Monday, May 14, 2012

20 Months

Dear Madeline,

How can it be that you'll be two years old in just four short months?  Where is time going?  Where is my little baby going?  You are turning into our little girl. 

I feel so lucky to be able to watch you grow up and discover the world.

Now that the weather is getting warm, we've been able to spend more and more time outdoors.  It's our first spring in our little house, and I'm so glad you have a place to play.  You pick me flowers.  You love blowing bubbles.  We took out a fresh package of chalk yesterday and colored the bricks on the front walk.  You like to swing and go down the slide on your baby-sized playground.  Yesterday, Dada and I were observing how you'll soon outgrown that swing set.  

When you see bugs you yell, "Ant!  Ant!" and point at them like it's the coming of the zombie apocalypse.  Sometimes you are afraid of the ants, and you come running to me for comfort.  Other times you get brave and stomp on them and laugh maniacally.  (Poor ants...) 

We've been hearing your evil giggle a lot lately.  You're at a stage where everything that's inappropriate is funny.  You see a little boy fall and scrape his knee? Laughter.  You spill your juice all over the floor?  Laughter.  You make rude noises with your tongue?  Laughter. 

In spite of your evil-genius cackle, you continue to have a sweet disposition.  Ever since you were a tiny little tater-tot, you've liked to hold on to our fingers.  It used to be the only way we could get you to fall asleep.  As you get older, you continue to want to hold my hand.  When I rock with you before bed, you reach for my fingers.  When we watch a movie, you snuggle up next to me on the couch and reach for my hand.  Now that we've turned your car seat around to face forward, you sometimes reach out your hand for mine.  I can reach you if I'm in the passenger seat, and you're quite content to just hold on to my digits as we ride along.

You've been singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" to us a lot recently.  It's funny because you don't know all the lyrics, but we'll catch a correct phrase here and there throughout the tune.  You've also begun to memorize books.  When you flip through The Bear Feels Scared, you say some of the words and babble through the rest. 

And holy cow, Miss Madeline, do you have a temper.  Patience is not a virtue you were born with.  We've had to give you a few time outs recently after particularly dreadful behavior.  When you don't get your way, you melt down into a red-faced puddle of tears.  There are some days where you just can't seem to get out of your own way, and I have no idea why you're crying.  On those days, the looks you give me are enough to break your poor Mumma's heart.  Still, we're trying our best to stay strong and not spoil you....too badly at least...

On the other hand, you're manners are coming along nicely.  You say please and thank you on a regular basis.  My heart swelled with pride when you thanked the clerk at a local store this weekend without any prompting from us.  Then when I bought you a Munchkin at Dunkin Donuts, you looked right at me and said, "Thank you, Mumma."  Those moments balance out the moments where you dump the freshly folded laundry on the floor or fight being strapped in to your car seat.

I'm very proud of you little miss.  Keep up the good work.

Love,

Mumma

You were crying in this picture because I offered you a banana for snack, but you wanted a rice cake.  So I gave you a rice cake, and you started crying for the banana.  So I gave you the banana, and you started crying for the rice cake.  So I gave you both, but you still cried for a full five minutes until you finally settled on the banana.

That pretty much sums up life with Maddie Bear this month.

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