We have a 20 month old

(Finally posting this at almost 21 months)

She is such a little kid now. She’s thinning out so much and just growing, growing, growing. I’m always so amazed at little brains and how much they take in and retain. I’m also always so surprised at what she pays attention to and then remembers. Madeline is one smart cookie. She also loves to be a jokester and be the center of attention. One of my VERY favorite things she does: If one of us is holding her and all 3 of us are together, she will hug tight whoever is holding her and then reach for the other one so that all 3 of us are hugging. And we just sit there hugging close for a few seconds. I LOVE it. It’s just the sweetest. Those tender little moments are the best.

A new list of Madeline’s words: buckle (she loves doing the buckle in her high chair and she’s gotten really good at it), clock (she points out clocks everywhere we go! They will be in the most discrete places and she sees it and gets so excited and says clock! and will keep saying it until I recognize it), cheeeeese! (any time I take a picture. Or she will take my phone and hold it out and smile and say cheeeese, like she’s taking a selfie, it’s hilarious), broken (boken), dirty (dertee), wash (those two usually go together, she’ll tell me that something is dirty and then say wash), she knows stripes and polka dots (polkee), boy (she loves pointing out boys), girl, paci (she used to say paee, but thanks to Nathan for teaching her how to say paci, she now says, passhee), hum (for ‘some’. she will say when she wants some), hide, Ash (for Ashley), Riley, Jeck (jessica), Joy, Meggy, Wayshell (Rachel), Nonna (Grandma Donna), Papa (Grandpa Chris), Gwama (Grandma Jean), Gampa (Grandpa Phil), Debbie (she loves to say Debbie!), Emy, Jackie (our neighbor, any time she hears the garage open she will say Jackie), Dada, apple, apple dada (any time she sees an apple, she ALWAYS says, ‘apple dadda’. Because I cut up an apple for him every morning, now she always puts apples and daddy together), yucky, up, talk, phone (pone, and she will hold her hand up to her ear), walk, stop (‘stap!’with a hand out. pretty sure she learned that one from me), quiet, shhh (with her finger up to her lips), nuggle, tickle, Madeline (Ma d lala, with tongue action), thank you (takeooo), please (pease), chalk, driving (jiving, and will move her hands back and forth like she is steering a car), car (caw), smoothie (moooeee), oh sorry (oh shawee), see, Oh Boy!, my turn! (she will usually say this when I’m trying to text someone and she wants a turn to text), daddy work, bye, hello, cold, hot, church, amen, wall, nap (usually any time I yawn she will point to me and say nap), Temple (she loves looking at pictures of Temples), Two (she will hold up both of her pointer fingers and hold them together and say two) and my absolute favorite right now, ‘Hold you!” She repeats pretty much anything you tell her. Her vocabulary has grown A TON!

She can identify a circle and say it. She definitely knows the letter M. But only captial M’s. She will point them out everywhere! In all the books, if she sees it when we are out and about, or on bags, billboards, or anything! She will point to it and say “M!” and look to me. She will get so excited. I went in to get her from a nap and she was looking at the Warning label on her crib and she was pointing to the one in a different language and said, “M. M. M.” and yup, there was an M! I love her observant eyes. The clock thing is always so funny to me. I don’t know where the love for clocks came from, but she is obsessed and will find them everywhere. She calls the letter O “circle”, so she’s starting to get the hang of calling it an ‘O’. She kind of knows the letter E.

Colors: Purple, Pink, Yellow (yeyow), Orange (o-che), white, Blue,  and she kind of knows Green and Red. Those are the hardest ones for her.

Animals to add to the list: Owl (she will say Owl and go whooooo whooooo), sheep (she will say baaaa), Rabbit (she will say hop hop!), whale.

She wants to see everything that she hears. She will hear a truck or an airplane or a dog, and she will perk up and look to me and say, “See. See. See.” But most of the time, we can’t see the thing that is making a noise, so I have to tell her we can’t see it. But any time we can see it, I’ll lift her up on the couch and we will look out the window at whatever she was hearing. She loves watching the garbage truck. And any other truck that comes our way: UPS, mail truck, fire truck…

We have one book that talks about the character being strong, and she will hold up her arms like she is flexing her muscles. I love it! Her favorite books right now are, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, Take The Moon For A Walk, Goodnight Moon and all the other Mouse Cookie friends books.

She loves to act things out, like the vaccuum, she will do a zshhhh sound and move her hand back and forth, or she will take my hair spray and hold it up to her head and go, chhhhh.

She loves pointing out Elmo, Mickey, and George. Those 3 are her favorite guys. The only Disney princess she knows is Ariel. One time, she was looking at a book with Ariel and she was pointing to her belly button, then lifted up her shirt and pointed to her own belly button. When Madeline was still in my tummy, Riley would call her Ariel and she gave M a little baby Ariel.

Madeline’s favorite places to be: our bed and sitting next to daddy while he is at his desk. Occasionally Nathan will work from home and that is always hard because she knows he’s in there and will constantly knock on the door and point down to the room and cry daddy. Or he will come out and play for a second and then have to go back in to work and she does not like that. So sometimes he will let her sit on the floor next to him and she will color. But sometimes that is just not good enough. She has to be sitting in his lap and coloring or typing on his keyboard.

Madeline does not like her hands to be dirty. If she’s eating something that makes her hands messy, it’s a real struggle for her to wait until she’s all done eating to get her hands cleaned.

She is really good at helping us understand what she wants or is trying to tell us by grabbing out hands and guiding us to do something or show us something. I like that. I am really loving this communication thing. It makes things so much easier. I love that I can tell her to get something or go do something and she knows what I am saying. And for the most part, she can communicate with me.

Nathan is always snacking on almonds. Every time he grabs a handful of almonds, she will grab his hand and guide him over to rug and pat the floor for him to sit down. Then he will sit and she will then move to sit up against the wall and she will pat the spot next to her. Then he sits next to her and she will feed the almonds to him. Every single time. It’s hilarious. She’s also still obsessed with ‘baw!’s cause he eats a lot of bars!

On May 1st, Madeline had her first dental check up by Dr. Grandpa! She was so funny. She was very solemn the whole time. She would just stare off in the distance and would not make eye contact with Dad. She did let him look in her mouth for a little bit, so that was good! And she got a bouncy ball as a prize that she lost within the first 30 minutes.

Madeline is full time nursery girl! I’ve been in there helping out a lot as we try to get more leaders called and get things organize, so that’s been nice to help her ease into it. A few times I haven’t been in there and she seems to do just fine! Phew. There are about 15 kids in there every Sunday. We should have about 20, but not all kids go. It’s funny how some parents don’t want their kids in nursery.

She is also a big bubble blower!! She finally figured out how to blow just right and get those bubbles out. I’m so happy and so is she! It’s nice letting her do it on her own so I don’t always have to be the one to blow them. I wish I was recording her face the very first time she did it. We were both shocked and surprised and happy!