Week 94: October 28 - November 3

So. As of this week, there are just 10 until Madeleine turns TWO. Two! I cannot handle that! {Not to mention we have to get through Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years before then!}

The beginning of this week saw us leaving Gainesville and heading home. NOT FUN--the trip, I mean. The morning started well, with Matt bringing French pastries for everyone. YUM, pain chocolat! (Chocolate bread, or chocolate croissant) Madeleine ended up not even napping, which put me into all modes of stress--that I tried not to feel. After an hour or so, I decided to get her up and get on the road. It was nice to head out a little earlier than we'd anticipated. The trip home was just... rough. No nap for her meant that she dozed in the car for just half an hour. She was stupid tired by the time we got home, and she went immediately to sleep. YAY.

Madeleine also had a little case of the sniffles when we got home. All the traveling, plus the sniffles, made for some really solid sleep--at first. Now her cold is affecting her nights and her naps. But, at least I know that it will end when her cold does. :)

We had a pretty quiet Saturday morning, just recovering from the trip. After Madeleine's nap, we headed to Jet's house for a Halloween party! With being out of town... and just being in general uncreative... we didn't have anything for Madeleine to dress up. But she managed to enjoy the party anyway. LOL. It was designed for families, so there were lots of other kids to play with. Naturally, though, she just wanted the balls. All of them. They were playing the Charlie Brown Halloween video, and Madeleine would glance at it occasionally while doing other things. But when Schroeder played the piano, she stopped, stood in front of the TV, and watched, rapt, until he stopped. I think it's because Matt plays and she knew the sound, knew that it was special. :)

FOOTBALL
I went out to try and scrounge some costumes during Madeleine's nap. When she woke up, Matt got her up and left her in her sleep sack. He took her out to the rumpus room to watch football. She sat on his lap for a good long while and watched with him. Matt reports that she said "oh no!" just about every time someone got tackled. And she said "football" a WHOLE LOT. There were also a few moments where she cracked up. Matt wasn't sure if it was too many footballs to process or what, but she got a kick out of something! And of course, daddy loved every second of it.

Oh yeah, she says "oh, no." IT IS SUPER CUTE. I'm running out of adjectives!

BIGNESS
BIG thing this week: PLURALIZATION! Madeleine has started saying words in plural. She's just started practicing this, so she's a little slow with her words. She'll say the word, there will be a teeny tiny pause, and then "sss". HILARIOUS. Matt reported that she said "hangers" and that it was getting his nomination for cutest word ever. I already love how she says "hanger," so I can't wait to hear hangers.

One final thing about the plurals. When looking at a book Sunday night, Madeleine saw a page of pigs. She's hasn't said "pig" in a long time, she just makes the oink noise. So what did she do about that page with 7 pigs? She made the oink noise, then added the "sss". We cracked up!

LEAVES
A lot of the pictures this week are from us playing in some leaves. Madeleine and I were outside one afternoon, and it was just perfect. The light was awesome, the temp was perfect.... She played, I snapped some pics. Well, then I got the idea to rake some leaves. Matt joined us, and he took up the call, gathering a good little pile. He and I took turns walking through the leaves, tossing some in the air, and playing. Madeleine started out pretty timid, just kicking them, touching them. But it wasn't long before she was kneeling beside them, then picking them up, then "hopping" on the pile, then laying on it! Her hopping was hilarious. She'd crouch down, then basically just put her knees on the ground. Matt and I cheered her on, and she was super pleased with herself. She wants to hop SO BAD.

It was one of the most fun times we've had yet, and I really saw that Madeleine is getting bigger. We could do something as a family, all together. It didn't have to be me or Matt keeping a close eye on her or holding her at all times. We all just played. Best day ever. I even filled up my memory card and had to fight all the instincts to capture every second on "film." It probably took 10 minutes before the kick in my brain to snap, snap, snap went away. Then it was all joy. And thanksgiving. It was delightful to me to see the delight on her face, the fun she was having. LOVE.

FINALLY
I know, I know. Super short. But it's just really hard these days to make notes. I don't know why.

Madeleine now knows "wipe", as in the wipes we use at diaper time, and that we wiper her hands and face after she eats. She's even started wiping her own hands together. It's kind of nice because it's another way we know she's done eating. She'll say, "wipe, wipe," and wipe her hands.

One night at dinner, we had buttered bread. Baby wanted seconds, so I got another piece. She said, "baby, butter." It wasn't a perfect "butter," but she got her point across. :)

SLIDESHOW

Week 93: October 21 - 27

Mimi came for a visit this week! We had a fabulous photo shoot on Friday with our friend Joanna, who has taken quite a few of Madeleine's pictures over the last year or so. She does an awesome job, and I can't wait to see the results! Then we took a short trip to visit a friend. Full, fun week!

LITTLE THINGS
Madeleine seems suddenly taller. I've heard many, many stories of such a phenomenon, but to see it in real life is crazy. Pants she wore last week are now too short! Yay for growing babies!

Baby got some more scrapes today, including one around her eye. She was standing by the stairs, and she started to fall. Matt tried to catch her, but he thinks doing so only made her fall worse. She hit the corner of the steps, and it looks so sad. She cried a lot, but she is a trooper and was playing again after not too long.

Madeleine has started saying her own name! After many months of referring to herself as "baby," she now says, "Ma-lyn." IT IS ADORABLE. She usually does it in a possessive sense, like, "Ma-lyn ow" for Madeleine's drink.

As mentioned already, Mimi visited this week. One day when getting baby up from her nap, Mimi laughed at something she did and slapper her knee while laughing. Apparently, Madeleine thought this was great fun and started copying her. :)

Another fun story related by Mimi: one day, Madeleine was sitting in her chair and she said "eee" (which can either mean sit, eat, or kiss). Mimi said, "sit?" Madeleine repeated herself. Mimi said, "kiss?" Madeleine then said "eee" again, but also did the sign for eat while she said it. ISN'T THAT HILARIOUS??!?!??!?!


GAINESVILLE
This week, we decided to go to Gainesville, FL, to visit some friends. Or, rather, for me to visit a friend. Matt came with and stayed with his brother. We had a FABULOUS time. It was relaxing for me in many ways. Madeleine's schedule was off, but she handled it all very well. The first night, though, I think she got overheated, because she woke up quite upset at about 2am. I was in the room with her, and we were next door to everyone else, so I couldn't just let her cry. I got her up and tried to help her go to sleep with me. It took over 2 hours. YEAH. And she fell asleep on me, while I was sitting up. It was the only way she would sleep. After I decided she was good and asleep, I slowly slid down so that I was lying down, her atop me.

It was really neat; I've never slept with her beside me before. Thankfully, she slept in until about 8:20. That was neat too, waking up with her right there. :)

We went to about 4 parks in 3 days, had lots of PB&Js, went to Chick-fil-A family night and the library and played with cars, planes, trains, and blocks a WHOLE BUNCH.

My friend has two boys, almost 3 and 14 months. It was interesting to watch them with Madeleine. When we got there, I put her down with their younger boy. He went right up to her and kinda pushed her, which is what he does with his brother (and how his brother does with him). Madeleine didn't understand and after a couple of light pushes, she started to cry. From then on, when she first saw him (Vinny) in the morning, she was a bit afraid of him. But once they were together long enough, she got over it.

Madeleine was really interested in whatever Baer was doing. She quickly learned his name and said it often when he wasn't around. Similarly, Vinny was really interested in Madeleine and wanted to interact with her as much as he could. But Baer barely noticed Madeleine, and she was wary of Vinny. So nobody really got a play friend out of the deal! Oh well, I got to be with my friend. :)

We also got to spend a little time with Matt's parents. We met them at a park and Madeleine got to swing for about 30 minutes. [That is ALL she really wanted to do at the park, but there was one place where she got into the slide for a few minutes. As in, she'd go up the stairs and go down the slide by herself.] We showed Papa Pete and SuSu Madeleine's high five and fist bump, and they were both big hits. Then we had dinner at Uncle Russ' house, yummy BBQ.

FABULOUS trip, can't wait to make it again! Next year, sometime, Lord willing.


SLIDESHOW

Week 92: October 14 - 20

This post is so much after the fact. I hope I can flesh out some of these details because I don't have much in my notes...

Madeleine turned 21 months this week! Just 3 more until she is 2! I'm excited and... not. Ha!

OKAY?
We had a big development this week. I think I've mentioned before that Madeleine doesn't really have any affirmative word or nod or anything. WELL! That changed this week. She started by just saying "okay" because she likes copying what Matt and I say. A day or so later, she started saying "okay" when we asked her if she wanted to do something and the answer wasn't "no." It is a super cute word, pronounced kind of like, "ooo-kay-ee," almost 3 syllables. And the inflection is on the end of the word, which we like.

One more little thing about "okay:" You may recall the story of Madeleine wanting Matt to ride the elliptical and her being upset when he stopped. This week, she wanted him to go on it again, which he did. When he stopped, she said, "More. More. Okay." Matt said it felt as though she was feeding him the line she wanted to hear, which was him agreeing to keep doing it.

BIG STUFF
Madeleine has started being excited about doing things. I'll say, "do you want to go for a walk in the stroller?" She'll raise her eyebrows, form an "O" with her mouth, and say," ooooooh!" Then she'll hop right up from what she was doing and head toward the stroller.

