Remember how, for awhile, I was able to somehow throw together monthly blog posts about Madeleine? and then it kind of stopped, right around the time she stopped laying around like a sack of potatoes and started rolling and moving and trouble making.
Honestly, it may have been… half of her life ago. Which is crazy to think about. There’s no way I could magically catch y’all up on the last half of her life, so instead I decided to be realistic and share the past few weeks with her.
First… remember me? I don’t have many pictures with Madeleine, isn’t that so MOM of me? But here’s what I look like on any given day, which is a HOT MESS. Don’t get me STARTED about not having a shower in our apartment (it’s been like a year) or my postpartum baby flyaways (enjoying them while they’re with me).
This is my first thing in the morning view. “hey!” caught in action.
The other day Madeleine and I went to Nordstrom Rack to pick up an order, but headed over early to peruse Marshall’s. She destroyed a bag of freeze dried strawberries and then told me “all gone” and the sadness she felt was obvious.
also.. what a mess.
but have no fear, by the time we were waiting in line at the Rack, she had a graham cracker and was relaxing and people watching.
Madeleine’s really stepped up her role as my unpaid Poshmark intern. She handles the packages before they’re mailed and she does a really great job of throwing them.
Also… Madeleine has an oil for that.
Madeleine discovered my Fitbit bands. Missing a fitbit because my fitbit wasn’t sparking joy so I took a break from it, lol. Anyway, she’s a big fan of chunky accessories.
Speaking of accessories, we got this june & january hat in a surprise grab bag we bought and home girl LOVES it. she LOOOVES it. Couldn’t get enough of watching herself dance with it on in the mirror. Also please note the photo quality difference between this one and the photo of Madeleine looking at herself in the mirror with the fitbit bands. That’s the difference between an iPhone 8 and an iPhone 12. ps we cleaned the mirror, don’t worry.
Another picture of Madeleine at the mirror, this time she caught a snap of her OOTD (outfit of the day). We need to work on her angles, but the little joggers are truly SO CUTE (june & january is one of our faves).
Madeleine has been really into stickers lately. She’s figured out how to fold the sheet of stickers to release the edges of the sticker so she can get it herself. Unfortunately this also means she often grabs the sticker backgrounds… which she then gets wrapped around her fingers like the photo above. It took me a STUPID amount of time to realize I should just peel off the background before handing her a sheet so it only had the usable stickers.
and by usable I mean the stickers that are on our kitchen mat, the ones that have left residue on sweatshirt strings from making their way into the wash, stuck to the ground and on stuffed animals. “usable” is completely subjective.
Stickers everywhere.
We went to the mall to pick up a pair of sandals from Old Navy and really turned it into a whole event by packing Madeleine a lunch and having a food court picnic. Madeleine LOVED people watching and especially watching the kids bounce on one of those overpriced trampoline bungee things.
This isn’t Madeleine, but I figured I’d sneak in this picture of baby martian #2 at almost 17 weeks old. Peep the subtle wave. OK, back to some more pictures of Madeleine.
I can’t wait to one day have a big enough table to put a booster seat on and let Madeleine eat off of plates because I am so tired of this tray. Anyway. This lunch started out as “aw you have a cute little speck of avocado on your nose!” and quickly escalated to..
well I guess it’s time for a mid-day bath.
I have no chill when it comes to the amount of photos I will take of Madeleine sleeping. She is so peaceful and content and I just want to hold her forever.
and the almost sleeping photos… I cannot. I remember as a nanny how honored I’d feel if the baby/child wanted to snuggle or be held or be close. I felt like… wow, you are choosing me? and I assumed that as a parent it would just be so NORMAL that I wouldn’t think of it, but whenever she reaches for my hand or comes up and says “mama” and pats on my leg, I feel like I am the most important person in the world. Truly an honor to be loved by Madeleine.
The weather has been REALLY NICE lately, so we’ve been going on walks around the block and she really loves to sit on this bench. also… officially into the hot mess toddler stage and totally embracing it.
Speaking of being outside, the other day we went over to her cousins’ house for the afternoon and she LOVES outside so much. I cannot wait to one day have a backyard for her to play in.
She got to see her cousin Taya right after she woke up from her nap. Taya was really unsure about it, but Madeleine wanted to make sure she knew just how happy she was to see her.
The cutest lil cousins.
As an extra special treat, Aunt Sydney (one of Madeleine’s most favorite human beings to talk about) brought out some bathing suits and sunscreen for a little water fun outside.
Trying to give Taya a little boost. It didn’t really work out.
Splashing in water and loving every minute of it.
Now here’s a mystery. We went to the grocery store and Madeleine walked around waving at everyone and showing off how big her leg is (her way of greeting people, it’s super weird). After walking back to the car, I picked her up to get her in the car seat and said outloud to nobody in particular, “what the heck is that?” as I felt something very strange where her knee was supposed to be.
I looked down and wouldn’t you know, her DIAPER has somehow houdinied its way off of her waist and is now securely holding in any unfortunate knee leaks. How? How did she do that? I was with her THE WHOLE TIME. She is magic, truly.
She has a Disney book that has one page with Woody & Jessie on it. After a year of loving this book she suddenly noticed Jessie and her cowboy hat. That page quickly became her favorite and she would grab the book just to open to the page and point to Jessie. Without even knowing this, Justen saw this talking Jessie action figure at the store and decided to grab it for Madeleine. She is OBSESSED. Jessie (and her hat, which falls off WAY TOO EASILY and covers the battery access so you can’t even hot glue it on, who did that?) comes with us on walks now. and Madeleine likes to sleep with her at naptime.
and..
many months ago I happened to find these Jessie pajamas at the Goodwill Outlet. This is before Madeleine had any interest in Jessie, I just thought they were cute. Justen’s stepdad has these boots from when he was younger and Madeleine has taken a real liking to them, so Mike ordered her a cowboy hat. She got all dressed up like Jessie and it was the cutest thing I’ve seen in awhile.
So there she is, in all her hot mess glory. I got a new computer today and it’s SO FAST! and SO EFFICIENT! so I’m hoping I can keep my blog updated more. I really miss blogging (and getting paid to blog, let me be really real about that).
