There were lots of changes that happened in March for Madeline. She went from being the only one at home with me during the day to being home with everyone all day every day. She loved the attention and she loved doing her “homework” when the other kids were doing their schoolwork from home. We introduced Madeline to some new learning apps that she now does every day before she gets to watch a cartoon. Her favorite app is Kahn Academy Kids. She is learning so much every day. The older kids usually take breaks throughout the day to play with Madeline. They either play toys or do puzzles with her inside the house or they take her outside for some fun in the backyard. We have even introduced Madeline to some fun games that have been tucked away in the game closet for many years. She loved playing with the Lightbridge and the Hullabaloo game. Since we were all quarantined at home, I spent more time making bread and Madeline loved helping me grind the wheat and mix the dough. She even got to slap the loaf before the rising part. She thought that was fun. I love that I have many helpers to keep Madeline entertained and I know that she just loves having everyone at home.
Spending everyday with Madeline never gets old. She is the light of all of our lives, and she keeps us thoroughly entertained. We learned some new hairstyles this month. She loves it when I do high pigtail buns with ribbons. We always do her hair that way when she goes to her ballet and tap class. We even do high ponytail braids and she loves that too. But it is not uncommon for her to just want her hair down and crazy. Every time she wakes up from a nap her hair is pretty wild. I try to put it up in a simple ponytail but most often she will pull it out. Her wild hair definitely fits her wild and fun personality. Even though she likes it wild, Madeline loves to pretend to do her hair with her own pretend hairdryer. She will often bring her make-up bag in my bathroom and do her make-up and hair when I am getting ready in the morning.
Madeline loves running errands with me. She always goes with me when I go to get my nails done. She is the most popular little kid at the salon. They all know her by name now and Lin and Kim love to give her hugs. Jimmy always tries to sneak in little treats for her. After I get my nails done, we sometimes venture over to Athleta. It is always a fun store for me to shop in and on one particular adventure, Madeline decided it would be fun to copy all of the manikins. She was pretty spot on with all the yoga poses that each manikin was doing. It made me chuckle. This month Madeline discovered the love of popping packing bubbles. Every time a new package would arrive, she would ask to pop all of the bubbles. She would start by popping them with her fingers and would eventually arrive at stomping on the rest. I love watching the world through Madeline’s eyes. She is just so happy all the time. This was an exciting month with Madeline. It started out like any other month with errands, weekly ballet and tap lessons and plenty of imaginative play at home. I love how talkative Madeline is these days. She loves to talk so much that sometimes she makes up stories about what she has done or where she has been during the day. She will often use one of the kid’s friends in her made up stories. It is pretty darn hilarious. When Madeline isn’t wearing her favorite Frozen nightgown, she is usually seen wearing one of her play dresses. Her favorite is still the Elsa blue dress and cape, but she also loves the Cinderella dress. There really isn’t a day that goes by that she doesn’t ask me to help her put on one of her play dresses. She plays for a while and then she is onto the next thing. She loves all of her dress up things, especially her hello kitty rolling suitcase and her tap shoes. She wears the older and slightly too big tap shoes almost every day. Her good tap shoes stay in her class bag and she only gets to wear those on Thursdays when she goes to her ballet and tap class. She continues to love the ballet statue and there isn’t a time when she doesn’t kiss and hug that statue as we are leaving class. This month Madeline discovered Penny the Horse at the grocery store. I decided to finally give in and let her ride the pony after paying for our groceries. It was only a penny after all. She just loved riding the pony and so I made a deal with her that when she was good in the store, she would get to ride the pony afterwards. Let’s just say we had many good shopping days. Most of the month was spent with smiles and laughter and joy. However, there was a brief period where Madeline got really sick and was not herself for a few days in a row. She actually fell asleep on my bed mid-morning those days and just slept. Even being sick Madeline is still the cutest little curly haired girl I have ever seen.