We THINK that she understands what "two" means. We think. It may have been coincidence that she'd see two things and say "two." It's possible. She IS only 21 months old. But she's done it more than once, with balls and something else.

BOO-BOOs
Baby had two new falls this week, bumping her head both times. :( The good news is that she got over them both pretty quickly.

EXCITING
Last but not least, (again, sorry so short), Madeleine got to see the sheep I mentioned last week again! A friend of mine heard the story, and while driving home one day, saw the flock of sheep at an elementary school. She called me, and Matt and baby hopped in the car to go see the sheep! There were a few other families that had pulled over to see the sheep, but Matt led the pack in getting closer. Madeleine said, "More baa" a whole bunch. Then they walked around on a dirt field next to the school, Madeleine running as best she could, braving the uneven terrain.

FUN ADDITION
The bars on our front steps aren't connected to the rail-end-thing on one side. Recently, Madeleine discovered that if she grabs the bars and shakes them, they made a really loud clanging noise. She gets a HUGE rush from this and laughs and laughs.... :)

SLIDESHOW

Week 91: October 7 - 13

BEDTIME UPDATE:
It is safe for me to say that the problem is now solved. The average for this week is a little up, maybe 25 minutes, but I think that's due to teething and me not giving her medicine before bed. She hasn't had the obvious symptoms of teething, so I'd stopped giving her ibuprofen, but after a conversation with a friend, I think she IS working on her last molars and needs medicine again. Will be starting that tonight. I'm so thrilled that we tried the bath before dinner thing. And that it was the solution!!

AWESOME SATURDAY
We had a great Saturday again. We started out with a trip to the Atlanta Tree Sale. Sounds strange, right? Well, Matt saw a little ad for it in the paper, and also featured was a lamb petting zoo. He was seriously so excited at the thought of Madeleine getting to see real lambs. And it was obviously a must-do. So downtown we went. Wish we could have purchased a tree or two, but since we don't own this house... waste of money.

Anyway, in the back were the lambs. And two goats, just for fun. The petting zoo was provided by eweniversally green, a company that uses sheep and goats to rid your lawn of unwanted plants. Landscaping... with sheep. FABULOUS idea, love it. Anyway, so I held Madeleine and we looked at the sheep. Then I fed one with my hand a couple of times so she could see. And you know, you never know how kids are going to do with live animals and new things. The goats especially were all up in your business if you got too close, not shy at all.

Matt and I petted the lamb, and eventually, Madeleine tried it. She liked. Then I fed one again, and Matt gave Madeleine some food pellets. SHE FED THE LAMB. What happened next?

"MORE."

She was crazy about those lambs and goats! She kept wanting to feed them, pet them, but mostly feed them. Every time her hand was empty, she said, "more." And when mommy and daddy didn't replenish her food supply, she went over to the bucket and helped herself. IT WAS AWESOME and so worth the drive!! I was thrilled that she liked them so much, that she wasn't scared of them. I think having a big dog helped. Oh, and there was a sheep dog there with the sheep, brought over from Scotland, actually. I bet he was happy getting to do what he'd been bred for.

That seems like a big enough Saturday, but it didn't end there. We next went to Sublime Doughnuts near Georgia Tech, a gourmet doughnut shop. If that sounds odd.... it isn't. It is DELICIOUS. AMAZING. Next time you're in town, we'll have to visit. Anyway, we got doughnuts for us and some friends and sat down to eat them there. It was game day, probably an early game, because there were tons of people in Tech gear who came in.

After doughnuts, we went to Ikea to make a return and a purchase. Then we took the doughnuts to our friends and hung out for a few minutes. Then home, then baby down for her nap. Woo-hoo! Awesome Saturday, and that was all before lunch! (If you're interested, the afternoon was just spent hanging at the house, watching UF v. LSU. Sad. Though Madeleine really enjoyed watching the football.)

Speaking of football: She was eating her after-nap snack when Matt turned on the computer to get ready for the game. At some point, the sound came on while we were all at the table, and Madeleine said, "football" when she heard it. We were so proud!! LOL.

WARNING: Maybe Too Much Information? If babies going potty on the floor and people bother you, then read no further... Although I've now told you the basic gist... ;)

Monday evening was somewhat momentous for Madeleine. We've recently discovered the secret to happiness--i.e., how to help Madeleine fall asleep quicker at night: Bath before dinner. This simple little switch, which we tried for the first time September 24, has led to two solid weeks of under-an-hour-fall-asleep-times, most nights less than 30. REALLY!!

Okay, now to the story. Since we do bath before dinner, we have been putting Madeleine in just pants and a shirt--no diaper--for dinner. Sometimes she's had misses (not in the true EC sense of the term), sometimes not. Tonight, she was a bit squirmy, then she looked at me and said her word for "potty." I asked if she needed to go, and she said no. (Also, possibly related: she wasn't eating hardly any of her dinner.) A few minutes later, she started kinda crying, but the, "I don't like my situation" cry. I asked what was wrong, and she indicated she wanted up. Turns out she'd peed a little bit in her pants. SO I got her up, took off her pants, put her in new pants.

We returned to the table and I sat her on my lap to see if that would help her eat more. It didn't. But then she peed more (again after being super squirmy), getting on me and the floor and of course herself. I picked her back up and I asked if she was finished. She didn't really have an answer. We went into the bathroom where her potty is, I left her pants on, and asked if she wanted to sit on the potty. She did. Then she wanted me to sit on my potty (she says "baby's potty" and "mama's potty"), so I obliged of course. Then she picked up her potty and headed toward the hall, but she seemed ... interested in it, unlike before. My gut told me to stick with it, so I had her set the potty down and sit on it. I decided to just hang out with her for a bit, so I started to tell her a story. She wanted a book instead, so I got her some of her little chunky books. This made her happy. She wanted more, I obliged. Then I went to get the phone off the table to check the time, so I told Madeleine to sit on the potty and not get up (because she alternated between wanting to sit there and wanting to get up).

When I got to the table, I heard her make a little cry. I went back, asked what was wrong. She was standing up, kinda looking down at herself. I checked the potty.... YES! She's gone in the potty, through her pants!! I was so thrilled, I praised her, hugged her, told her good job. No idea if that was "right" or not, but it sure made her happy. She wanted to sit back on the potty! She said, "more potty." Oh, she's so fabulous!

NOTES FROM THE WEEK
~ More 3 and 4 word sentences!

~ And she's also doing a bit of parroting, repeating words and phrases that we use. It's so amazing how much and how quickly she's learning things. Her brain is just a little sponge.

~ OOOOOH, and speaking of learning! This week, Madeleine has shown a big interest in letters. Matt was the first to discover it while playing with our letter magnets. He'd tell her about the letter ("that's a blue T") and she seemed to really pay attention. When he told me all of this, it reminded me of the day when I wrote "Mommy Loves Madeleine" in crayon on a piece of paper. That day, when I read it to her, she really seemed to THINK about it hard; it made some kind of impact in her little mind.

Anyway, back to letters. She's got this little "alphaberry" thing that has all the letters, and if you press them, there's a little girl's voice saying the letter. In the car on Wednesday, she pressed the "O" and said, "O", and she did the same with "I". Then I asked her where the "O" was, and she pressed it. BRILLIANT!! You heard it here first!

~ New words of note: "go" and "ok." We were outside in the back yard one day, and I was holding Madeleine. Matt wanted me to put her down; "she wants to go," he said. I put her down, and she headed off across the yard saying, "baby go. Baby go." Over and over. "okay" she hears all the time but just started saying. It sounds like "oooh-keee" and is pretty cute. I'm sure that's surprising, right?

~ On Thursday, Madeleine picked up the word "pet," as in, "pet Layla." So of course, she had to pet mama, dada, baby, Lamby, and blankie too!

~ FINALLY, the way she says "no" is also quite precious. At bible study on Tuesday, one of the ladies heard it and commented on it, then asked me to make her say it again!

~ Also, Layla is the best dog. She is so good with Madeleine, so patient. She lets Madeleine pet her, hug her, kiss her, whatever. I'm looking forward to the days when Madeleine can really enjoy her.

SLIDESHOW

Week 90: September 30 – October 6

BEDTIME UPDATE:
STILL AMAZING! We are averaging 20 minutes. It feels kind of nice to discover that I was right in my gut when I thought it wasn't normal for her to take SO LONG to fall asleep. I heard other moms say to just get used to it, plan for it, not worry about it, etc., but I saw the effects it was having on her attitude/demeanor/temper, and didn't accept it. She is doing so much better! We've even been able to adjust bed times a bit, so that she's up a little later, since she's falling asleep well. We may even try 7pm next week! :)

SATURDAY
We've been having some awesome Saturdays lately. Matt read that Saturday, October 1, was supposed to be "a perfect fall day," so we planned a trip to Roswell Mill. We'd visited there the year before and really liked it. There's a big river, a covered bridge, mountain/hill to climb. Beautiful place. Last time, we climbed up and walked around. This time, we walked along the river in an attempt to reach the dam. There wasn't a clear trail, and we didn't make it all the way, but it was just fabulous. The pictures will probably help--whenever I get those up...

