It's outta control, and a post 18-month post

What's outta control, you ask?

Well, lots of things, including my closet, but recently it was this:

Yup. That's my daughter's hair. Every morning. Although, this morning it may have been a tad extreme due to me running my fingers through her wet hair in an attempt to dry it out prior to her drifting off to sleep last night.

A spritz of water, a comb and my fingers and her hair is as good as new again. I could bottle up her volume and sell it to those less fortunate in the volume area. I'd be rich.



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So, Madeline turned a year and a half old last week. I'm still in disbelief that she's 18 months old, but it's true. She has many, many opinions now and loves to express them. Sometimes it's hilarious and other times it's stressful. I want to peer inside her brain to see what she's thinking sometimes just so I can figure it out. She will frantically sign "please" when she wants something but many times, I have NO idea what she wants. She absolutely loves books now and cannot get enough of them. Thankfully, she doesn't eat them nearly as often anymore. She is still rocking the height at 33.5 inches (97th percentile) and just middle of the road with her weight at 23.4 pounds (50th percentile). Her pants are too big in the waist and too short in length - her cloth diapers keep her pants up though! She loves being outside but doesn't like her stroller anymore (and hasn't for quite some time) - she prefers to walk/run or push the stroller. She still doesn't drink cow's milk, hates to have her teeth brushed and would only eat strawberries if I'd let her.

Her recognition skills just floor me. One day she found a sponge under the bathroom sink (on the only cabinet we haven't put baby locks on) and started cleaning the floor with it. We were looking through one of her Bibles and there was a grandpa with a kid and she saw the gray hair and pointed and said, "Pop-a!" She points out the mama and daddy in her books and knows what is on pages before we turn them. She's started calling the trash can "yucky" (because I say that when she tries to dig in it), knows a myriad of animals and their sounds, and is just processing how things around her work. I'm amazed when I ask her something and she responds with the correct action. About a week ago, she started spinning around and around and then laughed when she stop and got dizzy. I just love how her little brain works! I honestly cannot keep up with her vocabulary now and she's learning something new daily. I wish I could hit the pause button to capture all the moments I forget! She is such a delight and I'm so glad I'm her mama!

I was actually trying to get a picture of her hair tamed, but she wanted to read a book instead, so this is what I got :-)