A New Tooth!

We discovered today that Maddie has a third tooth coming in (it is not all the way through yet, but you can see it)! It is an upper middle tooth. As much as she has been chewing on her hands and toys lately, she may have more coming. We will keep you posted. Maddie had her picture taken again today. Since we were not completely happy with the JCPenney experience and had cute outfits that we wanted her picture taken in, we took Maddie to a local photographer. Joey and Lori referred us to this photographer. She was great! She spent an hour with us, and I think she got some great pictures. We should get the proofs back in about one week. We will be getting a CD of the pictures eventually, and we will post some of the pictures on the blog. Stay tuned! I will end this post with two cute pictures of Maddie that we took today. She is not smiling in them, but they are still cute. I guess she was all smiled-out after the trip to the photographer!

Tickle Me Maddie

Presley's 5th Birthday!

Our youngest dog Presley had a birthday on April 18th. He is now 5 years old. We had a party for him this weekend. He and Bailey had canned food and frosty paws (dog ice cream). They both really enjoyed the new toys. They played tug-of-war with some of them. Some of the toys did not last very long, but that is expected with them.

The Birthday Dog!

Tug-of-War

Old man Bailey resting after the party

Family Visit

This weekend Doug's Mom & Dad and Grandma came to visit us. We had a nice visit, and they got to see Maddie crawl. She has been crawling a lot lately and has gotten very good at it (she crawls longer distances now). There is just not enough of Maddie to go around for everybody.

Maddie's Nursery

We decided to post some pictures of Maddie's room for those of you who haven't been able to visit us and want to know what the nursery looks like. It won't be long until she moves out of this room and into her permanent bedroom.

These are the shelves that Doug made for Maddie!

This is the clock Grandpa Smith made for Maddie!

Earthquake This Morning

If you did not feel it yourselves, I am sure you heard that we had an earthquake this morning. It measured 5.2 and the epicenter "was 7 miles from West Salem, IL and 41 miles north northwest of Evansville, IN" (according to wanetv.com). I heard a loud noise coming from our bathroom a little after 5:30 am. I was freaked out, so I woke Doug up. He got up, went into the bathroom, and said, "It's hail!" (he wasn't quite awake yet, and it sounded like hail hitting the windows to him). By that time, I could feel the ground shaking. I said, "Hail??? No, the ground is shaking!" I was still in bed, and the bed was really shaking. The sound we heard had been the mirror and possibly the shower doors in the bathroom shaking. Afterwards, I quickly turned on the tv in our bedroom. The morning news was on, and they said we had a tremor that was being looked into. Then, around 11 am, I got up to feed Maddie. I was sitting in the rocker feeding her, when I noticed the pictures on her wall beside me shaking. When she was done eating, I checked wanetv.com and they said there was an aftershock around ll am. I remember learning in middle school that we live along a fault line. My 7th grade year, it was believed that we might have an earthquake, so we had earthquake drills at school. Of course, we never had one, and I have not thought about it since then. I hope we never see a large earthquake like the ones they had in California!

Maddie Playing on the Floor

Maddie & Bailey

Maddie is 8 months old!

As of April 9th, Maddie is now 8 months old! Time goes by so fast! Maddie is sitting up by herself constantly (which makes it hard to change her diaper!). She is still not crawling much, but she is trying. She still gets where she wants to go -- by rolling, scooting, etc. Maddie has been eating Yo Baby fruit & cereal yogurt for a few weeks now. She loves it! I [Kris] have tried it, and it IS good! I started giving her meats on Thursday. We started with turkey. She ate only two bites and gagged horribly with each bite. I don't blame her because the meats smell absolutely disgusting!!! The next night I tried giving her ham. This time, she ate three bites and gagged with each bite. Even though the plain meats have A LOT more nutritional value than the "dinners", I gave in and bought some of the dinners on Saturday. At work as a dietitian, I always told clients to keep offering their infants the plain meats and to try to stay away from the dinners. That was before I opened the first jar of the plain meats and felt sick to my stomach! Anyway, we tried a "chicken & apples" dinner on Saturday and Sunday. Maddie loved it. I think she will like most of the dinners (flavors like "chicken & broccoli", " sweet potatoes & turkey", etc.). She will eat any vegetable with the exceptions of green beans and peas. She will eat "mixed vegetables", however, which consists of carrots, green beans, and peas. Maddie likes all fruits (surprisingly, prunes seem to be her favorite). Well, the next step is finger foods. We will probably start those next month. I will keep you posted. I will leave you with a cute picture of Maddie "just chilling" in her bouncy seat. This will probably be the last picture we take of her in the bouncy seat because she is getting too big for it. Enjoy!

