Living with the Ladwigs

10 Months

2012-01-16T20:43:00.000-06:00

Madelyn, you are 10 months old! Your Daddy and I can hardly believe it! Time is flying by and sometimes we wish we could just stop time! You are now ON THE MOVE! You really started crawling the week before Christmas and you now love to go go go! You especially love to try to get cords, the dog bowls, the tv stand, pretty much anything you're not supposed to touch!

You are such a talkative little cutie! You love to say "dada" all the time, and sometimes it sounds like you mimic things we say. You like to make noise/scream to get our attention if we aren't paying attention to you. You have many fun new toys from Christmas, like your kitchen, music table, laptop, shapes block and others that you play with. Remotes, Iphones and the Ipad are your preferred toys, but we don't let you play with those if we can help it!

You are still sleeping so well from 7:30 pm until 6:00-7:00 a.m. You take 2 naps a day, one short one around 9:30 a.m. and a longer one around 1:30-2:00 p.m. We are trying to transfer you to solid foods, but you still eat 4 bottles a day of about 30 oz. Sweet potatoes are still your favorite as evidenced by your orange nose! You are eating lots of new foods, and even eating some "real" food. You haven't quite gotten the swallowing down and still choke on some solids. Even more exciting, is that your first TOOTH is breaking through! Today was the first day we could feel it! You were fussy last week, but have been pretty good the last few days.

We celebrated your First Christmas this past month with celebrations in Fort Worth and Houston. You mostly loved the wrapping paper and bows. You had fun playing with your cousins Elizabeth & Tucker too! You are such a joy to us and we love your smile! Your laugh is soo cute and you are such a little goober! Your personality is coming out and I can tell that you are going to be strong willed like your mommy and daddy! We are in for it! We love you so much Princess!

10 Month Stats:

Height: ??

Weight: ??

Clothes: 9 month and 12 month

Diapers: Size 3

9 Months

2011-12-19T16:39:00.001-06:00

Madelyn, you are 9 months old! The time is just flying by and you are such a joy to be around! You love to be the center of attention! Just this week you started crawling for real - more than just a step or 2! You don't really like to do it though. You prefer to "cruise" around the furniture. You are VERY good at cruising and can almost stand by yourself, but for now you just lean against the couch. You love to play and talk and chew and grab. You have learned to clap this month and you still love to wave too! That pretty much sums up your days!

For the first time yesterday, you ate 3 full meals of baby food! You are still eating 40oz. or so per day of formula around 7, 10, 1, 4 & 7. You eat oatmeal with fruit for breakfast and then sweet potatoes for dinner. Yesterday I gave you some oatmeal at lunch with prunes. This week we also started mixing new baby foods into your sweet potatoes. You have eaten: apples, pears, sweet potatoes, prunes & a butternut squash/apple/grain mix. Anything else but sweet potatoes makes you gag, so it looks like we will have to mix/dip every new food in sweet potatoes! Still no teeth, but that's
alright!

We celebrated your first Thanksgiving this past month, and took you to DFW again. You still do really well in the car, but sometimes you get fussy at the end of the trip. You still sleep from about 7:30p.m.-6:30-7a.m. Your naps are sporadic, but normally a short one in the morning and longer in the afternoon and hopefully at least 2-3 hours total.

In the past month, you have had 2 ear infections. You got your first one over Thanksgiving and Daddy and I had a hard time trying to get you to take your medicine, but we finally figured out to just squirt a little at a time in your mouth and that was the trick! Your 2nd ear infection came on last week, and Daddy took you to the Dr. and got you all fixed up with medicine and took care of you. You were up and going the next day though. Hopefully no more sickness for a while!

You are so much fun to be around and such a cutie! You are currently a momma's girl, but you love your Daddy just as much! We can't wait to celebrate your first Christmas next week! (I'm sure you will just like the wrapping paper!) We love you sweetie!

9 Month Stats:

Height: 28" - 65th percentile

Weight: 19lb. 4oz. - 57th percentile

Clothes: 9 month, 9-12 month - some 12 month tops!

Diapers: Size 3

8 Months

2011-11-20T20:19:00.000-06:00

Madelyn you are 8 months old! You are just so unbelievably adorable! You are learning to crawl, and are much more motivated if we put the tv remote out for you to crawl to. You are also cruising along the sofa and ottoman, and you LOVE to stand! You like your exersaucer more and are starting to learn how each of the toys on it work. You love to chew on Sophie the Giraffe or anything for that matter. You are such a happy baby!

