13 Months!

This past month has brought the most change so far in our little man's life. It seems like the day after his first birthday, he woke up and became and little boy instead of my baby. He is walking/skipping all over the place these days and he is bound and determined to move faster than his little feet can carry him. He still can't stand up on his own, but it's so fun to watch him walk on his knees until he reaches something or someone he can pull himself up on. February 5 he took his first steps, and February 12, he was on two feet for good!

Madden loves to babble! In the past he's always been so quiet when we facetime our family, but now he holds the phone and has long conversations with my mom. He still does his very high, girlie shrieks when he's excited, and when he's playing with his toys we often hear him saying, "dum be dum be dum" over and over again. The only time he says "mama" is when he's blowing spit bubbles, but he says dada all the time. He knows his dad and loves him a lot.

Every time Madden hears Jeff unlocking the door at night, he jumps and charges toward the door. When Jeff comes in, Madden has his arms held up to Jeff until he picks him up. I don't think Jeff could ask for a better welcome home. Last week there were a couple really late days for Jeff and he didn't get to spend much time with Mad before bedtime. Jeff was bummed when Madden didn't show much interest in him and wanted me instead. He thought that Madden had forgotten him a little bit, so I grabbed a picture of our family and brought it to Madden, and said, "Madden, where's Daddy?" He pointed his little finger right at Jeff and looked up and smiled! Then I told him to give Daddy kisses and he picked the frame up and kissed Jeff's face. How could he forget his Daddy? He's the best.

Madden has a big boy car seat now! He loves it so much and car trips are so much more guilt free for me now that I know he's having a great time in the back seat. He loves going to the park and spends most of the time following around the big kids and climbing up the slide. He doesn't keep any of his shoes on so he walks around the park with bare, dirty feet. Other moms must think I'm the worst. But bare, sticky feet are essential for climbing the slides, and he's a pro. My Mr. Independent does not like to be helped lately either. He pushes my hands away when I'm spotting him on the slide or anywhere else actually. He likes to do things all by himself! He also loves the pool too, we go several times a week and he splashes like crazy and digs around in stranger's pool bags. It should also be noted that he has the cutest little diaper tan lines on his buns! At the pool and in the bath tub he loves to dip his face in the water. He does it over and over again and looks up at me every time and just laughs. Last week he even started standing up on the edge of the pool and jumping to in to me. Except his version of jumping is more like leaning in quickly with a little bounce.

Madden loves eating with a fork these days. He pretty much likes doing most things by himself, and he even pushes my hands away when I try to feed him. He still shoves his mouth full of food until it's almost bursting and it's hilarious when he tries to talk like this. A lot of the time he'll chew some of his food, then spits it out and looks at it, then eats it again. Lovely, I know. He also likes eating while sitting on the counter. And all of a sudden he's started bringing me bags of snacks from the diaper bag or pantry and putting them on my lap wanting me to open them for him. I thought only big boys do that! I'm so happy that he's always been a good eater, I can imagine how frustrating some moms feel when they can't get their babies to eat. Madden has more than tripled his weight in a year! At his 1 year appointment he was 23 lbs 5 oz. As dense and heavy as he is, he's a skinny little thing. Long and lean. The doctor says he's growing into the perfect point guard.

Madden is doing new things daily, and he is so playful and spunky! He still loves unloading all of the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen and bathroom, but now instead of dumping things out onto the ground, he has to hand me each spatula or Tupperware one by one. Every time I take something from him, I say "Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu" and he thinks it's so funny. The dishwasher is still his favorite and this drives me crazy actually! I have to open the dishwasher very secretly and quietly, during his naps, or when Jeff has him fully distracted in another room. If he sees or hears the dishwasher door open, he charges to the kitchen to try and climb inside and dip his chubby fingers in the leftover dish soap and lick them. He takes handfuls of dishes and throws them over board and cries and cries when I finally shut the door. Madden is also going through a major head bonking stage. He is such a boy! He bonks his head on everything! The windows, the doors, me, the floor, the bath tub faucet, his books, me, his toys, and me! It amazing that he doesn't have a black and blue forehead because I have bruises all over me! He of course thinks it's so funny. Another funny thing he does is he'll be walking or crawling along, and he'll fall flat onto his tummy to take a little break. He kicks his right leg up and kicks his bum and just looks around at everything for a few moments. Then he's on his way again! I don't know why, but it's always the little things he does that make him so irresistible!

