TV Junkie

Elimination Communication

Ok, confession time. We've refrained from talking about it too much until we saw how it went, but since it's going well... If you haven't heard already, Madison is potty trained. We started infant potty training, or elimination communication ('EC'), at one month of age. By two months of age, she was doing almost all of her poops in the potty. She still wets in her diaper because she doesn't have the bladder control yet to hold it for too long, but she also goes most of the time when I put her on the potty.

If you're wondering how this is done, I simply hold her (under her legs in a squat position) over the potty after each time I feed her & she just goes. I read about this concept while I was pregnant and we decided we had nothing to lose but a lot to gain in giving it a try. Babies are born with an awareness of when they need to go, but typically we cause them to lose this awareness by 'training' babies to eliminate in their pants. (And then parents have the nightmare of having to retrain them a couple years later.) I've kind of custom adapted the concept for my own use. Some people literally try to 'catch' every time. I decided before I started that my goal was not to catch 100% of the time but to begin familiarizing Madison at an early age with the potty as the place to 'go'. If we caught even 50% of the time through the process, that would just be a huge bonus. Well it's worked out very well and we are blessed with changing very few poopy diapers, as she does about 90% of her poops in the potty.

As eating or sleeping patterns have changed, so have her pooping patterns. (For those that don't have kids, please forgive the focus on poop. It's amazing what a discussion topic poop becomes once you have a baby. ;-) Recently, and coinciding with Madison starting solids (baby cereal & applesauce), she's been going longer & longer between poops. At first it was a day or two; now she seems to be going regularly every 7 days!! The first two times this happened, she ended up doing a huge poop in her pants - and at church. BOTH times. (This week we were sick & didn't go to church... so I was almost afraid, with the way she'd been saving it for church, we'd have to wait another week for her to go!! ;-) The irony of course was that for months she'd been going solely in the potty - and when she does her biggest, messiest one, she does it in her pants at the most inconvenient time. Almost like she was saving it for us, just for the drama...

Well today was Day 7, and sure enough, she did her poop - and this time in the potty! I was so proud of her - and so happy I didn't have to immediately swab the deck & give her a bath after cleaning up a mess. Now that her body has adjusted to solids, we should be back into a regular routine again -- and hopefully back to that 90% of poops in the potty!

Again, while I don't necessarily do EC the way everyone else does, if you want to learn more about EC, check out www.diaperfreebaby.com.

Little Monkey

We call her the Little Monkey,

but when she goes out in the cold, she's a little bear!

Generations - Mom's side

Four generations

Multi-generations

Cousins

Boppa with the girls

Lily (left) was especially enamored with her baby cousin

Madison hasn't been around dogs much yet, but she loved Elsie! Elsie licked her in the face whenever she got the chance.

Christmas in NY

We made it back! Our Christmas visits in NY were wonderful. It was so good to see everyone again - it had been too long. The week was super hectic - we didn't have a lot of down time unfortunately, but it was still fun. All 3 of us came down with colds the day before we flew out, so physically we felt lousy the whole time - bummer.

Our flights were mostly uneventful. The layovers in O'Hare were delayed by 2 hours both going & coming home, but we were very thankful that we even made it. There were SO many flights cancelled. I felt so bad for those getting stuck in the airport just days before or after Christmas. Madison did great on the flights. For the most part she was distracted by her surroundings, but occasionally she would get so overtired she'd have a meltdown & scream for a couple minutes before dropping off to sleep.

I will get a few pictures posted now & do a bunch more later on Picasa. Once I got home, I realized how few chances I had to use my camera during our visit. Most of the time I was doing the visiting rather than photographing those visited. The rest of my family took pictures though so I will be getting more from them.

Merry Christmas!

We fly out tomorrow morning for Christmas in New York. I'm excited but a little nervous about getting through the airports on time and with Madison. Please keep us in your prayers! I probably won't be posting again until after we return, so...

From our family to yours, have a very Merry Christmas

and a blessed New Year!

Winter Wonder

20 weeks old... It wasn't that long ago I couldn't WAIT to survive 'til the 20 day mark. Wow.

Madison's been sitting up straighter lately. Still needing to prop herself with her hands, but holding herself up better without falling over.

Out of Season

Well I finally had to face the fact - as I assume all parents do - that there are some adorable outfits that Madison will never wear. I was packing away clothes that are too small or out of season, and I just had to put a few of my favorites on her for a picture. Maybe my next girl will be born at the right time of year for more wear out of these outfits...

We Have No Bananas Today

Last weekend we decided to try giving Madison some solid food - a little bit of rice cereal. The first time we tried, much of it ran down her chin, but she quickly got the idea of how to mush it around and swallow it. Since then I've given her the rice cereal twice a day. She seems fine with it -- not desperate to have it but not super excited with it either. I'm not in a big hurry to get her into solids, but figure it doesn't hurt for her to start learning - plus have a little extra in her skinny belly.

So this morning I decided to try some mushed banana - give her a little variety. All babies like mushy banana right? Well, Madison is a VERY expressive baby - and I thought we'd seen all of her 1001 expressions... but this is definitely a new one.

Enjoy. ;-)

O So Fashionable

Aunt Kelly & Cousin Meghan are making sure Madison is at the height of fashion!

Thanks for the coat (etc.) guys! We love it!

19 and a Half

I suppose I should start counting in months now... but keeping track of how many weeks old she is certainly helps when labeling & identifying picture files.

Everything goes in the mouth -



Who me?!

Buyer Beware

Remember our brilliant find of iOffer.com? Well... we're definitely not recommending it to anyone else. We made several purchases - a couple turned out ok (movies which we received but the quality wasn't what the seller claimed) and one turned out to be a scam. It was a fairly significant amount that the seller has run off with, too. The big problem with iOffer seems to be that it is simply a forum but has no provision for dispute resolution like Ebay, making it an easy target for scammers. We're currently working with both Paypal and our credit card company through their dispute/fraud services, ugh, but what a hassle.

Ironically, two years ago at this same time of year we had one of our two bikes stolen. What is it about people robbing us at Christmastime? :-P

Push Ups

Madison continues her quest to push up on all fours. Previously she had only pushed up on her back end, now she has conquered pushing straight up on her arms. What she has yet to figure out is how to do them both together.

A few more 19 Week photos here...

O Christmas Tree

It's fake... but we like it - it works for now.

Photography Success

LOL - I love this! Here's the key to successful photographs... Matt & I smile and pose, Niecey takes the pictures, and Rene watches ALL the kids! Haha!!

I think you need just a few more there, Rene. ;-)

Holiday Spirit at 4 Months

iOffer

Anyone heard of this site before? iOffer.com I'm using it for the first time and hoping it's reliable. Looks like a neat concept. I am sooo excited. I've purchased the Polly movie with Keisha Knight Pulliam as well as the full Even Steven series! Both of which I've been looking for for some time.

Stripes

Watch out for this little striped sweetie pie!

She's practically crawling away!