You still do not have any teeth, but we are fine with that. We keep thinking it will be any day now, but who knows! You still eat 40+oz. of formula every day. And you still only like oatmeal and sweet potatoes, but we have started sneaking apples and pears in your oatmeal! You sleep great through the night and wake up between 6:00-7:00 a.m. Your napping is pretty sporadic, but normally a short one in the morning and a long one in the afternoon. Surprisingly, I haven't been too strict on your nap times, I figure you will sleep when you need to.

We dressed you as a ladybug for Halloween and you were too cute! You went trick-or-treating at Aunt Meg & Uncle Andrew's. You started talking in syllables this month and we have heard "dada", but no "mama" yet. Oh and you recently started screaming for fun. Sometimes you sound like you are trying out for a Tarzan movie. We can't wait to celebrate your first Thanksgiving on Thursday! We love you sooo much Princess!

8 Month Stats:

Height: ??

Weight: ??

Clothes: Mostly 9 month, a few 6 month

Diapers: Size 3

7 Months

2011-10-16T16:14:00.000-05:00

Madelyn you are 7 months old today! The days are just flying by, and I swear you get cuter every day! You are still mostly just eating oatmeal, although we are going to try some sweet potatoes today. I'm not in any hurry for you to eat food, and your doctor said you don't really need it until you are 1, and clearly you are not wasting away! haha So we will just take it slow. You eat 8 oz of formula every 3 hours during the day. You are still sleeping through the night from 7:30-8pm - 6:15am. It does make for early weekend mornings though! Over the last month we have been to NYC and to Mellie and Granddad's house. You are a great little traveler!

You have lots of favorite toys now, you especially like this bumble bee teething toy. You really aren't picky though, you will try to put just about anything in your mouth. In the last month, you have mastered sitting up without support! You love to roll around and are starting to scoot/trying to crawl. You will be crawling in no time! You love to watch Sammie and Fred, and they love to try to lick you. You are quite the little talker, not surprisingly. We haven't seen any teeth yet, but that is fine with me! You are a very happy, easy baby, and we love you more and more every day!

7 Month Stats:

Height: 26.5" - our guess

Weight: 17 lb. 3 oz.

Clothes: 6 month, 6-9 month, some 9 month - You have a VERY long torso like your mommy!

Diapers: Size 3 as of last week

New York City

2011-10-11T20:35:00.000-05:00

This is way late, but hey, better late than never, right? I have been trying to get better about blogging, but I seem to get on good streaks and then stop. I want to try to blog as much as possible so that someday Madelyn can read some day about all of her life events!

On September 16-19, we went to New York City to visit Quinn & Lindsey. We hadn't seen them since their wedding in May, so we were very glad to see them! Traveling with a baby was interesting, but Madelyn did great on the plane. Aaron ended up carrying Madelyn in the Baby Bjorn for most of our trip and she loved it! She was even trying to wave at people as we walked by them, it was so cute!

On the plane, chewing on Hailey the Hippo

Times Square

Dinner at Patsy's Pizzeria - BEST pizza I've had!

Lunch at Shake Shack - yummy burgers

Having fun in the Bjorn!

Dinner at Bianca before Broadway

Sunday stroll in Central Park

Uncle Quinn & Madelyn at their apartment

6 Months

2011-09-20T20:09:00.000-05:00

As you can see we don't have an official 6 month picture in the pink chair, but here are 2 pics from the airport/airplane on her half birthday!

This is a few days late...but we were in New York City visiting my brother Quinn and sister-in-law Lindsey for Madelyn's half birthday on Friday!

Madelyn, you are now 6 months old! The time is just flying by! You get cuter and cuter every day! You are our friendly drama queen. You will smile at anyone you meet, but you do have a dramatic side! You like to throw your head back and arm out when you are finished eating, as if you are exhausted. And I am pretty sure you now know that if you cry you will get held, which we love to oblige most of the time, but sometimes we just want to eat dinner with 2 hands! You laugh all the time now, mostly for Daddy though, apparently Mommy isn't funny enough for you! I love love love to hear you laugh! It just makes everything right in my world. You are also talking up a storm, and love to blow bubbles and "buzz" your lips. Sometimes you will do that until you are blue in the face!

You love to roll around, push up on your arms and you even scoot along/move in circles now. You like to play/chew on anything! You especially love paper...not sure why. You will cry if we take things away from you when you try to chew on them. Fred and Sammie make for good entertainment, you like to watch them wrestle, run around and let them lick your hand...and then we promptly go wash your hands! You are not quite sitting up unassisted yet, but I think part of it is that you have such a long torso like Mommy! We had some cooler weather for a few days, so we went on some walks with you sitting up like a big girl in the stroller and you really seemed to enjoy it. You sleep through the night for 11-12 hours straight. We just let you nap whenever during the day, but normally you take 2 short naps in the morning and 1 longer one in the afternoon.

