17 June 2009

And we're walking and climbing...


Maddox starting walking this weekend! He has been walking around furniture and pushing things around, but has only taken maybe 1 or 2 steps on his own. Well, all of a sudden, he took like 5 steps in a row, then 6, then 10 at one time! He is so fricking cute. I was stunned! I got very excited, which made him very excited, which only makes him fall down. Oopsy, sorry buddy! He seems to take the most steps when we are hardly paying attention, I'll look away and look back and he'll be halfway across the room! He is getting better every day, sometimes he just toddles all over the place, grabbing onto something along the way or falling down and climbing back up. Sometimes he will crawl everywhere as fast as he can, laughing along the way if you start chasing him. He loves being chased, it is so cute! He will practically run if Rudy or I hold one or both of his hands. I am predicting that by his birthday he will be walking nonstop! Wow, some things just happen so fast!

He has also figured out how to climb the stairs. He just started crawling up them one day, like he knew how to all along. It was pretty surprising! He can crawl all the way to the top in no time, which is no small feat because we have 16 steps to the second floor. Now we need to teach him to come down because right now he gets to the top, pulls himself to standing and then proceeds to stick one leg in the air, like he is trying to dip it into a pool like he wants to walk down. Yikes! We obviously don't let him anywhere near the stairs unless we are with him, so there is no danger of him falling, but he is getting faster and faster at crawling and walking, so we should probably gate off the top of the stairs. Ugh, I hate those stupid gates! We have had one at the top of the stairs to the basement since we moved in pretty much to keep the dog out. I have always hated that gate and now I need to get more? Ugh. I haven't really done much baby proofing around the house except for sticking those outlet plugs in the outlets that are visible. I am going to have to start locking some cabinets and have just been tying scarves on them so far. You could spend a fortune on all that babyproofing stuff! I am just putting it off as long as possible, but I realize that at some point he is going to be able to get into the next room and do something crazy before I can catch up with him, so need to lock up a couple of cabinets. Just add that to our list of one million things we need to do in the next couple of weeks leading up to Maddie's birthday party. More about that later!

05 June 2009

11 Month Update





We took some pictures in downtown Naperville on the riverwalk when Mamie was in town. Now for the update... I can't believe that my tiny baby boy is going to be 1 year old in a month! The time is going so fast, I wish I could slow it down. He is truly the best thing that has ever happened to me, besides my wonderful husband Rudy of course. Here are some of the fun things Maddox is doing lately:
  • He can clap, wave and scrunch up his face when you scrunch up your face.
  • He loves to dance and boogies either sitting or standing when you turn on the music or start singing to him.
  • He also immediately starts clapping when I sing "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!" It is so cute!
  • He yells through a toilet paper or paper towel tube like mama or papa does. This requires explanation I guess. We gave him some tubes to play with and used them like megaphones to talk and sing to him. Yesterday, I gave it to him and he started yelling through the tube! Doubly cute!
  • He primarily prefers to feed himself. He gets mad sometimes if we try to feed him, he wants to pick up the food and do it himself darnit! He is a good little eater too, will eat pretty much anything we give him and eats it faster than I can put it down. I have to limit how much I give him at a time because he shoves it all in his mouth as fast as he can and sometimes will gag himself!  He can also drink out of his sippy cup on his own too and loves water.
  • He crawls pretty darn fast!
  • He can walk around holding on to the furniture, the walls of his playpen, pushing his truck or holding our hands. He can also stand on his own, but when he realizes he's doing it, he gets all nervous and wobbly and falls down or grabs onto something.
  • He is SOOOO close to walking! He has taken a step or 2 on his own if something is really close by to grab, but mostly he sits down and starts crawling if he needs to go somewhere. I am not sure I want to really encourage the walking yet, so we haven't pushed him to do it too much. But, I bet soon he will realize he can walk on his own. Yikes!
  • He can crawl up the stairs! He just started doing it one day with no warning, we were freaked out! We are trying to teach him how to go down, but it's not working yet. 
  • He loves to kiss and hug and sometimes grab and hit you in the face. I am sure it is just a love tap, but sometimes it hurts! 
  • He has the goofiest, toothiest grin with the big space in the front still. I hope those front teeth close the gap!
  • He is still babbling a lot, says Dada a lot, but hasn't really said Mama much at all. Maybe a few Ma's here and there, but it will be a while before he even knows what those sounds mean. I can't wait to hear Mama!
On another note, I gave him a little haircut. He had some hairs that were a lot longer than the rest, so I just tried to even it out but keep the long shaggy look he's got going. I ended up trimming it a little shorter around the ears than it is in the pics above. I saved the hair for his baby book, sniff sniff.

All in all, he is such a good baby, the best baby boy I could have asked for! He is happy most of the time, sleeps through the night very consistently, eats like a champ and loves to play. We love him to pieces!!

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On another topic, I got my first trimester screening results and they were completely normal. They give you the results in terms of risk of the baby having Downs Syndrome or Trisomy 13/18. They were like 1/3000 and 1/2000 or something like that, I wrote them down somewhere, but left it at home today. Anyway, they put our minds at ease, these results are even better than they were with Maddox, so we feel good that our little baby will be just fine.

I am starting to have a fat belly, although I think I just look fat, not really pregnant yet. It looks like an airline pillow under my shirt, a big fat waist. It is pretty similar to last time, maybe I am showing a couple weeks earlier, but not much. I feel pretty good now though, not as tired, no nausea, no sore back (yet, cross my fingers it never hurts), so I am trying to enjoy feeling good for a while.