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.