We have started trying food this month, but you aren't too keen on it yet. You would rather just chew on the spoon! First we tried brown rice cereal and you did not like that. Next was peas, and then oatmeal and bananas. Strangely enough, you didn't like the bananas...I thought you would since they are sweet. So we switched back to just oatmeal, and you have actually eaten a few full bowls of it. I am in no rush to get you to eat them though, as you don't really need them right now and it will just create more work for me! haha We switched you to the non-spit-up formula and it has been sooo much better! You eat 40+oz. per day, 5 8oz. bottles and 4-6oz. at bed time.

You are such a happy baby and we love you so much! I can't believe you are already 6 months old!

6 month stats:

Height: 26 1/4 " - 67 percentile

Weight: 16 lb. 9 oz. - 62 percentile

Clothes: mostly 6 month, but still hanging on to some 3-6 month!

Diapers: Size 2

Oatmeal...it's not so bad

2011-09-11T19:32:00.000-05:00

We have been trying different foods with Madelyn, and she hasn't like any so far (rice cereal, peas, oatmeal and bananas-they're sweet, how does she not like them??) We decided we should probably just stick with one food and keep trying that one instead of trying different ones. So oatmeal it is...we have tried several more times over the last week, and still nothing. Today was a different story...we started giving it to her, and she didn't make any nasty faces or spit out as much as she has in the past! She loves the spoon going into her mouth part, because she wants anything and everything in her mouth right now, but she didn't really start swallowing until today. It wasn't perfect, and plenty still came out of her mouth, but we almost finished the whole bowl, so I'm considering it a success!

Messy Face & Full Tummy!

First Empty Food Bowl!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-06T20:46:00.000-05:00

We had a great Labor Day weekend with my parents who came in town on Friday. I cooked dinner Friday night, and we just hung out at the house. On Saturday Aaron & my dad went shooting, and my mom, Madelyn and I went to lunch and ran some errands.

Why yes, my teething ring can double as a bracelet!

We went to dinner at Iguana Joe's (yummy Mexican food) on Saturday night, and Madelyn was being fussy, so we had to take turns holding her. She finally went to sleep while Aaron was standing up and holding her...so cute!

We went to church on Sunday and then my mom and I went to see "The Help". But the power went out at the theater about an hour into the movie, so we didn't get to finish it. We'll just have to get it on Redbox.

Here are some pictures of Madelyn hanging out with Mellie & Grandad before they left on Monday.

Hanging out on Monday!

Then we went to lunch with Aaron's parents, but sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Madelyn with them. The rest of the day was very relaxing, and we all enjoyed the cooler weather and took a walk in the evening. At least this is a 4 day week!

Homemade Baby Food

2011-09-05T20:48:00.000-05:00

I decided that I am going to try to make all or most of Madelyn's baby food. Aaron and I eat pretty healthy, and I like to know where all of our food comes from and eat it in it's most natural state. Since we eat so healthy, I figured I should try to give her the best and healthiest food. Plus, it will be cheaper... and baby food smells and tastes so bad! Of course, when we are traveling, we will use pre-made food, but while we are at home, I want to try to make it. I know it will be hard with how busy we are, but I'm going to try! I was referred to the web site NurtureBaby.com and it has great information and lists recipes by age group and even has a chart showing how many servings of each food group that the baby needs as they grow.

I decided to start with peas, as I have heard that you should start with a vegetable, because if you do fruit first, the baby will love the sweet taste and not want to eat vegetables. And I figured, peas are a little sweet on their own. Here is my first adventure in baby food making!

Ingredients: Peas (and 1/2 cup water)

Puree peas and water to desired consistency - I need to break out my food processor- it is still in the box from Christmas!

Pour into ice cube trays to freeze in approximately 1 oz. portions

Once cubes are frozen, pop out of tray and place in freezer baggie and voila! Dinner is served! We can just take them out as we need them.

I should add that she didn't like the peas the first time we tried them, but we will keep trying or I guess we can give them to Fred and Sammie!

Organic Brown Rice Cereal

2011-08-31T13:49:00.003-05:00

Sounds delicious, huh? :) This was our first attempt at feeding Madelyn rice cereal. I am a pretty healthy person, and want to feed Madelyn healthy foods also, so I went with the organic brown rice baby cereal. Needless to say, after 2 tries, she was not a fan. I will be mixing some peas with it when we try again tomorrow or we will give it up or go to the sugar filled regular rice cereal! We are putting it in her bottle now and she doesn't mind it in there.

Getting ready...

Not to sure about this...

