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!

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