California, Book Cover Flip, and Some Seriously Awesome Sunglasses

We just got back from California last week, and it was a blast!  Baby's first road trip.  Madeline was reasonably good in the car on the way down, and was a total rock star on the way back.  Good work, Maddie.  (She was about two minutes from falling asleep in this picture, but she really was pretty good on the drive most of the time.)

We stopped in AZ so I could feed Madeline and decided to document her first visit to the state.  Apparently she liked it.

We also discovered this trip that Maddie apparently loves casinos.  We spent the night in Vegas on our way to CA and Madeline loved all the lights and sounds as we walked through the hotel to our room.  She did not so much like our LOUD hotel neighbors who woke her up at 3:00 AM.  Neither did I.

Once we arrived we had a great time at the beach.

First time in the water

Don't let the pink sparkly heart sunglasses fool you.  Madeline is very serious about the beach. 

Madeline and my sister Lindsey totally hit it off.  They were two peas in a pod the entire trip. 

Maddie supervising Aunt Binz while she works on a project for her biology class... 

It was while we were in CA that Maddie discovered her toes.  Her life has completely revolutionized with this discovery.

My good friend from high school got married.  We were able to go to the ceremony.  It was great to see them, and fun for me to introduce Mike to some great old friends.

Meanwhile, my mom, Binz, and Maddie hung out on the coast... 

(THANK YOU FOR WATCHING MADELINE FOR US!!)

The rest of the trip was filled with lots of smiles. 

And lots of Albertacos.

These cute cousins hung out a lot. 

One of my goals while we were on this trip was to make Maddie and my brother Nathan BFFs.  Nathan was driving back to UT with me, so it was imperative that Maddie warm up to him.  Happily, they did become friends and she was great with him on the drive.  Thanks for driving with me, Nath!! 

Some uncle/niece bonding over the Angels game.  Apparently Maddie likes baseball.  Or just the bright colors from the TV. 

Helping grandma in the kitchen.

Not sleeping during nap time... 

It was a great trip and we loved being there.  Miss you already!

Since we've been back we've been spending time at the pool, trying to convince Madeline that water is fun.

She's discovered my hair.  This discovery could have waited, if you ask me.

She's turning into a curious little girl, wanting to grab everything around her and stuff it in her mouth, and succeeding more often than not these days.  She is pretty ticklish and she giggles all the time, especially for her dad.  She's still pretty hesitant to let other people hold her, but at least she seems to be improving since we spent ten days in CA in constant company of other people besides her parents.  Her smiles completely melt my heart and I'm just so glad that she's mine.

Lastly, in case you haven't seen this, you should totally check out YA author Maureen Johnson's article and awesome challenge on gendered book covers.  It is out of this world good.  Basically, she challenged her twitter followers to come up with alternate book covers to well known YA books, just to show how book covers are designed differently based on the gender of the author rather than on the story itself.  Such a fascinating and thought provoking idea, and such incredible differences in the covers!  I thought I'd post a link to the article since we've already talked about how book covers can be hugely problematic and misleading.  Check it out.

Here's one example:

And that's all.  I will leave you with this picture of this cuteness:

A Birthday, Some Giggling, and A Lot of General Cuteness

Hola.  

I am posting pictures of my daughter smiling to remind myself that she really does smile sometimes.  We've hit a rough patch in the last couple weeks.  Madeline has been fighting us tooth and nail lately every time she needs to take a nap or go to sleep at night.  The result is a lot of frustration, a lot of sleep deprivation, and a lot of tears on everyone's part.  I'm told it's a phase and that it will pass.  Well, IT BETTER BE.  I guess it's just one of those hard weeks.  We'll get through it.  Eventually.

See?  Look how adorable she can be when she gets enough sleep.

This picture just makes me laugh.  Madeline just looks so grumpy.  (Okay, back to smiling pictures...)

When Maddie was first born, all I could see was Mike when I looked at her.  Now that some time has gone by I can see some glimpses of myself in my fair skinned, blue eyed, blonde child.  She looks a little bit like me here... right? 

This is a total Mike picture though.

Summer is here!  I'm so glad.  It's so nice to be in tee-shirts and flip flops again.  The pool in our complex opens this week.  Hallelujah.

Chillin in grandma and grandpa's hammock.

So far Maddie has successfully rolled over one time.  She seemed very surprised and not particularly happy to find herself on her stomach.  (She despises tummy time with all her soul.)

Behold, her cuteness.

Maddie's swaddling days are quickly coming to an end.  Her hands always find a way out, no matter what.

Mike had a birthday!  Happy birthday, Hot Buns.  We celebrated over sushi downtown.  Mike's birthday and Mother's Day fell on the same weekend, so we accommodated both of us and got Thai food and saw Iron Man 3 on Friday (first real date since Madeline was born) and went swimming on Saturday.   

I think Madeline likes swimming.  She doesn't smile all that much in the water, but she doesn't cry either.  She usually doesn't hesitate to let us know if she doesn't like something, so her lack of tears makes me think she is alright with the water.  It really wipes her out though.  She always falls asleep minutes after getting out of the pool.  Also, her swimsuit cover up makes her look like a Jedi.  

And, lastly, in case anyone needs a pick-me-up, I give you The Greatest Moment Ever Caught On Film:

I pretty much just watch this on repeat.

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.