Big Road Trip

This weekend will be Mady's first big road trip away from home. We're going to Battle Lake, MN to bury Grandma Helen. We're driving to Great-Aunts Gail and Toni's home on Thursday night and then going to Battle Lake the next day. We'll be spending the weekend with Grandma Sylvia and Grandpa Lee, Great-Aunts Gail and Toni, and cousins Mike and Andy. On Saturday Grandma and Grandpa rented a pontoon so we'll actually get to go out on Battle Lake and see where Grandma Helen lived.

Momma's going to have to bring a load of ear plugs along since she has to stay in a hotel room with Snore 1 and Snore 2. :) Mady could definitely give Daddy a run for his money in the snoring department!

Daddy's first Father's Day with Mady will be spent driving six hours home. Not the best way to spend Father's Day, but glad we get to spend the weekend with family, celebrating Grandma Helen's life.

Eight months old

Mady is eight months old already! Can't believe it.

At eight months Mady...

* just got her first tooth! There's a second one that's just about through too.
* wants to eat anything that Eric or I have.
* stands next to the futon and walks back and forth.
* likes to watch Daddy exercise and laughs at him.
* loves going into any room she's not supposed to, so we have to shut every door.
* likes the bathroom toilet and would hang out in the bathroom all day if we'd let her.

Visitors

This weekend Grandma Linda and cousin Malayna visited. Poor Grandma, Mady really has stranger danger and would cry every time Momma left the room or when Grandma held her. On Saturday we took the girls to have their pictures taken together at Penneys. They turned out really good, I'll post them when I get them back. Saturday afternoon we went to the Children's Museum of La Crosse and had a blast. Malayna loved playing dress up and playing the piano. Mady liked that they had a foam area for her to play in. She and a little boy played in that area for a long time. Malayna also climbed the rock wall... she's so adventurous.
On Sunday we went to visit Sand Lake. Mady crawled all around Momma's classroom without having 30 little faces looking down on her. Malayna loved the keyboard and drawing on the whiteboard.
It was so nice to spend time with Grandma Linda and Malayna!

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.