Duck in the Walker

Sick

Maddux has a cold or something. He's had bad mucus and a cough. Last night he was up half the night crying and he vomited for the first time in his little life. so I took him in the shower and hoped the steam would help with his cough. This morning he had a temperature of 100.4 but thats come down now. Trouble is, he needs sleep and he just won't do it. he's been in his crib crying for at least 15 minutes. Its worse than normal to listen to because it comes with intermittent coughing. :(
On the good side, I decided my son is a genius today! I was lying down with him and I was dangling my headband over him so he could play with it, and he pulled back on it and it flew kinda like when you flick a rubber band. he laughed and then did it again. when he figured out how it works he did it over and over and over laughing really hard the whole time. I think thats pretty advanced for a baby of 9 months. I'm proud of him!

CHRISTMAS PICTURES!

 This is one of my favorites, i might buy some prints of it. he just looks like a doll!

 AHH! He's so cute!

 I did order pics of this one with the bulb. I got an 8x10.

Stupid Santa!

Maddux, Makayla, and Payton were supposed to go see santa at walmart the other day, but walmart is retarded and didn't put a time frame on their advertising (where they promised free pictures with santa). So when I arrived to get in line, I found out that they had planned for Santa to be there till 4 but he had left 2 hours early, and I had arrived at 3. I was so angry! Brandon was there to comfort me and we decided to use our free coupons at the photo studio and get the duck's christmas pictures instead! They are very adorable! I'll post a preview just as soon as they are online!

Crying

Maddux is driving me nuts right now! He's doing that thing that babies do where they throw a tantrum because they are tired, so you put them down for a nap and they throw a bigger tantrum. I'm in a one bedroom apartment, so its not like I can just ignore him. He sounds so sad and I just feel like a terrible mommy for trying to put him down. I don't want to feel like I'm being selfish and trying to make him go away so I can get me time. I think I did everything I could before putting him down, i gave him crackers and put him in his toys and gave him his toys and fed him twice and nothing worked. he still ended up leaving these huge scratch marks on my neck. I just can't stand letting him cry like that! I really wish brandon were here to make me feel better! he gets home in 33minutes, or at least he gets off in that long.. I really need him!

Duck's Christmas List

Okay, I need to make a good sized Christmas list for my little Duck.

1. This thing :

or something like it. I need something maddux can play in and bounce in at the same time. I have an activity center for him, but it is hand-me-down and pretty old. most of the toys are either broken off or don't make much sense, so I would really like him to have one with all the toys and the added bouncing thing.
This is called Bounce A Bout from Bright Starts and it is $65. (its called a wish list for a reason... I can dream..)

2. I would love him to have a swaddler of come sort. Life would be much easier for me at the grocery store if I had 2 arms but he was still being held. he hates his car seat and I don't trust him to sit in the cart yet.

3. Story books for his age level. Either those cloth books, or books with like 1 to 2 sentences per page. I currently have about 2 like that.

4. The Curious George movie. He absolutely adores Jack Johnson music and he loves the Upside Down video which has the monkey in it.

5. Rattles and toys, just something he can play with. He has very few toys at the moment.

6. Toys that make noise. I know every parent hates the repetitive toys, but in the end we hate the crying more. those little piano toys would be perfect because he would be making the sound himself, also there is a crib light toy that you strap to the bars and it sings a soothing song when the baby touches the button, I already know he loves it, I just don't have one yet.

8. this thing is awesome! :

the sides can fold down or up so and its just full of awesome. just what my almost crawling kid needs!
its called the Baby's Play Place deluxe edition from Bright Starts. its $80 which is spendy, but its just so awesome....

9. I would love for him to have some kind of travel crib/ play pen. when he gets big enough to walk around i'm gonna need something to keep him in when i don't want him to get into anything. they have some that come with a changer which would be nice. i don't have a changing table, i just use my bed.

10. We could use something that will strap him in to his high chair. Its a family heirloom carved by hand and I love every thing about it accept that I have nothing to strap him in to it with. I am afraid I'll look away and he'll try to climb out and fall on his head. They have those cart covers out and i'm not quite sure if that would do the trick or not.

A TOOTH A TOOTH!!

Maddux finally has a tooth coming through his gums! I can feel the little sharp points of it through his gums, but I can't see it yet. Yay Duck!

Christmas Pictures!

I always get into the Christmas mood about a month before the holiday. Today I decided that I wanted to find Duck's santa hat and do some pictures. I don't really know if I want to take him to a studio or not now that I know what I can do at home. The two of him lying down on his side are my favorites!