I'm finding out that I love teaching him things, it's really my favorite thing to do with him. I love how he's starting to bring me books and he crawls into my lap ready for story time. He is a page turner, which was kind of annoying at first, but I love that he's leading the way and showing me what he's interested in. He loves Polar Bear, Polar Bear because I do all the animal sounds which makes him laugh. And he still loves to thumb through his paper books, but lately he's been a lot rougher than in the past. We have several ripped pages. This month I've been reading "The BFG" to him, or trying to read to him. He must not like this book very much because every time I bring it out to read, he grabs it from me and throws it. Last time he even picked it up and walked with it all the way into his room where I found it in one of his dresser drawers! Mad is a pro at knowing where his eyes, nose, teeth, tongue, and mouth are. Sometimes he even does fishy kisses when I ask where his lips are. He is so cute when he does this, I can't even stand it sometimes!

He is so smart, and I'm amazed at how much he understands already. Sometimes I'll point at something across the room and ask him to bring it to me, and he'll do it! Even when he's doing things he knows he shouldn't be doing, like pushing over the lamp, he is starting to obey when we tell him no. The best thing he does with his newfound baby genius, is he gives us kisses whenever we ask for them. Sometimes his kisses are more like mauling my entire face, but I'll take them!

He is so loveable and is really the sweetest little boy. He's never been attached to anything. He's never used a pacifier, and he doesn't have a favorite blanket or stuffed animal. I honestly think I've always been his comforter, which is one of the trillion reasons I'm so glad I nursed him. We stopped nursing at the end of February and these past couple weeks as I've been weaning him, Jeff and I have noticed that he's become more interested in his blankets and stuffed animals. As heartbreaking as this whole weaning process has been for us, it is so sweet watching him lay his head down on anything soft. He will be playing and suddenly take a quick cuddle break and lay his head down on his blanket. But our new favorite thing he does is hug/squeeze to death his stuffed animal dog. The funniest thing is the noise he makes during the squeeze- it's like a desperate grunt, like he just can't hug it any harder. Then when he's done he chucks the dog across the room. It is sooooo funny, we are constantly putting the dog next to him just so he hugs it more often. Jeff and I are convinced he's copying what we do to him. We probably should stop loving him so hard!

The other night I was at the kitchen sink while Jeff was snuggling with Madden on the couch and reading stories. I looked over and had one of those moments that come so often these days, and I realized that I have everything I've always wanted. I know how lucky I am to be able to stay at home and raise our kids. With as demanding and significant as Jeff's career is, he is always the first to point out that my job, motherhood, is the most important. Becoming a mom has really shown me what unconditional love is, and I have never loved my husband more as I've watched him be a dad to our baby. And of course Madden, I think I might explode sometimes when I think of how much I love him. Jeff is so sweet when he hugs and kisses Madden. Every night he says, "I love you so so so much, but who do I love most? Mommy." Every once in awhile he'll ask me who I love the most, him or Madden. It's not even a fair question! I think I'm allowed to have two loves of my life.

 

We're here....1 Year!

My baby boy is one! A year ago this day seemed so far away, but almost as if I just blinked, we are here. Madden has been busy growing and being the sweetest, busiest, funniest, and happiest baby I know. Every day Jeff and I ask each other how we got so lucky with Madden, and we really feel so blessed that Heavenly Father has given us this baby. He is the perfect fit in our little family puzzle. Happy 1^st birthday to my little prince!  

1. This month has brought so many changes! It’s almost as if he decided to put three months of growing into one. One day Jeff and I went in to get him from his afternoon nap, and looking at his wakey little face I realized that he looked so different all of a sudden. After just one nap, Madden looked like a little boy instead of my itsy bitsy baby. It was a happy moment with just a little bit of a knot in my throat.

2. Madden is not even completely walking yet, and he is a terrorist. Really he is, but a very cute one. The first thing Madden does in the morning is jet into the kitchen and start flinging wooden spoons and Tupperware out of the cupboards and drawers. He does not rest until all the drawers within his reach are completely empty. He even gets on his tippies and reaches up to the highest drawers and does a blind swipe with his fingers and unloads those too. For days and days, I would clean up the kitchen multiple times a day, but as soon as he sees me cleaning he comes crawling back over ready to destroy again. He just likes everything out where he can see it I guess! I've never wanted to baby proof, mainly because I want him to be curious and have other things to do in the house other than play with his toys, but this past week I was going insane with the mess! Mad woke up to his beloved drawers duck taped closed. I just needed one day of sanity, and I got it. Now let the chaos resume...

