Maddie is 7 Months Old!

Oh my! Our baby girl is 7 months old today! She is just an absolute blessing! Happy and joyful, laughing often, and such a snuggle bug. This month, Maddie has really started getting around. She army crawls and rolls back and forth to travel to where she wants to go. She'll be crawling soon I'm sure! She's reaching her arms up to be picked up or to show that she wants to go to someone else. She's babbling so much more now- and we've even heard her say Mom and Da-Eee a few times. May just be babbling and playing with sounds, but it sure melted our hearts! Connor is trying to teach her to say BuBu for Big Brother. Maddie is still nursing well, but not doing as great with solid foods. She had a high temperature and rash (likely Roseola) at the end of July and then with traveling to Orgeon, she really slowed down on eating solid foods. Hopefully we'll get back on track now that we're home and establishing our routine again. Also affected by her getting sick and traveling was her sleep patterns! She's no longer sleeping through the night, but instead waking to nurse 1-3 times each night! Yikes... not the direction we wanted to go. I'm sure it's just a phase and may be related to teething. She's still taking two to three naps a day and has really become attached to her blankie. As soon as you hand it to her, she snuggles in to your arm to go to sleep. She had her first flight this month and did awesome! She watched out the window during take off anf landing and took a little nap on both flights. What a trooper! She loves to unload her bucket of toys and seems to like to suck or chew on the tags of her plush toys. She enjoys music and being sang to and will bounce her arms up and down when we sing to her. She lights up when she sees Connor and he's still able to make her belly laugh better than any of us. There's not much that she dislikes except getting in the carseat (usually followed by a minute of screaming and then she gives in), and when Mommy tries to encourage her to eat solid food! :-)

Also, today was my first day back at work. Oh how the last seven months have flown by. I've enjoyed being home on maternity leave so much! Getting to spend every moment with Maddie and sharing quality time with Connor has been such a joy. I've even enjoyed the extra time to try new recipes and make dinner each night. It's going to be a hard transition, no doubt, but I know it will get easier. Mallory watched the kids today and Grandma Jill is going to watch them through August and then they'll start daycare/preschool at Ms. Robyn's Preschool in September. I think having them home with Jill for the first month will make the transition so much easier. Ahhh, it's never easy to leave your children. Makes me tear up just writing this. I'm thankful that Michael and I are able to have me just work 75% so I still get some quality time with them.