Maddie's Stats

Our little pip-squeek! 

Maddie's 9 Month Stats:

Weight: 15 lbs. 6 oz. - 3%

Height: 26 and 1/2 inches - 10%

Head: 16 and 1/2 inches - 5%

Maddie is 9 Months old

Where does time go? I say this every time I do a monthly post and yet every time it amazes me how quickly my baby girl is growing!

This photo session took 2 attempts because of this! She wouldn't sit still for ANYTHING!

And she was constantly doing this! Give me that camera mommy!

This is torture mommy!

Our sweet Maddie, bless her heart, while continuing to battle sickness and ear infections has grown and changed so much over the last month!

Here a few things we she has discovered and we have learned about her:

-She started crawling just after turning 8 months and is everywhere and into everything! 

She is pulling up and will stand for a few seconds independatly. She has just started to use her push toys to walk around the house and loves to walk while holding on to someones hands. She has also just recently discovered how to climb up the stairs by herself, and while she is more cautious than Sophi she is not fearful!

-Maddie loves to explore on her own. It is so neat to see how God can make two children from the same two people so different. Maddie has to learn by herself, no matter how many times you show her how to do something she only fully masters it after figuring it out for herself. 

-She loves her sister! She usually wants to be doing whatever Sophi is doing! Now that she is crawling she can often be found following Sophi around. Sophi loves to play chase with her :)

-She still loves to eat! She loves fruit most of all which means she usually doesn't get any until the end of her meal or she won't eat anything else. We discovered this last month that she is allergic to green peas! Didn't even know you could be allergic to those things!

-She loves to play the "uh oh" game right now. While she doesn't really say any other words yet she says "uh oh" constantly! She loves to throw her paci's out of her bed and exclaim "uh oh" over and over. She also now waves hello and bye bye.

-She takes two naps a day and sleeps from 7pm to 7am which mommy and daddy are very grateful for! She can miss her morning nap if she needs to (which is more often than not with big sister!) but still prefers to have two right now.

-She is still our little bit, weighing 14 1/2 pounds just last month.

-Mommy is still her favorite person but she has really started to warm up to her daddy! He can always make her laugh. She has also stayed 4 days with her Grammy and Lolly while we were on vacation and was so good without us! Such a big girl!

-She still loves to be outside even in the freezing cold! 

-Her hair continues to grow in thick and SUPER curly! We finally discovered headbands which work so much better than bows do in her hair! Mommy is still learning how to work with curly hair :)

-She likes to read books but doesn't love it like her sister did at this age. She would prefer to simply flip the pages instead of listen to the words!

 We keep falling more and more in love with this precious girl and constantly thank God for this sweet bundle of joy! 

Crawling

Check out our crawler! She started a few days after Christmas and can now get anywhere she wants VERY quickly! It's a whole new world for her and so much fun for us!

Christmas!!!!

Christmas Day! 

One of my most favorite days of the year as we celebrate 

the birth of Christ!

 Jesus is here!!!

 Reading the Christmas story with Lolly!

 Hurried Excitement!

 Finally getting to eat the big gingerbread girl from her countdown calendar!

 Sophi and Evie opening stockings

 Maddie checking out her stocking!

 Sweet girls was sick the whole time we were there :(

 Not to sick to share in the Christmas fun though!

 Exchanging gifts with Daddy!

 Maddie's new chair!

 Visiting G-Paw and wishing him a Merry Christmas!

Nana and Papa and their girls!

Sophi and Evie got ballet lessons for Christmas from Lolly and Pops and tickets to the Nutcracker for the next day. It was so fun to see the girls get all dolled up for the ballet.

Despite our whole family being sick and having to come home a day early we had a joyous time celebrating this much anticipated day with our sweet families. 

Already looking forward to next years celebration!

Christmas Countdown: Days 22-24

Day 22: Buy a new Ornament for our Tree

This year we went for the inexpensive ornament and with Sophi's helped picked this cute monkey to remind us of the two crazy "monkeys" in our house!

