Raggety Ann

Poppy and Grandma Nana sent Madelyn her first doll and Christmas present .... a raggity ann doll. It's ALMOST as big as she is .... almost, but Maddy is growing so much and so fast!! Here are some pictures to enjoy. Merry Christmas to all!

We drank a toast to innocence, we drank a toast to time.

Shout out above to Dan Folgelberg and Same Auld Lang Syne. It's funny, Jim and I heard it last week and thought it was Leader of the Band. Jim decided it was too dramatic and he couldn't like the song anymore, until I saw it was a whole separate song. I think it's the end that is too dramatic for him ..... driving away as the snow turned into rain. Hehehe, makes me giggle, like Pierce Brosnon singing in Mama Mia giggle.

Anyway, as we were coming home tonight from Christmas Eve dinner, Jim drove around the block so I could hear the song. Well, I know the blog is not for funny Jim and Holly stories, but Maddy! So, I have outfits picked out for all occasions during the holidays. Here is her Christmas Eve dress and even a smile!!!

I Walk The Line

We had a busy but fun weekend with Grandpa Buz in town and turkey Linner (not lunch or dinner) at our friend Milissa's house this weekend. Andrew, Jim and Buz took Maddy to their favorite Mexican food restaurant, Hererra's on Saturday. In the spirit of the Gillentine's, and dressing Maddy cool, we put her in her Johnny Cash outfit for all the world to see.

Maddy proves, she, can walk the line.

Wiggling

It's pretty amazing how much Maddy's personality is starting to show. She is very curious and doesn't like to do the same thing for very long. Her awake period in the morning consists of walking from room to room, playing with her Baby Einstein playmat, watching lambs on the swing, and the bouncy seat. And that is in the first 40 minutes!

She kicks and wiggles alot and she likes certain toys and being talked to. She doesn't like it when I try to multi-task and do something else while playing with her! She's very opinionated about the attention she recieves!

I've cut this video down to 30 seconds but I could watch Madelyn wiggle about for hours on end!

Poppy and Grandma Nana are on a plane back to Ohio. The chaos trip was much better yesterday as my dad felt better after getting gout medication for his foot, and we had heat! Maddy already misses her Ohio grandparents and is looking forward to seeing everyone in Ohio for Easter. In the meantime, here's Poppy with his granddaughter.

It's COLD ... part two, the expensive edition.

Well, we are in the process of getting a new heater (or furnace as those of you up north call it!) It's all fun and games until you have to replace a major system in your house (make that two if you count the hot water heater a mere 10 weeks ago). We were able to stay at Andrew and Berkeley's last night so we could keep warm. It was 59 degrees in the house today, but we built a fire and figured it out. Hoping to have heat by sundown.

And, the Archbold grandparents were three hours late getting in, stuck in Atlanta AND, my dad ended up in the emergency clinic today because of his foot. It's been an interesting 48 hours to say the least. But they are enjoying Maddy, and she's been oblivious to the chaos and confusion, happily playing with her grandparents and uncle and cooing like it's 70 and balmy. At least the weather is better today!

What an adventure (probably not the word Jim would use!!).

Here's a picture of grandma Nancy bundled up and holding Miss Madelyn .... more to come tomorrow when we go to the arboretum (barring any other unplanned visits or major appliance replacements!).

It's COLD!

I can't believe how cold it got so quickly yesterday. And snow flurries, it's not like typical Dallas in December ... it's more like Ohio. And of course, in typical fashion (like the hot water heater in Sept.), our heat doesn't seem to be working. It will heat to 66, but no more. My hands are like icicles right now. They are coming to look at the heater tomorrow morning, so it's bundling up until then.

I feel bad for my dad and Nancy, who are arriving in about 3 hours to 35 degrees! We are hoping for a warm-up this week so we can take Madelyn to the Arboretum. The weather won't effect Jim and my dad's trip to see King Tut, but there are only so many places Nancy and I can shop or eat!

In the spirit of the cold, here is Maddy bundled up with her hat from Jim's friend Jennifer in Austin.

Four-week check-up

We just returned from Maddy's check-up and she is a perfectly happy and healthy baby. She's gained another pound and grew 3/4 of an inch during the past two weeks. She was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the doctor's office and happy as happy can be. The doctor went on to say what a laid back baby she is, making Jim beam with pride that her personality was taking after him. What, I'm not laid back?

Baking cookies

Last week, Maddy and I spent alot of time at my mom's while Jim was out of town. On Wednesday, we baked cookies during Maddy's afternoon nap, and then took pictures with an awake Madelyn after. Thanks to my mom, I have pumpkin chip cookies and peanut butter kiss cookies at the house for friends and family coming by through the holidays! Not only that, I was able to get some good rest and great dinner's this week with her help!

All Smiles and Other Milestones

Last weekend, Maddy gave me her first big, gummy smile when we were playing. I wasn't quite sure that's what it was, until she started smiling more and more this week, either with the sound of my voice, or some of her favorite rattles and toys. It wasn't easy, but we were able to get a "first smile" picture this week while she was playing with a stuffed pig at grandma's house.

I'm really excited about our four week check-up on Monday as Madelyn has started to plump up a bit and feel more like a baby and less like a newborn. I can't wait to see her weight gain and stats.

She's also started following toys and rattles with her eyes, and while we were playing last night, she knocked over one of her toys with her little fist and it became a 20 minute game that made her very happy.

