Swim baby Swim!

We set up a small baby pool for Mady this weekend. We have a large pool that Eric and I have used in the past, but we thought we'd start small and in a few years haul out the large one again.
After letting the water warm up in the sun, we put Mady in. She absolutley loved it. Of course, she kept crawling around all over in the pool and playing with the toys. Then she decided she was curious about what was outside the pool, so she kept trying to crawl out of it.
It was about 75 degrees out, so she was only in the water for about 20 minutes, but I can see this being a fun thing to do all summer long!

First boating excursion

Today was Mady's first boat ride. We went out on the Mississippi. Mady was all bundled up in her life preserver and sitting in her stroller. She did really well as we rode around and then stopped to fish for a while. She started to get uncomfortable in the big, bulky life vest, so I held her for a while and then she did much better back in the stroller. After taking a short cruise, enjoying a bottle and cruising some more, Mady fell asleep; which allowed Eric and me to fish for a while. Mady lasted close to 2 hours, which is way longer than I thought she would! It was so nice to be out on the boat, and now that I know she can handle it, we'll probably go out more often.

Seven Months Old

This year is crusing right by! Mady is now seven months old.

At seven months...
* Mady eats stage two foods, loves freeze dried yogurt pieces, biter biscuits and little cereal poofs.
* Still has no teeth.
* Has been crawling for a while now and can cruise really fast on those knees. Her knees have developed some good crawling callouses.
* Pulls herself up on EVERYTHING! Pulls herself all the way to standing occasionally, too, which we have been discouraging.
* Likes to pull all of the cds and movies off the entertainment center shelves.
* No longer has an old-man bald spot.
* Still loves swinging outdoors.
* Still hates being in her carseat.
* Could care less about baby toys right now, it's more about whatever else she can find to put in her mouth that she's not supposed to have.
* Is terrorizing Ella, our cat.
* She pet her first snake last weekend. Was confused by the big tortoise that was crawling just like she was.
* Enjoys coming to school to see my students.
* Hates to wear hats in the sun.

Summer will hold lots of new opportunities for us to be out and about with Mady and many more firsts, I'm sure. Keep watching for more updates!

Mother's Day

Mady and Eric gave me a beautiful jewerly box that Eric made me for Mother's Day. We went to Myrick Park to spend some time outside on a gorgeous day. Mady went down the slide twice, spent some time on the swings and crawled around on the spongy ground of the playscape. It was a very nice way to spend my first Mother's Day with Mady.

Big Eater

Since Mady began crawling two weeks ago, she seems to have a hollow leg that she's stuffing all this food she's eating! She's drinking about 30 oz a day and eating half a jar of food for breakfast, a jar and a half for lunch and a jar and a half with cereal for supper! Thank gosh she's so active!!

Mid month update

Mady is a crawling machine. She's everywhere, especially places that she shouldn't be. She's trying to pull herself up on the entertainment center to get the tv or the CDs. When she hurts herself she will come crawling to Eric or me for comfort. The other night I had some music on tv and she was laying on her back in the middle of the living room making this shrieking noise, for a good 15 minutes. Eric finally came up from the basement to see what was going on. He thought she was hurt or something because she was making this loud shrieking. It was her way of singing. She was trying to make the loudest noise possible. Way too funny!

First hospital trip

Mady got very sick last week. On Sunday she had a fever of 102.3 and then started vomiting. We could not get her to eat and she kept throwing up and the fever was not going down. We went to the clinic and they told us that it was just a self-limiting virus and to give her Pedialyte. We went home but Mady would not drink the Pedialyte. I don't blame her, that stuff tastes like crap. So we had to syringe it into her mouth throughout the day and still try to give her as much in fluids as we could.
Monday I stayed home with Mady and she seemed to be doing a bit better, no vomiting, but no eating either. She had a few ounces of fomula and actually played a bit so we thought she was on the path to getting better.
Tuesday I picked Mady up from daycare adn found out she had only drank 3 ounces of formula all day. We went to the clinic but they sent us to the emergency room because they were worried Mady was dehydrated. Mady was a little trooper, smiled at everyone, but just laid in my lap. That's how I knew she was sick, she never wants to just lay in someone's lap and she has such a fear of strangers, but she was so good!
After force feeding her some pedialyte, they let us go. Mady's fever was gone, so as long as she was getting some formula and pedialyte, they wouldn't have to give her an IV, thank god.
Day by day, Mady's getting back to her normal self. Since she's my daughter, I'm sure this, unfortunately, will not be her only trip to the emergency room in her life, but we can still hope! :)