Probably my favorite thing was going out into the middle of the river on some rocks and sitting down with Madeleine. We watched the river go by, and Matt threw in big leaves and things for us to watch go by. It was beautiful, peaceful, fantastic. Baby really seemed to enjoy it as well. Plus, she got to walk on some rocks, a big sewer pipe (yay?), the regular trail, and the covered bridge. She also got her foot wet in the river, accidentally dunking it in the water, shoe, sock and all. So we took off both her shoes and socks, and she walked a little bit in some sand and on the bridge. Barefoot outside! So luxurious. :)

WORDS AND SUCH
Most of my notes from this week involve words, so I needed a whole section for it.

~ To start, baby learned "walk," which sounds an awful lot like "rock." She uses "rock" for when she wants to rock in a rocker and for rocks outside.

~ I put a lemon in her little toy colander, and she said, "lemon bowl." "Lemon" is quite new, bowl not so much. But she knew what was going on!

~ BIG: Madeleine understands more than one of something. She may see a book and say "book," then she'll see another book and say, "more book." She does this for all kinds of things. It's super cool.

~ She is saying longer sentences, 3-4 words. She's also saying a LOT more words that we don't know yet. She'll put together a string of words, and I just have to scratch my head and try to get her to repeat it. This rarely works. I hope she doesn't get too frustrated and that we figure out what she's saying quickly!

~ I'm almost certain that she said, "don't want to" this week!

~ A not-new word but one I don't think I've recorded yet: she says and knows "umbrella."

~ She has a word for a teddy bear. It's something like "eh-ee" I think? She uses this for my bear, a little bear on one of the pictures in her room (she usually kisses this bear before bed each night), and the teddy bears on the sides of U-haul boxes (they also get kisses).

~ Tied for my favorite for the week: Madeleine says "hold mama" when she wants me to pick her up or hold her. &hearts

~ Also tied for favorite: This one requires a little background. Some of the ladies at my church have a weekly Bible study, and we alternate homes. One of the other women is a mom with a little girl about 8 months younger than Madeleine named Emmeline. This week, it was at my house. Madeleine usually naps through the first 2/3 of the time they are here. She woke, and I went to get her. Usually after naps, she likes to play for up to 10 minutes in her crib before getting out. This time though, I wanted her up quickly so I could get back to my guests. I told her, "Let's get your sleep sack off. There's someone here to play with you." Madeleine looked at me, then looked very thoughtful. Then she laid down on her crib and said, "Emmy?" I about DIED. I grinned so big and said, "Yeah, that's right, Madeleine. Emmeline is here to play!"

It was the first time she's used a name for someone. "Layla" means Layla, but also most other dogs (although, she calls Lelu "Lelu," but she called another dog who looked like Lelu "Lelu" too, so.... anyway.....). No one else had a name before Emmeline. And Madeleine continued to call her "Emmy" all day. SO ADORABLE AND WHEN DID SHE GET SO BIG?????

NOTES FROM THE WEEK:
~ Madeleine wore some pants with pockets this week, and Matt showed her that she could put things in her pockets. SO CUTE. Especially when she took the cardboard flap out of her pocket to show me!

~ Baby has been hopping really well in her crib. One day, on the monitor, I saw her hopping. She holds on to the rail and bounces as best she can. She gets some air sometimes. Anyway, she'd hop, then stop, and say, "More. More." And then hop again. Remember, no one is in the room with her. She's telling herself "more" the same way she does whenever she wants Matt or I to keep doing something. So anyway, she hopped some more, then stopped to pick up Lamby for some more hopping, and then of course Blankie had to join the fun. All of this, all on her own

~ Leaning against things (walls, windows, doors, etc.) is making a comeback in baby's life. It was in vogue around 18 months, then she stopped doing it, but it's back. And this time, she wants mama and dada in on the action! We happily oblige her.

~ Maybe my fave this week? Madeleine has been doing "where is it" with her hands for a long time. Walk into a room, hands up, looking for something. Peek-a-boo is also really big right now. She'll hide something behind her blanket, put her hands up. We say "where is (fill-in-the-blank)?" And she finds it by removing the blanket. Well. One day this week, baby, Matt, me and Layla were standing in the hallway. Madeleine turned her back on Layla, put her hands up, and said, "Layla." Like, "where's Layla?" Then she turned around and went "ooohhhh" when she saw the dog. She then proceeded to do this with Matt and I, just turned her back to him or me and saying "mama?" or "dada?" Hilarious! She cracks us up, she's so funny.

SLIDESHOW

Week 89: September 23 – 29

BIGGEST WIN OF THE YEAR: figuring out how to help Madeleine fall asleep quicker at bedtime!!! Seriously! One little tweak in the bedtime routine, and voila! Magic. At least, it feels like it! So what was this cure-all, you ask? :D

Bath before dinner.

I don't know why, or how, though I suspect it's that bathtime, especially when daddy's around, gets her amped. Which makes it hard for her to settle down at night. And, really, the proof is in the pudding, as they say. We just Since switching dinner-then-bath to bath-then-dinner, the longest it's taken Madeleine to fall asleep is 41 minutes, but most nights are closer to 15-20. A huge improvement from an hour! We've only got 6 nights of data for this, so I'm still half expecting for our good luck streak to end, but it looks amazing so far. Will keep you posted--because I KNOW you'll be on the edge of your seat, waiting to hear! :)

BIG ADVENTURES
First up was a trip to Kennesaw Mountain. We played in the grass a little bit, then headed up a trail. It was a long, low trail, not the one I've been on a couple of times. It was great because it was pretty empty, so we could let Madeleine just walk ahead of us. Which she did, because she's so big. She enjoyed looking around, but her favorite thing was all the rocks. Finding a biggish one in the middle of the trail that she could sit on was especially fantastic.

Next, Madeleine and I spent a couple of days at Teda's house. Madeleine got to play with Liberty and Scarlet and Adelaide a whole bunch! It was ... crazy being in charge of 3 little girls! One of Teda's friends from church came and got Liberty at about 2, and Adelaide got home from school at 2:40. Teda took a nap at 2:30 and was pretty much out for the rest of the time I was there. Which is great, that's why I was there. And her girls were very good, Adelaide a big help. But. Going from one baby to three in an afternoon! Yikes! :)

Actually, maybe it just sounds worse than it was. All the girls were super-well behaved and awesome. So it was not much extra work at all!

NOTES FROM THE WEEK
~ Madeleine recently discovered our elliptical machine. What does she do with it, you ask? Well, she wants daddy to get on and make it go! On Saturday, she indicated that she wanted him to make it go. So he did it for a few minutes and stopped. Then she stood next to the ottoman, picking her feet up one at a time like on the elliptical machine. Seriously, so cute. But then she wanted daddy to do it again, so he did, for a longer time this time. She just stood there, leaning against the ottoman, watching him. When he finally DID stop, she cried! Talk about slave driver--wonder where she gets that? ;)

~ Matt reported that dinner one night was tickle-fest. I wasn't there (at Teda's). Madeleine tickled everything--Dada, baby, her plate (which she calls bowl), her cup, her food.... It is hilarious to see her tickle things that make no reaction, unlike her parents, who fake-laugh (Matt is much better at this than me!). Yet she still continues to tickle inanimate objects. WHO DOES THAT?

~ I've reported that Madeleine is working on colors. One day this week, I was hanging clothes, and she learned the word for hanger. It sounds like "ongh-uhr". She likes to play with extra hangers, so I let her. Then she handed me one and said, "blue hanger." And it was a blue hanger!!

~ Madeleine has also learned the word "bug". And she pretty much wants to kiss every bug she sees.

~ One of my favorite Madeleine words is her "word" for steps/stairs. She says "ew-ihh ew-ihh" for stairs. Go figure!

~ Last but not least: Madeleine learned to blow bubbles in her drink through her straw this week! LOL!

SLIDESHOW

Week 88: September 16 – 22

We had no big trips, events, etc. this week. Just working on sleep. After a week or so of great night sleep, we hit a bump in the road and have been working our way back to ~11 hours. [What happened was, she took two short naps in a row, so I thought she needed a later nap, but that messed up bedtime, which messed up night sleep, which messed up the morning, which messed up her nap, which .... yeah. It becomes this vicious cycle. So we are back to 11:30am nap, and after seeing other mamas' schedules, I think it's exactly right for her, for now. For some reason, if she falls asleep too late in the evening (7:30 or later), she has a bad night, leading to a bad day, and so on. So, I am glad that we're getting righted again.]

WORDS
Okay, I had most of these in the "notes" section, but there are so many that I decided to give them their own section.

~ So the baby knows the difference between the gold car and the blue car, and she calls them the "gold car" and "blue car."

~ Madeleine saw the broom on Saturday and wanted it. She calls it the "moom." Like so many other things in our lives, the broom got put through the rounds of hugs and kisses from everyone. Madeleine even tried getting Layla in on the action, but she typically wants nothing to do with kissing--unless it means licking the baby's face!

~ Lately, she's just been picking up words on the quick. Newly added include: boat and cow. "Boat" is the little grease-catching plastic thing from the Foreman grill. Looks like a long, skinny boat, and Matt gave it to her in the bath. She put her little Duplo cow on it.

~ Madeleine learned "clap" this week! She can say it, and of course do it, but she likes doing both together. :)

~ This is one of my favorites of late. [Though "moom" is pretty awesome] I was out one day when Madeleine woke from her nap. I walked in the door, and she was in her high chair. Matt said, "Mama's home," and Madeleine repeated him! She said "home!" Then she proceeded to say that dada, Layla, Lamby, and baby were all home too. She refers to herself as "baby."

