Madeline's top 10 things she loves

Madeline's fave things right now (brainstorm for stocking stuffers):

1) Dora. Anything Dora. I'm hoping to find a set of figurines for all the characters.

2) lollipops. She loves blueberry dum-dums

3) Paw Patrol. Zuma figurine. That's the only one she doesn't have and I think she'd love it in her bath since Zuma rides a boat.

4) books. Madeline loves books. Especially lift a flap. I found one with Diego and Baby Jaguar that I think she will love. 

5) puzzles. Not sure if I can find one for the stocking, but I do think I'll get her a few of the puzzles with peg pieces. 

6) Toy Kitchen. I'm pretty sure all the dishes from their toy kitchen are now bath toys. I think we just need a new set for the kitchen.

7) bubbles. 

8) Color Wonder. I just want the blank paper. Not the coloring pages.

9) accessories. Oh my goodness, Madeline loves jewelry. And hats, and purses

10) bows. Loves a bow. Asks for a bow. So unlike her sister in that regard. Need to replace missing navy and Aqua bows

Madeline at 21 months

What a little ray of sunshine this baby girl is.

And she's become rather well-known it seems! At least among our Red Barn family. I met two of the RB parents this week and was getting to know them (their children are not in Madeline's class) and they both said, "You're Madeline's mom? I love Madeline!" It turns out they see her in the mornings before she moves into her Chicks classroom. 

At any rate, Madeline loves hugs and kisses and snuggling right now. We call her Huggy Bear or Sugar Bear. She loves "way in wap" or laying in our laps. Madeline also loves to grab fingers as she has since infancy. She will even try and bend them backwards if we don't watch!

Madeline, like AC, knows many words  and can read them thanks to Your Baby Can Read. She knows all her colors  knows all her body parts. She also can read many animal names, household items and verbs like wave, sit, eat, drink and run. 

Madeline loves to play in the water right now, she loves to read books and be read to, she loves to eat! What a little snacker. 

Madeline really loves whatever her big sister loves and whatever toy her sister has. Poor AC! We have given Anna Claire the freedom to just go in her room and close the door when she wants to play with something without sharing or just needs some space. That's worked out pretty well.

Madeline loves stroller rides,going to the zoo, and generally just traveling anywhere! 

She is a happy, fun little girl!

Seventeen months: ten things I love about Madeline right now.

I was just running through a list of things I in my mind that are unique to Madeline and her age, things that I will be sad when she no longer does them, and things I will never want to forget. Many times I think, I need to write this down! So I will! Here goes:

1. I love how perky and happy you are when you wake up in the morning. "Hi!" Or "Hi Mommy!" Love starting my day with your sweet smile.

2. I love how you say Anna Claire's name "Ah-Cwaire!"

3. I love that while you cry, you actually say, "I cry!" In case we miss the tears or the high-pitched screaming, you have a back up plan.

4. One day I will miss how you pull each of your books off the shelf, examining each one, telling us who is on the cover, until they are all on the floor.

5. I will miss how when you want to nurse you hug my leg and say, "I cuddle."

6. I love how you always gently pat our backs whenever we pick you up to hold you.

7. I love how gentle you are with Kitty. You have never been rough with her. It's like you instinctively know she's old and fragile. 

8. I love our dinner time games that you have us play, getting us all to clap, put our arms up, wave, fist-bump and "explode."

9. I will miss how much you love Frozen. Even when listening to the musical score in the car and how you'll holler "uh oh, Elsa!" when you know something is about to happen to her or "Olaf!" when you know it's his part in the movie.

10. I may not miss this, but you always cry when you're having fun but have to leave. Like when bath is over or when it's time to leave the park. "I wing! I horsey!" (Translation: I swing! I ride the horsey on the merry go round.)

Sixteen Months

Madeline is wanting to explore at this age. To put it in her words, "I go, go, go!"

She wants to run all over the house and is interested in learning to climb up and down the stairs.

She is starting to say lots of two and three word sentences: I jump, I good girl, I the baby, I sweet, Thank you, Alright, Aw man.

She can also tell you exactly what she wants which is so helpful! We don't have to guess what she wants. She will not only tell us eat or snack but also what she wants to eat. If she's hurting she's able to say all her body parts so that's really helpful too. Plus saying pee pee or poop to let us know what kind of diaper we're in for.

Madeline loves following Anna Claire, coloring, board books, emptying containers and filling them back up, running, dancing, climbing, Kitty and Pop.

She can use a fork and spoon well, take her shirt off, put her dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, right a book and turn the pages correctly with board or paper pages, can almost be trusted with crayons, fall down and get back up with no tears, blow kisses, go "shhh! Shhh!" with a quiet finger, and count to five with help.

