Our Little Velociraptor

A little tummy time. She's really holding her head up now!


Maddie thought it was silly that her aquarium friends were all smiling at her.


Grandpa Freise holding his little Maddie Vic.


Daddy had to sit in the back seat of the car because of his knee surgery, so he had a front seat view to her latest trick - sucking on her lower lip.



Daddy thinks Maddie sounds like a velociraptor...the small dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. It sure is squeaky!

Black and White

Our little girl just keeps getting bigger! Maddie has outgrown the insert in her carseat that her head used to rest in and has much better head control. We also took her back to the doctor who said her eczema is looking better, but it's still pretty bad. Lots of lotions and the special medicine will continue being used so that she isn't itchy. She now weighs 12 pounds 9 ounces.

New Toy and Au Pair

Daddy had knee surgery on Thursday.  Here he ices his knee while holding Maddie.  She's sad...Daddy can't play with her on the floor for awhile!

Maddie is getting better at holding up her neck and head, so Mommy bought a fancy chair (like a Bumbo or Bebepod, but better!).  It supports her back, has toys around it, can be used as a high chair or snack chair, and later the yellow support comes out and it becomes a booster chair.  It's also more stable than the more popular chairs, so it can't easily fall over.   Hopefully we'll get more than a few months use out of it, which is good because these toys aren't cheap!

Everything with the au pair situation came together at the last minute this week.  Vivian found a wonderful family outside of Raleigh, NC (who is moving to DC in June) with two twins that were born about a month before Maddie.  They interviewed her Thursday night, accepted her on Friday, and she flew out on Saturday morning.  Our new au pair, Amelie, arrived Saturday afternoon.

Drools and Laughs

Maddie sporting a little drool while hanging out in her "Daddy's Little Princess" outfit.

A couple of loud laughs while playing with Sophie the giraffe.  Notice how she's able to hold Sophie!

This week went by quickly.  Last Sunday we determined we were not comfortable with our au pair's driving.  This was unfortunate because she is wonderful with Maddie, but we need someone who can drive as we don't have time to take our au pair to and from their required classes and meetings (not to mention to meet up with friends).  By Tuesday, we had been matched to another au pair, Amelie, who drove up to our house and met with us that evening.  She is from Germany, speaks fluent English, already has a valid IL license and has been driving for 6 months, and seems like a great fit for our family.

Amelie will be coming on the 21st of the month and staying until the middle of July.  This means we'll have to get another au pair sooner than we'd anticipated, but we're okay with it because there is a greater selection in the summertime.  This also gives Vivian another week to find a new host family.  The transition may be a bit stressful, but we all agree that it's the right decision for the long-term.

Maddie continues to amaze us, making lots more noises and holding objects more firmly.  She is now going to bed between 6:30 and 7:30, sleeping through the night a couple of times each week.  The other nights she wakes just once for a feeding around 4-5am.  She continues to take powernaps about four times a day for an hour each, but wakes happy, hungry and smiley.  Her eczema is much improved after three treatments with the medicine and we'll continue to put lotion on her multiple times a day to keep it at bay. 

All I Need is Love

For Aunt Julie, a close-up of the booties I made.  The pattern and directions can be found at www.marthastewart.com/article/baby-booties.  I bought a package of felt from Magic Cabin and would be happy to send you a few sheets if you're thinking of making a pair!

Here Maddie looks at her Daddy as he makes monkey noises at her.  

Today was a rainy, lazy day.  Maddie is still a great sleeper, but this past week she has been "off" a little, waking up once for a feeding (which is normal, but sometimes as early as midnight), and then getting up earlier than normal (sometimes before 6am).  Hopefully daylight savings will correct this strange new sleep pattern!

Four Month Checkup

Here she is showing off her new booties that Mommy made for her and wearing her barrette!

Maddie is now over 4 months old and had another doctor appointment this week.  She is now 12 pounds, 2.5 ounces and 23.5 inches long.  She's has really bad eczema for which the doctor gave us a prescription and said to lube her up several times a day.  We also found out our doctor lives just around the corner from us!  She was a good girl for the four shots she had to get, though had a hard time going to sleep (and who wouldn't after all of that?).

Her latest "trick" is to put her hand in her mouth and gag on it.  Yucky.  We try not to react so she doesn't think it's funny but we hope she'll grow out of this soon.  

The doctor says we can start feeding her rice cereal, but we think we'll wait a couple more months as there is no rush to get her on solids.  Mommy continues to nurse (and yes, is STILL sore.  Can you believe it?  The pump two days a week is now the problem.  Maddie no longer causes much tenderness.)