10 month photos

I realized after I posted Makadie's 10 month update that I totally forgot to include her "official" 10 month photos.  Granted, there were plenty in that post, but I think my baby girl is pretty much the cutest thing ever so a few more pictures is what you get!  :)

She was trying to eat the grass.  She kept putting it in her mouth and spitting it out and then grabbing another handful and doing the same thing.  Silly girl.


There's always one of these photos toward the end of the photo session. Even sad, I think she is cute. :)

Month Ten

Oh, heavens!  Where has the time gone?!  My baby is 10 months old!  Part of me wants to cry, but the other part of me is just so excited to see the little person she is becoming and all the things she is learning.  Before I know it, she will be a year old and I am truly just trying to savor every moment.  (Even when those moments involve screaming!)

• She has started waving at people.  It's so cute!  She curls her hand around in a little circular motion because she hasn't quite figured out how to move her hand up and down or side to side.  I was shocked when she did it the first time because I wasn't even trying to get her to wave to me.

• She has started to do a little bit of cruising around on the couches.  Because she hasn't figured out crawling yet, she has a hard time actually pulling herself up to the couch, but she does great standing by it and scooting along to try and reach something she wants.

• Makadie is definitely becoming more mobile.  I can see that she is getting stronger all the time.

• I've got a human garbage disposal on my hands!  Makadie seriously eats a ton.  I swear that girl is always hungry!  (She takes after her mama.)

• I have discovered that she likes to turn the pages in her books.  I only let her do it when it's a board book I am reading to her, but she really likes it.  She'll grab onto the page and flip it over the minute she sees that I am holding it up for her to turn.

• She finally rolls from back to tummy!  I was starting to think she was never going to figure it out.  It was so funny when she did it the first time because Covey and I were watching tv and he pointed something out to me on it and so we were both looking at the tv.  When we looked down at Makadie, she was on her stomach.  I was like, "did you do that?" and Covey said, "no, she did it on her own!"  Now she can't get enough of it and rolls all over the place to get around.

• Makadie has been babbling a lot, but recently she's been repeating the same sounds.  Currently she says "mum" and "dada", as well as "bup" (not sure if that means something or not).  Sometimes when we are talking to her, she imitates the inflection of the last word we said.  She makes a ton of other noises as well.

• She is sleeping through the night!  This really is a huge milestone for her and a great blessing to me (and Covey, but mostly me).  For a while there, I thought I was never going to sleep through the night again, but she has done a great job.  On average, she is getting 10-11 hours and generally wakes up around 7:00am.  Daylight Savings threw her off for a week and a half or so, but she is doing so well now that she's adjusted.

• In addition, she is getting on a more predictable schedule.  Since she is getting up around 7:00am, I know about when she is going to be tired for her first nap (around 10am).  She sleeps for 1-2 hours (we're still working on the length of time being more predictable) and then is up again for about 3ish hours before she wants to go down again for her second nap (which is also a little variable on the length).  Then, we get her down for bed between 7:30 and 8:00.  This means I have 3 glorious hours before I have to get to bed to do whatever I want.  It's lovely. :)

• We introduced Makadie to Cheerios and let me tell you, the girl is in LOVE!  She seriously crams them into her mouth as fast as she can and as many as she can.

• We also introduced her to more food, such as: eggs, cheese, cottage cheese, bagel, frozen grapes (we put them in a little mesh baby feeder thing and she goes to town)

• We took our first official family pictures.  My sister-in-law, Malena, took them for us and I am really happy with them.  Makadie was as smiley as could be and did a great job (even though she had only had a 30 minute nap earlier in the day).

