18 months old

It is a little unbelievable to me that my baby is already 18 months old. She has been going to nursery for a few weeks though so I was a little prepared for it. She officially hit the mark on Friday.

So, what is she like at 18 months?

Madeline has a mind of her own!

She wants what she wants when she wants it. She will let you know if you are not getting her what she wants or if you are bothering her.

She does not like to cuddle. She is so much like me. She gets really annoyed if you try to hold her too long or snuggle her when she is not in the mood for it but when she comes over to you and puts her head on your leg and says, "Ohhhhh." it does make it all the more sweeter.

She is the pickiest eater in the world. I am having a really hard time with this because Abi wasn't picky at all until recently when she has started having an opinion about what she does and doesn't like. Maddy, on the other hand, can like something one day and not the next. She hates fruits and vegetables. Occasionally she will eat peaches or pears but sometimes she won't. The only fruit that she loves is bananas. 

Sometimes she'll eat peas or corn but not all the time.

She hates goldfish crackers.

There are days when she won't even eat Macaroni and cheese!

What she does like are Cheerios, Milk, water, bread/toast, peanut butter sandwiches, granola bars, Gerber cereal bars, Gerber puffs, and treats like animal crackers of course.

I don't know what to do about it because I don't feel like she is getting the nutrition she needs and I am not patient about making special meals for the kids. I just don't do it. I serve what I serve for dinner and if they don't like it they have to go without...I know I'm mean. But with Maddy that is harder to do because if she won't eat anything.... 

I will usually end up giving her a cereal bar or something. 

She loves putting pants around her neck like a scarf... and pretty much anything else that she can do that with.

She loves books! She is always looking at them, pulling them down off shelves, and has to have a few in bed with her at naptime and bedtime or she will cry.

She also loves carrying around these ice cream cone toys Abi got for Christmas that have the scoops velcro on. She is really cute with them pretending to eat them and give them to others.

While she doesn't like to be held or cuddled, she is quite the charmer in other ways. She is extremely friendly and everywhere we go she tries to get every ones attention to tell them Hi.

I can be in a store and she will be crying and then someone will walk up next to us and she will immediately turn off the whine and smile and say 'Hi."

She is hard to take places because she isn't easy to keep entertained. She wants to be down getting into things. I find this very challenging.

She is so fun to listen to. She will jabber on and on telling me stories I don't understand. 

She loves to laugh.

She can say lots of words but chooses not to. Mostly she says, Mom, No, Yeah, Yay,That, Cak (cracker) and Hi.

She continues to love music and dancing and just gets so excited whenever she hears music of any kind. I could watch her dance for hours.

She likes to sit in the baskets we keep the toys in.

If we watch Phineas and Ferb she tries to sing along to the opening song and sometimes you can make out "104 days" and she points when they say, "It's over here".

She is very independent (like her mother) and stubborn (again, like her mother!) and we can't imagine life without her!