Somebody Thinks She's Big

I hate to admit it, but mom was right. When I started letting Maddy take bites of whatever I was eating, it was like opening Pandora's Box. Now, she thinks she's big and can eat anything. There are some things she can't have no matter how hard she tries, such as hot wings. (*That would just be a bad idea!!) And then, there are somethings, which I'm sure there is no way she will either A) like it or B) be able to eat it. The Roma tomato that I had on the kitchen table for example that became a lovely Maddy snack when I thought she would just ignore it, or at the most, take one bite and put it down. That poor tomato never stood a chance. She devoured it like it was candy.

So the other day, I had an apple. Baby's don't eat apples, right? Babies eat apple sauce with maybe the occasional soft chunk, but not an apple apple. With hard core and skin... and definitely not a granny smith apple... right?



And certainly after taking a few bites she would put it down...



She's so funny!

And now, for a Christmas bonus. This is from Maddy's first Christmas Eve, when she got her first pair of big girl jammies. *That means not footie pajamas* She's so big I could weep... if I wasn't laughing at her because she doesn't so much care about the jammies as she does the Christmas coke grenade that Ash is drinking.



Maddy sez "MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY"

Video drop 2

I downloaded these videos to my computer a little while ago and I've been waiting for the right time to post them. The right time hasn't really come up yet, so I'm just going to post them because, well, Maddy's cute and big and who doesn't want to see that.

These are from our trip to Michigan. Babies do OK in the car for the first few hours of a trip, but after that they start getting bored, so we stopped at a McDonald's with a play place. So Maddy was a little nervous actually crawling through the tubes, but in general, had a really good time with her daddy.






Finally, we have Maddy vs. the dragon.



The dragon might think it was fierce, but Maddy is the fiercest! Little tiger.

Maddy and her Daddy, part 2

Maddy loves her daddy a lot and likes to help him. Sometimes, babies aren't that helpful though, but Ash has come up with some creative ways to make Maddy think she is helping when she's not. Like when he pulled apart his old laptop and saved the keyboard just for her. Now, Maddy can be just like her daddy. She thinks she's so big.



Then there are time when you want Maddy to be helpful and she just doesn't quite get it. Like when you want to test your new sound equipment and the world's loudest baby becomes oddly silent.

The Bad Baby Diaries

Maddy gets into trouble.

Maddy rips from Ash Ahrens on Vimeo.

Fat Fairy

Halloween Pics of Maddy.

Clap if you believe in fairies!!

Maddy's first Halloween was very successful. Thanks to Auntie Di, she was the cutest fat fairy around. I was mostly amazed though by how well she tolerated her wings.



The real problem came though when she would try to crawl underthings and her wings would get stuck. Then she would be one mad fairy!

She took her fairy fame and popularity well though. The bright flashing is Ash snapping a million pictures of her that he will hopefully post later.



All in all. A successful first Halloween. I think she was more impressed by her wand than the candy though.

She can stand and she wants to ROCK!

Maddy has been standing up on her own the last few days. She loves to stand up against my guitar so she can slap the strings.

WATER BABY

We all went swimming at the Y tonight and Maddy got her feet wet again. She wasn't sure about the water at first but she got the hang of it again.

Maddy in the Park

Here's a few pics from our visit to the park.

So tired... so stubborn.

Maddy is a terrible napper. She takes about 2 naps a day, but her naps don't last any longer than 15-30 minutes. If I'm really lucky she sleeps for 45 min, but that almost never happens. When she does sleep it's under duress. She won't sleep in her crib during the day. If you put her in it, she crawls around her crib for 20 minutes till she gets bored and starts crying. She will sleep in her swing, but only after whimpering herself to sleep.

So today was a typical Maddy day. Maddy took a nap this morning in her swing for 25 min. and then woke up when Ash and Jerry came in because, well, she might miss something. Then, when this afternoon rolled around I tried to get her to take a nap, but she refused and she fussed and whined, so fine. Ash and I wanted to go out to the park, so we took Maddy and she played a little and we strolled around the park. She eventually fell asleep in the stroller, but only slept for about 15 min.

So, Maddy slept for about 35 min today. That's it. Let me show you what a tired baby who refuses to nap all day looks like at 7:30 at night when she is still refusing to sleep.



She's so naughty.

More pics of Maddy

I got a new DLSR for shooting video but it also takes some pretty nice pictures too. Maddy can be a ham.

Picky little bad baby

Maddy is a good eater. She always has been. She will eat any baby food that I buy at the store and put in her mouth. She eats peas, bananas, applesauce, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She loves sweet potatoes. Now, the ingredient list on a jar of sweet potatoes consists of water and sweet potatoes. Simple, right?

