E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E at 9 months

I woke up this morning in total disbelief that Madelyn is 9 months old today. She is the happiest, most laid back baby most of the time. She's growing like a weed and her "talking" sounds are getting more developed. She is saying "da da". Breaks my heart that it's not "ma ma" first. At first I thought she was saying it but didn't know what it meant. Not the case. She looks at, or crawls to, Chip saying "da da". I hold the bottle in front of her and she says "ba ba" sometimes. She may be an early talker like Karlee was.

One of her favorite things to do is "fly" on my knees. It gives me a good ab workout too (which I desperately need)!




Madelyn thinks her sister hangs the moon. She follows Karlee everywhere. Those little hands slap the floor about 100 miles a minute when she's chasing Karlee around the room. They play so well together, even when Karlee torments Madelyn with costumes and playing dress up.







The stairs have been a big issue. It's hard to keep a baby gate up because Karlee goes up and down the stairs to her playroom and bedroom all the time. I keep telling Chip we need to install gates that have a swinging door at the top and bottom of the stairs. He's not convinced that attaching it to the wall and handrails is a good idea. A busted head may change his mind!



Madelyn is pulling up on anything and everything. I pulled a few toys out of the attic and cleaned them up for Madelyn a few weeks ago. She loves the push toy but would rather try to crawl up it than stand behind it. She walks a few steps with it but is still a little wobbly. It won't be long before she's going full force with it (Lord give me the energy to chase 2 kiddos!). She loves the toys that sing and play music. She bounces her little body to the beat! Karlee has enjoyed the "new toys" too.









I finally had a chance to clean (or at least straighten up) the playroom. You don't realize how many small parts come with games and dolls until you have a little one crawling around that puts EVERYTHING in her mouth. All Barbie shoes and accessories, small puzzle pieces, and games pieces are safely stored away in a place that only Karlee can get too. Madelyn now has a new room to roam around in and loves it. Karlee is getting better at sharing and not grabbing everything saying "mine".






I have to keep my eyes wide open all the time to see where Madelyn is. She can slip up on you in a matter of seconds. Her favorite place to get is the dishwasher. It pretty much runs non-stop these days since I'm cooking every night and cups from 2 kids pile up quick. Madelyn thinks moving the racks in and out is funny. She giggles and claps when she pushes them back in. But, when it's time to close it up, she is NOT happy.






The sneaky child is in to absolutely everything. She almost pulled the fire screen on top of her the other day. When I walked out of the room for about 10 seconds to put the screen away, I came back to find Madelyn up on the hearth with her head stuck in the fireplace playing with the little rocks around the gas logs. Looks like I have another active, fearless child on my hands.

As you can see in the above picture, Madelyn still doesn't have a single tooth. I need to write a letter to the tooth fairy! It hasn't slowed her down on eating though. She's on a little bit of table food, only fruits and veggies. Bananas are one of her favorites, but extremely messy. She likes english peas and carrots. I am still only giving her water in a sippy cup. Haven't moved to watered down apple juice yet. She likes water so we're sticking with it.

Madelyn is continuing to sleep well at night. She has even started napping better during the day. Naps are not on a schedule like Karlee's were (and still are). It's hard to have a schedule for the 2nd child. By the time Madelyn gets to sleep, it's just about time to pick Karlee up from summer school or we've been at swim lessons during her nap time. Madelyn has just learned to sleep well in the car and I leave her in the car seat on the floor of her bedroom to continue the nap when we get home. Don't judge me, just trying to survive!

I'll report back with 9 month stats after her check up on Monday.