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!