Christmas Round-Up and Pictures

We had a very nice Christmas. It was Maddie's 2nd, and she was LOTS of fun this year (for some reason, last year all she wanted to do was lay around!). Meg's Dad visited a few weeks ago when Cait graduated from Millersville, so we had Christmas with him then, and he helped us decorate our tree.
We traveled to Gettysburg on Christmas Eve day. We were originally planning to visit w/ Meg's paternal grandparents first, but Meg's grandfather had to unexpectedly hospitalized for lung problems. He's fine now, and they're home and well, but we had a bit of scare for a while there! We went to the family service at Meg's old church. Maddie was NOT happy about sitting through the service, and we were disappointed that they'd changed a few things since Meg was a kid - no more live nativity play where all the children come up to sit with the infant "Jesus" and sing "Away in a Manger" together with their parents. Phooey. But we took pictures and went home to, uh, wait for Santa. Christmas morning we opened Santa's presents and went to Meg's maternal grandparents' house and exchanged gifts and had a nice Christmas dinner with family. The 26th we drove to visit Meg's newly-discharged grandparents, home from the hospital, visited a while, and drove home at night.
On the 27th we had a wonderful Christmas dinner at Bob's family's house and discovered that Maddie loves escarole soup. We exchanged gifts with Bob's family and had a very nice evening. Now we're home and enjoying the remainder of Christmas break, playing with new toys (Maddie's and ours) and pretending we don't have to get back to the grind in a few days.

Tree and Presents with Granddad

Playing with Graddad, December 07

Chrismtas at the Thieme's 2007

Pictures from the 27th are on the way!

12-Month appointment - At 1 year, 1 month, 1 week, and 1 day old!

Ok, so we're a little late. We finally had Maddie's 12-month Dr.'s appointment this morning. Long story; we were scheduled at our old pediatrician, but we haven't been particularly thrilled with them since Maddie's reflux days, and we procrastinated a bit, then scheduled this appointment w/ a family doctor who came with a big, glowing recommendation from a coworker and friend of Meg's (thank you, G-man). So we saw the new guy this morning, and we were impressed with both the doctor and the office. ANYway:

Maddie's healthy and doing nicely. She's doing great developmentally and 'quite healthy'. She was a tall drink of water (whole milk?) at 30 inches tall. She actually lost weight since her 9-month appointment, but he said that's to be expected because the increased activity that comes with early toddlerhood. She was in the 60th percentile for height and the 30th for weight. After her 3rd trip crawling around the exam table, he asked if she was "this active" all the time. (Ok, should we be waiting for the ADHD call from her Kindergarten teacher, or what?) I said that yes, she's a mover and a shaker at home, too, and he said that not only is that the obvious cause of her weight loss, but that high activity levels in children her age is actually a sign of greater intelligence. Here's hoping! The doctor said that we just have to make sure that she's eating well and not skipping meals to go jogging around the yard. I'll also be wondering exactly whose child she is, if that's ever the case!

And of course she had her chicken pox and flu booster shot, and her TB test. She's forgiven me for those, but she was pretty mean to the doctor afterwards. Hopefully she'll forgive and forget till next time.

Got pics?

Maddie Week of 12-17-07

'Tis the Season To be Jolly...

Photos we forgot!

Oops, we missed a few.

Maddie Week of 11-05-07

We're finding it more difficult to 'pose' a mobile baby.

Maddie's Christmas "Photo Shoot" 2007

4 New Videos

Maddie Says "Hi" and "Wow" (and that motor-boat noise)

Maddie's New Car



Maddie's 1st Birthday - Opening Presents




Maddie's 1st Birthday - Happy Birthday & Cake

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDIE!

Our big girl is 1 today! We can't believe it.