Praise

Maddux just lights up when I tell him he did a good job! He makes this growling sound that I don't really understand. But he's starting to understand what he has to do to get praise, so now he does those things randomly. He's so close to figuring out how to clap his hands and I try to encourage him to keep trying. I tried to teach him how to do the knuckles thing that people do after high-fives, and he didn't get what we were doing, but he thought it was hilarious! he just laughed and laughed at me. hopefully eventually he will understand it. He is absolutely adorable!

Blog Face-Lift

My Partner-In-Crime Heather Sorenson made some very pretty pictures for me and I decided to change the look of this blog to fit them on to it. Here is my favorite one.

8 Months Old

Maddux is learning things so much faster these days. He's very close to crawling. He has the general idea, he just doesn't know how to lift himself up on his hands and knees just yet. If he wants to get to something, he will find a way. He already has little rug burns on his knees! I put lotion on them so it doesn't hurt too bad.
We went to WIC yesterday for his normal appointment. When they weighed him they noticed that he's only gained a few ounces in the last 3months. I was told to start feeding him more baby meat and less breast milk and apple juice. So now, I have an entire shelf in the cupboard thats just full of baby food. The first time I fed him a mixture of baby ham and sweet potatoes he made the FUNNIEST face! Meat has a different texture than the fruits and veggies he's used to. He just froze! It took him a long time to get through his food that time, but I was laughing the whole time. The dog was hovering around the whole time just waiting for me to look away so he could lick Maddux's face clean, and he did get away with licking the tray on the baby walker that Maddux was sitting in when I was feeding him. Duck is starting to understand the walker. Its a hand-me-down and it sat in our storage unit for a while because Maddux was too small for it. I finally cleaned it and washed the cloth seat and put him in it about a week ago. He's pretty good at backwards.
Maddux doesn't like it when I put him down and I know that I have to just put him down and let him cry sometimes so that he understands I can't hold him all the time, but its really hard to listen to him cry for too long at the same time. Usually he'll be okay with me just being in the room, but that makes it impossible to get chores done. So basically our apartment stays messy all the time. Maybe its just me always having an excuse because I absolutely hate chores! But I also won't let it get too dirty. I'll like keep it at a happy medium, a few things on the floor and some dishes in the sink, but not like smelly and flies every where.  I really want to move back to utah pretty soon. I think I could really use the help from my little sister and my mom and mother-in-law with Maddux. Even if someone just came over and held the baby while I did the chores. In Wyoming all I have is my older sister Amanda, but she already has her own 2 kids so she's got her hands full. She babysits Duck while I'm in school and I pay her and I am very grateful for that. I recently learned how impossible it is to find a daycare. I really miss my friends and people I can stay up all night talking to in those deep conversations where you don't notice the time going by. I desperately miss my sister Courtney! She's growing up to be the best friend I've always wanted. I have other best friends who are amazing too, but I just never expected Courtney and I to get along so well. She makes me feel excited about life. I really miss her.
It is amazing how much time has passed. 8 months already! It seems like yesterday that I was in the hospital getting ready to deliver him. I can see so much of Brandon in Maddux. He has Brandon's smile. I held a picture of Brandon when he was a kid up next to Maddux and made him smile, it was almost identical. In 4 months he will be a year old already! Some times Brandon and I think about not having anymore kids. We think that we might be able to give Maddux a fuller life if we have enough money for all he needs. But sometimes I think of how I have always wanted a little girl named Michelle. Its a problem because there's no promise that I'll have a girl if I get pregnant again. We definitely won't get pregnant again until Maddux is 5 because I am busy with college. I just wonder what we will end up choosing. Is it wrong to only want one child? Will he be lonely if we raise him by himself?
I absolutely cannot wait until Christmas!  Maddux's first Christmas! Its going to be amazing! I already have this huge list of toys I'm going to get him and Tootie, Brandon's mom, said that she's planning on spoiling him too. He's her only grand child after all. We are going to go to Utah the night of December 23rd. The next morning Brandon and his dad are going to go skiing while me and possibly Tootie go shopping at IKEA for toys for Maddux. We're gonna wrap them and then celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve, as is their family tradition. Then I'm gonna head up to Layton, where courtney lives and give her my present. Thats the plan, but its not set in stone yet. I'll post pictures after.
Here are some halloween pictures. Maddux was a duck for Halloween!

