Energizer Bunny!!!!!

Matti usually sleeps through the night with no problem, but this weekend was another story.
Matti has learned to do so many things that when it is time for bed and I know she is completely exhausted she will sleep for an hour and wake up scooting around in her bed crying. Saturday night and Sunday night were long nights. It reminded me of when she was a newborn all over again. She just could not get settled, but she was so tired as soon as I would pick her up she would fall back asleep only to wake up an hour later doing the same thing. It is almost like her body just does not want to stop practicing. I am hoping since she returned to school today that she will be tired enough to sleep tonight. Mommy is exhausted.
Otherwise, Matti has been wide open since Saturday morning. Screeching and squealing and laughing at everything. She is constantly making noise. When we try to get it on video she completely freezes. I will have to sneak up on her and catch her in the act so I can post her babbling. Matthew and I were just amazed at how much energy she has. It is non-stop. All we can do is laugh and giggle at her.
I have a video of her on all fours trying to crawl which is now a little out dated and I just took it on Friday. She is now trying her best to lunge forward and has done it on several occasions. Matthew watched her on Sunday while I got a shower and he said that she pushed herself up into a tripod seated position, but quickly toppled over. She is just doing things to fast!
One of the videos I took had me cracking up. I put Matti in her crib so I could get her trash out and clean up her room a little. I walked out of her room for a second to put the trash outside her door and when I walked back in she had pulled her bumper pad down and was peeking through the bars on the crib smiling. I quickly ran and got the camera as I was laughing hysterically and caught it the second time around.
I hope you enjoy. I hope to get more little clips to post for you soon.

6 Months Old

We have been really slack updating the blog. We hope to be better at updating because so much is happening right now. We have been so busy the past month I will do my best to catch you up.
Matti turned six months old on June 17th and has really started to show her little personality and has learned how to do many things.
We will start off with Matti's six month doctors appointment. Matti weighed in at 16 pounds and 12 ounces and 26 inches long. She got a clean bill of health, has a tooth that is about to erupt, and of course had her immunizations, which she cried so hard she got the "snubs" as nana Hawks would call them. I felt so sorry for her. It took a few minutes before we could even leave the exam room. When I would put her back on the table to dress her she would scream so I ended up putting her outfit on the best I could. It was not even buttoned. She finally calmed down once we left the office and we ended up having a great night. No pain or problems.
Since we returned from the beach a couple of weeks ago we really needed to start Matti on a bed time routine, which we sort of had a bedtime routine (bath, massage, bottle downstairs, sleep in bouncy seat until 10:30pm, bottle, then crib), but things have changed as far as her feedings since she started eating veggies and cereal. Cereal and Veggies seem to really fill her up so we lost the 10:30pm bottle feeding which has been wonderful. Now Matti's routine consists of cereal and veggie, bath, massage with lotion, bottle, then bed by 8:15pm. Matti has slept from 8:15pm until 6:00am every night since this routine was started. WOW!!! What a difference.
As far as eating is concerned we started her on cereal about a month ago and kept her on just cereal until she got the hang of eating then we incorporated veggies one at a time, and then fruit. She was eating one meal a day until we went to the beach. We started her on two meals one cereal and fruit in morning and then cereal and veggie at night for dinner. This seemed to fill her up. She had started staring people down as they would eat so I knew it was time to feed her more. We have not found any food that she does not like. We have fed her peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, squash, bananas, apple sauce, and peaches. Matti is also up from 5 ounces of formula a feeding to 6 ounces.
Aunt Pam, also advised us to start using a sippy cup with her. I thought she was way too young, but she took to that as well. (Thanks Aunt Pam) She now gets water with dinner (just a few practice sips) and on very hot days when she seems thirsty. We allow her to play around with it from time to time to practice or to gum on the rubber spout.
As far as milestones are concerned Matti has mastered rolling all over the place to get to where she needs to be. She started that the first few days home from the beach. She often will get stuck under the coffee table and she has figured out how to get out from under it by rolling and rolling. Also a big milestone that caused me to have "tears" is my little girly is starting to not only scoot, but she is up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth squealing and laughing now. I will do my best to get this on video ASAP! It is the cutest thing ever. She looks as if she is so proud of herself so we clap for her and the more we clap and cheer the more excited she gets and the faster she rocks!
On our family vacation to the beach was wonderful. We had such a great time visiting with family members, Matti meeting her new cousins, and getting reacquainted with family members she already knows. I was so excited about this years trip because of not only seeing the whole family, but Matti was able to get in the pool. I think she loved it. She kicked and splashed. She must have had deja vu of being in the womb because she actually looked like she was swimming. We had wonderful weather! I believe this was the best beach trip ever for me so far. All the little ones reminded me of when Jenn, Donna, and I were all little at the beach. I will have to dig up an old photo. Now our kids are all around the same age and get to experience the great times we had. Next year will even be better. Only 338 more day and counting. HA.
In other news, Matti's Aunt Erika (Matthew's sister) got engaged while we were at the beach and also celebrated her 40th Birthday. Congrats Erika and Kent. Matti is looking forward to having a Uncle and more cousins. We love you both!
I will post some beach pictures and I have a couple of pic's of Erika that I will post.
Hopefully I will have a video of Matti on all fours in a couple of days.