~ Madeleine calls her blanket "mm". Don't know why. Matt once wrapped up in our Bills blanket, and she has called it "dada, mmm" ever since. *shrugs*

~ More new words: "bag," "box," and "little." Add "big," which she already knew, and she's saying "big box," "little box," "big bag," and "little bag." And a whole host of other combinations of words.

~ Madeleine has learned the word "cut" and knows that we often cut her food. And that we use a knife to cut with. :)

~ Have I mentioned that I love watching her learn new words? She gets particular delight out of some of them--whereas I am delighted almost-equally by all of them!

NOTES FROM THE WEEK

~ Saturday, we set the laptop up to watch the Gators play. We'd planned to do what we did last year, take turns watching Madeleine and watching the game (watch the Gators on O then D, then switch). Well, turned out that was pretty unnecessary. As soon as Madeleine saw what was on, she went over to the laptop and stood in front of it. Matt tried to point out the football, but it's just so small. He'd show her where it was, and Madeleine would point to it. She kissed it, she had us kiss it. She got quite excited over it for about 15 minutes. Then she said, "bye, football," and went to play in her room!

~ One day this week, Madeleine suddenly started playing on her own. In a different room from the one I'm in. Crazy! And she still doesn't really play with toys. She'd rather stack books, arrange shoes, push her stroller around.

~ She really likes it when we tell her the colors of things. For example, she plays with some markers (caps on, she doesn't know what they are--to her they're just colored sticks) and the box they go in. She enjoys picking them up, one at a time, and holding them out to me. I say the color, she moves on to the next. She also likes it when we do that to objects in her "Color Book", clothes we're wearing, and just about anything that comes in multiple colors.

~ All right, so I mentioned that Madeleine says "gold car." We were out running errands on Wednesday and when we were leaving a store, there was a gold SUV parked beside us. Madeleine saw it and said, "gold car." I told her that was right, and she repeated herself. Then she said, "bye, gold car," as we pulled away. 3

~ On Thursday, I had to go potty (it happens). I left the door open, as I always do, and Madeleine came in (as she always does). She saw me and left, then returned carrying her own potty. She set it down beside me and then sat on it! All by herself, no prompting, no nothing! Of course, she had all her clothes on. Haha. Anyway, when I was finished, she still wanted to sit there! LOL, I had to coax her up. Maybe I should have let her stay for as long as she'd sit.

~ A personal favorite: Madeleine laid on her belly in the bathtub this week for the first time. It's super adorable. She also kicks her legs and splashes. The first day she did it, she'd lay down, splash some, then stand on her knees and let out a barbaric baby yawlp. Just so pumped about what she was doing!

~ I love that Madeleine has obvious preferences. She can be happily playing with something, but if Matt or I say, "time for a snack" or "let's go outside," she will put down what she's playing with, stand up, say "bye, {toy}" and follow us out of the room.

~ Final note: It seems that we've hit a stride with Madeleine's eating. For some reason, she's eating very well these days, lots of variety. It pleases me. She's eaten chicken chili, taco meat and salsa on chips, and one other combination meal. So happy!

SLIDESHOW

Week 87: September 9 – 15

Madeleine turned 20 months this week. As Mimi pointed out, there are only 4 MORE MONTHS until she is TWO. I was not ready to hear that information!!!!!

FUN SATURDAY
We had a blast on Saturday. Our morning started at Mountain Biscuit, a local breakfast and lunch place that serves amazing biscuits. Then we were planning to go to Kennesaw Mountain for a little walk, but on our way there, we passed one of those children’s consignment sales, and I wanted to go. I told Matt to just drop me off and continue on, but he ended up taking Madeleine to the little playground on the same property.

I scored some sweet deals, then joined the family for some swinging and sliding action. Baby was super adorable. Other little babies really interest her, and she watches them with wide eyes. There was a little boy swinging next to her, and she just really seemed to enjoy it.

After that, we went on home for lunch (elevensies) and naptime. She took a LONG nap, then we got her up and ready to go watch one of the boys from church in a play, “Charlotte’s Web.” The first act was about 45 minutes, and Madeleine sat on her daddy’s lap, riveted. She barely moved, it was amazing. At the end of the first half, they invited the kids to go up and meet Wilbur, the pig. I took Madeleine, and she wasn’t too impressed until Wilbur made a pig noise at her. From that moment on, she was enamored. We let her down for the intermission, and she played with the other kids. Maybe that was a mistake, because when the play resumed, she couldn’t sit still the same. She kept pointing to the pig, making pig noises, wanting Matt and I to kiss the pig. She was really forceful, too! She’d grab my shirt and pull me forward to kiss Wilbur. I had to take her out maybe 10-15 minutes into the half. I think something was bothering her though, because nothing would please her. I wouldn’t let her just walk (not safe). I think her teeth were bothering her. I finally found a big room with only one door and lots of room to run. I let her down. She walked to the other side, pointed to some things painted on the walls, then came back to me, arms out, saying “mama.” Then she seemed okay: let me hold her, and we went back to sit with daddy. But the play was over then, so Madeleine just played with the other kids.

We left the play and went to pick up Lacey, who would be babysitting for a few hours that night while Matt and I went to dinner with Eddie and Melaine (coming through one more time!). Then home, dinner, bath, and bed. [And mama and dada had a GREAT night!]

TUESDAY ADVENTURE
Nothing too big, but this doesn’t belong in the “notes” section. We had some friends over for dinner, and they brought their baby, who is 8 months younger than Madeleine. Well, Madeleine LOVED playing with Emmeline. It was beyond adorable watching the two of them together. Everything went well through dinner, and afterwards, we set the babies down while we ate dessert.

At some point after we’d finished and were talking, there was a loud THUMP, followed by a cry. MY baby. I rushed to her to find her on the floor in front of the couch (we figured she must have fallen off). I picked her up calmly, told her she was okay, but she started howling. She let out one cry that was so long I started telling her to breathe. AND THEN HER LIPS TURNED BLUE. I think she may have even passed out for a second because her head tilted backward. Then she started breathing again and REALLY crying. I took her outside, walked around, but she was in some obvious pain. I looked for some sign of what happened, but couldn’t see anything. When she was calmer, we went back inside, and my friend noticed a bump on her forehead. So yup, she’d fallen off the couch.

It was quite sad when she was so upset and a little scary when her lips went blue. (Wow, just realized it was the week of blue…. Keep reading for more on that.) Madeleine was fine after that though. We gave her some ibuprofen because that had to hurt. Since then, she’s been just fine, hasn’t acted like her head bothered her at all. YAY! And poor little baby!

NOTES FROM THE WEEK

~ Okay, WHEN did she get to be so big? Madeleine climbed into her stroller this week and got herself seated right. You may need to reread that in order to let the words sink in. I know I do.

~ I looked at Madeleine’s eyes this week, and they are different! Again! They’ve always had kind of a little dark blue ring on the outside of the iris, but this week, the blue ring was much bigger. I’d thought her eyes were destined to be brown, but now I don’t know what they’re doing. They are bluer than they were last time I noticed! Huh!

~ Speaking of colors, Madeleine has been getting much better. Sometimes she’ll point to things we ask for, like the red ball, yellow ball, etc. One day, she looked at me and said, “Mama, blue shirt.” Of course it didn’t sound quite like that, but we got the gist. And she was SO proud of herself! I think I love that more than getting the shirt color right. LOL.

~ FOOD item #1: Madeleine ate broccoli this week! And she didn’t just nibble on one piece. She’s been putting pieces of broccoli in her mouth for a week or two now, but this time, she actually bit into the veggie. She chewed it. Swallowed it. REACHED FOR ANOTHER PIECE. And another! And kept going. I got her a second helping of broccoli. Not kidding! I was doing cartwheels in my head.

~ FOOD item #2: Another accomplishment to report. Madeleine ate some chili I made this week. She ate a lot, and she ate well. Everything—the meat, tomatoes, onion, kidney and pinto beans. And she ate it on chips, like a dip, the way I ate it. This is kind of big because it’s a combination food [and she can’t tell exactly what’s in it], and she’s now eaten three combo foods really well (spaghetti sauce, taco meat, and chili).

~ One morning, Matt went to get Madeleine, only to discover that she’d completely removed her sleep sack! She was walking around her crib, pleased as punch. The next morning, she got the sack half-way off with her legs out. She seems to have abandoned the effort though; no escape attempts since! I’m torn: on one hand, I want to wean her from the sack, but on the other, it’s getting colder, and she still fits in her winter sack, which is super warm and cozy. However, it looks like we don’t have to worry about it just yet.

~ Baby now knows where her elbow is (and how to say it), plus her forehead (she can't say that yet).

~ My personal favorite from the week: Lamby has started “participating” in a lot of things we do with Madeleine. For example, she now hops and spins. Madeleine goes in order: dada, mama, baby, Lamby. I think it’s a little bit of imagination emerging? Whatever it is, I love it!

SLIDESHOW

Week 86: September 2 – 8

BIG FUN
Mimi and Poppi came for a visit! Poppi hadn’t seen Madeleine since her birthday in January. I’d say it was about time! They arrived in the wee hours of Saturday morning, so they were there when we woke up. We’d planned for a low-key day, since we’d just returned from Memphis and they’d been so late getting in.

We didn’t go out anywhere (except a food run by the guys), stayed at home and got “acquainted.” It was a lot of fun, and Madeleine warmed to Poppi in no time. She calls him “bah-bah.”

