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Finally time to Update

So sorry to all those Grandpas and Grandmas who keep checking' the blog to see if I have updated....!! We have been so busy since the 4th of July. I finally had a chance to sit down for a second and update. I'll try to remember all the fun things we've done in the last couple of weeks. Maddox now has 2 teeth. Last week or so she started getting' very needy again like she was while she was getting the first tooth...and low and behold I saw the second one coming in. They are right next to each other. There is one picture I posted where you can just see them a bit. Neither one of them is up all the way.....but they're there, both on the bottom. Luckily she just got a little needy but kept on sleeping well.(unlike the first tooth experience). She's still doing the 7PM to 6 or 7AM schedule....thank you Maddox!! She is really eating well right now. We have tried to progress her to more of a breakfast, lunch, dinner schedule. I feed her from me in the AM, when she wakes up. Then she has breakfast a short while later which consists of cereal and 2 to 3 other kids of baby food. Her favorites continue to be peas and prunes. Then she has a good morning nap about 2 hours.When she wakes up she has a small bottle of breast milk, 5oz or so. Then it is time for lunch, the same again, cereal and baby food. Then she sleeps again, another 2 hours or so then when she wakes up I feed her from me ( this is usually about the time that I pick her up from Kim's too which works out well). Then it's bath time, her favorite! Then supper consisting of the same ol' cereal and baby food. Then one last big bottle, usually 6 oz, that Dad gives her. So when I read that to myself, it doesn't sound much like breakfast, lunch, and dinner.....still sounds like a lot of eating. But, in reality it is with a couple of little breast milk snacks. We went to Dr. Anderson on Friday for her wellness check up. She is up to 17lbs 5 ounces and is 28 1/4 inches long. She is still in the 25th percentile for both weight and height but Dr. Anderson isn't worried and says she is still just going to be petite and he is quite alright with that. He said we could start her on yogurt and cottage cheese ( whole milk variety) because I told him my milk supply was starting to dwindle and I didn't think we'd have enough stored up in the freezer to make it until her first birthday. So he said to go ahead and see how she does with the yogurt and cottage cheese and if she doesn't have any issues with the whole milk then if I run out of breast milk ( from me AND the freezer) before she is one year to just go ahead and switch her to the whole milk from the bottle, instead of trying to transition to forumla for a short time and then to whole milk after she is 1. So far we have just added a little yogurt to her meals. The whole milk baby variety of yogurt is very tangy!! But, she seems to like it. We didn't get any shots this time around at the Dr but at her yearly appointment look out Maddox, I think we get maybe 3 or 4. She is crawlin' like crazy. I try to sort of trap her in the living room, as you can seem from the pictures, when I want to try to get something done in the kitchen. But, she figures out how to wriggle her way through tight spaces.....! You can see I tried to use the ottoman one day to trap her in, but she figured a way out after a bit of fussin'. Cousin Hannah came over to visit yesterday. She hasn't seen Maddox since Great Grandma Berg's 90th birthday party in October! Boy, has she changed. Maddox loved a new person to play with. Grammy Marti, Hannah, Maddox, and I went out for lunch to Panera. Maddox had a few small bits of the bread from my sandwhich. She is getting MUCH better tolerating different textures and using her tongue to maneuver food in her mouth. So anything that is sort of soft and dissolvable, within reason, we let her try. She loves the puffs now...and shovels them into her mouth double handed. She has really taken' a likin' to books. She'll sit in the corner by that bookshelf in the AM for almost 25 minutes just lookin' at the pictures, turnin' the pages and talkin' to the characters. She loves to turn the pages...and YES....that is a picture of Dad and Maddox watchin' 'THE WHEEL'. She loves Wheel of Fortune. I know....we're terrible parents lettin' her watch TV....but I figure it is somewhat educational and it is really hilarious watchin' her watch it. She loves the colors and especially the sounds. She can be in the kitchen and if Eric turns it on she hears that little.....chime to start the round and she takes off for the living room. We had a baby shower here for one of my running friends a couple of weekends ago. She discovered the balloons that I used for decorating and really went to town playin' with them. We really need to get her a ball....balloons are not the safest thing for her to play with, but she really has a ball holdin' onto the end of it and wavin' it in the air, bouncin' it into things. WOW....this is getting long...sorry! So much to say. I have to stay on the band wagon and keep you all updated every week or I get behind. Enjoy the pictures and the video. Maddox and Dad are flyin' solo this weekend. I'm headed to North Carolina to have a girls weekend with my college friends. I got a feelin' Maddox is going to be one spoiled baby when I get back.

Celebrating the 4th in Keokuk

Maddox, Eric and I spent the 4th of July down in Keokuk with Eric's family. As you can see from the pictures Maddox had a blast of a time. We were down
not only for the 4th, but to celebrate our nephew Brandon's graduation from Cornell College. Way to go Brandon and best of luck with med school. Maddox was great. She slept on the way down, ate well and slept well again in the hotel. I even got to watch the Keokuk fireworks out the hotel window....Maddox didn't make a peep through all the booms and the bangs. She loved hanging out with her cousins, who entertained her all Sunday morning...or well maybe she entertained them. You can see from her red knees she has definitely been on the move. Even just today Eric and I commented on how much faster she is getting. She follows us around the house now and is quick to get into anything you leave down on the ground....for example she was quick to 'attack' the cup of coffee I left on the floor last week. Luckily I use a lot of cream so it sort of blended right into the carpet. Sure it won't be the first thing to dirty the carpet in the coming future. Totally slipped my mind that she would be able to TRAVEL to the intriguing cup that I left there. She isn't as lightening fast as that boy at story time last week...but it won't be long. She is getting more and more coordinated by the minute. Still no more teeth, but the one that she does have is comin' up through a bit more, but slowly. Hope everyone had a nice fourth....!! Thanks Kies family for a great holiday weekend. It was nice to see everyone.