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I think that I will continue with these letters each month until I don’t have enough to say in a month. Somehow, I think it’s going to be a long time before that happens.

Dear Madeline,

Wow! You’re a big one year old now! I can hardly believe it. Technically, I think this means that you’re no longer a baby, especially since you’ve been walking more and more. Does this officially make you a toddler? I’m not sure, but you will always be my sweet baby girl. Even when you start to protest that you are NOT a baby, you’ll still be my baby.

To celebrate your special day, Mommy took a vacation day to play with you all day. We started out by delivering cupcakes to your daycare teachers and then headed to the doctor. I know, not a very exciting way to start your birthday, but it had to be done. You received many compliments on your pretty dress! We were checking to make sure that the infection was clearing up in your ears. Thankfully, your ears are looking good.

After your doctor’s appointment, we went to Planet Child where we met your buddy Paolo. I have been planning to take you on your birthday for a while. It’s a pretty neat place. The space is smaller than Marbles, but it has a lot of similar things to do. You and Paolo seemed to enjoy it. The four of us then met Daddy for lunch at The Loop. On the way home, you fell asleep in the car. This was not a good thing as we knew it was going to interfere with your regular nap. You decided you were having so much fun for your birthday, that you didn’t want to nap at 1pm. We were unable to get you down for a nap until after 4:30pm! You were in a fairly good mood the whole time, so we sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to you and had some cupcakes. Your big party with family and friends will be next weekend.

We had a few rough patches this month. Shortly after my last letter, you were a bit fussy for several days and then had an unexplained fever. We took you to the doctor, but they didn’t have any explanations for us. We did get your weight, which was 18 pounds, 8 ounces (wearing just your diaper). Your fever went away, and you seemed just fine again in a few days. We guessed that you lost weight later in the month when you were really sick, probably about 8-10 ounces. We’ll find out next week when you go for your year check up.

The following Friday, you had a fever of less than 102. We were concerned since you had another fever the previous week, so we took you back to the doctor. This time, the doctor found that you had a sore throat and guessed that you were at the beginning of a cold or something. That night, your fever reached 103.5, so we took you back to the doctor on Saturday morning. They did a flu test, which was negative. Your throat looked pretty awful. They checked for a few other things, and said it was likely a virus and it would run its course.

That night, you had a rough time getting to sleep in your crib. You slept in Daddy’s arms for a little while, and we were going to take you to the bed for the night. You felt a bit warm, so Daddy went to change your diaper and check your fever. We were very worried when we found that your fever was well over 105. The highest we read on the thermometer was 105.6. Your parents were quite worried and in a panic. We called the after hours advice nurse line, and waited for a nurse from the hospital to call us back. Meanwhile, we gave you some baby Motrin and put you in the bathtub in an effort to try to reduce your fever. While giving you the bath, we debated whether to take you to the ER. We decided not to take any chances, and we got everything we needed and were just about to walk out the door when the advice nurse called. She advised us on how to get your fever down with the bath (start warm, stay in the bath for 20 minutes, keep your head and body wet). If we couldn’t get your fever below 103, or if your fever went back above 105 anytime during the night, then we were to call back and let them know that we were coming to the ER. Either way, we were to go to an Urgent Care in the morning.

Fortunately, we were able to get your fever down below 103. Your temperature hovered around 102 for the rest of the night, and we took you to the Urgent Care in the morning. At Urgent Care, your fever was close to 105 again. The doctor was not concerned about your high fevers, and checked for a few other things. He did a strep test, which was negative. He still felt like it was a virus and would run its course. We went to the doctor again on Tuesday. On Wednesday, you had been fever free for over 24 hours, so we tried to go back to work and daycare. I got a call from your teachers about an hour after we arrived saying you had been inconsolable the entire time and clearly still did not feel well. We had already talked to the advice nurse that morning, and we were waiting for her to call back. We made an appointment, canceled it when we thought you might be doing better, and heard back from the advice nurse again who made an appointment for us that afternoon. This time, I urged the doctor to do another flu test. I thought we may have tested too early. Turns out, your Mommy’s instincts were right and you tested positively for the flu. My poor girl!