There is never a dull moment with Madeline. This month she had plenty of opportunities to play in the snow as we got a ton of snow during the month of October. She loved wearing her brand-new silver coat outside and drinking hot chocolate inside when she was done being in the cold. Watching Madeline play is always such a treat. She is so creative and imaginative. She loves playing with her Little Einstein toys, her Little People figures, the eraser animals, and her stuffed animals. We continued to work on potty training and Madeline had fun picking out a new pair of underwear every day. She leaned towards her Frozen underwear or something with pink in it. She truly is a lover of the color pink.
Oh, how we just love everything that Madeline does. She has been working on potty training lately. She is not loving it, but she will sit on the toilet willingly even if she never ends up doing anything. Madeline just loves to play with her pretend kitchen and food, and she is always up for playing dress-up and putting on her pretend make-up. Madeline has been my buddy during the kid’s cross-country meets, and she loves it when she gets to play on the playground after the meets. Madeline was able to play with her friend Ella this month. Those two had a blast playing at the big playground together. She gets to see Ella every week before her ballet class since Ella also does ballet at the same place but in the 4 year old class. Madeline has loved going to her new ballet/tap class. She is such a good listener and has picked up some new skills rather quickly. She loves to give the ballerina statue a hug and kiss every time we leave ballet class. It is adorable.
When I told Madeline that her birthday was coming up and asked her if she was excited to get presents, she said, "Is Santa coming to bring me presents?" I just chuckled because last Christmas she was finally old enough to understand that Santa equals presents. I had to tell her that presents this time would only be from mom and dad. Either way, it was pretty darn cute.
I decided to not do a full fondant cake this year and to simplify things a bit and just do cupcakes. I found the cutest examples of unicorn cupcakes and went in that direction for Madeline's 3rd birthday. Since the week was kind of busy we somehow managed to pull of a little party for Madeline with very little preparation. With some simple decorations and a few fun balloons and gifts, we had a very fun and exciting party for Madeline the day after her real birthday. This year she wasn't quite as scared of the candles but still wanted Peter to sit with her while we lit her candles on the cupcakes. She even piped in and sang Happy Birthday to herself while we were singing it to her. The cupcakes turned out really cute and they were actually really yummy. I tried a different fondant than I normally use and everyone gave it a thumbs up. Even Madeline loved eating the cupcakes. She also loved her chocolate dipped strawberries and lemonade. Madeline loved her balloons and all the gifts she received. This year the kids gave her two new Little Blue Truck books. She was so happy to see her new books. Grandma and Grandpa Kelsch gave her the cutest castle card that lights up to go along with her fun gift. They gave her a pretend wooden makeup kit with a mirror, comb, two shades of lipstick, two shades of nail polish, eyeshadow, an eyeliner pencil, and a perfume bottle. She spent a good 10-20 minutes just playing with it on the couch before we gave her the last present to open. We gave her a pretend cash register and she just loved that too. We loved pushing the buttons, swiping her pretend credit card and playing with the pretend money in the cash drawer. It was definitely a perfect little party for our sweet little 3 year old Madeline! Madeline weighs 27 lbs and is 37 inches (3 ft 1 inch) tall. Madeline is our spunky curly haired angel. She talks non-stop and we just love it. She definitely prefers to be outside playing and spent the remainder of the winter and most of the summer riding the moped with me or one of the girls. She LOVES going for rides on the moped or just taking walks around the neighborhood. She especially loves it when the kids will jump with her on the trampoline. She loves to draw with chalk on the sidewalk and play with the sparkly rocks out in front of our house.
