Madeline's Monthly Message: Month 18

Dear Madeline,

You are now 18 months old. You do all those fun, dangerous, patience-trying, active things most 1 1/2 year olds do. When people say the "terrible two's" it must be an approximation... more like the terrible 16 month to 2 1/2's. Not that life is terrible with you... you are just easily erruptible, quick to tantrum, and fearlessly adventurous - which can be scary and terrible.

You love to climb things. You climb in and out of your toy bin. You climb the gates we have up. You climb chairs. You climb into the bathtub. Most of the time I leave the bathroom door shut so it's not an issue, but there have been a few times we've forgotten and I will find you sitting in the bathtub playing with your toys.

You like to jump lately. Actually, what you do is, you do all the motions as if you are jumping but your feet don't leave the ground. You also like to spin in circles. We spin a lot together.

You love to be in things... cupboards, bins, bags, boxes, wagons - everything really except for your stroller and your carseat. Anything where you are buckled down for safety is hell on Earth to you.

You are very good at stiffening your midsection and thrusting your head back if you don't get what you want. You have also perfected going completely limp. I admire your courage and adventurous spirit, but at times these two bodily functions have lead to boo boo's - both big and small - and I will be glad when you are through this stage. If you are in a safe spot, like on the pads or on carpet, sometimes we just watch your little fish out of water impression and let you get our your frustration.

Most of the time you demand to be carried everywhere, usually by me. Sometimes you will want your Dad to carry you. You stand in front of us and get this look on your face like, "hellooooo please pick me up, pleeeeasseeee" and you moan. I've been trying to teach you to say "Up!" when you want to be picked up, and you have said it many times before, but when I want you to say it you start laughing because you don't want to do what I tell you to do. I usually pick you up because when I do I get the most amazing hugs and kisses and who would avoid those? Only a lunatic, that's who. If I don't pick you up, you thrust your body down to the ground at my feet or hold onto my legs. If I walk around you, you get up, run in front of me, and do it again. I try not to laugh because I don't want you to think I am mocking your pain, but it's quite entertaining.

You like to do everything by yourself. I try to let you do as much as you can by yourself and most of the time you are okay with my help, but sometimes if I happen to pick up your clothes or throw away a diaper you immediately start a tantrum or start screaming.

You still love to read and we read as much as we can.

As a toddler, you are truly testing our patience... when we are tired there is a lot if "Are you kidding me?" or "Are you serious?" statements. And you have spent some time in your room when we can do nothing to control you.

Your scream is the most unbelievable, piercing, high-pitched scream imaginable. You like to scream for fun in the grocery store, in the car, and especially when you chase kitty around the house. You like to scare her and chase her.

You love to play peek-a-boo and be startled by me. Sometimes I hide behind a wall or around a corner and I jump out at you and you scream and laugh and laugh.

We play "where is Madeline?" a lot, because now you like to hide. Most of the time it's not a very good spot - like putting your hands over your eyes or a book on your head - but sometimes you hide in a cupboard. You always give yourself away by saying "mom" over and over.

You like to pick your nose. You laugh and use TWO fingers whenever I tell you not to pick your nose. Sometimes you push them in REALLY deep... I think you are experimenting. So I try to distract you with other things when these little nose-picking moments begin. So far, no bloody noses.

You still love watching all of your movies... Elmo, the YBCR movies, and now you love watching Tae Bo. Ever since your Dad and I did it one day in front of you, you like to pull it out and watch it sometimes. You are doing very well with words... to list them all here would take forever, but some common words are: Mom, Dad, dit-dit (kitty), baby, ball, up, dat (cat), dog, num num, dink (drink), book, ice, eyes, Hi, Bye, and No. You say "no" a lot... even when you mean yes. You love talking on the phone. You hold anything up to your ear and talk like it's a phone. The other day you were doing it to a measuring cup.

You love shoes. You pick out which shoes you want to wear each day. You also like to put on momma's shoes now.

You are a outdoor person and will go outside whenever you get the chance. Putting you in the car to go somewhere is always a challenge because you'd rather go on a walk or play with your ball in the driveway and you don't understand why you can't do that.
You love your balls... you have a pink one, a dora ball, and a small whinnie the pooh ball... you also like dad's basketball. You are very good and throwing and kicking and we are working on catching.