Well, I got a new blender for my birthday and figured I could totally make that at home. So, I peeled and cut up some sweet potatoes. I steamed them and then put them in a blender with some water. I blended them to baby food consistency. Afterwards, I put them in baby food jars, let them cool and fed them to Maddy for lunch. This was Maddy's reaction...



What the heck? How did she even know? She's so weird.

Also, the other day, Maddy was sitting across the living from me. It was evening and she was playing with the DVD cases. So I started picking up a little bit around where I was sitting. I cleaned up the coffee table and put the lid back on the cereal bits. I was holding the jar in my lap when Maddy turned around and looked at me and started crawling toward me!! I was so excited. I had been trying to get her to crawl toward me all day and she just wasn't interested and now she was actually doing it. Then I realized she wasn't actually looking at me. She was looking at the jar of cereal bits in my hand and she was crawling fast. When she got to me she only looked at me once she had her hand on the cereal bits as if to say, "Aren't you proud, mommy? I need a reward."

Just gotta have purpose

Last night, Maddy started crawling. Or at least, I saw her starting to crawl for the first time. Ash said, "Oh yeah, she does that." Nan and I had spread cereal bits out on the floor and Maddy would crawl a couple of steps to get at them.

I was so excited and have spent a good chunk of today trying to coax her to crawl some more. I've used toys and books and coercion. She would not do it though. Finally, I got out the cereal pieces again and this is what happened...



She's so funny. Now, she's going to be even more dangerous. I'm already not really sure how she does what she does. Like, how did she end up here?

A Day in the Life, part 2

Maddy's days are pretty well packed. She wakes up in the morning. Sometimes she helps me cook...



It mostly involves sitting on the counter chewing on a tablespoon while I narrate what I'm doing, but she seems to enjoy it and I like the company.

Then after a fabulous breakfast of cereal and fruit, Maddy spends most of her day playing. She has her own nice corner of the living room...



She usually stays in it for about 5 minutes and then spends the rest of the time rolling around the floor and bonking her head on the coffee table. If that table were only an inch or two higher or if she would just stop rolling under it, she'd be fine, but she's stubborn. Little tiger.

If she's lucky, she also gets to play dress up, which really means I get to play dress up with her. I took these for a birthday card for her great-grandma.



She enjoyed it at first...



Then she got tired of the picture taking.

It's so hard to be cute.

The Many Sweaters of Maddy

It's finally starting to cool off outside. That's no problem for Maddy though. She is the baby of many sweaters. As seen here:



And here...



And here...



She is all sorts of ready for winter now. And she's still got one more coming if I ever finish the one I've been working on. I started it before she was born. Good thing I was knitting it for a one year old because that's how old she'll be by the time it's finished!!

Water baby

Maddy has been really enjoying her baths lately. You can tell because no matter how full her little bathtub is when I start, there's always less than half of the water left when she's done and mommy is a little waterlogged.

So, since today was such a beautiful day, I thought Maddy would enjoy playing outside with some water while I worked. Maddy would have some fun and I wouldn't get so wet.

She had a great time...



And just in case you are worried, yes, I did put sunscreen on her before taking her outside. I ended up getting more sun than she did.

Baby Who

We've been doing some "spring" cleaning and putting some things up on eBay. One of the things that is finally going is the Dr. Who scarf that I made when Ash and I were first dating. It's a great scarf. It's wonderfully warm and it's 13 1/2 feet long, which is why I've never really worn it anywhere. We got some great pictures for the eBay listing though!



Don't worry, we are mentioning the baby is not included in the auction.

Video drop

I have several videos of Maddy taken over the last couple of days. There's no particular theme to them though, which is why this is just a video drop. Some are amazing, some are cute, and some are just silly.

Here's Maddy on her way to crawling...



... if she can get past rocking.

Maddy desperately wants to be big and if you are drinking from a cup, she wants to know why she's not. So we gave her a plastic Disney cup with about an inch of water in it to play with. The water immediately went down the front of her onesie, but she enjoyed playing with the cup.



Since the weather has been pretty nice, we've been taking Maddy to the park. There's actually not that much to do at the park when you are 7 mos. old, but Maddy humors us. She swings a little bit, which is terrifying at first, but she enjoys it once she realizes she's not going to die. She goes down the slide a couple of times and then for a ride on the carousel.



This video... well, there's really no point to this video other than I think it's hilarious.

Jump up. Jump up. Jump around!!

Maddy got a jumper a few weeks ago when her great-grandparents were visiting. She really enjoyed it, but she didn't quite get it. So yesterday we tried it again. First, she was just delighted by the fact that she could stand on her own...



That's when the real fun began!!...



Maddy demonstrated her pleasure with a new face...



She's so funny!

