Christmas Presents: Round One

So we opened presents on Sunday with my parents. This was Maddy's first experience with these strangely wrapped things. Maddy did quite well with grabbing the paper, though her goal was to put the paper in her mouth. (See picture 2.) Luke and I were able to spin the presents while she held the paper to unwrap them. Unfortunately, it would have taken us 5 hours to open all her gifts (Grandma went nuts!) so we had to let her watch most of the time. But, she was fascinated by it!

(Not quite sure why the first paragraph is underlined and linked and can't make it go away. Oh well.)

Flying

Friday night, Maddy and I and a good friend of mine flew to California. This was going to be one of the quickest trips ever to attend my friend's bridal shower. For the flight there, Maddy was a perfect little baby. She didn't hardly cry or make a peep. It was nice that there was another set of hands available for hold her.

We stayed at another friends house and it couldn't have gone better. Maddy went to sleep in a borrowed pack and play without even a peep. (I love having a baby that's a good sleeper!) About an hour later she woke up crying because she wasn't sure where she was at. After popping the paci back in, she was good to go for the rest of the night.

So Friday was good, Saturday however could have been better. Poor Maddy. Every time Maddy would fall asleep, she would make it about 20 or 30 minutes before she would have to wake up. She was passed around constantly at the shower, which was nice for mommy. By the time we got to the airport, Maddy had only slept about 40 minutes total, which is less than the length of one of her naps usually. She was extremely overtired. So on the plane, I was the parent with the screaming baby. She wanted to sleep. She needed to sleep, but she couldn't figure out how to get herself there. So she screamed. Finally over half way through our flight, she fell asleep. She fell so deeply asleep that she slept through putting everything back in the diaper bag, getting off the plane, getting to baggage claim while carrying her and pushing the stroller, grabbing the luggage, getting put into the carseat, and driving home. She slept for at least a half hour after we got home. She was one tired kid.

Saturday night Luke and I had to go to his work Christmas party. This was quite a fancy party so we got all dressed up. We look pretty! Enjoy a non-Maddy picture!

Maddy's 1st Bed Head!

It's hard to see the hair, but she was just so excited!

What a smile!

Hey, Santa!

So we ran to Walmart to look at fabric for new curtains today. As we're wandering around, there is an announcement that there will be free pictures with Santa for the next hour. Luke and I had wanted to take Maddy to get her picture taken with Santa and this was free, so even better! Luke wasn't with me so that was a bummer, but free can't be messed with.

So we wander over to the photo area and make sure it's really free. (FREE!) It was, so I handed over my baby. Normally, Maddy is not a big fan of men. (Sorry, guys!) But, she didn't even cry. As you can see from the picture though, he had very little face showing. She never even looked at him. I really think she thought that she was kicking back on a soft, squishy couch somewhere. She was so excited to be out of her car seat!

I then began the song and dance that is trying to get a baby to smile for the camera. I snapped my fingers to get her to follow them around to where the camera was. Click! No smile. Baby looks away. Clapping begins to try to get the baby to look back at the camera. But, I had put Maddy's pacifier in my mouth (just the edge!) to hold it so I couldn't do anything to make her smile. I pass off the pacifier. Then the raspberries begin. But, Maddy isn't looking at the camera again. More clapping. Oops, photographer lady misses the smile by a half second, so we repeat the process. Finally, after we've attracted an audience of 5 or 6 people, Maddy smiles and it's caught on camera. I'm really proud of my free Santa picture! (Sponsored by Walmart, Campbells, Goldfish, and Coca-Cola.)

So you think you can dance... dance... dance?

Yesterday I was sent a link for the funniest wedding dance ever.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aeoi16lScf4

I was holding Maddy on my lap when I opened it. Maddy was instantly entertained. She loves music, you see. The video starts with the couple dancing to a nice, romantic, slow song. A minute in, there is static and the music changes to "Baby Got Back." Maddy's eyes got big and she started bouncing up and down to the music- her version of dancing. She was smiling and squealing and so excited. I immediately thought of the "Friends" epidsode where Ross gets baby Emma to laugh. He has to tell Rachel that he got the baby to laugh, but doesn't want to tell her how he did it. She is appalled that he would sing such a song to their baby. But, she tries it later, and it works. Oh, yes, "Baby Got Back" is loved by babies everywhere.