You seemed to be getting better at times, but a day or two later you had a rough night. You seemed to be feeling ok during the day, but the following night was awful. You must have been in a lot of pain, and you were inconsolable for a few hours. During this time, we called the advice nurse who suggested what we already had guessed – an ear infection. We went back to the doctor, and confirmed the diagnosis. You had a rough couple weeks! In a period of a less than two weeks, you visited your pediatrician’s office 6 times, the Urgent Care once, and required a handful of advice nurse calls, including two after hours calls in the middle of the night. We are hoping that you will stay well for a while now, baby girl! You did learn how to use a sippy cup while you were sick. I’m sure that this will come in handy in the future.

Amidst all your sickness, you celebrated your very first Valentine’s Day. You started your day with a trip to the doctor where we found out about your ear infection. After your nap, we dressed you up in your pretty red dress. You were mostly feeling better during the day. We presented you with a few clothes (Mommy needed an excuse to buy a few Spring outfits at Target), some new shoes (yeah, it was another excuse), and a cute bear. Luckily for the bear, his name isn’t “Teddy” or “Bearie” but “Valentino.” I know, it’s a real stretch, but your Mommy is trying her best. You seemed to like your bear, and we took some very cute photos of you outside on the front steps.

During this month, you slept an incredible 6 uninterrupted hours one night. The next night, you slept probably 5 hours straight. Then you were back to your normal three-hours-at-one-time-is-good-enough-for-me self. You are still going to sleep in your crib at the beginning of the night. By the time Mommy and Daddy are getting ready for bed, you signal that you would love to join us by crying over the monitor. I don’t know how you time it so perfectly. I think you must have a proximity monitor on us and know when we leave the living room. Lately, you’ve really been staking your claim on real estate in the bed. I’m not sure how someone so small can take up so much space in a king sized bed! We really thought you’d be sleeping through the night by now. We don’t mind too much that you spend time being so close to us. You’re a sweet baby, and I love how you cuddle with me at night. One night, you nuzzled up next to Daddy, but then got a little confused and couldn’t figure out how to nurse. Ooops, wrong parent!

Speaking of cuddling with Daddy, you have started to show a little preference towards Daddy in some situations. Or at very least, you’ve decided that it’s not so bad being with Daddy. One of the mornings you were sick, you crawled up into Daddy’s lap and seemed to indicate that you were ready for a nap! Daddy took you over to the rocking chair, and you were asleep within minutes. This was a very sweet moment for your Daddy. It made him feel pretty special.

You are learning so much and continue to amaze us daily. One of your favorite games right now is to offer us your toys (or food). Sometimes you say “here” and other times you try to say “here you go” (it sounds a bit like hee-go). We then say, “Thank you, Maddie! Thank you!” followed by “do you want it back” as you are reaching for the item. You try to say “thank you” sometimes as well. You understand quite a bit. When someone says, “yay!” or the word “clap” you often start clapping without any demonstration. You love to shake tupperware filled with toys or Cheerios and will do so when we say, “Shake it, baby, shake it!” You start waving when people start saying “bye bye” or “hi, Maddie!” You know what to do with the hairbrush and will brush your hair when prompted.

You often correctly hand us toys or other items when asked. We ask you to hand us the ball or the teddy bear, and you often do just that. The other day when I went to nurse you at lunchtime at daycare, you handed me a yellow ball and said, “yellow.” I was surprised, but I thought it must just be a coincidence and it only sounded like you said, “yellow.” The teacher said that they had just been talking about colors, so it may have been intentional. A few minutes later, I asked you to hand me a yellow ball. You walked over to the ball “nest,” looked around at all the balls thoughtfully, climbed into the nest, picked out a yellow ball, and handed it to me. I was so proud!! I asked you next for a blue ball, and you went through the same process and handed me a blue ball. Your teachers and I were amazed. I should have stopped there, but I asked you to hand me an orange ball. I’m not sure why I picked orange as that’s not a common color that we have talked about very much. You pondered over the ball pit, and returned with a green one. I’m still very impressed, little girl. You have the biggest smiles when you do something that makes us happy and seem so proud of yourself as well.

