Sick

Maddie has an ear infection, again. I should have known on Sunday when she was so fussy and then so tough to get to bed that evening and didn't sleep well but I missed it. Grandma and Aunt Susie noticed today that she was pulling on one ear a lot and just seemed to be out of it. I'm so grateful that she was with them today so they could take her to the doctor without Alex or I having to leave work. She started her medicine tonight and already seemed to be feeling a bit better.

These pictures are actually from Sunday night when i was trying to appease her in any way - so we watched a few episodes of her favorite show, Sesame Street.

(And no, mom and Friss, I did not let her stay that close for long, just the pictures)

More pictures

As promised, here are a few more pictures from our photo shoot in the yard last week:

















We had her professional 9 month pictures scheduled for today but we had to cancel them due to Maddie's extreme fussiness today and also a runny nose. I am hoping to get them re scheduled for some time next weekend.

I will hopefully be able to weigh myself tomorrow and have a weight loss update!

Nursery

So (2 months after we moved in) I have finally finished Maddie's room! I have had the letters painted since before me moved and was able to get the ribbons attached a few weeks ago. Alex and I both had Friday off so we were able to get a few things done, one of which was to finally get these hung. I think it looks wonderful and smile every time I go in her room and see it.





And I found a home for this little guy that I picked up at Michael's.

9 months

I know I say this every month, but the last 30 days has FLOWN by! Alex and I have both been very busy at work so we have not had a lot of family time together. I am greatly looking forward to October and many weekends spent together as a family! We are hoping to get up to Door County again this fall for a nice relaxing weekend away.

But back to Maddie and all the new things she has been doing this month (which you would already know about if I hadn't been such a bag blogger).

She is officially in all 6-9 months clothes (finally)

She now has three teeth, (two on bottom, one on top) with a fourth one days away from poking through on top

This month she moved up to the next classroom at daycare and so far has done awesome!

She has learned how to both wave "bye-bye" and give high fives - we have also been working on clapping but she is not interested AT ALL

One of the funny new things she is doing is sticking her tongue out all the time. I've been trying to get a picture of it but she is too fast for me to catch it.

She still loves standing up and has just now started to "walk" around things by holding on to them (although not too much)

And my favorite, she now says "mama". She said it for the first time one night while Alex was working and I think he doubted she had really said it. Then I went to work the next day and apparently that's all she said most of the day. We have a cute video of it that I will see if I can get from him to post.

We had to reschedule her 9 month check up for the last week of the month so no stats but until then here are her 9 month pictures:





This is how most of our pictures end up - either extreme close up because she wants the camera:


And I have to bribe her to stay put


Or she will not sit still for longer than 10 seconds:






I finally found her Kryptonite, grass, and was able to get her to sit still for a few good shots. She doesn't mind sitting in the grass but she does not want to touch it with her hands.

I have a few more pictures from the yard I will share later on this week.

Cheerios

Recently Maddie has been eating a lot for solid foods. More specifically, Cheerios. They are one of her favorite things these days and are kind of an appetizer to each meal. I put her in her chair, put down a handful of Cheerios and I have a good 20-30 minutes to make both of us a meal. And while she has really been enjoying them I think there is some one else in our family enjoying this new routine even more.

And yes, she is sitting in the living room - I was enjoying my coffee and the Today Show while she enjoyed her breakfast.









Maddie thinks it is one of the funniest things to sneak Pepper some of her food although i did catch her today reaching her hand out and just teasing Pepper then putting the food in her mouth. But not to worry, Pepper always knows that I will let her help me clean up the leftovers.

McFatty Monday

taken from one of the many blogs I read, www.heirtoblair.com.

So I have finally decided that with my daughter almost being 9 months old (gasp!) that I can’t explain away my extra weight with the “I just had a baby line.” When I first moved to Chicago (in December y’all) four years ago I had a rough first couple of months. I had no job, no close friends here and Alex was working out in the suburbs so I didn’t even really see him that often. And did I mention it was December? In Chicago? So the only thing I did for a few months was sit on the sofa and eat Cheetos (true story.)

And you’ll never guess what happened? I gained weight.

