Madeline-20 Months

Weight: You're are still a solid 20-22 lbs and short as ever!

Health: Nothing major this month to report.  You have had your fair share of boo boos as you are super mobile and into everything.

Social: You are talking SO MUCH now.  I love how you have your own language and have serious things to tell us.  If we don't seem to understand what you are saying you will repeat it back to us until we ackowledge you.  We are still working on a better way for you to get our attention than just screaming.

Diet: You are fully on regular food this month and don't seem to even remember nursing.  You love your yogurt and will eat more than your older sister.  You also love string cheese, crackers, pretzels, mashed potatoes, bananas, rice, apples, water, etc.  You aren't super found of meat but will eat the occasional seasoned ground beef!

Clothes: You are in 18-24 months and fitting comfortably.  I am really disliking any onsie outfit on you at this point which I think I also felt with Mara.  It's just easier to have the shirt and bottoms with your cloth diapers.

Mama's Favorites: You are super cuddly lately and have really attached yourself to me in that regard.  You will find your paci and then come cuddle in my lap for awhile.

Crying: You are still doing your tantrums and I'm sure this is something that will continue for a few years lol.  We aren't even into the twos yet so you have a ways with those.  Otherwise you generally only get angry when your sister takes something away from you or your frustrated you can't do something the way you want to do it.

Sleep: You are still a solid sleeper.  You sleep through the night from 8-8 for the most part.  I can tell you wake in the night from the monitor alarms but you have taken to putting yourself back to sleep which is amazing.  Your sister didn't master this till well past three. Naps have been getting shorter but you are still taking them and we are not letting those go anytime soon.  Somedays you'll be out for over 2 hours others barely an hour.  Not sure why but we're just going with the flow and encouraging you to keep taking them.  We've pushed nap to 1pm from noon and that seems to help a bit.

This Month: We did a little bit more traveling going up to the mountains and then to the vineyards for the harvest.  You are a great traveler although defintily wake up more in the night than you do at home.  You are getting to the stage where you will walk on your own a lot which makes things easier. 

Baby Likes: You are still in love with your sister and want to do everything she does.  Daddy was huge this month as you love rough housing with him when he gets home.  You are also really into your music showing off your killer dance moves at the drop of any beat.  You also have this weird fedish where you have to rub my arms when we cuddle.  Most of the time I'm cool with it but HATE it in the morning.  Weird how you do this and your sister pinched elbows.

Milestones: You are putting together sentences.  You continue to add new vocabulary daily and repeat almost everything we day.

You love helping around the house and will load the dishwasher with me and help fold cloth diapers.

You are mastering pretend play.  You seem to have gotten this from your sister and love to play with the Little People making up stories and doing animal sounds.

You say cheese when someone takes a picture of you.

Best of Times: Watching your dance moves on the regular.

Worst of Times: Dealing with the constant tantrums and moods.  You have more spirit than your older sister did...if that's possible.

Sister Diaries: You guys have your moments of great play and interactions and then others where you are screaming at each other.  Completely normal I'm sure.  Mara still tries to take your toys away as she thinks you still won't notice....you do.

Disney World-Day 4 (Animal Kingdom)

Day 4 was spent at Animal Kingdom.  I love the idea of Animal Kingdom but my experience has just never been great.  I think it's because the park is just so HUGE.  A lot of walking is involved and there isn't a ton of shade at the park.  The large trees keep the heat in and do not allow for much breeze.

The giraffes were a hit!

The smallest elephant on the reserve

Despite this we tried to have a good morning! We started off making a beeline for the African Safari.  We didn't have fast passes and I wanted to get this knocked out before our other rides of the day.  PLUS from our time in Africa, I know that the animals were only going to get harder to see during the day as it got hotter.  The safari did not disapoint!  We saw elephants, rhino, lions, giraffe, and other safari staples.  Defintily nothing like the real thing but so neat regardless.  Maddy was going nuts as she is our animal lover!

Mara wasn't so sure initially about this hug

Maddy was just unsure in general

From there we split with Josh headed to Mt. Everest (rollarcoaster) and us to the new Pandora rides.  Oh my gosh let me tell you the hype on Pandora was crazy.  It was over 3 hours wait! There is no way that ride is worth it....We had fast passes for the river cruise and walked easily onto to that without any issues.  I'll admit it was done really well and I'm glad we did it.  

Goofy making sure mom was getting the bill correct

We met up with Josh who had a blast on the rollercoaster, riding it twice, at the tree of life.  He had to take a call so Mara and Grandma took this opportunity for a little shopping.  We then walked to the Dinoland and rode the flying dinos (not sure their actual name but its like Dumbo at Magic Kingdom just dinosaurs).

