Saturday, October 25, 2014

Madison's One Month December 10th 2014

Dallas, Texas 
Weight: 9lbs 7oz
Height: 24.5inches
Sleeping: 3-4hours at a time during the night and takes lots of naps during the day. 
Eating: Breastfeed every 2-3 hours.
Likes and Actions: sleeping in the car seat, small straight across smile, grunts a lot, looks up at you when laying on your chest. 

Madison's Three Months February 10th 2014

Brussels, Belgium
Weight: 12.1lbs
Height: 23.3 inches
Sleeping: Midnight to 8am, still jet lagged from moving to Europe, 3 naps a day.
Eating: Almost exactly every 3 hours.
Likes and Actions: Eating, watching your hands, when daddy sings to you, crazy arms, kicking to splash in the tub, cooing sounds, starting to like toys especially the bouncer.
 

Madison's Two Months January 10th 2014

Scottsdale, Arizona
Weight: 11lbs 5oz
Height: 22.5inches
Sleep: 4-6 hours at a time during the night and naps after feedings during the day.
Eating: Every 3 hours during the day and 3-5 hours at night.
Likes and Actions: Kicking your legs and flapping arms, putting your left hand in a fist and following it with your eyes as you move it, eating your hands, starting to hold your head up, going on walks outside.
Dislikes: Screams during tummy time. 

Madison's Four Months March 10th 2014

Brussels, Belgium
Weight: 13.5lbs
Height: 25inches
Sleeping: 9pm-8am, 3 naps. The first nap is usually in my bed right after she wakes up!
Eating: Every 3 hours. 9am, 12pm, 3pm, 6pm, 830pm
Likes and Actions: Tries to eat her whole hand, she sings back when we sing to her, eating her blankets, grabbing her toes
Dislikes: Tummytime 

Madison's Nine Months August 10th 2014

Sevilla, Spain
Weight: 18lbs
Sleeping: We have been traveling since August 26th and ever since we have been traveling she wakes up almost every night crying at about 4am. She takes 2-3 naps in the stroller about 30-45 minutes each. 
Eating: Breastfed morning, mid day and night. She eats 2 solid meals a day and a snack. She now can finger foods and is getting better at feeding herself. 
Likes and Actions: Learned to crawl and can now crawl somewhat fast. Can pull herself up to a standing position while hiding furniture. Can wave bye- bye. When she is in bed with us in the morning the first thing she wants to do is climb on the headboard. Says "Ahhhh.." with a wide open mouth. She flails her arms and kicks her legs and get so excited when shown a new you. Loves playing peek-a-boo and with stuffed animals. She grabs them and pulls them in close to her. 
Dislikes: She fights every time we put her in her stroller and wants to stand up and bounce instead of sitting in her stroller. We end up carrying her around a lot. She does not like being out in confinement. Like when you hug her tightly she struggles to get away. 

Madison's Eight Months July 10th 2014

Brussels, Belgium
Weight: 16.6lbs
Height: 27.2inches
Sleeping: Totally screwed up from a 2 week vacation. Takes 2-3 30 minute naps in the stroller a day, 9pm-7am and occasionally on vacation wakes up at 4 am screaming. 
Eating: Breastfed very 3-4 hours, two solid meals a day. 
Likes and Actions: Baby food puffs, gelato from Papa, pictures with Pryia, smiling at random strangers, she will never sit still, sometimes let's out high pitched screams, big cute gasping "Ah's", learned to say Dada and Mama, she breaths fast and clenches her teeth when she doesn't want some king of food, 
Dislikes: Taking naps, being held down, having her nose picked, having her teeth touched. 
Other Stuff: She had her first 2 teeth come in this month. 

Madison's Seven Months June 10th 2014

Brussels, Belgium
Weight: 16lbs
Sleeping: 8pm-7am, taking 2-3 naps. 
Eating: Breastfed 7am, solids 10am, breastfed 2pm, solids 4pm, breastfed 5pm and 8pm. 
Likes and Actions: When we "get" her belly, when we talk and interact with her she smiles really big, she makes a motorboat motion with her lips, scrunches her knees up under her and buries her head into the carpet, Sophia the Giraffe, party cake, horsey horsey, cardboard books. 
Dislikes: Going to bed, getting constipated.
Other: Went to the beach for the first time this month. 