Madeline loves to play with her toys just as much as she likes to be outside. Her favorite toys are her Little people, Little Einsteins, kitchen toys, and the Sylvania family animal people with the house and all the fun accessories. She is constantly asking Emma and Abby if they can get the Sylvania family out for her to play with. Since Abby still loves to play with those she is often seen playing with Madeline. Madeline also loves to play dress up and will usually ask us to help her put on one of her pretty dress up dresses. When we let her Madeline LOVES to watch cartoons on the iPad. She loves being able to wear her pink wireless headphones when she listens to her movies. It's amazing how well she can maneuver around the different apps on the iPad. Her favorite movies are Mr. Incredibles 1 &2, Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Returns, Kung Fu Panda 3, and the Croods. Madeline's favorite books are the Berenstain Bear books. Her favorite one of those is the Spooky Tree book. She also loves the Little Blue Truck books. Her favorite one of those is Little Blue Truck Christmas. She also likes Cat in the Hat, the Mother Goose book, and Go Dog Go. Madeline is super smart. She can count all the way to 20 by herself and recognizes 95% of the letters in the alphabet. There are only a few she gets stuck on. She knows all of her colors and she can recognize most objects on our learning cards. Madeline can also sing really well and knows the words to so many songs...both primary songs and popular songs. The other day we were in the car driving to Denver and a song came on and she just started singing it. I couldn't believe she knew the words so well. Madeline says a lot of cute things. She loves to copy the things we say to her. When I say things like, "I love you sweetheart," she will say the same thing back. She also calls us honey when we call her honey. Without a doubt she always tells me she loves me too after I have told her that I love her. We love it when she calls the elevator the "alligator." It cracks us up every time. She usually calls Peter Pete and sometimes she has called him boy. We laugh when she does that. She also loves to say, "what the heck..." If she hears a bad word she will be quick to say, "Don't say that word." She is such a good example to her older siblings. When she wants to tell someone that it is hers she will say, "That is mines" or "Is that mines?" It is too cute so we don't try and correct her. Madeline loves to do things by herself. If she is really adamant about not wanting help she will say, "Let me do it." She usually likes to try and take off her clothes by herself before her bath. She has learned how to put on her own pull up diaper. She can usually put on shorts or pants by herself but she still has trouble with shirts. We still help her with her shoes but she loves to do the velcro straps by herself. Madeline loves all kinds of foods, especially chocolate chips which she has been known to sneak into in the pantry. Occasionally we stumble upon something she just doesn't want to eat. After taking one bite she will say, "No thank you," when I try and feed it to her. She just keeps repeating that until I can convince her to eat just three more bites. At least she is polite about it! A month before she turned 3 we converted her crib into a toddler bed. She didn't have any problems staying in bed at night but will occasionally wake up a little too early. She has been known to go in and wake up the girls which they don't love. Madeline started a ballet/tap class right before she turned 3 years old. She has only been to 2 classes but she already seems to love it. She is really good at following directions and being friendly with the other two girls in the class. It's amazing how time flies so fast when the kids are little. It was almost like I woke up one day and Madeline was a little girl and not really a toddler anymore. Madeline had lots of FIRSTS this month. At the beginning of the month she had her very first dentist appointment. She did really well sitting in the chair at first. Then she wanted me to sit with her so I held her on my lap. She let Dr. Patterson count all of her teeth and she let the tech brush her teeth. Right before the kids went back to school, we decided to transition Madeline from a crib to a toddler bed. I knew that she could stay in bed all night since she slept in a toddler bed during our family reunion over the summer. Mike and Andrew worked together to take the front railing off and replace it with a toddle rail. Madeline was so excited. She actually did really well transitioning to a bed with more freedom. At night she never got out of her bed but during nap time she will still occasionally play in and around her bed before she finally falls asleep. I feel like it's a win because she doesn't come out of her room when it's time to sleep. One of the things we are trying to focus on more is potty time. Madeline really doesn't have any desire to potty train but that is not to say we aren't trying. I bought her some pull up diapers so that she could learn how to take them on and off by herself. That was step number one. Step two was learning how to get on and off the potty by herself. She can actually do it without using a stool. I'm not sure how she swings her leg all the way around but she somehow manages to get on toilet by herself. Finally, she learned how to wash her hands by herself. The most important piece now was actually sitting on the potty long enough to actually go. We tried reading books, singing songs, and eating snacks but none of those things really helped. The only thing that got her to sit on the potty by herself was knowing that she had to go and not having her pull up or diaper on. I let her roam around naked and I went about my business in the kitchen. I noticed that she walked back in the bathroom and got on the potty and was bracing herself against the wall. Oh boy...she was doing something. She did actually go in the potty but it kind of scared her and she started to cry. I'm not sure if I will be able to convince her to do it again but at least she did it once. Since Madeline is almost 3 years old, we figured it was time to give her an activity that she could participate in. Since I did ballet and tap with the other girls it seemed like the natural thing to do for Madeline. I found out from a friend about a good ballet/tap program and we did a trial class to see how she would respond. I was so surprised at how well she listened to her teacher and how well behaved she was in the class. When the class was finished, she was so happy. Even though Madeline had lots of FIRSTS this month, she also had lots of repeated cuteness from things she does all the time. Some of my favorite moments this month from her was her love of playing in the grass, mopping the floor with me, talking on her pretend phone and actually pausing as if she were actually talking to someone, using her own resistant band when I was doing my PT exercises, playing with puzzles and telling me the numbers as she put them in the puzzle, and having a blast during bath time. There is never a dull moment when Madeline is around.
