15 months

Dear Madelyn Kate,
On Christmas Eve you turned 15 months old. It's absolutely unbelievable to me how much you have grown since last Christmas. With each passing month your personality develops in to that of such a charming little girl. You are vibrant and full of life. We have loved watching you play with your new toys from Christmas. You adore playing with your baby doll and pushing her around in your new shopping cart. Sometimes you seem so grown up and carry her around so delicately. You feed her a bottle, try to change her clothes and love on her like a little mommy would. Other moments I reminded that you are still a rambunctious little 15 month old as you toss the baby to the ground and run after the next toy you want to play with.
You have become SO verbal lately. You make noise non stop. Some of the words that you say are momma, dadda, dog, bow, more, thank you, woof woof, meow, yay, banana, bye-bye, love you, oh no, aww, aaha, Papa, some form of Rachel (Raay shll) and our absolute favorite is ta-daaa! You say ta-da all the time. Scream it, whisper it softly and sometimes you just say it. All day long we hear your joyful "ta-daas" coming from all over the house. I love every second of it. Even when you are screaming it at the top of your little lungs and we cannot have a conversation because you are so loud. It makes us laugh every time.

Any time we strap you in to your car seat lately you immediately begin to protest. Long trips, you do well. Around town, you usually don't like it to much. However, recently we have started singing songs together and you love it. Once the song trick stops working, we start making faces at each other in the rear view mirror. You make the silliest faces at me and then giggle like crazy.
After the silly face game stops entertaining you, I am ashamed to admit that I usually resort to snacks. Your car seat has so many tiny crumbs packed in the sides that I would be absolutely mortified if anyone saw how truly messy it was. Daddy and I pulled it out of the car the other day and there was quite the little pile of gold fish crumbs.
Once you realize that you are in the car seat and that it's all going to be OK...you give in and do just fine! Amazingly enough, when we are with Daddy or you are riding with just him, you skip the whole protesting stage. I am not sure what is up with that but it would be OK with me if you grew out of that this month. No big deal if you don't, but it wouldn't make me sad if you did.
I was hoping that you would like car rides around town a little more than you do because you really enjoy getting out. You seem to get stir crazy if we don't get outside several times a day. Unfortunately it's been too cold to play outside much, but you love to walk around the mall, Wal-Mart and our favorite, Target on those days! The hard part is trying not to spend any money while we are out. The other day we braved the post Christmas shopping crowd and ventured out to the mall. You almost instantly fell asleep and got a good nap in while I pushed you in to lots of stores.
Earlier this month you had somewhat of a food strike. You did not eat very much for several days in a row. Thankfully you gave that up and have returned to your good eating ways. Your absolute favorite food is mandarin oranges. You also enjoy macaroni and cheese, edamame, grilled cheese, green beans, bananas, chicken nuggets, peaches, pineapples, cereal bars, bagels, crackers, chicken spaghetti, teddy grahams and lots more. This month you tried donuts for the first time and to no surprise you loved them. We have actually discovered that you have quite the sweet tooth. When you lay eyes on a cookie, you anxiously make the sign for more over and over again. You also love to drink from our straws (which is not a good thing considering if I have a drink with a straw it is almost always Diet Dr. Pepper). You have gotten really good at eating with utensils. Forks are your favorite!

This morning I gave you a spoon with your yogurt and let you have at it. You ate one whole cup of yogurt so well on your own. I ran to the restroom while you were working on the second cup and I came back to one messy little girl.
Apparently you were finished and thought it would be fun to paint with the leftovers.

You wear size four diapers, have five teeth, wear 12-18 months tops and 9-12 months pants, weighed 21.5 pounds two weeks ago and still short! We have your 15 month checkup soon so we will know all of your stats then. You nap one or two times a day anywhere from 45 minutes to 3 hours. You sleep 11-12 hours a night no matter what time you go to bed and you are still sleeping in our room.

You still have very sensitive skin, so we don't give you a bath every day. Due to your tubes, we have to plug your ears when you do take one. You don't seem to mind. You still love the bath tub.

One of your favorite things to do these days is color. Actually, I think you like to organize the crayons in the box more than you actually enjoy coloring, but you enjoy it anyways.

You have an absolute fascination with books. Each day you spend lots of time thumbing through them on your own and we read at least four or five together. You are curious about your surroundings and know when something is out of place. There are so many little details about this stage that I do not want to forget that I could keep typing for hours.

The most important thing I want to remember is how much fun you are!! You give the best kisses and hugs and your smile is contagious. You are a joy to be around and everyone loves being in your presence. You keep us laughing constantly and your laugh is the sweetest thing we have ever heard.

We love you dearly little one. You will always be my sweet baby girl.

Love,
Mommy