One and a Half Years.....18 months!!

One and a Half Years, 18 months, baby girl is rapidly becoming big girl. Exciting and scary all  at the same time! Here are 18 random things that Madeline loves to do and we love about her!!

1. Just Dance!!!!She loves to dance! She hears a a catchy beat and she will start to groove. Our favorite kids song to play is The Backyardigans' "A Pirate Says ARRR. "  Madeline loves her ba ba's.....she gets her left arm up and going.  Her dance is more like squating and jumping.  She can also get low.  This song brings out the bobble head in her and she wonders around saying "arrr".

Couldn't resist a picture of the cutest pirate I have ever seen!

As for favorite non-kid song it would be Flo Rida's "Low" (Shorty had the apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur, she had the whole club lookin' at her, she hit the floor, next thing you know, Shorty got low low low low low low!)

This cute little one loves to dance, but sometimes it is like the dance move called the maniac.  She hears a song she likes or gets to do something she wants and watch out...she will get happy feet.  Sometimes the maniac turns into a gallop too.  She is vocal, and she usually has loud screams when she gets excited and does the maniac. We just call her a silly girl, and laugh.  I think I am jealous of how she can just be excited and live in that moment and not care about how silly the maniac dance is. ( She dances like no one is watching!)

2. The Fish OBSESSION also known as: Ish or Ishy

This obsession all began when she watched "Finding Nemo" and saw the fishies at The Rain Forest Cafe. It is amazing how the girl can spot a fish on anything.  The tiniest fish on a plate, t-shirt, television, etc. and she gets sooo excited......ish!!! Ish!!! Now our spoiled little girl (thanks to Grandparents and Auntie) is fully loaded with objects with fish. She has towels,  stuffed animals, stickers, glasses, clothes, movies, toys, and the list could probably keep on going, just ask Madeline and she will show you where they all are. 

The last two pics are at Market Broiler off of my cell phone (not very clear), don't tell her what they eat at this restaurant. 

3. Her Sweet Voice!
In the morning she always wakes up and says Momma and then finds Jake and says Dadda! She is so proud that she can talk more. It is almost like she runs through her vocabulary and is showing you that she can do it and is smart. Along with her speaking she has many different facial expressions. Man she can use her eyebrows, that is definatley a Dad trait.

The most popular words she can say and/or has a version of, in no particular order :

Momma, Dadda, TT (Auntie), Papa, Na NA (Nanna), L (Layla), up, mo (more),  ish (fish), bebe (baby), ooes (shoes), no, yeah, hi, low (hello), bye, ball, ninny (Minnie), lellow (yellow),  tank you (thank you),  muah (kiss), le (bottle or cup), ne ne (night night), ought (hot), ide (outside)......I am sure there are more, but these are the first ones that come to mind. I know there will plenty more to come real soon, she watches you closely and tries to say even more.

     She loves to pretend to talk on the phone. She will put a phone or toy up to her ear and say "low" "low" ( hello, hello), she sure does observe more than we think. It is cute that she like phones....but be warned, if she plays with your cell phone it is not pretend. Our cell phone bills have recieved charges for odd features used, thanks to these cute little fingers.

4. Being Like Daddy
If daddy is lucky Madeline will even help wash the car, she will watch everthing he does and then follow behind him and do the exact same.  She is a perfectionist just like daddy when it comes to washing a car.  No spot is missed when Madeline and daddy team up.

The car wash photos were from a while back, but again too cute to resist

She is posing by her daddy's remote control truck, in a way it is like she has an older brother too. She loves to sit by him while he fixes the truck. She hands him tools and helps. I think we might get her a pretend tool bench, she would love it! Does Pottery Barn Kids make one in pink? She will just have to borrow from Dad for now.

5.Outside
This little girl would much rather be outside than inside.  When she first tells us that she is ready to go outside she goes and tries to put her shoes on or bring them to mom or dad.  Then she will wait and pull on the door handle if she can reach it.   Next she will grab the side of the door frame and step down on to the proch and then she is off.  Straight down the driveway and heading left towards the neighbors, who also have a little girl who is Madeline's age.  Sometimes she will run through the grass to the stepping stones in front of the house and try to step on each of them.  Most of the time she will ask for mommy and daddy's help to reach some of the bigger steps. 

