Week 101: December 16 - 22

So, I think it's clear that Madeleine is doing well with words. I can't keep up, so I'm not going to try. I may mention particularly interesting words, or phrases, but no more trying to write down every new word she says.

And, sadly, that means much shorter entries for the time being.

This week was spent in DeLand with Papa Pete and SuSu! Mimi and cousin Lola came for a visit on Tuesday, and cousin Marshall spent Sunday through Wednesday morning in DeLand as well. Madeleine had a WONDERFUL time. She played with that red stroller just about every waking minute. "Lolo" was just about the first word out of her mouth when she woke up. She walked that thing in circuits around the house. I'm surprised she hasn't left permanent trenches in the carpet. WHO KNEW?? She pushes her toys around in the stroller. Lamby and blankie too. Whenever something strikes her fancy, it obtains a special place in her heart and becomes the favorite for rides in the stroller.

SuSu put out some toys they have around the house left from when her boys were younger. Among these toys were two decent sized cars, one of which made a siren sound when you press a button. Between those cars and the stroller, we didn't need to get her anything for Christmas! She LOVES those cars, plays with them daily.

One fun thing we're doing this week is looking for a dress for Madeleine to wear on Christmas Day. I went with Papa Pete and SuSu and I found one dress that was a bit small. Then Papa Pete and SuSu went shopping one night and came home with 8 or 9 more! We had a time trying them on Madeleine. She was keen for the first one, but after that, we had to enlist Dada to help get her to try them on. We still haven't reached a decision, but we have some time before we have to.

Favorite things at Papa Pete and SuSu's house: full-length mirror in their bedroom, the pillows on their bed.

Hopefully, the pictures will make up for the lack of content here....

Madeleine did say "yummy" this week, which Matt and I enjoyed. There were some rough days sleep-wise at the end of week 100, but she napped well this week. There were some long transitions at the beginning, but the last two days have been much better. Nights too. It's almost as if... the two months of bad sleeping might be at an end? I won't hold my breath though. BUT, she slept until 6:15 Thursday morning, which she hasn't done in way too long.... We'll see!

SLIDESHOW

Week 100: December 9 - 15

Just one picture this week!
Not sure how that happened!

Big, huge, ginormous week.

First up: plane ride! Madeleine went on her very first plane ride this week! She and I flew from Atlanta to Orlando, where Papa Pete picked us up and took us to DeLand. She was absolutely perfect. We were lucky to have an extra seat in our row, so Madeleine got to sit by herself the entire flight except for take-off and landing. I had food for her to eat during both take-of and landing, since she doesn't know how to pop her ears. Madeleine enchanted the young woman sitting with us, showing her Lamby, blankie, sheep and cow, and generally being super sweet.

Madeleine had some water and some "biscoff", the little snack served on Delta flights, while sitting in her own seat. She had the tray down and copied mama very well in eating her snack. She even kissed the polar bear on the Coca-Cola napkin. The only time she got antsy was when she had to sit in my lap for a long while, which was take-off and landing. I buckled us both in, and I don't think she liked the restriction. But she only got a little fussy after 10 minutes or so, which meant she was soon able to be freed.

In the airport, she got to ride in a new umbrella stroller that we purchased just for this occasion. The only time she actually cried was when I had to put it on the security belt! And she was happy once she saw it again and got to sit in it. There's no way we could have known the bond that would form between Madeleine and that stroller. :)

Next: WORDS. Basically, that sums up the rest of what I have to report for this week. New words every other minute, it seems! She is just learning them quickly and proficiently. Here is a list of the words I managed to remember and take note of:

man, snowman, write, moon, water, cup, milk, bird, rough (as in, daddy's shirt is rough), wear (pants, shirt), (put) back, pick up, pull, get, in & out (of car, bed, etc.), ride, ladder, off & on (knows when lights are off and on, asks to turn them off and on) and read. Yes, she can now ask us to read to her. Which she does quite frequently!

To go along with the words, I have two word-related stories to share.

