screaming and wrestling

madeleine's latest way of communicating is to do this little screaming/yelling thing. it sounds like she's angry, but she's really not. i can tell that i'm her mom because i think that it's adorable. she also loves to wrestle with her stuffed animals. she's been doing this for a while now, but now that she rolls around, it looks even funnier. she tries to put the stuffed animal in her mouth (and often succeeds) and it looks like the animal is winning the wrestling match, but madeleine always seems to end up on top.

a new lease on life

we just had an 8-day jury trial that ended and i feel like i have a new lease on life. i say 8-day jury trial, but you have to understand that it has been so much more than that. we have been dealing with motions for the trial for several weeks, and because we took a couple days off during the trial to handle criminal matters, the trial has spanned more than 8-days. i have been to work early, stayed late, and had shortened lunch breaks. i have dreamed about the trial on multiple occasions, and i am happy to say that the trial is now over. it has been a great experience and very interesting, but i am ready to return to a slightly slower pace. only one month left in my clerkship and i will be sad to leave it, but am so excited to be at home with madeleine!

how does your garden grow?

i mentioned a while ago that audrey helped me replant my garden. the reason we had to replant is because we had had an insect infestation previously, so i dug up the plants and now we are on round two. after planting my new starts, i didn't see any progress for a while and i was worried that the starts were in shock after transplanting them or that they were root bound (these are terms i have learned from my gardening mother-in-law and botanist brother-in-law), but the in the past two weeks, they have suddenly sprouted up.

my zucchini plants are huge. i'm glad i cut out one of the plants in my second attempt at a garden because there wouldn't have been room for more. there's a cucumber plant next to these, and it's definitely grown, but it's still a little behind.

i've got a few tomatoes that have shown up and now we just have to wait for them to be ripe. my tomato plants were starting to droop, so after 3 trips to home depot, they finally had tomato cages in stock, and i got those as well.

our basil plant isn't huge (it's in the back right corner of the picture above), but i still picked a little basil to put on our frozen pizza last night. it was delicious. i am so excited for my own fresh garden vegetables!

6 months old!

four little bandaids from her six month shots.

here are her stats from her appointment compared to her last one. apparently she's been exercising and stretching out since last time.

weight:
6 months - 18.01 lbs, 87th percentile
4 months - 17.09 lbs, 96th percentile

height:
6 months - 27.75", 98th percentile
4 months - 26.5", 96th percentile

head circumference:
6 months - 16.75", 53rd percentile
4 months - 16.5", 63rd percentile

sadly, i actually didn't get to go to her six month appointment. we are in the middle of a big jury trial at work and i couldn't leave in the middle of it, so randy ended up taking her to the appointment. apparently the doctor didn't even see her anyway. it was still a little sad to miss though. randy said she did well.

get smart

we went and saw get smart last weekend and as soon as the theme song started playing, i had flashbacks of sitting in our basement, watching episodes of get smart on nick at nite, and loving every minute of it. i was pretty young when i watched it, so i really don't remember a lot of specific details from the episodes, but i really do remember thinking that it was hilarious. things i do remember: the theme song, the opening scene where he walks through all of the doors and into the phone booth, the shoe phone, "missed it by that much," max's uncomfortable inability to do things right, and thinking that agent 99 was so cool.

the movie was even better than i had hoped. steve carrell was the perfect maxwell smart, although they did make him much more competent than i remember the original smart being. i thought they did a great job of converting a television show into a movie. this was a great movie and i recommend it, even if you don't remember the tv show.

a weekend with family...

and no pictures with family to show for it. i have been a big slacker with the camera lately. many of you are probably glad for that. randy's parents were in town for randy's cousin's wedding this weekend, so we had a great time hanging out with them all weekend. the weekend flew by, they have headed home, and we miss them already!

we have had a busy couple weeks, which is why my posting has been less frequent. we have a big trial going on at work, so i haven't been able to manage my schedule as much as i would like to and it's been a little rough and stressful on all of us. let's just say that i may have forgotten to feed my child one morning before going to work this week. fortunately, i remembered not too long after i arrived at work and we were able to remedy the situation.

madeleine is going to be six months old this week. she loves rolling around on the ground now, which is what most of the pictures from the week consist of. she grabs her feet and rocks from side to side. she has figured out that she can get from point a to point b by rolling repeatedly. she also manages to move around by laying on her back, arching her back, and scooting backwards. she's not very accurate in aiming, but she is mobile. i'm going to have to baby-proof the house soon. ugh.

i love my dads!

a happy father's day to all of the dads in my life. best of all, of course, is the father of my child, randy, but i'll get back to him in a minute.

as with my mother-in-law (see my mother's day post), i have been blessed with an awesome father-in-law. i think that one of the reasons that he's so easy to love is because he and randy are so similar. i love it when we are with them and bob will do something and i can think, "oh, that's where randy gets that from." he is kind and gentle, and has a great sense of humor. he is always generous with us.

my parent's always joke that i am 90% my dad, 10% my mom. this is probably why i get along so well with my dad. i have always loved running errands with him to spend extra one-on-one time together. my dad has been one of my greatest teachers in life and i think that i have learned a lot about my relationship with my heavenly father because i have had the tangible example of a great relationship with my own earthly father. my dad is a great cook and also knows how to dine out well. i have learned much about food and culture through him. my dad has taught me about generosity and service through his quiet example and i hope to someday be as free with my time and resources as he is. i could go on and on...

