7 months... and a half

Turkey! You're 7 and a half months old!

You can;
feed yourself most things
crawl like a champ
kneel by yourself
laugh almost as if on cue at the mere sight of your sister
babble 'Dadadada!'. a LOT.
Sometimes put yourself to sleep.
Can find your pacifier and put it back in most mornings to give me a few extra minutes to pry my eyes open.

This past month you've grown a lot. You learned to sit up in your cradle two days before you officially turned 7 months so we had to scramble to get your crib painted and ready. It made me sad to see that cradle get tucked away so soon but you've got big plans apparently and need to be super mobile to do them!

The first time i put you in your crib my heart jumped a bit. It reminded me that even though you outgrew the use of your cradle, you are still so little. I just sometimes wish YOU would remember you're still little. You're in an awful rush little lady. 

You love your high chair. And i love to see you in it. Especially when you're using your chubby little hands to feed yourself. You love love love to eat whatever anyone else is. We tried avocado again and you loved it so much you yelled in anger when you had eaten it all. 

 

Ever since you were a newborn you have liked to kick and rub your feet together when you're really concentrating on something or super mad. You still do it. It drives both me and your dad crazy. 

Because you've finally gotten the whole crawling thing down you, my darling, are like a Visa card. You're everywhere i want to be. Underfoot constantly. You just need to know where i am at all times or you get so so sad. You never take long to find me in the kitchen and your favorite thing to do is to try to eat my legs while i'm cooking or washing dishes. It's a good thing we have a tiny kitchen or you'd get accidentally trampled! 

 

Did i forget to mention you have two tiny razor like teeth now? They're still growing in but they're certainly there. And you don't let me forget it! Luckily you haven't really bitten me while nursing yet. Mostly because you're so busy looking around these days you can't be bothered to slow down for a full nursing session without you being super duper starving. Those big eyes of yours get the best of you! 

If i open the vertical blinds in the kitchen you crawl back and forth along the length of the slider observing the outdoors like a caged lion. You're pacing just waiting for the day that you get to explore the outdoors and try some of that tasty looking grass. (We both know you're going to try to eat some. Every kid does at least a few times) 

You've also just become so so much fun lately. You're happy and smiley at strangers and at night before you nurse for the last time you get so so giddy that nearly anything will have you in stitches. My favorite moment of the day is when Noella notices you're giggly and makes funny noises and faces at you just to make you laugh. You love love love it. Then you try to pull her hair and she runs away. Which makes you laugh again.


We're so delighted and joyed by you little turkey. We can't wait to see what the next month will bring.

We all love you.

Half

Oh Madeline Louise. You're half a year old. Six whole months.

It's breaking my heart in the best ways.

You're so strong willed and determined to do/have/get what you want.

You still demand to be held as often as you can. I've taken to wearing you on my back now that you've got great head control. You're pretty pleased as long as I'm not standing in one spot for too long. (I have to sway while i wash dishes or you start to whine and pull my hair.)

You've started to ride in a shopping cart like a big girl. I make sure to pack some things around you though because if you get excited about something you have this bad habit of stiffening up and throwing yourself in a random direction and I'm afraid of you hitting your little head. You lasted almost a whole shopping trip through Sams club without me holding you.

Speaking of holding, you're getting better about letting Daddy hold you when i'm around. Though if you're the tiniest bit hungry or tired you start this high pitched whine and dive bomb in my direction if you see me. If i stay out of sight you're fine, so I'll admit I sometimes finding excuses to be in another room so Daddy can get some time with you too. 

You bring that man SO much joy and you always seem to happy when he calls you his 'Turk Turklestein'. (Because your nickname happens to be Turkey and so we like to come up with variations to change it up sometimes)

Quite often I get the 'I'm SO over this Mom' look. You seem unimpressed by a lot of new experiences.You're pretty stoic until you form an definitive opinion. Very much unlike your sister and I who approach everything with a smile. You like to think about things and take your time. 

Most mornings when I go in your room to get you I'm greeted by half your little face popped up over the side of your cradle. It makes me sad because it means you're that much closer to outgrowing it. I LOVE that cradle and as soon as you start to pull yourself up on things we have to ditch it for the big crib. It's vintage and so easy for me to get you into when you're sleeping and I don't have to break my ribs leaning over the side to put you into it. Please stay uninterested in learning to stand a bit longer. 

You've started to sit up on your own more often though you still prefer to lay down. I keep the boppy around you just in case yous stiffen up and i can't catch you in time.

