18 months

It is hard to believe, but Maggie is now a year and a half!
She is such a little stinker, but seriously cute when she wants to be. She has much more 'attitude' than her sister did, although we are recalling some more challenging times we had with Elise around this age...also known as the 'terrible twos.' The real difference Elise had more words to use and Maggie just throws a fit.

This was at one of Elise's soccer games a few days before she was officially 18 months, but who's counting?

 We finally got some decent weather, so we got to play outside. She LOVES to get the chalk out and scribble with it.

 Most of the time she just carries two of the holders in her hands and walks around, but occasionally she'll stop and make her mark. 

 She also loves going up and down the front steps. It is a little nerve racking, but she is pretty good at it. And I think it is more of a pain for everyone if you actually try and help her.

We got this little chair from my Aunt and Uncle when we went down for the second time to get the trees for our front yard. It has been in the family for years, so I am told, but she seems pretty comfortable in it. Elise likes to sit in it too. And guess what? Maggie gets mad and tries to push Elise out when she thinks it is her turn. Ahh, the joys of two kids right?

Maggie didn't have her check-up until just yesterday and her stats were right around the 50% percentile for height and weight. I didn't catch how tall she was because she was screaming the whole time, but she weighed a little over 25lbs. Seriously lightweight compared to her sister! She cried or covered her face almost the entire time the doctor with in speaking with us. That was until he actually 'checked' her out. Then she was just mad and cried to whole time. It is a little sad to see such different kids when it come to things like this. Elise never had any real fear and was/is pretty social, but not Maggie. If I am there, forget it! She just wants to be held by me and if we are some place new it takes her a long time to warm up. Oh well. She did just fine and seems to be completely healthy and normal.

Here is a list of words or things she know/says:

gator

bear

cat

dog

ball

'moo-ee' this means movie

water

okay

hat

car

attempts to say outside (sounds more like 'side)

attempts butterfly (sounds like 'sy')

hop

eye

bye

chair

mommy

dada

up

sit

boy

sis

attempts at pizza (comes out more like 'zah')

attempts at Leinie (sounds more like 'inie') And usually after she tries to say Leinie, she tries to say "good boy" and if he is right there she will give him a pat. Apparently we say "good boy" a lot.

She can point to her head, hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ear, tongue, hand, feet/toes, and belly

She knows what a cow, sheep, horse, monkey, lion, and duck says.

She tries to say some of the shows we watch: Manny (Handy Manny), Dan (Daniel Tiger), Cat (could be Peg + Cat or Cat in the Hat).

She tries to hop...super cute by the way. Her feet don't leave the ground but she tries.

That is all I can think of right now, I am sure there are probably a few other things I am forgetting.

{4} wheel fun

A couple of weekends ago we went to visit with family at my Aunt and Uncle's house. There was other family from out of state visiting so we all used it as an opportunity to catch up. Mom and Dad came down for the weekend and we traveled together.The weather for the day was absolutely gorgeous (where is that weather now???) so we got to spend a good portion of the day outside. We had a really great time and Elise got to have some 4-wheel fun!

She absolutely loved riding on the 4-wheeler!! I think she would have spent all day on it if she could. If no one else was riding she kept asking Uncle Bob to take her out for a ride.

Love this picture!

Maggie really liked walking around. She just wanted to go, go, go. She touched a few of the trees, but didn't care for them. And when she fell down she almost always asked for help because I don't think she liked touching the grass to stand up.

Since we were visiting and trying to keep Maggie out of trouble I didn't always get to watch or hear what Elise was talking about while she was riding but I did hear two pretty funny stories.

1. She figured out how the speedometer on the 4-wheeler worked and told Uncle Bob (or my Dad) I can't remember who she was riding with) that they could go 'faster.'

2. She apparently fell into a hole in their backyard. She was fine, but a little shaken up. She convinced Uncle Bob to take her out for another ride because she said "I think a ride would make me feel better." He laughed and took her out to reward her ingenuity. HA! 

Fun playing with my new zoom lens.

Thanks Uncle Bob and Aunt Debbie for a great day!

We are outta here!

It has been a LONG time since we have been able to travel and visit family. The weather every weekend has been unpredictable at best, but finally a couple of weekends ago we ventured up to my mom's. Since it is only about an hour away, if the weather did decide to get crazy we wouldn't have as far to get home. It still snowed over the weekend, but it wasn't so bad that we weren't about to get home.

Since the weather wasn't great, we mostly visited and hung out. But we did take a few minutes to pop across the street to Conner Prairie and have a little fun.

 Finally Dad got to come, and I think he had as much fun as the kids in this area. You can create and learn about science by building and experimenting. This was an area to learn about circuits.

 They tested which blades worked the best. There was a meter attached to the windmill to see how much energy you could get. Of course, Elise liked pushing the button to start the wind.

 Then they worked on creating a ball run. Again, I think Bob had as much or more fun than the kids. This is definitely Dad's sort of thing. (And why he is an engineer and I am not, ha)

 Maggie really likes climbing into chairs and rocking.

 For some reason, Elise decided to hug the food.

 Planting food with sis.

 Elise said the chickens were having a fight. 

 "Baaa"

 "Don't you just love my big floppy hat?!"

 I think Elise could have spent all day here. Just building with pretzel rods, orange slices, and marshmallows. I actually had to promise her that we could do this at home because we needed to leave for lunch. We did do it at home, but with toothpicks. And I am pretty sure she spent at least thirty minutes just playing around with time. Of course, there was a little bit of snacking involved.

Maggie practicing her writing. She was so sweet. She actually picked up most of the pieces of chalk that she dumped on the floor.

Exciting News!

This awesome 4.5 year old has a loose tooth!

She is somewhat nervous and excited about the whole thing. She has asked about the Tooth Fairy and all that it entails. She even asked a friend some questions because he had already lost a tooth. So she figured he knew all there was to know. She is such a worry wart, I think we spent 20 minutes one night reassuring her that it wasn't a big deal and that it happens to everyone. Everyday she checks to make sure she knows which one is loose and proceeds with the usual questions. It will be interesting to see how she handles it when it finally does come out, but I know that it will be a bittersweet moment for me.

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!