Spaghetti...What a Mess

Well, our weekend in Indiana went great. It was really great to spend some time with Brooke and Brad. We sure don't stay up too late at night anymore though. Actually, it was kinda funny because Brooke, the only pregnant one, outlasted all of us both nights. Brooke, Maddy, and I went shopping all day Saturday while Brad and Jason worked on building a deck for Brooke and Brad's new house. The weather was very cooperative. Us girls went to Babies R' Us to look over things for their registry. I tried to help out and give Brooke some advice on items we liked. I don't know that I was much help, but I tried. Actually the best advice I think I had was about the breast pump, since I had a lot of experience with that after starting my own milk factory. :) ha, ha Maddy didn't nap at all while we were out...I think she wanted to give Brooke a taste of motherhood...shopping with an infant. She made quite a scene at lunch too, deciding she needed to be the loudest one in the restaurant. Who's kid is she again? We went to the mall too. I actually didn't spend any money, but had a great time shopping in the girls section with Brooke. It was fun looking at nursery decor too. Sunday we went to church and then to Panera's for breakfast. Jason had to buy me another cinnamon crunch bagel because Maddy ate a ton of my first one. She loved it! We played some testy toss too and enjoyed the beautiful weather before driving home. I sure wish we lived closer to those guys; we have so much fun with them and I think the girls would have a ton of fun growing up together.

Maddy and her godmother Brooke

Yesterday, Maddy had a horrible day at daycare. Karen said she cried all day long and wanted to be held the entire time. I felt horrible for both parties. She is going through a mommy stage, which has been quite challenging. She hit herself in the head with her sippy cup too and got a really bad bruise above her eye.

Check out the BRUISE

We tried to get her in a better mood when we got home so we let her eat spaghetti with us. She even got to feed herself.Bad Idea???

But I don't want to be done!

9 MONTHS

Today our little Madelynn Marie is 9 months old. I can't believe it. What happened to my little baby? Time sure flies when you enjoying such a wonderful family. I sure love being Maddy's mom, even though she can really frustrate me sometimes. She is an amazingly active little girl, with a giggle sure to make you smile. I feel so lucky to have her in my life.

This past month has been fun and full of milestones. She has mastered crawling and has improved on her walking. She is clapping and starting to dance. She can palm a tennis ball, which she loves throwing to Molokai. Her hair has grown long enough to put in a small pony and her teeth officially have the Kriegl gap. Another trait of grandpa's that this month Maddy has shown she possesses is sticking her tongue out while doing just about everything. Jason does this too. She has been expanding her sounds vocabulary. Her favorite sound to make is "da, da, da, da." It makes Jason feel really good because he thinks she is talking about him. I won't tell him if you don't, but she says it to everyone and everything. She makes 'm' sounds when she is tired or hungry. "Ya, ya," has also entered into her vocabulary.

Maddy's diet has taken a big jump this month too. She is eating just about anything you give her. She loves fresh fruit, especially bananas. She likes chicken and pasta too, especially if it comes off of mom or dad's plate. We are still feeding her Gerber baby food though and vegetables are still a struggle. She is now eating all sorts of meats but definitely prefers "Pears and Chicken" or "Sweet Potatoes and Turkey."

Maddy might be a spitting image of Jason, but she definitely has my personality. She's TROUBLE with a capital 'T'. Sometimes I just watch her go crazy and think who's child is this? Jason reminds me that I am just like that. She loves to go nuts with me, probably because I am the same way with her. Her favorite thing is to bonk me on the forehead. It hurts sometimes but I love it.

Anyway, here are some of her 9 month photos...

We found out Baby Spins gender last night. We are very excited about it. I will let you check out Baby Spins' webpage to find out though. Most of all we are very happy to hear that everything looks healthy with Brooke and the baby. We are off to spend the weekend with the Spindlers in Indiana. I'm keeping my hopes up about the weekend, although Maddy is seemingly coming down with a bad cough and snotty nose. Its been one of those days today.

Thanks Lil' Ben

Tonight Benjamin paid Maddy a visit and brought her a present. What a sweet boyfriend! :) Ben was feeling bad for her after the falls she took on Monday so he wanted to cheer her up.

