Madison's 9-Month Check-up, Among Other Topics

Madison had her 9-month well baby check up on Friday. She is growing great and seems to be right on track developmentally. She was 21 lbs and 4 oz (if I remember right) and 28 inches long, which puts her in the 75 percentile for both height and weight. She seems to be balancing out quite a bit in the chubbiness department.

She is officially crawling all over the place now. She is super curious about everything and wants to be in the middle of whatever we are doing. So, we have had to rearrange some furniture to keep her safe.

She doesn't like to be left alone however, so we have several areas around the house where she has a safe place to play. After she was very clingy yesterday, I took a peak at her gums, and I think we are working on some more teeth. She has two already, and her upper gums were sure swollen and white last night. Hopefully they will break through soon so she can be more comfortable.

Brandon and I bought a 75 gallon aquarium this past weekend and are working on getting it set up. We have been wanting a large aquarium for some time to merge our two smaller aquariums into one, and we found one in Rapid City this past weekend when we were Christmas shopping.

However, before we can set up the aquarium, I had to paint the living room. When we bought our house, two and a half years ago, the walls were just primed but never got painted. I have been wanting to paint the rest of the upstairs ever since. I figured that now was the best time to paint, so that we don't have to move the aquarium once it is set up. So...

I picked out a nice neutral color and Brandon's mom and I have been painting this week. Brandon, Brad, Amber and Brandon's dad have all pitched in to help the process and we are now about 2/3 done.

I am really happy with it so far. It has sure made the house feel finished...

Here is the new aquarium. Brandon painted the back wall black to help enhance the colors of fish in the aquarium and to hide all of the cords and tubes. The filter and filtration system should be here this afternoon so we can continue to get it set up. I will post pictures when we are finished.

Here is a picture of the living room after painting. Notice the aquarium in the corner.

We are hosting Christmas this year. Our tree has never had so many packages underneath it. It is fun to have a room full of gifts to open. Jack seems to like it too...we have chased her off of nearly half of the presents already, and they have only been in place for one day.

I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas. I will be posting throughout our two week vacation, so stay tuned for more pictures and stories of our adventures. ;)