Standing up

There are a few things I forgot to mention in my last blog post. Mattison does so many things I cannot keep up with everything.
A funny story-I was getting Mattison ready for bed on Saturday night and I always get her dressed on her changing table, which by the way is getting very hard to do these days. She is constantly squirming, rolling over, and trying her best to play with the Vaseline, wipes, or whatever she can get her little hands on. I have tried giving her toys, but they do not seem to work she usually ends up throwing them in the floor and then rolls back over toward the wipes, Vaseline, etc. She wants everything she is not supposed to have. I always put Vaseline on her bottom at night to keep her butt dry and once I apply it I have literally seconds to get her diaper on or she will roll over. I must not have put the lid on the Vaseline very well because she evidently stuck her hand in the Vaseline and proceeded to rub her hair. She was so quick and I was concentrating so hard on getting that diaper on I did not notice. She tends to rub her eyes and her hair when she is very sleepy. She did not look any different to me because she had just had a bath and her hair was still damp, but already combed. On Sunday morning when I reached down to pick her up I noticed her hair looked wet, but with further inspection I realized it was caked with Vaseline. She looked like a greaser all day on Sunday. It was really kind of funny. I wish now I had taken a picture.
Also, on Saturday morning I noticed music coming from Mattison's room about 7:00am. I went in to check on her and get her up for a bottle and realized she had figured out how to cut her Lights and Motion Jungle crib attachment on all by herself. Now, she does this every morning while she waits on Mommy to wake up. (I think she has done this by accident, but I have showed her for several months how to cut it on by pressing the bird).
Now on to more recent news. I picked Mattison up from school yesterday and the teacher said that she pulled up in her crib. They watched her grunt and grimace until she was up and then she started shaking back and forth rattling the crib squealing Maaamaaaa. They usually put her in her crib when she gets sleepy and she will usually put herself to sleep, but now that she is standing up she only wants to stand and does not want a nap. They do not have time at daycare to rock her down (I do that at home to get her down for nap) so they are going to have a time with her. Last night I had to put her to bed around 7:30pm because she just acted so sleepy. She slept fine until 1:15am and I heard her crying mama and she sounded very close to the monitor so I went to check on her and she was standing up looking around her room. I had to rock her back to sleep which took about five minutes, I then put her back down and she slept the rest of the night.

My Daughter the Vegan!

Well, as the title shows I think Matti will be a strict vegan for a while. I have posted in the past that she has eaten everything I have offered to her as far as veggies, fruits, cereals, and oatmeal. Well, we tried giving Matti stage II turkey, which to me smelled like dog food fresh out of the can, and she gagged! I would have gagged too. I tasted it and it was okay, but the smell was horrible. I tried to give her another bite to make sure she did not want the turkey and she gagged before I could even get it to her mouth. She had a serious YUCK face going on. She will not get anymore meat for a while. I will just stick with veggies, fruits, and cereals. If she ends up not liking meat she will be the first Marion child I know that does not like a big thick juicy steak!
In other news, Matti has started trying to pull up on everything. I thought that was not supposed to happen for a while. Crawling/scooting around lately has been terrifying enough, following her around to make sure she does not get into anything she is not supposed to. Trust me, toys do not interest her at all. Shoes, carpet fuzz, hair, Daddy's big screen, photo albums, and toy box, but not the toys.
She is already a handful and we are just beginning.
Sleeping has gotten much better. She is asleep by 8:00pm and does not get up until 6:00-6:30am. No more late night wake up calls for now. We anticipate this will not last.
I am posting a short video of Mattison pulling up on her father without any assistance, just a safety net.
Hope you enjoy!