Maddy goes Hollywood

It's been a very bright summer here in Northern Illinois and we've had to get creative to keep Maddy out of the sun. She has an arsenal of hats and I cleverly figured out how to attach the canopy of to her carseat to keep her from going blind when the sun is on her. There's nothing like a good pair of sunglasses though to keep the sun out of your eyes. So, Nan has been looking for sunnies for Maddy. The first pairs she got were from Old Navy. She got them when Maddy was about 4 months old and they are still too big for her. A couple weeks ago though she found a pair of Cinderella shades that fit her quite nicely. Now Maddy is all Hollywood glam when she leaves the house!...



She looks fab! Too bad the reason her hands are up by her eyes in this picture is because she is reaching up to take her sunnies off and eat them. Oh well. At least she still has the hat and the carseat canopy.

The All-powerful Scrunchy Face!!

Maddy's expressions go through phases. One morning, she woke up and started blowing raspberries and that's how she spent the next week or two. That was especially annoying when she had a mouthful of food. Her latest expression is a delightful scrunchy-snuffly face.



Even though I had a hard time getting her started on it this morning, she spent the rest of the day snuffling about the house. This next video was taken right after lunch so she's still a little messy in it, but it's hilarious because she was just making one scrunch after another.



Ash said I probably shouldn't encourage her. Right now, the scrunchy face seems to denote joy, but he is concerned it may turn to sass. I can't help it though. She's so funny when she scrunches and really, it is all about my personal entertainment!

Proof!

Now, I know that Maddy is growing up. I'm sure that I have mentioned it on here, in fact, once or twice (or several) times. Today was one of those days that I really noticed it though.

Maddy has a rocking chair. She has grown up in this chair. It started out as her bed. Then it was there to soothe her. Now, it is her eating chair and occasionally used for play. Well, this chair came with some dangly toys that hang over the rocker. I have never had much use for them because Maddy could never reach them. She would just kind of look at them aimlessly. Well, today, I was helping Nan with her chemistry and wanted to give Maddy something to do, so we put her in the chair and set it up with the toys and you'll never believe it...



... She can reach them!! And, she can pull on them. And, I have never heard the song, "If you're happy and you know it" so many freaking times in the space of 30 min because if you pull on the middle bug it plays the tune. It would have been annoying if she wasn't so cute and big!

Speaking of cuteness, I would like to take this time to mention Cheetah. Remember, Cheetah? He was originally bought as a toy for Maddy about 8 months before she was born. Cheetah ended up becoming a member of the household though and when Maddy was born he came along to the hospital to see the new baby. It was pretty funny because at the time, Cheetah was bigger than Maddy. Not so much now. And, Cheetah is not sure he likes this...



For the most part, they have worked out there differences though...



And have found a working relationship.

A Day in the Life

Maddy is just getting bigger and bigger. It surprises me sometimes how much she can actually do.

She can sit up...



This is Maddy's favorite position when she is eating because this way she can lean over the bowl and see what she is getting, or take the jar from me, or remind me that she's still there with her mouth open and why is it not getting filled!?!

I still have a hard time understanding her choice in toys though. She has some lovely, lovely toys and what do you think her favorite thing to play with is?



Thank you, Judy, for making the dish clothes that keep Maddy entertained for hours!

At the end of a hard day being Maddy though, there is no better recliner than your daddy.

Maddy discovers the joy of reading.

And by reading, we mean eating books...





...Reading is delicious!!

More New Tricks

Maddy had her 6 month check up this week and she now weighs 15 lbs 8 oz. She's getting so big. She's also learning some more new tricks.

Her and daddy have a new game to play in her big girl bed...



... Alright, so it's not so much a big girl bed as it is a crib, but it makes her feel big.

Maddy has also started trying to drink from glasses...




... Granted most of it ends up on the front of her shirt, but she's trying.

Finally, we have some fabulous footage of Maddy sitting up...



... No Maddy's were harmed during the making of this movie. Isn't she big though?!

Roadtrip Woman

Ash and I are out of town this week. We are finally getting a roadtrip to Indiana, which means Maddy is getting a roadtrip to Indiana this week. Here are some of the highlights from the trip so far...

First, Maddy has apparently learned a new trick. She can now burrito herself.



Very convenient for carry-out. Although, you can't leave her burrito'd too long because when she's rolled up, she can't roll any further and that makes her mad.

Maddy also got to go for a walk along the river. She had a great time and was very talkative!



As it got darker, we started to see fireworks. Now, Newburgh, IN where Ash's parents live, had their fireworks display on the 3rd. We missed that display. These are the fireworks we did see though.



I can't believe what people are allowed to shoot off here! The fireworks were very cool. Maddy stayed awake for about half of them. So she did see her first fireworks after all this year.