Madison's Six Months

Brussels, Belgium
Weight: 15lbs
Height: 26.6inches
Sleeping: 8pm-8am, 3 naps. Now can sleep without the sleep sack. 
Eating: Started solid food one time per day, Breastfed every 3-4hours. 
Likes and Actions: She now likes all baby toys favorites include: chew toys, water bottles, paper, chap stick, bouncer with toys above head. She now puts everything in her mouth including trying to eat the carpet during tummy time, can sit with some support. She gives open mouth kisses. Can roll from front to back and back to front. 
Other: She had a very bad cold while in Utah and her first fever 101.9F when back in Belgium.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Brenda and Blaine in London, September 22nd-28th 2014

Monday morning Kellen had to head back to work so Brenda and I made a "what to do and see in London" list and went out to start checking things off our list. Here are some of the things we did. First, picked up Hot Bagels and took them to the park so Maddie could get some wiggles out. Next, when at Sarah's house do as Sarah does, so we tackled the insanity workout of the day. When Maddie woke up we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. V&A Highlights included: Rafael tapestry, Leanardo DaVinci notebook. Next, A stroll through Harrods fabulous food halls and shoe heaven and a walk through Hyde Park. We took the tube back home and met Kellen for dinner at Spitalfields Market. 
Tuesday: Stephanie and Elle came over to meet us and we wandered around Spitalfields Market looking at all the odds and ends sold there. Spitalfields Market is  just a five minute walk from our house. While we were there we got the girls baby cupcakes because it is Elle's first birthday. We then went to Spitalfields City Farm. It was an epic fail and a one time event as it was not very well kept. On the bright side it did have a lot of farm animals to see. Maddie cried when the geese honked at her and the cows tried to lick her. It was so funny!
Wednesday: Tea at the Orangery in Kensington Palace Gardens. Afternoon tea at the Orangery includes four types of sandwiches, scones with clotted cream, and a variety of dainty pastries. Each person gets two pots of tea and our favorites were herbal infusion lemon with ginger and wild berry. It was even better with two sugar cubes in each cup! The ambiance was perfect and the whole afternoon was delightful! Maddie behaved during the tea party and was rewarded with some play time at the Princess Diana Memorial playground. We headed home and had dinner at a trendy pizza place in our neighborhood: Pizza East. Our pizza's selection included: spicy sausage with broccoli and radiocchio with goat cheese and walnuts. It was fabulous food and very crowded and loud which is perfect for a baby because nobody notices if she is loud during dinner.
Thursday: Blaine finally came into town to join us and we spent the afternoon at Westminster Abbey, the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square. For dinner we came back to our house and got take out from Square Pie, a delicious British Pie company. Then we celebrated Maddie's first birthday (a few weeks early) with cupcakes and lots of presents from Mimi and Papa. She devoured her cupcake and was so excited about all the books they gave her!
Friday: Lunch at Shake Shack in Covent Garden,British  Museum. Highlights: Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies and statues from the Parthanon. We made a quick stop at Russel Square to let Maddie crawl around then headed to the British Library. Highlights: Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, music written by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, and the Magna Carta. Also, watching Maddie crawl around on the floor of the British Library and chase me around like a little puppy. We finally met up with Kellen after he finished a long week of work and went to Friends at Hand, an English Pub in Bloomsbury, for Fish and Chips! Great way to end the night. 
Saturday: Tour of Buckingham Palace's 19 incredible state rooms. These rooms are only open to visitors during August and September so we felt lucky to go see them. They also had a special exhibit on childhood in the palace which had toys, clothes, and other accessories form the royal children who grew up in Buckingham Palace. 
We then walked down Regent Street which was closed off for an NFL experience. The next day the Dophins were playing the Raiders in London, so the NFL put on a huge event to get people excited about having the NFL in London. Then home to East London and dinner at the street truck food shack.