Maddie Grace: 20 Months

I wonder what month I should stop doing monthly updates for Maddie Grace. 2 years? When the new baby comes? When she’s 18? I love writing down the details of what’s new with her each month though and use these blog posts as a way to memorialize it, because I really don’t have time to journal anymore and I want to remember all of it.

This month has really been great. Maddie Grace’s temper tantrums haven’t been bad, she’s mostly a sweet, happy girl, although she has a TON of energy and loves getting into things and making as big of a mess as possible. Our biggest problem has been her constantly being sick the last month though. It seems to just be one thing after another and me and her passing sicknesses back and forth. We were at the doctor yesterday and got a referral to an ENT after a long string of ear infections so hoping we can get in to see one of those soon and do whatever we need to to put an end to this nonsense.

MG’s language continues to grow every day and astonishes me, which I know I’ve said the last few months but it really does. She seems to understand just about anything she’s told now, and is fairly good at following directions. One thing I love is that she says “okay” all the time. “Maddie Grace would you like to eat?” “Okay!” “Do you want the pink or the blue?” “Okay!” She pretty much wakes up every morning asking “where’s daddy?” (she’s a total daddy’s girl) and spends about half the day searching for our cat saying “where’s meow meow?” I love how animated she is saying “Oh! There she is!” when she does find the cat or whatever object she’s looking for.

Speaking of random objects she’s always looking for, she has a little posse of friends who has to go with her everywhere. Her “wubby” (wubanub), puppy, and cow. Puppy is a stuffed animal she just loves and cow is a Chick-Fil-A cow that is she inseparable with right now. I don’t fully understand it but whatever. Maddie Grace is still completely Peppa Pig, or “Eppa Pig!” obsessed. She loves anything and everything Peppa, and is going to be really excited when daddy takes her to see Peppa Pig Live in January. She also has gotten really into Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and loves to say “Oh Tootles!” like they do in the show.

Music, dancing, coloring, and sports are all some of MG’s favorites. She loves banging on the piano, dancing, and her little music class. She is big on coloring on her water board that we all love because it’s not messy, and likes to color with crayons but prefers standing there handing us crayons and pointing to where she wants us to color. She does the same thing with her blocks – she hands us the blocks and then points at where we need to put them. I think she’s definitely going to be a girl boss one day.

MG is such a great little caretaker and I hope this means she is going to be a good big sister. If anyone sneezes or coughs she will say “bless you” and run and grab a tissue and bring it to them, and then wipe their nose. She wants to feed everyone (going to have to keep an eye on her with the baby), and will try to give her dolls baths. She loves giving treats to Miss Kitty and chasing our neighbors cat around our yard trying to give him treats too. She’s obsessed with babies and wants to look at and pet every one we see too so I hope she loves her brother the same way, although her constantly wanting our full attention and to be held might cause some issues. One of my favorite things right now is Maddie Grace’s big running hugs and kisses. They’re the best. She is seriously the sweetest and most loving little girl. She’s also started making a pouty face where she sticks her lip out that is to die for.

We’ve been using time out consistently as a means of discipline – we’ve been doing this for a while but at first she seemed to have no concept what was going on. Now it seems to actually make sense to her what is happening. When she’s bad she has to go stand in the corner and she doesn’t like it. Sometimes (not often) I’ll tell her to go to time out and she will actually walk over to the corner by herself and pout. Other times I’ll put her in the corner and she turns back and smirks at me before running to wherever her favorite toy is.

So you may be wondering why my child is wearing summery clothes if you don’t live in this region. Well, it’s been in the 70’s and sunny for several days now and we have been fully enjoying it. It’s rainy today and supposed to get colder so I’m glad we took advantage of the warm weather and MG wore her new Miki Miette romper when she could. I mean we can’t go anywhere tropical right now because of my pregnancy but we might as well dress like we are at a beach resort when it’s this nice out, right?

So here’s to the last month of Maddie Grace being an only child. I’m going to treasure each and every day where I get to fully focus on her – can’t believe how little time is left!