7 Months Old

It is hard to believe that I have survived seven months of motherhood! I absolutely love being a mother and it makes things even more wonderful because I was so blessed with a sweet (and I have to say) beautiful daughter!
Matti has been pretty much by the book on all of her milestones. There is not on thing she is lagging behind on. She is pretty much a "text book" baby. If she is not doing something one week by the time I read about it on Sunday night in my "Week by Week" baby book, she seems to perform that task a few days later leaving me with my mouth wide open in shock.
She is such a busybody. I have been told by Matti's teachers that she is quite fond of the NEW baby boy in her class. I guess you could say she has her first boyfriend. She smiles at him a lot and always wants his paci and wants to rub his little head. Oh mercy, we are in trouble already. She must get that flirty side from her dad (HA). She is now waiting to move up into the 6-12month class at school and I am really going to miss the teachers she has right now. I hope a spot does not open anytime soon. Matti rules the roost in the class she is in right now because she is at least a month older than her fellow classmates.
Finally the past couple of nights Matti has made it through the night without waking after midnight. Last night she only woke up twice (once around 10:30am and again around midnight) to find herself trying to sit up and she could not figure out how to lie back down. I went in her room to find her partially sitting with her eyes closed, crying. All it took was a hug and about a minute in the rocking chair and she was fast asleep. I did however buy a cheaper, but more absorbent brand of diapers trying to find one that would keep her clothes dry all night and Huggies no leaks are wonderful! She has not been wet the past two mornings.
I have to tell you one more thing before today that I find so amusing and it is something that must be video taped to prove how funny this actually is. Matti is so determined to stay awake at night that after her bath, rub down with lotion, soft sleep music in the background, and bottle Matti starts rolling her head (Very Fast), kicking her legs, almost singing mmmmmaaaammmmmaaammmmmaaa and baaabaaabaaa, and in the middle of all that she will screech really loud trying to keep herself awake. I end up getting so tickled at her I have tears running down my face I am laughing so hard. The whole time she is doing this she is looking up at me like touching my face, clinching one hand inside the other while throwing her arms up and down, and bowing her back. Most of the time I keep rocking and ignore her or if it gets really bad I just smile and tell her other babies are going nite nite too and it is time for Matti to go Nite Nite as I laugh harder under my breath. She does this for exactly five minutes each night (I have actually timed it a couple of times) and all the sudden she passes out cold with no movement or mumbling. Limp as a dish rag! She is going to be something else to put to bed as a toddler I am sure. I will have to get in shape because I having a feeling "bed protesting temper tantrums" somewhere in her future. (That will also be a trait she inherited from her father) HA!
Matti is the light of my life and is so full of energy-I hope this old mom can keep up with her as she grows. She has already taught me so much about myself and made me a stronger person. I hope I can be a good roll model for her and someone she will look up to as much as I look up to my mother.

Seperation Anxiety or Teething?

