The Wingler Family: September 2012

10 months old! I think this month just flew by even faster than all the rest of them! Here's what Madelyn Claire is up to now:

wearing 6-9 month clothing and size 2/3 shoes
wearing size 3 diapers
She can stand on her own for a few seconds at a time.
She is constantly on the go. She loves to walk around the house, chase after Hershey, or just get into anything and everything!
One of her favorite things to do is to get into Hershey's toys. She will pull every single one of them out of his basket and hold them and look at them (and occasionally try to put them in her mouth...yuck!...we are working on trying to break her of that!). She can throw a ball to Hershey; of course it usually lands right beside of her, but they still have fun playing together. She also likes to tease Hershey by holding up one of his toys and reaching it out towards him. They usually end of up in a tug of war that Hershey always wins...thankfully she lets go first!
Maddie loves music! She enjoys listening to Mommy and Daddy sing to her; and if she is upset, singing to her usually calms her down.
Madelyn loves being outside. She loves riding in the jogging stroller while Daddy runs, going on walks with Mommy, playing outside on a blanket in the front yard, going to the church or park to go swing on the playground, rocking in a rocking chair on the front porch, or just walking to the mailbox.
She loves books, especially interactive ones. The touch-and-feel books are her favorites!
Maddie's eating habits have stayed consistent. She nurses every 2 1/2-3 hours, eats 3 solid meals (in addition to nursing) and 2 snacks each day. However, she is getting to where she would MUCH rather feed herself than have one of us spoon feed her; so, the quantity of her finger food has increased and the amount of pureed food has decreased. She does not like rice cereal anymore, so we switched to oatmeal. Some of her favorites are bananas, cheese, cheerios, and grapes. She also really likes cucumbers and turkey.
She has three teeth and one more on the way. Her top right tooth just popped out about a week ago, and her top left tooth is working on peeking through. She has been a drooly baby lately.
Maddie just learned to clap a few days ago. I've been working on this with her, but she has had no interest in it. She was in her high chair the other day, and I clapped because she was trying a new food, and she copied me. It so suits her personality that she would have to decide to do it on her own--she is becoming little Miss Independent!
Madelyn is napping twice each day, usually around 1 hour in the mornings and 1 1/2-2 hours in the afternoons. In the afternoons, however, she has gotten into the habit of waking up after an hour and then falling back asleep in my arms while I rock her. I've just been holding her for the rest of her nap and enjoying the sweet snuggle time. Those days will come to an end too soon, so I am going to soak it up while I can!
Madelyn's nighttime sleep habits are....well, let's just say there is room for improvement. Cody and I are so ready for her to sleep through the night, but she apparently is not. She goes to bed around 7:30-7:45 p.m., waking up multiple times per night (usually 2-4 times), then getting up around 5:45 a.m. each morning. *Although she did sleep ALL NIGHT last night!! Hoping for more of those nights!* We have a consistent bedtime routine--dinner, bath, snuggle time while reading books, Sleep Sheep comes on, and she gets rocked to sleep. We've tried only giving her one nap, putting her to bed later, letting her cry for 3 minutes (I can't go any longer than that...it breaks my heart!) when she wakes hoping she will go back to sleep on her own, but nothing has seemed to make any difference. Anyone have any other ideas???
Maddie's vocabulary has expanded some. She can say, "Mama," "Dada," "Daddy," "Ee-she" for Hershey," "I'm done," and "bye." She talks to us a lot, but most of the time we don't know what she is saying. It's funny though, because you can tell when she is fussing at you by the tone of her voice if she is mad about something.
She is a very sweet and loving baby. She gives hugs and kisses throughout the day.
She has recently become attached to her blanket. Cody was reading a book to her and the character had a blanket, so he got out her blanket and gave it to her. Since then, she has wanted to snuggle with her blanket while she falls asleep and after she wakes up. She will reach for it if I don't give it to her.
She will return to the doctor for another check-up when she is a year old.