3. He is such a funny boy- he knows when he's doing something he shouldn't. For instance, he loves standing up next to our nightstand and shaking it so hard that the lamp and picture frame wobble to the edge. Sometimes he'll sneak into our room and start shaking it just a little bit, then he'll stop and wait, looking over his shoulder for me to come into the room to stop him. As soon as he sees me he giggles and turns back around to give the nightstand a few more hard shakes before I snatch him up. He is such a trickster and he knows exactly what he's doing!! He is definitely all boy...he loves to unload the diaper bag and hide it's contents in the pantry, he pulls all the plugs out of the walls, he throws the picture frame and topiary off the sofa table every day, and he tips over the kitchen chairs. He loves the bathroom, especially climbing into the cupboards underneath the counter and sucking on Jeff's toothbrush. Each of our toilet paper rolls have a bite chunk taken out of the corner, and I follow him around cleaning up toilet paper spit wads. He can open the toilet lid now, and only once has he succeeded in using the toilet water as a play pool. I used to put him inside the tub while I was getting ready but now he heaves himself over the side and dives head first out of the tub. Defeat is one of the words I would use to describe our mornings. I've just succumbed to the realization that I'll never have a clean house again. It's actually really ironic that Madden's room is always the only one that is clean and picked up. Jeff says this is proof that he's a terrorist- he destroys everyone's territory but his own.

4. Meal times are so fun for us. He's always been such a good eater and I love making him new things to try. He used to sit in his high chair for a long time, just taking his time and eating everything I gave him. Nowadays this boy is on the move and I have about five minutes before he get too restless and tries to escape. He wiggles his way out and stands up on his tray, and that's how he likes to eat. Sometimes he even prefers to have one leg dangling over the side of the highchair. The other day at lunch he kept trying to crawl out of his chair onto the counter, and after shoving him back into his seat multiple times I finally realized what he was trying to get. He wanted  to see the picture of our family! It was so cute, I put the picture frame on his tray and he sat and ate the rest of his lunch, happily munching away and smiling at our family picture. Lately he loves blueberries, fresh ones. He loves them with every single meal and he picks them out and eats all of them first before eating anything else. He also loves grilled cheese, oatmeal, Greek yogurt, quesadillas, apples, crackers, peanut butter, eggs, and avocados. He is not digging sweet potatoes, quinoa, or bananas lately which is weird. I always put his food pieces on his tray for him, and after he's eaten all the blueberries he'll pick up each piece of his lunch and stare at it for a couple seconds inspecting it. Some piece get eaten, and if they failed inspection he tosses them over the side. Don't worry though, once he gets out of his high chair he finishes off the food he threw to the ground, he must have just figured it would taste better later.

5. Some of my favorite things Madden does lately are: he laughs after he sneezes every time, he waves bye-bye, he likes to make fishy faces, he crawls into my lap and lays his head down on my shoulder for a quick snuggle break, he rubs his face against mine when he's tired, and he gives the best open mouth kisses when we ask for them.

6. Mad LOVES to be around other kids. He's just starting to be mobile enough to keep up with them and its so cute how he charges after them wanting to play. He crawls up really fast then stops short and just sits like a puppy watching them. He is a total mamas boy but is totally happy going to anyone to check them out. I call him my little homing pigeon because he wanders off a little ways then comes right back to me. It's the best feeling ever when your baby recognizes you and reaches his little arms out towards you. Heart melting!

7. A couple weeks ago he weighed about 22 lbs and he's probably still around 33 in long. He's growing so quickly and he's such a big boy! I don't even remember when his little legs stopped being chunky and squishy. Now they are long and skinny and lay flat on the floor when he's on his back. His eyes are still blue, even though lots of people told us not to get our hopes up. They could still go dark, but I don't think it will make us love him any less. The older he gets, the more people say that he looks like Jeff.

8. He's taking one long nap every day now, usually around 11 o'clock. He's also going to bed earlier at night now at around 7 or 7:30, and wakes up every morning at 7:30. I love our night time routine, and it's obvious that he thrives off of knowing what to expect. But every night we have dinner, then its bath time, then he nurses, then we get his toothbrush and he brushes his teeth while we read a story, then we snuggle for a few minutes, then I walk him to his room getting kisses from daddy on the way, then I hold him and sing a few songs and say prayers, then he goes into his crib and I kiss my little prince good night. To be perfectly accurate, there are some nights that he's not thrilled about going to bed, but most of the time he curls right up and falls asleep.