Every day we count our lucky stars that we have Madeline in our family. She is the cutest, silliest, happiest, and most fun little 2-year-old. She is always happy and so much fun to be around. This month she continued to shine with her radiant smile and curiosity. She constantly asks for bubble baths and at the end of a long summer day she is ready to play in the bath. She loves playing with her toys and rocking on her rocking horse. She loves to eat all kinds of foods but really took an interested in watermelon on those warm summer days. On one occasion she was eating a lollipop and then grabbed some bell peppers that I was cutting up. It was so funny to see the sweet in one hand and the healthy in the other. This month she got to visit both the doctor and eye doctor for checkups. She was insistent on bringing her doctor kit with her. While we were waiting in the room, she took the time to give Abby a checkup. It was the cutest thing ever. Her playful imagination never gets old. We just love our little Madeline.
Madeline has changed so much since she turned 2 years old back in September. She is now 25 lbs. and 36 inches tall at 2 1/2 years old. Her hair is still super curly and adorable. She will still wear baby headbands and will usually want to pick them out herself. One of her favorite headbands is the hot pink flower. Sometimes when I try and fix her headband she will say, "No, I fix it." She is becoming very independent. We tried pigtails for the first time and she was able to sit still long enough for me to put them in. She just looks so cute in pigtails. She will sometimes ask specifically for pigtails now. Even though she is moving away from the baby stages, she still sucks her thumb when she is tired or nervous and loves to do so while holding one of her
favorite pink blankets. She has two pink crocheted blankets that she loves because she can poke her fingers in the edge and wrap her fingers in and out of the tiny holes. Madeline talks so much now. Madeline is simply the smartest little 2-year-old ever. Her vocabulary is so extensive. She talks in simple sentences and she knows exactly how to communicate what she wants. Lately, she has been trying to talk to Alexa on our Amazon Echo Dot to tell her to play Madeline's playlist. Alexa doesn't quite understand Madeline just yet. Madeline loves to tell us stories and sometimes it is just jibber jabber but most of the time we can understand what she is saying. Sometimes her stories consist of random thoughts one after another. I think it is her way of telling us about what she is experiencing. Madeline loves to talk on FaceTime with Grandma Anne and Grandpa Franz. Every time Grandma picks up, she always asks for Grandpa too. Her favorite time to talk to them is before she goes to bed. She loves to go and cook in her little kitchen and then bring the food to the iPad so that they can pretend to eat it. It's hilarious. Madeline will often copy things we say and loves to call us "sweetie" or "sweetheart." She loves to say hi to people in the store and waves goodbye to people when we leave. When we change her diaper and it's a stinky one, she will often say, "I know, I know..." Back in December she had the worst diaper rash that lasted for 4 days. It was bad enough that for quite some time she would get nervous when we would change a dirty diaper. She would calm herself by saying, "No diaper rash." Poor girl. Madeline is still a great eater. She loves breakfast and lunch but is not the best eater at dinnertime. Her favorite breakfast is cereal and fruit. She loves LIFE, Cheerios, and my homemade granola, which she calls, "grabola." She loves peanut butter and honey sandwiches for lunch. She loves the circle babybel cheese and fruit leathers most as snacks during the day. Madeline's favorite treats are lollipops and cookies. We just introduced her to lollipops but only give them to her as special treats. Madeline still prefers to drink milk over any other drink and will willingly drink water. Overall, she is a pretty good eater and will eat all fruits, peas, carrots, corn, broccoli, yellow peppers, some pastas, chicken, pork, and salmon but doesn't