5 Months Old

Oh, how time flies! I cannot believe my baby is 5 months old already. I compared her newborn picture to her pictures now and I cannot believe how much she has grown in just a few months.
We had a great weekend. I put together Mattison's jogging stroller (she looks so tiny in it)which I intend to use to start walking again. I think Mattison will really enjoy being outdoors. I have been worried about all the pollen, but we have had a lot of rain lately so may be it is not so bad now.
Mattison is really starting to show her personality more everyday. I have a basket that I have been putting all her toys in and now when I put her in the floor she will automatically roll over, reach out, and grab whichever toy she wants. I try moving the basket away from her to watch her reaction and she gets frustrated trying to reach out and will pull her legs underneath her like she is going to crawl, but then she just ends up putting her face in the blanket and turns red in the face. Any day now I am expecting a scoot or may be a crawl.
Mattison also enjoys being very vocal if she is in her exersaucer or bouncy seat. I really think she likes the sound of her voice because it gets louder and louder.
She has a range of emotions now. Happy one minute and mad/frustrated if things do not work out her way. (Wonder who she gets that from). It is so fun to observe her and watch her play and study different toys and graze at her surroundings. She is so interested in everything around her.
Last night, was the first night in a long time that I did not get any sleep. Mattison was up all night long. She was not crying, but just wanted to play. She woke me up around midnight and of course I picked her up, changed her and rocked her back to sleep. As soon as I put her down her eyes opened and she had a big grin on her face. She started kicking and babbling loudly. I left her alone and went back to bed only to hear her crying so I repeated the same action-rock until she is limp and put her back to bed. Again this did not work. Time after time I was getting a little frustrated so I decided to feed her. She took in five ounces and was sleeping so hard her whole body was limp again. Still no success. She woke up as soon as I put her down. Finally around 4:00am she decided she had enough and dosed off. I forgot how hard it is to stay up with a baby. Working today has not been that easy with no sleep. It was okay when I was out on maternity leave. I could just nap during the day.
I am posting some pictures of Mattison I took over the weekend. I have also posted a picture of her when she was just a few minutes old so you can compare the change.

Updates

Mattison has suffered through her first cold. She has been sick for a couple of weeks and has had a persistent cough that sounds horrible. I took her to the doctor yesterday to make sure that there wasn't anything else going on as a precaution. The doctor got her weight which is now 15 pounds 3 ounces and checked her from head to toe. She coughed for him a few times (which I wanted him to hear how horrible it sounded). He said that she was very healthy. Heart, lungs, ears, nose and throat looked and sounded great. He asked me if she was in Daycare and for how long. I told him she has been in daycare for almost three months now. He looked at me and said "she has what I call Kennel cough". I know I had a puzzled look on my face when he said that, but he stated it is a cough that just has to go away on its own. Kennel cough is usually what dogs can get when they are boarded so I guess there is really no medical term for babies who have a cough that they pick up in daycare. Matti now seems to be feeling better and did not cough as much last night, which was a relief to me. I did notice almost all the babies in her class yesterday were coughing as much as Matti, but I still wanted to get it checked.
Other news, Matti has started saying Mama. Matthew and I thought it was just when she was crying it sounded a lot like Mama, until I woke her up on Monday morning to fed and change her. She was on the changing table and I was talking to her, telling her good morning sunshine and she whispered Mama. I know she does not realize that I am Mama, but I was shocked it happened so soon. Ms. Maynrose and Ms. Pansy her daycare teachers said she said Mama a couple of times yesterday. I had tears in my eyes. Things are going to fast-
Matti has started eating two tablespoons of cereal at night and really seems to like it. I have been working with her for a couple of weeks and we now have the hang of it. She likes to rake it off the spoon into her mouth and then smear it all over her face. She just opens that mouth and smacks her lips. By the time we go to the beach I will try her on a veggie, because I will have time to establish another feeding routine to suite her needs.
Well, the beach is fast approaching (15 more days) and we are so excited to see all of the new babies that have come into our lives since last years trip. It is going to be a blast!

