15 Months

Hello 15 months!

Our little sweetie is so full of energy these days. She is ALL over the place. Walking, running, climbing, jumping, falling - I'm surprised she hasn't had many bruises along the way! She is not scared of anything, which scares Mommy a little...

We've noticed a significant improvement in her vocabulary in the past month. She started enunciating the bye part of buh-bye, calls Zoe Zo-Zo or Ze-Zo, started mooing like a cow, says more (sounds like moow - still working on the r's!), Dede, hello (lalo) and says thank you's (dat dee). We're working on please, but for now she also says thank you when she really means please. :) She also just started tickling us back this month. She will stick both arms to touch us and will rotate her wrists while saying "ticka, ticka, ticka." It is pretty hilarious. She also finally signed "more" and "eat" this month. I've been working on some simple signs for months, and, of course, now that she can actually say the words, she signs them.

She also very interested in bowls and spoons now. She'll come in the kitchen and "help" stir her bowls while we're cooking dinner. I started letting her play with the bowls and tupperware while trying to cook dinner because she also became very attached to me this month. She has to be within a few feet of me at all times (if not holding on to both of my legs) or she gets extremely upset. She only did this for a few weeks and is getting better now. I guess it's just one of those phases they go through.

She started swimming lessons and is doing fine in them, and she recently enjoyed her first trip to a real pool (i.e. not the pool at swimming lessons). She likes to share her toys and food, pet and chase Zoe, try to escape out the dog door and get into everything. She loves to try to put on Mommy and Daddy's shoes when we leave them out, and she also loves putting on her own shoes. She loves feeding herself with her fork and spoon and gets upset if we try to feed her. She is a very independent and opinionated little girl, although you wouldn't know it if you just met her. She's still pretty shy around strangers, but once she warms up to someone, there's no escaping her! She also just started giving real kisses (we call them sugars) to us and everything, all. the. time. And we totally love it!

Oh, and I had to buy her first hairbrush and trim about 7 hairs that wouldn't stay out of her eyes this month. Before I know it, she'll be wanting highlights. ;)

At 15 months, Madelyn is such a fun, exciting, funny and sweet little girl. We continue to see how amazingly blessed we are each and every month.

At her 15-month checkup, we had to check her platelets again because of a pretty bad flare up of those darn petechiae, but her levels are normal, thank goodness. Her stats are pretty consistent with what they've been all along:

Weight: 22 pounds, 4 ounces (46 percentile)
Height: 31 1/2 inches (75 percentile)
Head: 47 cm (77 percentile)

I'll try to post pics soon.