16 months!

It's only 3-4 days late, but Maggie is 16 months. I feel she has gone through some tremendous changes the last few weeks. Here are some highlights:

• She is talking a ton. (ie- making sounds, pointing, and trying to communicate.) This is helpful and frustrating all at the same time. She is easily frustrated when she doesn't get what she wants and I don't know what she wants. Though I do believe there are times that she doesn't know what she wants either. But I can tell that she is trying and that is always a step in the right direction.
• Speaking of steps! Guess who is FINALLY taking some? That's right! I don't recall a specific day, but we do have a short video of her walking about 10 steps on her own. She walks more each day, but still does a lot of knee walking. And now she wants to get down if I am holding her, usually to go cause trouble. Ha!
• She understands A LOT. You can ask her questions and sometimes she will shake her head yes or no in response. She understands the difference between upstairs and downstairs/basement. She does like to play down there. 
• She know some animal sounds. Cow, sheep and monkey...I have no idea where she picked up the monkey.
• She says 'mama', 'mommy', 'dada', 'books', 'bye-bye', she does the sign for 'milk' and even better she will walk/crawl over to the refrigerator and stand there signing or trying to say milk. Sometimes she will do the sign for 'water' when she wants a drink, but definitely knows what water is when you are talking to her. 
• She has pretty much made the switch to 18 month clothing.e hav
  
   Sweetness...does she have you fooled yet??
  
   Silly Maggie! We both love this smile of hers, squinty eyes and scrunched up nose.
  
   Sweet...and 2 seconds later.
  
   "I am DONE."
  
   She does like the shape sorter, and sometimes she actually gets them in. But she is big on dumping them out and she will actually put most of them back in.
  
   On the move, and she decided that she wanted to go upstairs.
  
   Just like sis, she likes to sit in the chair. She can get up in it and sit down all by herself, and (knock on wood) she hasn't fallen yet. She will even get down to get a book.
  
  
   See you later!
  
  
  
  
  
   This is what happens when you give Maggie a napkin. And now half the time she expects to be given one and allowed to destroy it. Confetti anyone?
  
  
  
  
   Bubble time!
  
  
  
  
  
   She just loved it!
  
  
  
  

Big Sis helping with the bubbles. She is getting pretty good!

1 year old!

Well we have a one year old! Here are some fun pictures
It is kind of late, so I'll update and add comments at a later date!

11 months

Well, here we are again. Another month come and gone. This last month has been pretty busy. There have been several home improvements, some of which were not entirely planned, and schools starting. Elise had already started preschool, but at the end of August MOPS started. Since Elise is going to preschool on Tuesday and Thursday she is still able to come with us on Wednesday to MOPS. Also, this is a first for Maggie. She went right after she was born in the Spring semester, but even when it ended she was only 6 months and she got to have the whole summer to forget about staying away from mom. That being said she has done so much better than I could have expected. I think she only had one day (so far) where she has cried. But none where they have had to call me to come to the rescue! Yay! So with MOPS I get a couple more hours of mommy (or me) time. Heavenly.

Anyway, on to the 11 month old!

I have no idea what Maggie is weighing, or how long she is but I have moved her up to 12 month clothes.

She is saying so many sounds now, no words, but I know that will come soon enough and I will have 2 chatter boxes in the house! She is starting to use the sign for more, because like Elise she loves cheese and always wants more. She is crawling everywhere and pulling up a lot, no walking, but if she wants something bad enough I have seen her inch her way while holding on. She can make a mess in 2.2sec, and will put it in her mouth even faster. Her newest trick, making a fish face. If you make a kissy sound at her she ends up making a fish face to mimic the sound. So cute, and so funny!

She still definitely needs that morning nap, but I have started running again and the best time is after I drop Elise off at preschool. The first time I tried it, we actually made it home before she was completely out, and I took her up to her room and she took a good nap while I showered, awesome! However, yesterday she didn't make it home and I didn't have the heart to try to move her. So I just took a quick snap shot.

She loves to get into Elise's books! Or anything she probably shouldn't...

(Excuse the unmade bed, I was in the middle of changing sheets.)

This is my sad/mad face because Mom took the book away. 

Honestly, she was trying to eat it! I wouldn't normally care, but it was actually paperback. 

And Elise likes that book.

So she made her way to another book shelf.

See how fast I can take all the books off the shelf! (2 minutes tops)

"What?"

Whenever she pulls herself up somewhere she always trying to drum/bang on it. She loves making noise/music by hitting or shaking whatever toys she has.

Some of her smiles just crack me up! She has so many facial expressions, and she is always trying to copy what you are doing too, and it is hilarious.

"Hi!"

Hope you all have a great day!

10 months

Well it finally happened, I totally spaced on what day it was and actually missed Maggie's 10 month birthday. I am surprised it hasn't happened yet. Oh well. These pictures are actually the next day, the 18th. 

 Maggie is gaining all kinds of personality and moving all over the place. Having a mobile this time around is completely different. There are so many more toys and she is willing to put anything in her mouth. She responds really well to her name, and sometimes even 'no.' She is increasingly harder to photograph because she is pretty quick, so she tends to be a blur or gets too close too quickly for me to get a decent picture.

 I kept trying to get far enough away from her to take picture, and get some good natural light coming in the front windows. She was very fast down the hallway, but not without a stop at the diaper bags behind the couch. She loves to chew on straps.

 This is her on her knees trying to stand up while holding onto my let. She does a type of tripod stand all the time. Usually I can't sit on the floor because she is constantly crawling and standing on me. She is definitely not close to walking, but she does like standing and getting her sea legs.

 "hey, Elvis!"

 She starting to venture out more and more. Occasionally she gets a hold of Elise's things. Luckily there aren't too many things that will cause problems. She likes the shiny box. And she REALLY likes shoes. She will get along great with Aunt Kristina!

They were trying to get Leinie to play. Obviously he was highly interested, ha! And of course, Maggie had her own thoughts on what she could do with it too.