Sunday was fun too, we went to church and then just hung out at home again. Mimi and Poppi wanted as much time with Madeleine as possible, so Matt and I left them alone here and there in the house and did other things.

Monday we went to Chick-fil-A for lunch and did a lot more just hanging out at home. My cousin Josh came over while his mom and sister went shopping. Madeleine was asleep when he got there, and Matt got her up when she woke. He changed her, got her dressed, and they walked into the rumpus room together. Madeleine led the way, with mama’s purse on her arm, with a cute little pleased-with-herself, aren’t-I-so-big-? look on her face. As soon as she saw Josh, her smile faded. I went over to her, and she just melted against me. (Which I did not and will never mind!)

She eventually took to him and wanted to interact with him. She went through her ritual acceptance greeting of bestowing (temporarily, of course) Lamby and blankie on Josh, allowing him to kiss each one, and then receiving them back. Then he was “in.” Baby got to see Aunt Susan and cousin Kelly, too, before bedtime.

Tuesday, Mimi and Poppi had to leave. So they spent the whole morning with Madeleine, including a family trip to Chick-fil-A for their breakfast entrée giveaway. That was nice and yummy. Then the grandparents finished packing and loading, and they said goodbye to sweet Madeleine. Oh, and us.

CRAZY
One night for dinner, we had taco meat with salsa and chips. Matt made burritos, I ate nacho-style. Madeleine was eating some small pieces of chip with a little meat and/or salsa on them. She was doing GREAT until suddenly, she looked at me in alarm. Her face got red (not blue, thankfully!), and she pulled at her ears and cried. This happened 2 or 3 times, whenever she swallowed. I picked her up and thought she was okay, but then she did it again. She ended up expelling whatever had caused the problem, but she was quite upset about it!

Once she was calmer, she gave me a kiss and then gave Matt and kiss. Then she was all better. *MELT*

NOTES FROM THE WEEK

~ Madeleine knows some colors! I can ask her to point to the yellow ball, and she does it!

~ She knows and can say the word “gate,” like the one we have in our house at the top of the short stair-set.

~ Madeleine can see out the living room (and other, I suppose) windows by standing on her tip-toes!

~ She also practiced walking on her heels briefly.

~ While writing this week’s post, and wishing I had more to say, I was reminded of the verse in John that says, “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.” I’m not saying Madeleine’s doing THAT many new and cool things, but the general idea is right on. :)

SLIDESHOW

Week 85: August 26 - September 1

Still continuing with the easier format. It’s just not possible to record all the words she’s saying and understanding. But it is AMAZING to watch. If she would let me, I’d just sit and watch her all day long.

BIG TRIP
Our big fun for this week was a trip to Collierville, TN, to see Eddie and Melaine again, who were staying with her parents. The car trip was not too fun. Madeleine slept only 30 minutes AND we lost an hour with the time change. When she finally went to bed, it was like 7:30 our time. She fell asleep almost immediately, but she woke up pretty early (had a short night). So that stunk.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! Our evening was super fun. We got there about 4pm/3pm Central, hung out, held the baby (Nathan Legg), started a game of Settlers: Cities and Knights, ate some yummy food. Madeleine ate really well, and was in general a super well- behaved little girl—especially considering how tired she must have been!

Thursday, we went to the Memphis Zoo. It was Madeleine’s first zoo, and really her first BIG day out. I think she’s just a little too young to really enjoy the zoo, or the aquarium, or anything like that. But, I’m thrilled that we went, and she had a great time. We saw lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), and Madeleine granted through-the-glass kisses to the black leopard and a black bear. She went without a nap, but slept about 20 minutes in the car on the way home. She was SO tired. The rest of the day and evening was spent watching the opening college football games and playing “Heroes of Might and Magic V” on the computer, in teams. Dinner was great, company was great. LOVE them so much.

Baby went to sleep late again and woke even earlier, about 5:40/4:40 Central. Man, that stunk. I got her up, expecting to be up with her since Matt had gotten up with her the day before. But when I went to interact with her, I knew she wasn’t quite ready to be up. I rocked her a bit, and she just laid her head on me and snuggled in. So we did that a little bit, but she couldn’t get comfortable. Finally, we got in bed. Here again, she had trouble getting comfortable, but eventually, she fell asleep. It was about 1 hour, 20 minutes before she fell asleep, right beside me, my arm around her. She hasn’t done that since she was TINY, and I LOVED it. She slept for 30 minutes.

Friday, we returned to Atlanta, and even though it was technically week 86, I’ll write about it here to wrap up the Memphis trip. Basically, it was awful. Madeleine was tired, she slept only 30 minutes (again). But it was so sad. She woke up after 30 minutes, crying these pitiful little tears because she was SO TIRED from her poor sleep while we were away. She kind of nodded off and on for another 30 minutes, making those pitiful cries whenever she was awake. After that, she was just really quiet for awhile, then was her normal self. When we got home, Matt dropped Madeleine and I off because he had to go get Layla. Madeleine was asleep in about 10 minutes. YAY!

One thing Madeleine definitely got from our trip: she learned the word “no!” It’s really quite cute the way she says it. So far, she hasn’t said it like, “No, I won’t obey,” but she can tell us if she wants something or not. Though, before learning no, she would shake her head, so I guess no great increase in communication came from learning this word. So far, it’s just adorable when she says it.

NOTES FROM WEEK 85

~ Madeleine is definitely doing some teething. Her bottom two I-teeth popped through, but she isn’t done. I guess she’s getting her top I-teeth now. It really seems to bother her sometimes.

~ Last week, Madeleine was kissing her boo-boos. This week, she’s getting everyone in on the action, including Lamby!

~ Something she’s been doing for MONTHS but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it: Madeleine will take my glasses off my face and hand them to Matt. He’ll put them on and then “mimic” me, and Madeleine just thinks it’s good fun.

~ While taking a walk one day, we saw the weimaraner that lives a few houses down. Madeleine saw it and said, “Lelu.”

~ She is starting to really ride her little bike well. She’s getting the hang of it a bit, not too good with steering still, gets stuck in places, but then she just picks it up and moves it to where she wants to go.

~ One day, after her nap, I took Madeleine into our room to take off her sleep sack. She then crawled up to my pillow and sat on it, then told me to sit on Matt’s pillow. We just sat there for a few minutes. She was super happy about it!

~ I gave Madeleine some plum one day, and she ate it all, then told me she wanted “more.” With the word. She also did the sign for it, but she said it! Very cool.

~ We are using cloth diapers again! Turns out I just couldn’t let go. LOL.

SLIDESHOW

Week 84: August 19 - 25

Okay, guys, this is seriously getting hard. The new and fun and cool things she does now numbers in the billions per day, and I’m just not doing a good job of writing them down. Just a warning that future weeks will probably be light. I may go to every other week and just hit the highlights. Although, in my mind, EVERYTHING is a highlight!

VISITS

~ Not really related to Madeleine specifically, but important to the upcoming few weeks, our friends who live in Australia are in the States. They made a stop in Atlanta this week.

~ On Tuesday, Madeleine and I took a pack-n-play to the Rays for Eddie and Melaine to use with little Nathan. We spent maybe an hour with Chuck and Molly, and it was a really great time. Molly even got two hugs from Madeleine, and they both really enjoyed playing with her. Of course, Madeleine had a blast with them as well!

~ One cool thing Madeleine did with Mr. Chuck: they sat on the bottom stair and looked at Madeleine’s Word Book. He would say things like “where’s the ball?” and she would point to it! She’d never done that before. Usually, she points to things and says, “dadt” which means, “what’s that?” Or, we just sit and point to things and name them. So this was a big step!

~ Speaking of stairs! This little girl LOVES going up and down. And up and down. She’s got a word for stairs, but it’s like “ibbit.” No idea why!

~ Tuesday night, I went back to the Rays’ after Madeleine was in bed. We were sitting at the table, eating dinner, and Liz came in with pictures of Madeleine to pass around. It felt really neat to have someone else brag on her as though she was hers. Of course, the Rays are family, so ….

~ Wednesday, we spent the whole day at the Rays’ visiting with Eddie and Melaine. And other people who also came to see them. Madeleine got to play with some little kids, climb stairs, eat yummy food, and generally be delightful. Baby played with Tilly and the cool dollhouse at the Rays’, and of course Chuck and Molly enjoyed her again. While Madeleine took an awesome nap, Melaine and I ran a few errands. Baby woke up while I was away, so Mr. Chuck got her, and she did great! Didn’t cry or seem concerned at all. I was thrilled! After Madeleine’s nap, we all went to the Andrews’ house so Ed and Melaine could clean out their stuff there. Madeleine rode in a crazy car for the first time and really enjoyed herself!

~ Through all the crazy, Madeleine still slept pretty well. Yay!


FIRST BOO-BOO
~ Madeleine got her first boo-boo this week! Sunday, she was running(ish) and she fell and scraped BOTH of her knees. It was quite sad and pitiful. We put triple antibiotic ointment on them, plus band-aids. As long as she couldn’t SEE the band-aids, she was fine. But as soon as she put eyes on them, she’d start to cry and want mama or dada. The boo-boo itself didn’t elicit this reaction, just the band-aids!

~ And THEN, she started kissing her boo-boos. Talk about hilarious! When lying down at the changing table, she’d put her hands under her knee, pull her leg up, and kiss her knee. She’d say, “iihh, boo-boo” which of course is “kiss boo-boo.”

