A Week of Visitors and Outings

Its Been a Busy Week- I'm Tired...

But I Think My Kitty Might Be Plotting To Kill Me

Week 5 was a busy week for Madelyn. She started the week with visits from her honorary Aunts Sarah and Carolyn and followed it up by visits from her honorary Aunt Courtney and Uncle Matt. We are pretty sure that visiting us has convinced all of them not to have kids for a while (after seeing the way we look, how tired we are, hearing our stories and hearing unhappy baby crying). At the end of the week, Madelyn had her first "play date" with Mia Hanna. They didn't do too much playing because they both were quite cranky. They "talked" for a while and then their mommies took them for a walk...Madelyn fell asleep but Miss Mia was determined to fight the sleepiness. As a result, she had to go home to take a nap but will be back next week for playdate number 2 with Nick Pritchard (Holly Barr-Pritchards little man). See pictures of Mia's beautiful new dress on the website and Snapfish.

Look At All My Visitors!

In addition to these wonderful visits, Madelyn and Mommy made many excursions out of the house. Mommy needs a nap after taking the baby out because it takes so long to get ready, so long to get her in an out of the car, takes so much work to push her and a cart around the store and it is just HOT outside. Braving all of these factors and in order to keep ourselves entertained, we decided to undertake making magazine boxes for the built-ins in the family room. We went to Space Savers to get boxes, Lowes, Staples and Michaels to get the label holders and Walmart to get material. We went to Costco's (per Kathy Hanna's advice) to get diapers and we also took a trip to Babies-R-Us and Concord Mills to procure Maddie's Halloween costume (NO....it is not too early, the party is October 17th and that is only 81 days away!!)- what she will be will have to be a surprise though.

To top off the week, Madelyn took a trip to see Dr. Satterfield for her 1 month check-up. She tips the scales at 10 lbs. 14 oz. and comes in at 23 and 3/4 inches long...greater than 97th percentile for both! She is a big, healthy, hungry baby. We can't wait for the 2 month appointment when she gets her slew of vaccinations....oh boy!

My 1 Month Check-Up...OH MY...I Am Naked Baby!!

Thanks again for reading...until next week!
Kristin

Mommy and Madelyn's Adventure Alone!

Hey Everyone!

So this week was a huge milestone for Maddie and Mommy- we were all alone!!!! Patrick went back to work this week- but not only did he go back to work but he went out of town....oh the horror! Madelyn and I survived only with the help of Grandma Mary, Amanda and my wonderful friends who bring food and come keep us company. It was a bit challenging doing all the nighttime feedings on my own (with the exception of putting her to bed which my mom so wonderfully handled after helping me with bath time)- I am quite tired to say the least.

Madelyn has also progressed to holding her head up for longer periods of time, following your face with her eyes and mimicking faces that you make. Her favorite face to mimic would be sticking her tongue out- she finds this awfully amusing. For a while she looked at me like, "Mommy what are you doing...can someone please get me new parents?" After staring intently for weeks she finally decided to give it a try and now the tongue is out of her mouth more than it is in.

Madelyn also has a new love affair with ceiling fans...her old obsession with windows is so last week...ceiling fans are apparently the new fad, they do move after all. She stares at them, follows them with her eyes, talks to them and shows them her aforementioned tongue face (although this may not impress the fan as much as it does her parents). I would be tempted to think that Kaiya (our half demon/half lovable feline) taught Maddie to love the ceiling fan demigod (since Kaiya spends much of her day talking to the fan as well) but then I remember that Kaiya hates the insolent, crying, mini-human and she would be more inclined to push Madelyn and her stroller out onto the front porch in hopes of a rogue kidnapper coming by than teaching her something interesting.

Other than fan watching, Madelyn sat in her Bumbo seat this week (it is a positioner that Corinne and John got for her that helps her learn to sit up) and took her first bubble bath this week. This was mostly due to my error in adding too much Johnson's bedtime bath and then turning the jets on (laying in the jet stream is Madelyn's favorite part of bath time) but she loved it none the less- see the Snapfish photos for documentation of this grand event. Madelyn also got many visitors who came to save me from my monotony. She got to meet many of her honorary aunts; Sarah, Carolyn, Jamie, Kristin and Kelly. All of these wonderful women came and kept me company and cuddled and bounced Madelyn- much to her delight.

In a rather humorous and somewhat scary vein- there is a new album on the Snapfish group album entitled Patrick's Baby Pictures. If you have some free time take a look at these pictures that Mrs. Barry so kindly scanned in for me. Play a little game called "is this picture Madelyn or Patrick". If it were not for the somewhat aged photos and baby gear it would be REALLY hard to tell the difference. I am dismayed that I threw up for nearly 40 straight weeks and dealt with all other discomforts of pregnancy and delivery and if I had not witnessed the child exit my body I would not know that I had any part in her creation. On the upside Patrick is cute and was a really cute baby so it worked out just fine...maybe she will get my hands or eye color (or my curly hair which would make Grandma Barry REALLY happy).

