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Nearly 21 months

Miss Maude will be 21 months old tomorrow.  We've had a lot going on the past few months.  Lots of fun, good things!  I'm also due less than three months from now.  Where has the time gone? 

Mike and Maude started their second year at ECFE, we've had two neighborhood block parties, I had week after week of business travel, we all went to Puerto Rico for a week, and last week was Halloween!  It's been a great 2.5 months. 

Some good stories/tidbits from the past few months:
- At Maude's regular doctor's appointment in mid-September, as soon as the doctor came in, she started pointing at and naming all of her body parts.  The finale was her turning around, pointing at her backside and saying "hiney!"
- Mike was trying to be very stern with her because she tried running off in a parking ramp and after he picked her up and seriously told her "we don't run away from mom and dad when there are cars around!"  She paused for a second and then reached out under his chin, tickling him, and said "TICKLE! TICKLE!"  It was so funny, we both had the hardest time staying stern with her.
- She is very interested in babies and likes to point at my belly and talk about the baby.  She says "Grow Baby Grow!" 
-At one of the first ECFE classes, another little boy was having a hard time during separation time and was crying.  The teacher told Mike that Maude went up to him, and gave him the dolly she was playing with and had her arm around him, trying to comfort him.  I was so proud of her, being so sweet to that little boy!
- When we talk about the baby, she sometimes points at herself and says "Big Sister!"  It melts my heart.  I doubt she truly understands what it all really means, but I'm glad she at least sort of gets it.
- The other day Mike was unloading the dishwasher and Maude came walking up and slammed the dishwasher shut, then walked away, congratulating herself saying "Good job Maude!"  Mike said he felt like he'd just been bullied. 
- Maude loves to watch football with her dad and continues to shout "First Down!" 
- She likes to do somersaults and calls them "sugarsalts."
- Maude is great at seeing me off in the morning.  I always say "See you later!"  A few weeks ago she started saying "See me later!"
- She's been really into to counting and can count to 20.  She usually does it well, all in the right order, but sometimes gets them all jumbled.  Our favorite is "Seben."
- She loved Puerto Rico and really mastered "Hola" by the time we left.
- There were turkeys and peacocks at our hotel which Maude loved to visit.  We could see them from our room and in the mornings, Maude would go out on our patio and holler "gobble, gobble" and the turkeys usually responded!

That's about all I can remember at the moment.  Enjoy the pictures below!

All dressed up and ready for her first day of ECFE.

So happy, playing in the yard!

19 months, being silly.

She can hardly control her excitement!

Beach girl, at our hotel in Puerto Rico.

Eating at a pork stand with Daddy in Puerto Rico.  This is her new "CHEESE!" smile.

The view from our room in Puerto Rico.

Apple orchard/Pumpkin patch.

Smoochies with Mom.

She loves to be tickled!

Maude and Daddy.

We could go in the chicken coop at the pumpkin farm.  This is Maude really excited to see the chickens up so close!

Climbing a haystack.

Posing with Daddy.

Inspecting the pumpkins.

Free Spirit.

Is this a seat?

Love this one.

Sea of pumpkins.

Block party #2.  We set up the kids in our yard to watch a move projected on a big screen.  There were at least 15 kids all lined up.  I love this picture of Maude, all snuggled up in her cow costume, watching the movie.

Wagon ride with her buddy Quentin.

Moo!

18 months! (And some news)

As any somewhat regular readers may have noticed, we've not been great at updating this past month.  We're now well past 18 months (nearly halfway to 19) and I'm just finally posting an update.  Beyond normal life stuff, I've been a bit tired because we're expecting Baby 2.Ov in early February!  The really tired phase passed a few weeks ago and I've since played catch up on other life stuff.  Like cleaning the house.  Or actually feeling like I'm spending quality time with my 18 month old.  I didn't feel nauseous this time (although it was never bad with Maude) but I do feel like I felt much more tired this time around.  And it didn't kick in until about 10 weeks and lasted until about 14. Strange, but so glad that was the worst of it and even happier I'm now through it.

