Mady turns one!

So we come full circle--back to January, the month when our baby girl was born just one short year ago. Mady celebrated her birthday with the student staff (see video below) and enjoyed smashing her cupcake. She also had her one-year check-up. She weighed in at 20.06 lbs. (33 percentile for her age and sex). She got to stand on the big scale this time rather than stripping down and laying on the infant scale. And she measured 30.6 inches for her height (91 percentile for her age and sex). So oddly enough, she is still tall for her age, and of course, a skinny little thing.

Since her check-up, Mady has been battling her first cold--possibly something she picked up at the doctor's office. Symptoms? Off-and-on fever, runny nose, and unsatiable desire to be held by her mother, and only her mother. And of course, Mady couldn't just keep the bug to herself; she had to share. So all of us are sick but hope to be better soon.

Mady had her first temper tantrum on her birthday--she decided to throw a fit because she wouldn't let Carrie help her brush her teeth. She wanted to do it herself, which really means gnawing on the wrong end of the toothbrush. Carrie and I were completely caught off guard by her meltdown but became instantly motivated to start thinking about discipline and how we might go about it in the future. I'm sure there's a ton of advice out there but we'll figure it out with practice and patience.

Mady has learned to do a lot of things recently--it's just so amazing to see her grow and develop everyday. She can drink from a straw, which means she gets to enjoy smoothies. She can hold her own sippy cup when she drinks her milk. And she transitioned to cow's milk with no problem at all. She can put quarters in her piggy bank and some of her shapes in her shape sorter (well, okay, only the circle, but we're working on the others.) She's also very good at giving us high-fives. Mady has also learned to put her hands together when she prays, clap her hands along with certain songs, and jump, well, sort of (see videos below).

So that about wraps up our year together. I enjoyed sharing our daughter's life with you, and I hope you enjoyed coming along for the ride. It's been fun! We love you all!

Baby's first Christmas

Our year ended with a major road trip of the entire midwest. We took two weeks and drove 2000 miles through Indiana, Iowa, and Kansas to visit friends and family for the holidays. Mady handled all of the travelling beautifully. She took all of her naps in the car and wasn't too fussy when she was awake. We also managed to avoid all of the storms on days that we were driving, but we kept a very close watch on the Weather Channel to make sure of that. We did hit some bad road conditions as we entered Kansas, but that was for a pretty short stretch.

The first stop of our trip was to Lafayette, Indiana, where we visited with Matt and Sarah (and Shadow and Rubles) for a couple of days. It was nice to see our friends again. We discovered that a laser pointer is just a intriguing for a baby as it is for cat. Actually, Shadow has become pretty bored with the little red light, but Mady was determined to catch it.

Our next stop was in Dubuque, Iowa. Our friends Jen and Tim and their daughter Samantha recently moved there and bought a new house. Mady and Sam had fun playing with each other. Actually, they still mostly just ignored each other but it is still fun for us to get them together. Sam had her first birthday on 12/29. Sam is the nicest, most even tempered baby we've ever met. We think Mady could learn a lot from her. We got a lot of snow in Dubuque, but the roads were pretty clear, so we were still able to make it to Cedar Falls on the 22nd to see my family.

We were in Cedar Falls for two days to visit Allen and Amber and Monica and Wes. My parents were also in town so we were able to have a nice family gathering at Monica and Wes' place. It was nice to visit with all of them again since Mady hadn't seen her aunts and uncles since Steve and Krista's wedding in June. When we visited Allen and Amber's place Mady got to play with four big dogs. By "play" I mean almost get trampled by. They were all actually very gentle with her. There was just a lot of them. And they are big, real big. The weather started to get a little dicey while we were in Iowa, so we thought that we would have to stay in town longer than we had planned, but there was a window of opportunity to drive to Kansas on the morning of the 24th, and we nearly got there before the storm hit.

Christmas and New Year's were spent in Topeka, Kansas with Carrie's parents. Her Grandma and brother Brian were also there and got to meet Mady for the first time. Carrie and Mady got to take a four generation picture with the Grannies. There was lots of snow on the ground so uncle Brian took Mady out on a sled in the front yard. We all went to church as a family on Christmas despite the really nasty roads (in fact, we were the only ones there except for the Pastor and his family). We also celebrated Carrie's birthday and Mady's birthday a bit early. Mady got to dig into her birthday cake, which she really seemed to enjoy.

