19 months old!

I know I promised tons of pictures and updates.......and then, nothing.  Seriously, why can't I get myself together enough to put together a post?!?!  Oh, that's right......I am too busy running around like a chicken with it's head cut off!!!  Over the last 2 months I have been franticly putting together a soon-to-be 4 year old's birthday party!  If anyone remembers last year's party (here and here), you KNOW that I love to put on a good party!  It has been a little more difficult to pull off this year, though.  Being gone 4-5 days out of the week has made the time crunch of it a little bit more stressful.

Okay, now that I got my excuses out of the way.......on to Miss Madison!!!

Miss Madi turned 19 months old last week!  And she is a BIG girl!!

We were a little late doing her 18 month appointment so we did it at 19 months instead.  Miss Madi is a whopping 23 lbs and 31 1/2 in. long!  She is in the 90% on the Down syndrome growth charts.  She is no longer a small, sweet little baby.  This girl has turned into a "large and in charge", stubborn, curious and loud toddler!  She is into EVERYTHING!!!

Some of the fun and exciting things Madi is doing these days.......

....purposefully signs milk, more, all done, sister, cat, eat, baby, thank you, hat, dog, apple, bear, sleep.
....will imitate or try to imitate other signs as you show them to her.
....says dada, up, mama (only a few times), ah da (all done), botta (bottle)
....points to everything and wants to know what it is.

Madi has transitioned from a typical crawl to a bear crawl and can do it at Mach Speed!!!  She has recently learned how to stand up on her own from the bear crawl position in the middle of the room.  Check out the video!!!

She is sooooooo close to walking!  She took 2 independent steps last week but, of course, she hasn't repeated it since.

Some of the not so exciting things we have been dealing with.......

....had pneumonia, yet again, about 6 weeks ago.
....had croup at the beginning of this week, but she is much better now.
....she is teething and is super crabby and fussy.  :(
....we have discovered she is gluten-intolerant.  (I will go into this more later.)

I try not to get into Ds stereotypes too much......but, I am telling ya......this girl is STUBBORN!!!!  When she does not want to do something, she. will. not. do. it!  But, it also is a good thing too.....when she wants to do something that her big sister is doing, she will figure out a way to do it!

We are so proud of our little girlie!!!  She is so amazing and I feel so blessed that I get to be her mommy!!!

Check back over the weekend as I will be posting pictures from the Sweet Shoppe party we have happening over here!!!