Getting Bigger

Maddie is getting bigger and bigger and braver and braver every day. This week we went to the carnival at Mike's parents' church. There was a ride that I thought Maddie would like and I expected Mike to ride with her on it...well i didn't realize that there were strict height requirements, such as no one over 48" could ride and no one under 30" would be allowed on. Well Madison is over 30", so on she went. I was expecting her to be okay for the first minute or two, but after realizing she was by herself would get upset. Not my girl. She was very serious and held onto the strap, but never got upset. Of course our camera had no batteries in it so we couldn't take pictures, so we decided to go back tonight (after making sure we had charged batteries LOL).

This is her "I Like The Ride" Face LOL

Also my parents had Maddie for the night last night so we took advantage of that and decided we would try and convert Madison's crib into a toddler bed! Usually she climbs on her little stool and grabs onto the crib bars when she is ready for a nap, so I thought we would see if she would enjoy the freedom of being able to get in (and unfortunately out of) her own bed. Tonight is the first night and so far she's been okay. Hopefully she will be okay when she wakes up in the morning! As you can see from the picture she was tuckered out from the carnival, so we just let her sleep in her dress!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Aidan!

Today is your Birthday,and like many more
We will always love you ,even more than before.
We can't buy you new clothes,or buy you new toys:
We can't give to you anymore new joys.
We can't hold your hand and say I Love You!
We can't hold your hand and tell you why the sky is blue.
You are not here with us anymore,
for you have went thru that other door.
When God took you from us and chose you for him,
We thought our world would come to an end.
It almost did and we felt incomplete.
Then God gave to us some tiny new feet,
When we hear her pitter-patter,
We think of you always and we know that life matters.
We can't hold you in our arms and give you hugs and kisses;
We can only hold the memories of the days that we've been missing.
We can hold the memories of how you were so brave,
and how we played all those baby games.
We can still hear your laughter although it's years after.
We will meet you at this very spot, whenever we want to be with you in thought.
Today is your Birthday and now you are three,
We think of how much time has passed since you sat upon our knee.
We think of you often, atleast once a day,
We will love you forever, forever and always.

Happy Birthday to our little angel. Gone but never forgotten!

Three years ago I was getting ready to meet our little man. Our world was so full of hope. We knew the beginning of his life would be tough, but in the end he would be a "normal" little boy. He was taken far too young. There would be no "and they lived happily ever after" at the end of his fairytale. Every day with him was a gift. When Madison entered our lives a new piece of our heart was born, but a new piece of our hearts would break too. Every time Madison reaches a new milestone we realize just how much we missed out on with Aidan. Something so simple as a first tooth popping through.

This year we are planning of having a simple celebration for Aidan. We are planning on going to a street fair tomorrow and then to have a picnic lunch at a park where we can release 3 balloons to wish Aidan a happy birthday.

13 months old!

It's hard to believe that Madison turned 1 year old last month! Seriously, where did that year go?? So what is going on in Maddie's life? She is quite the character and definitely has her own opinion on things already.
1. She started walking about 3 months ago and is almost at a run now.
2. Her first word was Pop Pop, and she says Momma a lot and Da, which is good because she used to say Mike instead of Da.
3. She has 8 teeth, 4 on top and 4 on the bottom.
4. When she turned 1 year we figured it was time to cut the 2am bottle and were prepared for quite a battle for a few nights. Surprisingly, she cried for about 5-10 minutes the first night and that was it. She still wakes occasionally because of a wet diaper but for the most part she sleeps from about 7:30pm until 6:30am. We were still planning on giving her the before bed bottle, but within the first 2 nights she weaned herself from that bottle as well! I was so proud of her.
5. This week she just learned where her nose is...so if you ask her "where's your nose?" she points to it...ok it's more really pointing under her nose around her upper lip..but i figure it's close enough LOL.
Some of her favorites:
- broccoli! Maddie loves her veggies and fruit..it was so funny the other night we had tacos and out of all the food on her plate, the only thing she wanted was tomatoes!
- books! Madison LOVES to look at books. Her old favorite was Goodnight Gorilla, literally we'd read it 3 times in a row atleast twice a day. Now she is enjoying her lift the flaps and "feelie" books.
- pictures! She loves to look at pictures of people, especially if she is in the picture. If there is a picture frame in her reach she will pick it up, smile at it and kiss the picture and then carry it around for a bit.
- animals! Maddie goes crazy for dogs, cats, birds. For her birthday she got a little cow and she loves to make me say Moooooo. She also knows her moo cow...one day I asked her where her moo cow was and she scanned the room, picked it up and ran it over to me..she's a smart cookie! At our new place, we are steps away from a river and there are swans and ducks that we see every once in awhile, so we bring them bread. Madison enjoys feeding them (and herself). One day we were feeding the ducks and they started quacking at her, omg she was in heaven. I can't wait to take her to Animal Kingdom when we go in September, I forsee us going on multiple safari rides and standing for long times staring at the gorillas and tigers.
- dancing and music! Whenever Maddie hears music she starts bopping around and her face lights up.
- balloons! this obsession started on her birthday and now she has a "balloon radar". Whenever we pass a balloon, she reaches out for it and says "ah!" luckily no tantrums have resulted yet :)

Anyway, enjoy some pictures below! By the way, yes that is a potty Madison is sitting on in the last picture, no we are not actively training her...I'm just trying to get her used to the idea of sitting on the potty and what we do in the bathroom, etc. I just happened to see the pink frog potty at the store the other day and Maddie liked it, so I figured I would pick it up to be prepared. Plus it gives her something to do in the bathroom because she HAS to follow me in and so the potty keeps her out of trouble.