If you are truly bored and look through all of the new Snapfish photos that are posted you will notice an awful lot of pictures of Madelyn just sitting. I was quite lonely- as I mentioned- and found her irresistibly adorable. She looks at Patrick and I when we go on these picture taking tangents and stares at us as if to say "why are you ogling over my like you just saw the invention of fire or the first wheel...don't you have anything better to do?" The sad thing is- we don't...

Thanks for reading again! Madelyn goes for her 1 month check up this coming week so I will post her new stats and the results of the check-up. One month....I can't believe it!!

TTYL-

Kristin

Madelyn's First Road Trip!

Hi Everyone!

Week 3 was a big week for Madelyn- she went on her first road trip!! Patrick, Madelyn and I packed the car and headed the 500 or so miles north to Akron, Ohio to visit Patrick's family. Grandma Dulzer (Patrick's mom's mom) is 92 and is not in very great health and there is a good chance she may not be with us much longer so we decided it would be a good idea for her to see her 12th great-grandchild (from her 15 grandchildren by 7 children...that is a lot of family!) and for Madelyn to get pictures with her so we can show them to her later. Besides seeing Great-Grandma Dulzer, Patrick's Aunt Janet (one of his mom's sisters) was visiting from Los Angeles and she was very excited to get to see the baby as well.

Madelyn did great on her first car ride north- it took us about 9 and a half hours to get there (usually about seven and a half) and about eight and a half to get home but she slept the whole time both ways....except to eat.

One of the benefits of being a part of a very large family is there is never a shortage of people to hold a baby, burp a baby, walk a crying baby or change a dirty diaper. Madelyn got to see Grandma and Grandpa Barry again and got to meet her Uncle Davey and Uncle Mark, Aunt Alexis; Great Aunts Janet, Bunny, Arlene, Jeanne, and Mary-Anne; Great Uncle John, Great Grandma Dulzer, Great Grandma Geig, Great Grandpa Geig and cousins Devon and Dylan- phew that was a lot of visiting in 3.5 days! (see Snapfish pictures for Patrick's documentary style photographs of all of these meetings)

Besides being the world traveler that she is, Madelyn is also awake much more during the day, slept 7 hours one night (this has not re-occurred...much to her parents' dismay), smiles in response to seeing faces she knows, she sticks her tongue out when you do, tracks objects and lights and has found a love of looking out windows (cars or houses) and swinging on porch swings...see Snapfish pictures for evidence of these loves.

Thanks for reading about our weekly adventures- talk to you all next week...it will be our first week without Daddy here (he is going to Raleigh) and we get our second installment of the Hep B vaccine at our 1 month appointment.

Love~
Kristin

First Blog Post!

Hello everyone! This is my first foray into the world of blogging. Spurred on by wanting to share the goings on of life with a new baby with our family and friends I have decided to give this a try!! Adjusting to life with Madelyn has been a bit challenging. She is two weeks and 1 day old today and she has not gotten into a good sleeping/eating schedule as of yet. She still tries to sleep more during the day than at night, but we are getting there. She also has a preference for Dad putting her to sleep since she sees Mom as purely a food source- this can be a bit frustrating at 4 am when Mom is trying to put a screaming baby to sleep.

She is a very big and strong girl- weighing in at 9 lbs. 10.5 oz. and 22 in. at her 2 week check-up. That is 95th percentile for length and 90th percentile for weight...it hurts to think about delivering all of that baby (since she was the same length and merely 10.5 oz. lighter when she came into this world)!

In her short two weeks, Madelyn has been a busy girl. She has been visited by a slew of wonderful neighbors, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Wayne, Aunt Nichole, Aunt Andrea and Uncle Shaffey- and of course the Grandmas and Grandpa and Uncle Jeffrey (see the link at the right for the BuckeyeBarrys website where you can see pictures of all of her visitors). She has lots of people to love her and they all must still love Patrick and me because they keep bringing us food and desserts- it has been great! Madelyn had a pretty uneventful first holiday- July 4th- she ate a lot, slept a lot and took a bath in the big bath tub- which is her FAVORITE time of day. She loves doing the backstroke around the big tub so much that we are thinking of having her try out for the Olympic Swim Team...ok maybe it is too early for that but she kicks those legs and paddles her arms with such fury that it is a distinct possibility for the next Olympics (also see BuckeyeBarrys.com link at the right for pictures and videos of her first bath, first doctor's visit and July 4th). Miss Madelyn also made her first trip to Target and Wendy's- which she slept through. Wow that was a lot for a two week old!

I hope you all enjoy the blog, the videos, the pictures and the website. See you all at week 3!