Take time to smell the roses, or just laugh!

Well, to start off, the other day we were at my parent's house, and we decided to get my baby book out to see when I got teeth...the dr. told us Madilyn would probably get teeth around the same time Cameron and I did. Turns out, we were both "late" teethers. Anyway, we found this picture of me (I was one), and it reminded me a little bit of Madilyn. She is only 7 months old, but still... What do YOU think?

The "roses" in my life are sometimes not real roses at all. They're figurative roses...go with me...the sweetest-smelling moments that I have experienced have been with my family. And, it's such a special thing when you can stop and breathe in the moments that so many times we take for granted, so this is what I've been smelling lately. :0)

First off, Madilyn now puts herself to sleep in her bed, instead of me rocking her to sleep. This makes me excited and sad at the same time. She seems like she must be pretty confident because she weens herself from things before I'm ready. LOL Like breastfeeding,...one day she decided she was done, and SHE WAS! Now, she sleeps better when I just lay her in her bed...so I DO! :0)

She now holds her own bottle, and she drinks from a sippy cup during her meals. She eats carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, green beans, peas, prunes, applesauce, peaches, and oatmeal. Very impressive!

Madilyn also does the army crawl. She can pretty much manuever herself into any place in the house she wants...but she likes standing much more than being on her tummy. She may be a "walker before a crawler." We'll see.

It's so neat seeing her grow up and change. It's the most amazing thing to be a part of a baby's life...watching her learn and explore new things. It's such a miracle! And, as far as staying home with her goes, I'm loving EVERY minute of it! This is EXACTLY where I want to be. I told a friend who is expecting a baby today, "When you have that sweet baby and hold them in your arms, you'll think, "THIS is what I was created for." God is so amazing...and so are His little treasures.

We had a Blizzard this past weekend (Yes, in March!), and I caught some fun moments of her playing.

Here is Madilyn with her two buddies, Zoey and Maya. All three were ready to go outside and play!

Here she is, playing on our bed!

On a funny note, last night Cameron was working at the hospital (he works the night shift, 7pm to 7am), and I got up to feed Madilyn around 5 a.m., so I called him to see how his evening/early morning was going. I heard the strangest noise. Now, if you know me, I can be startled a little easy...especially when it's nighttime, and my super-strong husband isn't in bed next to me...and sometimes I'm startled even when he IS there. Even so, I heard the strangest sound. It sounded like what you hear on TV cartoons when ghosts are there...."whoooooooOOOOOO! HooooOOOOOO!" You get the point. Anyway, I didn't think I had a ghost...but I thought, "Hmmm....what is that strange sound?" It wasn't coming from the baby monitor...and I was talking to Cameron on the phone while he was working....hmmmmmm. "Cameron, what is that sound? Do you hear it?" Cameron then says, "Oh, THAT sound? That's Sally, the lady I work with who's like 60 years old. She's listening to her I-pod." LOL We both started laughing so hard...the kind of laugh that won't stop when you're exhausted...which we BOTH were. It was definitely a moment to remember. I had tears streaming down my face and I was stuffing my head in my pillow so I wouldn't wake Madilyn who shares the same wall with her bed.