Madeline is 16 months old!

It has been a while since I posted a true update for Ms. Madeline Opal. She is suppose to be the reason for this blog although I have sort of usurped it for my own purposes. To get back on track I thought I would get you all caught up on growth and photos today. This is going to be a long one, so settle in.

I am not an early childhood expert. I'm barely a novice, but they have some broad categories of development that I have heard over the past 16 months so I thought I would try to organize this post using those categories. Here we go:

Gross Motor:
Madeline has been walking ever since she was 10 1/2 months old. She is now running just about every where she goes and has discovered crawling again. For a while she wouldn't crawl at all. She was like "I learn how to walk and now you want me to do what?!? I don't think so!" As you have seen in some of the MaddyTV posts, she is a dancing fool. Last week we were playing at a park with some friends and a car alarm went off and Madeline couldn't stop herself from dancin'. It was hilarious.

Since starting at the day care, Doodle Bugs Madeline has mastered both going up and down stairs. Up she has been doing for 4 or 5 weeks, the down is a last few days thing. That is both exciting and frightening. We don't have many stairs in the house, but the ones we have are not padded in any way. I must break out the baby gate more regularly.

Madeline loves jungle gyms and can climb the stairs at the park near our house. She also is a fearless slider. (She is fearless, not me.) I think she could go up the stairs and down the slide at Grandma and Grandpa's house all day if they let her.

She is also trying to jump. One of the kids at Doodle Bugs mastered this recently and now Madeline wants to as well. She generally just bobs up and down or stomps her feet when you ask her to jump. It's super cute.

She throws anything she can get her hands on. Most of the time she his throwing her toys at Kevin or I. Occasionally she throws them at the cat. We're working on that.

Fine motor:
Madeline loves to color. Unfortunately she also likes to eat crayon. (Thank goodness they are non toxic.) So we color occasionally, with me sitting diligently beside her, unblinking. She has also used a paint dauber (like the paint thing they use at church Bingo) and loves that. She has a ball painting the sidewalk outside with water and an old paint brush.

We introduced her to the fork months ago, but it wasn't until recently that she started to use it regularly. She still prefers using her hands. She can pick up pretty small pieces of food with her fingers. Tonight at dinner she picked up a pea with her thumb and pointer. Very advanced if you ask me.

Language Development:
So this is my favorite. Madeline is in the middle of a language explosion and she gets at least one new word a day. Not only is she repeating things we say but she is then using the words correctly later on. I am going to list the real word and then her pronunciation in parenthesis.

Right now her words are (in no particular order):

banana or nana
baby
hot
stop (op)
more (mo)
apple
hi
bye bye
peas
noodle
truck (uck)
Grover (dover)- like from Sesame Street see this post
help (hep, hep)
please (peas)
bath (ba)
water (ah ta)
Blankie (kiki)
G.G. (that is Kevin's Grandma's name, short for Great Grandma)
boo boo
poo poo
Keys (geeez)
up
down (doww)
ba ba -what a sheep says
moo- what a cow says
aah aah ahh- what a monkey says- like ooo ooo, aah aah
raar- what a bear says- and it takes her at least 10 seconds to say that one word
woof-what a dog says
guck guck- what a duck says
ooo ooo- what an owl says
book
Dada
Mama
Olive (ah la)
Poppy (pop pop)- Grandpa Gene's name
Angie (an gee) - the sitter
Doodle Bug (doo doo bug)
ball (baw)
uh-oh
yummy
me- as in give it to...
oval

and my personal fave:
empty (m. p.) - yesterday she brought me a box that didn't have any toys in it, so I told her it was empty. About an hour later she opened up the same box and said, "m p". I was shocked. Then tonight she opened a different box and said the same thing. She is a genius I've decided.

There is one word missing from this list that I am not looking forward to appearing. Yep, that is N.O.

It should be noted that Kevin got her to say 'Hockey' very clearly today... although she has no idea what that is... YET.

