Some fun times and one BIG girl

We can't believe how fast our little one is growing up. It seems like she is doing everything in just the last week. Maddie is now a woman on the go. She is a great crawler. We have to always have our eye on her to make sure she isn't getting into anything. She is eating 'big girl' food now and has her favorties. She loves her cereal and sweet potatoes, yet wants nothing to do with vegetables. Just last night she started to drink out of her sippy cup....but would still rather us hold it for her.

Hollywood's newest star!

Bathtime is so much fun. She loves to kick and splash in the water.

A woman on the go.....especially when she sees something that she wants. (Like the remote)

Jumping Bean

Miss Maddie loves her jumper and we enjoy watching her jump. With the little one crawling now it also give Mike and I a minute or two to just sit and catch our breath. We have both been very busy and it looks like the month ahead is only busier. I'll try to post more pictures of all of our fun adventures lately. However this sleep deprived Momma is often choosing naps over pictures.

Too Long

Month 6....Where has the time gone? Everyone says that they grow up so quickly.....now I understand what the mean. Since I have been back at work I have gotten away from posting come pictures and keeping everyone up to date. The truth is that at the end of the day when it comes down to it, I'd rather be 'playing' with Madison then being on the computer. But here and there I find some down time and I'll try to keep this blog update a little more. Here are some our new 'firsts'

First time eating pizza......or at least chewing on Dad's crust. SO much better then canned baby food.

Our little musician. Playing on Mommy's recorder. She actually made some sounds on it. Now, if only I could get all my 4th graders at school to do that!

Sitting at her big girl chair and LOVING to play with Cheerios. She hasn't quite figured out how to eat them....but is really good at throwing them all over the floor for us to pick up.

LOVED her first time in the shopping cart....minus the car seat. Now that she is sitting we use the Floppy Seat so much more. Madison loves to be up and looking around at everyone and everything as we go shopping. I have to say she is quite a flirt already...smiling and grinning at everyone she sees. I can see many more shopping trips with Mommy in the coming years!

Maddie and Daddy

This Thanksgiving I am reminded how blessed I am to have such an amazing family. I have always appreciated my immediate and extended family, but having a new little one of my own has changed my outlook so much. Having a daugther brings such joy to my life in a way that I never could have imagined. How is it possible to think that your life is complete then this new little person comes into your world and you can't imagine how you ever functioned without her?

I know much of that joy wouldn't be there without my wonderful husband by my side. As I told him the other day, I can not remember a time when I was ever happier. Don't get me wrong, life is not easy right now....sleepless nights, juggling schedules, going back to work, dealing with stresses of job and family. But I am happy....or better said content. As I said Mike is a big part of this. It is amazing how good he is with Maddie. He has the patience of a saint, walking her and rocking her to sleep at night. He will wak up early on the weekends to take care of her so I can get a few extra minutes of sleep in.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Maddie and Daddy time over the past 3 months.

Story time in the mornings on the weekends are a favorite time for both Maddie and Daddy.

2 Months Old

Well little Miss Maddie is officially 8 weeks old. We had her 2 month Dr. appointment on Friday and our little one is 'just beautiful' as the pediatrician said. Maddie is up to 9 lbs. now and has grown for 21.5 inches long. I have a lot of friends that say she is still so tiny and that they had babies that were born 9 pounds, but we think she is perfect. She has grown almost 3 lbs. since birth and has grown 3 inches. Although her weight only puts her in the 8th percentile and her height in the 15th the doctor said that we shouldn't worry about that at all, as she was little when she was born. We are just glad that she is growing and getting bigger.....even with all of the spitting up she is doing.

Speaking of spitting up, we are still battling the acid reflux. Maddie spits up after almost every meal. Sometimes a little.....but usually a lot. We have resorted to keeping her in bibs most of the day rather then changing her clothes 5-6 times. The medication that the doctor put her on has seemed to help with the pain that she has when she is spitting up, which is a blessing for both Maddie and her parents. The doctor suggested weighing her milk with cereal to help it stay down and gave us some special formula to try as well. However, we are still suspicious of a possible milk allergy as the trigger for some of the more 'powerful' reflux and looking at exploring that as well.

Along with Maddie's check up to day she had her first round of immunizations. She did fantastic....or as well as a 2 month old can when given 3 shots. However I think that the trip to the doctors and the shots wore her out because when we went to the DeSales football game that night she feel asleep about 6:30 and didn't wake up until 4:00 the next morning! She then ate for about 50 minutes and quickly fell back to sleep....along with Daddy on the couch.

Madison's first official high school football game.....dressed as a pumpkin in honor of Halloween the next day. She slept through the whole thing, including the marching band that was playing 5 feet in front of her.
The little one woke up long enough for me to get her from the front pack to the car seat and then fell asleep on the way home....only to sleep until 4:00 the next morning.

Maddie and Daddy back to sleep Saturday morning after both having a busy, tiring Friday night.

Fall Fun

The Porretta family has been busy the past few weeks. Maddie is keeping Mommy and Daddy on their toes. She tried drinking out of a bottle for the first time and after a rough start seems to like it pretty well. She drinks much better there now as opposed to breast feeding where she sometimes just likes to 'hang out'. I will think that she is done after 3-4 min. of no sucking, only to take her away and have her cry and cry and cry until I let her nurse again.

Speaking of nursing we are trying to figure out what is making her so fussy and spitting up all the time. We think that it is something that I am eating in addition to the bad acid reflux she is experiencing. So for the last week I have eliminated all dairy, chocolate, spices, acidic fruits and gassy vegetables from my diet. (Oatmeal and chicken breast are my new staple foods.....sounds yummy huh?) Slowly I am trying to reintroduce various items back to see how they affect her. We have found that she gets fussier, sometimes with increased spit up...more like vomit....and sometimes diarrhea when I eat milk products. We have an appointment with the pediatrician on Fri. for her 2 month check up and we plan on talking to her about it then. We are thinking though that the problem right now might be a dairy allergy. (Maybe it was the over abundance of soft serve yogurt that I craved during pregnancy that is finally catching up to me!)

But in between all the the dirty burp clothes, loads of laundry and tears....sometimes from Maddie and sometimes from Mommy....we have had some fun times too. Here are some of the things that we have been up to this month.

We watched Daddy marching the the Otterbein Homecoming Parade and play 'Old Man River' with the Alumni Band.

Later that night we went to the 100 Years of Band concert at Otterbein to hear him play again. Mommy was worried because I usually get fussy at night and the concert was 8:00. I cried the entire way to the concert, but as soon as the music started I was happy and even danced to a few songs. However, when the music stopped at the end of the evening I was really sad......and cried the whole way home.

I looked super cute in my October outfit.


Mommy and Daddy took me to Boo at the Zoo. I dressed up as a pumpkin and lots of people told me how cute I looked. I didn't hear them though because I slept most of the time we were there.

When we were at the zoo a really scary tiger came up and roared at us. At first it really scared me until I realized it was just my cousin Carson. We had fun later riding the train together. I can't wait until I am a little bigger and we can have more fun playing together.

Bumbo Fun!

Now that Miss Maddie can hold her head up we broke out the Bumbo chair this week. We were a little unsure if she would like it, but it was a success. We love it too! It has been great to sit her in while we are eating dinner at the table or take it upstairs to sit while we are do laundry. I enjoy having her so close when she is up and alert. This way we can still talk and play while I get some things done around the house!

At first she wasn't too sure of what to think about the chair.

Then she cried.......

and now it's not so bad!

Our first official meal at the table as a family.

(Technically Maddie is ON the table, but that's OK)

One happy baby who is smiling more and more each day.