Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

I just realized that I never posted any pictures of Madeline fully decked-out in her KU apparel for the MU game last weekend.  Here she is with her Auntie Abbey (who purchased most of Maddie's outfit for her)...

Maddie is very focused on something on the floor in this picture, but it shoes of her shoes nicely (which are from Payless, of course)...

This picture cracks me up because Maddie is intently focused on the tv, just like her daddy is when he's watching tv...

Aside from Aunt Abbey jumping and screaming right into Madeline's ear when Robinson blocked that shot at the end of regulation (which caused Maddie to jump and scream), we had a fun time cheering the Jayhawks to victory!

Off to the races!

In the past two days, Madeline has figured out how to go from laying flat on her tummy to getting herself back up to a sitting position.  She has also been rocking forward onto her hands and knees, but then she flops herself back to sitting.  That is, until last night.  I was sitting on the floor playing with her when I noticed she had a little something in her ear.  I grabbed a Q-tip to get it out, but I was lazy and didn't get up to immediately put it in the trash.  Apparently, Miss Madeline decided that she really wanted to check out that Q-tip, so she rocked forward onto her knees and took off crawling for it.  I couldn't believe it!

For the next 45 minutes, we put the Q-Tip on the other side of her room, and she would crawl over to get it.  When we replaced the Q-Tip with a toy, she had no interest in crawling.  Here's another short video of her going a longer distance.

I got out the calendar of my first year that my mom made, and I was just over 8 months and 1 week old when I crawled for the first time, which is exactly the same age as Madeline.  She's taking after her mommy already.

Moving on up!

The past few days have been incredibly exciting around our house.  On Monday, Madeline's first tooth came in.  Last night, she was sitting on a blanket on the floor playing while we made dinner.  A little while later, Mathew walked over just in time to see her do this...  

                                                 

She scooted herself over to the ottoman, grabbed a hold of it, and pulled herself up! 

Freddie was sitting on the ottoman watching her, and she apparently decided that she wanted to check him out.

She did a great job on her dismount as well.  She just turned to the right a bit and fell onto her butt.

She decided a while ago that standing is far superior to sitting, so she wants to stand all the time.  However, until last night, she has always had to have some assistance.  After she figured out that she can get herself to a standing positing, she spent the rest of the night trying to do it again.  At one point, she scooted over next to the couch, but it's taller than the ottoman, so she couldn't get a good enough grip onit to pull herself up, which she did not like.  I helped her out a bit...

It's amazing how much her balance has improved in just the past few days.  This weekend, she couldn't balance herself standing at all.  Now, she can hold onto things and stand all by herself...

It's only going to be a matter of time before she's walking along using the edge of the couch for support.  It looks like I had better get serious about baby-proofing the house!

New Favorite Toy

The other night, we set Madeline on a blanket with her doll, several colorful blocks, a chew ring, and her singing puppy.  However, it only took her a minute to look around, see that the basket of remote controls was nearly within her reach, and lunge herself forward towards the basket.  Apparently, remote controls are way cooler than toys.  Mathew set her on the couch and snapped a handful of pictures of her with her remote (because we love taking pictures, and she loves smiling for the camera)...

Initially, she had the satellite remote and was hitting buttons, which was causing the channel to change, so we gave her the VCR remote.  Obviously, that is not a remote that gets used too often.  I don't even know where the VCR is at the moment.  Madeline will probably never know what a VCR is...except my parents have dozens of Disney VHS movies, so she might get to experience the world of having to rewind tapes...