Think I'll just hold it in my mouth and not swallow

Trying to eat cereal is tiring...I need a nap on Daddy!

Baby Gender Reveal Party...not ours!

2011-08-31T13:43:00.003-05:00

On Saturday we went to our friends Tyler & Whitney's Baby Gender Reveal Party! They did it like us, and Whitney made a cake colored PINK because they are having a GIRL!! Ellie Mae!! Madelyn can't wait to have a girlfriend to play with!

Before the reveal (Madelyn was in a mood that day)

IT'S A GIRL!!

Weekend...can I have a do over??

2011-08-22T20:04:00.006-05:00

This weekend was not the best. On Friday, Madelyn threw up her morning bottle before Aaron took her to Primrose. When I picked her up at 2, they told me she had thrown up her 11am bottle too, so I was worried that she was sick. She was acting fine and didn't have a fever, but I still called the nurse who said to give her 1-2 teaspoons of pedialyte for 6-8 hours, and if she kept that down, we could go back to formula. We did the pedialyte thing for 3 hours, she kept all of it down and she was starving by 6, so I just gave her formula and she was fine. Thank goodness.

Saturday was pretty low key. We just ran some errands on Saturday, including Target, which surprisingly wasn't that bad for it being tax free weekend. Aaron's parents came over for dinner, and then Aunt Meg and Uncle Andrew came over too, but I neglected to take any pictures.

Happy to be running errands!

Sunday was not a pleasant day. Aaron got some kind of stomach bug and started throwing up at 3:30 am on Sunday morning. Needless to say, we did not make it to church or our planned lunch with our friends Wes & Penny. It was me and Madelyn alone all day, because we didn't want to get sick and Aaron was miserable. Madelyn was in a weird mood and didn't want to do ANYTHING yesterday! Normally we will play on her mats or on the ground, but she didn't want to. So I ended up carrying her around in the Baby Bjorn while I tried to do things around the house. Yesterday was one of those days where I was counting down the hours until bed time... and I absolutely hate feeling like that, but it was just a tough day with a sick husband and finicky baby! So, I would like a redo of the weekend or I guess just a new one...at least I've made it through Monday!

One of her quick naps where I got a break to talk to my mom on the phone!

Day 30 - A picture

2011-08-19T19:58:00.001-05:00

Day 29 - 3 Wishes

2011-08-18T19:54:00.000-05:00

1. A Happy & Healthy Family

2. That Mommy guilt would go away

3. For Rain

5 Months

2011-08-17T18:53:00.003-05:00

Madelyn, you are 5 months old, and I can hardly believe it! The time has just flown by! You are getting cuter every day and becoming more entertaining! It is pretty easy to get you to laugh, and you even have a big belly laugh that I adore! You like to look at the doggies and smile and laugh at them, and I just wish I knew what you think they are! You are a rolling machine, if we put you on your back, you almost immediately roll to your tummy. But then sometimes you get mad and act like you forgot how to roll back over. You are getting really good at tummy time, and actually enjoy it. You even sleep on your tummy or side sometimes. You can support your weight on your legs for a long time too, and I think you will be an early stander, but no signs of crawling yet.

As of last Friday, you have been sleeping through the night! Hallelujah! You wake up anywhere from 5:30-7am though, so it makes for early weekend mornings.

You now eat 6oz at 7, 10:30, 1:30, 4:30 and 7:30 and go to bed after the last feeding. We are going to try some rice cereal this weekend, as you just became interested in food this past weekend at Mellie & Grandad's. I'm not ready for you to eat baby food though! You are growing up too fast.

Oscar is still the favorite toy, but Sophie the giraffe is a close second. We haven't seen any teeth yet, but you sure chew on anything you can get your hands on. You look at everything as a potential object to go in your mouth. We are pretty much done with the swing, and we are getting more into the exersaucer. You can almost sit up all by yourself, but not quite. I know it will be soon though. We love you so much!

5 Month Stats:
Height: 25 inches (our measurement)
Weight: 15 lb. 8 oz. (our measurement)
Clothes: 3-6 Month, some 6 month
Diapers: Size 2

Day 28 - Something that stresses you out

2011-08-17T18:15:00.000-05:00

Thinking about how Madelyn and any other children will turn out.

Day 27 - Pets

2011-08-16T20:48:00.002-05:00

Sammie & Fred...no words are needed

Day 26 - Picture of Your Family

2011-08-15T19:00:00.000-05:00

The Brunk side

The Ladwig side

Weekend with Friends

2011-08-15T18:48:00.004-05:00

We went to DFW this weekend and got to visit with 2 of my friends and their babies! First we visited Rachel, Brian and Miss Olivia who is 1 month old. Rachel and I have been friends since 2nd grade.