It had to be just yesterday that I woke up from a very brief but much needed night's "sleep" in Virtua Hospital in Voorhees, which started around 5 or 6 AM, when things had finally settled down. Bob had headed home to check on things and get some rest. I'd stayed up for the 5 o'clock nurse's rounds when they brought Maddie to me to feed her, (didn't go well...) and they took her to the nursery to be checked, and so I could get a little sleep. I woke up around 8:30 that morning, and after figuring out where I was and why I hurt, the thought that made it all better and then some was: "oh yeah - I'm a mommy!"

Since then, Bob and I agree, her time with us has been a steady trend of 'better and better'. She's more and more amazing every day, and watching her learn and grow has been the best experience of our lives. This morning she said "bye" (the jury is still out as to whether or not she actually meant it).

Among other things that I'll kick myself for forgetting later, she can now:
Say: Hi, Wow, Dad-Dee, Tseese (cheese), pri-tee, Dgee (doggie), something that we think means "what's that?" and this morning's "bye".
Suck her thumb, hold & shake things, sort things, drink from a sippy cup herself, drink from a real cup with help, put (shovel) food in her mouth and feed herself whole meals of table food, crawl faster than you think a baby should be able to crawl, cruise around one-handed, play peek-a-boo w/ blankets, around corners and by ducking under tables, clap her hands TO THE BEAT of music!!!, wave hi and bye, play chase games, and dance, dance DANCE. She knows where her 'pretty hair', her piggy toes, her fingers, and her eyes are. She's semi-consistently pointing out her nose and ear, as well as other peoples'. She does 'how big are you?', claps her hands on command, dances on command, plays peek-a-boo on command, and shakes her head "no" when you say that horrible, horrible word to her. Or she might melt down, if it was a particularly interesting cabinet she wanted to explore, whatever.

She dumped the bottles about a month ago (love/hate thing), and is happily drinking whole milk from a cup well. With the help of Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, she seems to have kicked the reflux's butt, although we know that can rear its ugly head in the future, as childhood or adult GERD. We also weaned her off her Zantac and she's soon to be down to 1/2 the dose of Reglan. Prevacid we'll probably have to continue well into toddlerhood, her doctor says. She's currently about 22 lbs, we think, and gaining inches seemingly daily. She's growing out of clothes like mad (this still shocks me, I guess because of that non-growing she did earlier on).

She loves her books, paging through them several times a day, especially the touch-and-feel ones. She loves to 'kiss' any baby in the pictures. Her kisses usually involve a big old lick, but it's still very cute. She likes any toy that rolls, especially her truck, and loves to clap and bounce with anything that plays a song. Truly the daughter of two music teachers, she's shown a major inclination towards music and dance. Her favorite song to dance to is "99 Red Balloons" by Nena (in German, of course, because she is her Grammy's girl!) She loves her doggie, too, and has taken to kissing him and occasionally even draping herself across him to see how fast Mommy and Daddy will come running before he catapults her off. She really loves the Baby in the Mirror, too. She's very excited because the baby is in our bedroom, our dining room, the bathroom, and in several toys - but she was especially thrilled when the baby came to her birthday party (thanks for coming, cousin Lindsey!)

I'm sure I've forgotten some key aspects of Maddie Life, and I'm sure I'll be back for some edits to her birthday post, but I just wanted to share some Maddiness with the rest of the world. And the pictures, below. More to come, with videos from the party and other fun stuff. We're so in love with our little girl. I feel like I've been waiting for my girlie all my life, and I can't imagine a bit of my life without her. Happy Birthday baby!!!

New Photos!

Maddie Week of 11-12-07

Maddie's 1st Birthday Party

Milestone Calendar Upgrade

We have a fun, new way to view Maddie's milestones: as a Google Calendar. We will still post milestones traditionally on the sidebar, but you can now see all of Maddie's milestones on a monthly calendar. You'll find this calendar permanently at the very bottom of Maddie's blog (scroll way down).



Subscribe to this calendar via RSS:


View in a New Window:
Click Here

What have we been up to?

The many escapades of Maddie:

Found mommy's water bottle and emptied the contents onto the hallway floor:



Trying Daddy's ravioli and meatballs:



Maddie says, "Hi"



Saturday Night Dance Party!