Today, Maddy had her 4 month well-baby check-up. She's huge. She weighed 15 pounds, 8 ounces and was 25 inches long. Our doctor had to tell us that we should be looking into a bigger car seat. Our 4 month old is almost too big for her infant car seat. Crazy. Maddy currently is not a big fan of our doctor. She cries harder when he checks her than she does when she gets her shots. The only thing we can figure out is that he is male. He tries to tell her that he's not the one that gives her shots. But he orders them. And she knows. She knows he's behind the pain that is going to be inflicted on her.

So, to sum it up: she's a big girl (75th percentile for height and weight), she likes big butts and she won't lie, and she's scared of men. Life is good.

Thanksgiving: Pictures

Thanksgiving: A Day of Firsts

Today was a big day for the Stevens family. Not only was today Thanksgiving, the first Thanksgiving that we had the pleasure of having Maddy, but today was also Maddy's four month birthday. (Doesn't she look happy to be four months old?) I can't believe that we've had Maddy in our lives for 4 months already. It seems longer in many ways, yet it seems like yesterday that she was born. She is such a happy, joyful baby and so much fun to have around. I never tire of hearing her babbling or cooing or blowing those raspberries I was talking about. I absolutely love this kid!

To add to the fun, we decided that today would be a good day to give Maddy rice cereal for the first time. I mean, Thanksgiving is a holiday that is all about food. What better day to try solid food for the first time? Our efforts were met with much crying. We don't know if this was due to the many people and cameras that were in her face or the bland, icky cereal we were trying to put in her mouth. Very little made it into her tummy.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was a good day for us. It was a great time of sitting around the table with family, enjoying some good food. The highlight of the meal was probably Maddy "guarding" the platter of turkey with her little toes. For some reason the platter ended up right in front of Maddy's high chair. Now, for those who have met Maddy, you know that Maddy loves to grab things with her toes (Mommy's shirt, Daddy's finger, straws, etc.) A nice, cool platter was just the thing to try to wrap those toes around. All through the meal, Maddy kept her feet resting on that platter of meat. (She also added some "special sauce" by blowing very vigorous raspberries right in the direction of the meat.)

We took lots of pictures which I'll post in another post since the picture uploader thingy isn't working for me. Oh, and yes, it's November and our grass is that green.

Raspberries, anyone?

Life has been crazy around here again. Two weeks ago we went to California. This was Maddy's first big car trip. It didn't go very well. Before we could even get to the California border, we had stopped 3 times to change Maddy's diaper and try to feed her. Apparently Maddy had decided that our little trip was a good time to catch a stomach virus. Great.

We stayed with friends of ours, which actually went well. They have a little casitas attached to their house (room with a separate entrance and it's own bathroom). We were able to use this to stay in. It worked great. We could do our own thing without disturbing anyone.

By the next morning, I too was sick. Apparently Maddy decided it would be a good idea to share her stomach virus. So we were trying to visit friends and enjoy ourselves and I couldn't put anything into my stomach. Great. It was great to see everyone but by that night I was up every hour completely sick. Maddy wasn't faring much better. We took our time getting ready to leave and had a very long drive back to Arizona. Halfway back, Maddy decided that she was sick of her carseat and wanted out. Now. Permanently. We managed to get to the west side of Phoenix before she was completely done. So, we spent an hour walking around a Walmart trying to convince her that getting back into her carseat was a good thing because then we could get her home. She didn't believe us. She cried herself to sleep. We were SO glad to get home.

Since our trip, we've been busy recovering from our virus. Maddy is in the beginning stages of teething and so has been running mild fevers off and on. Every day she gets bigger and more interesting. Her favorite thing in the whole world is to blow raspberries. Often. All day. With a lot of spit. I can't tell you how often I look at the kid and she has spit all over her forehead from enthusiastic raspberries. I'll be in the next room getting something and all I hear is one raspberry after another. Usually followed by a squeal of glee. She's a happy, charming baby who loves to flirt with other boy babies. Daddy's in trouble.