7 Months Old

Wow! lots of time has gone by since I last posted here. Maddux has grown so much! You can't tell he ever had a birth defect! He's a totally healthy, normal baby. He's big enough now that I can teach him things and see him understand it. One day, I decided to sit down and teach him how to high-five. It took him a couple tries but he loved the praise I gave him. He laughed so hard every time he got it right. I'm trying to teach him how to clap his hands, but thats a little more difficult so far. He laughs all the time. He loves playing peek-a-boo. I never know what he's going to find funny, but when he does I jump on it. I now know why mommies look so silly with their babies. Its so special and gratifying to hear your own babies laughter. Just knowing that I can solve all his problems is both amazing at terrifying, but its so strange how easy all the answers come to me. I just know what to do and I have no idea where the answers came from. Nature at its best I guess.
He isn't quite crawling yet, but he's sure trying. He rolls like a champ! If he needs to get to something he finds a way to do it. He has his baby chairs and bouncers that he plays in, but mostly he just wants to be held all the time. We watch a few shows together. He likes "Veggie Tales" but it doesn't keep his attention for too long. Strangely, he likes to watch my cop shows. Every time the opening song for "Law and Order" comes on he drops everything to watch it. Maddux always plays this game with me where he puts his fingers in my mouth and I pretend to eat them and spit them out. He thinks its hilarious.
We call him "duck-duck," pronounced really fast. He's going to be a duck for halloween. Grandma Tootie found his costume for him. Every time we go to her house she has new clothes for the Duck. Since we live in Wyoming now and she lives in Utah, I send her lots of pictures of Maddux to keep her connected. She calls it 'The Daily Duck.' My phone memory is almost full from all the pics I send.
Maddux shows me how he's just like his daddy all the time. They have the same lips, so when they are sleeping they make the same open-mouthed face. One night they were sleeping in the exact same position and they both moved at the same time into the same new position. It was hard to keep my giggles quiet! Brandon has this thing about lime flavored stuff. He only buys key lime pie flavored yogurt because he says thats what his brother, Christopher, used to eat. Once he bought some lime popsicles and let maddux taste it. He loved it! He was pretty let down when he had to go back to nursing milk. He kept stopping and looking back at Brandon, as if to say, "daddy! where's the good stuff?!" Another time, we were at Sonic and I had a cherry limeade which comes with a lime quarter in the drink. I wanted to see what would happen if I let him try a real lime. He just about ate the whole thing in 2 seconds. He was SOOO mad when I took it away from him, and I had to basically wrestle it away from him.
He went to Grandma Tootie and Al's house to visit, and he was crying some. So Al took him out to the garden in the back yard and picked a tomato for Maddux to play with. I said "are you sure about that?" and Al said, "eh, he doesn't have teeth. He can't break through the skin." a few seconds later we heard the sound of Maddux sucking on the tomato juice. I tried to take it away from him because he's too little for solid food, but he threw the biggest tantrum. So I gave it back. he had half of the tomato sucked down before I had to just take it away and distract him with something else. We all thought it was pretty funny!
So I am in college now, which means that Maddux has to have day care. My sister amanda has two girls who are 3 and 4 named Payton and Makayla. He spends his days over at their house. Payton loves Maddux the most. She seems to think that she's his nanny. If my sister doesn't watch her closely, she will have Maddux on the floor to change his diaper. She always says he needs a bottle to feed him and that she wants to hold him. The girls sometimes see me nursing the baby and find it really interesting. I don't mind showing them because I know that its completely natural, and Amanda, my sister, doesn't mind them knowing how it all works. They always know to find me a blanket when a boy is in the room, and try to take my blanket away when its just them.
Maddux is a very healthy, very normal baby boy. He's developing slightly ahead of the normal baby schedule, but he's also somewhat  under weight for his age. He was born so small and everything, so he's growing at a regular rate, its just a rate thats behind I guess. He's 7 months old and I can still squeeze him in to his 0-3 month old clothes, which I guess is nice because he won't go through his clothes nearly as fast as he should.
I love my Duck-Duck.

Smiles

Maddux is starting to smile as a reaction to stimuli now instead of just a reflex. I sit and I talk to him and say anything to make him laugh. I'll tell him he's my little boy and I love him, I'll tell him how special he is, sometimes I'll just say hi and he'll get all happy. Once he woke up from a nap and just saw that I was there and he lit up. My favorite are those huge open mouthed smiles! They make his whole face light up. I love when he just sits and stares at me, like he's trying to memorize everything about me or brandon or whoever is holding him. He will twist his whole body around to see me. I know he's gonna be laughing regularly any time soon. I can't wait! 

Second Month Pictures