Checking out the coffee table, cruising, and fussing:

New Albumns!

Maddie Week of 10-29-07

Maddie Week of 10-22-07

Maddie Weeks of 10-8-07 and 10-15-07

Max and Major's Play Date

Maddie Week of 10-1-07

LVC Homecoming 2007

Mom's Maddie Pictures Fall 2007

Update - almost 11 months!

Holy cow, where does the time go? We never even posted any 10 months info and now she's 11 months old this Saturday! Granted, now we're a tad busier now that school is in full-swing. Oh well, here we go:

Maddie's doing great - she's growing and learning at a wonderful and sometimes alarming pace; we can't believe our little baby is almost ONE! Scary! She's cruising, feeding herself finger food, and speed-crawling all over the house. Her biggest accomplishment - WE'RE SO PROUD - is her first word: "HI!" (accompanied by a wave!) She "hi"'s family and strangers alike, and it's definite now that she understands that you say "hi" when someone walks in a room (or when you notice them for the first time, whatever).

She's also doing fine, health-wise, too. She had her follow-up appointment at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia on Monday, and her pediatric gastroenterologist is very happy with her progress. She gave us a gradual plan for weaning Maddie off her medications, which we'll start this week. Maddie also got her flu shot on Monday. Such a big day for our little girl!

Birthday plans are in the making - sorry, no pony rides, bouncy rooms, clowns, or magicians. But we'll keep you posted.

Maddie in Blair Music Center

We traveled to LVC last weekend for Homecoming 2007. We ran into some old friends, watched the march down, pregame and half-time shows, visited some old haunts, and even ate lunch in the old dining hall! Maddie couldn't believe how much room there was to crawl around in the Blair Music Center lobby. We went to classes there every day as music students, and being there brought back some fond old memories. Seeing Maddie crawling around those hallways was a bit surreal, too.

Maddie Loves to Read!

This was taken September 29th. She loves a good book.

Long Time No Post!

Sorry, it's been quite busy!
Maddie, work, knocking down a wall in the kitchen, etc.

Picture album updates:

Bob's Birthday Dinner 2007

Maddie Week of 09-17-07

There we so many cute ones, but we settled on one with room for text - and a sweet ducky smile - for our little Halloween pictures:

Maddie's Halloween Photo Shoot

Maddie Week of 09-24-07

Which Sesame Street Character?

Ok, we had to stretch a few answers to fit what Maddie WOULD do...if she could talk, walk, have a favorite subject in high school, etc. But acording to blothings.com, we can now say to Maddie...

You Are Ernie

Playful and childlike, you are everyone's favorite friend - even if your goofy antics get annoying at times. You are usually feeling: Amused - you are very easily entertained You are famous for: Always making people smile. From your silly songs to your wild pranks, you keep things fun. How you life your life: With ease. Life is only difficult when your friends won't play with you!

The Sesame Street Personality Quiz

Whew! Aren't you glad we settled THAT?

Videos X 4!

Maddie wanted a little drink:


Maddie plays Peek-a-boo with Nana during the day:


Then she crawled into Mommy & Daddy's room and got stuck!


We found her standing up in her crib, all alone, and very proud of herself!

New Albums to Share!

We have some new albums to share - sorry, it's been a while...they blocked blogger.com at Meg's school, so now all updates have to be done after all Maddie, house, and school-related things are done for the evening. So that leaves about 3 seconds a week.

Here we go:

Maddie Week of 09-03-07

Maddie Week of 09-10-07

And we have an album devoted to Mom and Dad D'Errico's 30th Anniversary party this past weekend. Got 'em good!

30th Anniversary Party

Craby Day Pictures (and more!)

Here are the pictures from yesterday's baby-crazy crab day. I think we all had a lot of fun watching "the new generation" all interact with one another.