usually like beef or hot dogs. Madeline is great at using her spoon and fork and still uses her hands for some things. I'm not sure where she learned it but one day I saw her eating her blueberries by sucking them up with only her mouth like an elephant would with its trunk. It was kind of hilarious. Sometimes when we are eating together Madeline will knock my cup with her cup and say, "cheers." Emma taught her how to do that. It doesn't just stop with cups though. Sometimes she does cheers with her bowl or plate as well. At dinnertime, which isn't really her favorite meal, she always tries to be done way before her food is actually gone. She loves to tell me..."All done. I want to take a bath, brush teeth, get jammies on, and go to bed." She is such a smart girl. Madeline has really taken an interest in coloring. She loves to color with crayons, pencils, markers and colorful pens. She is often found stealing the girl's erasable pens from their desk drawer. Sometimes she will draw in a coloring book but her favorite thing to do is to draw on a blank piece of paper. She mostly draws scribbles and repeating circles. Madeline loves all kind of toys. She loves stuffed animals and usually has quite a few in bed with her when she sleeps. She also loves playing with the Little People and the Lego Duplos. Her favorite Little People characters are the princess ones. She carries them around everywhere she goes. Her latest favorite toys are the mini princess clip dolls. She usually asks to sleep with one when she goes to bed. Of course, she still loves her Little Einstein dolls and was so excited when we found Quincy who had been lost for over a month. Madeline loves to play. She begs us to either pull her across the floor on the blanket or play duck duck goose with her. She also loves it when we chase her around the house. She will say, "chase me." It is surprising how fast she is. Madeline loves to play in the nursery at church but went through a month where she hated it and cried when we took her. Once I started being more consistent with church nursery and the club daycare she quickly became ok playing with the other kids until I returned. Of all the things Madeline knows how to do, she amazes me with how well she can sing the songs I have sung to her since she was a baby. She doesn't just know some of the words...she knows all the words. She can sing so many songs all the way through. Now when we are getting ready for bed sometimes I will start to sing to her and she will put her finger up to my mouth and say, "Shhh..." because she wants to sing to me. It is cute and kind of funny. Madeline still loves books. Her favorite books are: Bear Hunt, Little Blue Truck books, Mr. Gumpy, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, If You Give a Pig a Party, Eric Carle's Head to Toe book, Pinkalicious, Goldalicious, Curious George and the Chocolate Factory, Curious George Feeds the Animals, Curious George and the Dinosaur Museum, and the Mother Goose book. Living in a house full of technology, Madeline falls right in line with the other kids and not only knows how to work the iPad but she loves it all too much. She loves to watch movies on her iPad and on the big TV in the basement. Her favorite movies are: The Heffalump Movie, Mary Poppins, Boss Baby, and Incredibles 2. When she is in the basement she will take all the pillows off the couch and make a big pile on the floor and jump from the couch to the floor. She reminds me of how fun life can be from the eyes of a 2 year old. Ever since the older kids have been swimming with the Rapids Swim Club back in the fall, Madeline has been obsessed with being just like the big kids. We found an old pair of pink swim goggles and gave them to her to play with so that she would stop getting into the kids swim bags and stealing their goggles. She loves to wear them ALL THE TIME. What's even more hilarious is when she gets down on the floor and pretends to swim. She somehow manages to scoot herself around on the wood floor while telling us that she is swimming. She even does it in the bath. I love how much she wants to be like her siblings. I see a swimmer in her future!
