Maddox visits Dr. Anderson

Maddox went for her 1 year check up on Monday. She did very well despite getting 3 shots. OUCH! She weighed 19 lbs 10 ounces and was 29.5 inches long. She moved up to the 50th percentile for height but remains at the 25th for weight, which Dr. Anderson was fine with. She got her first flue shot on Monday! Funny that they give it so young now. Since this is her first one she actually has to have another one in about 4 weeks as sort of a booster I think. She tolerated the shots pretty well and didn't really have too severe of a reaction to them. She woke up about midnight that night but we gave her some tylenol and she went back down with no problem. Dr. Anderson said her upper gums looked a little swollen indicating that sometime soon she'll be getting some upper teeth...it has been a long time coming. Otherwise she is doing well. Not walking yet but very happy and getting extremely proficient at high 5's, lion roars, and showing us her tongue. She is about 50/50 on pointing to our noses, but I can't seem to get her to point to her own nose. Dr. Anderson wants us to start weaning her from the bottle, so we're headed to the store today to buy some more sippy cups...1 just isn't going to cut it anymore. I have to say I am a bit sad to give up my evening bonding time with her...giving the bottle, reading books, rocking and then putting her to bed. But, I guess we can kind of do the same with the sippy cup. They tested her hemoglobin at the visit and it was 13.1, very good, indicating her iron levels are just fine so we don't have to give her a supplement. They also tested her for lead poisoning...which we'll get the results back in a week or so. This is a standard test they do on all 1 year olds, just like the hemoglobin test. We're headed to the mall to get her 1 year pictures today. Always a fun time. This weekend we're headed to the pumpkin patch out in Long Grove Iowa.

Maddox's First Birthday

So I can't believe it but she is 1!! We had a great birthday celebration on Saturday. Thanks to all the family who made the trek up/over to celebrate with us. It was a really great day even with only 1 short nap. She has been playin' up a storm with her new toys since everyone left and yesterday she got back to her normal napping schedule. She is still pushing the giraffe backwards, loves to empty out the clear leggo container, and listens to the talking tea pot repeatedly. All the gifts were perfect! Thank you so much. Can't say she has had anymore cake since the party but I'm going to try some baked beans tonight for dinner...figure I'll be able to moosh them up and we'll try 'em. She RESUMED making the lion sound after a 24 hour hiatus. Don't know what that was all about but she's back to doing it again. Maybe she was on learning overload. Grammy was here all last week while our sitter went to Las Vegas for vacation. She was trying to teach Maddox the 'MOO' sound for the cow along with various sign language words in addition to teaching where HER and everyone else's nose is. Maybe just too much to throw at her in one week. I added on a couple non-birthday party pictures. Grammy, Maddox and I went to a new park over in Rock Island that one of my friends let me know about. It has a great water feature but that was too cold to play in so we just played on the playground equipment. It has rubber tiling on the ground underneath the equipment instead of sand or wood chips. Maddox had a BALL crawlin' all over and as a result you'll see her knees were black by the time were were ready to go. Swingin' is still her favorite. She is afraid of the slides and would rather just crawl around on the ground. I added a couple of pictures from last weeks swim lessons too. Grammy was able to man the camera while I was in the water with Maddox. She JUMPED into the pool from the side last week which was an 'upgrade' from the week before. However I am certain she was copying. The little girl next to us is 18 months old and is very BRAVE. She jumps ( from a seated position) into her Dad's arms so Maddox thought she'd try it out. I couldn't believe it. She still doesn't always kick her legs and 'scoop' her arms very well on her tummy like the teacher wants her to. I know she can do it but I think she is just on overload in the pool so far. In time I think we'll actually get to see her learn. We'll see what this week brings...!

Lions and Swim Lessons and High Fives.......OH MY!