Crab Day 2007

And with only a few more pictures added, here is the final Week of August 27, album:

Maddie Week of 08-27-07

And even though it is not baby-related (since Maddie wasn't there), for those who are interested, the pictures of David & Kara Carola's Wedding are also available on our Picasa Web Album.

Bathtime Girl 3

This bath is brought to you by the letters "M," "R"," and "D," and BOY are they tasty.

Best Friends!

Maddie and Max II

9 Months!

Maddie had her 9 month doctor's appointment on Monday. She's doing really well. They were happy with her development; crawling, pulling up, babbling a blue streak. Growth-wise, she is pretty much dead-on 50th percentile. She had some lab work done today, standard stuff to check for anemia and other nasty issues, but that's just a precaution. (PS - Mommy lesson learned: Always take 2 adults along to get baby's blood work done, and have one sit in the back with baby on the way home. Otherwise, baby will pull the bandage off in the car and get blood on lots of stuff. Less than fun.)

In the news, she's figured out how to get from crawling to sitting, and vice versa. So now she can crawl everywhere, then sit and enjoy the view. She's also discovered the "Tupperware cabinet". It's a source of endless entertainment for everybody in the house. She's also learned to pull up with no help by climbing on Mommy, Daddy, and Max. We're waiting for the night she pulls up in the crib and can't figure out how to get back down. :-)

Final Week of August 20th album (with a few more pictures)

It's been quite an exciting week, with over 100 pictures and several videos. Here is the final album, with a few more pictures. Watch as Maddie rides in a box and explores the Tupperware cabinet. We also had to say goodbye to the changing table. She's too big for it now!

Enjoy!

Maddie Week of 08-20-07

Maddie's New Modes of Transportation

Cardboard Box Driving and Scooting...

We Can't Stop!

Maddie is SO fun to take pictures/videos of that Mommy and Daddy are finding it hard to stop!

Here is this week's album, with even more pictures:

Maddie Week of 08-20-07

And here is another video. This time Maddie goes after the camera (and says "No more pictures, please!"):

New Videos & Bee Sting!

New videos taken this week:

Maddie's exploring the house, Max is entertaining, and Bob's "in his underwear":


"Maddie and the Baby in the Mirror"


And we had a bit of an interesting afternoon; We attempted to spend the afternoon at Gloucester Township park. We were planning to put Maddie on her first park swing (for babies). We brought a picnic, parked at a table, and we happily munched - she on her puffs. Then the yellow jackets came. 3 of them. We were trying to get them away, when Maddie started wailing out of the blue! She'd been stung! We think it was a regular bee, because supposedly yellow jackets don't lose their stingers when they sting, and there was clearly a stinger left in Maddie's arm. Maybe she smooshed it into the stroller seat with her arm.

Poor thing, she was such a trooper. I got the stinger out carefully and held her while DH put an ice pack on it. She cried for maybe 30 seconds and then proceeded to play with the ice pack happily. That's our girl!

We quickly packed up and hurried back to the car, calling Bob's mom to make sure it was indeed ice you're supposed to put on a bee sting (duh). The yellow jackets actually followed us to the car, and one charged me as I tried to get in. Got right in my face! It continued charing the car window, even as we drove away! We stopped at the grocery store to get meat tenderizer and made a paste for her arm. We had to put a sock on her arm to keep her from trying to eat the paste. Again, that's our girl!

She was absolutely fine though. She has a little red patch on her arm where she was stung, but no stinger mark left. She was fine all afternoon but very cranky in the evening, although she'd cheer up quickly if you tried the usual goofball stuff she likes. I put some cortizone on it and put her to bed early. So clearly she's not allergic to bee stings. Yay!

S0 that was our mildly scary afternoon.
~ Meg

This Week's Album (sneak peak)

We know the week of August 20 is not over yet, but we took so many good pictures in the last two days, that we couldn't wait. Here is an early preview...

Maddie Week of 08-20-07

Album Updated

Maddie Week of August 13 has been updated with MANY more pictures. Check it out!

