Maddie is 18 Months Old

Maddie is now 18 months! She doesn't have her check-up at the doctor's until March so no stats at this time.

 

She has been babbling for awhile but she has really started saying quite a few words here recently.  She says: ouwy/ouchy, dada, mama, uh-oh, baby, paci (papi), bye bye, juice, mine, hi, please, thank you, boots, shoes, and no (we'll get to that one in a bit).  She is also saying a few other babbles that sort of sound like the word: apple, balloon, dog, and door.

 

So, yes, she's officially telling us "no".  It's great.  And of course it's the word she uses most often.  Enter the defiant stage.  We are definitely at the starting line of the terrible two's.  She is as feisty as can be.  She doesn't want to listen, refuses to do what we tell her to do, and has started hitting-especially Nate.  When she gets made she throws things or knocks things over.  Let's just say that she spends a little bit more time in time-out each day.  This has made it very difficult to take her out in public.

 

But I know that this new behavior is all part of it.  She is really becoming very independent.  She gets around so well.  She can go up and down the stairs (she really has been able to do so for quite some time), she jumps on the trampoline, can jump with both feet off the floor, and loves to tumble.  She loves to do things on her own (feeding herself, brushing her teeth, etc.).  She's still eating really well, which isn't surprising-she loves food and her mood is often dependent on it.  You should see her face when I actually have breakfast waiting for her on the table in the morning.  She literally squeals with delight. It's hilarious.

 

She still loves to read and has several in her favorites list now.  She's starting to really play with her dollies, mostly to take them on "walks" in the baby stroller around the living room.  Today she had a good time with her baby on her lap, playing, as well as hitting her, laughing the whole time. Rotten, I say, just rotten! :)  She loves Potato Head, has to play with it everyday.  She likes doing puzzles, playing with the Little People figures, and building blocks.

 

 

 

 

 

Playing Doctor

 

For Christmas we got the kids a doctor kit, so now we play almost everyday. This works out very well in the morning when I am tired and I can lay down and be the "patient".  It cracks me up to play doctor with them.  Nate will do his examination, and after each test he will say "sick!"--check my temperature-sick! heart beat-sick! knee reflexes-sick! Maddie likes the stethoscope best and will hold it up to my chest and make little "boom boom" sounds for the heartbeat. It's so cute!  

 

Nate's First Visit to the Dentist

Nate had his first visit to the dentist on Tuesday.  One of the things that attracted me to this office was the kid's room.  The room is painted in a jungle theme and there is a TV set up to watch cartoons.  Since it was his first time at the dentist they didn't want to over-do it and make it unpleasant, so they did a simple cleaning with a toothbrush and then the dentist did his exam.  Nate did really well with both.  He even liked the suction tube, which the dental hygienist said a lot of the kids don't like.  And at the end he got to choose a prize from the treasure box.  He knew immediately what he wanted--a small soccer ball and goals.  He keeps telling me he wants to go back to the dentist so I would say this first trip was a success!

 

Starting Off the New Year

It wouldn't be us if we didn't start off the new year with a poop story.  Warning you up front, that's my disclaimer. I'll even start a new paragraph so you have a chance to stop reading now if you want.

Okay, here we go.  We grabbed some Arby's for dinner and then headed to Target to do a little shopping.  It was raining so we ran into the store.  I was setting Maddie in the cart when I notice this oh too familiar substance all over the sleeve of my jacket.  Crap, literally and figuratively.  Sure enough, Maddie dropped a bomb in her diaper that had spread all the way up her back (the running into the store probably did not help). After cleaning her up and putting only her socks and shoes back on (nothing else was wearable) we walked through the store white trash style to find Michael and Nate.  Needless to say, our shopping trip at Target was very short.  I can only imagine what everyone was thinking as Maddie walked through the aisles in a diaper, socks, and shoes.  Wish I had my camera!

And of course, Nate, not to be left out, has poop stories of his own too.  Luckily I will take his over the Target incident any day.  He has only been pooping at nap time when he has a diaper on.  So trying to stop this (for many reasons, but mostly because he will sit in it all through nap time and then his little butt will just be raw by the time we change his diaper) I put him on the toilet before his nap and told him he needs to poop.  I knew he needed to go but just did not want to.  He was telling me his belly hurt so I kneeled in front of him and wrapped my arms around him so he could push against me.  It worked!  And it worked so well that since then this is how he know wants to do his business! Oh joy! But I will take this joint effort if it keeps him from pooping in his diaper. 