Oh how much fun it has been to have so much snow this month. This is in stark difference to last year where we didn't get much snow at all. Emma and Abby always jump at the chance to go out and play in the snow. It was so much fun for Madeline to be able to go out and play with them today with her new gloves. They helped her build a snowman and throw snowballs. Madeline loved hiding behind the snowball fort. I love watching my girls play together.
It snowed today and so I got Madeline all dressed up for her first real snowy day fun in the backyard. Luckily her snow outfit still fit from last year. She was a little unsure of how to walk in the snow and what to do with it while in the backyard so I decided it would be a better idea to start out with a walk around the neighborhood. Madeline loved our little walk and even ventured off the sidewalk to walk around in the snow. When we were about halfway around the neighborhood I started making some snowballs for her to throw. She loved that too. She was so intrigued by the snow that she kept wanting to touch it without her gloves on. By the time we made it back to the house she was happy to play in the backyard for a few minutes. Then we headed inside so that she could have her very first cup of hot chocolate with whipping cream and marshmallows. She drank it so fast I couldn't believe it.
Madeline is SO adorable. Everyday I get to spend with her is a treasure. She is really turning into a sweet 2 year old. She has only had a few temper tantrums that usually happen when she is ready for a nap. She loves watching movies on the iPad too much. It has been my mission to keep her occupied as long as I can before I break down and give her the iPad. Her favorite movies are still: Big Hero 6, Finding Dory, Charlie Brown, and Kung Fu Panda 3. She also still loves watching The Little Einsteins.
As much as Madeline loves to be on the iPad, she loves to be outside even more and will drop everything just for the chance to go outside to run around and play. She loves to go for walks and will usually end up running. She is so fast and I have to run just to keep up with her. I know she is going to be a runner. She also loves to jump on the trampoline. She can jump up and down on the ground pretty well now, which makes jumping on the trampoline even more fun. Madeline loves to play at the park and will almost exclusively go down the slide the entire time. She loves walking up the stairs and going down the slide all by herself. She is not to keen about the swing. Madeline still sucks her thumb and does it more now than she did when she was younger. I think it has become her go to comfort mechanism. She usually will only suck her thumb when she has her blanket with her. Madeline is like a sponge…she soaks up everything around her. That also means that she says pretty much anything she hears. That has been a good and a bad thing. She has been known to copy a few things after hearing her siblings say: Shut up, Oh my gosh, and What the heck. The only way to get her to stop repeating those phrases is to distract her with a more suitable phrase for her age. Yikes. On the flipside, Madeline does say some pretty cute things. When she gets up, she will say, “I wake up.” When she is excited about something she will say, “I like it.” Madeline played in the snow for the first time this month. She has walked in the snow before but this was actually the first time that she play in it. We went for a walk around the neighborhood and then played in the backyard. She loved it when I made her snowballs to throw at me. That seemed to make her giggle. Playing in the snow was fun but what was even better was drinking hot chocolate with whipping cream. Madeline loved her first hot chocolate drink. I only filled up her mug halfway and she drank that so fast and wanted more. This girls loves chocolate. One of Madeline’s other firsts this month was going to the Aquarium in Atlanta. She LOVED watching the fish in the big tank but got a little nervous the first time she saw the big sting rays and the big whale sharks. As soon as we pointed out that the whale shark looked like Destiny from the Dori movie, she became so excited and stood at the tank until Destiny came back around. From that point on she wasn’t interested in anything other than seeing her friend Destiny swim in the big tank. Madeline also got to enjoy the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo for the first time. She loved seeing the giraffe but wasn’t too thrilled about getting up close to feed them. She also loved the elephants, tiger, bear, and surprisingly, the turkey. We saw lots of other animals but these were her favorites. Madeline knows her animals and the sounds that they make so well for a 2 year old. After seeing her excitement at the Atlanta Aquarium earlier this month I knew that she would get such a kick out of visiting the animals at the zoo. After doing a quick 2 year old photo shoot at Monument Valley Park we headed over to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. The first thing we did was go straight to the Giraffe exhibit so we could feed them. There were a few other people there as well feeding the giraffes. This sweet lady lifted Madeline up and gave her some of their lettuce so she could feed the giraffe. Madeline was all on board until the giraffe came too close to her. She wasn't having it after that. Still, I bought some lettuce just in case. I ended up feeding the giraffes but Madeline loved looking at them as long as they didn't get too close.