• Makadie celebrated her first Halloween!  Originally I was going to just use a hand me down costume of either a bee or a butterfly, but both were way too big for her.  So on the day of Halloween, I looked to Pinterest (love!) for some inspiration.  I found a website that had a list of easy baby costumes and decided to take a look.  That's when I found it.  The perfect costume: Pebbles Flintstone.  I ran to Walmart, bought some material, made a pattern from one of her dresses and sewed it up, along with a little bone hair clip.  I'm not gonna lie.  I was pretty darn proud of how cute the whole thing turned out and I beamed with pride when people asked where I got it.  "Oh, I made it this morning."  Babies are so fun to dress up!

This is Makadie's hair after taking it out of the ponytail she had on top of her head.  Too funny!

We had a massive snow storm a couple of weeks ago and so I opened up the front door and let Makadie peek outside.  She literally just stared at all the snow (we had about 10 inches).  I am excited to take her out in it the next time we get more.

• She got her toenails painted.  :)  I had some fast drying nail polish that I thought would work and with the help of Sesame Street to distract her, we got it done.  It was funny--she couldn't figure out what the heck I was doing with her toes and kept trying to grab the polish.  Then the stinker wouldn't hold still afterwards so I could get a good picture.  Oh well.  It was cute anyway.

• Makadie likes to have chapstick put on her lips.  It is so cute!  She will actually hold still while I put a little bit of chapstick on her top lip and then she smacks her lips together.

• Sadly, my little princess has started to throw little tantrums.  Usually when she feels like she is being ignored, if we take something away, if we don't give her something she wants, etc.  Generally she is pretty good, but every once in a while she will just spazz out and flair her arms in the air and squeal.  Stinker.

• I forgot to include in her 9 month update that we actually didn't go to the doctor for her checkup.  My doctor doesn't do any shots or anything at 9 months--just a checkup--so we decided to bypass the visit since I didn't have any concerns or anything.  As a result, we didn't get her official growth measurements.  However, she weighs about 17 lbs and is over 2 ft tall.

And lastly, pictures...

This picture has seriously got to be one of my all time favorites!


Her face cracks me up




She has started to wiggle out of her blankets and then get mad because she doesn't know how to get them back on.  This is how I found her one day when I went to check on her to see why she hadn't fallen asleep yet.


This picture is a little misleading because it looks like she is standing by herself--she is actually leaning against the couch--but she is learning how to balance really well!


haha, I love her little toes peeking out of the hole in the bottom!

"Helping" me do the laundry

Snuggling in the blankets 

Covey is tickling her feet her and she is laughing.  She loves her Daddy!

I seriously have the freaking cutest baby! (Biased, you say? Not this mama! hehe)

Month Nine

Yeah, yeah, I know this is super late compared to all the other monthly updates I've been doing, but I've been lazy busy.  :)  Here is what happened during Makadie's ninth month:

• We eliminated her nighttime feeding.  It was a little rough for a few days but I was pleasantly surprised how well she adjusted.  Now, she sleeps 10-11 hours straight most nights. 

• She wants to stay up longer in between naps.  It used to be she could only go about 2 1/2 hours, but she has transitioned into being awake for 3 hours before she wants to go down for her nap.  This makes it so much easier to run errands and get out of the house without worrying she is going to fall asleep in the car.

• Makadie laughs at people and random things all the time.  I don't think I'll ever understand what makes something funny to a baby, but I do know she is super cute when she finds something that amuses her.

• Oh heavens!  I have got a little busy body on my hands!  She always wants to be doing something.  It makes things fun but can be exhausting some days.

• She can almost roll over from back to tummy (as of a couple weeks ago, she can actually do this, but technically she couldn't during the ninth month).

• She is not crawling yet, but sometimes she gets her knees underneath herself.

• Basically, Makadie likes to stand more than pretty much anything.  If she could have someone walk her around all day, I think she'd be in heaven.  You are her best friend if you do this with her.

• Makadie can hold herself up on furniture but not able to pull herself up to furniture yet.  This may have something to do with the fact that our furniture is not that easier to grab onto, but she is definitely trying to pull herself up.

• She has officially transitioned from the bumbo to the highchair for her meals.