Day 23: Make Gingerbread houses

This is one of my favorite days! Josh is always home with us for this one and it is so fun to do this as a family! This year we had the Charlie Brown theme going and I couldn't resist buying this snoopy kit! Sophi loves all things candy of course so she LOVED this activity. I think she ate more than she decorated!

Day 24: Open one gift

Usually this is a small gift like Christmas Pajamas but this year, since we were headed to Atlanta that evening, the girls got to open their big gifts from us. 

Sophi got a new Grocery store for her playroom. She loves both shopping at it and being the cashier!

Maddie got a fun push/ride toy that she will be able to grow into for quite awhile!

This is how Sophi found Mary and Joseph Christmas Eve morning, at the stable awaiting the arrival of their baby son!

Christmas Eve we typically spend with Josh's family in Columbia, TN. We had such a fun time opening gifts and sharing special memories with Grammy and Poppy, Matt and Nichole and all the cousins! 

Grammy started the tradition a few years ago of making a birthday cake for Jesus. We all sing happy birthday and the each kid gets to blow out the candle on the cake. So fun!

 After our time at the Strahans we loaded up the car and headed to Atlanta to celebrate Christmas day with the Scobeys. Sophi enjoyed watching A Charlie Brown Christmas before drifting off to sleep with excited anticipation of all that was to come the next day!

8 Months Old!

It's hard to believe that this little thing is 8 months old already! Seriously, how did this happen?!

This was one of our harder photo attempts because she is constantly on the move! She can often be found rocking on her knees, but she prefers to "snake" across the floor, "slithering" on her belly and she can get to whatever she wants. She is also pulling up and loves to walk while holding on to your hands. 

Maddie's hair continues to grow longer and longer and is super curly! In the morning she has crazy bed head that is usually standing straight up! There is fortunately enough of it to tame it down with a bow. So cute!

This poor girl is always sick! Since having tubes put in her ears last month she contracted Roseola which is basically a high fever virus that in turn gave her an ear infection. She spent the better part of 4 days strapped to mommy in the ergo (thank goodness for the ergo!).

She ended up having to go on antibiotic for her ear; however she has contracted a coughing virus just in the last day or two (this is why her mouth is open in all her pictures because she can't breath out of her nose).

You can always tell when Maddie is sick by her eyes. Those bright blues just don't have their sparkle!

We are desperately praying she can get healthy soon and stay that way for a while.

Maddie still doesn't have any teeth but is constantly drooling! Maybe soon!

 Maddie has enjoyed her first Advent season and has had a taste of all kinds of sweets (which she of course loves!). She only nurses twice a day now and eats three big meals a day plus two small snacks! She LOVES to eat and eats everything we do. I have to admit, it is very nice not to have to make baby food anymore! She, however, has developed a food allergy that we are still trying to pinpoint; fortunately it isn't severe and we can monitor it for now without seeing the allergist. I never thought I would have food allergy kids! Too funny!

 If left alone in the living room, this is where you will most often find her these days, pulling on our tree. She is an explorer!

She loves to be outside and play with her sister, but most often just wants to be with mommy. She has become very attached and usually cries when someone else tries to hold her.

When she will let someone else hold her, she loves to be cuddled and rocked; whenever Lolly and Grammy are here, they can always be found rocking this little one to sleep.

 She has to have her paci and lovie to sleep with, though she has discovered how to throw her pacis out of the crib. We have to put several in her crib to make sure she ends up with one when she finally does go to sleep. She is taking two hour and a half naps a day and sleeping 12 hours a night which we are very grateful for!

Maddie doesn't babble much yet but she definitely communicates using grunting sounds! She babbles the most when she is chewing on something, whether it's her paci, sippy cup or Sophi toy. Her newest development though is waving hi. It is so cute to see her wave and she is so proud of herself when she does.

As we celebrate the most awesome gift ever given in the birth of God's son we are reminded of this sweet girl, another miracle given to us by God and we can't help but praise his name. Thank you Lord for giving us our precious Maddie!