And of course there's the fact that Maggie is going to have a little brother in about three months. (Hence the change to a more neutral color scheme for this blog). I'm apologizing to Little Britches, as dad has nicknamed him, in advance, as it seems the second child syndrome has already begun. We still did a cute/exciting announcement to get the word out to everyone, but we are slacking a bit more on the preparations this time. Just starting to really look into cribs, bedding, decor and all that jazz.
But hopefully I can blog a bit the last few months of expecting him and the first few months of his life. Steve and I are thrilled to be having a second child so soon. We'd wanted them about two years apart, and we are definitely getting our wish. We know life will be hectic and the house will be a mess and we'll never have enough time...but we are looking forward to every joy-filled second. And we're really excited to have a boy as well -- a whole crazy new experience, if the time we've spent with our friends' sons is any indication.
But back to the reason for my post this evening...Maggie is turning eighteen months old tomorrow. She's been in our lives a year and a half. It seems like it can't have really been that long...but at the same time, she's gone from such a helpless adorable baby to her own little person in the last six months. I wish I'd done a better job capturing it in writing, but thankfully I've got tons of pictures and videos to keep it in my memory.
- She still loves Dora can now name all the characters as she sees them -- Dora, Boots, Tiko, Siper/Fox, Isa, Binny. (Her pronunciations, not mine!) Today I caught her trying to say iguana.
- She's also developed a crazy affection for Elmo, a bit strange since she doesn't watch Sesame Street hardly at all.
- She has twelve teeth now including four molars.
- She LOVES dogs. Still a little bit afraid at first, but good luck keeping her away once they've gotten acquainted.
- In the past month, she has fallen in love with Goodnight Moon. She recognizes a lot of the pages now and beats us to saying house, mouse, kittens, and mittens.
- When you get to the page of Goodnight Moon with the little old lady, we'll read to the end of it...and Maggie whispers "Hush" under her breath. It's one of the cutest things we've ever seen.
- "Stuck" is one of her favorite words now -- basically for whenever she can't get things to do what she wants.
- "Happen" is another word she really likes for the same reason. For example, when she presses buttons on a remote and Dora does not come on in response.
- She's started to really recognize her grandparents and call them by name. Mostly Gamma and PawPaw, but she's working on Nana. Big Jake may be a ways down the road.
- She's starting to really enjoy her cousins too. She and Reagan followed each other around at Thanksgiving, and she and baby "Oooceee" were all over each other and a handful on our Florida vacation in January.
- She really likes to "color" now. Loves her Fisher Price Doodle Pro.
- She also can name off several colors. Yellow and green seem to be her favorites. They've been her first words waking up on occasion.
- She's starting to show interest in potty training. Mostly due to the big kids at the sitter's doing Pull-Ups right now, but we may give it a whirl in the next few months.
- Loves "o-gurt". Horizon Organic's drinkable yogurts may be her favorite food on the planet right now.
- Still won't drink juice. She's had it on a few occasions and turned her nose up. She's a milk and "wader" girl.
- Speaking of water, we need to get this girl into some swimming lessons. She loved the pool and the "oshin" on vacation.
- She's developed huge affection for Winnie the Pooh, including Tigger and Eeyore. (That probably comes from Mom).
- Maggie's a talker! At our last count, she's said over 125 words. Sometimes we have no idea where she learned them, but it's been amazing to watch.
