two month stats

here are madeleine's stats from her two month appointment compared to her two week appointment:

height
two weeks - 21 inches, 78th percentile
two months - 23 inches, 76th percentile

head circumference
two weeks - 14.25 inches, 57th percentile
two months - 15.25 inches, 82nd percentile

weight
two weeks - 9.08 lbs, 86th percentile
two months - 13.06 lbs, 97th percentile

she's our chubby-cheeked, healthy little girl!

animal instincts

madeleine had her two month doctor's appointment on monday and as part of that, got her immunization shots. i knew going into it that it would be hard for me to see her get the shots, but randy reminded me to be strong and to remember that they are good for her and intended to keep her healthy. i had to remind myself of that when two nurses walked in, each wielding multiple shots and poked my baby. when she let out her cries, i understood more of why mother elephants out in the wild might trample someone who gets too close to their young or the other behaviors that mothers in the wild resort to in protecting their babies. fortunately, i had the presence of mind not to attack the nurses or anything crazy like that.

the nurses were actually great (i really like my pediatrician if anyone is looking for one in the utah valley area) and had it down to a quick routine, minimizing the pain for both madeleine and me. madeleine was also a great sport about it and while she did let out quite the cries at the inital pokes, the duration was very short and she was quickly consoled. monday night was a slightly different story though. despite pumping her full of children's tylenol (not to exceed the recommended dosage, of course), she was still pretty out of sorts. usually, even if she's fussy, she's pretty easily consolable. not so on monday. it was so sad to see my little baby in pain and not herself. fortunately, she was back to her normal self yesterday but i don't know what i'm going to do down the road if she has any real injuries or when the emotional pain starts coming. teenage boys, watch out for mama elephant...

two months tomorrow

warning: new mom with a camera on the loose.

madeleine loves her changing table. i put her on it and she starts wiggling (as you can tell by the blurry pictures and flailing limbs) and smiling like it's the best place in the world. i think she likes to look at the ceiling fan in the room.

madeleine went for her first walk on saturday. it was really sunny and i wanted to get out, so i decided that i was going to take her out. then i realized that despite the sun, it was still pretty cold outside. so we bundled her up and went on a short family outing. i think she enjoyed it.

"mom, what are you doing?"

"get that camera out of my face!"

okay, i love this outfit and think that it is absolutely adorable, but every time that i put her in it, she does something like spit up all over it, or blow out her diaper, within two minutes of me putting it on. i took a couple pictures of her in it to preserve the moment, but sure enough, she wasn't in it for too long.

lounging in the boppy.

this is her suspicious look.

bath time!

best night yet

i believe that last night was the best night that i have had with madeleine yet. she went down easily at 10:00, slept until 3:00, ate for 15 minutes and went back to bed until 7:00. i hate to get my hopes up, but she really has been settling into more of a night time routine and we haven't had any really rough nights in a couple weeks now. she'll be sleeping through the night before i know it, right?

art intake

randy took a class for writing about the arts, and often, when i find myself writing in my journal about an encounter with the arts, i wish that i had taken that class. i'm not very good at expressing myself in this arena. having said that, i am going to attempt to write a book, movie, and concert review. it is going to be short because i just got madeleine down and i should be taking advantage of that and sleeping myself.

for my sassy ladies book club, we read "the road," by cormac mccarthy last month. the jury is still out on this one. it was a gripping story, written very well, but i'm still not sure if i took enough out of it to have it be worth the incredibly depressing storyline. i mean, really depressing. and yet, i really enjoyed it. i still don't understand it myself. i think that the main thing that i took from it is that our world is defined by our relationships with those around us. i think that's why this is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

"the boy nodded. he sat looking at the map. the man watched him. he thought he knew what that was about. he'd pored over maps as a child, keeping one finger on the town where he lived. just as he would look up his family in the phone directory. themselves among others, everything in its place. justified in the world. come on, he said, we should go."

obviously, it makes more sense if you read the book. so, if you're looking for a well written, depressing novel, pick it up. it's a quick read too.

randy and i finally got out to see the much-hyped, "juno," last weekend. i feel kind of bad saying this, but despite the fact that there wasn't really any morally redeeming quality to the movie according to my beliefs, it was a fantastic movie. let me try to clarify...