Thanks Ben for ... ...the "I DO ALL MY OWN STUNTS" t-shirt!

How perfect, hey? Here is Maddy showing off her new t-shirt.

Almost looks like a mug shot.

Lil' Ben is starting to become Big Ben. He is really growing up and doing big boy things. He is sitting up all by himself. Isn't he adorable? A good dresser too!

Maddy wasn't being very nice to him though. She kept pulling his pacifier out of his mouth and trying to hit him. No way to treat a guy that just brought you a gift. I tried getting a picture of the two of them since its been a while but they wouldn't cooperate.

Kendal's Crawling!!!

Kendal has officially joined Maddy in the world of crawling. Way to go Kendal! Check out Kendal's blog, Mike and Marnie posted video of her crawling. I really feel bad for Karen, our daycare provider, because with these two crawling now she is going to have her hands full. It'll be fun to see the two of them together now going from place to place.

This world of walking and crawling has been tough for Mads. She came home Monday with two eggs and bruises on her forehead. She apparently was being very brave and mischievous at daycare and ended up falling on her head twice. She was fine but one of them required an ice pack. Poor thing. After her long, hard, painful day, she crashed hard after having her bottle.

Well, Maddy has been drinking juice out of a sippy cup for a month or so now. She wouldn't hold it herself though...until TODAY. This morning while I was working I noticed that she picked up her sippy off of the ottoman and tried drinking but it was empty. So I filled it up for her and here she is drinking out of it all by herself...while standing all by herself too. What a big girl!

Oh, I forgot to mention her sixth tooth has finally broke through. Its on the top left. This was by far the worst tooth for Maddy. It took a long time to break through and it really seemed to be painful for her.

Happy St. Patricks Day

Maddy's first St. Patty's Day was pretty uneventful. We spent the day cleaning the house and watching the NCAA tournament. We haven't been home on a weekend in a while so we took the opportunity to clean the house. We could really use another weekend to finish it all but for the most part we were productive. We had to safe guard the house since Maddy is all over the place. She crawls across the room in a instant and pulls herself up on everything. She's trouble! Last night, she helped me clean out and organize the tupperware cabinet.

Maddy was dressed for the occasion in her green dress. She was happy I chose that over her Michigan State outfit because she would have been embarrassed to wear that after States showing against North Carolina.

Yesterday morning, Maddy and I went grocery shopping while dad picked up all the dog poop in the yard from this winter...5 bags full. Yuck! We bought some hair ties for Maddy to put her hair up in a pony like Kendal.

What do you think?

I know a bit premature, but I think she's cute anyway.

This week, we had a beautiful few sunny days. Tuesday night we went to the Abbotts and grilled out with them and the Schmidts. Marnie did all the cooking...it was great...our first London Broil. We played a little testy toss too. It felt so nice to be outside. I can't wait for summer. Wednesday night my relatives (the Momonts) and my mom came for a surprise visit. My cousin's volleyball team made it to the state semifinals in Kalamazoo so they stayed the night. It was a short but nice visit. All three of us have since been feeling under the weather. Jason and I both have head colds and Maddy seems to be congested, probably from her teeth. Ugh. We are looking forward to this upcoming week when we find out the sex of Baby Spins. We are going to spend the weekend with the Spindlers too, just haven't yet determined the venue. I'm sure Brooke, Maddy, and I will do a little shopping for the new one wherever we are.

Spring Forward...Ugh

I hate daylight savings during the spring. Losing that one hour really stinks, especially now when you have a child. It was even worse for us this year because we were in Wisconsin this weekend so yesterday we lost 2 hours coming home. Ugh!

Anyway, we had a great weekend in Fondy with my sister and her family. My parents were there with one of my nieces Jaelyn too so it was a nice family gathering. We only got 4 hours of sleep Friday night, but we didn't let it affect the weekend. It was wonderful to finally meet Lexi...last week seemed like forever because I was so excited to meet her. She is absolutely beautiful...one of the cutest babies I've ever seen. She has a very dark complexion and a full head of jet black hair. Her hair is awesome. Her eyes are still blood shot from her delivery being too fast, but my sister says she is doing much better. Apparently she was really bruised in the face too. She is sure sweet!

