April in House Wilde

Greetings from House Wilde.  

So, Maddie update for the grandparents.  Madeline is great.  She is smiling and cooing and squeaking all the time.  She's started giggling, which is the greatest thing to ever happen.  She still takes a long time to fall asleep at night, despite our best efforts, (we're talking sometimes upwards of two, three, or even four hours before she's out) but once she does fall asleep she stays asleep for a good long time, only waking up once or twice during the night to eat, and then falling right back to sleep when she's done.  She is grabbing her toys, clothes, my hair, etc. all the time too.  Lately her number one goal is to stuff as many fingers in her mouth as possible.  She continues to be a very alert baby, always very aware and sensitive of her surroundings.  Her hair that is growing in under her baby hair appears to be very light blonde.  It looks like she got her dad's coloring.  She is a happy child, and quick to smile.  We just love her to pieces.

She's too young to really tell what her personality is yet, but she has revealed a few clear characteristics.  I've mentioned that she is definitely very alert and aware of her surroundings, and that she has a great ability to focus.  In addition to that, from what I can tell, Madeline likes music, and doesn't like people.  It doesn't matter what kind of music I play, from Coldplay to Taylor Swift to Beyonce, she always smiles when she hears it.  And it doesn't matter who the person is, if it's not Mike or I, she doesn't want them.  The more people there are around her, the less happy she is.  Whenever we're in large group settings Maddie becomes clingy and grumpy and not at all her happy self like she is whenever we're home.  I really hope it's just that she doesn't like the noise, or that she's just introverted like her parents, and not suffering from early onset separation anxiety.

She also doesn't like wind.  It's kind of hilarious when we take her outside on a breezy day - she just doesn't know how to handle the wind.  The wind makes her close her eyes, but she likes to see what's around her, so it goes against her nature to have her eyes closed, so she ends up just blinking rapidly the whole time we're outside.  We take pity on her and help shield her from the wind as much as we can, but it's just so cute.  Maybe she just doesn't like the great outdoors all that much.  Wonder where she got that from.  :)

Maddie hiding from the wind on a recent hike

Maddie's first Easter was a success, as the bunny ears clearly illustrate.

Sleeping through church on Easter Sunday

Madeline was blessed in our church this past Sunday.  She wore the blessing dress my grandmother made for me when I was blessed as a baby.  It was nice to feel like a part of my grandmother, who passed away a few years ago, was present that day.  I was nervous that she was going to cry the whole time (church is a large group setting - see above for Madeline's position on large group settings) but she was actually a little angel during the whole thing and didn't make a peep.  Yay for small miracles.

My blessing day with my grandmother who made the dress

Maddie's blessing day

My little girl

Madeline has a serious love affair going on with the clock in our living room.  I don't know what it is, but she loves that thing.  I love how she is staring at it with her hands on her heart in this pic.  Maddie cracks me up.

Buddies 

We took Maddie swimming for the first time.  Her swimsuit was borrowed from a cousin.  Clearly she still has a long way to go before she'll fit into it, but we still had a good time. 

We got a fish!  We named her Harper.  She died in less than 24 hours.  That's usually how it goes with goldfish, isn't it?  

Happy baby 

I am lucky enough to have an amazingly talented photographer for a sister-in-law.  While she was in town last month she snapped a few of Madeline.  I'm so glad she did!  They turned out wonderful.  Here are a few of my favs:

I think she looks a lot like her cousin Jane in this one: 

Oh, and I got bangs.  (Side note: it is really hard to take a photo of yourself while holding a wiggly baby.  There wasn't really a good shot.  This is as good as it got - meaning both our heads were in the picture at the same time.)

At the lego art exhibit in Park City, which is exactly what it sounds like: an art exhibit made of legos.  It was awesome.

A photo barrage of the rest of the month:  

I promise, someday I'll get over the fact that I am now a parent and blog about something other than my kid.  But that day is not today.  Besides, blogging about something with intellectual depth requires brain power, and I am not getting nearly enough sleep for that.  So there.