Sunday was Jeni Newnam's Birthday! Jeni is a great friend from college. She was one of my wonderful roommates from our Sophmore through Senior Year. I hope you had a wonderful birthday. We can't wait to hang out with you again really soon.
Andrew loves to give Madeline her bath on Saturdays since he isn't home during the weekdays to do it. I think she had a great time in the bathtub this morning.
It is such a beautiful day today. Madeline and I enjoyed a lovely walk around our lake this afternoon. I am so excited for Spring to finally be here. Everything is blooming, green and beautiful. It is so refreshing. I even saw that our pool is full of water and the chairs are all set out. It won't be too much longer until we can spend our days there. I hope you had a chance to get our and enjoy this beautiful weather!
On Wednesday, Madeline and I headed to the National Zoo with my aunt and her 2 children, Abby and Will, and another friend and her child, Edward. We had a great day hanging out and seeing all the animals. Madeline wasn't too interested in the animals. But, she enjoyed being outside and seeing all the commotion.
We tried to take all the kids' picture while we were stopped for lunch. But, this is what happened. 
So, we decided to line up all of their strollers so they couldn't escape. 
We are excited for more fun outings with our cousins!
I've been waiting a long time! Let's get this show on the road people.
mmm...mmm
yummy... I'm such a big girl now!
This past weekend we headed up to Pittsburgh to visit Ben and Marci. Ben is one of our friends from summer project back in 2001. Neither of us had ever been to Pittsburgh, and I have to say it is a very beautiful city (despite the fact that when we left here on Saturday it was about 80 degrees and sunny and when we arrived there it was about 50 degrees and rainy.) It is very hilly/mountainous with a river going right through the middle. There were lots of tunnels to go through and Andrew and I held our breath through each one. I know, we are very talented.
Before we headed up, Andrew and I were watching the travel channel and saw a show about best places to pig out. And one of the places was, Primanti Bros. in Pittsburgh. So, Ben and Marci agreed to take us there. They are famous for their sandwich below that has whatever meat you want, topped with fries, coleslaw and tomatoes. It was pretty good. 
But, the main event of the weekend was curling. You may not have ever heard of curling. But, it is actually an olympic event. And of course, Andrew has a dream of going to the olympics and figures this is the only event that might get him there. We figured out that maybe Madeline and him can go to the olympics together in 2024.
I didn't get to learn too much about curling because I hung out on the bleachers and watched with Madeline and her new friend Julia. Madeline isn't quite old enough to learn yet. But, in about 8 years she can begin her training.
Andrew is throwing (I don't really know all the curling lingo since I was in the bleachers with Madeline the whole time) the stone. When he lets go, the sweepers will start sweeping the ice in front of the stone.
After you throw the stone, the sweepers sweep the ice to help the stone go in the direction they want it to go. This is Andrew sweeping with 2 other people.
Well, I know that I said we were going to wean Madeline from the swaddle. But, after several sleepless nights, we have gone back to the trusty swaddle that we have used from the first night home. Without the swaddle she would wake up almost every hour and then need her pacifier to get back to sleep. Not fun for mommy and frankly I think that Madeline was a little cranky too. So, Saturday night, we put her back in it and she slept for 9 hours straight without even a whimper. Just so you know, we use swaddles by Kiddopotomus. They are great. We have used the fleece ones and now we are using a knit one since the weather is getting warmer. The picture above is from her first night home from the hospital.
Madeline loves to reach out for anything that we walk close to. She loves to grab this flower in her bedroom everytime we head to her bath. She always wants the remote control. I have to hide it while I am burping her or else she will get distracted and won't want to eat more.
She loves my water bottle. I think all the bubbles fascinate her when I drink water out of it. 
And she loves her toes right now. These are the best toys because they are always there. She was trying very hard to get them into her mouth this morning. I am sure it won't be too much longer. 
She likes a lot of actual baby toys too. But, these are the ones that are fascinating her the most for now.
