Dear Madeline,
Today you are fifteen months old!
I don't know how much you weigh because you haven't had your check-up and shots yet. I threw you on the bathroom scale last week, and you came in at 22 lbs. We'll go with that for now. You're still very tall and lean. You stood a full head taller than two babies we met last weekend who were both a month older than you. Your hair is still red...no surprise there. Your eyes are brown, but can appear green depending on what you're wearing. The color is a lot like Dada's eye color.
You've been such a silly girl, Madeline. You crack yourself up with your shenanigans. You think throwing things at dinner is funny. You think knocking down all your blocks is hilarious. You play peek-a-boo with us every night during dinner and crack up every time we pretend to be startled even though you do it wrong and say "Boo" way before you take your hands away from your face. The laughter that emanates out of you is a delightful mixture of little girl and evil genius.
We've started playing a game with you where we chase you from one corner of the living room to the other while chanting, "Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp," like we're going to gobble you up. You love to let us capture and tickle you before you turn around and "Chomp, chomp" us right back. You think it's so funny to scare Mumma and Dada away.
It's been impossible to get you to keep your socks on your feet because you've been very interested in what you call your "toe-toe"s recently. Tonight, you were intent on playing with Mumma's toe-toes, which was both kinda gross and ticklish for me.
You're still bossing around all your stuffed animals. You like to bark out the order, "Bumm!" before you make them sit on their behinds in a neat row facing you. Then, you go down the line one by one and knock them all over.
Bert, Ernie, Ugly Baby, and your Madeline dolls have been favorites of yours recently. We can always distract you from something naughty by telling you to go find Bert or Ernie. Sometimes you get the two of them confused and call Bert and Ernie and Ernie Bert, but we're still impressed that you can say their names at all.
You are quite the chatter box, little one. Even your teachers at school comment on how much you talk. You never stop. I've had to start watching what I say around you already because you try to repeat everything.
It amazes me how quickly you learn. I only had to tell you that the "babies" on your sippy cup are named Belle and Cinderella once or twice for you to started calling them "Belle" and "Rella" yourself. You can say all of the babies' names at daycare, and you call your teacher Rah-Rah in place of
Sarah.
You're also starting to string two words together. You don't just say Bye, Bye now. You'll say "Bye, Bye, Mumma" or "Bye, Bye, Dada."
Books have become a good friend of yours again. After dinner, you like to bring us one book after another insisting, "Booo, Booo" until we drop whatever we're doing and read to you. Dada especially likes to curl up with you on the couch to read. You listen patiently and point to the different pictures, naming the objects you know. Some recent favorites are Duck and Goose Find a Pumpkin and Goodnight, Gorilla.
Dada taught you to help put away your dinnerware when we're unloading the dishwasher. You know where your drawer in the kitchen is, and you can pull it open yourself. Dada will pass you a bowl or spoon, and you'll carry them across the kitchen to your drawer, dump them in, close the drawer, and return to Dada for the next thing. I hope this enthusiasm for chores continues. God knows it didn't for your Mumma.
Meanwhile, you're sliding into the terrible twos at an ever increasing speed. You're so strong willed. You are capable of making a particularly annoying whining sound that could melt the ears off of a gargoyle. We're trying to break you of that habit, but I think it may be here to stay. Luckily for us, you also love, love, love to make us happy. I'm finding that praise goes miles and miles with you. You're so eager to please.
Sleeping hasn't been going as smoothly as it was, but I think a lot of that is due to the fact that you've been sick a lot this fall. It's hard to sleep well when you've got a stuffy nose and scratchy throat. We've pushed back your bedtime to 6:30 instead of 6:00, but it seems you've been staying up talking to yourself in your crib until 8 or 9 a lot of nights. The good news is you're perfectly happy amusing yourself in your crib until you nod off to sleep. The bad news is that you still wake up at the crack of dawn no matter how late you fall asleep.
As I type, I can hear you stirring over the baby monitor. You have another cold, and your trying to get comfortable. Tonight was a rare night where you went right to sleep.
You need your rest so that you can be healthy and strong for Santa in two weeks. Sleep well, Maddie Bear.
Love You to Pieces,
Mumma
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