Mommy in the making

 
Earlier tonight I was sitting at the computer and I realized that Maddie was being awfully quite. So I turned around to see her sitting on the floor with her back to me. I got up and walked over to see what she was doing. The first thing I saw was her pulling baby wipe after baby wipe out of the container. Before I reacted I noticed her kitty laying on her lap. She took the wipe and started rubbing it on the kitty. Then she reached over and grabed another wipe. It was the cutest thing to watch. You forget how much these little ones take in. But she will be a good mommy when she is much older, married and done with school:)

Grateful

Yesterday Maddie attended another session of feeding clinic. During that session her therapist pointed out to us that Maddie is a closed mouth eater and explained what that is and why it's bad. I had never thought about the way she ate I was just always so happy she was eating anything solid that didn't come from a jar! It was at that moment that I realized how grateful I am for the great team of doctors and specialist we have working with Maddie. She is making such great improvements! I'm thankful for the answers to prayers we've received and the guidance we have received. It has been amazing to me to see my Heavenly Father touch my life the way he has over the past 14 months. If I have learned one thing throught all this it is that my Heavenly Father is there for me always!

What I learned in Church today.

I looked around at all the babies that were born after Maddie and suddenly realized they were much older than what I thought they should be. Lesson learned: Other peoples kids grow REALLY fast when you are busy with your own!

Bringing a smile to my face!

Tonight, actually while I was posting my last blog, I burned our dinner and the smoke detector started going off. Of course when one goes off they all go off and the cats go climbing the walls. So I quickly got the pan off the burner and grabbed the closest thing I could find to wave under the smoke detector to clear the smoke. That item happened to be a open box of Cheerios. Of course Cheerios went flying every where. And while that was enough to make me chuckle what Maddie did truly made me grin from ear to ear. While I was busy trying to rescue dinner I didn't notice Maddie was hard at work until I turned around. There was the gadget drawer open and I saw her drop something into it. As I was walking past the drawer I looked in and noticed this:


She was being such a big helper picking up the Cheerios and putting them in the drawer. The only reason I can think of why she did this is because when she is done eating in her high chair I ask her to pick up the pieces of food on her tray and put them in the bowl she dumped them out of. What made this moment even funnier is that when I got the broom out it became a race as to who could get the Cheerios cleaned up first:)
That would have been enough to make me smile all night. However, about a half hour later shes in a cupboard getting out bowls and I move her because she is in my way. That of course lead to her fussing and getting right back in there as soon as she could. This time she is leaning way into the cupboard and pulls something out. I couldn't begin to guess what it was since it could fit in her hand. to my surprise she had a magnet that apparently she had stashed in there at another time! Now I know why I can't find some of her smaller toys!

I'm wondering if she wants to go to Maryland and that is why she hid that magnet...or maybe shes a friend to the crabs!

Fun in the chilly sun

With this being one of the first sunny, dry days we have had in a while I thought I would treat both Maddie and myself to a walk to the park. Last time we took a walk to the park Maddie wasn't even walking so I thought she might like to check out the play structures. Maddie first checked out the slide.


We then moved onto the swings as you can see Maddie wasn't to impressed.

I decided to convince her it was fun to swing I hopped on the swing next to her. Once she saw mommy swinging then it was suddenly fun to swing!

And this has to be my favorite photo. Maddie was climbing the stairs to the slide and poked her little head through the hole.

Sleep Baby Sleep

 
After 14 months of still getting up at night to nurse Maddie I decided that something NEEDS to change! My problem however, is that Maddie has no idea how to put herself to sleep, let alone put herself back to sleep. I devised my plan when she woke at night I would pat her and "shush" her in her crib. One night of that and I learned that is not the right way to attack this problem. We were up for two hours with Maddie Screaming and me becoming VERY frustrated. The next day Maddie fell asleep in her high chair! While I felt bad that the night before had taken such a tole on her it told me that Maddie can fall asleep on her own. We had to take Maddie in to the doctor anyway to have a boo boo looked at so I took the opportunity to ask his advice. He told me that I can't tackle the night feedings and waking until I get her to fall asleep on her own at night. I was a little discouraged...how long would that take??? But I looked over the sleep lady's plan and decided that I would try that. So on Wednesday I nursed Maddie until she was sleepy...I still held her because I knew putting her in her crib would really send her over the edge. But then I patted her chest and "shushed" her. She fussed, she cried, she tried to get up but after 40 minutes she was sleeping. She slept 12 hours! I even had to go in and wake her up! For nap time I did the same but this time she only fussed a little and it took me half the time! Tonight she didn't cry at all and it only took about 20 minutes! Once we have succeed for a good length of time I will start to put her in her crib but continue the patting and "shushing". Eventually we will eliminate those things. The best part (besides me getting to stay in my bed) was seeing her tonight starting to practice self soothing techniques. She is such a smart little girl I knew she would catch on fast!

Our Angel Baby

Last August I received a newsletter from a local company, Earth Mama Angel Baby. They specialize in natural products for pregnant women, moms and babies. They were going to be doing a photo shoot locally and wanted people to submit photos. From those photos they would select people to take part in the shoot. We were honored when we were chosen to take part. I was super excited when I found out that the photographer was Laurie Ludes who had done my maternity and Maddie's newborn photos. About a month after the shoot I logged onto Earth Mama's website and this is what greeted me!

I was so excited to see my little girl on their main page. We found out later that they selected ten photos from all pictures taken...two were Maddie's! We feel so honored and can't wait to see what they use them for. Here are the two they selected.


I just got the disk of pictures. There are so many cute ones. I also finally got to see my nursing photos that I asked Laurie to do. (I didn't do them during the newborn session and now knowing how much Maddie loves to nurse I regretted it) There was the best picture that captures Miss Maddie's excitement so well. I shared it with Earth Mama and they asked if they could use it too! I can't wait to see how they use all of these great pictures and I feel truly blessed that we were able to participate!

We also ended up wit this cute family picture!