NINEteen Months

Oh my goodness, how is it that our little baby is now a full blown toddler?? I love her so much, it’s crazy. Everything she does and says is so cute and so funny. I just love to be with her. She has changed and grown so much in the last 2 months. Her face and little legs have thinned out. She has 4 molars and 4 anterior teeth on top and 4 on the bottom. The labial frenum is sooooo high that she has the biggest diastema. It’s pretty cute. We’ll wait until she’s a little older and gets her big teeth in to see if we should clip it or not. She is talking SO much more. We were both worried for a little while because she wasn’t really talking at all, but then one day she just decided she wanted to use real words! She loves to try to mimic what we say. I love that. Sometimes she will surprise me when Nathan and I are having a conversation and she’ll repeat something. She loves to repeat, “I know” and “Oh boy”. Those are so cute! And she loves to just pretend she’s having a full on conversation with babble. I love it. It reminds me of when Jessica and I would pretend we were speaking Spanish. I love watching her use her hands as she talks. She’s such a real little person. I love how she likes to be like Mommy and Daddy. Her vocabulary list is so much longer now. Her favorite words to say are Bubble, Purple, Mama, Daddy, Apple, Book, Bar (BAWWW in a really low throaty voice), and No. Those are words she says constantly.

Every single color is purple. It’s so funny. I love that she notices color and enjoys pointing it out. She will study something for a second and then point to it and say Purple! and look to me, and I say, noooo, what color is it? And she’ll think for a minute and say “uhhhh, sdkjal?” (some jabber) Yes green! haha. I love it. I love the way she thinks about things. You can really see the wheels turning in her head. She JUST learned how to say yellow and can really identify it. She says, “Yeyow”. The cutest thing ever! She has been obsessed with coloring with the crayons and in her notebook. She gets so busy when she is coloring and takes it very seriously. She will color a scribble on one page and then quickly turn the page to the next and do a scribble. She loves coloring at the table in the big people chair. I love when she lays on the floor on her tummy and colors. It looks so cute.

Madeline is also obsessed with lotion. Every time I put on lotion, she comes up to me and wants me to put some on her hands too. I had a bottle that was pretty much empty and she was obsessed with playing it. She would pull the top part out and rub it on her face and rub her hands together.

The first time Madeline was introduced to bubbles, we were at Donna’s on a Sunday for dinner (about a month or so ago). Donna blew some bubbles and Madeline was afraid of them! She just ran to me and did not like them. The next week when we were over there, Donna tried them out again, and Madeline was intrigued! So Donna kept blowing and Madeline would go pop them. Then all of a sudden she said, “bubble” clear as day! We were all like, WHAT! This was when she wasn’t really saying very much, so we were all so excited and blown away. Then after that, she wouldn’t stop saying it and she’s been crazy obsessed with bubbles. But now it’s more about doing it herself, than the actual bubbles. She also loves to have bubbles in her bath. Her first phrase was “More bubbles.” on 3/2/15.

She still loves to point out the moon and say “moo” and loves the birds and airplanes outside. She will say Bug, Rock, Truck, Banana (with her tongue back and forth), Ball, Cookie, Stuck, Wet, Duck, Google (any time she hears the google sound, she will say google), Water (Waaaa), Hot (and waves her hand and blows on it), Bite (any time we are eating food, she wants a bite, or she will hand out some of her food to us and say Bite), Strawberry (stchAWbeyy), Happy (Grandma Donna taught her that with drawing happy faces), MINE (pretty sure she learned this one on her first day of nursery), Cup (buc), Truck (she loves watching the garbage truck and pointing out any trucks we see or hear on the road).

We were in the bath and I tried to take a toy away to put away, and she pulled it in close to her and said, “No mine!” I was like, wait, what did you just say??? Pretty positive I’ve never said that. I didn’t even know she knew the word “mine”. So I’m blaming that one on nursery! She had only been to nursery one time, and she came home with that. Ahhh if only I could keep a bubble around her forever and keep her sweet and innocent.

She can do a few animal sounds. Moo for cow, Baa for sheep, a real snort for pig, her little woof for dog, neigh for horse, rawr for tiger, bear, and lion, and kind of a soft meow for cat.

When she gives kisses, she will say “MmmmmmMAH!” I love her sweet kisses. At night before bed, we always say family prayer, and she is getting better at sitting with her arms folded. She still can’t sit the whole time, but she’s usually pretty good. She just started to say “Amen”. After the prayer, she will give Daddy a hug. She used to go up and give him a side hug. It was hilarious. But now Nathan says, “Big hug!” And she’ll give a big, full on hug. She is just the sweetest.

She went in for her 18 month check up 2 weeks and she came in weighing 26 lbs 7 oz (87.5%ile), height 2’8” (71%ile), and head 19” (92%ile). She’s got a big, smart head like daddy! We are so fortunate and grateful that she is a strong, healthy girl with no current issues or allergies.

