Madison is 5 Months!

Madison turned 5 months old yesterday! At 5 months...

Maddie loves our morning walks. She sleeps for most of the walk.

 She's still a good little nurser (except when something is going on nearby that distracts her--that's not very fun for Mommy). She loves to grab my clothes or hair and even likes to make herself a little pocket by sticking her hand in the neck of my shirt.

Maddie went swimming for the first time. The water was pretty cold, but she really liked it!

She's becoming more interested in the world around her. Earlier today, she found Callie's shoes on the floor, made her way to them, and played with them.

 She got to try cereal for the first time yesterday. As this picture depicts, she didn't like it.

She still absolutely adores Callie. She smiles at her and coos to her. When I lay them side by side to change their diapers and clothes, Madison always turns towards Callie and touches her. Callie thinks she's trying to tickle her.

She is finally getting into a regular sleeping pattern. She naps on our walk for about 45 minutes, takes a big long nap in the middle of the day, and sometimes she'll take a late afternoon nap. She goes to bed between 8:00 and 9:00 at night and usually sleeps until between 4:00 and 6:00am (then Callie wakes up between 5:30 and 6:30--we have really early mornings around here...and Jason wonders why I fall asleep on the couch around 9:30)

Madison is getting more mobile and even looks like she'll start crawling soon! She is just starting various scooting methods and rolls all over the place. Lately she's started getting on her hands and knees, rocking back and forth and occasionally moving a leg forward.

She is such a happy, smiley baby and everyone who meets her comments about her smiling. Even when she starts to get upset, she'll usually get a few smiles in between cries. 

We sure love our Maddie!

Three Things to Remember About Callie

1. In addition to Mom and Mommy, Callie has started calling me Mommay (sort of with a British accent). I'm called Mommay when she's just woken up in the morning and is laying next to her door calling for me to come get her. I am called Mommay occasionally when she needs help with something and I am far away. I'm also called Mommay when she's whining about something. It's pretty funny.

2. I was doing the dishes today, and Callie came in the kitchen carrying a chair three times her size saying, "can help me" over and over. She often says this when I am doing chores around the house. She is always so eager and happy to help. Even though she always makes a mess of water on the counter, her clothes, the chair, and the floor, I couldn't turn her down because she's so cute.

3. When she is being silly, funny, or is responding to a question when she is feeling timid, she scrunches up her nose and exhales in short huffs through her nose, sort of like this picture (this nose scrunch was coaxed by me, so it's not quite authentic--but you get the idea). 

Hands Free

Tonight, for the first time in at least 2 1/2 months, I left the house without my children. It was exciting and liberating. These seemingly rare occasions never last very long and I usually end up feeling weird without my kids and missing them, but for an hour and a half, my hands were free and it felt great!

Surprise!!

Living in an apartment complex, I frequently hear people coming and going. There are other people with Honda's, and every time I hear the familiar beep from locking the car I think, "oh, I wish that were Jason coming home!!" Jason was originally told he wouldn't need to work on Sunday, and then he was told he'd need to work 4-6 hours. That turned into 12...The big deadline they've been working towards was this morning. So after Sunday, we said goodbye yesterday morning, not expecting to see each other until midnight or so. 

6:00 came around last night and I had just eaten dinner and had sat down to relax on the couch, when I once again heard the familiar beep of a Honda. I again wished it was Jason. A few seconds later, I heard someone trying to unlock the door. I was so shocked and excited when I opened the door and found my favorite person in the world!! To add to it, he was holding these beautiful tulips!! The combination of Jason coming home 6 hours earlier than expected, and him bringing me fresh tulip made my week!

Callie's Crib Adventures Continue

Callie has begun an awful habit of getting into Maddie's crib every morning and waking her up. Aside of not wanting Maddie woken up, I'm afraid Callie's going to hurt her when she gets in. I've been telling her it's a "no no" and I have discussed why she shouldn't be doing it, but I'm not sure the message is sinking in. I don't really want to start off our morning by punishing her. Any suggestions?

So Callie not only gets in the crib in the morning, but she also does it during the day. She's figured out how to use various objects in her room to get in and out of the crib (every time I take one away, she finds a new one). She love using the crib to put her babies to sleep. I've thought about getting a little baby doll crib to see if she'll use that instead.

