18 Months

Dear Madeline,

Today you are an official one-and-a-half-year-old child, and you are such an amazing little human being that I can't believe I made you from scratch.  How come my sugar cookies never turn out half as good?

The age you are now is my favorite so far.  You're so fun.  You're so smart.  You're so sweet.

After a few bumpy weeks, you have finally learned to love your new room at daycare.  You learn so much there!  We had to look up the Bumble Bee song online a few weeks ago because you kept cupping your hands together and shouting "Bee! Bee!"  Apparently the Bumble Bee song is a favorite during circle time.  You also frequently request The Itsty Bitsy Spider.  Every time you lift your hands over your head to signal that the sun is coming out, my heart doubles in size.  It's so amazingly cute.

You've also learned to sing.  We often hear you La-la-la-ing from the backseat of the car.  As I type this, I can hear you singing to yourself in your crib as you try to fall asleep.  Dancing has also become a more frequent event.  I caught you head banging to Yo Gabba Gabba a few times when you thought I wasn't looking.  No lie.

The words that come out of your mouth are constantly a surprise.  You repeat everything we say.  You call a lot of things by the sound they make instead of their proper names.  For example, lions and tigers are "Roar!" cats are "Meow," cars are "Vroom," Santa is "Ho, ho, ho," playgrounds are "Weeee!" and hearts are "Baboom, Baboom, Baboom."  My favorite is still the way you pronounce bubbles as "Bubblessssshhh."

You've begun to assert your desires more forcefully recently.  Today you threw a pretty good tantrum out on the porch steps when I told you we were getting in the car to go grocery shopping.  You wanted to stay and play longer.  You've been known to cross your arms in stubborn defiance and shout, "No!"  You declare everything as "Mine!"  Your bottom lip forms a very cute and heartbreaking pout when you don't get your way.

On the other hand, your sweetness has also increased.  You give real hugs and kisses now.  The way you say hug is the same way you say hat, but we can tell what you mean because you wrap your arms around our necks while you say it.  Hugs are a frequent occurrence.  You give them out like candy.

And while terrible-two vocabulary has made our way into the house, so has "Peeese" and "Too-doo!" (Thank you!)

This afternoon you watched me carry a grocery bag from the porch to the kitchen.  I turned around to get the next bag only to see you dragging a bag in behind me.  "Help!  Help!" you cried not because you wanted help, but because you were trying to help me.  You do the same thing when you see me sweeping the floors.  You ask to help and "Turn! turn!" when you want a turn sweeping.  We'll have to get you a baby-sized broom. We've had a couple of close calls between the broom handle and glass objects.

In other news, we bought you a potty about a month ago.  You haven't quite figured out what you're supposed to put in it, but you like to sit on it.  You ask for it frequently and you're fascinated by a potty book we bought you.  We know you're still very young, and there's no pressure, but since you seemed to develop a toilet fascination on your own, we thought we might as well encourage you.  (Maybe it's in the genes....)

I've found myself counting the days till summer vacation already.  I can't wait for two whole months of playing with you, my amazing little peanut.

Love,
Mumma