16 months old!

Madison is 16 months old tomorrow!!!

I thought I would share some of the things she is doing and the numerous things we are working on these days!

I was a little late getting into the pediatricians office for her 15 month check up....but, as of 10 days ago, she weighed 21 lb. 1 oz.  and was 29 1/2 in. tall.  She is basically in the 90% on the Down syndrome charts for both.  She is getting to be SO BIG!  Now that she is so active, her rolls of fat on her arms and legs are getting smaller and she is starting to slim down and look more like a toddler, instead of a baby.

She is a cruising machine!!!  She cruises up and down both directions, around corners and is starting to step over objects to get to something she wants.

Check out my shirt!!!!!

A few weeks ago, she started signing her first few words.  She signs eat, more, milk, all done, cat, baby and "somewhat" mama.  Mama and Daddy tend to be the same, but at least she gets the concept of doing it.  For speech therapy, we are trying to focus on a couple of words each week to add to her signing vocabulary.

Nothing is really new on the actual speech category.  She babbles the sounds: da, ba, ga, ra.  But, that is about it.  I desperately want her to make the "ma" sound.  Of course it is because I want her to call me "mama".  But, I just want her to make a different sound then the same sounds.  I get kind of scared that she is never going to speak.  I know that I am being silly and that she will learn to speak.....but, I just want to see some sort of glimpse that we are headed in the right direction.

She is doing fabulous at imitating how to play with a toy!  You can show her a new toy, demonstrate it once, and she will repeat it!  This cognitive concept has just kind of taken off the last couple of weeks!

I love my babies!

Kisses!!!!

She is FINALLY drinking from a straw cup!  We have been working on this concept since she was 10 months old.  She started sucking from it when she was 11 months old but it has taken another 4-5 months to figure out what to do with the liquid once it is in her mouth.  About a week ago, she actually drank 6 oz. of milk from the straw during one sitting!  Maybe this means we can slowly faze out the bottles?!?!

Madi LOVES to eat!  She is not a fan of fruit.....I think it's a texture thing because she will eat it in a pureed form.  She is basically a carb and protein kind of gal.  She loves toast with peanut or almond butter on it!  She would eat it every single meal if I let her.  Vegetables are tolerated......but, I have gotten her to eat asparagus twice now!

Madi and her sister adore each other!!!  Now that Madi is mobile, the two of them like to "chase" each other and play hide n seek around the kitchen island.  I can only imagine the craziness that our house will be once Madi starts walking!  Speaking of walking......she will take about 3 steps behind a walker toy pushing it and then she plops down to her behind.  I think she gets so excited that she is doing it and then she realizes, "Holy cow, I am walking!  I better sit down!!!"

Now that Madi is on the thickened liquids, her health seems to be a little bit better!!  I think that her body was constantly compromised because of the aspiration and now her immune system is a little bit stronger and can handle the germs she is exposed to.  Unfortunately, she has terrible allergies right now so she is back to having a runny nose and difficulty breathing.  Hopefully, that will end soon.

And because it is also "Flashback Friday", here is a picture of Madi on this day one year ago!

Happy Weekend everyone!