Attachment to yesterdays post

I meant to post this yesterday and I forgot. Here is a short clip of Matti playing in her new toy.
Enjoy!

Weekend Fun

We finally got a chance to be at home on a very nice weekend. Matthew and I got a lot of house work done and Matti got a new toy. We have all been sneezing and sniffling due to the pollen so we decided not to take Matti outdoors to the park yet. She has been a little stuffy as well.
We bought her a activity center. Matti has one at school she loves to play in so I figured I could get more house work done if she was entertained and learning in the process. I have posted a picture of it. She loves it.
On Saturday morning I walked in Matti's room to find her sleep on her belly. I guess she rolled over sometime during the night. Then, on Sunday morning I walked in to find her asleep on her belly again. I was a little freaked out, but I read a lot about SIDS and when they can roll over the risk is greatly reduced. I am still not sure whether I should take her bumper pads out of the bed or not. I have posted a picture of her on her belly during a nap. I fed her and rocked her to put her down for nap and she automatically rolled right over.
We are so excited about our upcoming beach trip and I look forward to spending time with the family and all these babies.
I have posted a few pictures: Matti's new bathing suit and sunglasses, her new toy, and a outfit that Uncle Scotty bought her to wear. It makes her eyes look so blue.

Updates

It has been a while since we last posted. We have been out of town the past two weekends visiting with relatives. Matti got to visit with her Aunt and grandparents from Hickory and then we were off to Mount Airy where she visited with the Seivers family and the Hawks family. I have to say she was very well behaved.

Mattison has been very busy rolling over from back to front and loves being on her belly. Daycare says she usually naps on her belly now which is very good for her because of the flat spot on the back of her head. We had a couple of nights where we had to get up with her because she had rolled over on her belly in the crib and started crying. I felt like she was a newborn again, but I found if I rock her to sleep and put her down on her back asleep she will not roll over. I will not be as worried about her rolling over when she is a little older. I still feel like she is too little, but then again when she is on her belly she pulls those legs underneath her and tries so hard to move forward to reach for things so she is definitely stronger than what I think she is.
She has also learned how to get our attention by coughing a fake cough. She will squeal and cough until we look at her and then she will grin really big. I think she has learned this new trick from her friend Shana who loves to get attention from people. I guess you can say we have a little "Drama Queen" on our hands. Wonder who she gets that from? HA
I am still very excited about our daycare. Matti really seems to enjoy herself and has definitely hit a lot of milestones early. They have started putting her in an entertainer to sit up and play. The other day I went to pick her up and she was playing in the entertainer. She looked up at me and smiled and looked back down to play as if she did not want me to take her away.
It is so sweet taking Matti into her classroom in the mornings because she looks down at the little 6 month olds who are rolling around on the rug and she just smiles at each of them. She knows that they are her friends.
One of Matti's teachers has been teaching her Spanish already by reading books and singing songs to her. I am so excited about it. Matthew and I love the fact that this daycare really works with the children by reading, singing, doing projects, and they have outings that are educational for the kids. Of course, Matti is not able to participate in a lot of the activities yet, but in a couple of years she will get to plant her own garden, learn about animals, take tiny tumblers, Spanish, computer class, math class, and all sorts of things. We get a flyer at the beginning of every month telling us what will be studied for that particular month.
This month the four year olds have a pretend vets office set up where they are learning about domestic animals. It even has a examination room and pet spa so they can act out how a real vets office runs. It is just amazing to me what children learn now. When I was in preschool all I remember doing was playing in the gym or outdoors and learning a few songs along with my ABC's.
We are expecting to remain at home this weekend. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend so I hope to stroll Matti to the park. I hope to have some pictures to share.