Our New First Aid Kit (and other products we've replaced with essentialoils)

I've been wanting to write this post for a couple of weeks now, but what's been stopping me was my own skeptisism on how I would handle fever and fussiness if I tossed our favorite pain reliever and fever reducer in the trash, in favor of oils I hadn't proven to treat those yet.

Well, yesterday I had that opportunity. For those of you who don't know Baby Madeline, she is a very happy, easy-going baby. Fussiness just isn't something we have to worry about at our house (Flashback to 4 years ago, her sister was a completely different story. We considered buying stock in the pain reliever/fever reducer.) 

Anyway, Madeline was abnormally fussy and shoving her hands in her mouth. I looked up and read on teething and fussiness and saw it as an opportunity to prove we could live life without that bottle of fever reducer/pain reliever. 

Within 5 minutes after applying diluted thieves to her gums, diluted peace and calming to her chest and diluted cedarwood to her feet, we had this child:

And I have testimony after testimony of success to offer up of oils we've tried and had results, and products we no longer use/need/buy! I won't do that here, but plan on starting a separate blog for EOs soon. (Please comment below if interested in following my EO blog so I can be sure to add you.)

I am not able to list the products we no longer use, so I will list the generic uses:

Pain reliever/fever reducer

Cough and cold medicine

Pain reliever (cramps)

Allergy meds

Prescription pain reliever

Face wash

Antibiotic gel

Baby lotion

Wrinkle cream

Lotion

Moisturizer

Eye makeup remover

Under eye cream

Dark spot/age spot treatment

Wart remover

Anxiety and depression meds

Doctor visits

Meds prescribed at doctor visits (there have been no doctor visits)

Oral pain reliever for baby

Hand sanitizer

Prescription and OTC meds for back pain  and jaw pain

And I will add more as they come to mind!

I was so concerned about the initial investment into this life change, that we wouldn't be able to afford it, but so far I am seeing a savings which totally blows me away.

I truly believe in trying to offer the healthiest lifestyle I can provide for my family, and as I learn better, I do better. 

I feel confident too, knowing that I am equipped with the right resources to treat my babies in an informed manner, and that I am using the highest quality EOs.

If you are interested in doing the same, this is where I started, but only make that decision after doing your own personal research. http://yl.pe/9rn

100 words?

Madeline had her 15 month check up this week and dr. Roads was in disbelief that she can say over 100 words. 

I even doubted myself as I spit out the words until I got home that night and made this list:

Cat  

Dog

Cow 

Duck

Pop

Pink

Blue

Green

Pig

Book (10)

Eyes

Ears

Nose

Elbow

Teeth

Hand

Cheese

Banana

Elmo

Olaf (20)

Dora

Shoe

Yuck

Up

No

Yeah

Mama

Dada

Uh oh

Hi (30)

Go

Moon

On 

Minnie

Color

Tongue

Egg-y

Bow

Hair

Eat (40)

Hat

Ball

Bubble

Umbrella

Snack

Apple

Open

Back

Nap

Oh boy! (50)

Aw man!

I ok.

Cup

Animal

Poop

See

Bye bye

Seat

Cold 

Coat (60)

Baby

Zip

Moo

Meow

Ha ha

Bear

Hot

Sip

Map

Jump (70)

Night night

Sleep

Alright

Path

Chair

Kitty

Sissy

Whoa

Cool!

Beep beep (80)

Spoon

Mickey

Donald

Toe

Feet

Down

Open

Puff

Hurray! 

Yay! (90)

Yellow

Purple

Three

Five

Close

Bath

That

Kite

Cake

Off (100)

Fifteen Months

I posted a few weeks ago that this month has been a vocabulary explosion for Madeline. Even the past few weeks has Been unreal. 

She can now say: eat, "nack" (snack), cat, pop (what she calls grandpa), kitty, cat, cake, elbow, bow, shoe, tree, cheese, nanya (banana), "gook" (book). And I'm sure I'm leaving a bunch out!

Madeline has also learned how to blow raspberries. See pic below. 

She is running now (so cute/oh dear). 

Madeline loves Mickey Mouse clubhouse or anything with mickey. The clubhouse she got from Santa is one of her favorite toys now and she's not a big one on toys, usually preferring books or stuff.

She's interested in coloring books and crayons but would rather walk around the room holding the crayons. She has figured out how to mark on the paper and is good about not marking on other things (so far.) working with her on keeping out of her mouth.

Madeline loves meal time, riding in shopping carts, her daddy (big time Dada's girl), Dora, Olaf and Frozen of course, her little stuffed leopard "cat", board books (especially the Karen Katz books and Lullabye Little One is coming into favor which was ACs fave).

Favorite foods right now are cheese and nanya. She also will eat up steak, hamburger and shellfish.

Madeline also transitioned to the one year old class at church this month and to the chicks class at the red barn. She's doing great in both! 

No longer wanting a bottle during the day which means no more pumping at school for this mama!