I broke Grandpa!

My silly little girl is getting really good at grabbing things. This morning she was playing with her grandpa and noticed his glasses. She grabbed them and managed to pull them off his face. She was so surprised! Her eyes got big... then her lower lip started to come out... it started to quiver... and she let out a very sad wail. She had a look on her face like she couldn't figure out how she broke her grandpa. Oops!

Happy Halloween... a little late

First, I'm retarded and forgot to turn the pic before I uploaded and I'm too lazy to do anything about it now.

Second, happy Halloween a few days late. Life with my 3 month old has been crazy lately. Every time I turn around she's doing something new and I have no time to look away. Halloween for us was pretty low key. Maddy was a monkey (not a bear like it might look in the picture!). We went to visit daddy at work and hung out at home. Our trick or treating consisted of walking across the street to visit our neighbors and then coming back to the house. Luke's sister and brother-in-law and nephew came over and we took pictures of the babies together. You can see nephew's head (the silver thing) in the corner of the picture. The babies had no idea what was going on though many of our trick or treaters got a big kick out of Maddy helping me answer the door and hand out candy.

Maddy is changing all the time. Here are the things that she is doing now that she wasn't two weeks ago. First, Maddy learned how to roll over. She did this accidentally when we were in Chicago, but didn't really get consistent about it until the last few days or so. She's gotten so into it at this point that I put her down for a nap today and a few minutes later she was crying because she got stuck on her tummy. So it starts. Maddy tries to go to sleep but rolls over instead and then cries for me to come in and flip her over. Because while she has gotten quite good at rolling from her back to her tummy, she hasn't gotten the hang of rolling from her tummy to her back.

Second thing she's learned: Maddy has really started to laugh. Now this just melts our hearts. One day she was laughing at airplanes on the TV, making her daddy proud. And, a sure fire way to get her to laugh currently is to take her by the dog. She loves when we tell Bubba, "bang!" which is his cue to roll onto his back. The combo of the words "Bubba" and "bang" are an absolute riot to her. Every time we say it, she laughs. So of course, we have said this over and over in an effort to keep the laughter coming.

And finally, Maddy has officially found her feet. She has been working on this feat (ha ha ha) for about a week. On Halloween she really figured out how to grasp those toes and shove them in her mouth. It's amazing how adorable it can be to watch a child grab her toes and suck on them. She can now totally entertain herself for quite a while which really helps when I'm trying to get things done around the house. It also makes diaper changes much more difficult since that is prime toe grabbing time.

She's changing so much lately. Who knows what will happen next!

How you doin?

As all of you know, Luke and I welcomed a baby girl into our lives on Sunday, July 22, 2007. As a biased parent, I can tell you that she is absolutely beautiful and is the new love of our lives. It's amazing to me because I can't believe that her two month birthday is only a few days away but at the same time it feels like she has been here forever. Every day she changes and grows. It's amazing to watch her develop. She has gone from wide eyes that take everything in (when she wasn't sleeping) to recognizing faces and lighting up when you lean in to give her a kiss. She loves to coo at us to tell us about her day and she has a butterfly that lights up and sings that she loves to smack so that it will work. She's figured out that she can reach up to hit said butterfly and then put her hands down on her tummy to wait for it to finish. And when her arms are tired, she's figured out that she can kick the crap out of the poor butterfly too. I love to watch her learn new things and check out her environment and I can't wait for each new thing to be discovered.

As for Luke and I, we are doing great. Luke is getting ready to be transfered to the airport which will mean longer, crazier hours but will allow some days off when he wouldn't normally get them. It will be great to have him home during the week at times but it will really suck not to have him home on the weekends. At least this new assignment will only be for 4 months. I am staying at home with Maddy and enjoying every minute of it. I'm getting to set up more and more playdates and do some really fun things with the baby. It's hard feeling more one dimensional, but I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Welcome

Welcome to our new blog! I've created this blog because it's so hard to keep up with all the people that we know and love. And, something about having a new baby has made me want to keep up with everyone even more. I want to share our milestones and what is going on with us more regularly. Hopefully, I can keep up with it and you'll enjoy finding out what is going on with us!