In the book "Pat the Bunny," we like to read Judy's little book. It talks about Bunny. There's a page that says "how big is bunny?" Madeleine learned this week to say "go big!" Which her mama thinks is GO ADORABLE!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, the best story of the week. One day, when putting Madeleine down for her nap, I told her I loved her. She said, "I love... I love... doors !" I had to laugh. Then, she said, "I love .... DADA!" She said "dada" very enthusiastically, "riled"-ly if you will. Even balled her fists. It was hilarious, her having said she loved doors and dada. This was the first time she said "I love" anything. Cracked me up, and Matt too when I told him. :)

Week 99: December 2 - 8

Story of the week: 4 days without a nap. :( This messed up sleep has GOT to get better. She was the worst behaved on Sunday that I've ever seen her. Of course, all that means is that she wanted dada to hold her, not mama, she threatened to fuss a few times by making an 'I'm-about-to-fuss' face, and talked in a normal tone twice. I know, what am I complaining about, right? And I'm not, she was amazing considering how loopy she was, but I don't feel very good when I'm exhausted, so I know she doesn't either.

WORDS
Madeleine and the words. Just wow. Every single day, she says at least one new word. Matt and I just look at each other like, "whoa!" It is such an awesome thing to see and experience. So, on to the words!

On Saturday, when little girl got up from her nap, she could see her stroller through the door. She said, "lolo." I confirmed her sighting. Then she knelt down, patted her mattress, and said, "Lolo, bed." BED!

One big word discovered on Sunday: "pig." She's been making the pig noises for months, but now she can say pig!

Also on Sunday, she said "hose" while reading "If you Give a Pig a Party." While playing hide-and-seek, the snake looks like a hose, and Madeleine said "hose."

Let's see... this week also adds to her vocabulary the words: "bone" as in Layla's bone, "mouse" as in her Mickey Mouse lamp, "night night", "lion", "head", "neck", "white", "move" and "ing" which means sing. Phew, I am sure I didn't catch them all!

She also adds the letters S, F, B, and K to her recognition.

I also love the way she says "mama." There's a little bit of sweetness in it, fondness. It warms my heart. :)


OTHER
She's learned to blow bubbles in the bathtub! And of course this means that mama and dada must do it to!

BIG NEW THINGS: Madeleine has officially learned to drink from a cup! Without spilling! This doesn't mean she never spills, but she can manage it! SO BIG!

We THINK she understands "5". On two occasions, she said "five" and there were five things she was playing with. Time will tell....

SLIDESHOW

Week 98: November 25 - December 1

WORDS
Lots of new words this week! Let's see... "high chair", "under", "over", "pick up", "out." I mean, she knows about going "under mama" when she goes under my legs. She gets "over mama" when she climbs over me on the bed. She knows about picking things up. "Out" has been there, in terms of "out door," but now she says "out" when she wants out of her sleep sack. And "boy" too, when she sees a boy in a book. Or probably about her new friends Baer and Vinny.

She said "high chair" for the first time on our way back from Gainesville. We stopped at a Chick-fil-A, she saw them, pointed, and said, "high chair, eat." LOL! She knows, she knows.

Another word Madeleine has been saying for awhile (I think?) is "lie." And she uses it to mean "lie down." This week, she had mama, dada, lamby, blankie, some books, a wooden duck, and her bike all lying on the floor. Just because she can.

OTHER
We got her some bath crayons last week, and she really enjoys them. She drew a "family portrait" this week on the bathtub with the crayons. She says "mama heart" "dada heart" "baby heart" and "Lamby heart." etc.

However, the crayons aren't the highest quality, and they've started breaking apart. When the first one broke, she got really upset and cried and wanted out of the tub! Poor little baby. This happened twice, so we decided to chuck the crayons. Maybe we'll find some better ones some day!

BIGGEST BIG THING EVER SO FAR
MADELEINE LEARNED TO HOP THIS WEEK!!! She has been trying for this for months! Matt says she did it Friday morning before we left Gainesville, but I didn't see it and he didn't tell me about it until after I'd told him that she hopped. Just so the record is straight.

Here is how it happened: I was sitting on the chair-and-a-half in the living room, she was playing with her stroller. I saw her grab the handle bar of the stroller and hop. But the way she was doing it, I could tell that she didn't need any support. So I called her over to me and asked her to hop without holding on. She didn't get it and did it twice while holding on. Then I put my hand up to block her from grabbing the stroller. She grabbed my hand instead, but I didn't let her use it for support. Then she understood when I said to hop without the bar, and she DID IT!! She only clears maybe an inch, but OH MY GOODness, how excited she was! And me, I was cheering so much!

