18-month check-in

Today we took Madeline for her 18-month check-in with the pediatrician. She weighed in at 24 pounds, 11 ounces, and is 32.25 inches tall. She's grown about a half-inch since her last check-in, which was three months ago. She did not want to get weighed today, so the measurement above includes her squirminess and the bunny she was clutching.

The doctor was again impressed with her language skills - babies this age commonly have mastered about 10 words. That seems almost comical for us to imagine since Madeline has a repertoire of 100 words or more. These are words that she uses without prompting and in the proper context. The doctor said that this is obviously a strength of hers and that she's on a 3-year-old level with her language/vocabulary.

The video here shows Madeline practicing some of those words with Grandma last week. The last segment is one of my favorites, so I decided to include it even though she walked off camera. She walked over to me, said "hi," gave me a kiss and said "love you." What more could a dad want?

August

August has been a month of ups and downs, but Madeline has taken it all in stride. At the beginning of the month we didn't know if we would ever sell our house, but a few weeks later we're packing things up and preparing to move in mid-September to a wonderful house that happens to be in our same neighborhood. Also, Madeline came down with an unpleasant virus that had her out of commission for several days. The episode made us thankful that Madeline has, on the whole, been a very healthy baby, as this was only the second or third time she's been really ill.

Madeline is showing us that she has a way with words. She frequently utters four-word sentences that involve subjects, verbs and objects. "Daddy lay down pillow," she says to me with a wide smile when she wants me to lay next to her on the large floor pillow. She says "please" and "thank you" more often than not. And, in perhaps the best development of all, she's started saying "love you, daddy" when she's feeling particularly cuddly. (Of course, she also says "love you, bunny" to her favorite stuffed rabbit and "love you, mailman" to our letter carrier as we watch from the living room window.

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Some pictures from this month:

Madeline enjoyed spending time with her cousin Noah and the rest of the Hartsons when they stayed with us for a weekend.

The crazed towel monster appears after bath time each night as Madeline runs from room to room with nary but a towel draped over her head. Sometimes mommy regrets this.

Madeline loves to draw, so mommy set up a coloring area on our dining-room table. (Mommy likes to draw, too.)

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Madeline enjoyed the sprinkler on a hot August afternoon. At first she was timid . . .

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. . . then she became a little more curious . . .
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. . . and then it was all-out sprinkler madness.

Madeline got all dressed up to help celebrate Mommy's birthday on August 16. (Then mommy and daddy went to the Jefferson while Madeline stayed with Grandma for the night!)

Madeline asked how she could be useful around the house, so I told her to start packing for the big move. (In my defense, I was prepared to offer her a medium box. . .)

Madeline loves reading books that she pulls from the living-room book shelf. It's amusing to see a 17-month old engrossed in a copy of Ginsberg's "Howl" or Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover."

Madeline (shown with more age-appropriate reading material) gives me a big smile to let me know she's feeling better after a virus humbled her for several days.

I know I'm biased, but Madeline must be among the top 20 cutest babies on the continent.