Madi is now 9 months old as of yesterday. How time flies!!! It sure doesn't seem possible. We just got home from her well-baby checkup. She is now 17 lbs 12 oz and 28 inches long. She has made it to the 31 percentile in weight and 65 in height. Her doctor was very pleased with her weight, which makes me happy. I was a little worried when the nurse weighed her that she was still a bit on the small size. If the doctors not worried then neither am I.

Madi has been fighting sleep again since last Wednesday. So we have started putting her down and letting her cry. It takes about 15-20 minutes of her crying before she calms down and goes to sleep. But once she does, she sleeps all night.

She is also starting to cruise around the house. What ever she can pull herself up to she does and then she can walk herself around as long as she has something to hold on to. Won't be much longer and she will be walking!!

Not much else going on. Chris has a busy, busy week last week. But was able to get everything done and took Saturday off to spend the day with me and Madi. Which was very nice. We haven't had a weekend together in a long time. Next weekend is the Ambuc's show here in Salina at the Bicentennial Center. Chris' cousin Bob with Bob's Creative Taxidermy will have a booth setup. So look for him. Chris will be helping him probably all weekend. So Madi and I will probably spend most of Saturday there. I think my mom is going to join us and we will walk through all the campers and they also have a craft show at the 4-H building.

Take care and have a great week!

Love, Amy

Happy Valentines Day!!!!

Love, Amy and Madi

I finally took some pictures yesterday of Madi playing. I have been really bad about getting the camera out lately. I wrote last time that Madi is pulling herself up onto things. She is a climbing monkey. Yesterday she managed to get herself up and standing at the back door, how she did that with nothing to pull on is beyond me, but she did and she had a wonderful time. She also likes to scream...very loudly. Everything that moved outside she would scream!!! I am trying to get her to stop. I can just imagine what she would do in a store or restaurant (that is when we ever get to leave the house again).

She is driving our dog insane. He is getting older and she is constantly wanting to play with him. He is finally realizing that she can move and she can catch him when he gets too close. There were several times yesterday she got him and he wouldn't move, just growled...made me so nervous. He is so temperamental and Madi doesn't know when to leave him alone. I finally had to send him to the other room, my lap is no longer the safe place for him.

Madi has been working on her second tooth for over a week and it finally popped through today. But I don't think she is feeling well today. Chris came home last night with a nasty cold and she woke up this morning with a runny nose (again, she is going to be just like me, catches everything) and has had no interest in her food and diarrhea this morning. Yuk!!! Knock on wood, she has yet to have anything other than a runny nose and cough. Not looking forward to the first really bad sick and throwing up.

I am so excited for Saturday!! Why? RACING is back!!! Tomorrow is the first race of the season, the Bud Shootout at Daytona. It's a short race and no points are involved which should make it a good race. Dale Earnhardt Jr. starts 17th out of 21 drivers and the good news is, he has won this race from the last postion, so he has a good chance. Go Jr!!!!! The following weekend is Daytona 500!!! One guess where I will be every Sunday from now until November. I love this long season!!!

Well, it sounds like someone is waking up from her nap. Enjoy the pics and check out more in my photo albums!!

Love, Amy

A few new things going on since my last post. Madi is crawling every where. She follows me around the house as I do my housework. She is also pulling herself up onto things. She is still a bit wobbly so I have to keep a close eye out, she is hitting pretty hard and hasn't learned to catch herself. (Chris just lowered her bed, kind of sad) She has also learned to sit herself up this past week. Which is sooo nice. Before she would lay on her back and kick her legs and lift her head up, she looked like a turtle stuck on his back. She is much happier and content playing on the floor now. I think she is cutting another tooth. We have had some sleepless days and last night she would not sleep in her bed. It was a very long night.

Really not a lot going on. It has been so cold we haven't been getting out much and Chris is just working.

Take care and stay warm. GO BEARS!!!

Love, Amy

Oh boy, the pain that one little tooth has caused us is unbelievable. Last week Madi's tooth popped through and you would think we had a different baby living in this house. The next day, she was taking naps again, sleeping all night, going down without a fuss, AMAZING!!! We also started a bedtime routine and it works!! She is asleep within 15 minutes now and I have at least 2 hours every night to sit and do nothing before I have to go to bed. I tell you what, we have to remember these things and hopefully number 2 will be much easier.

Madi is also a crawling fool now!! She gets where she wants to go, usually into things she isn't supposed to be into, mainly the DVD player and movies under the tv (time to move those). Now she just needs to learn to get herself into a sitting position on her own and we will be set. She is so close but just won't slide her hand to push herself up yet. We practice. It will probably be like crawling, it will just happen on its own one day.

Today is Madi's 8 month birthday. It has gone so fast!! Today is also my mom and dad's 27th Anniversary, Happy Anniversary!!!

Stay warm and have a great weekend!!