You eat well. I have been trying to give you vegetables your whole life (my bad for starting you on carrots and pears) and you have been rather resistant. I started drinking green smoothies and one day as I was making one I set a pile of raw spinach on your tray. You actually started eating it!! You loved it. I’ve noticed you like RAW vegetables more as opposed to cooked – which is unbelievably awesome to me because raw is better for you anyway. I can’t wait until you are old enough to eat without me having to cut everything up.

You do love eating WHOLE pieces of fruit rather then cut up. You like to munch on whole apples – I think you feel like a big girl when you do it like mommy and daddy do. You love regular milk. Once in a while I give you some juice, but you mostly drink water and milk. I am going to try and give you almond or rice milk to see how you like it – when I can find it. You definitely do NOT like soymilk. You love cereal. Your favorite seems to be honeycombs.

Your cousin Christina came down for a visit the week of March 2nd and you loved having her around. She helped me SO much with you, which was really nice. We had a good time with her. We visited the Children’s Museum of Memphis,

went to see the Mississippi River (her first time AND yours actually), went to the Yale road park, and hung out here at the house drawing and watching or favorite movies. It was a lot of fun having her around and you miss her. For several days after she left you would stand at the bottom of the stairs and yell for her to come down.

This month was also the first time you and I spent a night apart. We have NEVER been away from each other for more than 8 hours since you have been born. Your dad and I went somewhere out of town and I left you in the trusted and angelic hands of your Aunt Misty.

She took great care of you and you had a wonderful time playing with Brooke. I wasn't worried about your care, but I did miss you. I talked about you a lot - I hope it didn't bother your dad - and I only cried once when I was in the airport. We were on one of those moving walkways and I started thinking about you and tears began to well up in my eyes... I had to quickly ask your dad to distract me with sometime. He was like, "Ummm, oh, look at that paining on the wall over there!" Of course, this just made me think about how much you love to paint and draw. Am I pathetic, maybe. So I love my child... sue me!

You still breastfeed but we are starting to wean slowly. I had an opportunity to wean you cold turkey when you had your sleep over at Misty and Brooke’s house (going 34 hours without nursing you), but it was too painful. My right side (the only side we use now) felt like a bee had stung it. Anything that touched it caused severe pain. I think a gradual wean will be more to my liking. So now, you are nursing before bed and when you wake up in the morning. Your heaviest is in the morning so that will be the last feeding time we wean.

You love your dollies… you like me to swaddle them in a blanket for you and then you rock them back and forth and start to moan (your way of singing rock-a-bye-baby). Sometimes you carry them upside down, but you are learning. I always tell you that you are such a good mommy, and you smile and smile.

You are a very social little girl and you love little children. You still laugh a lot, especially when you hear someone else laugh. We were shopping the other day and a group of people in the parking lot were laughing and talking near our car as I was unloading the groceries. You immediately started doing your fake laugh and all of them turned to look at you. They all came over and started talking to you.
Another time at the store recently you were out of the cart (your dad was with us) walking around and you discovered a small family (a mom and her 4 kids) and you literally followed them around the store because you love little kids so much. You ran right up to them and started interacting with them. I left for a minute to get some things and later found you and your dad in the dog food isle with them.

We are working on getting you in a predictable routine in the evenings now, something we should have done a long time ago. I think it will make a huge difference in your sleeping habits. At nighttime when you wake up you either cry or you say, “Mom?” It is SO cute when you say “Mom.” I really love that you recognize me as your mom and that you love me so much.

I am learning a lot from you about parenting and about what kind of a person I need to be. I think these past few years I have sort of lost my "mmph!" for life. I don't care for myself like I should and I think I stand back a lot from the things that are happening around me. I don't take a lot of chances. But with you I am realizing first - that I am your main example of how to live, and I want to be a good one; second - life isn't about sitting on the backburner and waiting for things to happen; third - keepings things simple is GOOD; fourth - Don't sweat the small stuff; fifth - All you need is love... and Madeline you shine with love and happiness. You are truly a gift. I love you tremendously.

Love,
Momma