18 months! A little girl now.

Madelyn,

You are just turned 19 months old and I couldn't help but think over and over last month how big you are getting and how you have graced our lives for a year and a half now!  You aren't a baby any longer but a little girl.  I look back at your baby pictures and it's so funny how I don't see the little girl in those pictures that I know now.  You look nothing like you do today as you did as a baby!  I had no idea how funny you would be and how feisty you would be, either!  You have brought changes to our lives big and small!  We now call Wilson, Woo-wuh, like you do.  Parks are a regular attraction in our lives now.  Oh, and the places we sit in our house to entertain you!  You will often pat the floor and say  "sit?" and look at one of us.  It's usually in the middle of the dining room floor or in the kitchen next to your colored kitty cats I taped on the sliding glass doors.  A couple of weeks ago you, me and Daddy sat on the floor in the kitchen for half an hour playing with Woo-wuh and a ball.  You were thrilled and my pregnant back was killing me but as you will find out one day when you have children (should you choose to) you will do anything for your child!  

Guess what!?!  You are going to have a little sister!  We are so excited to meet her and even more excited for you to meet her.  I love envisioning my life from here on out with two girls!     

Here are your updates!


Teeth!  

You have nearly all of your baby teeth and are working on your molars!  You have never been too fussy with your teeth coming in.  A little Tylenol here and there and now you chew on your hands a little but that's about it.   You don't tend to chew on teethers or toys even though Daddy and I have tried showing you how on several occasions to help relieve your symptoms.

Eating!  
You have always been a great eater.  We are slowly expanding your palette more and more.  The things you don't like tend to baffle me.  For instance, I have been trying to get you to try pasta for MONTHS now!  You won't even taste it.  You touch it, pick it up and set it off your plate-you little rascal!  I have tried giving you  tortellini, egg noodles, alphabet letter pasta, rigatoni, you name it!  I have tried with sauce, without, butter, parmesean - no dice!  I don't get it.  Yesterday your teacher told me that you ate pasta at school!  WHAT!?! I said?  Maddie ate pasta!?!  I'm going to try to give you pasta tonight.  We shall see if you eat it or not!  Things you love:  blueberries, fresh or in waffles, pancakes or muffins.  Grapes.  You FREAK OUT at the grocery store when you see bananas "nanas" as you call them.  You are inconsistent with liking cookies.  Sometimes you like things like animal cookies, sugar cookies, etc and other times you won't taste them.  You love yogurt covered raisins thanks to your Aunt Julie who brought them over when you were a baby-baby.  You like hot dogs, chicken nuggets, fries, apple sauce, ice cream sandwiches and peas, sometimes corn.  Peas are the one of the only veggies you eat consistently.  You like Pops cereal and we have some Captain Crunch cereal in the house that you like right now.  You love fruit snacks.  I'm excited because I just found some with 40% less sugar and they have veggies in them!  You like them even more than other fruit snacks, I think.  YOU LOVE MILK!  You often laugh when you receive your milk.  You love to ask for "more milk" and give the "more" sign when you do.  You love to see me poor more milk in the sippy cup and hand it back to you.  I say "Fresh Milk!" while I poor it and you get so excited.  You love getting fresh milk so much that you ask even when your cup is full!  Sometimes I fake poor into the cup to make you happy but you love to see the milk come out of the container.  Speaking of milk - you know where it is in the grocery store.  When we get close to it you start screaming and sometimes when there is no one in the grocery store we let you out of the cart so you can run up to the refrigerated milk cases and get excited!  You are great with a spoon now, too.  You are getting so big and doing so well. 

Sleep! 

