June

This month has really flown by for us, between the camping trip, getting the house up for sale and all the other little things that fill up our days. Here are some recent pictures of Madeline (who's major developments lately have included two-syllable words and even two-word sentences!).

Here she is reading a book to daddy.

And here she's having a laugh.

And here she's eating her first corn on the cob, which she devoured.
Walking in some big shoes.

Walking around Maymont park today in her new sandals.

Fifteen-month check-in

Today we took Madeline for her 15-month check-in with the pediatrician. She weighed in at 23 pounds and is 31.75 inches tall. She's grown more than two inches since her last check-in, which was three months ago. She's hardly put on any weight in that time - only a few ounces.

We also got a pretty good idea of how Madeline is progressing developmentally - the doctor ran down a checklist of things to look for at 15 months:

Walking (Can she walk yet?) Check. She's been walking for five months now. She can run at a good clip and ascend stairs without using her knees. She's even started to climb things. And she's coordinated enough to walk around wearing adult-sized shoes that she digs out of our closets.

Stacking (Can she stack two blocks?) Check.

Commands (Can she follow simple commands?) Check that, too. She's good at retrieving and delivering objects, such as shoes and toys, and performing actions, like surprising mommy with a kiss after I quietly give her the order in another room.

Words (She should have four to six words that she uses regularly.) Uh, yeah. The doctor did a double-take when we told her that Madeline has about 45 words in her vocabulary. These are words that she can say unprompted, and doesn't include the animal noises that she mimics whenever she sees a particular specimen. The doc's next question was if we read to her, and of course the answer was yes - every day, several times a day. Madeline loves books, and they seem to be paying off.

We discussed some other issues with the pediatrician (such as discipline, which is something we think about more and more as Madeline tests her boundaries - as she should be doing), but overall Madeline is doing great, and is even ahead of the curve in many aspects.

Camping

This week we took Madeline on her first camping trip - to the mountains of southwest Virginia. We weren't sure what to expect from Madeline, who's routine would be severely interrupted on a trip like this.

Mostly she did pretty well - she was happiest when she was riding in her hiking backpack on daddy's back (we hiked about 17 miles in two days, including to the top of Mount Rogers - the state's highest point). She took most of her naps in the backpack, too.

She had a little more difficulty settling down for bed at night, likely because she was in such a strange environment, and in a big tent instead of her crib. We camped for three days and two nights, and Madeline had fun running around the campsite, even though the uneven terrain provided some challenging footing for her little legs. Between the rocks and sticks and dirt and bugs, there was plenty of stuff to occupy her interest.

Madeline captured many firsts this weekend - first camping trip, first miles on the Appalachian Trail, first mountain summit. We also saw wild ponies near the top of Mount Rogers.

As with any trip, it was fun but tiring, and we were happy to return home Thursday night. It might be a while before we plan another extended camping trip, but this was a good experience to have under our belt.

See more pictures from our trip here.