You also LOVE to eat. You have some trouble with textures just like Daddy and big Sis but you never refuse food. You've tried avocado, peaches, apples, blueberries, banana, carrots, broccoli, mashed potatoes, squash, oatmeal, sourdough toast, green beans, strawberries and you've loved them ALL. So much that if you see me eating and you're on the floor, you turn yourself to face me and whimper straight up sad puppy style. It's so sad and so cute. 

You're STILL in 0-3 month clothing except for jammies. You're finally too tall for the 0-3 month jammies. I'm starting to rotate some of the smaller 3-6 month things we have into your wardrobe but most of the things we've tried look silly because they just hang off of you. I'm thankful you're small though. It's stretching out the amount of time you can wear what we have for you that much longer before i have to start shopping again. You've started to FINALLY fill out with some lovely delicious rolls and you've got quite the double chin going too. I love it. I really really do. I struggled with you being on the skinny side for a long time but you're catching up a bit and it's marvelous.

You can scoot pretty efficiently. But... backwards. Like... on your back. With a creepy gonna-break-your-neck back bed. But it gets you where you want to go for the most part. You get stuck on the corners of the couches or under them sometimes. 

I'm glad you haven't officially started to crawl yet. I thought for sure by now you would be but please keep waiting. It's making keeping track of you that much easier. I have a feeling that once you start really moving you'll be impossible to stop. 

You still light up with uncontrollable smiles and giggles and wiggles whenever Noella comes near you. I never tire to see how much you love her. Her favorite thing to do lately it to rescue you from the tile. She grabs your little feet and carefully tugs you back onto the carpet. Then you scoot right back off again in sheer delight of her presence. 

You've taught me to really slow down in the past month. To let us eat easy meals more often and to snuggle more. Your love for me is still all consuming and sometimes still sucks the life out of me but i'm thankful everyday for you. 

I love you my tiny Turkey and i'm excited for the next 6 months. 

Five

Maddie Lou Who!!

You're five months old today! Holy cow! Five whole months! And it really has gone by in a flash. It's like I blinked twice back when you were still safe in my water balloon, saw you as a newborn and now you're this tiny marvelous semi-mobile creature!

Yep. That's right folks. Madeline is semi-mobile. She's working on lunging on all fours and is a champion backwards scooter when she wants the object juuuuust out of reach in front of her. Crazy but true.

This past month has been awesome. Full of adventures and triumphs.

We started the month off with your very first trip. Just you and I flew all the way out west to see my best friend Heather Kunz get married to her lumberjack. You got to meet my other very good friend Amanda too and sat in a high chair for the very first time!

It was so very lovely and green out there. We spent some time in Heather's backyard in Rexburg ID and you seemed to love it. I certainly did. It was a lovely change from good ol' Florida! 

 It was a short trip and you were a champion traveler until I lost your paci on the last leg from the Vegas airport home... whoops! Before that little adventure, you were scooped up and showed off at the Salt Lake airport by a group of retired Chinese travelers. They were SO enamored with you. They all stood around and chattered and took pictures with you. It was quite the surreal experience since none of them spoke English and we don't speak Chinese but you were a trooper and very fascinated with them.

When we returned home you decided for the first few days to take two 2 hour naps a day. It was heavenly and i thought you FINALLY had this whole napping thing figured out. I was wrong because after about 3 days of blissful naps you went back to your unpredictable catnapping ways. 

The last weekend of May was Memorial Day weekend. My dad, your Papa, drove down to Savannah GA for the weekend for a job interview so we decided to make the 4 hour drive up since you hadn't met him yet. Just like your sister at your age, you were cool with him in short bursts but anything longer than 5 minutes and you gave this terrifically sad look and started to cry. Don't worry. You'll warm up to him. He's pretty awesome. I promise. 

We made you a little nest in the hotel room and you slept from 8 until 5;45 without a peep. We were stressing about sleeping all together in one room because you tend to be a light sleeper but you were a champ. We were so proud.

On the way home from our Georgia excursion, we stopped by Peach World. Obviously nothing here interested you all that much but we did get a family photo and it was a fun little part of our trip. 

You're starting to LOVE to sit up more and more often. You're also really getting the hang of holding things. (No pun intended) Your current favorite thing to hold is a plastic spoon. I had to convince your sister that it was okay for you to borrow one because they're 'hers'. 

You also tried your first food this month. It was sweet potatoes. I swore we were going to just skip the purees all together with you and only offer table foods and let you figure things out but after a few weeks of lip smacking and chewing motions and you staring me down whenever i ate, we decided to try it. You were excited for about three spoonfuls and then proceeded to push whatever you had left in your mouth right back out again. So i didn't push it. I gave you the spoon and you played with it a while and i got to eat my dinner while you watched me intently. 

