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!