Month Twelve

I am so LAME!  I can't believe it has taken me this long to do Makadie's 12 month post.  Time has slipped away once again.  (Today she is 13 months!)  I am mad at myself because I forgot to write down certain things she did during the month and now I can't remember them.  :(  But here is what I do remember, so I guess that counts for something, right?

• She had her first birthday! This deserves a post all its own, so I won't say much about it here besides that it was so much fun!

• She got her top two teeth!  She was pretty sad and cranky while they were coming in, but she was a trooper and now she can bite her food a lot easier.  (I was going to say "chew", but how well can you really do that with only front teeth?)

• We celebrated her first Christmas!  I already did a whole post about that previously, but it really was so much fun to see her get all excited about everything.

• She stood in place without help on Christmas morning and steadily improved to taking a few small steps toward Covey or I.

• She learned how to put toys into a bucket.  Covey actually worked with her on this and was very proud of himself for teaching her how to do it.

• Makadie claps when you say "yay" or when she does something she is proud of.  It's pretty cute!

• We started giving her bigger pieces of food to eat by herself.  She absolutely loves cheese and bananas (not together).  She also got the okay from the doctor to start drinking cow's milk, which she isn't a huge fan of, but she seems to like it more and more every day.  We've also introduced her to the little cutie oranges and she likes those a lot.  (There are a few other things we could try giving her, but allergies run in Covey's family with peanuts and tree nuts and I'd rather get her tested before I try any of those foods.)

• She still doesn't do a real crawl--more like the army crawl she has been doing, but she has gotten a lot faster at it.

• She learned how to pull herself up on furniture.

• One of her favorite shows to watch is called 'Pocoyo'.  It is a really cute show and she gets so excited every time it comes on.  It is only available on youtube, which actually works out great because then I can just turn it on any time.  She also likes to watch 'Baby Einstein'.

• She loves to "read" books.  She will sit on the floor in her room and pull her books out of her bin until she finds the one she wants and then she'll turn the pages and chatter to herself and point.  Sometimes she will pick a book and bring it over to me so she can sit in my lap and "read" it to herself.  I'm so happy that she loves books!

• Makadie has a very expressive face!  She points to things all the time and then turns and looks at me with her little mouth in a perfect 'O'.  She also has these sly little looks she gives.  And her pout--heaven forbid she turns that on a boy!  Dang, she is cute!

• She giggles all the time and she laughs so hard when she gets tickled.  It is one of the cutest sounds I've ever heard!  Covey gives her "tickle time" at least once a day where he just tickles her like crazy.

• She has started to really like bath time.  She kicks her legs like a mad woman and splashes water all over the place!

• As she has gotten older, I have noticed that she loves attention.  She has no problem being right in the middle of ten people all watching her.  It's like she thrives off of it.  I always knew she demanded a lot of attention from Covey and I, but now I see that she demands every one else's attention too!  How could she not though, with her sweet little face and bright smile?

• Even though she loves attention, she has also learned how to play by herself a little bit more.  I can put some toys in front of her and walk away to do something for a few minutes and she is fine.  Hallelujah!  There were times when I seriously thought this day would never come.

• These are the words she knows: mem (mom), ded/deddee (dad/daddy), wissit (what is it?).  In addition, she makes all sorts of other noises.  I'm sure she knows what she's saying, but I haven't a clue most of the time.

• She is becoming her own little person more and more each day!  It is amazing to watch her learn and grow and process information.  She is extremely curious, which I think is great, even if it is exhausting sometimes. :)

• In addition, she knows what she wants!  She will throw little tantrums if you take things away from her or if we don't let her have things she wants.  She is showing preference for things, such as toys and food.

• We had her one year doctor appointment.  She is 28 inches tall and she weighs 19lb 8oz.  She also got two shots--one in each arm--and she did NOT like them one bit.  It was so sad to have to hold her hand so she didn't jerk away when she got them and then to see the pain register in her little face and her big tears... It was so sad!  I wanted to cry with her.  :(  But other than the shots, everything went well. 

And here are some other cute pictures:

These two pictures crack me up!  Makadie looks overly excited to have her monitor.  Silly girl.