Oh, you guessed. I had lost a few pounds before I got pregnant but I wasn’t quite back to a comfortable body weight for myself. So, for the first few months of my pregnancy I was really cautious still of what I was eating and how much weight I was gaining. It also didn’t hurt that I had morning sickness for a few weeks and the only thing I could imagine eating were chicken breast sandwiches. I figured the less I gained throughout the pregnancy the less I would have to lose afterwards. And then my final trimester hit and all that was thrown out the window. I ate a lot of junk and rapidly piled on the pounds. Overall I gained an average amount of weight (38 pounds) but I knew it could have been less if I had been more careful those last few months.

Then when Maddie came early and only weighed 6 lbs, 8 ozs I knew I was going to be in trouble. But I was planning on breastfeeding and everyone kept telling me that would melt the pounds off. Except it didn’t. Sure I lost weight the first few weeks and my uterus and stomach shrunk back down to normal size but then I was more hungry while I was breastfeeding then I ever was when I was pregnant. I ate all the time!! And it was winter again (damn you winter) and it was very tough to get outside and do anything with a newborn baby.

So, here I am nine months with the vast majority of my pregnancy weight still to lose. And after months of not being able to fit into most of my clothes and not wanting to spend a fortune buying a new wardrobe I have finally decided to do something about it. I had to admit to myself that I suck at trying to just watch what I eat. I have NO self control. I have been very fortunate that in the past I have not had to worry about my weight. I have always been able to eat what I wanted and not really exercise and still weigh somewhere between 125 and 135. Not so much anymore.

Recently I discovered a fantastic app for my Blackberry that allows me to count calories of everything I eat and drink. For those of you who wonder what that is, it is a free application that I have been able to download to my phone and then tally everything I eat and drink during the day. It is AMAZING! I never really new how many calories I was consuming in one day and I was shocked at the results! For the last two weeks I have restricting myself to 1200-1400 calories a day (the average person should consume 2000) and so far I have already lost 3 pounds!!! The first few days were really tough and I was still hungry at the end of the day but this last week has been surprisingly easy. I was even able to eat at McDonalds for lunch and stay within my limit for the day.

So far I have not started exercising along with this diet but I know I need too. I wanted to start walking with Maddie in the evenings but due to all the recent rain we have had the mosquitoes in our neighborhood are terrible right now. The one day we went walking we returned home after a few blocks after we both had gotten bit. I have also checked out an exercise video from the library that I hope to try tomorrow night.

So far though I am encouraged by the good start and I will continue to update you on my progress. I will be limited on the days that I can weigh myself because I don’t have a scale at home so I have been using one in the visitors locker room at work and can only get access on certain days (but it is also a doctors scale and much more accurate). I'm not going to tell the entire internet my weight but I will tell you my goal is 25 pounds - so 3 down, 22 more to go!

And now for what you really came to see, pictures of the cutest girl ever:

her first robe which she unfortunately wasn't a big fan of:




And a great big smile to say "Happy Belated Birthday Frissi"


We love and miss you Frissi!

Movin on up

Maddie is feeling better today. We still have had a lot of dirty diapers today but the quantity in each has been less and her nose is not running as much. She also slept the whole night last night which was wonderful!

In the last few weeks she has "graduated" to two new, bigger and better things. First, she has moved up into the next size car seat. (At least in my car, we have yet to set up the one in Alex's)


Already plotting her escape


She has also stopped using any sort of containment thing in the tub. She is able to roam about as she would like although she is still trying to figure out exactly how to crawl in the tub, It's pretty funny to watch her try to figure it out. She LOVES the bath and the greatest challenge has been to try to prevent her from standing up (which she does all the time).

Sick

Maddie is a little sick right now and is not sleeping well, so therefore Alex and I are not sleeping well. She started with a runny nose on Sunday that has gotten a little better since then but she is still incredible fussy. Which I know is normal, but for her it seems like a lot. **Warning - bodily function talk ahead** She also has had a lot of diarrhea and now has her first case of diaper rash. We have started changing her diapers more frequently and using wet paper towels rather than wipes and slathering her up with Desitin so hopefully that will get better. I'm stopping on my way home today to get some Pedialyte to give her to make sure she is not dehydrated. I've read that both diarrhea and diaper rash happen when babies begin eating more solid foods (which Maddie has been). If she has not improved by tomorrow I will take her to the doctor on Thursday morning.

I don't have any new pictures besides this one that I took of her sleeping in the car with her fingers in her mouth.



I promise to keep you updated on how she is doing.