Sweeping

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.

Syke

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's Favorite Toys

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.

Rollover

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.

Madeline's 4 Month Check-up

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.

Welcome to the World!

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!

4 Months Old

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!