How is my baby already SEVENTEEN MONTHS?! How is it that in a short month she will be entering nursery? *tear* Okay, I don’t think I’ll cry, but it is a little emotional. It’s just crazy to wrap my head around the fact that I have a baby that’s old enough to go into nursery. I love each stage more and more, but I still miss the old stages. I miss her chubs. Her face is thinning out so much. But I do love that she can understand me more, she can do more things on her own, and she’s just so dang funny. Everything (well, almost everything) she does makes me laugh.
Madeline climbed into this box and was just hanging out, grabbing books off the shelf and reading them. I love her little mind.
I love this look.
I’m sad these next ones are fuzzy. But I love this picture above because it just shows pure joy.
I love those goofy teeth!
I love this shot of her teeth!
Madeline discovered my jewelry box in a cupboard in the bathroom. Every time we left the door open, she would book it to the bathroom. One day I was dealing with some raw meat in the kitchen and she was playing happily by herself (a rare thing). And all of a sudden it was quiet. I yelled out, “Madeline?” and I hear a little “Eh!” from down the hall. Oh shoot, I left our bedroom door open! So I have to hurry and finish and wash my hands and I go down there, and she had pulled my earring drawer out and brought it into the bedroom and was sitting on the floor with it and had the earrings up to her ears. It was the cutest thing! But I also didn’t want earrings all over the house. So I decided to make her her own drawer. I filled it with some bracelets and necklaces that I don’t care about and she was a very happy girl! Madeline had her toenails painted for the very first time this month! She was pretty good, but could not wait to let them dry. She wanted to touch them! And as soon as I finished with one foot and started with the next, she decided she wanted to do it herself… So I had to put it away and didn’t finish her foot. We’ll try it again when she’s a little older. But her toes did look super cute painted pink.
This girl makes me so happy. She is just so funny. I love her busy mind, I love the way she tries to mimic us, I love the way she runs. Her run is like a gentle prance with her belly out. One of my very favorite things is when I’m holding her and she is watching me closely and I look at her and we make eye contact and she smiles and we just stare smiling at each other for a few seconds and then she digs her face into my shoulder. I love those little moments. I’m still nursing her, but only before naps and bedtime. Usually when she wants to nurse it signals sleep time. She taps my chest over and over. I am ready to be done with nursing, but I will miss it a lot too. It’s one of the very best bonding times we have.
Our nightly routine: We get Madeline in her jammies, we read a book or two, then we brush her teeth. Madeline does not enjoy getting her teeth brushed! Every night it’s a battle to get that toothbrush in there. But she knows the drill. When I say it’s time to brush teeth, she will go and lay down. It’s so funny. But she just throws a fit and like to bite on the brush so I can’t actually brush. I do the best I can, but with those molars, I freak out about not brushing them well enough and her getting a cavity. It’s always helpful when Nathan is around and can distract her for a little bit while I brush. After we brush teeth, we go into her room and turn the lights off and say prayer. She’s pretty good at folding her arms and sitting on the ground at the beginning and at the end, but she runs around in between. Sometimes she will run to me and then to daddy, then back to me, etc… Then she says good night to Daddy and I sit in the chair and she comes to me. She nurses for about 5 minutes while I sing a few songs and as soon as I stand up with her, she looks to the picture in of Jesus in her room and waves night night to Jesus. It’s the sweetest thing. She started that all on her own and it’s just so tender. I put her in her crib, give her another pacifier and she lays down before I even walk away from the crib. She sleeps all the way until about 5:30-6:30 am. She used to wake up once in the morning, but now she just sleeps until she’s ready to be up for the day. Which is waaaaay too early.
This face <3
Madeline loves doing hand motions with songs. She loves Wheels on the Bus, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, If You’re Happy and You Know It, The Hokey Pokey, and Popcorn Popping. She’s pretty good at joining in on doing the hand motions. After I’m done, she’ll sign “more”, so I sing it again. I love that. A few times Nathan has said chicken and she will do the chicken arms, it’s hilarious.
She has started to use some words! Real words! She will say, “Maw” (More) while signing more in her high chair. She says, Moon, Sock (gock), Truck (guck), Up, Car (ccccccc-caw), Owwww, Uh-oh, WOWWWW, and her all time favorite, “Noo No no no no no.” My absolute favorite is, “HIIIIIeeeeee.” She does that to little kids, birds, cute animals on tv, airplanes, people she loves. A few times while she is nursing, she will pull away and smile big at my boob and wave and say, “Hiiiieeeee!” haha. She has still never called out Dad or Mom. That makes me sad. Two times she said “Baybay” when I pulled out the raspberrys. I haven’t been able to get her to do it since, but it was so cute. Madeline is obsessed with birds and airplanes. That’s all she likes to do when we are outside it search for the birds and airplanes. She has amazing ears. Once she hears that airplane, she searches the sky for it. Once she spots it, she’ll either just stare, or point, or wave. She looooooove love loves the moon. She will point it out in the sky and in every book that has a moon.
Her latest and greatest triumph is climbing. She loves to climb up onto the coffee table. Once she climbs up there she stands up and makes sure I’m looking at her. She is so proud of herself. Her favorite place to climb is in our bedroom. One day I was going to the bathroom and I come out and found Madeline sitting on our nightstand with her feet dangling off and she was holding a book. It was hilarious. She was so excited and proud. Ever since then she looooves to climb up there and hang out or continue climbing on up to our bed. It’s like a playground.
This girl just makes my heart so very happy.