Fall is Here!

Fall is officially here, and what would fall be without some pumpkin picking!! We went with our besties Kristin and Jason and their 3 month old son, Ryan. It was quite an adventure finding the "perfect pumpkins" but we all left happy with our pumpkin families.

I want this pumpkin, Daddy!

Madison and Ryan relaxing in the pumpkin cart

Every day Madison surprises me more and more with her new abilities. She is eating solids 3 times a day now, her faves are sweet potatoes, peas, banana orange medley and pear strawberry banana w/granola. She used to be a super messy eater however she has gotten so much better in the last week or so and now most of the food makes it into her mouth. She has just started drinking apple juice as well so her formula intake seems to be less and less every feeding. Madison is also becoming a lot more mobile. She is able to lay on her belly and push her butt up in the air and pull herself with her arms, she is quite the little inchworm! I had video of this but somehow it got lost in the camera, I will try and video it again to show everyone.

Remember Me With Love...

October 15th is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Rememberance Day. I found this poem/letter that the Share Group mailed out to me and it struck quite a cord with me.

I have taught you about love in a way nothing else possibly could. Don't waste this lesson. Use the love you still possess to give to others. Comfort others who've had a loss; do it in my memory. And beside that, a little bit of me lives on in each person you touch. You have the power to make my legacy one I would be proud of.

Light a candle, buy a rose, and perform an "act of kindness". Simple things. But then, our love is so great; no rememberance could ever be large enough to show how much you love me. For true love has no boundaries.

Contemplate the many gifts I've left, and how I've affected your life in a good way. I've shown you how precious life is and have given you a greater appreciation of it. I've let you discover how strong you really are. I hope my short time here has made you discover what's really important. Has it made you a better person? I hope so!

Your faith has been tested and, hopefully, strenghtened. I hope your heart is filled with peace. Most of all, know that our love is eternal!

If you think of me today I'll be rejoicing from above to know you have remembered me!

Doctor's Appointment

Maddie had her 6 month check-up today and oh what an appointment it was! I think her doctor had 2 new assistants because they both seemed a little frazzled by 10am.
Maddie's weight height and head circumference were checked. She weighs 18lbs 3oz, she is 27 inches long and her HC was 17 1/4.
So the doctor comes in and says "let's see where she falls on the growth chart" I joked and said, "well she gained 2lbs in a month, i'm pretty sure she is off the chart at this point."(Maddie is usually in the 90th to begin with). So she says it is 15th for weight *insert wide eyes here* and I said there is NO WAY and continued with other crazy percentiles. I reinterated that there was no way that Madison could be 15th percentile for weight and the doctor agreed that there must have been a mistake somewhere...so I said to her "maybe they got entered into another little girl's chart because at first the assistant thought she was doing "Brianna's" measurements and I told her that it was Madison not Brianna and the girl was like oh ok. Sure enough the doctor looked and her assistant entered it into the wrong chart. The doctor apologized and went to get the right information. Came back a minute later and Madison is in the 89% for weight, 87% for height and 93% for HC.
So we continue with the check up and I asked her some questions about Maddie's eating habits and such. Now Maddie has been eating solids 1 time a day. She said that Madison can eat solids 3 times a day!!! I swear our pedi has some vested interest in Maddie becoming world's biggest baby or something LOL...i mean the girl gained 2lbs in a month eating just 1 time a day. But I agree with her that the more solids she eats the less bottles she will eat and hopefully will cut out the night feeds because as of right now she is eating 5 times a day, however 2 of the times are at night because she falls asleep before she can get her "bedtime bottle". The doc also thinks that she can probably move up to stage 2 foods...clearly we have been holding Maddie back lol.
Madison also got 3 vaccines and she took it like such a champ, first was an oral vaccine, then 2 shots and she didn't even cry until she started to get the bandaid :)
We also need to start calling her Madison more often. I don't mind the nickname Maddie, however she looks when someone says "Maddie" however when we call her Madison she doesn't recognize that we are talking to her, so we have to make a more conscious effort to call her Madison.

6 months old

So Madison has turned 6 months old over the weekend, where has the time gone??
Some of Madison's favorite things are:
1. smiling at random strangers (this helped big time on the flight home from Rome, because she was doing her shriek talking where she isn't upset, she is just screeching, for some of the flight,which i'm sure for some passengers wasn't so cute/funny)
2. her Rainforest Jumperoo
3. eating solids (so far she has tried carrots and sweet potatoes...today she will be trying squash, she likes the sweet potatoes more than the carrots)
4. the "Hotdog Song" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (whenever she hears it she lights up like a christmas tree)
5. anything "daredevil-ish" such as hanging upside down, being thrown from person to person, being thrown in the air.
6. Razzberries, she loves these so much she has learned to do them herself!