finally, randy is an awesome dad. i can really say that because he has been taking care of madeleine full time while i have worked this last year. he is so good with her and her face just lights up when she sees her daddy. i don't worry at all about leaving her with him because i know how well taken care of she is. he has sacrificed a lot of his time and energy to take care of her and has given so much these past 6 months. i could not ask for a better father for my children and i am especially excited to have him around when they become teenagers. he will by far be the more patient parent, as he has already proven. i love you randy!

shaving my head?

i could tell i was tired in the shower this morning when i had rinsed the shampoo out of my hair and instead of grabbing the conditioner, i put a nice squirt of shaving cream in my hand and started working it into a rich lather in my hair before i realized what i had done. luckily i didn't pick up the razor as well.

rolling over!

she got herself into the position that she's in at the beginning of the video, we didn't put her in that position. she really is doing it on her own.

my week

last week seemed to fly by for me. on wednesday and thursday, we got to spend time with ruth, jared, and abbi sine, who were all in town from new york. jared went to law school with me and was in my close group of friends that i studied with. he is one of the main reasons that i got through several of my classes. it was so fun to see them and catch up. i can't believe how big abbi is getting. it makes it seem more real that i graduated from law school over a year ago.

i also had my birthday yesterday and got to stretch it out a little. my friend, maija, came over and brought me cafe rio and played games with me on friday night while randy gigged, so i got to start the celebration off in style a little bit early. yesterday, madeleine woke up early, but randy took care of her so that i could sleep in. i spent lots of the day up at my parents with my family and had a great birthday dinner: tri-tip, potato cheese casserole, and peach cobbler. not much that's better than that!

also, this week, randy got a new padded piano bench. this is a huge deal, seeing as he spends several hours a day sitting on a bench. we're pretty excited. it's a vast improvement over the foam that he had on our wood bench.

madeleine's week

this is a picture of madeleine in her sunday outfit last week. the dress is a gift from my aunt, jennifer linford, and is beautiful, and the bow, a gift from my sister-in-law, kimberlee, just happens to match perfectly. it's like the bow was made for the dress.

madeleine got a haircut last sunday. i know, you're thinking, "didn't debby just post about a haircut for madeleine recently?" well i did. but she needed another one. with her continually thinning hair, it needed some additional help. i finally decided to just buzz it to give it a fresh start. it was really hard, and she looks a little bit like g.i. jane, but i keep telling myself that it will look much better in the long run.

see? it really did need it.





the "after" shot

this is a picture of madeleine right after the biggest milestone of the week. she rolled over! it was actually kind of sad, i came home from work and randy said, "guess what madeleine did today." he then informed me that she had rolled over. it's the first big thing i missed because i was at work, so i was a little sad, but he was a good husband and captured it on video the second time that she did it (i will post that too). she was even better and did it live for me right away so i didn't even have to watch the video to see it.

i'm still here

it's been a while since i've posted, but i promise that i will get to it today or tomorrow. lots to post about... a video of a major milestone for madeleine, visits from law school buddies, a wonderful birthday and more... soon.

happy birthday audrey!

this is my beautiful sister, audrey. and it is her birthday today. i could go on and on about how wonderful she is, but instead of doing that, i'll just tell you a little bit about today to illustrate.

today, audrey's husband, joseph, had to be down in provo for bingham high's graduation ceremony (he teaches there), so audrey came down with her boys as well. while joseph was at graduation, she came and took madeleine to the park with her boys so that randy could have some time to himself and then when i got home from work, she came home from the park and helped me replant my garden (a story for a different day). mostly she just planted it though and i stood by, amazed at how quickly and easily she did it all. that's right, she spent her birthday serving our little family. thank you audrey! you have always been such a wonderful big sister to me and a great example. someday i hope to be like my big sister.

eco-friendly bags

this is not a paid announcement for smith's or their reusable bags. however, i did want to share my latest attempt at being a little more environmentally friendly. our local smith's has these reusable shopping bags for .79 each. they also sell thermal ones for slightly more, but i figure that my plastic bags that i've been using for years weren't thermal, why start now?

the bags are great. they are way more sturdy than the plastic bags, so when your bagger overloads your bag, you don't have the embarrassing experience of having the handle break and salsa and spaghetti sauce mixed with glass all over the ground (true story). also, they hold twice as much as normal bags, so it means less trips from the car to the house. and best of all, they're way less wasteful. there are tons of these types of bags available out there even if your local grocery store doesn't sell them. check it out.

five months old and growing fast

my baby is growing up really fast. it makes me a little sad sometimes, but for the most part it's really fun.

madeleine's latest trick is that she found her feet this week. they are constantly up in the air and she has mastered the art of grabbing them both at once.

another huge milestone is that madeleine had solid foods for the first time yesterday. my doctor told me that she's probably ready for it, so as soon as i was ready for the mess, expense, and inconvenience, i could start her on solids. she has been showing a lot more interest when randy and i eat now and we figured that it was time to try it out.

despite the look on her face (which is actually more likely disdain for the camera than rice cereal), madeleine seemed to really like rice cereal. she got the hang of eating solids pretty quickly and it wasn't even that messy. she really did more swallowing than spitting out after the first couple bites. i'd say the first feeding was a success!

we really were the ones feeding her for the most part. we gave her a spoon to distract her from grabbing the one we were feeding her with, somehow forgetting that our daughter sticks everything in her mouth.