MADELINE AT EIGHTEEN MONTHS

Weight: Heavy   Height: 32ish in.
Eyes: Blue    Hair: Cinnamon

Highlights from her eighteenth month:
July 13th – First ride. The carousel with Mommy and Daddy on the Rehoboth boardwalk
July 14th – First time in a photo booth
July 18th – Started saying “NO LIKE.” She no like a lot
Has started saying her “long name” Madeline
Routinely calls blueberries and strawberries, bluebabies and strawbabies.

Maddie is becoming more independant and wants to do things her way. She’s climbing up on everything and will be halfway up the steps in the blink of an eye. She can run pretty well now and has even started “jumping.” It’s mostly her bouncing and saying, “jumping!” She is stubborn and quick to throw a tantrum if she’s not getting her way. Luckly she can still be distracted pretty easily. She has switched her nap from the morning to the afternoon and is still doing a good job of sleeping through the night. Listening to her talk to herself in the morning or after a nap is pretty amazing. She will talk about everything. When I ask her what she was dreaming about, she always tells me “rainbows” or “books.” She wants to see Lucas right away after we come in to get her out of her crib. She’ll call for him in the teeny tiniest voice. It’s so sweet.

At meals she is very clear about what she “No Like” and will happily tell you. Her food tastes are changing by the hour. She will still eat lots of different things, but just because she liked it one day, does not mean she will eat it the next. Noodles are a huge favorite right now. So are crackers and mangos. She still loves to share her food and will offer it to Mommy and Daddy even if they are talking to her at breakfast or dinner over Facetime.

She’s counting all the time now. She can get up to 14 by herself. She loves to speed count too. She’s pretty good at filling in letters when we sing the alphabet song. Sometimes she’ll be saying letters and you’ll realize she spelling out her name. Nana got her some Kumon books and enjoys doing them every day at Gagas. She’s doing a lot of matching and puzzles right now too. She’s getting good at identifying colors, she usually has no problem with purple, pink, yellow, orange and brown. Blue and green tend to cause some confusion though.

She likes singing and is started to sing quite a few lines from some of her favorite songs. A few words will be missing, but it’s easy to tell what she’s singing. Itsy Bitsy Spider, Let It Go, Ring Around the Rosie and Humpty Dumpty are big ones. She still loves seeing the Somewhere Over the Rainbow video, but now only wants to see the “Man” version. That means the Hawaiian Israel Kamakawiwo’ole version AND it has to be the official video with his family and friends in it. It can’t be the other knock off versions. Soooo particular.

She is really starting to notice emotions and shows empathy when she thinks someone is sad. In books, if a character or person is sad, she gives them kisses. She is such a loving little girl who gives kisses when you are doing something that makes her happy and is still dolling out huggies pretty regularly too. Lucas is getting a lot more huggies and kisses and she has even told him that she loves him unprompted. We know he loves her too! She understands happy, sad, mad and she has started getting scared at times. She does not like the snow monster in Frozen or the Shadow Man in The Princess and the Frog. She says “Turn OFF!” when she sees them.

We feel so blessed that at 18 months we have such a sweet, smart, fun little buddy.