Madison: 18-24 months

Oh my goodness...so much has happened in the life of this sweet little girl we are raising.  I don't know where to begin but I never want to forget the little things.  I have been adding to this post for the last few months.

Less than a week old

One year old

How did our baby girl turn TWO already?!  I suppose this is the sad start of saying your age by year rather than months, a true sign of growing up.

I can't get over how grown up you look in these pictures.  You are a beauty, little one!

I haven't ever written TO our little ones, but it seems right to address this update to our sweet one-of-a-kind little Maddie--

You still hate the car seat.  I'm afraid you never ever, no matter the circumstance, want to be tied down to anything.  We have to give you an interesting book that you haven't seen in awhile, one of our phones to look at pictures, or a snack to keep you occupied.  Sometimes turning on the music and dancing does the trick as well.  In the car (in Portland), we would play a game when you started to get fussy (even on the short 10 minute drives to the store).  When we were almost home, pulling into our neighborhood, I would ask "Is that our house?" and you would say "No"..."Is that our house?" ..."No"...sometimes you would be silly and say "Yeah!" but finally, we would see our house and all begin to cheer because we were finally home!


You love to copy me.  When we go for a walk, you put your sunglasses on, grab your purse, and push your little baby doll in your pink stroller around the block while I have Carter in the blue umbrella stroller.  You check on her, give her a toy, take her out and hold her, and wave to her as you swing at the park.

You are not big on napping (never have been).  Your usual nap these days is no longer than an hour, usually 30-45 minutes.  You go to bed around 7:30pm and wake up between 5:30-6:30am every day.  Apparently that is enough (even though many days I am convinced it's not enough...), because you are active and full of energy.  When we go on walks, most of the time, you want to walk and explore rather than sit in the stroller.  Sometimes our walks can be over an hour!  There have been times where you ask to be carried, though, just not often.

You absolutely adore "CarCar" and hate when he takes naps.  Sometimes you fake cry and say "CarCar cwying!"  And I have to grab your hand and make sure you don't run in there and wake him up!

[July]  You call yourself "Nannie" and lately you say "Nannie do it" all the time.  "Ya you" is "Love you."  "Bapple" is "Apple."  "Wah wer" is "Water."  "Day Du" is "Thank you." You are talking more and more each day.  It's been an explosion lately.

I am really impressed by your manners.  You are saying "please" and "thank you" regularly, without us reminding you all the time.  It's pretty funny, when we ask for something, you hand it to us and say "thank you" as if to remind us.  You rarely take toys away from other children or push others around.  I think that's part of your gentle and curious personality.  When at the park or around other children, you are such an observer.  You are also very caring.  If you see another child fall or get a booboo, you get very concerned.

[mid July] You are combining words and ideas such as "Mama get!" or "No Mama" or "Dada push" or "Nannie's" as you point to your things.  You are even starting to sing your favorite song sometimes "Twinkle Twinkle Star!" which ends up being "Kinkle Kinkle Tar! Kinkle Kinkle Tar!"

You are strong willed and courageous.  You constantly test the limits.  You are sweet and loving.  You are curious and such a smart little booger.  You are silly and fun.  You love to make us laugh.  You want to do what we do more and more.  If we are washing dishes, you want to help. You want to open the door with the key, push the elevator button, drink coffee or wine, cook dinner, flip the pancakes, pour salt and pepper on things, push CarCar in the stroller, open the mailbox, turn the light on, put make up on, wear jewelry, etc.

You are so incredibly active.  You are jumping, running, climbing, hopping, dancing.  You love chocolate.   You like to figure out how things work.

You still fit in the Bumbo seat.

You don't have time to eat and it's difficult to get you to sit and eat a meal without having some form of entertainment whether it's singing songs with me, reading books, or watching a show.  If we never offered or made you take time to eat, I wonder how much you would actually eat.  Even though you don't like the act of eating because you are too busy, when entertained or distracted, you eat almost anything.  Or if you see us eating something, you want to eat it as well.  You love cucumbers and berries.  We've taken you to Chick-Fil-A and would rather get up and walk around than eat chicken nuggest, fries, and dip!  (The ice cream did keep you at the table...as it would your Daddy, too.)  I still can't believe you will eat radishes off of our plate, you love pickles, you don't care to eat your fruit peeled or cut up, but I can believe that you love chocolate.  You are a girl after my own heart.

You are starting to get a preference for what you wear, mainly shoes.

[late July] You are combining 2-3 words all the time.  A couple days ago (end of July), we had an actual conversation.  We were sitting on the patio and heard a plane.  You said "Mama, plane!" and pointed.  I said, "I hear it.  But I don't see it.  Where is it?"  You replied, "In the sky!"

[early August] You are starting to use adjectives.  We were headed out the door and I said, "Maddie, we need to get your jacket."  And I handed you a gray hoody.  You replied, "No, Mama.  Orange jacket."  Haha.  You will point to things and describe them mainly with colors right now--"Pink shirt." "Yellow pants."

[August 14th] Today, you said, "Mama, run with me!"  I was so proud of how far you've come with talking!

You repeat things we do or say all the time.  You have caught on to saying "Aww" when something is cute because I do that.  It's hilarious to hear you say it.

[started mid July] We've been going out for walks regularly.  When we just go for a quick walk, I put Carter in the umbrella stroller and you rush to get your baby in the little pink stroller.  Then you grab your sunglasses, your purse, your backpack, and really, as much as I will allow you to carry.  But we stop it at your purse, since I know that I'll end up carrying it on the way back.

[mid August] When something scares you, you say "Steered! Mama! Steer me! Nannie steered!"

[late August] We are talking about who is a boy versus who is a "geel" (girl).  "Nannie geel.  CarCar boy."

You are a sponge.  I have to be careful because you imitate so much.  If we hang out with other kids, there's a good chance you will pick up on something they do or say and I'll hear it the next day.  Sometimes, I appreciate this, other times, we work on correcting it.  You watched a "Super Why" show the other day about being scared of the dark.  You have never been scared of the dark, but not you talk about being scared of it and turning on the lights (only when we play, not when it's bedtime).

Really, you are just talking all the time now.  It's too hard to keep track of everything since there's something new almost every day and pretty hard to get things on video.  But it is hilarious and fun.

What a full life we are living because we are blessed with you!