Madeline has been quite the active little girl this month.  Being able to sit up and play has opened up a whole new world to her.  She is constantly moving and is just so happy to be sitting and playing.  She loves the bus full of people and animals and will pull the bus by the red handle and then grab the people and suck on them.  She also loves the record player and will happily sit and listen to the music while playing with the other discs.  She continues to LOVE the rings and can now grab one in each hand.  She has learned to bang them together and we will even find her banging toys on her sweet little head.  Luckily she hasn't banged her head hard enough with the toys to hurt herself.  With the  banging of toys together Madeline started to learn how to clap her hands together.  It took a few weeks but by the end of the month she was clapping all by herself.  It was the cutest thing ever.  By the end of the month Madeline could get up on her knees and rock back and forth.  She would usually fall after that.  It is just a matter of time before she figures out how to crawl.

Now that Madeline is more active I started to notice that during diaper changes she was becoming more restless.  I came up with a great little tweak to our routine to help with that.  Before going to get her out of her crib in the morning and after nap times I would go and fix her bottle first.  Then I would pick her up and bring her over to the changing table.  I would lay her down and give her the bottle.  For the first few days I worked with her on being able to hold the bottle herself.  After only a few days she was able to hold the bottle so that I could change her diaper while she drank her milk.  It was a WIN-WIN for both of us.  

Madeline is now eating three meals a day.  Cereal and fruit in the morning, fruit for lunch, and cereal and a vegetable for dinner.  She loves to eat and when she is all finished I will always give her the soft spoon to chew on.  From the very beginning of this month I could tell that she was teething with all her chewing, drooling, and fussiness.  Her first tooth finally popped through at the beginning of April and the second one was not too far behind popping through near the end of the month.  It is so cute to see her new little teeth.  

​Madeline loves to make sounds with her mouth.  Sometimes when she is playing with a toy she will bring it to her mouth and bob it back and forth on her mouth to make funny sounds.  Madeline chews on EVERYTHING.  Her favorite toys to chew on are her plastic keys, the alligator finger puppet, the stackable rings, and the teething toys.  

Madeline's laugh is SO CUTE and hilarious.  We usually get her to laugh by making surprise faces at her, tickling her sides and tummy, blowing on her tummy, and playing little piggies with her toes.  She still is infatuated with toes.  If my feet are on the ottoman she will stop what she is doing just so that she can stare at them and even lean forward to try and grab them.  I thought it was because my toes are always painted but even without toenail polish she was still interested in my toes.   

Madeline still loves books.  She loves to grab the pages and sometimes she tries to suck on them.  She can sit still long enough for me to get through an entire small board book.  

Her favorite books are:

The Barnyard Dance
Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Her favorite songs are:

5 Little Ducks
Wheels on the Bus
Animal Fair