A Ragtime Morning

Good morning!

We all got up bright and early this morning. Matt gave a presentation yesterday and got all excited about chemistry again. So he got up early so he could get back to work. Madeleine has allergies pretty bad from all this rain we've been having, so she got up earlier than usual. And it's my first day of work! So I got up because I couldn't sleep. (A cranky baby might have helped with that too.)

We had a bit of time to kill before campus opens from flooding, so we turned to the piano. We started with Beethoven and end with some ragtime. We all took turns playing. Having a piano in the home has been wonderful.

And ragtime I think was made to make people dance, so we did. I got all my new job jitters out doing the jitterbug, while Matt and Madeleine swung around the living room.

How do you like to start your morning? Any favorite songs to wake up to?

A random present

Matt has a tradition of getting presents one to two months early

(Yes, I already have all my birthday gifts!!!!)

so this year

I decided to top it and get him a present five months early.

I totally knew what I was going to get him.
It all started before Christmas when he saw one at Costco.

He loved it and he loved the price.

Too bad he didn't figure that out before they sold out.

Matt rarely wants anything, so I jumped on the fact he found something he really wanted.
(Buying gifts for him is always hard. One year I just got him a spatula, because we really needed one.)

After a lot of research, I picked out a Casio with weighted keys.

Two days later it was on our porch, and all of us were thrilled.

The fact that it showed up right after his hardest final was just icing on the cake.

Matt and I both play on it daily thanks to the headphones,

since we can play it after Tiny is asleep or napping.

She enjoys it too.

It's wonderful having a piano in our home again.
We tend to listen to a bit more classical music and music just in general.
Also, it's probably a good thing for Matt and me to keep up our piano skills.
I'm really glad Matt made a point of letting me know he really wanted it.
It was wonderful being able to buy him something for once that made him really happy.

Sophie

It was love at first sight for me.

I had to get Madeleine this little doll.

Only thing was she came in a box so we couldn't try it out on Madeleine first.

So I crossed my fingers and bought it after a month.

As you can see, Madeleine has attached to this doll.

Yay!

I'm so glad that she understands what I mean when I ask her where Baby Sophie is.

Because she has found her some strange of places.

Like behind the door, in the tub, in a pile of other dolls, under the bed...just to name a few.

Buying dolls I think is one of my favorite perks right now of having a girl.

(But lets face it, my sons will probably have dolls too.)

Coins in a jar

This is Madeleine's favorite Montessori game at the moment.

She's just about done mastering this skill so I don't think it will hold her attention much longer.

I think I'm going to introduce putting lids on different containers next.

Start of 2014

1:36 AM on New Year Morning 2014

Please note that Matt is in Madeleine's bed.

Happy New Year!

2013 was an amazing year.

Good luck to 2014.

Day 10 - Home and 1st snow day!

Day 10 - Home

I know I'm two days behind and I considered just combining the last three days into one post.

But I really wanted to give "home" a full post.

The reason I didn't post yesterday is Madeleine and I were at a Princeton Housing Meeting.

They are going to tear down the housing community that we live in now in July.

Matt and I are both really sad that we are going to have to leave this place.

When I first found out we were moving to the complex, I was actually pretty upset.

I was pretty sure that it would be awful.

But living here has actually been really wonderful.

So Day 10's photo is our floor plan! Tada!!

Matt and I are in Bedroom #1 and Madeleine is in the front.

It's honestly the perfect size for the three of us.

The big closet has been serving as my sewing room.

Here are pictures of most of our house.

I still haven't done a post on our room. 

Kitchen and bathroom

Living Room
Madeleine's Room

On another note, this week we got our first snow.

:)

We were SO excited. 

We got all dressed up to play.

Madeleine liked the snow...

until she took off her gloves and touched it.

Matt and I were laughing so hard.

7 months

Tiny is 7 months today.

If it wasn't for everyone asking me how old she is, I would have forgotten that she is a month older.

That alone is proof that I'm becoming more used to this mom thing.

I didn't take any "official" 7 month photos because of that.

Thankfully I had these photos on hand from when I was practicing with my camera a few days ago.

The lighting is slightly funky because of that, but I think these photos really captures her personality, because I wasn't even trying to get her to cooperate.

This month she not only did she learn to crawl, but stand up and even climb a bit.

Bulldog baby

She finally doubled her birth weight and is coming in around 15lb 4 oz ish.

She's still perfectly healthy and completely kissable.

She loves to move now.

Matt and I crack up, because she even sits up in her sleep.

Swaying side to side crying in the middle of the night.

She looks like a little drunk sailor. 

I don't know what this face is, but I love it

She follows us around the house too.

If I leave the room, a minute or two later I'll see this little face peeking around the corning.

Smiling and looking for me.

When she is tired and we are busy,

she follows us crawling and sobbing. Every 2 or 3 feet, she gives up in heartbroken desperation and just flops face down to the ground. She'll stay there for a few seconds before she finds the willpower to go a few more feet.

It is so pathetically cute, even if it makes us feel like bad parents.
(But not so bad that we don't laugh as we pick her up)

Huh?

She loves to "dance" with me around the house.

We play outside with the neighborhood kids every day.

She is starting to learn how to interact with other babies.

But most of the time, she would really rather just chew on things.

Unfortunately, with other kids around it usually belongs to someone else.

The next three photos after this had me laughing. She has so much attitude.

 She laughs at Matt when he blows raspberries.

She never really figured out the giggling thing.

It is so cute.

They are still buddies.

They like to go running, nap, and read together.

We often wait outside for Matt to come home,

and she seems legitimately happy to see him.

While she obviously has some attachment to us,

she still doesn't mind meeting new people.

She "waves" hi sometimes so people are always talking to us on the streets.

I make so many friends where ever I go because of her.

Telling me some epic tale

Every day she is getting be a bit more fun.

I love playing "caption this" with Matt at the end of the day when we look through the photos.

She brings so many giggles and smiles to our home.

Purpose of cribs

Cribs are for chewing

Cribs are for climbing.

Cribs are for getting stuck.

And if you were wondering...cribs are not for naps. -_-

(This was from a month ago.
And people wonder how she learned to crawl so early.)

A Princess and her Dino

As you can tell the pacifier really works.

PJs and a video

A few moments of our week...

In my sewing class I'm taking at BYU (I decided just to take a class for fun this semester to help me get out of the house), we made pj bottoms this week. I made baby matching bottoms. Oh yes just helping her be my little clone. 

When baby is awake, I have no idea what to do with her. She can only do so much tummy time. Then, I remember one of my friends gave her baby girl a manicure when she was 2 weeks old. I looked at her little nails and realized that even if I was sure it was okay that baby probably would end up chewing off the nail polish, there was no way I could paint those little things. That is a picture of her pinky finger next to mine. Her's is about the size of the tip of a ball point pen. I kid you not. It's tiny. 

Also baby learned a few new tricks this week. 

One is sleeping!!! We love it. She sleeps pretty awesome now at night (well most of the time). We stick her down and she'll sleep for 5 hours, eat and then sleep for another 3. We are still tired, but not from her but from our own bad sleeping habits.

And here is a video of her other tricks...smiling and making noises. She's usually like this in the morning. She was going on and on for like 10 minutes today...which was good, because it took me about that long to figure out the camera. 

(There is sound...you just might have to turn the volume up pretty loud)

And last but not least, we helped my mom put together stuff for my sister at the MTC, which you can read at her blog...here.