One, Two, Skip a Few...

Madelynne is officially 10 months old today. A year ago I was waiting impatiently for her arrival, with a plethora of first-time mom questions and nerves, fears, and anxieties and now, we’re almost to her first birthday and I can honestly say how much I love being a mom. I sometimes look at her, completely exhausted, and wonder why I waited as long as I did to have her. BUT, on that note, I would not have it any other way.

Since I skipped month 8 and 9, she has sure grown into quite the little lady with such a flamboyant personality. She is very, very happy and is now at the point of mimicking us. She is really interested in watching others and basically copying what they do, even if it is a little delayed. For instance, when we get to the part of “shout hooray” in the If You're Happy and You Know It song, she shouts hooray about ten seconds after the other kids have done it. They all look at her, too, like she is an instant replay on a DVR, but she will soon “catch up”.

On The Move

She is crawling all over the place. She pulls herself up on every piece of furniture within her reach. She wiggles her way through small crevasses between furniture blockades. She is proud of herself for being able to take off on all fours, as fast her little self can scurry: across the deck, across the floor, down the hallway. She has also taken on standing and balancing herself, without holding onto furniture or mom or dad. She is very proud of herself for this new trick and loves the applause that comes after showing off such skill! Her other big thing is pushing her baby doll stroller through the house, where, you guessed it…she is practicing her walking skills. I discovered this accidentally when I was doing laundry and she used the laundry basket to push along the hardwood floor. Lucky for us, our Little Angel's group leader, Kerri, let us keep the baby stroller, which is perfect height for her. She can really take off and early this week, learned how to reverse a little, when she gets caught up on toys or books that block her path. She also makes me envious when she squats in place. It makes my bad knees ache! Watching her reach these little milestones and seeing her excitement in doing so, is pretty cool!

Pulling herself up

Balancing

Pushing around her bunny

Paper

I am not really sure what her fascination with paper is, but she loves it. She crawls over to our “burn pile” and “checks the mail”. She crinkles it and then proceeds to chew on it. Or, if it is too big of a piece, like cardboard, she bites down really hard in order to chew off a chunk. This is weird, I think, but it is also discovery, so I let it go most of the time. J

Waving paper around

Checking her mail

Eating it

Art Projects

For Mother’s Day we made our cards this year with her footprints as the basis for butterflies (Thanks, Pinterest!), and for Father’s Day we made the Grandpa’s cards using her hand prints. She liked the feel of the paint, especially on her feet. But these are some fun mementos for her grandparents.

Messy Foot

Sitting Pretty

Grandma's Butterflies

Grandpa's Hi-Fives

Just Keep Swimming

She is still enrolled in her Baby and Me swim class. We got every Tuesday and Thursday night and she loves her instructor, Molly. It has been really fun this past month because she is very attentive in watching Molly demonstrate what they are going to do and then copying the actions. She has been putting her face in the water, “blowing bubbles”, and really practicing her arm pulls. She loves being the only girl in the class. Her friend, Porter, always wants to give her hugs and kisses, and as of late she has been a little more receptive of this. Unlike the first initial "kiss" which ended up with Porter putting his thumb in her mouth and she promptly bit down on. She sure does love the water and her boy friends. J

Blowing Bubbles

Play Dates and Friends

Now that summer is here, her play groups have stated to taper off. We try to keep regular play dates with some of her close in age friends. She still goes to the library, where she loves story time. She loves older kids and interacting in her distinct baby babble.

With her buddy Molly

With her buddy Kathryn

With her buddy Addy

Signing and Communicating

Other big things are her ability to communicate. She can say “Momma” and “Dadda” and distinguishes between the two more regularly than just practicing the sounds the words make. Other “sounds” she likes are “Ga”, “Oh”, and sometimes we think she tries to say the pets names like “ella”(Bella) and “no” (Noelle). She has also been using some of the signs we have been working on, and the easiest one is “milk” or “bottle”. We are working on “please”, “thank you”, “change”, and “sleep”, but it’s taking time. She also loves to growl. Where she picked up this one, we still do not know exactly, but she thinks it is funny. She did it a few times when we were out hiking and we, of course, thought it was something else…lol. But she waves bye-bye and claps, laughs, and squeals.

At her month 9 check up, she is right on target weighing 20.6 lbs, and about 27 inches in length. She is constantly in “discovery” mode. Hard to believe she will be one in only a few short months! Time sure does fly. Enjoy some of our favorite pics from the past few months.