Maddie Kate - 21 Months!

Maddie Kate is 21 months old and is just about the cutest, sweetest, funniest, orneriest, smartest and silliest baby girl we know.  She has center stage at the Battreal house most of the time and we all love her a lot.  Landon is so sweet with his baby sister.  He calls her "my baby" and he's gentle with her most of the time - even after she smacks him around.  She has brought so much joy to our house - she's also brought sleep deprivation and I know...I just know that 20 years from now we'll be laughing about this phase in our lives and wondering how we survived it...that is if we actually do survive it!

At 21 months MK:

weighs 29 lbs 4 ounces (90%)
is 36 inches long (99%)
has a head circumference of 20cm (99%)
wears a size 4 diaper - but 5's are starting to fit better
wears a size 6 shoe and 24 month and 2T clothes

She talks up a storm...she speaks in sentences and the first sentence I remember her saying was, "Mommy, I want more orange juice".  Of course it wasn't perfectly clear but I remember thinking, wow!  She just said a lot of words!!  To list her words would take up an entire post - she can say anything...her vocabulary is crazy!  Sometimes she rattles stuff off that makes us stop in our tracks.  We love it when she tells us to "watch this!" and she's already started asking "why" and "mine!" has for sure caught on.  She says "okay mommy" or "okay daddy" when we ask her to do something - but sometimes she says, "no!".  Just this week she started saying "1-2-3, go!" and she also likes to throw her hands up and yell "hooray!" When we pray before a meal she says a couple of the words and then says "amen!" at the end while attempting the sign of the cross.

She loves music!!  I mean loves it!  She loves to sing and dance and she loves for mommy to sing to her.  One of her favorites right now is The Wheels on the Bus.  For the longest time she'd push her arms out in front of her and say "mooo back moo back" and then throw her arms up and say "all town!".  It took us forever to figured out that she was singing that the driver on the bus says move on back, move on back all through the town!  When we finally figured it out she was so happy!  She knows all the moves to that song and we love to sing it with her.  She also love to sing Jesus Loves Me and puts her muscles up when we sing "but he is strong".  She calls it the bible song.  She loves Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - she calls that one "up up sky" and Ba Ba Black Sheep is "ba ba ba".  She is also a fan of the Justin Bieber and can sing Baby - which is mine and Landon's favorite!  She also loves to sing her ABC's and can even get some of the letters!  Smarty pants!

She got her mommy and daddy's love of food...she loves it all.  She and her brother share a crazy love for cheese and she eats her fruits and veggies.  She likes milk and loves apple and white grape juice.  She is still a huge fan of chocolate!

She loves school!  Her teachers this summer were Darby and Melanie.  She can say both their names and talks about them a lot.  Her very best friend is Papi.  He's a cute little guy!  Julia is in her class too!  She loves to read books and loves it when we read to her.  Sometimes she picks up a book and crawls up in a chair and looks through it.  Tonight she flipped one over and said, "the end!".

She is starting to potty train!  We are using the little potty we bought for Landon...he never much cared for it but MK uses it almost daily!  She tells us when she needs to go and can even hold it sometimes until she gets to the potty.  I'm hoping this means she's going to be easy to train!

Maddie Kate - we love you so much!  You make mommy and daddy smile and your bubba thinks you're pretty awesome too!  You are so sweet and we love your caring soul and eskimo kisses.

Here are a few pictures from our 21 month photo shoot.