14 months

Another month bites the dust! Here's a little about Madison Kate from 13-14 months.

- Wears mostly size 18 month clothes. Size 3 diapers. Teeny tiny size 3 feet.
- Sorta kinda has more hair! It's still pretty red, but seems to be getting a little more blond.

From 2010 - 3 - March

- Madison has found a new sort of love for the playground. She used to be mostly about the swings and sitting back and observing. "Tree!! Dog!! Baby!!" Now, however, she's all up in it. She digs the slides (though she mostly goes down with help), all of the ramps, steps, tunnels, etc. She also loves getting filthy in the wood mulch stuff they use and crawling EVERYWHERE. The knees of her pants will be thrilled when she finally starts walking.

From 2010 - 3 - March

From 2010 - 3 - March

- Speaking of walking: She is very sturdy on her feet, cruises like a champ, walks really well with assistance, and even stands alone for extended periods of time... but she's just not wanting to take those first steps. That's exactly how she was with crawling, so I'm not surprised. :) She'll go for it when she's confident.
- This kid is practically having conversations with us! It's amazing! She has now started putting sign sentences together. The other day I was nursing her and thought she was done. She looks up at me and signs, "More, Milk, Please." (!!) Who can say no to that?!
- New signs : Rabbit, Yogurt, I Love You, Turtle, Mouse, Pig and Ball.
- She's also starting to talk more. She will repeat almost anything. Watching her try to say "humidifier" (which she thinks is a hilarious word) cracks me up! The new words she seems to be saying spontaneously are ball, yummy, and shoes.
- Enjoys mimicking what we do.
- Mads is teething multiple molars. It's hard to tell exactly how many... for some reason she doesn't like me shoving my fingers in her mouth on an exploratory expedition. Go figure. The teething has NOT been fun for anyone. :(
- Suddenly decided she hates being in the car seat. Snacks seem to help distract her, but sometimes it's tantrum city as soon as we put her in.
- She thinks tickling other people is the funniest thing ever!
- Asks for music to be played. She points to my laptop (I use pandora.com) and then does a little dance. Too cute!
- Her mobility is often evidenced by scattered bruises all up and down the poor kid's legs.

13 Months

Well, 13 months marks the end of the monthly photo shoot with her paper sign. It was getting harder and harder to convince her to ignore the sign, anyway. ;)

Here are some new things Miss Madison has been up to this past month.

- Mostly size 18 month clothes, but still in some 12 month.
- Sign Language: New Signs : Water, Car, Baby, Waffle, Flower, Please, Thank You.
- Understands "How do you say...?" If we ask her, she'll sign or say what we're pointing to.
- Crawls to us when "called".
- Enjoys air drumming. *haha* Her Daddy taught her and when she hears rock, she sticks out those little pointer fingers and starts "drumming" away.
- Thor has really warmed up to her and lets her pet, kiss, hug, and practically lay on him! Amber still keeps her distance for now.
- Mads has this little reading activity where we'll sit on the floor with her in our lap and read her a book. Then, we'll ask her for a different one, she'll crawl to her pile of books, look through a few until she chooses a winner, and then brings it back for us to read to her. Lather, rinse, repeat. I think she would do this ALL day if we let her!
- Enjoys putting little items in containers and then taking all of the little items back out. Over and over. She also understands the phrase "Clean Up" and will help me put her toys/books away when it's time for bed or a nap.



- Understands an amazing amount of words. Until having I child, I never realized the kind of comprehension and awareness a barely one year old has! She picks words out of normal conversation with no problem and has a fantastic memory. We'll name something for her once, and the next time we ask her where "____ is?", she's on it.
- Still just the 8 teeth.
- Meal time can still be a battle. She's even trying to outsmart us now. Jason was trying to feed her something and she pretended there was something in her hand and PRETEND ate it so that J would leave her alone. *LOL*
- She also pretend eats her fake food. It cracks me up. She started doing it the day after her birthday, actually, while playing with her new kitchen/food stuff.
- Mads has started to defend her personal space (from a parent with one too many smooches, perhaps) by a frustrated grunt and even smack. We're trying to teach her that it isn't okay to hit, but it is okay to say "no."
- She's now pretty good at walking with her wagon!