A Trip to the Photographer

These are Maddie's 6 month pictures that were actually taken at 7 1/2 months. We had them taken later than we wanted because we have been searching for a photographer who does good work, is reasonably priced, and is close to home. This is very difficult to find. We had Maddie's 3 month pictures taken at Celebrity Kids. They did excellent work, but they are a little pricey. We did not see the need to spend that much again considering we are having her picture taken every 3 months for the first year. We found some coupons for JCPenny that offered a great deal, so we thought we might as well give them a shot. Big mistake! The girl suggested over the phone (when we made the appointment) that we put Maddie in a diaper cover and use a floral background. We brought our own diaper cover and told her to go ahead and take some pictures like that. We were not aware that she was going to take a bunch of pictures of her in the diaper cover and almost none of her in her outfit! The photo session only lasted about 15 minutes, however, we were there for 3 hours waiting to view the proofs. There must have been 20 people crammed in a waiting area the size of our bathroom, and it must have been 90 degrees in there! The pictures turned out pretty good though. Even so, we most likely will not be going back. Joey & Lori told us about a photographer who is supposed to be very good with kids and have reasonable rates. This photographer is located on the other side of Fort Wayne, but we may be giving her a call. Maddie did very well posing for the camera. She smiles all of the time, so we figured this would not be a problem. She behaved perfectly and looked right at the camera. We hope she continues to act this way during future photo sessions.

Taking Advantage of the Warmer Weather

On Sunday, the weather was in the 60's, so we decided to take a family stroll around the neighborhood. Kris pushed Maddie in the stroller and Doug walked both dogs (because Kris only weighs 10 pounds more than Bailey, and he pulls her anywhere he wants to go). Everyone enjoyed themselves and the nice weather. We know Bailey especially enjoyed himself, seeing that he peed on everything in sight. Even when he ran out, he would lift his leg and go through the motion. Maddie seemed to enjoy the scenery, as she was looking around and laughing. It is fun to watch her because everything in the world is new to her.

First Night In Her Crib

Madeline slept in her crib for the first time last night. She did very well. We were worried she would get upset when she woke up in the morning in her room by herself. However, this was not the case. We both woke up at the same time when we heard her on the monitor. Kris got up to check on her and Maddie was just laying in her crib talking to herself. We have been very fortunate with her and her sleeping habits. For the first few months, it was tough because she wasn't supposed to go any more than four hours without nursing. However, around four months old, she started eating cereal and sleeping through the night. She fights going to sleep, but once she is out, she is out for the night.
When we first brought Maddie home, she slept in a bassinet. She HATED it (probably because she felt too confined). So, she has slept in a pack 'n play ever since. We knew it was time to take her out of the pack 'n play and put her in the crib earlier this week. Kris woke me up and said, "Look at her!" When I looked, Maddie was on her knees with both hands on the edge of her pack 'n play looking at us with a huge smile on her face. Kris said, "I think it's time we put her in her crib."

Green Veggies

Maddie is a lot like her daddy in that she does not like her green vegetables (still). We got a few pictures of her making her "yuck" faces.

Good thing she has a dog like Presley who is there to pick up any food that she drops (see picture below)! Just kidding - I am not sure what Presley is doing in this picture. Maddie does not drop any food yet, but when she starts eating finger foods, Presley and Bailey will definitely be there to pick up anything she drops!

"Yummy!"

What A Big Girl!

Since Maddie has been sitting up, getting up on all fours, rolling around, and attempting to crawl lately, we removed the bassinet part of her pack 'n play (the one downstairs). She is still sleeping in the bassinet part of the pack 'n play in our room. However, she will be sleeping in her crib in her own room any day now (after we get a special mesh crib bumper)! Also, we no longer need her bath seat in the tub - she is big enough to just sit up in the tub!