Maddie Tries Squash (with Video)

We introduced Maddie to her second food today - Squash.  I attempted to roast squash and mash it but I didn't buy a big enough squash so there wasn't enough.  Luckily I purchased some premade Gerber squash.  Squash is sweet so I thought Maddie would take to it right away, I was surprised when she grimaced and spit it out initially.  She eventually came around.  We have given it to her a few times since and she likes it after the first few tastes.

First Official Playdate

This past Sunday we had our first official play date at our house with our very good friends.  Simon (almost 4) and Lillian (18 months) came over and got right to playing.  Simon played with the big kid toys with Joseph - Lincoln Logs and the MiP robot.  Lillian played with Maddie and her toys.

After about an hour of playing, everyone went to get [me] some much needed donuts, while I stayed and put down Maddie for her nap.  Maddie woke up a short while later for some more playing before the big kids headed home for naps of their own.

It was a great play date, and we look forward to many many more to come!

Maddie & Lillian playing

A great picture of everyone facing the camera!
Madeleine (5.5 months), Lillian (18 months), and Simon (almost 4 yrs)

Silly Selfie with Colleen!

Lillian going in for a hug!

Awwwwww

Maddie Tries Avocado!

This afternoon we introduced solids to Maddie for the first time!  We decided on avocado as her first food.  Avocados have healthy fats, lots of vitamins, and not to mention, they are easy to prepare! I just scooped the avocado meat out of its skin and cut it into tiny pieces.

We initially thought she would pick the avocado up from the plate and put it in her mouth.  You can see she didn't know what to do at first, but after giving her the first spoonful, she was knew to open her mouth every time the spoon came by. She seemed to enjoy it!  After she seemed done with the spoon, we let her play around with the avocado with her hands.  She tried to put some in her mouth!

We will give her avocado for the next 2-3 days.  In case she gets sick or has an allergic reaction, we will know it's because of the avocado. Then we plan on giving her squash as her next food!

Open wide!!

A little smile! We think she likes it!

Splish, Splash, I was Takin' a Bath

Maddie gets a bath every other night.  Even though she's bathed 50-75 times, she still gasps whenever we put her into the warm water or pour water over her head.  Once she's in and wet, she likes it.

She spends most of the time hitting the water with her arms (i.e. splashing) and she does this weird full body jerk backwards/leg kick thing that I assume is some reflex/instinct from when we were all frogs. 

Here's Maddie just before getting into the water.

Sorry, here's her actual picture.

She's getting comfortable enough to play with some of her bath toys rather than just flail about.  Here she is with her favorite:  the Allen Iverson Ducky.

Do You Remember the Time?

Vickie has been doing such a great job updating the blog for the last few months that I've completely ignored my responsibility to share my videos and photos.  Here are some of videos that you might have missed.


Maddie is ready to eat food.  Whenever she sees adults eating she starts smacking her lips.  As she plays, she sucks/bites/tastes just about anything she can get her hands on.  Here's a video from February 10th of her trying to taste her rattle.

Maddie doesn't really do the full on crying thing much, but she does know how to fuss until she gets her way.  Here's a video of her fussing just before bedtime from February 28th.

Everyone's favorite activity is the jumper dumper.  I call it the jumper dumper because there's a 50% chance that she'll have a full diaper at the end of the jumping session.  Maddie loves it because she can just jump and jump and jump and dump.  She's ready to leave right after that last part.  Mom/Dad love it because we can just plop her there and get 20-30 minutes of "me time" - usually getting ourselves some food or sitting on our own dumper.  This video is from March 4th.

Maddie's pretty quiet when compared to other kids.  She can sit in one spot and play for 20-30 minutes and not make much sound until she gets tired of it - at which point she starts fussing.  Occasionally, when she's either well rested or really, really tired, she likes to screech. 97% of the time nothing, 3% screeching.  I'll take that.  Here's a video from March 10th.

We try to take Maddie to the park across the street at least once a day (weather permitting).  She loves to swing.  Here is a video of one of  her first times in the swing from March 16th.

Do you remember the time when Maddie gasped with delight as she saw herself in the mirror?  No?  Well, sorry about that.  My bad.  She does that all the time and it's super cute.  This one is from April 9th.

Grandma Kathy Visiting in Early March

Grandma Kathy was kind enough to come visit us in early March and help us out by watching Maddie for a few days.  This allowed us to go out to a friend's birthday party and actually drink and to sleep in/suffer a hangover in peace the next day.  She also substituted as workday babysitter giving Vickie some much needed time out of the house.

Thanks Mom!

Cuteness from the past couple of weeks

Photos and video from the past couple of weeks

I can't believe how BIG she looks in this picture!!  So much bigger than her 5 months.

