Dear Madelyn,
You are nine!!!  Your last year in the single digits!  What a precious blessing you are to Daddy and I.  Our first born and we loved you so much we decided to have 3 more!  These past nine years with you have just flown by.  I have learned through the years that the days go by slowly but the years fly by.

You have finished 3rd grade and are very much looking forward to 4th grade.  You are so excited about starting at SCAPA!  Daddy and I are still so proud of you for getting accepted there and I know you will fit in and just love it.  You enjoy piano a lot.  You are getting very good!  We still occasionally have times where you are tired of practicing or have an attitude, but most of the time you love it.  You still love ballet as well.  You improved so much this year with your dancing!

You are a big help to me.  You love Anna-Grace and are able to really help me with her.  This has been wonderful.  You also are willing to help with chores and are becoming very responsible.  I think you will make a great babysitter in a few more years.  You love creating plays for your siblings and cousins, doing art projects, playing outside, swimming and playing with Caroline.  You also like playing computer games and we have enjoyed watching the show So You Think You Can Dance on TV together.  You want to be on the show when you grow up!  You also like to watch HGTV with me sometimes.



Your favorites at age 9:
Friend:  Claudia
Food:  Chicken Pot Pie
Toy:  American Girl Doll (Lucy)
TV Show:  So You Think You Can Dance
Movie:  American Girl Doll McKenna
School Subject:  Reading
Future Career:  The President - "it sounds really fun"
Animal:  Chihuahua
Color:  Pink
Thing to do:  Swim
Teacher:  Mrs. Speaks
Your best quality:  I'm small
Book:  The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Dream:  To be a professional ballerina and pianist

I am so proud of you!  You are kind, respectful, considerate, friendly, patient, fun, smart, beautiful, creative, unique, musical, talented and free-spirited.  You are so loved and so special sweet girl!
Love,
Mom

Since Anna-Grace will be 7 months in a couple of days, I figured I needed to do this post now!  AG has been a joy this month!  6 months is such a precious age and we have enjoyed her so much.  This month little Anna has had many firsts:

• This deserves it's own post...  my sweet girl is allergic to dairy.   We had decided to try supplementing with formula just to take a little stress off of me trying to pump etc at work.  I don't quite get enough at work to match what she eats at school.  I have milk saved in the freezer, but knew it would run out at some point.  The first two formula bottles she did great with - the third - full body hives. : (

Thankfully I know all about food allergies and knew what I was dealing with.  We bypassed the pediatrician and went straight to the pediatric allergist.  Praise God that we are only dealing with a dairy allergy right now.  We lived that way for 7 years, so it's really not that big of a deal.  I'm the only one who can't eat dairy since I am still nursing.

• She is now eating solids!  Yay!  This is helping with the amount of milk I pump vs. the amount she eats while she is away from me.  We usually have milk leftover now since her solids are filling her up.  Now if they would only help her sleep longer at night!!!  She loves sweet potatoes, butternut squash, pears, bananas and rice cereal.  She has tried pumpkin, peas and peaches but those are not her favorites yet...  I have made all of her fruits and veggies and it could not be more simple.  Each weekend I have made a couple different things and now we have a nice little stock in the freezer.  There are several more individual foods I want to try and then we can move to combinations.
• She is sitting!  She still tumbles over sometimes but can sit pretty well alone.  She enjoys sitting up and playing with her toys and loves playing in her excersaucer.
• She talks...a lot!  Her current favorite word is da-da and you know Jason just loves that!
• She still is waking 1-2 times a night to eat.  I'm a walking zombie some days.  She is still sleeping in our bed.  I have started a bedtime routine and am putting her down in her bed.  I hope one night I will wake up at 6 am and she will still be in her bed and I will not have been up every hour or two either feeding or being kicked or uncomfortable from sleeping weird.  One day.

She is still a tiny little thing.  At her 6 month appointment, she weighed 12 lbs 4 oz (1%) and was 24 or so inches (9%).  The doctor thinks she is small and went back and forth about if she should be concerned.  That makes me feel bad!  She is just very petite and is very much like Madelyn was as a baby.  She's just going to be little!

Her personality makes up for her tiny size!  Anna-Grace has an almost constant smile much like her daddy and big sis Caroline.  She is so bubbly and sweet!  She gives little hugs already and likes to snuggle and be held.  She loves being in the middle of everything.


She is still doing great at her school and I am so thankful.  I have weeks were I am okay leaving her and other weeks when I literally fight back tears every day.  I can't wait to get home at night to see all my kids.  She is starting to reach for me when I walk in the door and her little face just lights up.  Love her!