You may remember Maude's due date was Super Bowl Sunday 2011.  She was indeed born on her due date, Super Bowl Sunday.  If you can believe it, we're due again on Super Bowl Sunday (it's February 3rd this year.  I never ever thought that much of the Super Bowl, but it has somehow become an important event in our house.  I very seriously doubt this baby will be as timely as our Maude, but it sure makes for some laughs right now.  After being 9 months pregnant with Maude and getting all the emails, calls, texts, facebook posts asking if I'd had her yet (and not even at my due date yet), I swore I would never ever share my due date again.  Well, having such a similar due date just begs to be shared - we couldn't resist.

I'm not sure if Maude has become more interested in babies since I found out I was pregnant or if I just notice it more, but this girl loves her some babies.  She can spot a baby (and a dog) from 5 miles away and points and hollers out "BABY!" when she sees one. I can only hope her fascination continues for the next 5-6 months and she adores her little sibling. 

In Maude news, I have to say, this is seriously the most fun age there is.  I don't know how she could be any more fun, funny, surprising, curious, quick-witted, (have I mentioned fun?), and silly as she is at this age.  I think Mike mentioned her vocabulary in his last post.  For all of you wondering why we're counting how many words she knows, we started because Mike's mom shared that at 18 months, he knew 150 words.  We were curious to see how many Maude knew.  On her 18 month birthday, she crossed the 250 mark and is now well over 320.  It's amazing and near bizarre to hear some of the words she picks up on.  She also has a lot of 2-4 word phrases down and it's great to be able to communicate with her now.

Mike and Maude spend their days playing in the backyard (Maude adores her water table), going to the many parks in our area, biking nearly everywhere, and having play dates with other kids her age.  When home, Maude could spend hours upon hours reading books and playing with her legos.  I got her out of her crib on Sunday morning and she and I proceeded to sit in her room and read for over an hour while Mike made us breakfast.  I know she would have kept going all morning had I let her.  And if we ever need to get anything done, we just drag out her legos and there goes another hour with her working on putting something together or finding all the animals and making their noises.  I've concluded our daughter could live her life happy with books, legos, and her water table. 

Below are quite a few photos - I'll let them speak for themselves as a recap of the last month. 

We went on a picnic a few Sundays ago.  Maude's trusty ball came with us and provided a whole lot of entertainment.

Could this be any funnier? We were at a friend's house and after Maude and her buddy Joseph got super muddy in the backyard, we bathed them both and after getting her diaper on, Maude went to their stairs and struck this pose.  She stayed like this for at least a full minute, maybe longer.

One one of her many playdates.  This was with her buddy Quentin.  She's so flirting with him!

We headed down to my hometown for my mom's 60th and my hometown's Sauerkraut Days celebration.  Maude enjoyed this little train ride.  We told her to hold on and she took it quite seriously.

Testing out her headphones.  Our exception to the "no tv" rule is car rides and an upcoming airplane trip to Puerto Rico.  We downloaded some Elmo videos for her to watch and rather than annoy all the other passengers, we want her to use headphones.  She use to hate them, but she seems to be getting the hang of them now.

PANTS!  Maude exclaimed this all day last week as she wore pants for the first time in a very long time.  It's been wonderfully cool here and Maude is enjoying the chance to change up her wardrobe.

18 month photo. Very contemplative.

A bit happier.

Before you think she didn't really care for her 18 month photo shoot, here is one of her laughing her silly head off!

17 Months!

Hello - Mike here, Marnie's had a busy week/month so she asked me to get a few photos up this evening. While I was at it thought I would jot down a few words

Maude's steamrolling the English language. We figure she's at around 150 words (and picking up new ones each day lately) and well over a dozen animal noises to go along with it (she's getting particularly good at her bear growl).


We've been out and about the town on our bikes a lot lately. We got a trailer to tow her in and while she wasn't quite warm to it at first now she's pretty game for a ride (she also tends to snooze in it as we pedal along). We hit grocery stores, parks, splash pools, the library - anywhere we can get to around here. Fortunately St Paul is a great bike city (and Dad is glad it's mostly flat).