Notes at 5 months

We wanted to share some notes about Madeleine at 5 months.

Overall, Maddie is a happy, healthy baby!  She often smiles and laughs, and is learning new things all the time!  She amazes us daily.


All Things Sleep:

* We transitioned her out of the swaddle about 1 month ago.  We now put her in a big puffy suit called the Baby Merlin's Magic Sleepsuit.  She looks hilarious in it, like the Michelin Man.  It hasn't helped with her startle reflex as much as I thought it would, but she sleeps pretty much as well in it as she did the swaddle. Once she starts to roll over in her sleep, we will transition her into another gimmicky sleepsuit.

*We also transitioned her out of her bassinet and into her crib about 3 weeks ago.  We first we put her in the bassinet in her own room and finally transitioned her into her crib. Again the transition went well.  Maddie actually sleeps better since we aren't accidentally waking her up when we snore :)

*Napping: Naps are a struggle.  She naps 3-4 times a day, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.  Once day she had 5 - 30 minute naps!  The 2 hour naps are rare.  Our little girl is quite smart, she now realizes when we carry her up the stairs that it's time for her nap, so she fusses on the way. She will also fuss when we turn the noise machine on or close her window drapes.

*Sleeping at night: We are still putting her down anywhere from 6-7pm nightly.  She wakes up periodically throughout the night, but we put her pacifier in and gently rock her back to sleep.  She wakes up 1-2 times a night to eat.  Maddie gets anywhere from 11-1/2 to 13 hours of sleep a night.


Eating: Maddie is still mainly on breastmilk, but we have had to supplement with 1-2 bottles of formula a day. I have not been able to pump enough for our growing girl's intake.  We are also supplementing with milk I was lucky enough to freeze while on maternity leave.  She's mainly bottle fed during the day, even when I work from home.  I am nurse her at night before bed (about half of the time, the other half is a bottle), I nurse her in the middle of the night and when she wakes up.  We look forward to starting solids soon, we plan on starting a week before her 6 month doctor's appointment.  Maddie shows interest when we eat.  If she sees us drinking out of a cup, if we bring the cup to her, she opens her mouth and licks the cup. She will also do the same with a spoon; if we eat from the spoon, she will open her mouth and lick it as well.

Milk: On the subject of milk, Maddie understands the word and sign for Milk! She gets noticeably excited when we show her the sign for milk, or say the word "milk," and she even understands it in Chinese!  She also gets very excited when she sees a bottle, hers or someone else's (see the note on the Playgroup posting).

Sitting on her own: Maddie has been sitting on her own unassisted for a while now, and for much longer stretches of time. We still put lots of pillows around her to be safe if we aren't sitting right next to her, but she can occupy herself for a decent amount of time sitting up.  If she starts to lean over, she struggles to right herself up. She doesn't particularly like being laid down on an incline anymore, and you can see her trying to sit up on her own.  We have also been putting her in her high chair so she can be part of the action. She seems to enjoy being at grown up height.

Kiss Kiss: See post on this.  We prompt her to do this all the time and it's just so adorable when she does.  Trying to get more on video.

Rolling Over: Maddie officially rolled over this past Sunday, April 12th!  From back to front.

Pivoting: Maddie has been pivoting when she is on her belly. We will lay her in one direction and a few minutes later she has pivoted over anywhere from 90-180 degrees!  We practice "crawling" with her - we lay her on her belly, and put our hands on her feet as leverage to herself forward.

Cats: Maddie LOVES our cats!!  As soon as they enter the room, Maddie turns to look at them.  She especially likes Voldemort, who has a bell on her collar. When she hears her jingle jingle she wants to pet Voldy now!  Maddie gets very excited when we sit her next to the cats and we have to remind her to be gentle, otherwise she will grab 2 fistfulls of cat!  The cats like her as long as Joseph or I are there to keep Maddie in line.

Going Outside: Maddie loves to go outside!  We put her in the stroller or the baby carrier, and visit the park whenever we can. She loves to be in the bucket swing and gives the biggest smile when she gets a big push. She loves to watch the big kids run and jump around as well.  We even work in a trip to Walgreens or the grocery store so we can multitask!

Socializing:  We have enrolled her in Tot Playtime at the Wicker Park Field House 3 times a week. She gets to play with new toys and most importantly she gets to socialize with other kids!  She is the youngest one there at 5 months, the next youngest babies are 9 months.

Tot Playtime at Wicker Park Fieldhouse

We signed Maddie up for Tot Playtime at the Wicker Park Fieldhouse.  It is 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday & Friday) around lunchtime until the beginning of June.  Maddie is the youngest one there at 5 months, she is the only one not moving around on her own.  The other young babies either crawl, army crawl, or roll around to get where they need to.  There are also lots of toddlers who are walking.

