A few phrases we’ve been hearing way-too-often from Maddy this week are:

– “No! Unh unh.”
– “Stop it, mommy!”
– “Don’t like that!”

This is usually in reaction to us trying to get her to eat or sleep or lay still so we can change her diaper. It’s also amazing how physically strong she is at resisting all of those things.

Yesterday, there was literally no way that I could get her into her high chair because of the way she was managing to twist her body so forcefully into the exact opposite position I was aiming for. And the other night she managed to hoist herself up and over her crib railing again. At least now we have the whole floor surrounding the crib padded with pillows and blankets, but still…

I can’t decide if this is just a normal 20.5-month-old phase, if it stems from frustration with her lingering cold (which I can relate to), if it’s her reaction to my no-longer-possible-to-ignore belly and all the “baby education” I’ve been attempting this week (like constantly reading books about becoming a big sister) — or if all of those things are just exacerbating each other.

On a more pleasant note, she’s also had some very cute moments — like her excitement when we got her hair into this funny ponytail, her giddiness during Dave’s “airplane” rides (saying “ready….go!”), her tendency to randomly break into pretend song (if it can really be called singing), and my favorite is her shouting “Mamadada!” for joy every time both Dave and I are in the room together.

I love the way she’s started reading along with books, well actually just describing the pictures over and over again so we can’t actually read her the text. Her favorite book this week is called “Hello Otto!” and it’s all about our alma mater, Syracuse University. On every page she says “Otto! hat!” at least 5 times. I think we might have to get her an Otto doll or at least an SU baseball cap to match his…

Another entertaining moment this week was when we finally figured out the meaning of a word she kept saying: “shoubp.” It was driving us nuts, until we realized that maybe she was saying the word backwards because every time she said it a bus was going by. Dunno where she got that from, but she’s perfectly able to say bus as well when we remind her of the right word.

She’s getting better at telling us what she wants, which is usually a relief. We’re hearing a lot of “help me…open it…close it,” or “I’m hungry,” and sometimes even “I’m tired.” She frequently requests specific foods, like “want ornanges” (still working on that word), and when she’s in her high chair it seems like she is constantly saying “dropped it – pick it [up].”