When Two Cains Become Three... then FOUR!: Madilyn is 18 months old!

On October 17th, Madilyn turned 18 months old... my sweet baby! There are a few new things to report!

#1 : We turned her car seat around in the car... so she is officially forward facing. We were going to wait the extended recommendation, but car rides were beginning to be miserable... she needed to see, and I had to be able to see what was going on to help her. So... much better car rides come from turning her around... so happy we decided to do it.

#2: Madilyn can say so many new things! Most recently, she says moon, star and sky. The only problem is that she gets all upset when she can't see the moon or stars in the sky during the day, and can't figure out why mommy can't make them appear for her... if only I were that powerful!

#3: She is being potty trained. After much debate, and talking to 2 doctors about persistent rashes and trying every option under the sun... we decided to potty train! I was sooo dreading it, and probably would have waited until she went to Wal-Mart, purchased a potty and trained herself! J/K, but it's going so much better than I hoped. She hasn't had any accidents w/the #1... but #2 we are still struggling with, she's still scared of doing #2 on the potty, but she's getting better day by day. I am so proud of her!!!

#4: She is trying to dress herself! :) She can successfully take OFF her clothing... (Sooooo not the best thing for mommy), and she can almost get her pants back on after going potty. She can take her shoes off, and almost get them back on! She's getting so big!

#5: She tries to sing, and it is soo precious! She like, moves her head back and forth, with her mouth opening and closing, and hardly any sound coming out... it cracks me up, but it's just so precious! She tries to pick out words she knows, and will say that, then just continue to open and close her mouth while bopping her head back and forth. I am smiling just typing it!!!

#6: She loves to dance, but lately is consists of spinning until she falls down. A while ago we went to the Italian Festival downtown, and they had this great live music... but she wouldn't dance like normal, she just wanted to spin around. The problem with that is that we were outside on the asphalt, and if she fell, it would have been painful. So, I told her to stop spinning and just dance, she screamed and sat on the ground having a little fit... needless to say we had to leave a little earlier than we planned... :)

#7: She can't jump... but she tries so hard! She thinks her cousin, Preston (who's 13 months older than her) is just about the coolest thing in the whole world. He'll jump, and she'll try to imitate him... it looks like the cutest thing, he's jumping and she looks like she's galloping across the room. :) Love it!!!

#8: She is good @ helping mommy and daddy pray for meals and at bed time. She will even prompt us to pray before we eat, like... um, aren't we supposed to pray first? :) She'll fold her hands and squint her eyes. So sweet!

#9: She loves to pretend to go "nigh night". She'll lay on the floor w/her blanket and her lovie, or stuffed animal, and close her eyes. Then, she'll say, "mommy, daddy nigh night". So then we get on the floor and go "nigh night" also. She just giggles and thinks it soo fun! HA! The only problem is explaining to her that I can't pretend to go nigh night when I am driving... :)

#10: Her 12 mo pants are finally getting a little bit short. Most of her 18 month pants are way too big in the waist though, especially since she is now sans diaper... but we're trying to figure out what to do. It was so funny the other day though when I had her @ work with me and she ran across the room to get papa, and by the time she got there her whole tushie was exposed! I'm gonna have to tailor her pants!!! We don't want that happening in public!

Well, that's what I can think of for now. She has her 18 mo tomorrow so I'll have to post her stats... maybe she finally made 22 lbs! We'll see!!