Maddox Travels to Denver

Maddox experienced her first plane ride last week. We traveled out to Denver to visit Uncle Tyler and Aunt Brooke while Eric was at a financial planning conference in Estes Park, CO.

Unfortunately for Eric, we got to do a lot of 'playin' while he was working up in the mountains. Maddox and I went to Washington Park with Aunt Brooke and Uncle Tyler. We went to the Denver Aquarium with Uncle Tyler and had a nice dinner with my 'Aunt' Kelly and Chuck. We also went to my second cousin Emily's high school graduation in Boulder, CO. Steve Ells, the founder of the restaurant Chipotle, was the guest speaker at the graduation!! Maddox really liked the aquarium. She could really pick out the fish that moved a lot and was intrigued by the small, colorful, quick moving fish. But, actually her favorite thing was a bird!! YEP, a bird at the aquarium. ( There were actually fake orangutans and a real tiger at this AQUARIUM too....hmmmmm???) There was this big white bird with a black head and bright yellow beak that was giving himself a bath in one of the exhibits. It was right at eye level for Maddox and she loved it. You can see her smilin' at it in the pictures. She was great on the plane traveling out...took her bottle, played, slept....a really great traveler. But, that wasn't the case comin' home. I think we made a lot of enemies on the plane from Denver to Moline. She cried A LOT and extremely loud, or what seemed to be extremely loud to us. Turns out she had an ear infection! We took her to the doctor the next day and she gave her antibiotics for the infection and informed us she was probably in A LOT of pain on the plane the day before. Poor thing.! But, she's doing better now. One of these days she is going to sprout a tooth. She is really gummin' everything we are giving her and we had a breakthrough today. She was able to pick up one of the small puff snacks and get it in her mouth!!....and she liked it. She has finally figured out how to move her tongue around and chew small things. A whole new world awaits us now Maddox! She is SO close to crawling. She can get herself into the all 4's position so easily now...it is just a matter of time before she figures out how to advance her arms and legs in a forward coordinated motion. AND YES...that is Uncle Tyler changing a diaper!! We have it on camera now Tyler, you CAN do it!!

Maddox goes to the Park

We took Maddox to the park for the first time on Sunday, in between the rain drops. There are a couple of parks close to our house with baby swings. She is still a little small but we filled in the gaps with a blankie. She LOVED it. Her little eyes got as big as half dollars the first time we pushed her. Her expressions are pretty funny in the pictures, and considering she was moving, they turned out well. I'm hoping to take her back again today. The sun is finally shining! The picture of her in the polka dotted stroller is at the farmer's market. It wasn't sunny but we trekked to downtown Davenport for a homemade muffin. She had a good time lookin' at all the people...and the dogs! There were tons of dogs down there Saturday...just the right height for her to look eye to eye with them. We picked up some flowers for the outside of the house...a couple of hangin' baskets and some pots. I have to say I cheated this year though. I bought the 'already put together pots'. I would much rather spend time with Maddox than plant flower pots. Funny how our priorities change!! Now we just have to make time to keep 'em watered. They look nice in front of the house. We are hoppin' a plane to Colorado on Friday to visit Uncle Tyler and Aunt Brooke while Eric attends a conference in Estes Park. We're looking forward to it...well I am gettin' a little anxious taking her on the plane. But, she'll do fine I"m sure. It will be her mother that has the anxiety attack on take-off. Luckily Eric is a cool, calm, and collected traveler and will be able to keep us all happy!

Crawl Maddox Crawl

Well not really!! I'm not quite ready for you to crawl yet Maddox! At least not until after our flight to Denver next week. Something tells me a LESS mobile baby is the way to fly rather than with one that wants to crawl down the aisle! She is getting herself into this position sometimes. She is able to pull her legs under her but isn't always able to press her torso up...I have to admit I posed her a bit for this picture but she actually did it by herself for Eric last night, so I know we aren't too far away. Eric said she got up on all fours but then wasn't sure what to do and then fell back down. We still haven't done a thing to baby proof our house so I'm quite happy with her remaining non-mobile for a little while longer. We just finished up some carrots earlier ( the other pictures) and now she is out for a late afternoon nap. She slept almost 3hours this AM so this will just be a cat nap, and then it'll be on to her 'get ready for bed' routine. She has been getting tired early. She starts rubbin' her eyes usually around 6pm, but a lot of times that isn't long after I have gotten home, or more often, Eric getting home from work so we usually try to stretch her out till 6.45 or so before we start the bottle so we can have some family time. But once she starts the last bottle she is down for the count usually sound asleep by 7.30 or so and not a peep until 6 or 7 in the AM. Today it was 6:30 yesterday it was after 7. We're hoping to go to the farmer's market this weekend, first time since she was about a month old. She'll be a little more interactive this time I suspect. Hopefully this cold rainy weather will clear out soon. Take care!

Smile Maddox

Thought we would share some of our smiley pictures with you. This is one morning before taking her to the sitter this past week. She is such a happy baby!! She looks so grown up in this outfit and I got her some new sandals that I swear make her little clothes look even cuter! Hopefully you're able to open the videos below. We tried some real food last night and she didn't really take a likin' to it as you can see from the video. We tried to give her some 'puffs'.....which are basically like the non-marshmallow part of the cereal lucky charms....only they are blueberry flavored and supposed to be whole grain. She could pick it up, but she couldn't really figure out how to let go of it in her mouth. I think she knew it was food but got frustrated because she wasn't coordinated enough to eat it. Although I ended up just putting it on her tongue and she pretty much gave us the 'what the heck is this look?'.She ended up swallowing it, but it took some effort and her little eyes started watering. Poor thing!! So I don't think she is quite ready for table food yet. We'll try again in another month or so. She is happy to just keep chowin' down the baby food and cereal though. She really still loves her veggies more than the fruits...... Her favorites seem to be peas and green beans and she doesn't like apples really much at all, but will tolerate them. We were hoping to go to the farmer's market and to plant some flowers this weekend for Mother's Day but BRRRR it is too cold. We'll have to wait until next weekend. Happy Mother's Day to all you Mom's. This day has much greater meaning to me now!!