I love how much he’s talking these days. I’m glad I have
several videos of him looking up at me with big, wide eyes, and rambling off a
bunch of babble. His mouth hardly moves at all when he talks, but he really
acts as if he’s really trying to tell me something. Most of the time, his
talking ends with a little laugh before he runs off, and always involves a lot
of hand movement. He really gets into it!
My favorite thing he says is “Thank you” (“Da Doo”). He says
it after EVERYTHING, and it’s the cutest thing ever. He says “Da Doo” whenever
he’s given something of course, but the best is when he comes and kisses me and
as he’s running off I hear a quiet, “Da doo” every time. He also says it in
advance when he wants something, he’ll reach out to whatever he wants and say
“Da Doo”. I hope his adorable politeness isn’t just a phase!
I think the only new word he’s added to his vocabulary this
month is “Batman.” Jeff’s been working on that one- he thinks Batman is cooler
than Superman. So now Madden rarely says Superman unless I force it out of him.
He also loves to sing in the bath tub. His favorite song these days is “Old
McDonald” and he usually chimes in and helps me sing, “E yi E yi yo”, which
just sounds like “Yi yi yi oooo.” He also likes our book, “No more monkeys
jumping on the bed,” and always shakes his little finger and says, “No No No.”
Speaking of jumping, he is becoming an expert! He loves
climbing onto my bed and jumping like a silly monkey. He’s really crazy and wobbly and doesn’t seem
to know or care where the edge of the bed is, so I’ve learned to line the floor
around the bed with pillows so he has a softer landing. He is also great at
jumping into the pool from the side, and he’s recently discovered that he can
jump off the chair in his bedroom. A few of those landings have ended in a
couple tears, but it doesn’t take long before he’s climbing back up to jump off
again!
Madden is moving all the time! The days of laying him on the
floor and knowing that he won’t go anywhere are long gone. I don’t even remember what that was like
anymore! He darts from one room to the next and makes messes faster than I can
clean them up. He has learned how to walk backwards and thinks it’s so fun, he
spins in circles and falls down laughing, he picks up invisible things and
comes and puts them into my hand, he loves his “Little Blue Truck” city book,
and brings it to be several times a day. He can point to every taxi on each
page, and says “hi!” and waves when the mayor steps out of the car.
He loves to feed me more than he likes feeding himself, and
he’s always bringing me food and won’t leave me alone until I take a bite. He
doesn’t like when anything gets stuck to his feet, and in our house it’s
usually Cheerios. He stops whatever he’s doing, sits down and picks off the
cereal and throws it.
He knows his bedtime routine, and whimpers a little bit even
before we get to his room. It’s been hard for me to stick to his 7 o’clock
bedtime because he is so energetic and fun at night. He’s probably so excited
that dad is home to play, and he acts so silly and makes us laugh. I love
putting him to bed though, he’s getting so long and heavy that I can’t hold him
very long while standing, so now I sit in the chair and we cuddle and sing
songs. He likes to play a couple more games of peeka –boo, and he plays with my
hair. If I’m not looking at him, he’ll grab my face and force me to look at him
and he gives me lots of good night kisses. Sometimes he’ll stare at me and then
he’ll break out into giggles and I wonder what goes on inside his little head.
He is the sweetest boy and I miss him during the night when we aren’t together.
I love hearing him in the monitor in the morning just singing to himself and l
love that he wakes up happy. As soon as he hears the door to his room open, he
squeals and jumps up and down and reaches for me. But lately, as soon as I pick
him up he squirms to get down and runs straight to the monitor in the wall and
yanks it out. This happens every single morning, it’s so funny! He won’t let go
of it either until I give him his sippy cup of milk.
He also loves playing
hide and go seek in the house and uses the pantry as his hiding spot every
time. When I’m in the kitchen cooking dinner, he hides in the pantry and swings
the door open every few seconds and yells, “Baa” for “boo”. We’ve been having
so much fun with this game. Sometimes I’ll crouch down behind the counter and
wait for him to swing open the pantry, and when he doesn’t see me he comes out
and loves when I jump out and scare him. He laughs so hard so far he hasn’t
gotten bored with the game!
Something new that he’s started doing is looking at me out
of the corner of his eyes. Sometimes he’ll even be looking down at his books or
toys, and without moving his head, he’ll look up at me with only his eyes and a
little grin and stare at me until I notice. He thinks he’s being so sneaky! I’m
so excited to find out what other funny little things he’ll going to pick up in
the coming months.
We’re still working on body parts. He knows where his eyes,
ears, head, nose, mouth, and belly button are. And he knows what sound a dog
makes. He’s a pretty social little guy and is so intrigued by big kids. He does
a great job sharing with us, but a little harder time sharing with kids his own
age. He got a new bike this month, but his little legs are too short to reach
the ground. But he still loves it and likes to fill the trunk with all of his
balls.
He loves being outside so much! I can’t wait until we have a
yard that he can play in and roam free. Until then, the parking lot is our
playground. Every time he wants to go outside he goes into my closet and brings
me shoes. Usually they are mismatched and sometimes they are Jeff’s, but I know
what they mean. They mean, “Come on mom get your shoes on, we’re going out!”
It’s amazing how observant he is too. He’ll often go to the drawer and find our
mail keys, walk over to the door and try to put the key into the lock. I’m sure
he sees us put the keys into the door and thinks that’s how the door opens. My
favorite part though is that he fiddles with the keys first, and picks out the
one key he wants to use. He also loves to take the keys to the mail boxes and
try to open each mailbox. And, there have been a few times when we’ve been
waiting in the car and I bring him up front with me. He takes the car keys and
tries to fit them into the ignition! He is one observant little guy!
Anyway, he loves playing outside, and has a fit when it’s
time to come back inside. It rains so much here that there are constantly
little puddles of hot, oily rain water, and he is drawn to them like a magnet. He
has to stomp in every single puddle he sees, it’s impossible for him to leave
one untouched. I think he likes the puddles more than the pool actually; it’s
very common for him to lie down and roll around in them so it looks like he
fell into a pool. It’s starting to get really hot here now that summer is
coming, and I usually judge when it’s time to come inside by how much he’s
sweating and how pink his little cheeks are. He never seems to care though, he
runs around laughing and smiling, and pointing to everything he sees. Jeff and
I have figured out the secret to playing tennis with him on the court. We bring
a big bowl of ice cubes, and it keeps him occupied long enough for us to play
for a while- at least until the ice cubes melt.
My favorite thing about Madden at 16 months is that he is
such a kisser. I probably kiss him 1,000 times a day, but he comes to kiss me
about 2,000 times a day! He’ll be playing with toys or reading a book, and then
he suddenly must get a kissy urge because he jumps up and runs after me with
his lips puckered saying, “mmmmmm!” and waits at my feet until I bend over and
kiss him. This happens a lot, and I love it so much. It will be a heartbreaking
day when he stops doing this. I think he knows that we like his kisses too
because he’ll lean in for a smooch when we do something nice for him. He
rewards us for taking him outside, or giving him something he wants, reading
him a story or playing with him. It’s the best prize I’ve ever received!
We are little obsessed with our little guy, he is so
irresistible and brings so much joy to our family. We don’t know what we’d do
without him!