You love putting things into boxes and taking them out again. I think this is an excellent step towards being able to put away your toys. You are already a big helper with the laundry, taking clothes out of the basket and putting them back into it again. You love stacking things, and you love knocking down towers. You love to open and close things. We have a new gate between the kitchen and living room, and you can spend quite a bit of time amusing yourself with the swinging gate. You like to put things on your head, probably because of our little game where Mommy and Daddy put random things on their heads and ask if it’s a hat. You enjoy music and will dance and even try to sing along. Your Mommy and Daddy have been playing Animal Crossing on the Wii, and you are fascinated by the cartoonish characters, bright colors, and simple tunes. You will look at the TV and sing the game’s theme song. It’s quite cute, but a sign to us that we need to turn it off more often when you’re in the room!

You’re walking more and more each day. You have no problem walking short distances between furniture or towards one of us. You’re not so sure about wide open spaces just yet. I would classify you as a “cautious walker.” When we took you outside on the driveway, you resisted your normal tendency to get down and crawl after a few steps. You had no desire to get down on that concrete! You would walk a few steps, steady yourself, and walk a few more steps. You have taken as many as 6 or 7 steps at one time, but you still prefer to crawl longer distances. You’re starting to show a preference for walking shorter distances.

You learned how to climb onto the couch this month. It’s so funny to watch you swing your leg up onto the couch, pull with your arms, push with your legs, and wiggle your way onto the couch. You’re especially good at getting onto the couch when there is something you want to reach. You’re pretty good at getting down from the couch onto the floor as well. You are a master at getting in and out of your little chair, though sometimes you want to stand in it or sit on the arms instead of the seat.

We have noticed some improvements with you listening to your Mommy and Daddy. Certain things that you would try to do all the time, you no longer attempt. It seems like it really has helped that we have been consistent in telling you, “no.” Now when you have something that you shouldn’t have, we ask, “can I have that?” Most of the time, you will hand it to us, and you won’t get upset when we don’t give it back. Other times, you still push your limits. Earlier this month, Daddy started to say, “Maddie, no” and started to come towards you. He didn’t want you to get the bag of goldfish. As you saw Daddy approaching, you grabbed the goldfish and made a run for it. We had a hard time keeping from laughing at that one! Another time this month, you kept taking your bib off at mealtimes. We would tell you “no” and put the bib back on or hold the bib so that you couldn’t pull it off. You started to pull off your bib and I came towards you to say “no” and correct it, and you gave me the most devilish grin. Your Daddy saw this happen, and he had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing. I had to hide behind your high chair for a few moments to contain my laughter. It’s funny, but we’re not going to let you know that!

Speaking of your bib, you have a very puny appetite, and you’re a very fussy eater. Mealtimes are quite frustrating. One day you love something, the next time you hate it. You have the appetite of a baby bird! I worry about you getting enough to eat, but I’m glad that you’re still nursing. At least I know you are getting important nutrients. You do not have any teeth, but that doesn’t stop you from being able to eat just about anything. You have the sweetest gummy smile.

I cannot believe how much I have to say about each month when I sit down to write these letters. You are soaking up the world around you like a sponge, and I’m excited to see the new discoveries that you will make in the coming months. You are an amazing TODDLER, and I’m proud to be your Mommy. Your Mommy and Daddy love you biggest bunches.

Love,
Mommy

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Posted by kerry on Friday, February 20th, 2009 at 7:30pm.
Categories: life.