Erica & Olivia

Rachel & Madelyn

Us & Our Girls!

After visiting Rachel & Olivia, we headed 5 miles west to visit Allison, Blake & Carter. 8 years ago this week, we were heading to Fish Camp at A&M and now we are playing with our babies!

Madelyn & Carter are 7 weeks apart & he has almost caught up to her!

Cute pic of Daddy & Daughter!

It was a great weekend and we were sad to leave!

Day 24 - Something you've learned

2011-08-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

I've learned that being a parent is the hardest, but most rewarding job. It doesn't matter what my day is like, when I get home and see Madelyn smile at me, everything else becomes obsolete!

Day 23 - Favorite Vacation

2011-08-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Definitely our Honeymoon in Puerto Rico! The beach, good food, great hotel, more good food, sitting out on our hotel patio watching the cruise ships leave port. It was blissful! Except for my spotted sunburn I got from using spray sunscreen that I had to live with until the summer!

This is the old fort in San Juan - El Morro

Day 22 - Favorite City

2011-08-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

My current favorite city is Boston. I went there twice with my church on mission trips in high school, and Aaron and I went back last October. I love the history, the accents, the universities, the food, oh the food! Crab cakes and sea food! Yummy!

Day 21 - A picture of yourself

2011-08-10T10:46:00.002-05:00

In the hospital waiting for Madelyn to be born!

Day 20 - Nicknames

2011-08-09T10:42:00.000-05:00

I have never had a nickname really. Quinn used to call me "Eggio waffle lady" when he got made that I called him "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman." But that is the extent of my nicknames.

Madelyn's nickname so far is: "The Princess" which is very fitting for her. :)

Day 19 - Something you miss

2011-08-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

Being in college and living 5-10 minutes from all of my friends (and brother for 1 year)!

Day 18 - Something you regret

2011-08-07T20:16:00.002-05:00

I regret telling my mom "I hate you" when I was however old. I can't remember how old I was, but I do remember her crying when I said that, and now that I have my own daughter, it would just break my heart if she told me that. So Mom, I am sorry! The things you learn when you become a parent are very humbling!

Day 17 - Something you're looking forward to

2011-08-06T20:14:00.000-05:00

I'm looking forward to taking Madelyn to Disney World!

Day 16 - Dream Home

2011-08-05T20:05:00.001-05:00

Our current house is my realistic "dream house." I always say that it was a dream come true to be able to build our own first house and pick out the brick, counter tops, floor plan, tile, carpet, etc. I realize how blessed we are to be able to have built a house at our age, and I love it!

Day 15 - Bible Verse

2011-08-04T20:04:00.002-05:00

These verses have been my life verses ever since I can remember:

Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him and he will direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

Day 14 - A picture you love

2011-08-03T20:35:00.001-05:00

Day 13 - Goals

2011-08-03T20:34:00.001-05:00

My current goal is to raise a happy, healthy daughter who grows up to care about others and love Jesus!

Lazy Weekend

2011-08-01T19:31:00.004-05:00

We had a lazy weekend at home. On Friday, I took Madelyn up to Primrose to get used to being there, as today was her first full day at Primrose. We miss having her grandmas keeping her, but we know Primrose is a great school for her.

Heading to Primrose!

On Friday night we went to a Mexican food restaurant by our house for dinner, and it was so good! Aaron and I stuffed ourselves! Madelyn was a doll and slept the entire time! She normally doesn't sleep at dinner time, so it was a nice treat for us!

Saturday was low-key. Aaron went fishing with his brother Andrew on Saturday morning, and Madelyn and I played and then took a nap. We just hung out the rest of the day and grilled steaks for dinner.

We went to church on Sunday, and then to Pappa's Seafood for lunch with the Ladwig clan. Madelyn slept at the beginning but quickly woke up.

Another nap with Daddy!

Day 12 - What you believe

2011-08-01T19:24:00.003-05:00

Because when I see the word "believe" I automatically think of religious beliefs, I am going to make this easy on myself. Here is what I believe:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell.

On the third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From there He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Day 11 - Favorite TV Shows

2011-07-31T20:44:00.003-05:00

I watch a lot of tv...I always have. Ever since I got my first tv at 13 I have just kept my tv on all the time. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, I have it on. I know it's not a good habit, but that's just how I am. Here are my current favorite shows.

My favorite...by far

I love the Southern accents!

Pathetic, I know, but I have to watch!

Day 10 - Something you're afraid of

2011-07-30T20:22:00.001-05:00

I think I will go with spiders and snakes, but I am not going to post any pictures of those!