Miss Madeleine

Disclaimer: Lots of info about my baby here... It will likely only be interesting to myself, my journal, and grandparents.

We just love Madeleine.

She's such a TODDLER now! It kills me. Just yesterday we took her to nursery at church. I hear that she did well and Marc and I certainly enjoyed church without having the little munchkin running around us.


She's close to 18 months - this week and I'll update with pictures and stats, of course, but this is a post for memory sake. I hope that I remember how much FUN this time of her life is. It's a miracle to me and constantly a wonder to me how much she has picked up in the last few months. Perhaps it's normal development, but to me everything is amazing! I cherish these days and moments.

*She's repeating more and more words that Marc and I say to her: ground, bum, dangerous, etc.
*A frightening new development is her ability to now crawl up on the chairs and now onto the tabletop. Yikes!
*She'll take her toy dolls/stuffed animals for diaper changes and wipes them and everything.
*This might be my favorite: She is wonderful at cleaning up and putting things away! You ask her to put something in the garbage or put her shoes back in their bin or put her toys away or her coat AND SHE DOES IT! I love it!
*She's finally eating sandwiches. I don't know why I never tried giving them to her before, but yes, now I can safely go out somewhere and she will eat a honey & butter (not peanut butter - allergies) sandwiches. It's a big moment for me.
*She finally remember that she knew the sign language signs for "more" "all gone" and "thirsty."
*She can "help" with setting the table and doing dishes.
*She knows to walk to her highchair or to the fridge when she's hungry.
*She can share. A little. We're working on it.
*She gives GREAT hugs and kisses. Her hugs, when she gives them, are SO tight! She won't hold back. I love feeling her little arms tight around my neck. And her kisses are so matter of fact. Or, she'll bend her forward toward you and that's her 'kiss' as well sometimes.
*She'll now wave to people walking by or at the store, especially children. She likes to be their friend now. What a change from a year ago! Yay! She loves to do her little hand wave.
*She's begun to go CRAZY at the store. I mean, ballistic and off the wall. It's amusing but... a little horrifying at the same time. She just LOVES to run and pull things off the shelves. I've just about had it. Stores are a little scary to me now.
*She's finally TRULY sleeping through the night and taking naps without my rocking her beforehand.
*She knows when we're going outside: she'll get her hat, shoes, jacket, tap the door, and starts saying "Go! Go!"
*She is a TV addict. It's so sad but true. She is fascinated when TV is on. Her favorite show is 'Bob the Builder' (It's my attempt to stay away from princess stuff for as long as possible and also trying to get those left-side neurons active for future engineering/science careers; I don't want her brain to be "gendered" too early on.) But every time she wants to watch TV she'll point to the TV and say "Bob! Bob!" And at the library she can recognize the Bob DVDs and just gets so excited for Bob.
*When Marc and I were reading scriptures together, she heard the phrase "Go ye therefore..." and started saying "Go! Go!" Yay! She's listening!
*When I was listening to NPR today she heard the weather report say possible rainshowers and said, "Rain! Rain!"
*She doesn't do the shimmy dance anymore (and I'm SO sad about that! I miss it!). She's now into the normal baby bop by bending her knees and bobbing up and down.
*She tries to spin around and make herself dizzy. It's hilarious.
*At the Please Touch Museum (a new favorite of ours! Wahoo!!!) she takes such good care of the baby dolls in the pretend hospital area. A little too much so sometimes. She gets a little possessive of the babies there and we need to work on that. But otherwise she's quite motherly and I think it's adorable.
*She's great at snuggling in bed with Marc and I in the mornings. I just LOVE it. She wiggles less than she used to a few months ago, so it's actually nice to have her in bed with us.
*One of her FAVORITE things to do is "cat hunting." She LOVES cats and dogs and our neighbors have a cat that likes to hide in the bushes and hang out in our driveway and backyard. Madeleine's favorite thing to do is crouch down and check under the bushes and point and gasp with wonder and PURE EXCITEMENT over finding Scotty the cat. She LOVES this. Then she's crouch up slowly to the cat and try to touch him, then chase him when he runs away. We could do this for HOURS everyday. Oy! She LOVES this activity. She's chase Scotty all the way to our neighbor's wood pile or our other neighbor's porch. Poor cat! Madeleine stalks him!
*She uses a tissue to 'blow' her nose. She knows when she needs to and holds out her hand for a tissue. It's hilarious.
*She learned how to say "shhhh" recently and will do so when we say to be quiet or someone/something is sleeping. But when she breathes out it sounds more like Darth Vader.
*She loves to pick/smell/look at flowers and stop and look at trees and bushes on walks.
*She loves to play 'Ring Around the Rosies.' Again. And again. And again.
*She loves to walk under our legs.
*She loves to read books. With us she turns the pages pretty darn fast, but on her own she'll take time to look at pictures and pretend to read the words.
*We started giving her yogurt... and she's taking it without any visible detrimental effects of excema or allergies! Hip hip hooray!

Some... less appealing... aspects of this stage of child development for her:
*When she gets very hyper and excited she likes to bite. My legs. Or shoulder. Marc has been a victim as well. We are working on it. So far, to our knowledge, she has never tried to bite another child.
*She doesn't like to drink her {soy} milk anymore. It's such a task to try to get her to do so. She'll do one bottle in the morning, but other than that we're lucky if we get her to do so in the car or when she wants to fall asleep.
*She won't let me put hair clips in her hair or bracelets on her. Probably my fault because I didn't do it enough when she was young, but now, she just rips it out. Oy.
*She doesn't like fresh fruit very much. Grapes, yet, but bananas and apples - it's a mystery to me why she doesn't like these kid-friendly fruits! It's so sad. We found out this week she like canned fruit (and she's always like mandarin oranges) but traditionally, it's not her thing. Luckily she does like veggies pretty well - especially broccoli.
*Her hair still grows in mohawk down the middle of her head. It's hilariously thin and wispy.

Wow! Too much information for you, but plenty of good memories for me!!!
We love her soooooooo much! Even Marc will crack up these days at this little girl's antics. What an awesome stage she is at. We feel so blessed to have her as part of our family!!!