Halloween Update

We had our 9 month check up on 10/27 and Madeleine is doing great.

Here are her stats:

• Height: 28.5 inches (80th percentile)


• Weight: 22.3 lbs (93rd percentile)

In summary, she's a big girl. "Sooo big!"

She is now also saying both "Mama" and "Dada" and working on "Dog" and "Teddy." She has learned how to wave "hello" and this is generally accompanied by "ahhh" which we think means "Hi." She loves all sorts of foods and does not seem adverse to spice. The other night she ate spicy lamb curry with her parents and the Alcala family. She also gets around now quite well on her own with a sort of improvised land swim. She is fascinated by the whole world around her and wants to know how everything works, especially buckles, cords, and doors.

We are having so much fun as parents and love our new place. There is plenty of room for the family and we finally built a fence in our backyard so now the dogs are happy too. Madeleine provides endless entertainment and we couldn't love her more.

Here are some fun Halloween pics:

Life has been pretty busy the last few months...

We are still settling into our new home and trying to sell the last one, our friends Bob and Joyce just got married which was exciting, Jeff and I just had our 4 year anniversary, and we are working on keeping up with our quickly growing little girl.

Madeleine seems to get bigger everyday and has just about outgrown her infant car seat. She now weighs-in over 20 pounds and is eager to start walking but has yet to crawl. She is still a lot of fun though it is clear that she is working on growing some teeth which has made her uncomfortable at times.

The family is planning a vacation to Venezuela and Central America to see Bob and Joyce get married again. We're very excited to get away and the fact that this vacation is mostly covered as part of Epic's 5 year anniversary gift for Melanie only adds to the excitement. Who would have believed I'd still be working at the same place after 5 years? I guess I've finally grown up. Epic has been great for our family and giving us this vacation is just frosting on the cake.

Nice doggy

Madeleine has learned that petting (or grabbing) the dog is a fun thing to do.

Yum, more mush please!

Madeleine took her first taste of solid foods this past Monday and thoroughly enjoyed it. The puppies also enjoyed the clean-up! She has been eating rice cereal for dinner every day since.

Creek Life

The Haywards recently relocated and no longer live under a flowery bluff. We are now along side a rather full creek.

The move has been tough, as they always are but we are enjoying our new house and all the fun around us. We face the park and are near a dog park which the pups have enjoyed. We're still settling in but when we do, I'll post some house pics.

Madeleine is growing fast. We've been busy the past few months; Melanie is back at work and Jeff will be returning in two weeks then Madeleine will be spending the summer with her grandma Susan (pictured).

She has grown a ton. At her 4 month visit (over a month ago), she weighed in at 13 lbs. and measured 24"! The doctor says she is doing fantastic! She is smiling and giggling all the time and has a lot to say.

Sorry about the most recent, misleading post. We are still working out some technical difficulties with our video camera. In the meantime, check out new pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffreyhayward/Madeleine45Months

What's next?

Melanie will be returning to work full time on April 15th and Jeffrey will get to spend his days with Madeleine until June when her Grandma Susan will be taking care of her for awhile.

New people in Madeleine's life

Madeleine got to meet her Grandpa and Grandma Sommer this week. Everyone was very happy to finally see eachother.

She also met her cousins, the Hanchette girls.

What's Madeleine up to these days?

Madeleine loves to bounce and play so she spends most of her times in her family's arms bouncing and dancing or she is exercising her legs with her daddy.

Happy Easter. Busy, busy!

Who knew that having a baby was so much work! Sorry to those of you who have checked in recently only to find old posts. We have been updating the picture website so if you don't have the link, send us a email and we'll send the link.

We are all doing great. Madeleine had her two month checkup and is doing really well. She is now 9 lbs, 1 oz,10th percentile and 22 1/4 inches long, 50 percentile. She is often awake so she is ahead of the curve on responses and intelligence (as of course I assumed:)). Madeleine is really reacting to the world around her and is smiley, smiley, smiley. Coming up this week, she will get to meet her Sommer Grandparents, who are coming for a visit from Washington.

Madeleine is growing fast!
She had her 2 week check-up over a week ago now (February 5th). The doctor said that she was very happy with her weight gain and growth. She was up to 6lbs. 8oz. and measured 21 inches. That put her in the 5th percetile for weight and the 50th for height! Tall and skinny! I'm sure she's grown a lot since then too. It seems like some days you can almost notice the difference from the day before! She is very busy lately eating to keep up with her growing needs.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good Dogs

Those of you who know the dogs know that while they are friendly to a fault, they are high energy and perhaps not the best behaved dogs. This caused more than a little worry before Madeleine was born because we were unsure of how the dogs would react. Fortunately, Digby and Bowie have been excellent with Madeleine. Digby wants to give her kisses (which we discourage) and guard her and the rest of the family. Bowie has discovered her maternal instinct and acts as Madeleine's nanny. When Madeleine is feeding, Bowie will not allow Digby within five feet of Mel and Madeleine and stands vigil nearby.

Party Animal

As you can see, our little Madeleine has already turned into quite the party animal. She enjoys staying up all night and drinking her beverage of choice: milk.

We are working on negotiating more of a daytime schedule with her but are happy that she has a good appetite and is very engaging (even if her favorite hours to interact are between 10pm-3am.)

Madeleine with Grandma and Great-Grandma

Madeleine Grace is Born

Madeleine Grace was born on 1/22 at 6:07 pm. She weighed 6 lbs even and was 18 inches. Melanie was an absolute rockstar during the labor and birth. We are home now and things are going great. Madeleine is eating well and has started gaining weight. We are getting used to our new sleeping schedule, which is dictated entirely by Madeleine. She does seem to sleep longer during the day than at night, when she has been waking every 2 hours or so. That said, she has not been a fussy baby at all. Often, she just wants a cuddle, which her parents are happy to provide.

Digby and Bowie are doing better than we even imagined. Digby has accepted Madeleine as a member of the pack and is doing a good job protecting everyone. Bowie, who we were the most worried about, has adopted Madeleine as her own baby. When Madeleine is nursing, Bowie has to lay close by and will not let Digby (who is the alpha of the two) come within 5 feet of Melanie and Madeleine. When Madeleine cries, both dogs are really concerned and want to do whatever they can to help.

On our Way Home

Sporting a stylish Caryn Avery bonnet.
(Thanks for keeping our babe warm Caryn!)

This the first post of our Blog. We will explain in short order.