- The climbing has begun! She may not be walking yet, but she loves climbing stairs, us, and anything else she can get her feet up on.
- Finally has an interest in throwing/rolling her balls around.
- Likes to push around the toy cars (actually, bugs shaped like cars :) she got for her birthday.
- Is completely adorable with her baby doll Grandma & Grandpa Fisher got her for her birthday. Clip 1 :: Clip 2
- Schedule :: It's pretty out of whack right now as she's making the difficult transition from 2 to 1 naps. She typically takes that 1 nap at between 12-1 depending on what time she got up in the morning. She's been waking up between 5:30 and 6:30... ugh. Her 1 nap is sometimes very short and she's often tired lately. Luckily, though, it seems the nap is starting to lengthen slowly, so we're hoping she's starting to get used to the change.

What? This is safe, isn't it?

From 2010 - 2 - February

Little Girl in Big Shoes

From 2010 - 2 - February

Valentine's Day : Photos, Food, & Date Night

We started the day by taking photos with Meg Sexton Photography at Canyon Cree Ranch. We had a lot of fun in the stables, on the hay, and in the mud. :) I can't wait to share the results!

We decided to get an early lunch in Castro Valley before heading home. We chose Lucca Italian Deli and were not disappointed! Their pastrami sandwiches were so yummy. We even got an extra one to-go for later.

While we ate, we gave Mads her card.

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

She liked it. :)

From 2010 - 2 - February

At around 4:00, J & I dropped Miss Madison off at my parent's house to stay for the night and headed out as just the pair of us to celebrate Valentine's day.

After snacking on always-delicious clam chowder in a bread bowl from Boudin Bakery, we walked around Santana Row for quite a while before settling down on the patio of the Vintage Wine Bar for a glass of Prosecco for me and Merlot for the hubs.

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

Dinner at Pasta Pomodoro suited our craving perfectly and Pinkberry was the perfect way to end a fabulous day. I <3 you so much, Jason. Happy Valentine's Day to the man who will always have my heart!

Please & Thank You

Mads has been signing "Thank You" for about a week and this morning while we were waiting for a table at Stacks, she signed "Please" for the first time! Here's a video very shortly after she first signed it.

There's a "please" in the beginning and "thank you" toward the end. Our polite little darling. ;)



And just for kicks, a few shots from when we were waiting.

A classic Maddie skeptical face.

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

And later in the day we were all hanging out in the living room when Jase and I look over and Madison had climbed in her wagon and sat down. I guess she wanted a ride!

From 2010 - 2 - February

From 2010 - 2 - February

Signing "Baby"

Here's M signing "Baby" for the first (or second) time. She's really into photos of babies, babies in real life, and her baby doll Grandma & Grandpa got her for her birthday!

Dancing Machine

Mads has been dancing for quite a while now, but this was a whole 'nother level. Apparently I need to get a Wiggles CD because as soon as this song came on Pandora.com, she just couldn't keep from dancing and clapping. And the booty shaking? Awesome. She even has some kind of touch-the-floor move.

What concerns me is how she gets these moves! There are times I wish we let her watch TV so we could blame questionable moves on a Rhianna music video or something. ;)

An Embarrassing First For Madison

Embarrassing for us that is... Today, Jason accidentally kicked his glasses and said a not-very-child-appropriate word. Twice. Loudly.

Have I mentioned that M is starting to repeat things? *sigh* Her first swear word. It's either time to start watching what we say or get really good at explaining "Mommy/Daddy Words."

Where's Your Tummy?

Madison is having a great time learning about parts of her body. She knows nose, ears, eyes, lips, teeth, head, hair, tongue, toes, feet, and probably some I'm forgetting. However, tummy is by FAR the cutest one!