After the giraffes we walked past the zebras and lions. The lion was sleeping in the lion house so we didn't spend too long there and instead headed to the Elephant area. She LOVED seeing the elephants. The elephants are probably one of Madeline's favorite animals. She loved watching them get the hay from the barrels and put it in their mouth with their trunks. After that we saw the alligators, snakes, and kangaroos and eventually we made it to the see the tiger and bear. She LOVED both of those big animals. They were both very active which made it fun to watch them. As we were making our way back to the entrance of the zoo we passed by a turkey and heard it gobble gobble. For some crazy reason Madeline just loved that turkey and wanted to go back up the hill to see it. It was so funny that of all the animals, she seemed to be the most excited by the turkey. Go figure. I decided to tag along with Mike to Atlanta while he participated in an ENT conference. We brought Madeline along with us and left the boys at home while the girls stayed at the Garlocks for the weekend. We stayed with John and Amy and had a great time hanging out with them. John and I were able to go on a 9.3-mile trail run together at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. It was such a great run and also very challenging. We spent the rest of the day relaxing and watching General Conference together while enjoying Amy’s cinnamon rolls. After Mike got back from his conference we all headed to the town of Rosewell to eat at a cute little southern restaurant called Roux On Canton. We had fried okra and pickles for our appetizer, which was very southern. On Sunday we watched some more General Conference, ate more cinnamon rolls and went for a walk around the neighborhood. On Monday Amy and I took Madeline to Stone Mountain. It was decorated for Halloween, which was fun. We took the Sky ride up to the top of Stone Mountain and walked around on top. Then we came back down and rode the train with Madeline. Later that night, Kyle and Natalie watched Madeline while Mike, John, Amy and I went to the Simple Minds concert. It was so much fun to hear some of those songs we grew up hearing. On Tuesday we headed to the Atlanta Aquarium with Madeline before getting on our plane home. Madeline LOVED the whale shark and kept calling it Destiny from the movie “Find Dory.” It was fun to walk around the city of Atlanta before heading on our plane back home to Colorado. STONE MOUNTAIN SIMPLE MINDS CONCERT ATLANTA AQUARIUM We decided to do a kitty cat cake for Madeline's birthday this year. Since Myisha was still here visiting I was able to have extra help in figure out how to make this adorable cake we saw online. Since Madeline just loves cats I figured she would really like a cat cake. We went to work making the fondant and coloring the icing to make a pretty good replica of the cake we were trying to copy. When we were all ready to sing Happy Birthday to her she was kind of in a mood and didn't really want to smile. I think she did like the cake but was a little unsure of all the balloons and festivities that were going on around her. We tried giving her a little cake but decided that we should try and open presents first to see if we could get her to be happy. This year we decided to get Madeline her first pretend kitchen with some new pretend food to go with it. She LOVED the kitchen and the accessories she got from Grandma Ann and Grandpa Franz. They gave her a pretend waffle maker set, pretend past set, and some pretend cans of food. After a little bit of playing with her new toys she was finally ready to come back and eat some of her cake. She LOVED the cake and so did everyone else. They loved the marshmallow fondant and the yummy icing I made this time. Everyone said it was the best cake I had ever made.
Loves bath time after dinner. Latest is playing with the bath crayons. Then she likes to wipe it clean with her washcloths. She still loves playing with her bath cups and foam letters.
