All I wanted for Christmas was….

You guessed it—the two front teeth! But those pesky little things just won’t come through! We can see them right there, but they just will not end the unhappy teething time :o( Madelyn turned 10 months old, weighs 20 lbs and measures 30 inches long. Not only has she grown, but she had her first family Christmas and had an exciting time! The night before we got her dressed up in her Christmas pajamas (I LOVE them) and then the next morning when I had to wake her up, I walked in to this cute little booty in the air and just had to take a picture. We started with our stockings and Santa brought her all the Charlie Brown holiday stories on DVD. She was so happy to see what was in those weird stocking things finally. Then we moved on to the presents…..Mommy got her a gift, daddy got her a gift and then Santa brought a big gift. The big gift made up multiple parts so we wrapped them separately to give her “enough” paper shredding time. So we helped her open mommy’s gift to help her get the hang of ripping open the paper. She was mildly excited about the cute pink shoes….then we opened daddy’s gift…….and then she didn’t want to do anything else, but play with the Cookie Monster! He talks and opens his mouth while asking for cookies which you feed him. After you feed him all the cookies you look in his backpack to get the cookies. She LOVES it! Then we had like 5 other huge boxes that we had to trick her into opening. By trick her I mean “hide the cookie monster”. We finally opened all the presents and then off to all the grandmother’s houses we went. Whew, was it ever a long day…. We also made a trip to the "North Pole" (International Plaza) to see Santa one weekend and drop off our wish list. While at the north pole, we got to see some fake snow and she was so cute trying to catch it! She actually did amazing with Santa, but I think it was because we stood around watching and waving "Hi" with him for about twenty minutes waiting for daddy to meet us from work. By the time we made it to his lap, they were like old friends just catching up.

So after going back and reading these, I realized that I do a really good job of keeping up with all the physical milestones that she reaching; however, I felt that I wasn’t really showing the other side which is probably the better side :O) So, this post I will attempt to do concentrate on the “other” side.

First, I think that Madelyn will be a very strong and independent person. I say that because there will be times where I will try to feed her and she will refuse; however, if I just lay it down on the tray she will eat it. Or when I see that she wants to do something like walk from one object to the next and she is hesitant to do it, I will offer he my hand and I can see her look at it and think about taking my hand and then almost shake her head no and try to do it herself. And it is in those moments that I realize how much I love that little stinker! To see her thinking and choosing and learning all in that short moment is so wonderful. Sure it hurts my feelings just a little to be rejected (LOL), but I really do love to watch her and let her grow up in that “other” way.

Also, I love when she finds something that really interests her. I mean, really interests her in way that it seems like everything and everyone in the room disappears and she is so intently involved in what she is “working” on that it feels like I’m watching baby Einstein or someone about to solve a rubix cube. She will inspect the object and then flip it or twist the same way over and over again as though some great secret is about to be revealed when it really just the whale that covers the bath tub spout or the buckles on her car seat.

Other times, I love to watch when Ryan, my grandfather or Ryan’s father work on things (which usually involve putting together or fixing one of her toys) and she zeros in on them and is watching every single little move they make and then she will look at their face and then look back at what they are doing. It looks like she is taking the most meticulous notes in her head that makes me think she could do it herself immediately after they finish. Another time is when we were showing her how to feed the cookies to the cookie monster. She watched closely and was watching every step and then she did it! It was so neat to see her learn and then do it herself! Definitely, one of the best mommy moments ever! It was so cool I had to share a video of her doing it!


http://youtu.be/3b50St40dRU

When she first started to wave to say Hi you could tell she was doing it because you would do it. Now she understands that when you see someone and when you wave they wave back to her and she gets all excited because she’s realizing that she’s communicating with people. Granted now we wave to everyone everywhere we go….walks in the neighborhood, while grocery shopping, as we get out or in the car at school……we wave to everyone until they wave back :o)

ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT ME......



By the way.....we TOOK OUR FIRST STEPS :o) But you'll have to wait until next month to see the video since we couldn't catch the 10 month steps quick enough.