One week old and already lifting her head up

Love the hair style

Maddy with her newest cousin
(What a difference 8 months makes)

Well, Maddy has definitely figured out the whole crawling thing. She still forgets to use her knees once and awhile though. She actually prefers crawling over walking now probably because it isn't as far to fall. This past month has sure been quite a month for her. Here she is crawling towards the vacuum (she loves it, hopefully she will as a teenager too).

She tried bringing the Spartans luck...sorry dad

Maddy ate some spaghetti and breadsticks at Fazoli's this weekend and loved it. She also ate chicken and vanilla custard at Culvers. She liked the ice cream so much Jason and I could barely get a bit in. I know I probably shouldn't be giving her junk food like that, but she was so good in the car that I had a spoil her during our stops. I think its time to start brushing her teeth though. Here are a few more pics from this week:

See what happens when she combs her own hair

Playing Peek-a-Boo

Lexi Photos

Here are the pictures of Alexaundrea that I promised...

Look at all that hair!

Mom, dad, and Lexi

Izzy and John V with their new sister:
John don't look so thrilled!

Izzy being a good BIG sister!

Drinking and Crawling

Today Maddy drank pop out of a straw. At lunch she continuously was grabbing at my pop so I thought I would let her play with it not thinking she would figure out how to drink out of it. Next thing I knew she was drinking my Dr. Pepper out of the straw. I'm not sure she liked the taste but continued to do it because she liked our reactions. I wasn't exactly thrilled that she was drinking pop, but I was so proud of her that I let her have a few drinks.

Tonight she figured out how to move herself across the floor. I wouldn't exactly say she is crawling in the sense she is on her hands and knees, though. She is rather pulling with herself with her arms and pushing off with her toes. It seems like it demands a lot of effort, but she is happy because she can get from place to place.

What a day for our little one! Its just amazing how fast she is developing new skills.

Mardi Gras

Jason and I went to New Orleans and Baton Rouge for the weekend for Keith Fogle's Wedding. Maddy stayed home with her grandparents all weekend. My parents had her until Sunday and then Jason's parents watched her during the day yesterday and then picked us up at the airport. This was my first time away from her and man was it difficult. I missed her sooooo much! I knew she was in good hands and loving her time with grandma and grandpa so that really helped. She got spoiled too, of course. Grandpa Jack taught her how to shake her head 'no'. It is so adorable although I'm sure it will not be so cute in the future. She seems to know what the word means too, so that helps with communication and discipline. She was so much fun to come home to last night. She was all smiles and full of life. I wanted to let her sleep with us so that I could snuggle with her all night, but Jason didn't allow it. (What a grump!) We brought some mardi gras beads home for our sweetie.

The wedding was a lot of fun...really great to see a lot of college friends, especially Keith (the groom). The weather was absolutely beautiful, so Jason and I played some cribbage by the pool on Saturday. We had some time to drive around New Orleans and look at damaged areas from Hurricane Katrina. It was extremely humbling to see. Much of the area, especially the city and neighborhoods on the east side of Lake Ponchatrain have been abandoned and left in ruins. It is truly a tragedy.

I still haven't posted anything from our trip to Hawaii because I am waiting on some pictures. I will let you know when the blogs are up. Check out Kendal's webpage though, because Mike and Marnie posted some video of Maddy walking and of the girls playing.

Another Girl

Alexaundrea Jaclynn Coon

7 lb 5 oz - 20 in

Madelynn's third cousin in the last month was born this morning! My sister had her third child, making the Kriegl grandchildren tally up to 7 girls:2 boys. We woke this morning to Aundrea's phone call sharing the news of a new healthy baby girl. I was obviously extremely excited and honored to have my niece named after me, although I was very disappointed that I couldn't be there to meet her and hold her since we were in Lousiana. We are looking forward to meeting Lexi next weekend. I haven't seen any pictures yet, but I will post them as soon as I do.