~ Still related to the scraped knees, one evening while on the changing pad, Madeleine saw her band-aids. We don’t know what really happened, but she was pretty upset. We hurried with our business and did our best to ease her fears. Well, she basically told both Matt and I she loved us. It was very clear, even though her words weren’t right. She said it to me first, a few times, because I didn’t understand her. When I finally got it and said “I love you, Madeleine,” she stopped saying it to me and then said it to Matt. He responded accordingly, and she was satisfied. TALK ABOUT MAKING A MAMA HAPPY!!!


LITTLE NOTES FROM THE WEEK:

~ There’s a little poem in a recent issue of Babybug about colors. Red ball, orange flippers, yellow swimsuit, green sunglasses, purple hat, and blue water. Then it says, “There’s a rainbow in my swimming pool!” This week, I drew a rainbow while Madeleine and I were coloring, and she said, “pool.”

~ She does this HILARIOUS thing when she’s trying to sit down. She will get on all fours, her feet and hands (not knees), and back up to the stair/cushion/whatever, and then lower her bum onto the surface. HILARIOUS. She also does this when she wants to kiss something on the floor.

~ One night at dinner, Matt and I were talking. I said something to him, and he said, “Yeah, I know, I know.” Madeleine immediately mimicked him—only of course it was so much cuter. We should try to get that on video and post it….

~ Madeleine is really good at stringing together little sentences, like “mama/dada, gug/iihh/oww/eet,” (hug, kiss, drink, sit)


LAST BUT NOT LEAST…
Madeleine weaned this week. She nursed for the last time on Thursday, August 18, but I didn’t know it was the last time until Friday morning. Matt got her up a little early, so I got to snooze a bit. When they came to get me, I asked Matt if she asked to nurse, and he said no. I knew that was that. I knew it was coming, and I wasn’t too sad. I absolutely LOVED my time nursing with her and am so glad I stuck with it. It ended at just the right time—when she was ready.

SLIDESHOW

Week 83: August 12 - 18

Papa Pete and SuSu came for a visit this weekend! We had a blast, starting Friday afternoon. There was a pool at their hotel, so we went swimming! It was awesome.

Oh, and something hilarious that happened before! I was getting all of Madeleine’s things together. When she saw a swim diaper sitting out, she grabbed it and handed it to us, saying “pool” or “bole” as it sounds. We told her we’d be going to the pool, and she walked out of her room, straight to the gate, saying “pool” over and over. When we didn’t immediately walk out the door, she got upset. It was so funny but also sad. Hard to not laugh, but you couldn’t just laugh at her distress. LOL. So we distracted her, but she kept asking for the pool. A total turn around from previous pool trips!

Anyway, we went to the pool and had a blast. Madeleine had her blue spiky ball and she was throwing it back and forth with us. Having fun. Then at some point, Matt got the other one, the yellow one. From that point on, she didn’t let go of those balls. She held onto them for dear life. Her entire demeanor changed! It was so interesting to see. After a long while, she started sharing them a little, but if she had one ball, she wanted the other one too.

There was a little kiddie pool, so after we were done with the big pool, we went in there. It was about 1 foot deep. It was warm and nice to just sit in the water. Madeleine walked around a little bit in there on her own, but twice, she kind of fell. Well, she lost her balance, and she bent over to catch herself, but she ended up with her face in the water! The second time I was a bit too far from her, couldn’t catch her as quickly as I’d wished. I didn’t make that mistake again! She was completely fine, didn’t even make a fussy face. Just wanted to keep going.

That was really it for Madeleine’s day. We left the pool, and she went home for dinner and bed. Saturday we went to the Farmer’s Market in Marietta, then had dinner at the Starlight Café (yes, that’s where we went when Russ was in town! YUM!). Then Matt put her down for her nap while I went to a baby shower.

We’d planned to do something in the afternoon, but we just ended up hanging at the house. It was great. I love seeing Madeleine interact with her family, develop relationships with them.

She said “Papa Pete”! It was more like “Pa Peet” but close! Still no SuSu, but she doesn’t say ANY “s” sounds at this point. Maybe next time! She definitely knows who SuSu is because when I told her SuSu was coming for a visit, she looked right to the picture of SuSu that’s on our fridge.

Sunday, Matt’s parents went to church with us, then left for their long drive home. The visit was awesome!

THE NEXT BIG FUN
We went to visit the Rays on Wednesday to say goodbye to Chase and Molly, who were headed off for college soon. We had a BLAST. Madeleine LOVES the Rays, and Chase even got a couple of hugs! There was a new word moment, though it hasn’t really stuck. We had one of Madeleine’s books with us, “Blue Hat, Green Hat,” and while reading it to Molly, Madeleine said “oops!” a word used a lot in the book. It was so cute, and she was so proud of herself. LOVE HER!

There was another word moment, but I think this one will stick. She said “Lelu,” which is the name of the Rays’ dog. She said it a lot, and she really enjoyed Lelu.

WORDS & SIGNS & SOUNDS
Madeleine is just saying so much. The neatest thing is that she’s started really imitating what we say. A lot of words don’t really stick, so I don’t write them down (or I just forget!). But it’s really neat. One such word that was noteworthy was “Lola!” We’ve got a big picture of her on the fridge, which Madeleine saw, and we told her it was her cousin Lola. And she repeated the name!

Signs she still does regularly: down, light, bird, milk, up, sing, book, more (which now also means "open"), eat, car

NEW SIGN: sleep! I was reading a book, and she saw a kitty laying down with its eyes closed. So Madeleine put her hand to her ear and leaned her head over, like we do for the sleep sign. She’s just so fabulous, you know?

Words she says right and knows: book, mama, dada, nana (for banana, close enough!), BALL, apple, eat, ear, eye, door, bowl, baby, hi, bye, crawl, bike, me
Words she says wrong and knows: ow (for cup), mimi (for lamby), buh-buh (for football and pillow), caw-caw (for soccer ball), aiy-yah (all gone/done), five (of the high variety), gug (hug), ihh (kiss), eee (for sit), ick (for kick)
Words she says right but doesn't know: hot, dive

NEW WORDS: keys, big truck (sounds like bi-buh, like so many of her words! So many B words!)

Sounds she makes: “baa” for her lamby and all sheep, pig sound, dog panting, cat (kinda), vacuum, heavy (grunt)

LITTLE BIG THINGS
This one is BIG: Madeleine learned the word “hot” a week or so ago, but this week, she connected the word with its meaning. When she sees steam rising from a pot, or we get in the car, etc., she’ll say, “hot!”

LAST but not least for this week, remember when I mentioned the ladybug in our house? Well, unfortunately, we’ve also got ants. LOL. They crawl in a path from the kitchen to the rumpus room, going up the doorway. Madeleine can see them walking from her high chair. She LOVES the ants. She wants to kiss or hug them, but since she can’t (sitting in her chair), she wants mama to do it. LOL. So I pretend to kiss them and even hug them when that’s what she wants. HA. “mama, gug” “mama, iihh” (that’s kiss).


SLIDESHOW

Week 82: August 5 - 11

Another BIG week. Where I once again didn't write down a fraction of what she's up to. Sad. But, pieces are better than nothing, right? Hopefully I've captured the important things. So, here we go.

BIG TIMES
Matt and I went to Teda’s this Sunday to help her out. We ended up taking the older two girls to church while Teda stayed home with the baby to rest. It was quite interesting. We went from ONE little girl to THREE! They were all awesome.

After church, we went back to Teda’s, and Madeleine got to play with Liberty, Scarlet and Adelaide. She had a BLAST. The bigger girls were so sweet with her. Scarlet, who is 2.5 months younger than Madeleine, was a source of great interest and delight for Madeleine. Scarlet was the “baby.” So Madeleine handed her things and shared with her. Those girls can get loud, which was new for Madeleine. But she handled it very well!

NURSING…
As of this week, we are down to one nursing per day, first thing after she wakes up. I think she’ll wean soon. I’m okay with it so far.

WORDS & SIGNS & SOUNDS
Signs she still does regularly: down, light, bird, milk, up, sing, book, more (which now also means "open"), eat

NEW SIGN: car! She learned it lickity-split, and now makes the sign every time she sees a car drive by. She then waves to it and says “bye.”

Words she says right and knows: book, mama, dada, nana (for banana, close enough!), BALL, apple, eat, ear, eye, door, bowl, baby, hi, bye
Words she says wrong and knows: ow (for cup), mimi (for lamby), buh-buh (for football and pillow), caw-caw (for soccer ball), aiy-yah (all gone/done), five (of the high variety), gug (hug), ihh (kiss), eee (for sit), ick (for kick)
Words she says right but doesn't know: hot, dive

NEW WORDS: crawl, bike, and ME! She’ll point to something and say “me” to let us know she wants that thing. It’s actually quite helpful at times!

Sounds she makes: “baa” for her lamby and all sheep, pig sound, dog panting, cat (kinda), vacuum, heavy (grunt)

BABY PLAY ROOM
We’ve decided to turn the office room into a play area for Madeleine. Our plans for the room include a table and chair, a reading chair, and storage for her books. This week, we got all of the items. They aren’t all up yet, but we have them! Can’t wait to put it all together.

