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

Mad-y-lantern

Mady spent the last week visiting with her Grandma Beyer. Grandma was very excited to be here. She didn't even bother unloading or taking off her coat before she got on the floor to play with Mady. I think she stayed there most of the time she was here. She didn't talk to us much... but it was nice to have her with us. Mady had lots of fun. Carrie and I got to take another date night. I'm not sure if Grandma even noticed that we were gone... Just kidding Mom!

We took some nice walks together and visited a local nature area. We also carved a pumpkin to commemorate Mady's first Halloween. Mady even helped out a bit. Do you recognize the face on the pumpkin?

Madelyn is becoming very expressive. She likes to babble and experiement with new noises. She also is experimenting with standing more and more.

This week Grandpa B. is in town to spend some time with us. All the grandparents have definitely been spoiling us with good food while they have been here. Next week we'll be back to cafeteria food again.