Daisy was by far her favorite

Duck says Maddy

By then it was time for lunch and I had made reservations at Tusker House.  I couldn't resist the nostalgic nature from our time in Kenya and secertly wished I could endulge in an ice cold Tusker Malt for old times sake.  This resturant is a character meal and buffet.  Unlike some of the other basic ones, I feel like the food here is so worth it.  We had a fun selection of flavors and tastes from all over Africa and Asia.  The girls got so into meeting the fab 5 as we saw Mickey, Minnie, Daisy, Donald and Goofy.

Tree of Life

After lunch we were a little lost as to what to do.  We decided to stick around for the finding nemo show and it did not disappoint.  I thought it might be a little weird with the combination of puppets and actors on stage together but it's really done well.

Blury but you get the idea

There weren't any other rides the girls could do and the rest of the park is set up like a zoo.  Despite wanting to see more animals we were exausted at this point and headed back to the hotel.  We took a long break this day hitting up the hotel pool and being lazy.

Finally we did decide to go back to the park, only of course to get stuck in a downpour again.  Our descisions kept backfiring as we made a mad dash to Lion King only to get seperated and soaked.  Screaming children aside the show was fabulous and I wish we had taken it in in better spirits.

Wet but enjoying Lion King

The rain had stopped when we exited the show only to start back up again as we headed to the buses.  Our luck this entire trip.  So we got soaked......That night we decided to cut our loses and just grab a quick dinner from the food court at the hotel and go to bed early!

Tusker House resturant

Disney World-Day 3 (Magic Kingdom)

Day 3 by far was the most "magical" for me! We had planned on spending the day at Magic Kingdom which is just the backbone of the Disney experience.  I know there would be the most at this park for my girls and they would really enjoy it!

Mickey opens the park!

Maddy is amazed

We got there early to catch the opening show and it just really started the day off on the right foot.  (Mara was a crab until Mickey hit the stage).  After the show we headed through the castle and started our long list of rides for the day.

Meeting Ariel

Poor Aunt Mary got to ride the spinning tea cups with Mara

I loved getting there early as we literally just walked onto everything!  We hit up Peter Pan's Flight, Little Mermaid (both the ride and meeting Ariel), Winnie the Pooh, spinning teacups, and the carosoul all within a matter of an hour.  Mara still claims that the Peter Pan ride was her absolute favorite and I wish we would have been able to do it again.  Meeting Ariel was also a huge highlight as she was really the first princess we did!

The Merry-Go-Round was a hit with everyone

At this point we split up and Josh headed to tomorrowland to ride space mountain.  The girls and I went to meet Belle at Enchanted Tales.  Of course Mara was too shy to participate in the actual show but loved when Belle took her hand for the parade around the library!  From there it was off to meet Rapunzel, who is Mara's favorite, and Tiana. She really came alive and was talking to her.  I love that she was starting to get the hang of this whole meet and greet thing!  Maddy was obviously unimpressed as she slept through the whole thing.

Meeting Tiania

After that it was time to head back to the hotel for lunch and a rest.  I didn't fully understand the brutality of Florida heat until this trip.  It just zapped the energy out of us!!

Outside Enchanted Tales

I love how Bellegot down on the floor with Maddy

The favorite!

Of course later that afternoon we headed back only to be rained out.  Today we were not interested in a repeat of the previous downpour so we took shelter in the train station.  When it finally let up enough we dashed across Main Street to meet Tinker Bell!  Mara's reaction: Mom she talked so fast! I don't know what she said!

Lunch at the hotel

Here comes the rain

By then the rain had let up so we headed to dinner.  This night I had booked us the family Thanksgiving feast at Liberty Tavern.  It was an expensive dinner but I had heard so many amazing reviews about it add in my LOVE for all things Thanksgiving and I just had too.  It was delicious served family style we feasted on turkey, pork, pot roast, potatoes, stuffing, corn, rolls, etc.  So amazing!!

Watching the carpets fly

Tink!

Since we had fully stuffed ourselves it was time to walk a bit and burn off those calories.  We headed to Aladdin's Magic Carpets and then did a classic in the Country Bear Jambouree.  Our last ride of the night was a short train ride to tomorrowland where we were forced to get off and join the hoards of folks making their way to the fireworks.

One last ride for the day

As we decided to stay for the show we glanced down and both of the girls were passed out.  FAIL!  Although I think Josh would have stayed, I felt it was kind of silly with both girls asleep.  We made our way out to the busses and boarded just as the first fireworks lit up the sky above the castle.

This day was one of my favorites of the entire trip! Just so many fun moments and pure joy from my girls!!

Night falls on the castle