Madeline loves to have us both home at the same time and giving her all of our attention. It makes her so happy. She loves dancing to music (any beat, really) and will not let us sit and watch her dance. If one of us is dancing and the other is watching, she will continually move her hand in a “come” motion until we get up. She’ll also do that if she wants us to do something with her, like lay on the floor or crawl like a baby. Even when my Mom is here, she’ll get down to crawl and look back and motion for everyone to join her and keep a close eye to make sure we are all crawling with her. She’s so funny.

On Madeline’s 18 month birthday (3/5), she told us she had poop! She pointed to her diaper and said “poopoo”. Now every time she goes, she tells us. I love it! She’ll be going and then look to us and say, “Poop”, and point to her diaper. Sometimes if we don’t change it right away, she’ll get mad. I like that she’s starting to get uncomfortable with sitting in her poop. Maybe around two we’ll introduce the potty.

One of my favorite Madeline tricks is when I give her a thumbs up, she will do it back but do it with her pointer finger. It’s the cutest. Another funny thing is, she likes to take my phone and hold it up and say “cheeeeeeese”. If we are outside playing with the ball, I’ll say “catch” and she’ll put her little hands so close together and up close to her body to catch. It’s the cutest.

This girl looooves to be funny. She always tries to be the funny girl and knows it when she is being funny. If we’re reading a book, I’ll ask, “Where’s the moon?” And she’ll look right at it and smile, and then start scanning the page and point to something else. I’ll say, “No that’s not the moon!” And she laughs and points to something else. Until finally she points to the moon.

April 3, 2015- Madeline had her last slurp of mommy milk in the morning and that was her last hurrah. After that, I told her that it was all gone and that we aren’t nursing anymore. A few days ago, she started to say “nurt” for nurse. She is used to nursing in the morning, before her one nap, and at night. I talked to her about it a lot that morning and right before her nap. She was looking at me and listening. But she was NOT happy when I finally put her in her crib without nursing. It was the worst. She was ANGRY. It was the worst scream cry I have ever heard. Worse than the sleep training cry. It was awful and ripping my heart out times a million. I wanted to give up and just go in and comfort her with my boobs. But it had to happen. It was finally time and I’ve been putting it off, so I had to stick with it. I will definitely miss nursing. I loved it and I feel so fortunate to be a woman and have that beautiful, special bond with my baby. For the first nap, she cried and screamed for a while and I went in to give a little comfort, but that made it worse. So Nathan went in to give her a little comfort, and that didn’t work. So I finally went in and just held her in the rocking chair and read a few books and gave her water to help her settle. She was crying so hard that she kept gagging and I thought she was going to throw up. As we were snuggling in the chair, I told her again what we were going to do. I snuggled her close and started rocking and singing a song and she was out. I tried to put her in her crib and she woke up and was mad. So that was the end of that “nap”. About an hour or two later I put her down and she fell asleep, but only for like 45 minutes. At night, I told her again what our new routine is, but she was still not happy about it. But she was much better than her nap. I put her in her crib and she was mad for second, but then could not fall asleep. After an hour, she was still awake, so Nathan went in and rocked her and she fell right to sleep. Ever since then she’s been good about it. Usually in the morning she’ll look at me and tap on my chest kind of slow, like she knows that we don’t do that anymore, but still wants it. I just tell her it’s all gone and then try to distract her with something else.

Her sleep routine: Wakes up around 6-6:45 am, naps at 11 for a little over an hour to 2 hours (veeeeeery occasionally 3 hours, but only on days when I’m working and not there!), and then bedtime around 7:30pm. I love this schedule. She’s a great sleeper. I do wish she would at least sleep in until 7 and always take a 2 hour nap, but oh well. At least she’s a great night sleeper and takes a nap. That makes me happy!

I’ll let her watch some tv when I’m trying to get ready and she’s busy getting into everything. It will distract her for a while. Or sometimes in the afternoon, she just needs a quiet snuggle and settle down with some tv. She really enjoys Curious George and Thomas, and sometimes Daniel Tiger. She will watch Sesame Street with my mom sometimes, and any time she sees something Sesame Street, she says “Elmo”.

Grandma Donna, Aunt Megan, and Grandma Jean are STILL watching Madeline every Monday and Tuesday. It’s so amazing and such a blessing. We are so fortunate to have both of our families close by. I am so grateful for the love and bond they have with each other. There is nothing better.

Madeline was born to be a momma. She has always been so obsessed with babies. She loves her dolly and will just rock and sway with her and say “shhhhhh” and hold her up and pat her back. It’s the cutest and sweetest. She loves real babies. I think she will be a great help whenever we have another baby, and she will love that baby so much. But I feel like we’ll probably get some jealousy issues too! Any time I’m holding another baby or kid, she will get so jealous. We can’t wait to give her a sibling.

I love that I can take Madeline out on long outings. She is very patient in the car and when we run errands.

Pretty much everything that Madeline does and says is so cute and so funny. We are so blessed to have her in our lives and love every second. We are exhausted most of the time, getting more wrinkles and grey hair, and flabby bodies, but it’s all worth it for that sweet, darling girl.