I can’t believe that Maddy’s four month’s old today. How did that happen? I know she still seems so little to most people, but she seems so old to me already! The last three nights she has been so sweet to me by sleeping until 6-ish instead of 4-ish (which brings her up to 8 straight hours of sleeping). I’m just loving it and hoping it continues.

Maddy has also fallen in love with her lower lip this week. She just goes to town sucking it in and seems to like that even better than her pacifier, and almost as much as sucking on her fist. Today she discovered the fake mp3 player on what Uncle Gavin calls her “aggressive chair” (known to others as an exersaucer), and has accidentally figured out how to press the buttons and make the songs play.

To top off all the excitement, she has a new friend visiting us this week – my best friend Leigh’s 11-month old boy Blake. Maddy seems to be having more fun hanging with Leigh and her mom Jo than she does with Blake, but she tolerates his occasional attentions stoically like she did with her cousins Sage and Jude. She’s getting lots and lots of playtime with Leigh and Nana Jo, who are loads of fun and getting a ton of smiles from Maddy.

More later!

Phew, I sure am tired after all the crazy visiting I’ve been doing – and there’s more coming up tonight! Mom said I should write a post now, because I might be too busy when her best friend Leigh from Rhode Island gets here with her baby Blake.

As I mentioned before, I had a nice Sunday afternoon last week with my Grandpa Busath who came out from Utah, and then on Monday I got to meet my Uncle Gavin for the first time. He came all the way from Rhode Island, and we had lots of fun. He played the piano for me, and did some more painting on my cool mural – now I have a monkey, parrot and lizard in my own personal jungle!

On Thursday, I went for my very first plane ride with mom and Uncle Gavin up to Oregon. At first I hated it, ’cause I was kind of tired and hungry, but then once I finally calmed down enough to eat I was relaxed for the rest of the flight and mostly slept. When we got to Portland, I met my Aunt Maren and Cousin Eva, which was soooo exciting ’cause Eva is only two weeks older than me and we’re gonna be bestest friends.

We did so much in Oregon that it’s all a blur. Besides my Aunt Maren and Cousin Eva, I met 2 Uncles (Jared and Eric), 1 Great-Uncle (Jaimy), 1 more cousin (Sage), 4 second cousins (Kendra, Carter, Allie and Mason), 1 family friend (Grandma Su) AND my Great-Grandparents (my mom’s mom’s parents). Of course I also got to spend more time with my super-cool Aunt Lorna, Cousin Jude, Grandma Castleton and Great-Aunt Sarah, who all visited me in October when I was teeny-tiny.

I spent lots of time observing the shenanigans of my crazy cousins. Eva is smiley and kicks her legs a lot. She makes funny huffing noises sometimes, too. Sage is a little scary, because he’s so much bigger than I am, but he’s very cuddly and every once in a while he slowed down from his running around to give me hugs and kisses. Jude is really cool, ’cause he’s so pleasant all the time and he has big eyes and makes funny faces when he reaches out to grab stuff (like my head, for example).

Here are some pictures of everyone – thanks so much to all the people who played with me, let me sleep at their houses, and boosted my self-esteem by talking about how cute I was all the time. Now I’m home and getting excited to meet some more new friends!

Grampa Busath came to visit me on Sunday, and my Uncle Gavin is here now. We’re about to go to the airport for a visit to all my cousins in Portland – I can’t wait! I’ll report all the details when I’m back…