Social Development:
Madeline is a huge cuddle bug. While playing she will just walk up to us and give us a hug and kiss then go back to playing. It is one of Kevin's favorite parts of being a dad right now. Those random acts of love feel so much cooler than the ones you are asking for. It is really amazing.

She is always giving her baby (named baby Leo) hugs and kisses and she attacks the cat with loves every time she can. Tonight she sat on Olive just to give her loves. We thought it was adorable. Olive was not so amused.

Madeline is fascinated with other kids. Since she has started at Doodle Bugs she is getting much more social with other children. She is still a little cautious but we are working on that.

One of the most amazing things to Kevin and I is that Madeline recognized and gets really excited when we pull up to either of the grandparents house. Her excitement is so extreme that she screams with joy and her face lights up. That Madeline L.O.V.E.S. her grandparents, no doubt.

Food:
Madeline eats just about everything. The only thing she consistently refuses is broccoli. (But who can blame her, it is a deadly vegetable that try's to warn you with its horrible taste. OK not really... that is for my brother's benefit.) She still doesn't love meats, but she had pot roast tonight and loved it. Tomorrow will be another story I am sure. Her favorite things to eat are grapes and green beans. And of course ice cream.

Growth:
We have no idea how tall Madeline is, or how much she weights. The last time I had her at the doctor, when she had that virus with a 103 fever in early August, she weight just over 21 pounds. I would guess that has changed. She is in the middle of a chunker stage. But as soon as she bulks up she tends to grow up and lean up again.

Her shoe size is a 5 1/2 however and she is fast growing out of her 18 m size clothes. I hope everything I have for the fall winter will fit...

Teething has had its ups and downs. Madeline currently has 9 teeth. Three molars, and 6 front teeth. Her teeth are mainly on her left side, but she has one molar on her top right. Not having that many teeth never stops her from eating anything so I am not concerned!
__________

I think that is it for now. (Eyes tired yet?) Enjoy the photos from the last month.

August 4- Bath time with Madeline!

August 4- Look at that adorable little tongue!

We were waiting in the car for my dad to come out of the house to head to the park. I asked, "Where's Poppy." That is what Madeline did:

August 11- Priceless isn't it?

August 11- There he is mom!

MY FIRST...

August 11- Painting! I broke out the tempera paint and let her go hog wild on that half sheet of paper! I know, livin' large. We have painted only once since then (to paint some wrapping paper) and I am still finding yellow and red spots all over my kitchen. Next time, we go outside.

August 24- See that dress Madeline is wearing? I made it. Yep, I sewed something. For reals yo. And it didn't even give me a head ache. I have to admit though, it could be better. From this angle it looks OK, but the photo below isn't quite as cute.

August 24-I have no idea what she was doing, but I L.O.V.E. this photo. It is so Madeline.

August 25- Always the fashonista, Madeline is sporting the "swim dipe" look for summer '09. Get ready, it's coming!

August 25-

MY FIRST...

August 28- corn on the cob! it was delicious and now she won't eat corn any other way. She devoured this chunk in record time. Amazing what a few teeth will do for ya!

August 28-

August 28- Again sporting the latest trend. Madeline pulled each of these hair clips out of her drawer and brought them to me pointing at a bare spot on her head. So I just did what she asked... this is the result. She ended up with at least 5 more in her hair that night.

August 31- Dinner with Mia and Mazlin. Sunday we were invited to dinner at my aunt and uncle's. Madeline had a ball playing with their two girls and running around their house like a crazy person. I love this photo b/c she is barely in focus. It truly captures how wild she is 95% of the time!

August 31-Getting kisses from Mia.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I am sorry it was so long. I am going to try to be more proactive about posting... but we will see. I am always taking photos and planning posts in my head that never come to fruition. Maybe someday. Not today. Some day.

Love, Maureen, Kevin and Madeline

mg