We have had to give her Tylenol a few times because she was in so much pain.  She gets a little fussy about it during the day, but we are pretty luck that it hasn't been too bad. 
• Got some new summer clothes and PJs with mom at Babies R Us.  We met Kelly and Brayden there and did a little summer shopping!  Maddie is going to be a stylin' girl. :)
• Got some new toys from her Granny and loves them!  We play with the stacking rings and Mr. Monkey everyday.
• Thinks her feet are the coolest new toy ever!  She grabs her left foot everywhere we go (just the left...not the right one yet).  
• Loves Noah.  Just recently she has started to hold out her hands and tries to grab his face.  I try and let her pet him gently and she gets a HUGE smile on her face.  Noah is very good with her, but he still tries to lick her head to toe....yuck-o.  We are working on 'No Lick' with Noah.

Maddie: "Weird, Dad's feeding me and I'm in a chair...hmm."

Mmmm...rice cereal!

Kalia: "Is it time for my breakfast now?"

Cupcakes for the party!

Happy 1st Birthday, Kalia!

CAKE POPS!

The awesome pictures of Kalia's first year!

Chalkboard wall in Kalia's playroom!  Maddie is going to love going to cousin Kalia's house....when are you all moving to Orlando?

Cake!

Kalia opening the presents from her cousin Maddie

Kalia:  "How fun mom, when can Maddie and I go to the beach?"

Cake Pops!

Awesome friends for staying up late with me and helping to make the cake pops for the party!

Week Twenty-Three

• Maddie has found her foot.  She doesn't grab them too much, but she look down at them and try to go for them.  She stares at them and tries to grab toys with them.  I'm pretty sure she thinks that she has another set of hands!
• Went on a fun shopping trip with Autumn and Courtney.  We had a girl's Saturday that included lunch at Chick-fil-A, a JoAnn's trip, and a Barnes and Noble trip.  We all had lots of fun!
• Had a hard time getting to sleep three nights this week.  Two of the nights we gave her Tylenol after an hour because she was screaming and chewing, so we thought she was teething.  The other night we didn't want to keep giving her Tylenol, so we just let her bounce around in her jumper for about 15 minutes.  We're not sure if she was teething or just didn't want to go to bed until 8pm???  
• Is sleeping almost through the ENTIRE night!  People always says that babies sleep through the night when they sleep 6-8 hours...well my baby goes to sleep around 7pm and 6-8 hours from then (1-3am) is not sleeping through the night in my book.  Maddie is now sleeping until between 5:30-6:30am consistently!  I no longer go in and feed her in the middle of the night....once she's up to eat, I'm up! 
• Loves her jumper (thanks Kelly and Brayden!).  She has finally figured out how to jump in it, instead of stand and fall asleep! :)

Shawn and his little 'insurance chick'

Daddy was teaching Maddie how to make a sandwich

I came home and found this...I asked Shawn if she was fussy and he said, "no".  I asked him why he was carrying her around then and his response was, "I'm teaching her how to make a sandwich."....TOO CUTE! :)

Maddie made us all lunch! 

Maddie and Autumn at lunch