You are fluctuating between one and two naps a day right now.  You get one nap at   school and you are CUH-RANK-EE when you get home!  Phew!  Maddie!  You are a basket cases most evenings after school!  You do things like ask for milk and I give you milk and you cry and scream when I do what you asked me to do!  Monday through Thursday when you get only one nap and combine it with a full day of learning you are just wiped!  Friday, Saturday and Sunday we usually try and get two naps out of you but even if we only get one, you are much less cranky. We implemented a night time routine after you learned to walk.  You went down to bed at night so easily before you learned to walk but once you learned to walk you had so much fun you didn't want to go to bed!  We went from no routine (putting you to bed whenever the time seemed right - about 7:15) to a bath some nights then reading books in your rocking chair, saying "our goodnights" to everyone we saw that day and then putting you to bed.  It's working pretty well.  You cry about 50% of the time, usually only for a moment.  Often when you cry longer or toss and turn trying to fall to sleep I will go up and ask you if you want to rock.  You will grab your lovey bunny and your penguin with your paci and we will rock.  Just 5 minutes or so helps you relax and then you are ready for bed.  You ask me to fill your sippee cup of water most nights and now you ask for milk in bed.  We will give you a sippee cup of milk sometimes and then collect it after you fall asleep.  

It's getting close to time to take your paci away and I feel so bad just thinking about it.  You LOVE your paci's!  I'm going to try and do it the most painless way possible.  I am going to research on how to do this best.  



One thing I think you do that is so funny is that you love to lay like this in my lap when I rock you.  You won't rock any other way.

Bath time!

You are impartial to bathtime.   Sometimes it's easy to get you to take a bath and sometimes you kick and scream.  Last night you wanted to take your shoes into the bath with you and I didn't realize you were holding them until you were in the bath!  Pregnancy brain I suppose-I can't believe I let you in the bath with your shoes in your hands.  I had to take them away which hurt your feelings.  You love your shoes.

Health!

You are sooooooo much healthier than you had been before you had your ear tubes put in.  You haven't been sick in five months or so.  It's so refreshing not to see you struggling or feeling bad so often.  It broke my heart.

School!

You love going to school and you love your friends, LuLu and Emma.  When I used to pick you up you would run to me everyday when I arrived and now....well, you look at me and keep playing.  It breaks my heart just a teeny tiny bit but I LOVE that you are having so much fun at school that you carry on when I arrive.

Here is your class picture from the puddle ducks class.  Emma was one of your first words.  She is on the far left.  LuLu must have been absent this day.

Words!

This is where I am a proud mama!  You are so smart Maddie!  You have about 60 words under your belt!  As you say new words I write them on the chalkboard and we keep track.  My favorite words you say are turtle "tuh-tuh" and choo-choo which you pronounce "chew-chew" with a slight accent!  We left Busch Stadium after a Cardinal game the other night and we were handed a baseball card with Fredbird's picture.  You looked right at it and said "fred bird"!  Your Daddy was so proud!

Play!

You are getting more and more into your baby doll.  You like her when you are interested in her but when I offer her to you you typically say "no" and push her away.  Last night she was in your crib and you made it clear that you didn't want her to be so I sat her in your rocking chair.  I don't know if you think she is real and you don't want to share your crib with her or what?  I try not to force her on you and to let it be your choice whether or not you play with her.

You love love love your crayons and your markers.  We just got you a table and chairs that are your size and you love to sit and ask Daddy or I to sit and color with you.  

Books-Your favorite toy of all.  You have over 300 books and we moved a good portion of them up to your room.  The first thing you do in the morning is ask for a book.  You now also like books while you get your diaper changed or get dressed while in your room.

You absolutely love your wagon and your cozy coupe car.  You love to swing now!  You say "wee" when you want to swing!  So cute.  :)  You love slides at the park too.  Daddy takes you on the tallest slides at any park and you have the biggest smile on your face while you slide.  You are a regular at the water park and the playground!

You love credit cards!

At the zoo.  Looking at the elephants.  You have a great elephant impersonation!

You LOVE ducks!

Sitting in the baby swing while Mama cleans the basement

Milestones!

You have pee pee'd on the potty twice now!  I put a potty in your bathroom and though we aren't ready to potty train you like to sit on it as the tub fills up.  Two times now I have lifted you up and you pee'd like a big girl.  I get so excited I clap and dance and take pictures!  I'm so proud of you, Maddie!

Clapping after you went pee-pee on the potty!

Kissing ducky-Often now a days you point to ducky and say duck, give my tummy a pat and kiss it occasionally as well.  I started getting concerned that you might actually think we are having a real duck instead of a baby and have been trying to change the name to baby and you insist on calling it duck!  I hope you aren't disappointed when baby comes out a baby rather than a duck with feathers and a duck bill!

Always remember one thing...

I love you Maddie! 

Love, Mommy