At The Beach

We are at Myrtle Beach right now with my family. I will be posting a lot of pictures when we get home. But, here are a few for now.

Madeline has been enjoying eating the sand. It gives her a great gotee.


Andrew and Madeline have been enjoying many games of chase around the beach.

Madeline loves the sand and the waves! She's a little beach bum.

She Has A Name

Well, after 7 months, Madeline finally has her name on the wall. I bought these letters at Michael's way before she was born. But, then I had to paint them and figure out how to put them on the wall. So, they have been hiding under her bed for a long time. Trying to hang 8 perfectly level letters on the wall seemed impossible. We finally found these shelves at The Container Store and they work perfectly.

Happy Fourth of July!

Well, I am a little late on this post. But, better late than never. We headed down to Nana and Papa Paul's house (Andrew's parents) for the 4th. We enjoyed some great family time. Madeline was very fascinated by looking through the bars on this chair.

Nana and Papa Paul got Madeline a pool to play in. She had a great time sticking her face down in the water and then pulling it out really fast.

She also got to use her booster seat for the first time and try some real broccoli and watermelon. She wasn't crazy about the broccoli, but I think she liked the watermelon.

We ended up heading home before the fireworks. I wastn't feeling well and Madeline probably would have been cranky since it was way past her bedtime. I really wanted Madeline to see them. I think she might have liked them since she likes loud noises like dogs barking and the vacuum cleaner. Of course, she may have been like all the other babies who cry through the whole thing because they are scared to death. I guess we will just have to find out next year.

Butterfly Garden

Last week I headed to a nearby park that had a temporary butterfly exhibit with some ladies from my care group. I thought it would be just a few plants that may attract some butterflies. But, it was like a giant green house with thousands of butterflies. It was very cool. Madeline wasn't too interested in the butterflies. I don't think she really noticed them. But, she liked the flowers and the dirt.

Just Some Pictures

My mom came up for a visit during these past few days and we played around with her new Nikon D80. Just wanted to share some updated pictures with you.

This is Madeline's new silly/happy look


She's trying very hard to drink some water. It just isn't working right.

Madeline's sleepy look

Snuggling with her daddy.

Playing peek-a-boo with the blanket

7 Months Old

How come 7 seems sooooooo much older than 6? Madeline is over-the-hill of her first year. She now has two teeth. They officially came through on her 7 month birthday. If you look closely, you can see them in the picture above. (It is really hard to take a picture of her teeth.)

She is starting to interact a little more with other kids now. She loves her cousin, Abby. Everytime Abby comes near, she smiles real big and tries to grab her face. Last time she did it, Abby told her to "be gentle". I think her fingers can be pretty strong when she wants to grab onto something.


She loves to look at herself in things that reflect. Not just mirrors, but things like the oven and fireplace doors and this mirror on her new toy.


She thinks that she is a big girl now and she can hold her own bottle and sippy cup. She doesn't know how to tip it up high yet. She still needs a little help with that. She has been drinking out of a bottle a lot lately because of her teething. She has a very runny nose and it is very hard for her to nurse. Hopefully she doesn't become too attached.


And I figured out how to get her to finish a bottle. Just let her stand up to eat. (She kind of reminds me of little calf drinking.)

Another favorite passtime of hers is to pull everything out of her drawers. If I open up her drawer to get an outfit out, she comes crawling as fast as she can and starts pulling things out one piece at a time until she can't reach anymore.

Her favorite book right now is 10 Little Ladybugs. She will sit still long enough for me to read it at least 2 times. She usually helps flip the pages and she likes to grab the ladybugs. We usually read this book right before she goes down for a nap so that she settles down a little bit to go to sleep.

She can finally put food in her mouth. She has been eating the little sweet potato puffs. But, we started by putting them in her mouth for her because she would just pick them up and squeeze them in her hand. But, now she is starting to put them in her mouth. She even enjoyed a teething biscuit until I read the ingredients a little closer and realized that they had milk in them. She is still sensitive to dairy so we will try some dairy again when she is a little older. In the meantime, I found the Arrowroot biscuits that she can have.

Other things:

~She is crawling very well now. She has a new found interest in our shower curtain. So, she seems to be making a lot of beelines to the bathroom to check it out. Most of the day she will follow me around while I do things in the kitchen or around the house. Sometimes when we crawl after her, she will try to crawl faster to get away from us.

~She pulls up on everything. She can cruise (walk holding onto things) a little bit. But, she isn't too efficient at it. So, she usually sits down and crawls to what she wants and then stands back up.

~She can crawl up stairs. We haven't learned how to come down them yet.

~We are working on learning "no". Many times, when we say "no", she will stop and look at us and then move on to something else. But, sometimes she is just a little too curious, so we simply tell her no and move her to something she can play with.

~She hates laying down to have her diaper changed. Sometimes we can give her a toy to distract her and othertimes we just have to hold her down until we are done.

~Her sleeping has been a little off since we went on vacation and she has been teething. But she is getting back to sleeping through the night. She is still taking 2 naps a day.

~She is eating lots of fruits and veggies. She seems to really like oatmeal right now. And she likes her sweet potato puffs. She doesn't care for the banana puffs. We are going to try some meat this month and probably some juice too.

Madeline is such a precious gift. Sometimes we just want to cry when we look at her because we love her so much. It is so much fun to watch her learn and grow. Every month just gets better and better.

P.S. Be sure to check out her new videos to the right :)