And now off to the pictures--

17 month photo shoot

Hats! (selection by Maude)

Stretching it out at the park.

Splash Pool!

 Somehow I picked the coolest afternoon

in several weeks to check this place out.

The good news - not crowded when it's cloudy!

 Can't the paparazzi just let me 

go to the farmer's market?

 Dad auditioning to be a turtle at

the Children's Museum.

 What do you mean these 

aren't my socks?

Who put their freakin' 

pineapple in my cart??

16 months!

Maude is now 16 months old and at every “birthday” Mike and I exclaim “this is the funnest age!!” She’s a total blast right now and so full of personality. She makes us laugh our heads of all day and night. We lie in bed at night and recount stories of the funny or cute thing she did today. We spend a lot of time marveling at her impressive (to us) vocabulary. She seems to pick up dozens of words each week, if not more. I’m amazed at how much one little person can absorb and learn every day. One of her favorite words is HAPPY. She says it over and over again wandering through the house. It makes us laugh and can’t help but make us happy even if we’re not in the best of moods. She also learned her name although it sounds more like “Bod” than Maude.

This little girl has had quite the exciting past few weeks. We went on a trip to Seattle early this month and realized we were there the exact same week last year. We took Maude’s 4 month pictures in Seattle last year and took her 16 month photos this year. This was also her third trip to Seattle. She’s become a pro traveler! During our week there, she saw the Pike’s Place Market, the Space Needle, the impressive downtown library (libraries are one of her favorite places to visit), the children’s museum, the aquarium, and Mount Rainier. We stayed in downtown Seattle for most of the trip and then the last few night’s with friends just outside Seattle. They have three basset hounds so Maude got her doggy fix during her week away from Stella.

We got back last Saturday and in the first week we were home, more fun ensued. Monday night was her very first swim lesson which she loved and hated leaving (lots of crying). Wednesday, she had a playdate at the park and then music lessons. Thursday was a trip to the aquarium (where she very clearly identified the shark when it swam past even though we don’t really remember ever showing her sharks). Friday she went to the zoo with her buddy Quentin. Saturday, we had breakfast with Curious George at the Children’s Museum and Sunday we took a long bike ride with Maude in her new bike trailer and stopped at a local college campus to check out the pond with the ducks and geese. Maude loves the ducks!

The Curious George breakfast was a massive hit. We weren’t sure if she’d be afraid of the larger than life size character or not, but as soon as he came out, she yelled “GEORGE!” and wriggle out of my lap then went running up to him (video below). The picture below with him doesn’t do her excitement justice. She was amazed by him and kept trying to give him kisses. As we were leaving, she was hollering after him “Bye.” It was really too cute.

She’s trying to master dressing herself which provides some entertainment for us as well as some guaranteed time to get something done for ourselves if we need it. Just hand the girl some pants and she’ll work on it forever.

I’ve been traveling a bit more lately and for the first time last week, I came home from an overnight, and Maude was more snuggly with Mike than me. It was sweet and heartbreaking at the same time. I’m on a plane right now and will get home after bedtime which means I will have missed bedtime two nights in a row. I’m anxious to see her tomorrow and see if her bond with Daddy is even stronger.

Enjoy the pictures below. It’s been a fun month with lots to document!

She loves her sunnies!

Pool time.

Happy 16 month old gal.

Me?  I'm 16 months?  Really?

Fist bumps!

That's Momma and Maude on that bridge over a waterfall at Mount Rainier.

Pouring rain at Mt. Rainier.

In the car after getting soaked!

Space Needle.  Enjoying her apple.

At Pike's Place Market.  Again, enjoying an apple.

A park near the Space Needle.  Apple in tow.

We're having a moment.

Enjoying some freedom, strolling beneath the Space Needle.

Daddy and Maude checking out the cots at the HUGE REI store in Seattle.  I love this photo.

George and the Overmans.

A very amazed Maude sitting with George.

This video is at the George breakfast when Maude first saw George come in!

 

Video below is of Maude saying her name.  "BOD!"