All in all, it was a really nice trip and we feel very blessed that we were able to spend time with people we care about. After all the traveling, it is also very nice to be home now so we can settle back into our routine.

11 months

In one short month, Madelyn Joy will be one year old. Everyone warned me that this would happen, but I am still shocked by how quickly this year has flown by. I can't even keep track of how many times I heard people caution me to enjoy every moment because they go by quickly. I have enjoyed every moment, and I've tried very hard not to take anything for granted. But the year still flew by.

She is now pretty comfortable walking and already prefers it to crawling. Just recently she has discovered how to stand up all by herself without using a wall or a piece of furniture or a parent to pull herself up. She also has tooths number 5 and 6 coming in on top. She has also figured out a few words. Her first words are "all done." This is what we tell her when she is finished eating, and she has started using them herself to tell us when she is finished. What she actually says is "ahh dahh" but it is very clear to us what she means.

Turkey Day!

Mady has had some exciting travels recently. We spent Thanksgiving in Wisconsin with Grandma and Grandpa Beyer. Uncle Steve and Aunt Krista were also able to join us. Mady was excited to visit family again. Naturally she received lots of attention from her Grandma and Aunt. The dogs were also very interested in the baby when we first arrived, but once they got to sniff her a bit the decided that she wasn't a chew toy, so they didn't pay much attention to her after that. They certainly appreciated having her around during the meals because she specializes in moving food from the table to the floor. Mady got some fun books and bath toys and from her aunt and uncle. She also got a little Mady-sized chair from her grandparents. Her new favorite game is to hide her face in the chair (where butt is supposed to go) while Mommy and Daddy pretend that she is missing, then we all act surprised when she pops up and laughs at us with her new strange raspy laugh. The weather was a bit chilly, but we got to go on a few walks in nearby parks, which was really nice. We let Mady walk around a bit with her shoes on, but she isn't quite used to them yet.

We spent the previous weekend in Cleveland because my cousin Tim was getting married. We stayed with Steven and Krista. Except for the part where Madelyn decided that she didnt' want to sleep at all that night (and the part where Michigan lost to OSU for the 6th year in a row), we had a good visit. It was nice to be able to get away from Ann Arbor for a while and spend time with family.

First Steps

I literally was out for 45 minutes to get the car washed and when I came back home Mady was walking. She has been working on this for about a week, but she hasn't taken more than a couple steps without falling, and that usually required a lot of encouragement from us. She just had to develop a little confidence. Before we put her to bed tonight, she was walking down the hall and across the living room without any help at all.

Double Digits

Mady just had a big birthday. She is 10 months old now and there is no going back. Grandpa B was with us for the last week to keep an eye on Mady while we worked. He cooked up some really nice meals for us while he was here. Carrie's class is coming to an end, so we are on our own again now. We were very blessed to be able to have all of our parents come spend time with us. Mady really enjoyed all the time with her grandparents as well. The old folks even seemed to have a good time with the little squirt.

In addition to getting older, Mady has had some exciting developments recently. She has been standing for short periods of time without support. On her birthday, she took her first 3 tottering steps by herself. She definitley prefers to just drop down and crawl, but if she is standing and is close enough to her target, she may take a step or two towards it. With rolling and crawling it worked the same way. She moved very cautiously at first, but after a week or so of practice, she was a pro. Hopefully this time it will take more than a week before she starts running circles around us...

She has also started using sign language back to us. So far she has signed the word 'milk.' It is just an opening and closing motion with her fist, but she does it now when we offer her milk. Soon she will probably start using it to tell us that she wants milk. We are also teaching her water, eat, ball, and all done.


The final exciting development is that her top two teeth have started coming in. It looks like she got her daddy's gap, at least with her baby teeth. Maybe she will have braces in her future. So far, the only qualities that I can tell that I've given her are gapped teeth and wet sneezes. As long as she doesn't get my hairy chest, I think she'll be ok... :)

We've uploaded more pictures to the October and November Picasa albums.

Giggley Girl