Yesterday, I set up the pack 'n play in our closet for Madison to nap in during the day to give her a better chance at having uninterrupted naps. Callie thought it was pretty cool and of course threw her babies in it yesterday. This morning, while Jason and I were eating breakfast, Jason realized it had been a while since we had seen or heard Callie. He went exploring and found her asleep in the pack 'n play. Pretty funny. She had woken up too early after going to bed late last night, so I wasn't that surprised that she fell asleep. Jason then asked her if she could get out and she said, "too hard, I can't" (her current favorite thing to say), but as she was showing him that it was too hard, she did it. So she can now get in and out of the pack 'n play unassisted. She thinks she's pretty cool.

Expensive Bandaids

Our double stroller arrived on Wednesday! I excitedly opened it up that afternoon after nap time. The stroller had some zip ties randomly placed on the side bars of the stroller (not actually holding anything together--they seemed kind of pointless, actually) and they were really tight and thick. I held the stroller on its side with my left hand while trying to cut the zip tie with scissors in my right hand. I could barely even get the scissors under the zip tie and then they wouldn't even cut it. So I'm sitting there struggling to cut through it when, in a split second, the scissors cut the zip tie and jabbed into my left arm. I looked down and my wound looked disgusting. I felt like I was looking at something you would see on TV. Not that it was that big or anything, but the way my skin had given way and the way my arm seemed to be gaping open...I don't handle injuries very well.

So anyway, it started bleeding so I ran it under some water hoping to somewhat clean it (like I said, I'm not good with this sort of thing, especially on my own body, so I was not about to scrub it clean or anything) and then I put a paper towel on it to stop the bleeding and apply pressure. Other than a jet skiing accident when my tooth went through my lip, this was the worst cut I had seen on myself and I thought it looked deep so I wasn't sure if I'd need stitches.

Unfortunately Callie was watching when the accident happened (she was very excited about our new stroller), so by that point she was looking terrified. I started pacing the house because 1) I was trying to figure out what to do since I had the car that day, but didn't think I could drive myself, let alone drag two kids along and 2) I was in a lot of pain, but I was trying not to scare Callie. I kept saying over and over, "Mommy's okay, Callie. Everything is going to be fine", but she started crying and then Madison started crying because she had been left on the floor and was bored.

I called Jason and told him he needed to come home so he could help me get to an urgent care center. He had to take the train home, so 30 minutes later, we loaded up into the car and left. I've only been to an urgent care center one other time and that was for the aforementioned jet skiing incident. I remember  waiting for quite a while--maybe 30 or 45 minutes--feeling so awkward because I was still in a swimming suit, hair wet, and I had a towel full of ice held up to my bleeding lip. So I was expecting a similar wait time. Luckily I had fed Madison about an hour before the scissors attacked me (that sounds cooler than admitting that I was clumsy enough to point scissors in the direction of my arm while applying force). Both girls were quite content during the first hour of our wait, while I was all but writhing in pain (I think I'm a wuss. Jason definitely thinks so, but I'm starting to believe him). Callie happily played with the Fisher-Price apps I had downloaded only a day or two prior (yes, I got an iPhone!!!!!).

Around the time we hit the one hour mark in our wait time, I realized my cut was probably not that big of a deal since people were now being seen ahead of me, so I started wondering if we should just leave--but there was no way I could deal with that nastiness hiding under my paper towel. About the same time, the girls both lost their patience. Madison was hungry. Callie was bored. Jason ended up taking them home while I kept waiting.

Another 30 minutes later, I was finally seen by a doctor. Thankfully she was really nice and gentle. Upon inspection, she decided that it wasn't quite bad enough for stitches, but needed some glue and butterfly bandages to hold it together while it heals. In the process of cleaning it and dressing it, I was really trying not to let the whole event bother me, but she kept asking if I needed to lie down and kept having to remind me to breathe, so I guess I couldn't hide my true feelings.

Two hours and over $200 later, we left the urgent care center. I'm glad I got it taken care of, but Jason keeps teasing me saying that we had to by $200 bandaids for my own peace of mind. I just hope I can suck it up when doctor Mommy is needed for some gruesome emergency in the future.