• She is really good at feeding herself snacks and she loves to do it most of the time.  Sometimes she gets lazy and just opens her mouth to have me put it in.  Silly girl.

• Makadie loves yogurt bites, cereal puffs, bread, and all fruit smoothies.

• Nicknames we have for her: stinkerpot, Princess Poopy Pants (from Covey), Princess Butthead (when she's being naughty), bug, bubba, babes, sweetheart, munchkin, baby girl, Kadie girl, Kadie bug

• We celebrated Covey's 29th birthday and my 27th birthday. 

• Her hair is starting to fill in a little more.  She has all these little wispy hairs all over the top of her head, which is pretty cute.

• In conjunction with the above note, she would probably have more hair if she didn't pull on it when she gets angry.

• She has learned that when she hears the garage door opening, that Covey is going to be walking in the door.  It's cute to see her smile so big at him when he walks in the room.

• We are still working on getting Makadie on a schedule.  She is doing better at night but during the day she is still unpredictable in terms of when and how long her naps are.  But it is better than it used to be so I am trying not to complain.

• She has got the prettiest blue eyes!  I'm sure I am biased, but strangers always say she has pretty eyes too whenever we are out running errands.

And as always...pictures!





Stuffing her face with food

Really, Mom, another picture...?



Makadie and her cousin, River.  You can't tell from the picture, but she totally loves him.  She gets all excited when she sees him and loves to pull his hair and nose. :)



Hippo baby



Hi Mom!





Don't you just love the drool all over her shirt in these two pics? :)  Oh well, she has a cute face!

Sleep is a Beautiful Thing

MAKADIE IS SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!  I cannot describe the joy and happiness I feel inside!  I'm starting to feel like a real person again.  And Makadie is definitely happier too.

I'll admit it.  I was totally skeptical that Makadie was ever going to sleep through the night or take decent naps.  I mean, there we were: 8 1/2 months old and still waking up to eat at night (twice when she was teething) and her naps were borderline too short (45 min to an hour).  I was going nuts!  For those of you who know me, you know I like schedules and planning and it felt like Makadie wasn't ever going to allow me to do either of those things again!

When we dropped Makadie down to one feeding at night when she was about 4 months or so, I thought that was hard.  She would cry and scream and it was almost more than I could handle.  We did it though and things went along alright for a while.  I finally told Covey that we really needed to get Makadie sleeping through the night, otherwise, I was going to go crazy from lack of sleep.  (I'm sure you moms know what I'm talking about: Even though I was getting at least 7 hours of sleep at night, it was interrupted at least once by getting up to feed Makadie and sometimes more from thinking that I was hearing her wake up.)

The first night (last Friday) was a little rough.  We put her to bed around 8:30p and she woke up once and cried for an hour and 20 minutes then went back to sleep until 6:30a when she woke up to eat.

The second night (Saturday), she only woke up once for about 20 minutes, woke up at 6a to eat, then fell back to sleep until 8:15a.

The third night (Sunday), she woke up and cried for 2 hours.  That was not fun.  She only slept for about an hour after she fell asleep again and woke up at about 6:30a.

The fourth night (Monday), she finally got it!  She went to bed at 8:15p and woke up at 6:15a.  It was amazing!

The fifth night (last night), she woke up once for about 20 minutes and then woke up for the day at 7a.

All I can say is HALLELUJAH!  It was basically 3 rough days and it's been so much better from here on out!  :)  :)  Happy day!

In addition, Makadie's naps have really improved.  I was surprised, because she's been taking naps that are at least an hour to an hour and a half.  It's been amazing.  I have time to do things during her nap time.  Love it!

I'm looking forward to 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. :)

Month Eight

Each month seems to go faster and faster as Makadie gets bigger and bigger!  She is such a sweet girl and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.  Here's the update on her eighth month of life:

• She smiles at everyone!  Pretty much everyone she smiles at melts at her sweet smile. :)

• If she sees something she wants, she dives for it.  I really have to be on my toes with her, especially when I am out and about in stores.