This week has also brought a pretty consistant schedule (five days makes a schedule right???). She is happy, playing and awake for 2 - 3 hours in the morning and at least 3 hours in the evening with a long nap during the day. The latest she went to sleep this week was 1 a.m. on Monday, but since then, she's been asleep around 11 a.m. and only whimpers in her sleep every 3 - 4 hours to be fed, but not fussing or waking up or crying at all in the night. I was especially thankful for this schedule this week as I am still recovering from a nasty sinus infection.

Exercise

It's the long awaited video (at least by Jim and Andrew) of Maddy's first attempt at push-ups, as helped by her Uncle Andrew!

Night 1 of 4

Jim is in Austin this entire week and Maddy and I are trying it alone for four nights!

I am also trying to get her out of the habit of sleeping in her swing (which will net us almost five hours of sleep in a stretch!). Last night, Madelyn was awake from 9 until 1:30 a.m. and woke up about every 2.5 hours after that. Sigh, here's hoping for more sleep tonight!

The good news is she will sleep in her basket or crib! Here's a cute "sleeping in the crib" shot of Miss Madelyn.

Where's Maddy???

Now that Madelyn has lost her umbilical cord, we've had a ton of fun dressing her up in some of her many outfits she's gotten as gifts. For Thanksgiving, we put on this outfit, which has a matching blanket. It's like camoflauge and it's a cute little head with some floating hands!

Big Holiday Doings

It's been a long and fun few days for Maddy with her aunts, uncles and cousins in town for Thanksgiving. She's been a real trooper, especially since the doctor gave her (AND ME!) the go ahead to get out of the house a little more. We've been to lunch, dinner and breakfast .... as well as Thanksgiving dinner and a family portrait.

On Wednesday night, we went over to Maddy's Aunt Berkeley's for dinner. Now, on any normal day, Madelyn loves to be held, especially when sleeping. She was having none of it and promptly sacked out when we simply sat her down on the bed.

Here's a picture of us as a family on Thanksgiving (note how tired I look, the lack of sleep doesn't seem to phase Jim!) ...

Maddy's been a trooper but did finally start melting down yesterday during the family photo shoot. I'm not sure how to explain to her what a good baby she is when the family portrait only has her red faced, mouth open and wailing! We see the pictures next week, but when I got her home, I couldn't help but take a picture before I took her outfit off. It's the first time she's been in a dress.

Giving Thanks

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

It's my favorite holiday of the year. Jim and I are extraordinarily blessed and wanted to share a few things we are thankful for:

- A healthy, beautiful daughter who enriches our lives every day.
- We are both thankful for each other and a love that only grows stronger.
- Friends and family who have been so extraordinarily helpful during the past few weeks.
- Fantastic neighbors.
- Great jobs and coworkers we both enjoy.

For everyone in Ohio, we miss you and will miss seeing you this year. We can't wait until next year when Maddy can go to the woods, visit Ohio friends and family and go to the Archbold Parade of Lights. Lots of love from me, Jim and Madelyn!

Healthy Baby

No videos or photos today but I can't wait to get some during the holidays in Maddy's cute outfits. We had our two week check-up for Maddy and the doctor said she is a perfectly healthy baby. She has gained 11 ounces since her birth weight and lost her embilical cord at the doctor's office. He said it was the first time that ever happened!!! She cooed through the whole check-up until they did the screening which involved a needle in her heel. She hollered for that, but promptly stopped once she was rocked to sleep.

Dinosaurs

Before Jim and I found out we were having a girl, we started buying different outfits for the baby. One of the outfits is a little dinosaur onesie in orange and blue. It's really a baby boy's outfit, but I popped a bow in Maddy's hair and put some cute girl socks on and transformed the outfit :)

Jim loves this outfit ....

Videos

I'm not typically one for a product shoutout, but I have to say I love our video camera the Kodak Zi6. It literally took 10 minutes this morning to download our videos and cut several of them for the blog.

Maddy is spending more time awake, cooing and kicking about. We'll work on getting more of her cute moments on video over the next week or so. Here, she is awake in her crib looking pretty darn cute (if I do say so myself!).

Eyes Open!

In the last two days, Maddy has spent more and more time awake during the day. It's been alot of fun as she starts to follow rattles and toys with her eyes and make more and more squeaking noises.

The weather in Dallas is gorgeous. She loves to be outside and in her stroller, we've gone for walks everyday this week. I'm sad that a cold front is moving in and it looks to be in the 50s for some time to come. I've come to love our afternoon walks!

Jim left yesterday for his first overnight trip to Austin. My mom and Aunt Berkeley helped out yesterday and last night with Madelyn. She did very well, I got to nap and sleep (my new reoccuring theme -- how much can I sleep in a day!), but she very much misses her daddy. Here is a cute picture of Maddy helping Daddy work from home last week.

The Dogs

Everyone has asked how Clyde and Lulu have adjusted to having baby Madelyn at home. Lulu is like a protective mom and was gentle and excited to see her from the moment we walked in the door. Clyde, on the other hand, peed all over the carpet when we came in and promptly ignored the baby for about 48 hours.

He's come around though ... he even played with her a bit last night with Jim on the floor. We think he'll really come to love her when she starts dropping food for him!

Hello friends and family. It's day 5 and things are going well for us. Jim stayed up with Maddy last night so I was able to get more than five hours of sleep. Jim is napping now and Maddy is sleeping in her new baby swing.

I've included a link below to Maddy's official baby pictures from the hospital. We ordered prints that arrived todayfor friends and family :) .

I'm hoping to download some cute video snippets of Maddy in the next few days and we want to capture more pictures of her when she's awake!

http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/hospitals/Baylor/babypage_view.asp?URLid=4013929464