Maddie Week of 08-13-07

Update *edited*

CHOP weigh in today: 19 lbs. 14.5 oz.
Doing really well with solids. Wolfs down sweet potatoes like crazy.
Trying table food slowly but surely. (Lady Gags-a-lot apparently doesn't take kindly to anything but overcooked noodles and banana, so far.)
*edit: Also loves 'grown up' applesauce. Mott's Healthy Harvest has blueberry, strawberry, or peach-mango. All delish. Plus after much effort, she's starting to succeed at getting those little baby rice puffs in her mouth. We're all very proud.*
May try puree of baked ziti tonight. :-)
Crawling all over.
Especially likes "reading", a. k. a. "eating" books.
Loves Max, especially his tags.

Picture Strips from OCNJ boardwalk

First we took this one, which didn't turn out to well. The camera was really close to the back of the booth, and we barely got the three of us into it before it started flashing.

Farther down the boardwalk, at one of the older arcades, we took this 'old fashioned' one. We've been doing pictures strips since the first summer we were dating, and we loved adding Maddie to this tradition.

New Pictures

Maddie Week of 08-06-07

Maddie Week of 08-13-07

She Crawls!

We weren't sure it was going to happen - some babies don't (Meg didn't!), but Maddie decided she wanted was in that basket over there across the room, and off she went!

She's been practicing it all day. She really enjoys chasing your toes across the room. (As seen here!)

Maddie Milestones Added!

They're here! Scroll down and you'll find the Maddie Milestones on the right sidebar on this page, below the pictures. They begin with the most recent and take us back in time to day 1!
They will be updated as regularly as possible. Enjoy!

Coming Soon - "Maddie Milestones"!

Something else for you dear friends and family, near and far:

As soon as we get all the records together (tomorrow, if she naps a while?) we'll be adding a new section to the kiddo's blog. "Maddie Milestones" will share what developmental/motor skill milestones our munchkin has hit, and when. (And perhaps a few interesting stories behind them.)

Keep checking! It's on tomorrow's To-Do list!

New Videos

Maddie Dances...


...and she sings!


Maddie and Max Playing Together

This Week's (and last week's) Pictures

Maddie Week of 7-23-07

Maddie Week of 7-30-07

Suits our Daughter to a "T"!

She'll fight ya the minute you put the shirt over her head:
Wha ha ha! Two, on the dangers of a reflux baby:


Hey, if you can't say it to strangers, print it on the baby's onesie:
Everybody should...

And our favorite:

First wedding!

Maddie was a peach at the reception - we thought it best that she skip the ceremony. It was a partially quaker service, which is very quiet and reflective. Beautiful, but no place for "Lady Shrieks-a-Lot". She proved herself a great reception baby. She was sweet and happy, let Meg's friends hold her, waltzed with Bob, and even got to dance with the bride! The wedding was beautiful, and we're really glad we made the trek to G'burg.

Julie and Andrew's Wedding

There's also new pictures in the week of the 16th's album. Enjoy!

Maddie Week of 7-16-07

New Stuff!

New Pictures!

Maddie Week of 7-9-07

Maddie Week of 7-16-07

Maddie's Favorite Game:

Maddie's Other Favorite Game:

Our Musical Girl:

Shore Pictures & Videos

We are back from our vacation to OCNJ with Bob's family. Maddie (and the rest of us) had a great time. Maddie really enjoyed the sand, the ocean, and the rides. Check out our web album for the week, as well as several videos.

Ocean City Vacation 2007

Maddie's favorite fruit jar is apples & blueberries. She even likes to eat the jar:


How to make a baby sing:


Sandy fun on the beach:


Maddie spent the week babbling, so when we got home we wanted to take a video of her talking:

Long Awaited Update

Okay, so we have been a little busy. But now that the school year is over, we have FINALLY gotten around to uploading some pictures, and boy, are there some cute ones here!

Maddie Week of 6-18-07

(Update:) And a video now too!