At five months old you can;

Bring objects to your mouth and rarely miss

sit up unassisted for about 10 seconds at a time

get up on all fours

scoot backwards

roll front to back and allllllllmost can go back to front if you could just learn to kick that arm out from underneath you

you still wear 0-3 month and newborn size clothing, though the newborn pants are more like capris now. you're one tiny little turkey!

You babble when you wake up most of the time at night

You can make an 'n' and 'g' sound

you can rotate yourself completely around while on your tummy

you cried it out for the first time and have been sleeping better during the day since that night

you still love your paci while you sleep as much as i want you to be rid of it. 

you still LOVE to nurse and are starting to finally fill out a bit more. 

Sometimes you'll smile at strangers but in general you're still super clingy to me. 

I can't wait to see what this next month brings. 

First Four

Oh my Maddie Lou. My second babe. My most needy babe. I love you and am so glad you joined our family.

The first few months of your life have gone undocumented because there simply wasn't time to blog it. I have lots of pictures and blurbs on Facebook and Instagram during small breaks in the day about your progress in life but actual written down documentation? Nope. Because you just wanted to be held. Or nurse until i thought i was literally going to dry up because there couldn't possibly be any more milk left but there always was.

You came into this world screaming and scared your sister. Yes, that's right. She was there when you were born. Well, not in the room but she was in the house. She was SO excited for you to 'pop my water balloon' and come play with her. She really didn't want much to do with you the night you were born because you were so new and loud but the next morning, oh, she fell in love. And she fell hard. 

 

She loves your tiny hands and feet and the way that you always burst into a smile when you hear her voice. Those first few weeks of your life she marveled at you as we all did. 

You just wanted to be held close. You wanted to smell me at all times. At times i felt like i was drowning in your love and not always in a good way. Your attachment was and still is fierce. There were many times when your poor dad took you so i could get a break for a few minutes and you wanted nothing to do with him but would calm as soon as i got you back. Your love for me is overwhelming at times but it's taught me so much about patience and endurance. 

At a week old I decided it was time to do newborn pictures. You were less than thrilled with the idea.

As time has gone on, you've settled into our lives and it seems like you've been here forever. You are amazingly strong considering you're so tiny. At just a few days old you were lifting yourself up off my chest for about 10 seconds at a time. You started to roll from front to back at only 2 months old! You're a champ at tummy time and i think that's mostly because you prefer to sleep on your tummy. At four months old now you will rotate and wiggle yourself around when you're on the floor towards whom ever is nearest. You're dang close to army crawling which is impressive but please, for the love of pete, slow down little one. I'm not yet ready to have you be mobile. You've recently started testing your vocal range and boy, can you yell! You like to yell at the animals on the jungle mat or the butterfly toy i've attached to your swing. I think you're mad because you can't get them into your mouth. 

 You still fit into your newborn and 0-3 month clothing. I get asked all the time if you came early and chuckle when i tell folks that you were indeed 3 days 'late' and they were the longest three days of my life. At your four month appointment you weighed in at 11 lbs and 6 oz and are exactly 24 inches long. 

 

We had a little trouble with nursing in the beginning but now, it's second nature. You have a temper that flares up and sometimes, the only way to calm you down is to literally shove your face onto my breast and you make these angry grunting sounds until the milk starts to flow and then you relax into it. If you're REALLY upset about something, you'll pop off every few seconds at first to let out a little angry cry then latch back on grunting away and after a few minutes, you go limp and let out little sighs between gulps. And those moments are bliss. At two months old you started to reach your hand up to my face and now your favorite thing to do while nursing is to gently wave your arm around until you collide with my face and explore it a little. Sometimes you'll stop nursing all together to gurgle and coo at me and boy does that just melt me into a puddle of mommy. 

 Nursing you is a bittersweet experience for me. I wasn't able to make it work with your sister so having this sort of relationship is new for me and it's made me shift in my feelings towards my whole mothering experience. I know, you're the second babe, i should have expected it to be different but i didn't realize that i would feel THIS different about everything. When everything seems so chaotic in life, taking those 10 minutes to nurse you changes my perspective. It forces me to slow down and settle into life again and realize that there are indeed things that i need to let go of. 

You came into our lives at a time when we seemed to need you the most. Your Daddy and I hoped for you for a long time and these first four months have been magical. You've grown so much over these first four months and you never cease to amaze us. Thank you Sweet Girl for choosing us, we're so so glad you're ours. 

Love,

Mama. 

p.s. i'm going to try to be more on top of blogging about you now that you seem to have figured out this whole napping thing.