And since we're potty talking, one more thing. :)  The last few times Nate has gone potty I've asked Maddie if she needs to as well.  She gets all excited and runs to the bathroom.  This is about the extent of it.  I put her on the potty and she just smiles back at me.  But with a smile like that, it's okay. Nate will come in with us and say "push hard" for encouragement.  And this morning I was going to the bathroom he came in (privacy? what's that?) and told me to "push hard" and added that I would get a "choo choo".  Yep, he is using my stuff on me! So funny!

Christmas 2012

Okay, I'm way overdue with this post! It just gets so crazy around the holidays and I wanted to enjoy the time Michael had off from work, and so I was in no rush to get up to the computer to update the ol' blog. :)  I had great intentions of getting everything done for Christmas.  I even started my shopping early this year.  Last year Maddie was still so little and still not sleeping so I didn't have the time or energy to really get into the Christmas activities.  This year was going to be different! Was is the key word.  While I did have great intentions, my health decided to make different plans for me.  The week before Christmas we all came down with a nasty stomach bug-all on the same day.  Probably the WORST day of our life.  We managed somehow to get through it but the day I started feeling better I got a cold that turned into a sinus infection.  I did not have the energy or motivation to do anything.  It was enough just to hold down the fort everyday.  So I made my m&m kiss pretzels and that's it.  No other candy, no cookies, nothing.  I didn't get my packages sent out on time and it's a good thing I started shopping early or that would have been last minute too.  Kind of a big bummer because I was really looking forward to the baking and making crafts etc. But we did enjoy a few celebrations for the holidays with family and friends.

Christmas eve we always go down to Mitchell for a family reunion (Michael's mom's side of the family).  We thought it started later and so by the time we got there it was basically ending.  No biggie though because we continue the festivities at Michael's aunt's house.  There we snack on treats and the kids open presents.  She has a basement with tons of toys so they spent most of the time down there playing.  We were able to visit with cousins and relatives upstairs, which was nice. We got home pretty late, so we put the kids to bed and put all the presents under the tree and headed to bed ourselves.

Christmas morning was so much fun.  I had anticipated this for so long! Nate is at such a fun age for presents!  He didn't really understand that Santa came and put presents under the tree until he got downstairs and saw them all.  He ripped through the first one and didn't really get excited or pay much attention to the toy, just wanted to get to the next one.  I was a little upset that he didn't care about the toys but he just wanted to open presents!  Once they were all open he was so excited to go back through his pile of toys and play with them all.  Maddie didn't care much about opening her presents and paid more attention to the toys that were already open.  So Nate helped her out some since that was his thing.  We played all morning long and time flew.  We didn't even realize several hours had passed.  That evening we went to Chinese buffet for dinner. We started the tradition last year and this year our friends joined us.  In the words of Yao (their Chinese exchange student) "best tradition ever".  We think so too. :) Afterwards we went back to the house to visit while the kids played with their toys. It's amazing how a new toy can be such a good babysitter. :)

We ended our Christmas celebration on Friday at the Toppe's.  We opened presents, had our big holiday dinner, and played with toys and games (there was also some dancing involved with the xbox).  We decided to spend the night-Maddie is old enough that she's not getting up every 2 hrs anymore, although she did sleep with us of course (there was no way she was going to sleep in the playpen right next to us).  Nate was so excited to not only sleep in Lucas and Landon's room with them, but in the bunk bed too!  I was nervous about him sleeping on the top bunk but he did fine.  After breakfast the kids headed outside to play in the snow.  Looking like fun, Jeremy rounded up a bunch of winter clothing for us adults and Maddie and we all headed out.  We built a snowman, had a snowball fight, and went tubing down a small hill on the side of the house.  Awesome.  Definitely a memory I want to hold onto forever. 

 

So even though I didn't feel as well as I would have liked, this turned out to be another wonderful Christmas.  So very blessed.