18 months

Madison has been busy learning all kinds of new things - both good and not so good and loves showing them off! We're just trying to stay one step ahead and keep things under control! We have a monkey in our house and trying to get a monkey to do what you want them to do is not always easy!! :)

Last Friday Madison had her 18 month check-up. She weighs 23 lbs and is 32 1/2 inches. I don't have her percentages in front of me, but the doctor said she is tall for her age.

Developmentally, Madison is doing awesome! She really just talks up a storm and seems to add a couple of new words to her vocabulary daily. She also shows that she understands concepts - knows when to say "bless you", when to say "thank you", etc.

Climbs on everything!!

Tells us when she is ready for her bath.

Is getting so good at going to bed without a fuss. A couple of times she has eve said, "bye" and "I love you" to me as I walked out of her room! How cute is that?!

Can name all of her friends at school and does so often.

Yells at the dogs to go "owside"... (But whines when the dogs won't give her kisses or let her hold them). I don't know where she learned that??!! :) Oops...

Often goes straight to the couch after dinner, gets up on it, sits back and says, "TV". (In our defense, she hardly ever watches t.v. except for the occasional cartoon while we are getting ready for work. She just knows that Dylan and I are going to end up on the couch at some point in the evening, so she is joining us!)

Is really getting good at going on the potty. We still aren't consistent yet, but she often tells us when she needs to go and actually holds it until we get there. Just within the past few days though, it seems that we have had a small setback and she hasn't been talking about it, so we haven't pushed the issue either. She is still so young and we are just excited that she is showing interest this early!

I am sure that I am leaving something fun out, but here are some recent pictures...

Wearing mommy's shoes - one of her favorite things to do.

At Elijah's birthday party

Super Bowl Party - baby style

Dylan and I had a few friends over for the Super Bowl this year for a very family-friendly party. I can't tell you who won, let alone who played in the Super Bowl, as all the girls were quite busy keeping up with the munchkins. They were all too cute together - I just wish we had been able to get Madison to take a nap before it all started because she wasn't herself at all. Though I know she was excited to have friends over, she was pretty grumpy at times. I did manage to get a few pictures of the little ones playing. Poor little Hudson was outnumbered by all the girls...or maybe I should say "lucky little Hudson". :)

Lining up for a race - they LOVE to countdown for a race! Hudson had to refuel.

This lasted for less then 2 minutes.

Sweet little Marlie

The 24-hour date...well, sort of

Madison spent her first (partial) weekend away from home this past weekend. She spent the day and night with Dylan's parents (Nana and Pappa) Saturday and we got her back Sunday morning. Though Dylan and I spent the majority of the day cleaning and organizing, we had a very relaxing day and then got to spend the evening together doing two things we love to do together - out to dinner and a movie! We ended up going to a late 3-D horror movie (hence the very fashionable glasses - and yes, we do think we look cool) and though the acting was bad and the story was quite silly, it was a ton of fun! Just imagine scary things appearing to fly right towards your face! Also, they had the theatre set up where you could hear other people's screams through the speakers which was pretty neat.

I definitely felt rejuvenated and so happy to have had the time with Dylan. I must admit I was constantly reminded of Madison throughout the day as I picked up her toys, or saw others with their kiddos and it made me miss her so much! We were both super excited to see her the next day and were so happy to hear that she had such a great time with her Nana and Pappa.

Proud moment

Artist at work

First zoo trip and the Children's Museum

Back-to-back weekend fun!

Three words that never sounded sweeter...

Turn up your volume and be ready or you'll miss it! I could listen to her say this over and over... :)

Blue towel

I guess Madison just looks too cute wrapped tight in a towel after her bath because these are not the first pictures I have taken like this. :) Remember these? Blue this time though....

Rather than go on and on about how wonderful the holidays were (and they were!!), I decided I would just post some of my favorite pictures from Christmas....mainly because lots of stuff is piling up and I want to get it all posted!

I will just reiterate how great our time off from work was and how special this Christmas was with Madison. Of course, this wasn't her first Christmas, but she was teeny tiny last year, so this year was lots of fun! She adds something amazingly special to every day, but reminds us even more during these times how blessed we are to have her and to have eachother, our families and friends.

We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For those of you that we don't get to see as often as we wish we did, we miss you tons and hope to see you soon!

Madison's "OPEN" (sounds like "opey") face. When the arms go up and she tenses her whole face and neck, she means business.

Thanks to my aunt Maria's sewing skills, we all had matching Christmas jammies this year. I was super excited. If you are a guy reading this and thinking about making fun of Dylan, just take notes instead. :) That there is a good man!

...and check out the mound of presents! Everyone loaded us down and we can't thank you enough!

Little artist in the works

My mom (Grandma) and Uncle Devin got Madison this new climber and slide for Christmas. She LOVES it so much!!

New toys, new year, new words and more!

I have so much to update everyone about from the last couple of weeks, but I have to admit that I am finding it difficult to find the "umph" to get it all posted! Dylan and I had off work from Christmas Eve up until yesterday, so we had a long, wonderful break just spending time together as a family, and with our family and friends. Today was our first day back to work and we are all exhausted! We quickly got used to the afternoon naps and just bumming around as much as we wanted to! We didn't actually go on a vacation with our time off, but I think it was the best time we have taken off of work for yet!

So, anyway, I have just about finished uploading all the pics from the past couple of weeks and plan to get everything posted tomorrow. Stay tuned!

P.S. I hope everyone had a great Christmas and safe and happy New Year!