Then Madeleine proceeded to hold everything in sight and hop. Lamby and Blankie got first dibs, of course, but then it was whatever she found. A book, a pen, a car, whatever. It was so awesome to watch.

You know, you hear about all of these "firsts." First time they roll over, sit up, crawl, stand, and walk. No one ever talks about the first time they HOP! And I gotta say, it ranks right up there with walking.

SLIDESHOW

Week 97: November 18 - 24

WORDS
Seriously, I know I've said this before, but seriously. I just love hearing her say a new word.

On Saturday morning, Madeleine got ahold of my phone and said, "Call dada." So of course we did.

Another new word for the week: pasta. She's been eating in most of her life, but now she can say what it is. Oh, and she also knows "meat" and knows there is meat in her pasta sauce. One day I was making red beans and rice, which has sausage in it. This would probably be the first time she'd seen sausage. I put it in the pan to brown it, and Madeleine said, "meat." Who told her that? :)

More new words: "rope" for daddy's rope that we took in the car to Florida. "Tights" that she wears with a dress when it's cold.

On Saturday, Madeleine wanted to "sit by football" while we had a game on. The computer was on the bench, and she crawled up to sit beside it.

Madeleine got to play with a hanger in her crib one day after a nap. Then she put her blankie on the hanger and said "hang it."

She's also quite good at "little" and "big" in comparing things. Matt had on a sweatshirt with a hood that had a string around the neck to tighten the hood. One was longer than the other, and Madeleine said the long one was "big" and the short one was "little".

We got a book last year called "Tuck Me In!" It's a bedtime book where the reader can "tuck in" a host of baby animals. With each animal, it says, "who needs to be tucked in?" Then the animal replies, "I do!" Well, Madeleine now calls this book simply "I do!" when she wants to read it.

Last thing of note in this section: baby can use contractions! She said, "mama's home" when I arrived home from somewhere. Sometimes in the car, we'll say we're going home, that "dada's home," "Lamby's home," etc.

LITTLE THINGS
Surely I've mentioned this before, since she's been doing it forever, but maybe not. When laying on the changing pad, Madeleine will often stick something between her knees and hold out her hands to say, "where is it?" It is super funny, especially when she tries to hide mama or dada! Or even herself. She'll stick her hand between her knees and we'll say, "where's baby?" She'll pull her hand out, and "oh, there she is!" Such fun.

Madeleine loves to color, but this week she started indicating what she was drawing. Such as a "heart" or an "m". Oh yeah, she knows a few letters: O, X and M. She doesn't really know what they mean, but she can find them in words. It's exciting, thinking that she'll be learning all her letters, then learning to read.

And finally, I just want to squish her little face! She's so precious!

SLEEP
Still struggling. We had some good successes just before heading to Florida for Thanksgiving. She slept in until 6:15 one morning! But then that night, there were some tornado concerns, so we ended up at a friend's basement for the night, and she took a long time falling asleep that night, plus woke up early the next morning. Ugh. It wasn't the ideal start to our trip. We'll see how it goes next week! Hopefully we can get back to the improvements we made before going out of town.

THANKSGIVING
We went to Gainesville for the annual gathering at the Farm. It was another BEAUTIFUL day, absolutely perfect weather.

The trip down was rough; it took us 7 hours to make the 4.5-5 hour drive. Ugh. We got in around 2:15, Madeleine hadn't slept. So we decided to just keep her up and put her to bed early, rather than napping her and having a late bedtime and then who knows what. Of course, the way we did it led to early waking, but oh well. Matt got to go out to the Farm Wednesday night with Russ and Marshall for some yummy dinner. Madeleine did let her Uncle Russ hold her and gave him a little "hey, I know you," smile.

