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!"

Proficient Walker

Maude has really mastered the walking in the past week.  Up until then, she was walking, but mostly just between Mike and I or between pieces of furniture.  A week or so ago, she just took off and now walks everywhere.  I'm not sure I've seen her crawl at all in at least a week. 

We had her regular check up this week and her weight has dropped into the 25th percentile (she's been hanging at 50% since birth).  Her doc wasn't at all worried and said it's most likely due to her walking.  She eats like a horse, so I know she's not slowing her gains due to not eating!! 

He was also pretty impressed with her vocabulary which of course made us proud. Mike and Maude had their last ECFE class yesterday and Teacher Lynne who stays with the kids while the parents have their session said that Maude really had a "word explosion" this week and was saying a lot of words she wouldn't really expect a 15/16 month old to know.  One of her favorite words is "George" - she loves her some Curious George books and exclaims "George!" everytime she sees him.  (Shhh!  Don't tell Maude but we're taking her to a breakfast with Curious George in a few weeks!)

We're headed to Seattle this Saturday for a combination work trip/vacation.  We're definitely taking advantage of the kid flies free under 2 thing.  We realized that we were in Seattle during this exact same time a year ago.  We took Maude's 4 months pictures there last year and next week while we're there, she'll be 16 months. 

She and Mike are on the campus of a local college this morning, checking out the wildlife.  We saved some bread to give to the ducks, but according to Mike, she's been hogging most of it for herself.

Enjoy the video.

Monday Happiness

Sweet video to brighten this already beautiful Monday!

15 Month Photo Post

This will be a super short post.  More to come later, just wanted to share a little bit and post pictures of our 15 month old.

Maude is very into saying "HI" to everyone and everything right now and then saying "BYE" to everyone and everything as they leave or go away.  She even says "BYE" to the toilet water when I flush it.  When she's in her carseat sleeping and then wakes up and hears Mike and I talking in the front seat, she peeps out a sweet little "hi" to let us know she's awake.  It's the cutest thing I've ever heard.

Enjoy the photos. I particularly love the very last one. She's so over the photo session. =)

WALKING!

Our little girl walks!  She surprised us last Tuesday night by taking steps all on her own.  Mike and I were both on the floor and she was walking between us, but holding onto our fingers as she cruised back and forth.  And then she let go and walked all on her own!  She's getting better and better every day and we're having so much fun watching her master this new skill.

Since we now officially have a walker, we decided she should get a decent pair of shoes.  I'd heard lots of advice to go to Nordstrom's and get her measured.  We went this afternoon and I gotta say, those people do it right!  They gave us great advice on the type of shoes to buy for an early walker, measured her feet and went and found all of the shoes they had in her size.  We picked out our favorite pair and they made a really big deal of them being her very first shoes.  They gave her a little stuffed animal called "Nordi" and took a picture of her with her new shoes on!  So fun.  We could tell for the rest of the day how much she loved her new shoes.  She kept looking at them and touching them.



New shoes!  Mike took this pic on his iPhone - she hadn't gotten "Nordi" the stuffed animal yet. 

 We're headed to LA on Saturday for a little vacation.  We're so excited to see all of our friends there and have them meet Maude as a 14/15 month old.  We moved the day after she turned 6 months.  She's a different gal than she was 9 months ago!  I'm hoping this older baby handles flights as well as she did then.  I'm slightly worried about how it will go.  We've been saving up new books to bring out on the flight, hoping she'll be so enthralled with them, she'll be a happy gal from here to LA.

Two videos - the first was taken the night Maude walked for the first time.  The second is of Maude playing on her new slide we found on Craigslist.  It's the perfect size for her and small enough we can bring it inside on a rainy day.

Addition on Monday, April 23 - Mike sent me a few good photos of Maude with her new kicks.  

Apparently the checkout lady at the grocery store couldn't get enough of Maude's shoes.  Who knew our small investment in good footwear would result in so much additional attention and admiration or our sweet girl?!

Hanging with her pal Stella.  I think she was telling her she should check out Nordstrom's - you get lots of attention there! 

CHEESE!  I smiled really big and silly-like to Maude last week while she took a bath and said "Cheese!"  She immediately imitated me and now loves to give big grins and say "CHEESE!"