Madeleine at 10 Months

On Christmas Eve, one day before the official 10 month mark, Madeleine took her first steps while we were at my parents' home. She is so little to be walking, which makes it extra cute when she does. And only in 1-2 step spurts. When she gets bored of this, she likes to just flop right into the waiting receiver's arms. Either way, she loves the applause. She also loves to applaud others, especially if she sees other people applauding. And she often will "lead"music. Really. It is so cute.

Madeleine still has 4 teeth--I thought for sure there would be 5 by now, since you can see another bottom row tooth just beneath the surface, and she seemed to have a lot of pain associated with it.

Madeleine is a pooping machine. For example, today she had 4 such diapers. And that is totally normal for her. Considering how much she can eat, I suppose it makes sense, since I think she often eats at least as much as Avery or Abigail, plus breast milk.

Madeleine loves to bite me. Not so much when she is eating, but when she wants to tell me she loves me, or she is feeling neglected, or wants to be set down. Those 2 daggers on top and 2 on bottom make the most perfectly painful pinch on my thigh, my upper arm, the top of my foot, my chin...Sometimes I wear a jean jacket just because she can't bite me through it.
A few months ago, Andy gave a Family Night lesson about being a good example, what that means and how people learn by watching. As an experiment, he told the kids that if every family prayer we all folded our arms, Mattie would too, and it would be so cute. Well, that day arrived this month and it was SO cute. You can watch the short video below.
It's been a big month for her arms, as she also waves now. Tonight, she just kept waving at Andy across the room while he read to the kids. Very sweet.

Madeleine is very adept at mimicking words and intonation. Once it was "clever", another time it was "fold your arms." She also has done "Madeleine", "Papo", and "Sarah". Her pitch/intonation imitation is very accurate and funny, and when she tried to say the mouthful "Madeleine" I laughed out loud.
She loves to be outside, and can get there very quickly. She loves to swing. She likes cups and trying to drink from them. She even likes other people more than last month; 2 weeks ago she crawled over to my friend Becky and sat on her lap during church. I was stunned.
Madeleine is delightful and an extremely determined child. She is loved by all her siblings, as evidenced that each time she awakes from a nap, Abigail sings, "Hail to our princess!" repeatedly.
We love you Mattie!

Nutcracker

I love the pleasure and concentration evident in these photos. It was Christmas Eve Day and I needed pecans cracked and shelled for candied yams. I called out, "Who wants to make 50 cents cracking nuts?" thinking Warren or Abigail would respond. But it was sweet Avery who called out, "I do!" and walked right into the kitchen. I had my doubts, but I showed her how the nutcracker worked and she set herself to the task and stayed at it quite a while. She is such a doll lately, so sweet. On a related note, whenever I am mixing something for baking, Avery always helps, and she loves to surreptitiously "sample" whatever we are eating. Always one finger sneaking into the bowl.

Christmas Deconstructed

Abigail took about 15 ornaments off the tree today to play with them at the table. It seemed the perfect start to taking down the Christmas tree. So she spent part of the afternoon with me taking the ornaments off and sorting them by owner into boxes. I left for an afternoon sanity run since Andy was home from work--he's been going in at 5:30 am so he can come home early--and asked him to finish the ornaments and put away the tree.
Tonight as I put away the rest of the Christmas decor, I couldn't find a few items, like the tree skirt. I asked Andy about it, and he said, "The kids protested when I started taking the tree down, yelling 'Save Christmas' and carrying the top third of it into their bedroom."
Sure enough, there at the bottom of the closet was the tree skirt, and a few other items were tucked in their blanket basket. Ha ha ha.

The Stockings Were Hung...With Care

This is what our family room looked like after "Santa" visited our house. (And Aunts Nat and Sarah who pitched in with a little late night wrapping session--I love having sisters!)

This is what Andy foaun when he woke up about 7. Guess who got up early, checked out his lookt and then went back to bed?

Of course, no Christmas is complete without the Polar Bear Swim. I went in. Yikes, it was cold.

Christmas Fun

Go here for Christmas laughs involving my kids! Merry Christmas.