• She is very curious and very observant.  She will just stare at people/things and loves to touch and put everything in her mouth.

• She can play by herself for longer stretches of time, which has been great for me because I can leave her to play while I do something else (like eat).

• She is doing a million times better in the carseat.  Hallelujah!

• She is always imitating sounds and babbles all day long and a lot of times she will chatter to herself before she falls asleep.

• Makadie is very ticklish on her tummy and her toes.  Covey will kiss her tummy and she giggles like crazy.  So cute!

• She flails her arms around when she's excited.  Although she could be learning how to wave and I don't know.

• She loves being outside.  I swear she should not be a winter baby--she is totally her mama's girl and she loves her some sunshine and warmth!

• She is starting to learn the meaning of some words: cereal/food, her name, outside

• She gives kisses!  I love it.  I'll just pucker up at her and she will lean forward and put her lips on mine.  Sometimes she'll give me a big open mouth (slobbery) "kiss" on the cheek.

• She smacks and licks her lips when she sees her food.  She totally knows when she's going to be fed.

• She is starting to suck on her toes.

• She shows preference for certain toys.  If I give her a choice of two toys, she will go for one or the other.  (I also think she is showing a preference for her right hand.)

• She smiles at herself in the mirror.

• She got a new cousin (named Presley).  My sister-in-law, Shannon, had a little girl at the end of August, which gave Makadie a second cousin who is younger than her.

• We went up Payson Canyon.

• She babbles all the time and her favorite "word" appears to be "ba ba ba ba ba...).  She also growls, which is pretty funny.  I'm still trying to figure out where she got it from.

• She started to get her first tooth!  About a month ago, she started to get a little more grumpy, her sleep patterns got disrupted, she didn't eat as well and she started pulling on her ears.  I thought she might have an ear infection so I took her in but nope--no infection.  Then, a week ago, I looked at her mouth and saw a little tooth just below the surface.  I guess that explained all her symptoms...  (Her little tooth is now poking all the way up through the gums.)

• She can sit up all on her own, which she loves.

• We started to give her little bits of yogurt and cereal puffs so she can learn how to chew better and she loves that too.

• She will let most people hold her but she likes to have me or Covey close by and she watches us pretty closely to gauge our reaction to the person holding us.

• She loves to walk everywhere!  She also walks all the way up my stomach and chest and up to my shoulders. 

• When we put her to bed for naps and at night, she always gets her little cow blanket and puts it over her head for a couple rounds of peek-a-boo.  I think it's just so darn cute!

• If we put a blanket over her, she'll play peek-a-boo/hide and seek for quite a while.  I just keep saying, "Where's Makadie?" every time she puts the blanket over her head and she keep peeking out.

• She can use a sippy cup pretty well without spilling much on her.

And....here are some more pictures of my baby girl.

Plus, more pictures that I took (with Covey's help).  I think they turned out awesome and they are starting to show her personality a little more.

Working Out

So I started working out.  Again.  For the 50th time.  I had big plans for when I could start working out again after Makadie was born.  I got all geared up with a workout schedule and everything.  6 weeks after she was born came and went and I didn't do anything.  I'm not exactly sure what happened.  Probably had something to do with my desire for sleep overcoming my desire to be awake and exercising...

In the past, I've had people allude to the fact that because I am thin, that I must be in good shape or that I don't really need to work out.  While it is true, that I am thin, it doesn't mean I am in shape and physically healthy.  Just because I have a higher metabolism doesn't mean I don't have to eat right and exercise.  Sometimes, I just kind of want to just wear a shirt that says this:

Either way, I started up again last Monday and have been going strong everyday (except Sunday).  I feel a little lame because I only do a 12 minute video and I still get sweaty and tired and all stiff and sore.  I know it will get better, but it's still a little disheartening when I used to be in such good shape from being in dance for years.  

But, as Dori says, "Just keep swimming!" :)