24 March 2009

Swing high!

We went to the park this weekend for Maddox's first (well, my first, his third) time on the swing! He seemed to like it!

Goofy grin!
Clapping AND swinging? Wow, Maddie is so talented!
Papa is so much fun!
Wheeeee!!
My two handsome guys!
Mama and Maddox...

17 March 2009

Happy St. Patrick's Day and Happy Birthday Eva!

Maddox says "Kiss me, I'm Irish!"

Today is my beautiful niece Evangeline's 1st Birthday! Happy Birthday Baby Eva! I hope you have the best birthday!!
This pic of Eva is several months old now, hopefully I will have a new pic of my Irish princess niece soon. Maddox misses his cousin Eva today and wishes he could be with her! We went to the parade in Naperville this weekend and only got there in time to catch the last 10 minutes. It wasn't very exciting I must say, lots of politicians and businesses advertising. It just doesn't measure up to the wonderful parade they had every year in my home town of beautiful Bay City, MI. I miss those days! We always had a wonderful party for my Papa, whose birthday was on St. Patty's Day. We always had entertainment - either a piano player or bagpipers or something fun. It was good times and so many good memories. Well, maybe not all good. I cringe when I think of how I competed in the St. Patrick's Day pageant when I was a senior in high school and lost. Now that would be a fun picture to see, but too bad, I don't have one handy!  Anyway, we were so blessed to have Eva born on this special day so we have a new reason to have a big party on St. Patty's Day to continue the tradition. We miss you Papa, but celebrate your beautiful new great-granddaughter, Eva!

I hope you have a blessed and lucky St. Patrick's Day!

12 March 2009

Round of applause!


Maddox clapped this morning! Woohoo!! He was sitting on the floor playing while Rudy and I were running around getting ready this morning. Rudy just started clapping for Maddox for something and suddenly he started clapping too! IT WAS SO CUTE! I then clapped and he did it again!! It is so awesome when my little man learns something new, I have to say. He waved a few weeks ago, did it all day that day and hasn't really done it since. I hope he doesn't forget how to clap. I am not sure why that happens, it must be a momentary breakthrough or something. I am sure he will be doing all these things frequently quite soon. I am also hoping that since he is getting better at copying us that he will start signing soon. I am still trying to teach him "more". But, he is not catching on. That is normal though, it can take 2 months to learn the first sign at his age, he is a little young for it yet. But, it will probably be soon!!!

I've been wanting to post this picture - this is Maddox and his friend Sadie. Sadie's Mama takes care of Maddox during the day and Sadie and Maddox get to play all day! They just love to play together and Sadie likes to pretend she is Maddie's mama. She is trying to hold his sippie cup for him, so cute!! Sadie gave him this picture for Valentine's day, I think she has a crush on him. But, she is too old for you Maddox! She is a little over a year older than Maddox, but they still have a lot of fun together.

07 March 2009

Crawling and Standing: 8 month update

Here is our little ham slip sliding all over the wood floors.
Snuggling with Papa.
Getting squeezed by Mama.
Crawling all over the place, watch out! Here he is heading for his favorite no-no - the fireplace!
And of course his newest favorite activity: standing!

Maddox turned 8 months old this week, time just flies. He is officially crawling now on all fours. He can go pretty good when he wants to, but doesn't go very far yet - maybe 6 feet or so. He could probably go further, but hasn't figured that out yet and I am fine with him staying within a small space. He loves to pull himself to standing so much, usually he just crawls to the couch or the chaise and pulls himself up. He also likes to pull himself up on Mama or Papa too. He can stand there for quite a while and play too, but he does start to get tired and then loses his balance and falls down and goes boom. I have to surround him with pillows so he has a soft landing when he topples over. We find him more often than not standing in his crib too - he wakes up in the morning or after a nap and we can hear him chuckling and cooing to himself - he is pretty good at occupying himself. So, we go in there and he is standing up trying to reach something on the nightstand nearby. What a smart boy! Last night, he woke up at 11:45pm and Rudy went in there and he was standing up in his sleepsack wailing! What a little silly boy - go back to sleep!! 

He is eating three meals a day now and is getting more and more formula each day. My milk supply has really dwindled and I have stopped pumping during the day in preparation for going to my new client on Monday. I am now working 5 days a week at JP Morgan Chase and don't want to take time to pump anymore and the days of working at home every week are probably coming to an end. I am going to try to keep bf-ing in the morning and before bedtime if possible though. We'll see how it goes. We went and bought formula finally last night at Costco, wow, that is a really big expense! We have been using up all the samples we had. :-D BF-ing has been such a blessing and it is free!! I am really sad to stop, but all good things must come to an end I suppose. He seems perfectly happy drinking his bottles of Similac, so I guess I will cope ok.