We are also planning on building a little play kitchen for her (by we, I mean Matt). It’s a slow process. We’ve drawn it out, we went to home depot to price some supplies. Now we just need to transfer the hand drawings to a computer program (MATT). Then he’ll be able to build it!

BIG BABY WOW
Little one has learned to tickle us! It is so stinkin’ cute. What’s even funnier is when she tries to tickle herself! She’ll say “mama” and tickle me, “dada” and tickle Matt, then “baby” and tickle her neck.

We got Madeleine a little riding toy, a Radio Flyer little trike thing. Madeleine likes it, she’s learning, but still doesn’t have the idea totally down. But no worries, she’ll get it!

LITTLE THINGS
I had a band-aid on my finger, and when Madeleine saw it, she said, “boo-boo” and kissed it! It had been awhile since she’d seen anyone wearing a band-aid, but she remembered!

Baby learned to talk on her tip-toes this week! And she’s getting a lot of practice at it.

Madeleine crawled partly under a chair this week. This is quite new. Not sure why, but she’s never ventured under things before.

Stickers are one of Madeleine’s favorite play things right now. Especially if they are round-shaped or (wait for it) balls. She sticks them on paper, furniture, and people. And probably Layla, if she could get close enough!

I’ve mentioned before that Madeleine loves pretty things. Necklaces, dresses, hats, scarves, shoes. This week, she pulled her too-big shoes bin out of the closet. Instead of just playing with them like before, she wanted to try some on! So Matt and I (at different times) put the shoes on her that she selected. She picked the pair with the most bling, a little silverish/pewterish shoes with a big fake gem-thing. Completely adorable!

Matt’s been letting Madeleine help him feed Layla lately. Super fun all by itself. To recap, since I didn’t know this was going on, Matt would put a little food in Layla’s cup, and Madeleine would dump it in her bowl. He typically let her dump 3-4 little cups. ANYWAY, so we were in the rumpus room one day, and Madeleine found some stray pieces of dog food on the floor from the messy dog. Baby picked them all up and put them in Layla’s bowl. She tried to get Layla to come eat, but she wouldn’t, so Madeleine picked up the bowl and walked it over to her, put it down in front of her, and told her to eat. She then sat and waited while Layla ate every last little piece. If one fell out, Madeleine retrieved it for her and returned it to her bowl. It was a riot.

Baby has been doing a GREAT job eating with a spoon!

Unfortunately, this house is not bug-free. This week, we had a ladybug on the ceiling. Madeleine had seen a few in books, but we made the connection for her by showing her the book, then the ladybug. From that point on, she wanted to see the bug whenever we were in the kitchen for the day or so that the bug was there. But it was super neat to see her form that connection between the book and the real thing. It makes me want to take her out and see all kinds of cool things—like the zoo! :)

SLIDESHOW

Week 81: July 29 - August 4

Okay. This was a big week. They all seem big these days, but this was BIG. Short post because it’s been so long and I just don’t remember many details. LAME. I need to be more on top of this!

18-MONTH APPOINTMENT
Madeleine passed with flying colors. She weighed 20 pounds, 9.4 ounces to keep her in the 4th percentile for weight. Her length was 31.5 inches, a whopping 2.5 inches of growth in 3 months! Woo-hoo!

HAPPENINGS
Baby girl had a rough day Sunday. She got a late nap because of church, it was short, and then she had a hard time going to sleep that night. She was in sad shape the whole second half of the day.

We went to the pool this week, Madeleine’s fourth trip. This time, there were no tears at all! She kinda fussed when I went to put on her swim diaper, but that was it. She had a BLAST with mommy and daddy and Lesli, Caleb and Lacey.

WORDS & SIGNS
Seriously, she makes so many sounds! It sounds like phrases, sentences, but mostly just jibberish. Still adorable, though!

WORD LIST (copied from last week):
Words she says right and knows: book, mama, dada, nana (close enough!), BALL, apple, eat, ear, eye, door, bowl (NEW!), baby, hi, bye
Words she says wrong and knows: ow (for cup), mimi (for lamby), buh-buh (for football and pillow), caw-caw (for soccer ball--NEW!), aiy-yah (all gone/done), five (of the high variety), gug (hug), ihh (kiss), eee (for sit), ick (for kick)
Words she says right but doesn't know: hot, dive

Sounds she makes: “baa” for her lamby and all sheep, pig sound, dog panting, cat (kinda), vacuum!!

NEW THIS WEEK: In the book “What’s Up, Duck?” which is a book of opposites, there is a “heavy” and a “light” page. Ever since I started reading it, many months ago, I’d always make a strained sound when reading “heavy,” as though I was lifting something heavy. Well, Matt was reading with her one day, and she started making a strained sound when he read “heavy!” Now, whenever one of us picks up something big or heavy, she’ll make the heavy sound. **LOVES**

LITTLE BIG THINGS
Madeleine likes to screw the cap on the soy milk cartons.

Matt and I have very distinct preferences in the glasses we use to drink from. Baby girl knows these preferences, and this week, she pointed to one of my glasses in the dishwasher and said “mama oww” for “mama’s drink.”

Baby wore my pink sweater again and was too cute!

I love looking in the rear view mirror and seeing Madeleine “reading” a book in her carseat. Now she’ll sit there and look at the pages and turn then as though really reading.

Madeleine has learned how to open and close the straw on her cups! This is major big baby girl stuff.

She’s also figured out how to fasten some buckles, like the ones on restaurant high chairs. And she loves buckles!

There’s an A/C vent on the floor right beside the threshold between the kitchen and dining room. Madeleine discovered this week that when the air is blowing, her blankie will float over the vent. She hugged it, kissed it, made mama kiss it………

We’ve got a book called “Ten Tiny Babies” (from Mimi), and one of the pages talks about babies wriggling their toes. One time while reading it this week, Madeleine (who had no shoes or socks on), put a hand on a table to steady herself, then lifted up a foot and wriggled her toes! SO CUTE!

And speaking of babies and feet, one day this week I wore socks and I made them “say hi” to her. Well, ever since then, she’ll say “hi” to our feet, and she’ll even kiss and hug them! I am sure my descriptions fall short of describing how adorable she is. But I must try!

When signing “This little light of mine,” this week, Madeleine made a little light out of her own finger. :D

Finally, last but not least, Madeleine has started pulling Matt and I from one room to another by grabbing our pants and pulling. But she always does this little laugh, this little, “haha, gotcha, look what I’m doing!” laugh, when she approaches us to grab us.

SLIDESHOW

One important note: it is getting really hard to get good pictures of Madeleine! She is just constantly in motion, so many of my attempts turn out blurry. I've had to start using the flash some (boo). Anyway, enjoy!

Week 80: July 22 - 28

Okay, seriously, there seems to be like a billion neat things every day and I can only write down two. Per day. Meh. I wish we could just record her all the time, but then, when and why would we watch that?? :)

FUN STUFF
Madeleine got to spend some time with her Uncle Russ on Saturday! She took to him right away, and she let him hold her as much as he wanted. Yay for that! Russ joined us in time for lunch, and we went to the Starlight Cafe at Marietta Square. FABULOUS food. Madeleine ate some fruit and her pancake very well. She also enjoyed seeing Uncle Russ' sunglasses on everyone but wouldn't let us put them on her. Then just about everyone got naps, and we got a little more time with Russ. By the time he left, Madeleine was saying, "bye bye, Uncle Russ." Of course, it didn't sound quite like that, but most of the syllables were there, and some of the general sounds!

Then on Sunday, we had a FABULOUS day. Church was great, and Madeleine napped for over two hours! It was such a blessing because we had tickets to see one of the kids in a play. Claire, sister to the little boys who love Madeleine, was in a local production of Cinderella. We had NO idea how Madeleine would do, but we wanted to be supportive and we'd already said yes and the tickets had been purchased. So we went.

AND BABY DID GREAT!! She actually paid attention when there was action on the stage. I'd say about 75% of the time, she was watching the actors (who were all FABULOUS). And I'm sure she enjoyed the songs, since she loves singing so much. We were just beyond thrilled with our day and with her.

WORDS (& SIGNS) & SOUNDS
I feel like we may be done with signs. She still uses them, but she is learning words so well that there isn't much need to teach her signs. She still ALWAYS does the sign for book at the same time she says book, but she hasn't done shoe in a long time.

Signs she still does regularly: down, light, bird, milk, up, sing, book, more (which now also means "open"), eat

I tried to find the last word list I posted, but I went all the way back to week 64 with no luck. Crazy! So here is a shiny new word list.

Words she says right and knows: book, mama, dada, nana (close enough!), BALL, apple, eat, ear, eye, door, bowl (NEW!), baby, hi, bye
Words she says wrong and knows: ow (for cup), mimi (for lamby), buh-buh (for football and pillow), caw-caw (for soccer ball--NEW!), aiy-yah (all gone/done), five (of the high variety), gug (hug), ihh (kiss), eee (for sit), ick (for kick)
Words she says right but doesn't know: hot, dive
Sounds she makes: pig sound, dog panting, cat (kinda), vacuum!! (NEW THIS WEEK! AND SO CUTE!)

She's started really stringing words together. Mostly they are things like, "mama ow" for mama's drink and "baby ow" for her drink. But she does ear and eye and all kinds of other objects too!

Madeleine also says "hi" to strangers. Is that good or bad??