Love, Amy

Just a quick note...Madi has a tooth!!!! We found it yesterday. I think we may have found the reason for the restless nights!!!

Love, Amy and Madi

Brrrrrrrrrr!! It is cold!! It has been in the single digits to low 20s and it is down right cold. Even in the house. I know it is cold outside when it is cold in the house...since we haven't left the house since Thursday. Such bums we are!!!

Still having some trouble with Madi sleeping. We are trying something new, which is to let her cry when she wakes up in the middle of the night. She has been doing better and crying herself to sleep after about 10 minutes. But this is soooo hard. We can't figure out what is waking her up. She wakes up and cries out at least 6 times a night. We also have changed her bedtime routine and it has worked so nicely the last two nights. That is until Oliver (our dog) went in last night to "check" on her which swung her door open all the way. She woke up and could see the lights on in the livingroom and could hear the tv and then there was no falling back to sleep. Oh well, I keep telling myself this won't last forever...but it sure is draining. (Andrea, I am so jealous after reading your wonderful bedtime story...this will get better before she is 2 right? Ella needs to come teach Madi her tricks!)

Our new excitement around here is that Madi is starting to crawl!!! I don't know if I should be happy our sad, she is growing up so quickly. She is still learning and will only take about 2 little crawls before her butt gets swaying so fast that she falls over. But she gets back up on her hands and knees and tries again. Between the little crawls, rolling and lunging, she gets around the livingroom pretty well. Time to baby proof!!!

Take care!!
Love, Amy

Not much going on here. I have been trying to get Madi back on her schedule since Christmas. But she is having a terrible time sleeping at night. I don't know what is going on. Some nights she sleeps all night and others she is up half the night. We have been shut ins for two weeks now. Which isn't all bad.

Chris has been busy. He was in Concordia last week for three days and not getting home until 9:00 at night. He has two extra guys helping him out for awhile. He was down at the shop all day Saturday getting his office organized and getting paper work rounded up for the end of the year.

I am starting to work on sewing again. I have several blankets I want to make and especially one for Madi...which I still haven't done yet.

Take care and have a good week.

Love, Amy

We woke up New Year's Eve Day to about 2 inches of snow on the ground. It continued to snow until early afternoon. We ended up getting 4-6 inches. So, we have another first in Madi's 7 months...First snow. I took her out today on the back porch and let her sit in it. She is so cute in her bunny snow suit!!!

We have had a week filled with new things Madi is starting to do. The day after Christmas she started saying Mama (how exciting!!). She had her first fruit on Friday and we are now eating 3 meals a day. Saturday, while spending the day at my mom and dad's with Jason and Tabatha, Madi started playing Peek-a-Boo with PaPa (grandpa). I was holding her and dad was behind me and he would peek over my shoulders and Madi would sway back and forth looking for him. She had so much fun and she was all smiles whenever she saw papa. And Sunday she saw her first snow and partied till midnight for New Years!!! What a wonderful and blessed year we have had!!! And we are looking forward to a whole bunch more.

Happy New Year!!!!

Love, Amy

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!!! Of course it is Madi's first Christmas and it has been very special. She did pretty good with opening gifts on Christmas morning with us and Christmas Eve at my mom and dad's house. As you could imagine, she received a ton of toys. I had to find a bigger basket to go along with her other basket of toys!!!

Thursday night we went to Kennedy and Coe (Chris' dads work) to see Santa. She did really well and received a present from Santa. We then went to Grandma and Grandpa Helm's house to meet Beth, Walt, Tommy and Marybeth when they arrived in town from SC. Friday, Linda came into town from NH. The rest of the week was go, go, go. Tommy and Marybeth stayed here with us. We had a nice time visiting with them.

Sunday we had Christmas at my mom and dad's house. Jason and Tabatha were there and we spent the day hanging out, playing games, and of course eating. Mom and dad had a nice spread of snacks and soups which made for a nice relaxed day.

Monday we woke up and Madi opened her gifts. Then off to Dan and Jane's house. We opened gifts with them and Jon. They headed to Grandma Betty's for breakfast and we headed home to open our gifts to each other and start getting food and the house ready for supper here at 5:00. Beth, Marybeth, and Tommy came over in the afternoon to help Chris and I get ready and to also help entertain Madi. Dan and Jane also came over later to help. Madi and I both caught a cold Sunday and had a miserable night. So of course Monday, we were both dragging and Madi was a bear. Sunday night we had 23 people for supper and opened gifts. It was a wonderful evening!!!

The last three days, Madi and I have been trying to catch up on sleep and getting the house back in order. We are both still fighting this cold and Madi is having a heck of a time sleeping, which of course means I am also. She has also been very clingy and I can't be out of eye range for too long or it is a total melt down.

Here are some pics from the weekend and have many more on Winkflash. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and hope you have an exciting New Year!!!

Love, Amy