Then Thursday, Madeleine hung out a little with her cousin Marshall. Then we went out to the Farm in the morning so Madeleine could walk around a bunch before having to leave for a nap. And walk around SHE DID. We went all over the grassy part of the property. At one point, Matt and Layla were running ahead of us. I said, "look at dada and Layla running." Madeleine said, "mama, baby." So we started running, her holding my hand. It was awesome. Then we joined Matt and the three of us were walking together. She said, "mama dada baby." *MELT*

On the walk back up to the house, Madeleine discovered sand. She'd stop and play for a minute, then we'd move on until she found some more. A few times, she played for a few minutes. Eventually, she'd stoop down, grab a handful, then slowly let it fall out of her hand as we walked. Then she'd stop, get some more, and drop it again. Repeat, repeat.

Madeleine got to see Papa Pete, SuSu, Uncle Wes, and cousin Lola briefly before we left for her nap. She slept for 2 hours, and mama and dada got to nap too! WIN WIN WIN! When we returned to the farm, Poppi, Mimi, and Uncle Alan were there, plus Kaley. It was a lot of people all of a sudden, but after a while--and some toy cars and trucks brought by a second cousin (?), she warmed up to the crowd.

She ended up having a really great day, the highlight of which was probably playing in a big pile of dirt with Poppi. Then Papa Pete brought a bulldozer over, and the fun was multiplied. Of course, she probably most enjoyed laying on the dirt and sitting on a little seat they "carved". She was SO DIRTY!!

But also tired. I managed to get her in bed at a decent time, and she was asleep at a good time. Friday, we came home, which is technically on next week's post, but I'll write about it here for continuity sake. She didn't nap again, but we made the trip in better time, got her down for a nap at 12:30. She had a meltdown when we tried to feed her lunch. She couldn't eat, crying so hard, so I ended up just getting her ready for her nap and rocking her to sleep.

We had a great time seeing family!!! Can't wait for a more extended visit at Christmas!

SLIDESHOW

Week 96: November 11 - 17

Sorry for the so short entries. I need to stop apologizing, though. Short is better than nothing, right? :)

Mimi came for a visit this week! Madeleine had a lot of fun with her.

At goodwill, Madeleine and Mimi pushed a couple of umbrella strollers all around the back of the store. It was great because I could shop while they played!

Wow, I cannot believe this is all I have for this week. At least there are some pictures, right? Just know that Madeleine is saying more and more and growing into a little girl every day.

OOOOOOOHhhhhh. One thing that IS noteworthy: we've been having sleeping problems! (yay... again...) They started right with the time change, though I don't know if the time change is the cause. We're talking early, early waking, some mornings are like, 4:30! Well, that was mainly last week. This week we're in the 5:20-5:30 range. It is still SUPER EARLY. Madeleine's behavior is definitely affected. She's extra fussy, whiny, cries easily, can't handle much. She'll just walk around, grunting, waving her arms in frustration. It's really sad. She's had some great naps though, up to 3 hours, so her total sleep in a day hasn't been affected too much. I just hope we can figure this out before naps start suffering.

SLIDESHOW

Week 95: November 4 - 10

I apologize again for the shortness of this post. And for the lack of pictures. These things happen, life gets busy. Or something.


WORDS, WORDS, and MORE WORDS
Okay. On a daily basis, Matt and I look at each other like, "WOW." Because Madeleine is just saying so many new things.

Here's a fun example. On Sunday night, while looking at a book, Matt would point to an animal and ask what it was. Twice (cat and owl) she said the animal by name (and then he'd ask what that animal says, and she'd make the sound). Two others, she just made the animal sound (dog and pig). It was the first time we'd heard her make the dog sound, and she did it quite well.

I'm very curious about how many words she knows. Not sure why, maybe because a 2-year old is supposed to know 50 words. I'm interested to know if she knows that many. At times, it doesn't seem like a lot of words, but other times, it does. Oh well, maybe some day I'll count? :)

HILARIOUS
So Madeleine has known about bugs for awhile. I'm sure you remember (or not, haha) the ladybug on the ceiling, the ants on the wall. Well, a mosquito recently got into the house, thought they were all gone for the year, oh well. Matt managed to squash it before it bit anybody. Madeleine said, "boke bug" which means, "broke bug." We cracked up!

OF NOTE
Her feet are no longer pod-shaped. They've elongated enough that I can no longer call them pod feet. However, they are still adorable and one of my favorite things about her. She's so animated with her feet, the way she moves them, especially when seated. Sometimes they look like little commas or quotation marks. Yeah, I know, I'm weird. But I love them.