MY FAVORITE of the week: She's played the game of holding something out and then retracting it quickly when you go to take it. But this week, she added this little "gotcha!" sound. It's like "ho-ooo-oo-o" where she sucks her breath in instead of exhaling. IT IS RIDICULOUSLY ADORABLE AND FUNNY and she makes us laugh just about every time. And the thing is, she'll really get us! We will expect her to give us what she's proffering, but then she won't! And the next time, she really will give it, so we never know what to expect. **LOVES**

DIAPER DOWNER
Tuesday night, Matt took Madeleine to a park to hang out for a bit while I made dinner. He said that she was scooching on a rock when she suddenly started crying. It was bizarre crying in that she didn't stop, so they came right home. When I took her, still crying, he asked if she had a dirty diaper. I checked, and she did. We figured that's why she'd cried, so we went to change her. Turns out that for some reason, that particular poop gave her a HORRIBLE rash. She was super red and when I cleaned her (because, you know, I had to), she was just howling in pain. I was crying because I had no choice but to try and get her clean. We spent like the next hour with an inconsolable baby, trying to ease her discomfort. We bathed her, let her air dry, then finally put some cream on her. I held her and just sang and rocked her for a long while, and she finally stopped crying.

We got her all ready for bed and then braced ourselves for a rough night. Madeleine cried out about 30 minutes after falling asleep, but for less than a minute. Then she cried out again 30 minutes later, then 45, 45 again, and then finally not again. She ended up sleeping until her usual wake up time, which was a blessing, and the redness was mostly gone except in the area that had been reddest. By the end of the day, it was mostly clear. So thankfully, nothing too horrible, though it was AWFUL the initial night. POOR LITTLE BABY!!!

LITTLE THINGS
Early in the week, Madeleine gave Matt and hug and said "gug gug!" :)

In imitation of her parents, baby swatted at a flying bug this week.

Madeleine wants to JUMP SO BAD. But she can't. So she'll squat and stand repeatedly a few times. And once, when reading "Guess How Much I Love You," when little nut brown hare hops up and down, she did the sign for it on the table, quite emphatically, as though to tell us that she really wanted to hop too!!

Last week (79) I mentioned the "wise man/foolish man" song. This week she perfected her "splat!" Another song that she likes it "This Little Light." When singing it at bedtime one night, she took my hand to make the "bush" under which we should never hide the light. She did it for all three repetitions. :D

Sadly, Madeleine says "eat" and makes the eat sign in the Chick-fil-A parking lot...............

And she tries to buckle herself into the high chair now!

THIS IS SO FUNNY. I've been wearing socks this week, and one day, Madeleine noticed them. She called them shoes, I told her they were socks, and she was curious. So I made my foot say "hi". She loved it. She started hugging my foot and even kissing it! It's so stinking adorable.

On Thursday, she learned "back" as in "front // back" from "What's Up, Duck?" one of her all-time favorite books. She went back and forth patting my back, Matt's back, her back, my back.... etc.

FINALLY! She really likes looking under things for things. Like balls that roll under couches. Mostly balls that roll, really. :)

SLIDESHOW

Week 79: July 15 - 21

LOTS to say this week! Man, I really thought these posts would get LESS interesting, since she’s achieved all the “major” milestones (roll over, crawl, walk, talk, etc.) but the little things are infinitely more fascinating and precious to me!

GENERAL DISCLAIMER
I have been much better lately about taking notes of the things Madeleine does so that I can put them in this blog. But this week, she was just too much. She’s changing so much, learning, growing, becoming her own little person. It is impossible to remember to write down everything she does. This makes me sad because I don’t want to forget anything.

Watching this little baby turn into a little girl is the most incredible, awe-inspiring thing I’ve ever witnessed. It is such a blessing, and she is such a joy. I so wish that I could record every little detail, no matter how seemingly insignificant. But I can’t. And it hurts to know that I’ve already forgotten some little new thing she did last week.

I know that I’m recording a lot of memories, and I am happy about it. I just want the whole collection, the exhaustive record. She’s just so incredibly amazing and precious and I love every second with her.

Well, okay, maybe not every second. But even the hard ones can be special and make memories.

Basically, Madeleine is a super SWEETIE. I just marvel at her little self and how much I enjoy her. As Matt said many months ago, she is truly a delight, in every sense of the word.

PRETTY THINGS
I’m not sure if or when I’ve recorded it on the blog—surely I have!—but I will mention it again here: Madeleine loves pretties. She loves to walk around with the big purple hollow cylinder on her arm like a bracelet. She loves to hold my necklaces up to her neck and hold them there by pinching them between her chin and her chest.

She has a strong interest in all things shoes—hers, mine, Matt’s, anyone’s. She enjoys shopping.

Sunday, I put on a new-to-her dress. When she stood up and saw herself in it, she smiled and kind of turned to look at herself.

And remember that skirt she picked out last week? Yeah. This week, I put it on her, along with the shirt that I got to go with it. She noticed the skirt right away. When she stood up, she looked at herself in the mirror in her whole outfit, and she smiled this little, “I look pretty” smile. Like she was admiring herself in the mirror. I about melted. It was just this little … I can’t describe it … humble, shy, but really happy little look on her face. Priceless.

WORDS & SIGNS
Madeleine continues to sign for us to sing to her. ALL THE TIME.

There’s a song about a wise man and a foolish man building houses. It has hand motions. Usually at bedtime, she will ask for this song by putting her little fists together, one on top of the other. Her tiny little baby fists. Ugh, it’s more than I can handle sometimes!

She can also now say “kick,” as in “kick the football.” Not even joking, she said, “kick football” when she and Matt were playing one day. She also enjoys kicking soccer balls, juggling balls, and squirty bath balls. She is no respecter of balls.

One of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE developments is Madeleine learning and using the word “hug.” Now, she says, “gug,” but when she wraps her little arms around me and rests her head on me, I know what she means. And I never, ever want her to stop. Fortunately for us, she loves giving hugs right now, and will often come up to me and hug my legs while I’m doing something.

Her vocabulary is definitely on the verge of expanding. She seems to be saying a lot more lately; at least, TRYING to say a lot. It’s only a matter of time before words start coming out! Can’t wait!

Now if only we can figure out why “ow” means cup!

SLEEP
Sleep continues to be awesome. So I just keep waiting for something to go wrong. LOL….

The bedtime routine got a little shake-up this week. Madeleine has dropped the before bed nursing (meaning we are down to just one a day, first thing in the morning). Now, after daddy reads her books, she sits with me and I sing to her. However, she’s been wanting a drink during this time too, which is fine.

The first night we did this was awesome. She just leaned back, drank her water, and I rocked and sang to her. She was a super sweetie, even gave me some kisses before bed. The nights since haven’t been so precious, and now I think she just wants her cup (her “ow!”) because she’s always had it when we sing and rock… But whatever.

LITTLE THINGS
One day this week, Madeleine was helping me put away glasses. She saw the mugs on the second shelf, and she pointed to them and said, “Mimi.” Because Mimi always drinks coffee from a mug. :)

Madeleine has been super thirsty this week. She wants a drink first thing in the morning, before nursing, food, anything. Same with after naps, and even before bed now. I’m hoping it’s just part of her development and not a sign of something wrong.

One night at vacation Bible school, a very nice woman told me that Madeleine was a pretty baby. She said, “There are just some babies you just fall in love with, and she is one of them.” That makes a mama happy!

She says “hi” to her shadow whenever she sees it, and she even waved at her shadow and mine in the tub during bathtime. Brilliant, right?

Also in the tub, she likes it when we make waves. And she still wants the water on for filling and pouring cups. So she wants to play in the water while waves crash around her. LOL. And when we stop with the waves, she asks for them by moving her arms in the water like we do to make the waves. Sometimes, she makes a few little ones by herself!

At church on Sunday, Matt and I witnessed her give Chad (the sweet boy who likes playing with her) a high five. Like, just like that, like she’s been doing it all her life. No biggie, I’m such a big girl, mommy. Matt also reported that he saw her give Chad a fist-pump, too.

Most of the time, after meals and snacks, Madeleine protests the clean-up part, especially of her face. One day this week, however, she surprised me. I set her on the floor, left the rag on the table, and went into another room. When I returned, she had the rag and was wiping her face—and then the floor! And then her face and the floor again.

I’ve started getting Madeleine to help me pick up her toys before bed. And she does! Now we just need to get it established in her routine.

On that note, I’ve noticed that she is very good at following commands. She totally knows what we’re saying, and there is usually no challenge when I ask her to do something. Since I posted that “discipline” paragraph a few weeks ago, there’s been very little need to do any discipline. She got the picture quickly. But, she’s brilliant and fabulous and no other baby has ever been as brilliant and fabulous as mine. Right? RIGHT? ;)

(You know I’m kidding, right?)

ONE MORE THING
Last week, I mentioned that Madeleine will point to our laundry and say “mama” or “dada.” On Thursday of this week, after a nap, we were on my bed, hanging out. She saw a sweater of mine hanging on the hook, and she pointed to it and said, “mama.”

I asked her if she wanted to try it on, and her eyes said “yes, please!” (she doesn’t do anything to say yes yet, but she shakes her head no—though sometimes, I think she means yes when she does this!). So I got it for her, put it over her shoulders. She was so pleased. Then I put her arms through the sleeves and rolled the cuffs up a lot. Even pleased-er.

She played in that sweater for the next 20 minutes. Have I mentioned that I love her? That I am completely crazy about her? No? Well, I am.

SLIDESHOW