There are lots of "new" toys for her to play with (I write "new" because they are really old and dirty toys, but "new" because they are different from what we have at home).  There is a 9 month girl named Ruby who Maddie has played with a couple of times.  At Maddie's first playtime, Ruby was given a bottle.  It took a while for Maddie to realize what was going on, but when she realized Ruby had a bottle and she didn't, she started to cry.  Playtime was cut short to go home to feed her.  We make sure to bring a bottle with us now!

So far the socialization has been really good for Maddie.  We see her catching on to new toys quickly. She especially likes a little drum, so we went out and got a couple for her from the thrift store.  She likes watching all the big kids around her moving around on their own, hopefully she will develop quicker by watching them.  So far she hasn't gotten scared when other babies crawl up to her or sit next to her and play.

Kiss Kiss!

Maddie understands what a kiss is!

About 25% of the time, if we say "kiss kiss" she will turn her head and give a big open mouth kiss on our cheek!  She also understands it in Cantonese!

Maddie Officially Rolls Over !!!

It is official, our baby girl is mobile!

This morning, April 12th, Maddie rolled over multiple times from back to front!!  It's been a little over month since I originally posted back on March 5th of Maddie showing the first signs of rolling over.  Apparently rolling over from back to front usually happens after rolling front to back, which Maddie hasn't shown any interest in so far.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been doing roll overs daily to get her used to the motion of rolling over from front to back, and back to front.  This morning was another typical morning doing our normal "exercises."  Maddie seemed extra inclined to stay on her side so after a few roll overs where I helped her out, she did a few where she pulled on the mat and pulled herself over.  Then she rolled over completely unassisted!  I was able to get a video of one of her very first unassisted roll overs!

She did a few more then I put her down for her nap.  She was struggling to get to sleep and actually rolled over in her crib!  After she woke up from her nap she rolled over a few times again while she was awake!

Now we will work on rolling over front to back. So far she hasn't shown any signs of this but we're just happy she's rolling over period!

Visiting Palmisano Park

Today was a lovely day, low 60s, sunny with little wind, so we decided to visit Palmisano Park in the Bridgeport neighborhood.  The park used to be a quarry, then a landfill and now a park.  It's a really neat park with a pond, lots of rocks, big hills, and lots of green grass.  There is also a playground, tennis courts, basketball courts and a baseball field.

In front of the pond and rocks

There are a few different trails. These are the metal trails which were very different. There were also concrete and dirt trails.

There was an artist installation called Ten Thousand Ripples of about 12 Buddha heads in a circle.

First time laying in the grass! She did not enjoy it much, we think because it was cold and slightly damp.

Afterwards we stopped by a nearby store. Maddie got her very first ride in a shopping cart!  It was a short shopping trip but Maddie was great the entire time, only fussy when we got to the car.

Monthly Photo (5 Months)

Maddie is 5 months old today!  

Unofficial stats:
Weight - approx 17.5 pounds - almost 2 pounds heavier than 1 month ago
Height - approx 27 inches - almost 1 inch taller!

Laughing at the Cubbies

Here's a video of what Maddie thinks when I ask her if this is the year the Chicago Cubs win the World Series.

Madeleine versus the Machine

Joseph bought himself a new toy – a MiP Robot.  It’s a really neat toy, it moves around on the same technology as a Segway and he controls it with an app he downloaded on his iPhone!

We sat Maddie down to watch the robot. She was very interested in it.  Joseph let it go back and forth, and spin around and even dance!  The MiP accidentally hit Maddie on the foot and fell over and said “OH!”. Maddie started to cry as soon as it happened!  We do not know if she cried because it hit her and “hurt” her (it’s not big so it didn’t hit her very hard), or if she cried because it fell over. 

A couple of days later, we showed my mom the MiP and told her how Maddie got upset after it fell over and hit her.   She held Maddie and Joseph ran the MiP again and did the same thing. This time he ran it into the rug where it fell over. Maddie got upset again!  Joseph ran the MiP again (not letting it fall over) but Maddie still whined and cried.  

We decided to try it again a third time and wanted it on video.  The video is below.  You can see Maddie is very interested in it and follows it around on the floor. When it falls over, she gets upset.  She is upset when it spins and when it falls over again.

Our poor girl!!  So we won’t be playing with it around Maddie for a while.  Maybe she’ll grow to like it later, or we will try to make it not fall over....

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our little basket of joy!

The beautiful dress was handmade by Grandma Kathy. The bunny is from Grandpa Don and Mary Ellen. She loved all of it! She liked chomping on the bottom of the dress, and especially on the bunny's ears and feet.