I'm a human jungle gym

First time wearing her hair in pigtails

Chowing down on her cheesestick

One of my best friends, Kristen, was in town and Makadie loved her!

Christmas

This year we had such a great Christmas!  Having Makadie here was definitely the best part.  It was so fun to see Christmas through her eyes.  Like every year, Christmas can be kind of busy and overwhelming, but we have really made an effort the last couple of years to simplify it.  As a result, we have enjoyed it a lot more.

This year, we spent Christmas Eve day with Covey's family.  Then we went up to my dad's house for a Christmas Eve party.  The next morning, my mom, Chey, and Dani and Stephen came over to our house for breakfast a presents.  Finally, we ended up back at my dad's house and that is where we spent the night.  On the way home, we made a stop over to see my mom's mom (Kadie's great-grandma), who had never seen her before.  I know Makadie had a good time and she was such a trooper and took good naps both days, which I was so grateful for!

So this post is really an accumulation of all those days.  Warning: picture overload!

Christmas Eve

Makadie's gifts from Covey's parents (a board book and a laughing baby)

Hanging out with Uncle Stephen

Makadie and her cousin, River

Kadie and Grandpa (my dad)

Getting towards the end of the day--she was getting tired eyes

My Grandma Baldauf opening up her gifts

My two cousins, Cori and Angie, and their husbands have a long standing tradition of giving a gag gift every Christmas.  This year it was a candy thong and an adult energizer bunny costume.  I about peed my pants watching these guys strut around!

We got home from the Christmas party and got Makadie ready for bed.  I had bought these darling pajamas at Old Navy for Makadie to wear and she looked so stinkin' cute in them!

Baby and Mama

Christmas Day

Makadie woke up bright and early on Christmas morning (at about 6:45) so she and I went into the front room and hung out for a little bit while Covey slept in (I know, he's kind of a party pooper).  To entertain myself in the early morning, and to document Makadie's first Christmas, I took some pictures before he got up.

Then, everyone started to arrive.  We ate breakfast while Makadie went down for a nap.  She woke up just in time to start opening presents.  I think she sensed it... :)  Makadie had a lot of fun 'opening' her presents and she liked playing with them even more!  She was a spoiled little girl by the time we were done, and the day wasn't even half over.

Stephen really was happy to be at our house for Christmas


















Dani is obsessed with cotton candy






Dani and Stephen's wedding book I made for them

Afterwards, we packed up and drove out to my dad's house in Herriman for more Christmas fun.  One of the gifts Covey and I got Makadie was a Pack 'n Play and so we took that with us so she had somewhere to take a nap and sleep for the night.  She did a great job!  Granted, she was probably exhausted from the last two days, but I will still take what I can get.  When she got up, we did presents again.  Then we all just played and talked and ate, and then we did it all again. :)  I love Christmas!

My step-sister, Brooke, and her husband, Waylynn




My Aunt Sue






The bag was almost as big as Makadie




My dad showing off his license plate art that Covey and I made for him to go in his shop


My niece, Sayler, and Makadie

My step-mom, Sharon, and Makadie

Day After Christmas

The next day, we took our time getting ready to leave, but couldn't take too long because it decided to snow like crazy!  I was a little worried because we had told my Grandma Sheri (my mom's mom) that we would come by and see her before we went back home.  Thankfully, the weather wasn't too bad and we made it over to her house with no problems.  Part of the reason we went over to my Grandma's house was because she had never seen Makadie.  (She has some health problems that prevent her from sitting for very long in a car, and to be honest, we hadn't really made much of an effort to go see her, but I won't bore you with the drama that is my grandma...)

Grandma got her some little Winnie the Pooh characters to play with


She's got two of them in her hand here.  Along with a face of, "Mom...?"

Makadie did pretty well and allowed my grandma to hold her which I think was fun for her.  We couldn't stay for too long before we had to head back home, but it was a nice visit.

Overall, Christmas was really great!  We loved having Makadie with us and for her to be big enough to kind of know what was going on.  I think our next Christmas is going to be even better! :)