It has been a fun couple of days. Maddox started her first swim lessons on Thursday afternoon. Luckily there are only 2 other kids/parents in the class so we got lots of attention. We learned how to get into the pool the SAFE way, tried to blow bubbles, sang a lot of songs, floated on our backs and paddled on our tummies to gather up all the plastic balls in the pool. It was a lot of fun and she slept very well that night. Maddox did well and is not at all afraid of the water. Eric and I both got into the pool with Maddox so we don't have any 'pool' pictures but the two of her in the pink hat with Eric is just after. We went ahead and brought her PJs with us and just slapped those on for easibility because her lessons are at 5.15 and by the time we get home it is quick dinner and then time for bed. We look forward to this weeks lesson. We have been working ALL weekend on 'What does a lion say'! And I'm happy to say she's mastered it...and even well enough to finally catch a video. Although lucky for digitals because there is a lot of video that didn't quite make the blog cut. We started just by showing her a picture of the lion and then added the sound shortly after. She got it pretty well! Then we had to add one more element to the weekend ( the Iowa Hawkeye game was pretty boring so we had a little extra time on our hands :)....the high five. She sort of just holds her hand out for us to hit but she still gets it nonetheless. Hopefully you can see all the videos. I know the blog can be sort of finicky when it comes to video clips. There is one more video I had to put on...although it is not the best evidence of our parenting but funny anyhow. She is now tall enough to be able to put one foot up on the steps that go to our upstairs. So far she has been pretty good about following 'NO' and gets down and then goes away from the steps. But, not tonight...and maybe it was because she had an audience....but she did not want to sit down and it became actually kind of funny, which we realize is never going to teach her anything...but we've got plenty of opportunities to be stern with her so we had to chuckle at this one. She really does not bother the steps all that much. When it is really quiet and I"m working at the kitchen sink I'll peak over at her and she is literally watching me waiting to see when I"m NOT going to be looking so she can sneak up the steps. I can totally read it all over her face. But, so far she hasn't made it up any steps at all. Although I"m sure that'll be short lived. We are trying to work on her sign language too.....so much to learn and so little time. The lions won out this weekend on the learning scale!!

Go Hawks!

Here I am again....so sorry our computer is terribly slow so my ability to get the BLOG updated has been less than frequent lately. We have been busy bees over here. Most of you got the pictures on Walgreens so you saw that we went to a picnic for The Planning Center. It was out in Orion so we took advantage of being in the 'country' and wore our Roper boots. Maddox loved the grass and even attempted to eat it several times. She crawled around and played with the big blue ball and the other 2 kids that were there, ages 3 and almost 1. We had a good time. She slept well that night with all the fresh 'country' air. Speaking of sleeping she is still a great night time sleeper and still taking usually 2 naps during the day. One is typically 1.5 to 2 hours and the other one varies, sometimes only 30 to 45 minutes. It seems lately she can go longer before she gets tired. She still only has 2 teeth on the bottom. I thought a while back that we were finally going to see another tooth, but nothing yet. She has definitely mastered cruising around the furniture and when she wants to she can crawl like a banshee! It is funny, she definitely has varying speeds depending on the time of day and her desires. Eric and I are convinced that she is saying 'hey there'. I'm sure it really isn't but it sure does sound like it. She pretty much says Dad, well it isn't quite Dad but we know what she means....but nothing lately that really sounds like Mom. She is eating really well. Her menu consists of bananas, whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce, carrots, animal crackers, gold fish crackers, green beans, acorn squash and sweet potatoes...all in their real form. We don't do too much TRUE baby food anymore. She loves to pick up her food from her high chair tray and definitely appears to be right handed. She still gets cereal mixed with formula usually 2 times per day and then 2 big bottles of formula/vitamin D milk, one in the AM and one in the PM. She is good with just the sippy cup during the day. Eric and I got the chance to go to the Hawkeye game on Saturday. We had one of my co-workers stay with Maddox. Jennifer said she was very good...an EASY baby. We think so too. Then Labor Day we went to our neighborhood block party. Maddox had a blast, there were over 100 adults and 100 kids! She had PLENTY to look at and was really good...so happy playing with the other little babies. One of our neighbors had their daughter's walker out on the sidewalk. So we had Maddox take a turn. She grabbed right onto the bar, pushed it and walked behind like she had done it 100 times over. She did really well, just needing a little assistance with steering. She loves to walk with assistance and sometimes you can coax her to just hold onto one of your hands instead of 2 but she is definitely still hesitant about one hand and her trunk control still needs a little work with only one hand. She will occasionally stand for a second or 2 by herself without holding onto anything but, this apparently scares her because she quickly sits down and then sort of cries. If you try to get her to let go of your hands while she is standing she SURE doesn't like it and sort of fusses. It doesn't seem like she is going to be the daredevil type kid. She is able to get one knee up onto the first step heading to the upstairs...only one so far because we are quick to say NO so she doesn't have the opportunity to get the other one up, but I"m sure she could. You can always tell when she is up to something, such as trying to get up the steps, it gets REALLY quiet. She has definitely mastered the art of being sneaky. I don't know which is worse sneaky or daredevil! She loves to hold onto the end table with one hand, drop toys down off the top of it, bend down and pick them up with one hand and then put them back on top of the table just to do the same trick again. She'll do this several times in row...kindafunny...great workout for her quads...up down up down. Can't believe she is going to be 1 in just a week. We gave her a taste of Eric's birthday cake a few weeks ago and she LOVED it so should be interesting to see what she does with her cake. We start swimming lessons tomorrow at the Y.