Maddie is 10 months. By now she is called "Maddie" far more often than "Madelyn." Though when people ask what her name is, I always still say Madelyn :) The kids have been going through a phase of calling her "Madster" which I don't love. It's cute because it's them (and Nathan) and because I know/hope it won't last forever! Maddie has changed so much this month. I know change is always happening but I feel like she has made some leaps this month in particular!
Maddie rolls easily now whenever she is in a position she doesn't want to be in. It made taking pictures a lot more difficult this month! She is bum-scooting all over the house with ease. She's pretty fast! She loves to make her way into the kids' rooms whenever she sees that the doors are open. There is a lot of Lego in Levi's room so we try to be good about leaving the door closed but sometimes it's just too easy to forget! She is also starting to pull herself up. I put her in a cardboard box the other night as I was putting the older kids to bed and the next thing I knew she was standing in the box! I sat her down and she did it right away again! So we lowered her crib mattress first thing the next day. And of course she hasn't pulled herself up since. But she is getting close and I'm happy to know that I won't get that dreaded surprise of walking into her room and seeing her standing in her crib, leaning over the rail by her waist! She has also started climbing into our laps when we are sitting on the floor and hugging our legs when she wants to be picked up. So sweet!
Maddie has been imitating actions even more this month. I was holding Maddie while Levi was explaining something the other day. He was swinging his arms to explain to me and once he was done, Maddie started swinging her arms the same way. She also raises her arms above her head when she sees us doing it.
We have also noticed Maddie imitating sounds and words! She says "dis" when she is given something she finds interesting. She says "da" or "das" when she hears music. This is accompanied by rocking side to side, her "dancing." When we dance with her then stop, she kicks her legs (knees up to chest then kicked back out) so much to get us to dance with her again. She also does that when she's excited, usually when she sees someone in our family or the animals. We can also hear her little "ahhh..." Coming from her car seat as we drive down washboard roads. It's a beautiful sound, a baby's voice!
Speaking of animals, Maddie loves to sit at the deck door and watch the cats. She likes to watch Lennox too but is a bit afraid of him up close, though I think she is getting used to him now that we are outside more. Whenever we ask Maddie, "where are the kitties?" she looks toward the deck door and sucks on her lips to make the kitty calling sound. It's really cute! I sometimes ask her where the kitties are just to get her to do it. She's pretty good at it!
Maddie has finally stretched out her feeds longer than every two hours. Until this month, I couldn't leave her for longer than that because she would need to nurse again. Suddenly this month she seemed to be ok to go a little longer so I started leaving her until she fussed for a feed and she can go 3-4 hours! Last month she would still start fussing at the 2 hour mark. She is eating a lot more solids now. She eats every meal with us in her high chair. We just give her what we're eating and she does great with it. I've started giving her yogurt for night snack every night and she is doing really well with it. One kid can't have yogurt because her body can't digest it properly and the other kid it really helps. Bizarre! She loves to drink water out of a sippy cup or straw...she can do both easily by now. She picked them up with no help from us. I guess that's a third child thing!
When Maddie started spacing out her feeds, I was hopeful that she would start waking less at night. No such luck. She is still waking twice a night to eat. She usually goes right back to sleep after a feed but a couple times lately she has just cried for 1.5-2 hours during the night. I'm getting to the point where it would be really really nice to sleep through the night again but I guess it's not to be just yet. Perhaps I'll muster all my strength and try night weaning this month. I anticipate tears and less sleep through that process because that just seems to be how Maddie rolls so we'll see. Maybe I'll just see if I can wait it out and she will start sleeping on her own. Maddie naps once or twice a day. Her 1.5 hour morning and afternoon naps seem to be a thing of the past. These days she sometimes takes two naps but they are rarely both a good length of she does. But this does mean that she can skip her morning nap fairly easily and usually make up for it with a good afternoon nap. She goes to bed around 8pm and is up around 7:30-8:30am.
Maddie has four teeth, two top front and two bottom front. She weighs about 18lbs and is approx 25-26" tall. She is wearing 12m or 12-18m clothes. It was strange getting out the 12-18 month clothes because these are the clothes that I just took out of Kayden's closet last spring! Whenever I'm folding laundry, I have to think twice about whose room the clothes are going to!
Maddie is such a joy. She is usually happy, though has been fighting a cold and perhaps getting some teeth lately so has been a bit fussier. She's a girl who knows what she wants and we hear about it when she isn't happy about something. But overall she is pretty laid back. She laughs easily and smiles all the time. She loves to play with her brother and sister. She has started noticing pictures of them around the house and gets so excited whenever she looks at them! She is an excellent traveller most of the time. She will still sometimes cry in the van, but not nearly as often as she used to. She has picked up a squinty eyed smile this month. She squishes up her face and grins with her four teeth showing. It gets me every time. She also went through a phase of clucking her tongue, but that seems to be replaced by the lip sucking kitty noise at the moment. This girl is curious and loves to explore the house now that nothing is too far for her to access. She is pretty good about boundaries, thankfully. She has only gotten into my plants a few times and has yet to tumble down the stairs into the entrance,despite sitting right on the edge all the time.
Happy 10 months, Maddie! We love you so much and look forward to seeing what you learn and experience in the coming month!
