10 months

On the move! Maddie started walking with a walker at the beginning of the month and now she is starting to take steps all on her own!  She is also pushing herself into a standing position from the floor.  She tries to be upright every chance she gets. It doesn't seem like it will be too long and she'll be walking.

She's becoming more vocal and more of her personality is emerging.  She is not as inclined to give up a toy that Nate wants and really lets me know when she's upset if I won't let her do something.

We are really getting into a good schedule with naps.  She is now going down the same time Nate does, which is wonderful, and they both sleep a good amount of time (1 1/2-2 hours).  Some days, if she gets up early or is just really tired, she will take a mini nap in the morning. 

At night, it is a much different story.  We have been struggling for about 3 weeks now to get a full night of sleep in.  I decided to cut out her night time feeding--just an early morning (around 4 or 5am) feeding.  The first couple of nights were horrendous!  She woke up and just cried and cried on and off for about 2 hours.  The first night I went in to try and console her, but I should know better, it just made it worse.  So the second night I let her cry.  And the third night, she SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! I did do a separate blog entry about this because it is a BIG DEAL. Well, that was just for a night.  Since then she has been waking up around 1am every night and crying on and off for an hour or two.  I have tried giving her medicine, thinking it was her teeth, but she still wakes on those nights too.  And then there was last night, she slept until 4am.  I am willing to do the 4am feedings a little longer (originally I was going to try and push those feedings back until they just disappeared) as long as she will start sleeping solid until then.  I guess it wouldn't be a monthly update on Maddie if there wasn't talk of sleep, or lack thereof.

Last Day of CMO

Nate had is last day at CMO this year.  I am sad that he won't have school to go to (he loves it!) and even more sad for me (I loved it too!) but it will start up again in August, just like the rest of the schools.  In just the few short months that he has gone to CMO, he really has grown a lot.  When I peeked in the last time he was doing the motions during their song-so cute! And I notice other changes.  I had the 2 & 3 year old room for service at church on Sunday.  When I lined them up to get a drink from the fountain Nate got in line (something he wouldn't have done 6 months ago) and he actually put the stickers on the coloring page where they were supposed to go (when he first moved into the 2 & 3 year old room he was placing the stickers all in one spot on top of each other).  He's talking a lot more now too. 

Before leaving on Tuesday he made sure to give Josh a kiss good-bye; I see a bromance forming.  And as he waved bye to everyone, I became a little sentimental, much like I am doing right now.  My baby boy is growing up.

Anniversary #5

Can you believe we've been married for five years!?! Me either! :)
It feels like it has flown by, with so many changes--like two tikes--among many other things!  Michael had drill (of course) but luckily he was done earlier than normal because he had ceremonial duties this weekend and so we got to spend more than a couple of hours together.

No big celebration.  Just some reheated take-out Chinese from the night before and I made a cake.  We watched our wedding video, which was awesome to see again.  Nate thought seeing Mommy and Daddy on tv was hysterical and couldn't stop laughing.  And an early night, which is no different from most other nights because we are so exciting.

It feels good to be married five years and look forward to many more years to come.

And She Sleeps!

I have been waiting over nine months to say this-Maddie slept through the night! 
She was down to one feeding at night.  I knew she didn't need it anymore (she eats a ton during the day) and it was just habit, and after it was confirmed by the doctor I decided that I would try and push back the feeding time until it was just gone.  She was getting up between 3 and 4am to eat; that was until all of a sudden on Saturday night she wanted to get up at 1am.  The cry seemed different and so thinking she had a nightmare I went in to console her.  But she didn't want me just to hold her and I thought, 'oh no you're not getting anything to eat now!'.  After two hours of trying to get her back to sleep, I had enough.  I decided the following night she would not be getting any attention from me.  She woke up around the same time, and continued to cry off and on for the next two hours.  This happened again the third night, and after having a headache for 3 straight days, I didn't know how much more I could take. 

But, then there was last night.  I woke up at 5am, realizing that not only did she not get up at any point to eat, but she didn't wake up at all-or if she did she went right back to sleep without a peep.  It made me a bit nervous, but I told myself she was okay and if I go in there and check on her she will just wake up.  So there we have it, baby Maddie, almost 10 months old, finally sleeps through the night.  Now, let's just hope she does it again.

Not a Baby Anymore

Seems like just overnight Nate is not a baby anymore. Suddenly he seems so old. He is helping me a lot more and his speech is developing. I guess the moment that he is so big is after I picked him up from CMO, I asked him, "Did you have fun at school today, baby?" To this he replied with "baby" and pointed to Maddie. Stealing the paci from Maddie is not an issue anymore either. If he finds it, he either brings it to me or gives it back to her. He's getting a little bossy too, which makes him feel older--now he's telling others what to do, especially his little sister. If she stands up in the tub and I tell her to sit down, so does he, and then he "helps" her sit back down (this is usually grabbing her and pulling her down). He does this as well when it's time for diaper change; he tries to bring her to me. The other night we went out to eat. He sat and colored and played with his cars. He was wonderful. When we got up to leave he grabbed his artwork to take with him (a first). He is also now sitting through an entire book with actual paragraphs. He's always liked his baby books that only have a few words on each page, but his new favorite, Finding Nemo, has to be read to him several times each day. Although he still has A LOT of growing up to do (he still doesn't like to feed himself, etc.) he suddenly seems much older. It's hard to explain, but there's a change there.

Saturday with the Toppes

Michael had drill this past weekend so I packed up the kids and headed down to the Toppe's. Lucas had a soccer game in the morning. I love to watch him play and he is getting quite good. Of course I hope he continues with it, but I am partial to the sport. It was kind of cold and raining on and off so I had to take the kids back to the car and unfortunately couldn't watch the end of the game. After the game we headed to the YMCA for the healthy kids day. Basically there were a bunch of booths set up in the gym, giving out pamphlets of information. Nate loved the booth that gave balloons and so that, and the bouncy house, kept him entertained. Jaime had a booth for the foundation and I knew the kids wouldn't make it to the end, so Jeremy and I took them home early. By this time, the sun had come out and it turned out to be a beautiful day. They have power wheels and Nate is not used to driving them at all. He doesn't steer and just presses down on the peddle until he runs into something, usually a tree. Then one of us would have to help back him out. Nate just loves it out there and it will be nice when Maddie is old enough to run around too (that way she doesn't have to be held by Aunt Jaime the whole time and Jaime won't get bitten the whole time).