                                              Resting by the steps in front of our house

Being outside running free

                                             She loves to be outside riding her power wheel

6. Shoes  aka: ooes (shoes without the /sh/ sound)

She does have quite a few pairs of shoes, but when she puts on a pair she loves to stomp her feet. At Kelly's she loves to pull out all of the other shoes and match them up. She will even put her hands in the shoes and pretend to walk them around.  She now walks up to me and hands me my shoes. When we are getting ready to leave she must know, she comes up and says mamma and gives me my actual shoes.

 She found mommy's ooes in these pictures.

Pinks boots

TT's Pink Heels

7.  ABC's and Lellow
We have a genius, she can say her abc's....okay not really, but she tries.  She starts off strong, it goes like this " a, b, b, b,....a, b, b, b" she points to words and letters and sings a, b, b, b.  We have leap Frog magnets that sing the alphabet and other educating toys that she loves to play with. Recently she has started pointing in books and repeating a, b, b, b, b. She is very much aware of the things around her.
Okay, you might call me crazy, but I think she knows the color yellow. We have been practicing colors with crayons. We went outside after coloring and she went up to the hose nozzle and said "lellow" "lellow", the hose nozzle is yellow. It might be a coinedence, but I say she is smart :)


8. Avacados and Cottage Cheese

If you are ever trying to get M to eat, try either avacadoes or cottage cheese.  When she sees these foods she means business. I let her go to town the other day with cottage cheese, and she made a huge mess (but it was a fun mess). As you can see the cheese is everywhere and she loves it.

The spoon was not working fast enough so she switched to hands. Yes, that is cheese flying through the air as she claps her hands.

                                         She is reflecting, hmmmmm, I hope there is more!!!!!

                    This picture was sent to me while I was at work (thanks Kelly and Kristen), she is serious
                                                                   about her avacado.

9. Layla

Layla was our first baby ( four legged baby, that is) and she has been wonderful with Madeline. Layla knows that Madeline is bound to drop some food and she will wait for it to happen.  In this picture M is giving Layla a dog treat and Layla is being very patient. Grandpa Clarke is the man behind the dog treats, he is always prepared and gives them to M to pass them on.

M and Layla meet for the first time, that was the first day that Layla was faced with the reality that she was just a dog, no longer number one. (But don't get me wrong, Layla is still a spoiled dog.)

10. Chairs, Pick One Any One
  She loves to sit in chairs, any chair big or small will make her happy.  She climbs up and is so proud. You probably noticed a few different chairs through out this post, the chair that surprises me the most is at her babysitter's,  Kelly's ( I don't have a picture of her on it yet.)  At Kelly's it is known as the timeout chair and she will sit and play on it for as long as she feels like it, this might be a problem when she starts earning timeouts. Not this little angel, right??? Keep reading and you will see how she is a very determined and independent girl......this could cause her to owe some time.

I caught her climbing up on this big chair and this is the smile she gave me, yep mom I am a big girl, look at me!

Sitting/climbing on her playhouse

Sitting on the front porch

Sitting with ish on the couch

                                                                   Sitting in her room.

                                              She is asking her Daddy to sit with her.

11. Crossing Her Feet, Such a Little Lady Madeline has always crossed her feet since she a little baby, I do it too, it must be a comfort thing. Recently she has been spotted crossing her feet while standing, it is too funny to watch....

Leaning to watch something interesting.

Auntie gave her a Ba Ba couch or a Backyardigans couch. She sat right down and got comfy.

Christmas morning and her feet are crossed in her PB chair from Grandma Clarke and at Easter her little crossed feet sneak out from underneath her dress. 

Hanging out in San Diego at the Bay, still like a lady.

Mother's Day 2009

I could probably make a whole post of crossed feet....who knows, stayed tuned.