9. I'm loving this stage because he is so playful. Recently he's started showing off some pretty adorable dance moves. The first time we noticed him dancing was during the Superbowl half time show. It's pretty hard not to get jiggy with Bruno Mars. Madden also LOVES to play peek a boo. It's almost part of our nightly routine- playing peek a boo next to the bed. He also loves to be surprised, he thinks its pretty hilarious when we jump out and scare him and now he trying to do it to us. He loves playing with his blocks and takes them out of his box one by one and lines them up on the table. Then one by one, he takes them down and puts each one back into the box. Back and forth, back and forth. He is also loving balls right now, and he'll sit on the ground and roll it back and forth with us. He likes to play chase, and he crawls right fast towards us then sits up on his knees and throws his hands in the air. He looks like a cat sitting on its haunches with its paws up. He always shuts the door on himself by accident and hates it when he's locked inside our bedroom when we're on the other side. He bangs on the door and yells at us until we go set him free. He's so much fun to be around and he so smart too. He does things to try and get a reaction from me and he still thinks its hilarious when I try to tell him "no."


10. I thought that learning to walk would be more of a quick process, but Madden is just taking it step by step and going nice and slow. In my journal I count February 5 as the day Madden took his first real steps- four steps to be exact. But after that day, he didn't show much interest. On February 10, he walked about 4 four feet, which was so fun and exciting! So although he knows he can do it, he's still pretty content just crawling everywhere. Any day now I'm sure he'll be off like a rocket, and that when the real fun and craziness begins!

11. We just couldn't be more in love with this boy. There really is not one thing we would change about him or our life together as a family. We have so many blessings and we are grateful for the knowledge that we will be together for eternity. Madden isn't the only one that has grown this year, Jeff and I have learned so much, we've become better people, and our marriage is even stronger after becoming parents and having a little piece of heaven in our family. We're pretty sure he loves us too, just the other day Madden figured out how to point and he crawled over to a picture of Jeff and I, and he looked over at me smiling and pointed to the picture. We love how he recognizes the people who love him most and we can't wait to celebrate this amazing and special year we've had together and many happy years to come!

 

Madden baby,

Today you are my one-year-old. This past year has been a whirlwind of lazy days with you cozied and curled up on my chest. Your little lips have been smothered incessantly with kisses. And every day we excitedly watch you try to do big boy tricks while secretly wishing you'd stay little forever. You're growing up too fast!

There were many days when the laundry was left undone and dinner turned into cereal night, but I promised myself I would never feel guilty because holding you and loving you was always the better and most importance choice. I love knowing that I soaked up every possible moment with you during this precious stage of your life. I didn't miss a single yawn or smile, and I'm glad I can say that I know every inch of your sweet face.

I'll always remember looking down at my big belly before you were born and wondering what my baby was going to look like. As hard as I tried, I could not imagine your face. But the first time I saw you, I realized that you were familiar to me and that I had always known it was going to be you. Dad and I fell in love with you instantly and we are even more crazy about you one year later!

Did you know that every night when you're sleeping, I come in and kiss your face? Dad and I race to get you out of your crib in the morning and after naps, and we lay in bed at night looking at the dozens of pictures taken of your daily achievements. We just can't get enough!

We're savoring this time in your life when your wild little personality is exploding out of you. Every day you let your curiosity take you a little further. You love being outside, especially when it's windy or when you know you're about to get in the water. You love people, but you know your mama and you're always excited to get back into my arms. You love to be held when we're at home, but when we're anywhere else you want to be on the ground exploring. You love to wrestle and rough house, and you especially love to play peek-a-boo. You love books and I often see you sitting quietly on your knees, thumbing through the pages of your favorite stories. You are always smiling and laughing, people always comment on what a happy and calm baby you are. We love you and we just melt over your fishy faces and slobbery, open-mouth kisses. We like to think that you are such a happy baby because you know how much you are loved and adored by your mom and dad.

We are so blessed to have your sweet spirit in our family! You have brought us a new kind of joy we've never experienced and we love every day we get to be your mom and dad.

Happy birthday Little Prince! We love you oh so much!

Love, Mom and Dad