How Big is Madelyn…..Sooooo BIG!

We’ve been asking her this before she was even one; however, now more than ever it is reality.  This little firecracker has grown up so much and has blown us away by all that she is doing.  We’re getting more teeth (second set of pesky molars), weighing about 23 pounds and is about 34 inches tall.  Eating well is a hit or miss and appears to be slightly picky like her father, yet loves condiments like her mother  :o)  She will eat handfuls of nothing but ketchup.  Although it makes daddy gag, I completely get it--Ketchup is mmmm…mmmmm…..gooood.  Definitely doing really well with feeding herself with a spoon, but still working on which hand she prefers.  She actually does pretty well with both, so we’ll have to wait for that verdict.

http://youtu.be/25codzkA1CU

She’s a year and a half and about one or two months ago we were playing in mommy’s closet when she pulled one of my black see through dresses in front of her face and said “I see you”.  It was that moment when she said her first sentence and it hasn’t stopped since then.  My grandparents had been working with her saying “I – looovveee – youuuu” and so I wasn’t sure if she knew what she was saying when she would say it, but that sentence that day in my closet made it clear she knew how to put the words together to say what she wanted.  Now that I know she understands, nothing is more fulfilling than when she walks over to me in the middle of playing and says “I love you” out of the blue.  She counts to ten, somewhat says her ABC’s and is on a roll with her colors.  We’ve also started to experiment with the potty training.  She’ll sometimes tell us or even go and sit on her potty by herself, but it’s not consistent yet.  We have lots of work to do in that area.

And nothing beats her putting herself in time out.  She gets very easily aggravated when trying to do something and it doesn’t work as she wants it (like putting a lid on the Tupperware or getting the cart to go in the direction she wants) and then screams at the top of her lungs and throws stuff.  Little bit of a short fuse….  But she also will pinch and grab at you if you try to make her go or do something not on her terms (we’re leaving now or time to get a clean diaper while playing).  We would gently slap her hand, tell her no and put her in the corner.  Then she would walk up and pinch me, tell me “not nice” and then go sit in time out.  So hard not to laugh!  The fun has only begun.  One day in her room, she took all the extra packs of wipes of the shelf and threw them on the floor and then an after I picked them up she did it again and I said “Oh really” and she looked at me and said “Oh really”.  I think we’re in trouble…..

 Recently, we took our first beach trip to Clearwater with Nana & Poppy to celebrate a friend of ours birthday (Tom).  We got all geared up and then started walking down the beach when it wasn’t long that we found the most happy thing that a beach can offer……sea gulls!  Sea gulls everywhere and sea gulls that would let you get so close before flying away really made for a great start.  She was so excited to see “bird, bird, bird”.  As we walked down the beach on the wet, firm sand all was well and then we walked in the soft, sugary beach sand that sticks to you and all broke loose.  Turns out she hates things sticking to her (including something as joyful as bubbles in a bubble bath…. I thought all kids loved bubble baths).  She loved the water and most of all she loved playing in the sand and making sand castles with her Poppy.

 

 

My most recent and fond memory is from our recent trip to the LegoLand water park.  There was a whole area devoted to little kids and she couldn’t get enough of the toddler water slides.  There was a flat and very wide yellow slide and then a blue tube type of slide that had no top to it.  She kept saying “more slide” and then saying yellow or blue to pick which one.  The yellow we could slide next to each other but the blue she had to go down alone.  The first time down the blue was a huge success and then the second time she slid around like a star fish almost.  I didn’t want her to stay scared of it so we went down one more time, but the whole way down she said “No, No, No”.  Then we stuck with the yellow.  That it when it happened…...  So often I’m playing with her that I don’t “witness” what we’re/she’s doing.  I’m caught up in the action and not able to just enjoy in a remembering way the moments we have.  Then I was standing at the bottom of the slide and looking at her & Ryan at the top and it hit me with a rush of emotion.  I see my little girl sitting next to daddy and she’s so itty bitty and she’s got on her pink long sleeve surfer girl swimsuit with her white bucket hat and those little chiclet front teeth peeking out and cheeks perked up so much that her eyes were squinting from the huge grin she has on her face while rocking forward trying to scoot to go down the slide and she’s looking at me with such happiness.  I was able to really take in the moment to keep it in my heart forever.  It was like an outer body experience where I was witnessing our lives happening.  I will never forget that moment and find myself recalling that cute little face over and over each day.