12. Manners: thank you or say it real fast 
                              "tank tu"

We have taught her to say thank you whenever she receives something.  Since teaching her this she has taken it upon herself to say thank when she takes something as well (usually what she takes isn't hers...but we are trying to correct this).  We can ask her to give an item to somebody and she is very good about giving it to them, whether it be t.t., papa, or nana.  She even says thank you when she is done.  She is very excited when we ask her to do these things.

13. Water

Madeline also loves to drink water, she would take a sippie cup with water over most drinks anytime. When she is done drinking her water she says "ahhhhhh"..... she is too much!!

She can even climb into the tub, she doesn't care if her clothes are on or not. Any puddle or drop of water and she will slap her hands in it. At daycare she is notorious for getting to the water fountain ( the huge bottle of water that is upside down and has a spicket)...when I pick her up after work and see her in a new outfit it is usually because she found water to play in.

                          We had just started the water and she decided to climb in.......clothes and all.

She has fun floating in the water too!

               She loved the beach last summer, can't wait until this summer.....it will be exciting!!

14. Babies
  From about the time she wakes up to the time she goes to bed, it is all about her babies. She points to the T.V. and says baby, baby, baby, over and over again. She calls the movie "The Incredibles" baby because there is a little baby in the movie.  Whenever baby "Jack Jack" is on she points and gets so excited and again says it over and over. She use to be scared of the ending because "Jack Jack" gets harmed and is saved by mom and dad. After watching it for the 101st time for the day she is okay and can watch it.  Madeline even puts her babies in diapers uses the wipes as a changing mat, she wraps them in clothes, pretends to feed them, pats their backs, and even pushes them in the stroller. She is going to be a great helper when she gets a brother or sister.
   Madeline will also point to real babies that she sees and smiles, it is too sweet to watch your little one love another little one.

Christmas 2008, her first baby doll and below this picture is Christmas 2009 with the same baby doll.

15. Miss Independent

Doesn't this picture just have attitude written all over it? She loves to do things on her own and when you try helping her she gets mad, almost offended because she can do it on her own. She loves to feed herself, throw trash away, brush her own teeth, color her own pictures, and it goes on and on. When she doesn't want your help she crosses her arms or pulls her arms away and says no (this does drive me crazy, is it too early for the trying threes????) 

16. Books
"bo..."   not "boo" or "booo" its "bo" whenever we ask her to read or if she wants to be read to.  Her favorite books are the ones with flaps and doors and hidden things in the pages.  Unfortunately if her mood is right those books dont stand a chance because they are torn out because she is soo good about finding those things in the hidden books.  

              This coloring picture could go under Ms. Independent, but she loves to color in books too

She is reading the book to us, if look closely you will see all her new big chompers (teeth)

17. Her Reflection and Silly Faces
Madeline will go along playing or doing whatever, but if she sees her reflection she will stop and stare!

 We were taking her out of the car the other day (in a parking lot) and she caught a glimpse of herself in the car next to us windows and she began sticking out her tongue. We can't help but smile when Madeline is around.

She likes to stick her tongue out at herself when she sees her reflection

Hanging over the side of her Benz to check herself out!

                                                               Gotta check this mirror too!!


18. Games: Peek-a-boo and Chase

 Madeline loves to play! She plays peek a boo in her play house, which you can see in the pictures below.  She pops up around a corner and says boo. She loves to surprise you! When she does, she laughs and can't wait to do it again! 

She likes to be chased too! She will run away from you and look back over her shoulder to see if you are really following her.  When you get close to her she says no no and then starts to giggle or scream with excitement. She is getting pretty quick, if she gets a good head start it is difficult to catch up to her.

Another game, well at least she thinks it is a game , is to take her baby's stroller or shopping cart and run into things or people. As she crashes she says boom and laughs and laughs. 

Where's Madeline????

There she is!!!!!!

I could probably write a million and one more things about our little love.....she brings us so much joy and happiness.  Hope that we gave you a little happiness too! It is sweet to be loved and give love!!!

Which number was your favorite? 

I would love to read your thoughts!