it's about teen-pregnancy, and you don't ever really get the feel that she learns from what she's done except to get together with the father of the baby in a slightly-more-mature-than-most-teenage-relationships relationship. it makes single parenting seem easy. i don't like those aspects of it.

however, having said that, the dialogue was witty and funny and the characters were well developed and quirky. above all, the actors performed their roles amazingly. ellen page is fantastic in the title role and deserves the oscar. and then there were some of my old favorites, who delivered, as usual. jason bateman was good in it, although i wasn't as big of a fan of his character. c.j. from west wing did great as juno's step-mom, and george michael from arrested development (michael cera) did an especially great job in his role. i was really impressed. going into it, it seemed like his typical role, which i don't mind, but i was really surprised and it was even better than expected.

okay, now i'm rambling about the movie. onto the concert...

after months of waiting with our tickets sitting in the top drawer of my desk, the brad mehldau concert finally arrived. randy was giddy as a little kid on christmas morning, which was satisfaction enough for me, no matter how much i enjoyed the concert.

brad mehldau performed with his trio and they played some really beautiful charts. i don't usually describe jazz as beautiful music (don't get me wrong, i love it, just not my usual adjective), but these really were just that: beautiful. he also played some cool more edgy pieces, which is what randy really loves, and i enjoyed those, but was glad that it wasn't the theme of the entire concert.

okay, as i expected, i don't think i did any of these justice or accurately expressed my thoughts, but hopefully you get the idea.

our funny valentine

seven weeks old already...

here's madeleine on valentine's day. doesn't she look good in pink?

surfin' for something good to watch.

i love it when her eyes curl up like this and she smiles.

what an adorable little outfit. the mittens were for warmth, not because of scratching (see previous post about me liberating her hands). although, i have been tempted... this week was bad for scratching, as you can see in some of the pictures.

this is her big scratch on her nose that she gave herself this week. so sad!

me and my girlie.

guess who dressed madeleine this morning

i came home for lunch today and found madeleine dressed in this:

when i asked randy, "what is she wearing?" he calmly replied, "the pants have pink in them."

smiles and sleepovers

madeleine is almost 7 weeks old now. this last week she just started to be a lot more responsive to randy and me. she smiles and coos a little more, making her even cuter, if possible. she also had her first sleepover at grandma's this weekend. we were up there for a few family things, so we decided to stay over last night. i'm sure she had little idea of where she was. going through the pictures that i took this week, i realized that most of them are from when she's sleeping. maybe it's me trying to preserve those moments.

happy birthday grammy!

it's been a good week for pictures, so as a birthday present to madeleine's grammy peck, we'll post a bunch of them.

here she is looking especially angelic.

okay, so far i have been making sure to cover madeleine's hands up, either with the built in covers that come on many outfits, as shown above...

or with these mitten things that we got. i used to laugh when i saw babies with these on, but was convinced of their usefulness when i encountered my newborn baby trying to claw her eyes out with her little razor-like fingernails. so basically, up until now, i have made sure that she doesn't have that opportunity anymore.

well, this week, i finally decided that i wanted to see her beautiful little hands a bit more, and that i didn't want my three year old still looking like a burn victim. you've got to let them learn sometime, right? she had been doing pretty well with it, but this morning we woke up with some scratches on her cheek that you can see in the picture. it hasn't been too bad though, and her little hands really are sweet to look at.

she's still got the rock star hair going on.

can't get enough of those cute yawn pictures.

we didn't get around to a bath yesterday, so madeleine was looking pretty greasy by this morning. this is her ready for her bath in her little bathrobe. does it look like she's filling it out a little more? (older pictures with brown background).

taking a nap with uncle ray.

austin is really cute with madeleine. if she's ever crying around him, he is quick to run up to her, stroke her head and say, "it's okay baby madeleine, it's okay." (can you tell how we console him?) he protects her from her less-than-gentle cousin matthew, and is always quick to help with diaper changes, although i do have to remind him that his diapers are a little big for her and ask him to get me one of hers instead.

this was madeleine at the byu men's volleyball game. since there was no room for her carseat, we really had to bundle her up for the walk from the car to the smith fieldhouse. it will be nice when it's a little warmer outside and it's not such a production to take her out.