Where to begin. Lets see- Matti will be seven months old on Thursday.
Matti has been such a good sleeper up until last Tuesday. We have been up and down with her every night for a week now. It is just like it was when she was a newborn. She usually goes down around 8:00pm every night with little problems and usually she sleeps until I wake her up the next morning for a feeding which is around 6:00-6:30am. (I am really spoiled) Last Tuesday night Mattison woke up several times. The first time she was completely soaked by 11:30pm and we had to change her diaper and clothes. Luckily her bed was not wet. Then she woke up several times just crying. This went on for several nights. This past Thursday night Matti woke up wet again and crying. She would not go back to sleep. I rocked her, fed her, changed her diaper, -we tried EVERYTHING she would not go back down. Finally around 4:00am I put her in the guestroom with me so I could get some sleep before work on Friday. We at first thought she might be teething because she has been drooling a lot lately and biting hard on everything, but still no teeth and quite frankly I do not even feel anything on her gums. Matthew says he does, but I have yet to see a glimmer of white. Last night, Matti woke up again around 12:30am and I fought with her for thirty minutes. She was swinging her arms, swatting at my face, rolling her head back and forth, and crying really loud (It was not a cry of pain). I was too exhausted to fight her anymore so I took her straight to Matthew while I made a bottle. I ended up not even giving her the bottle and just put her down beside me in the guestroom bed and fast asleep she was. I do not like sleeping with her, especially now that she can crawl around, for fear she will fall off the bed or I will roll over on her. What happened to that baby who slept through the night?
I can tell you that she is trying to crawl on her knees more now and she is starting to pull herself up into a sitting position. I discovered she could sit herself up by placing her in her crib on her back while I checked on laundry and I heard her laughing and cooing. I looked around the corner to find her sitting up swinging her arms around and laughing! She was so proud of herself. I was in complete shock. She just learned how to sit unassisted two weeks ago. How could this be?
She also has learned to blow raspberries which she does constantly. She blows them so much we constantly have to wipe off her chin. Since she has learned to do so many things we are wondering if she is trying to practice them in her sleep and it eventually wakes her up. She was really good at soothing herself back to sleep, but here lately that is not the case. Sometimes we find her on her knees face down sleeping like she is "sleep crawling". All I really know is that Matthew and I are exhausted! I guess you do pay for your raisin as the old saying goes. HA. This leads to me think, okay, is my child teething, having separation anxiety, or too busy learning so many things she cannot sleep, or all of the above? I still cannot let her cry it out! I remember being scared as a child and that feeling is horrible so I do not want Matti to feel that way right now. I just want to hold her, rock her, kiss her little head, and hear her breathing against my chest. The selfish me wants my eight hours of sleep at night, but who can resist the sweet little face of a baby looking at them just wanting to be held and protected. AWWWWWW I am a sucker!
There is not much news to report other than Matti learning to get in a sitting position by herself.
We did however put her in her blow up pool on Sunday. She had a great time playing. She did topple over once and her face went completely under, but it did not phase her one bit. You have to really watch her because she tends to do this in the bath tub trying to get a toy or just drink the water. I have to be very careful with that. We cannot take our eyes off of her. I am happy though that she is not scared of going under. I was such a fish I am hoping she is the same way. We might just have a little swimmer on our hands, who knows!
I have a few pictures and one clip of her in the pool.

Busy Matti

We had a wonderful 4th of July in the mountains. We arrived on Friday evening just in time to see some fireworks. Matti actually got to see them for the first time. It was beautiful. She acted so interested in them.
On Saturday we had planned on going to Grandfather Mountain, but it ended up raining and storming all day so we stayed indoors and caught up on some rest and relaxation. Matt's Dad, sister, her fiancé, and his boys met us on Saturday evening. We grilled out steaks, which were great and just hung out. Matti showed off her scooting/crawling skills for us. We were amazed. We did not realize she had gotten so good at it over the course of the week. She is also sitting much better and longer unassisted, and mumbling Mama all the time. I feel like we miss so much because we do not see her during the day. On Sunday, it rained and stormed all day so we napped and watched the Tennis tournament. It is almost a ritual for Matthew who has watched the tennis tournament in the Mountains over the 4th for several years now. It was hard for us, especially Matthew to leave on Sunday night. It was an end to an era for him and his sister. They spent many great memorable times there and I know it was hard on them. I know Matthew was happy he got to take Matti and show her around.
Matti has really started doing a lot over the past few weeks including sitting well, crawling/scooting, mumbling a lot of different sounds-such as Mama, ba, and sometimes she will throw a da in there. Dada is ready for that. She is squealing more and seems to get really excited when Matthew or I pick her up. She gets so excited that she almost flips right out of our arms. She is just a little mess and is already getting into everything. Matthew and I have said “No, that is not for Matti to play with” over and over a million times and she goes right back to getting into sticky situations. I guess it is time to baby proof the house.
I have been so emotional about the whole thing. I got an email from the Baby Gap with the cutest little girl in pj’s smiling in an ad, which made me realize that my baby is not such a baby anymore. She is growing up so fast. I ended up shedding a tear or two.
Also I am posting a picture of a portrait that Matthew's Mother did of Mattison. It is gorgeous. It is so special to Matthew and I and I know Mattison will treasure it always.
Here are a few clips and a pic of the portrait.

Happy 4th!

A quick post to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July. We are headed to the mountains this weekend for rest and relaxation. We are hoping to take Matti to Grandfather Mountain if the weather holds up.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!