Category: Maddie

Our happy little girl is now 18 months old. (Yes, I am a few days late posting this…even though I dated it for the correct date … but now I have some stats from her doc appointment today!)

She is such a joy. She is so sweet and kind (most of the time). She loves her dolls…feeding them, carrying them, tucking them in to bed…she will be such a great big sister.

She loves wearing her sunglasses and says “eye” and points to her eye when she wants them on. She also loves wearing necklaces and hats. She loves to accessorize! Oh, and she LOVES her toenails painted and usually says “uh oh” if some notices that some came off. At which point I need to repaint them for her!

Maddie is a very independent little girl. She wants to do things herself. She will get a bib, bowl or plate for me for meals and likes to pick out her snacks. She has been telling me which direction she wants to go when we are on a walk. If I go the wrong way…well, she just doesn’t like that! She likes when I give her two choices and she picks the one she wants. I think it’s important to give kids choices and let them feel like they can make decisions.

She also likes to put on shoes…ours and hers! And she loves trying to put on clothes, and sometimes take them off!

She has gotten even sillier (if that is possible). She makes silly faces and noises and laughs at herself. Such a ham!

The last few days, Maddie as been very concerned with where Chuck is. She is always looking for him and asking for “dada”. And when she sees him she gets very excited!

When she gets hurt, she wants us to kiss whatever it is that hurts. So she points to what hurts and makes a kissing noise. It cracks me up!

Maddie is having a word explosion these days. She may not remember every word, but she will usually make an attempt to try to repeat something when we ask her to. And she has also started to say words instead of using her signs. For instance, she will say “eeee” (please) instead of signing it and “ay” instead of signing “help”. Maddie also started saying “please” and “thank you” for things without being prompted. It’s really cute. Oh, and she has added a nice mean point along with her “no” when she is really upset at something.

And I am sure there are more words, I just can’t remember them all. I’ll add more if I think of them!

*Words (23): Bye (byeee, along with a wave), bubble (bah bo), Elmo (mo mo), Nemo (mo mo), blue (boo), pink (peen), the letter “P”, the letter “B” (she will make an attempt at other letters, too), two, window (le lo), on, off, ice (ay), mouth (ma), glasses (eye and points to her eye, she usually does this when Chuck or I take off our glasses), that (sounds like “blah” while she has her tongue out), bug (bay), elbow (bow bow), jump (dum), go (doh), thank you (“ning ning”), The Cat in the Hat (haa, while tapping her head), Choo Choo (for trains/cars/trucks) – Total 60

*Signs (2): Thank you (she will hold a fist out in front of her and say “ning ning”), sleep (put one hand on her ear and tilts her head….she does this when she sees someone/something sleeping) and I’m working on “I love you” – Total 10

*Animal Noises (4): horse (naaaaay naaaay), dog (woof woof…very quietly), bird (eeee eeee), Kangaroo (will bounce when she sees a picture of one)  – Total 18

A lot of the time, she wants me to sit at her kid table with her. So she goes to the chair she wants me to sit in and pats it and says “up”. Then I’ll ask her if she wants me to sit there…”yeah” she says. It’s very sweet. Maddie loves washing her hands, too. She will even pretend to wash them at her play kitchen. And loves playing with her water table or kiddie pool.

She has started putting some words together, too. The lovely “No Ma Ma” is one of her favorites!

Weight: 21 pounds, 1.9 ounces

Height: 2 feet, 9.5 inches (33.5”)

 

She is still a tiny little peanut, but her doctor is pleased with her growth since it still follows a nice curve for her. I am actually glad she doesn’t weigh much more because I am wimpy! She also got her two top eye teeth and the bottom two are just starting to pop through. After those come in, she just needs her 2 year molars. Then we can stop her teething phase. (About the time Baby Girl #2 starts teething!)

The doctor’s office also gave us a really cute book for her. It’s called “Waiting For Baby.” The books they give are such a small thing, but it really makes an impression on me. I love that they give the kids books! And how nice of the nurse to pick this book out for Maddie this time!

This is a picture of us visiting our friends in the hospital after they had their second little girl. Maddie was right at my feet (or in my lap) and very interested in the baby!

And here are some pictures from the past couple months (July, August).

Like any toddler, Maddie has tantrums. Sometimes you can distract her easily other times, well, not so much. I saw this and it made me giggle. I think any mom can relate to this one.

Last weekend, Maddie and I went to meet some girls I went to High School with and their kids. We got together a while back, but hadn’t found the time to see each other again until now. They kids are all getting so big! Here are pictures from the beach!

These are the kids a year ago! My how they grow! Maddie is in the zebra outfit. She was only 4 months old at the time!

And in case you want to see the pictures of my friends with their kids, HERE is a link.

Sunday night we were a little stir crazy, so we decided to go to the Mall of America and walk around and have dinner. We walked around Nickelodeon Universe and Maddie was in love with the carousel. She kept looking at it saying “wow, wow!” So we decided to let her have her first ride. She loved it.

She did keep looking at the cat behind her and wanted to ride it. Maybe next time!

After we were done with the ride, I asked her if we could see what else was there. She gave me a terrible look along with a big “NO”. So the look I am giving her is imitating her look.

She is definitely my little girl.

I’ve said it at least a hundred times, but Maddie is silly. She cracks me up. The last few days she has had me laughing so hard at her because she wants to wear a bucket on her head like a hat. She won’t sit still long enough for a good picture, but you’ll get the idea!

The doll in her hand is her garage sale doll.

We went to a friend’s garage sale the other day and Maddie found herself a new doll. She carried it around with her, fed it, pushed it around in a stroller, wanted to go to bed with it and even wanted to eat breakfast with it.  

And a couple days later, she still loves this doll and wants to bring it everywhere with her. Even though this phase probably won’t last long, it was worth all $0.50 I spent on the doll!

I got to babysit our niece, Amira (Mira) recently and she was such a good girl! She loved the playmat that a friend gave us!

I used to keep Maddie’s table near our back door. Then she started pushing the chairs to the door and turning the locks. (I have now moved the table elsewhere and replaced the table with her play kitchen.) She has such a serious look on her face.

And Maddie has been very into noses. She likes to touch her nose, or more accurately, put her finger up her nose. She will also do this to your nose. So to keep her from sticking her finger up my nose to my brain, I taught her to “boop” noses. She does this to herself, dolls, pictures of noses…it’s cute. But she has also been into coloring noses. When we color, all she wants to do is scribble out noses. It’s hilarious. (And a little strange.)

 

Not only has Maddie learned the joy of wearing a life jacket and hat around, she has also realized she likes sunglasses!

Oh, I love my silly little girl!

This girl of mine keeps us laughing every day! She is getting funnier all the time! Recently, she wanted to wear a life jacket around the house. This was a life jacket given to us by some neighbors because their kids grew out of it. Maddie still isn’t quite big enough for it, but she REALLY wants to wear it. She also discovered she likes wearing her hat. So put those two together and you get this:

And this is the reaction I got from her when I asked her if I could take off the life jacket.

Ha! Isn’t that a lovely look? At least she knows what she wants.