Seven Months

Sweet Madeline is seven months old!

is she sassy or WHAT? she gets that from me ha!

Here is Avery at this age....I don't see a ton of resemblance right now

Maddie Brynn has come a long way since being this wee little thing, right?

No stats this month but my pumpkin is fitting very well into her 6 month clothes and still wearing a size 2 diaper. That is, if we can even get a diaper on this girl, who turns into a whirling dervish the second you lay her down on the changing table. I'm actually getting pretty good at wranglin that diaper on while she is on her stomach....seriously.

Sadly, I have to report that she has not given up her one remaining night feeding. yet. I am willing it to happen though! Most of the past month, she has also stuck to her 3 naps a day schedule. Every now and then she is resisting that last nap though, so I think the end is near. And she goes to sleep at night a little earlier too, which is nice :).

A few new Maddie Brynn facts:

<--• Big news is she's army crawling all over the place! Fast too, and goes after everything that she's not allowed to play with, of course
• L-O-V-E-S to swing at the park with her sister and fits well into the baby swing now
• She can sit in the grocery store cart now too..and thinks it's so much fun-->
• We've actually found something she doesn't want to eat! She hated the chicken&gravy baby food and detested the one with beef. Loves the turkey though! And everything else! She still has two baby food meals a day and is much calmer about it, thank goodness
• Jumps and screams and has even more fun in her Jumparoo
• Still really likes to stand, and stomp when she's happy
<--• Wants to climb everything, especially the couch to peek at her sister on the monitor
• Babbling more and more!
• Very much enjoyed her first  Houston Rodeo experience-->
• The constant drooling and spit-up situation has not impoved--- and still no teeth!
• Still very social and wants everyone to pay attention to her...loves it when people smile at her, and flashes a big grin right back
• Most especially wants her big sister to pay some attention. Avery now gives her hugs, kisses and pat-pats pretty much anytime Maddie "asks" for them-- as in, whenever she gets in her face-- it's awesome to watch. I don't know exactly how, but Avery totally understands she has to be gentle with her, and it brings tears to my eyes. <3

20 Things

*****I actually began this post two full weeks ago...turns out that trying to blog your stream of consciousness is sort of hard when you keep being interrupted by kids, work and totally dosing off. But hey, at least I tried!!*****

It's not some secret that this blog is primarily centered around my little bubs...but I feel like I used to be better about blogging about other things as well, like recipes and decor and randomness. I know that not all of my readers are mommies, or necessarily interested in 24/7 kids, SOOOO I am going to try this "20 Things"/stream of consciousness thing and then go back and add photos depending on whatever comes up. Fun, right? Here we go--

1) I'm writing this while watching the movie Center Stage...love it. Anyone else noticed that the girl that plays Jodie is in the new McDonald's Shamrock Shake commercial? Poor thing needs more dance movies for her to do....
2) Bub the hub is not super thrilled we are watching this movie instead of pre-March Madness basketball mania. But he let's me watch it anyway, and that is one of many reasons that I married this particular hub.
3) This particular hub is also an excellent daddy---he just went went upstairs for the 10th time to tell Avery to go to sleep FOR THE LOVE OF GOD since she went down an hour ago and continues to bounce around.
4) That reminds me of this book I got for Christmas, you might have heard of it...I pretty much giggled hysterically all the way through it.

5) I think we are actually pretty lucky because both our girls are good sleepers (minus the occasional rowdiness mentioned above :)
6) Just recently we made Avery's bed into a toddler bed and so far she has done really well, but it's still so weird to walk in her room and see a big girl bed!
7) I still need to transition her nursery-rhyme themed room into her big girl owl themed room, but it's just another thing on my to-do list about 5 miles long
8) Also on to-do list: get out the cloth diapers and start experimenting with Madeline...can you hear Bub the hub sighing??

******interrupted and starting again a few days later

9) I am totally exhausted right now...we had the longest day: woke up for an early swim therapy for Avery, then speech therapy, then took the girls to the rodeo, then had a bunch of cards to finish for clients. I'm trying so hard to keep my eyes open and finally finish this post!
10) We got Madeline in the pool for the first time ever during Avery's therapy and it was really fun. I hope she turns into a water baby like her big sister.

11) I'm so glad that the hub is staying home for most of Spring Break for us, and my mom helped me with the other days. They spoil me :)
12) Avery is super bored being home with me instead of at school and I hate that. I wish desperately that I could take her on more field trips or to go play somewhere or SOMETHING to keep her more happy but it's just not possible. It's hard to accept that.
13) Meanwhile Madeline wants to be movin' and shakin' all the time now and I'm struggling to keep up!!
14) I just drifted off, so I'm going to have to finish another time.

********fell asleep and attempting to finish this again

14) Wow this is getting ridiculous, who knew this list would be so hard?
15) I was just looking over what I had written and turns out there was a reason that Avery was having such a hard time getting to sleep. We had been slowly starting a new med in hopes of coming off an old one, and turns out that it was causing her insomnia, among other bad side effects and we have abruptly stopped it...I hate meds.
16) Avery's scheduled for her first MRI in almost two years. She has to go under sedation and that makes me so nervous.
17) In less than two weeks I am going by myself to Austin for a good friend's wedding and having a mini MCHS swim friends reunion and I am SO excited to have a fun and hopefully relaxing girls weekend. I don't get away much :)
18) I am also VERY much looking forward to this weekend, can you guess why? Some of you know that I am just about the biggest MAD MEN fan there is and it is coming back after a year and half hiatus this Sunday and I am freaking out!!!!!! I just got the new EW with Jon Hamm on the front. yummy.

19) Has anybody else noticed the new "draping" fad, inspired by the Mad Men intro? It's totally cracking me up, check it out: http://draping.tumblr.com/ I think I'm going to have to submit.
20) I'm also excited to see The Hunger Games this weekend...although I gotta say that Mad Men still takes some precedence. I really miss Don. and Betty. and Joan. and everyone else. Can't wait to see what they've been up to. Obsessed? maybe.

On that note, I finally made it to 20 things, yay!!! What's funny is that I wanted to do a post that wasn't all about the girls, and it ended being half about them anyway. Oh well, I still like this, I think I'm going to try it more often. And hopefully it won't take 2 weeks next time...but knowing me, it probably will.

Sisters

It's hard to put into words how thrilling it is to have two little girls that are SISTERS.

I always wanted a sister! (it's ok, mom :) (and sorry, Drew)

and understand that they hold special places in each other's hearts.

 I can't wait to watch these sisters grow, play, giggle,

and love on each other!

And of course, teach one another.

I have a feeling that each girl will have a lot to teach,

and a lot to learn from one another. My hope is that they can remain

as patient and loving toward one another as they are right now, because

it sure does fill Bub the hub's and my heart with JOY. Here's hoping!