Madeline has been trying to pull herself over for the past week or so and she finally did it yesterday! This video is from this morning.
ps Sorry for my annoying voice in all these videos. I need to stop talking while the camera is going.
Well, we headed to the doctor yesterday for Madeline's well-baby check-up. The doctor said she looked great. She weighed 13 lbs. 3 oz. (45%) and is 26 inches long (97%). This means that she is long and lean, every girl's dream :) We discovered that she has a dairy allergy around her 1 month check up. So, the doctor said that maybe we could start slowly adding dairy back in my diet and see how she reacts. So, I came home and had a big bowl of ice cream, Moose Tracks, my favorite. Now, I'm still not sure if she was reacting to the vaccines or the ice cream, but around 5 pm she cried, inconsolably, for 20-30 minutes until I distracted her by playing in the sink. Unfortunately, I am thinking that it was the ice cream. And now, I don't really want to try anymore dairy, because who wants to put their baby through that again. But, we need to get this dairy thing straightened out and then we get to start trying some solids! Yeah!
The picture above is of her taking a nap today. We are finally starting to ween her off the swaddle. The swaddle has been great. In fact, I would recommend buying a swaddle with velcro because it keeps them so snug. And we could never swaddle her with blankets like the nurses at the hospital. But, now that her arms are getting stronger, her hands are escaping, like in the picture below. 
Now, it would be ok if those hands would just hold still. But, they start attacking her and she can't get away from them. So, she wakes up and then we have to go reswaddle her. So, I am thinking that it is just time for her to sleep without it. She did a great job last night and her nap this morning went great as well. So, I think we are onto something. When I laid her down for her nap this morning. She just snuggled up with the blanket and was alseep before I even left the room. She is such a good baby.
Madeline has two new friends she wants to introduce you to.
Caedmon Titus Jordan was born on March 21st at 4:51pm. He weighed 9lbs. 6 oz. and was 21 inches long.
Here he is with his mom and dad Kim and Dan Jordan. What a sweet family.
Chase Alexander Whited was born on April 1st. He weighed 7 lbs. 4oz.
Here are his parents, Krisha and Brian Whited. Another sweet family!
Congratulations guys! We are so excited to meet both of your boys very soon!
Today is Madeline's 4 month birthday! This outfit in the picture above is the first outfit we bought her. We bought it on the day that we found out she was a girl back in July. I often go back and look through our blog to when she was first born. And it is amazing to compare her to now. She has changed so much. She is now laughing (even if it is only at her father). She loves to ride in her big girl stroller without the car seat. She likes to see what is going on everywhere. And for this reason, she won't take very good naps in her carseat anymore like she did when she was first born. But, she will still sleep in the car, especially on long trips to Roanoke. (Which we are very thankful for.) She rides in her stroller as I walk around our lake. Sometimes she "talks" to the trees and squirrels as we go by. She stays in the nursery at church. But, her biggest accomplishment this month is that she finally dropped her middle of the night feeding. I was reading "babywise" and realized that she probably should have done it when she was about 2 months old. So, I was determined to let her cry through that feeding. Well, lucky for us, she must have heard me talking about it to Andrew and she decided to drop it on her own that night. So, now she sleeps for about 10 hours at night. I do occasionally have to give her her pacifier. But, for the most part, she is sleeping great. During the day, she takes about 3 naps and eats about 5 times.
She has been such a joy. She makes being a mom so easy. I love staying home with her and I wouldn't trade it for anything. Every little stage she goes through is so much fun and we thank God for her everyday. What a sweet blessing she is!
Here are a few more pictures for ya:
This is her bear jacket that she wears when we walk around the lake. It is still a little chilly sometimes. Andrew's cousins from Michigan gave her this jacket. It is so warm and snuggly. Thanks!
This is how we found her the other day after she woke up from her nap... just kidding. She's not that big yet. Andrew propped her up for a little photo session. 
She had her first piano lesson last night. She now knows where Middle C is! 
