It feels like every month has gone by fast, but this one seemed to slip away in a blink of an eye. We had lots of visitors, my mom and dad came out to see us, and we just got home from Colorado after surprising my mom for her birthday. It's always so fun to spend time with family, and we hope to make it out to Utah soon to see our family out there too! Madden is as cute as ever. He is very very busy and on the move constantly! It's definitely takes some effort keeping track of him and I'm slowly getting used to the moment of panic I feel when I look over and see that he's not on the blanket anymore. Most of the time I find him in my closet pulling my clothes off their hangers, or in one of the bathrooms, playing with the water spickett thing behind the toilet (gross, I know). Madden has the sweetest personality and he loves everyone, although is starting to reach for me and and turn in to me when someone else reaches for him. Secretly I totally love this, he knows his mama. Once again, Jeff and I feel so unbelievable grateful that he is our little boy. We can't really remember how we ever lived without him! Would time just stop, please?
1. Madden still loves to bite/suck on my face any time I'm holding him. For some reason he only does this with me. Jeff got a little jealous and tried to make Madden bite his cheeks, but Madden hates his scruff and pushes Jeff away. He won't let Jeff's face anywhere near him! Even when Jeff shaves, he still doesn't trust him.
2. Mad threw his first ever tantrum! He's been on a bit of a food strike lately, I have no idea what's going on. Anyway, when he's sitting in his high chair he closes his eyes and bows his head when he doesn't want any food, and sometimes he throws his head back and bonks his head on the back of the high chair! Sometimes he thinks it's funny, but this tantrum time, he would bonk his head then cry, bonk his head and cry. Over and over and over. Little stinker! Don't worry, I got it on video.
3. So with this food strike, I have semi figured out that he does a little better when I feed him with a normal spoon instead of his baby spoons. And he does better when he's holding a spoon-this way he thinks he's feeding himself. Sneaky sneaky mom.
4. Madden sat in a high chair in a restaurant for the very first time this month and he did great! It is must easier eating out now that I don't have to hold him the whole time, although it is still more work than it's worth.
5. Madden LOVES straws. I have kind of spaced trying to get him used to his sippy cups (that's my goal this month). But Mad loves drinking water through straws, or my water bottle. I'm not sure how much he actually drinks since his clothes are completely soaked afterward, but he's learning! He's also getting better at not gagging himself with the straw every time too.
6. Madden is an expert at sitting up these days. He still hasn't started crawling on all fours, but he gets around really well scooting on his tummy and doing his army crawl. Sometimes he just rolls where he needs to go. Whatever works! When he's sitting he gets so excited and flaps his arms really fast and sometimes tips over. It is the cutest thing.
7. Madden clasps his hands and puts them over his head all the time. We say, "SOOOOO Big" and he does it. He also grabs at EVERYTHING! Seriously, he is like a little lobster, always clawing for something- my face, clothes, hair, toys, food, anything! And he's quick too! He's not doing great with baby food, but he's snatched fist fulls of bread, pasta, donuts, bananas, etc. and they go straight into his mouth. Maybe he's just trying to skip introductory foods and going straight for the good stuff!
8. Mad and Dad love to rough house. We definitely have boys in the house. I'm used to it now, mainly because I hear Madden laughing the whole time so I know he's ok, but usually I get kicked out of the room when Jeff and Madden are playing because I freak out when it's getting too rough. Jeff sometimes needs reminding that he's only a BABY, but in his opinion he's doing his part in not raising a panty waist. I guess I'm going to have to get used to having crazy boys in the house!
- On a side note, several weeks ago Jeff was teaching Madden to headbutt. Jeff's head is hard as a rock and apparently he grew up headbutting with his brothers all the time. For the record, I HATE headbutting, and it's taken Jeff a little too long to learn not to headbutt me. Anyway, when he was teaching this to Madden I tried to stop him. I said, "Jeff! If you teach him that, guess who he's going to practice on allll day long? ME!" Fast forward to last week while I was at my parent's ward in Colorado. Mad and I are sitting in Sunday School and WHAM! Madden slammed his hard little head, that he obviously inherited from his dad, into my eye!! After a few moments of blurryness and tearing up, I noticed a huge lump growing right under my eye. I left the class and went into the bathroom and saw my eye swelling up and growing black by the minute! Yep, my little 8-month-old gave me a black eye. And Jeff was in big trouble!
9. I can't believe I've never mentioned this before, but I definitely have to document how loud Madden breathes. It is the funniest thing ever. Madden is a mouth breather, and a really really loud one at that! He sleeps with his mouth closed, but when he's awake, it's almost impossible to get him to breath out of his nose. We've tried pinching his mouth shut, and if he can't wiggle away from you he'll just hold his breath until you let his mouth go. I have very few pictures of Madden with his mouth shut. In fact, the few that I have, he looks like a different baby to me! And he breathes soooo loud too! When I'm on the phone, my mom can usually hear him breathing in the background. We love our little Darth Vadar baby.
10. Madden is also getting really good as pulling himself up on things. And by things I mean me. He loves to be held, and he follows me around the house and tries to climb up my legs. I'm amazed at how strong he is and I love that he wants me to pick him up. It's one of those reminders that being a mom is the best thing in the world.
11. A couple weeks ago, my dad flew Madden and I home to Colorado to surprise my mom for her birthday. She and my dad were in Utah for the weekend going to General Conference with my two younger sisters, and Sunday they said goodbye to them and drove home. As soon as my sisters said goodbye to my parents, they headed up to the airport and flew home! We all got home in time for my mom and dad to pull into the driveway. We all hid behind the counter in the kitchen waiting to surprise her when she walked in. We the the babies escape into the hallway which was perfect because the first thing she saw when she walked in was Madden crawling toward her down the hallway. We heard her say, "What the heck??" as she picked Madden up and when she walked into the kitchen we all popped out and surprised her. She had no clue, and it was such a fun way to celebrate her birthday. She really is the best mom. We had a family bonfire the next night and then spent the week together. Lucky us!
12. In colorado, Madden did some new and amazing things! He was not used to the dryness that Colorado brings compared to Florida humidity, and his lips were extra dry. It was so funny watching him lick his lips the whole week. So cute. He also sat in the swing by himself for the first time. And i think saying he loved it would be a bit of an understatement. He had such a blast on the swing and getting him to come out of it was quite the chore. Looks like he might become a playground rat later on. My mom also tried teaching him how to climb the stairs. Since we don't have stairs in our house we'll have to teach him when we are in Denver. He did so great climbing up, but we'll have to work on going down another time.
13. Taylor coined the phrase "POPCORN!!" for Madden during the trip. It was soooo funny. For as long as I can remember, when Mad gets excited he rolls on his back, makes his little legs stick straight, and does popcorn popping motions with his hands. His smile is huge and he squeals and breathes like he just ran a marathon. He really is the cutest thing ever.
14. Madden has almost 6 teeth! He had one rough night teething with a temperature of 100 degrees and the next day, we had his top two front teeth popping in. Two more on top are just now making their way down. It is also a goal of mine this month to teach him not to bite.
15. Madden is going to be a pumpkin and skeleton this Halloween. My mom got him the cutest glow in the dark skeleton jammies and he looks adorable in them. And I also brought home the pumpkin costume that i wore when I was a baby. He also looks adorable in it. I couldn't decide so he's being both.
16. Our little Mad Pup has the cutest, sweetest laugh and the most mesmerizing blue eyes. His little smile is so full of life and it's impossible not to love life with him in it. I love being his mom more than anything!