Finally we got a shot of Maddy in Willard Library. This is a very cool library that is supposed to be haunted, so they actually set up web cameras that run 24-hours a day so people can look for the ghosts. What the plan had been was to hold Maddy up in front of one of the cameras, so she could be a baby ghost. Apparently, the cameras only take a picture every 15 minutes though, so we never did catch her on film. Here she is walking though the library looking cute though.

Just a big baby

Maddy is getting big. Not just size-wise either. She's starting to do more and to become more independent. The other day she was fussing and I figured just a little bit of bottle would be good for her. So I made her like 4 oz of milk and brought it to her. She was laying on the floor and got so excited when she saw the bottle that I figured I would just let her lay and give it to her like a baby goat. I didn't even need to do that. As soon as the bottle got near enough to her lips she grabbed it and took over from there.



Granted, she can't support the weight of a heavier bottle, like an 8 oz bottle and she can't really sustain a bottle in her greedy little paws for a long period of time, I just think it's so amusing and big of her to do it at all though.

Also, she's getting to be a busy little baby. She can't crawl yet, but boy can she roll.



So big! Deep down though... she's just a big ole' baby.

It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Baby's have all the neat toys now. The latest thing that everyone told me was absolutely necessary was a nifty little thing that you use for teething.



It's basically a mesh bag with a handle on it. What you do is you open the top and you drop frozen fruit into it. The baby can then chew on the mesh bag and it's cold so it soothes their gums, plus there's the added bonus of getting little pieces of fruit when you chew. It's basically like a Kong for babies.

Now Kongs are a great thing. You fill them with peanut butter and they keep a dog entertained for hours! The only draw back is that dogs aren't very neat and while they enjoy their peanut buttery treat, you end up with peanut butter ground into your living room rug.

So knowing how a Kong works, I decided to take some precautions. I put Maddy on a quilt I knew I could easily wash to keep her localized. I took off all her clothes and kept a wet wash cloth handy. Maddy had a great time.



Thank goodness for precautions. Maybe next time I should try something other than blueberries.

The good life

No clothes and someone feeding you like a baby goat. Does life get any better?

Hide-a-baby

This is Maddy. Maddy is getting big... big and mobile. See where Maddy is on the blanket right now. (Note the toy.)



This is where Maddy ended up. Now don't get too excited. She's not crawling yet, but she is a very adept roller. She can roll and roll till her heart's content... as long as it's only too her right that makes her heart content.



Maddy's new found ability has taken her to some interesting locations. This is her favorite though.



When I walk into the living room and can't find Maddy, she can almost always be found under the table.



It's her new little hidey-hole.

Alright, one more picture. Maddy has become very interactive and while visiting some friends over the weekend, Maddy got to play on the neatest toy. It's a vibrating chair with toys hanging down from it. My friend had done something brilliant though. She added rings to the end of the toys to make them more accessible. So Maddy could grab them and with each pull lights would go off and music would play.



She thought it was awesome!! My friend was nice enough to leave it with Maddy too so now Madds has a fun new toy. She is the girl with ALL the cake!

How much is that baby in the mirror?

This is just a quick update. Maddy has learned how to roll from her back to her tummy. This would be a great thing, but she still hates tummy time, so she rolls from her back to her tummy and then looks around, realizes that she is on her tummy, gets mad, and starts crying till you push her back onto her back because she's too lazy to roll back to where she started. Silly baby. So, since she insists on rolling onto her tummy, we've started to come up with ways to amuse her once she gets there... toys... video games... mirrors...



The novelty of a baby in a mirror wore off quick, but she got a few more minutes of tummy time and a little less wear on the back of her head.

CAUTION: Messy baby ahead. Proceed with napkin

Maddy had her 4 month appointment last week. She now weighs 12 lbs 15 oz!! She's in the 50th percentile for her weight and she's 23 inches tall putting her in the 10th percentile for height. So she's almost average. She's so darn cute though.

Now that she's 4 months old and big, Maddy gets to start eating food. Much to my dad's disappointment though, this still does not include banana pudding. He's got to wait till about 8 months for that. It's probably going to be a while anyways because she still hasn't quite grasped the finer points of eating. Like how to keep the food in her mouth.



She very determined though and really wants to help with this whole eating thing.



Whose mommies little helper?

Maddy's New Toy

While Maddy was in Michigan, she got a great new toy from her great-grandparents.



This toy is perfect for her. It's nice because she can grip it (which is her new favorite activity for anything that goes in her hands. Toys, articles of clothing, hair, etc.) and it's light enough that it won't immediately fall out of her hand when someone bigger lets go of it. So since Maddy is able to manipulate it, you know the first place it goes...



Which makes me laugh because this is what she always reminds me of...



Although a little cuter. :)