Some of Madison's not so favorite things are:
1. being horizontal. When she learned to roll over she never wanted to be on her back, now that she has learned to sit on her own and be held standing that's all she wants to be.
2. Uncle Dave's "elephant noise". The first time he did it she cried i think probably the hardest she has ever cried before. Now he just starts the noise and she starts to whimper.
3. Oatmeal. Ever since getting solids oatmeal is a thing of the past.


On Sunday it was so beautiful out we decided to go out to the park. Madison absolutely LOVED the swings as evidenced by the picture below


We also got Madison's 6 month/fall picture. She really liked the pumpkin ;)

Not a Food Fraidy

At one point I was concerned that Madison would only like to eat formula and we would never graduate to cereals or solids. Clearly by the following photo that is not the case anymore :)




Today is the first day that Madison ate all of her oatmeal and bananas at breakfast and 1/2 container of carrots for dinner and it was the first day she allowed us to feed her the food before the bottle. Usually she is too hungry to bother with food first. Our little girl is growing up way too fast :(

Clearly I'm a terrible updater. I need to get into the habit of writing tiny blogs a few times a week rather than wait for a lot of things to update about at once because then it just snowballs out of control!

First I want to start the update off with a sad note. Today marks Aidan's 2 year angelversary. Some days it feels like just yesterday he was in our arms and some days it feels like a lifetime ago. I recently found a quote that I love... "Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal." We have so many precious memories with Aidan, each one more special than the next.

While it is a sad day, it's also a happy day as we are leaving for Europe for 2 weeks. Aidan will be travelling with us. We have a few ideas of where we will leave him...the grand canal in venice, the vatican, etc. We will be sure to post pictures after we return.

Maddie has just turned 5 months going on 5 years....every day she surprise me more and more! Since our last update she has been baptized, went on vacation to Virginia Beach and is about to start her world travels beginning with italy. She has been sleeping through the night since she was about 3 months old, except to wake up for a midnight snack but then goes right back to bed. She is probably one of the happiest babies i've ever met...even when she was sick last week she was constantly smiling! She has started within the last month trying out cereals...just 2 days ago for the first time ever she was actually excited to eat the oatmeal and bananas, usually she would just cry after a few spoonfuls. Madison LOVES to babble and be heard, once she starts talking I think the world might need earplugs because she is going to be talking some ears off...she is definitely an opinionated little girl! For the last few months she has been rolling over from her back to her tummy and since learning this new skill has become a bona fide tummy sleeper, I used to fight it but now I just go with it...it's a lot easier and the doctor said not to worry about it because she has great head/neck control and easily rolls over. Speaking of doctors...Maddie went to the doctor on Saturday and she continues to stay in the 90th percentile for weight and height, 16lbs 3oz and 26 inches. She is up to date on all her immunizations and so far she hasn't had any reactions to them!

For a few months now Maddie has loved to stand while being held, which has now transitioned into standing holding onto furniture. I have a feeling she will completely skip crawling, however we do try and get her to do it as much as possible. Over the last week Madison has begun trying to sit up all by herself. She can hold steady for almost a minute and then starts to wobble. Just last night she sat in a high chair for dinner, I was super impressed by how well she did!

Maddie also has her first baby crush! Our friends Kristin and Jason had a baby boy on July 12th and their son Ryan is just the cutest, the first time they met that they were both awake, Maddie ate Ryan's toes...i guess that is her way of saying I love you :) LOL

Oh well, we have to leave for the airport in about an hour, so I need to wrap this up....pray for us to have a safe trip while in italy! Will post all about our european adventure after we return!

I have only a couple photos to add right now because most of them are on our SD card which is packed in the suitcase in the car already...love to all!! (Mom, I'm sure you didn't think I'd post this before we left for Italy :) )

Madison taking a snooze!

Madison at her baptism, with her Godparents, Brian and Esmeralda

Drooly Julie

so it was a nice sunny day yesterday which is a nice change since I've felt like we moved to Seattle and no one told us, so we decided to head outside and enjoy the sun and get a few cute pictures along the way.

Maddie also has been enjoying lots of tummy time and just starting to figure out that her toys are there to entertain her. We've also moved into the "if i can hold onto it, it will eventually make it's way into my mouth phase" which has quickly moved into the "lick everything i come in contact with phase". it's quite comical actually, but since it's so new i'm sure the comedy will soon wear off LOL.

This weekend is Maddie's baptism. I just found out today that it will be performed by Deacon Joe. I'm excited about this, I love Deacon Joe, and unfortunately he understands our pain all too well as he lost a baby as well. Pray for nice weather on Sunday! Oh and tomorrow is Maddie's first "professional" photo shoot. Mike is super upset about this because he feels that all the pictures he takes are a lot better than professional :) So pray that she cooperates and doesn't fall asleep or get cranky mid-way through LOL.