After bath time Madeline loves to have playtime before bed. She will usually play with her kitchen or play duck duck goose. She loves it when we all play with her. She just giggles after she says goose and runs around her room squealing in delight. She loves to play with her new kitchen. She loves the cupcakes and ice cream the best. She also loves playing with her pasta set and putting the food in the shopping cart. She still enjoys cutting up the wooden fruit. She loves to scare the kids when they come in her room. She hides behind the door says “got you” when they come in her room. Madeline loves to iPad way too much. Her favorite movies are: Big Hero 6, Charlie Brown, Kung Fu Panda 3, Piglet Movie and all the Winnie the Pooh movies. Her favorite TV show is still Little Einsteins. Madeline talks ALL the time and can say so many things. She says phrases like: I do it I got it I get it I have it I help I mic (I mix) Mommy help Mommy do it iPad watch I fic (I fix) What time it is (What time is it) Mommy play with you (Mommy play with me) She can tell us pretty much what she wants and we can understand her most of the time. One of the cutest things she does is every time she sees a bus she says, “Abby’s bus.” The other day we went to drop something off at Emma’s school. The next day as we passed the school while driving home from errands I heard Madeline say, “Emma’s school.” She is so smart. I often hear Madeline counting to 10 without any help and singing her ABCs. She can get through half the alphabet without any help. She loves to read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and sing her ABCs at the end of the book. She also learned the Do Re Mi song from Emma. She loves to sing songs and knows quite a few. She loves to point at the music in her little children’s hymn book and sing the words to the song. Her favorite songs are: I am a Child of God, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam, Temple Song, Little Purple Pansies, Daddy’s Homecoming, and the Snowman Song. Madeline is great at following instructions. She has been really good about prayer time and folding her arms and then shouting Amen at the end. She has even prayed a few times with our help. One Sunday after the opening prayer she looked at me and my arms were still folded. She then said, “No mom…Amen.” She couldn’t figure out why I would have my arms folded when the prayer was over. It was hilarious. Madeline is so predictable when it comes to potty time. I can always tell when Madeline has to go to the bathroom. It is usually after she eats lunch. When I see her concentrate I will usually ask her if she want to sit on the potty. She will usually say no and then she will say, “I hide.” She will run behind the couch or a chair and do her business. When I do go and change her diaper she is usually pretty good about laying down. Then she says, “Oh no,” as I am changing her diaper. I will usually be pretty silly with her and say, “Stinky” or “Grouse” and then she just laughs. . Loves to take walks outside and blow bubbles with the bubble gun. She loves to wear her boots outside even though it is too warm to wear them. She loves to say hi to the owl statue in our neighbors yard. She has no problems walking the loop behind our house without getting tired. She loves to walk on the grassy sections next to the sidewalk. She started running this summer and can run pretty far before she gets tired.
Madeline loves learning. She loves to sing, read books, color, sing and play with her toys. She is becoming a creative independent player. As long as I’m close by she will play with her toys without me having to play with her. I love that she is learning how to play independently. She loves to line up her toys whether that is blocks, people or her doll house furniture. One of her favorite toys is her dollhouse. She loves to put all the furniture in the house and does a pretty good job putting them in the correct places. She loves the little baby and will sing to her as she puts her in the tiny crib. One of her other favorite toys is still her Little Einstein people and the big rocket. Quincy is her favorite one of the kids. By the end of the summer she was calling all of them her kids. This summer Madeline learned how to do the simple puzzles. She loves all the puzzles with the animals but particularly likes the puzzle with the doors you can open. She likes to find the cat. Madeline loves animals...especially cats. She can recognize most major animals and tell us what sound they make. She also loves her soft elephant and sheep (which she calls sheepie) and sleeps with them in her bed. When it’s time for bed she lays them down in her crib and when she gets up she wants me to take them out of the crib for her. They travel with her to wherever she is playing. Madeline is still a great eater and will eat most anything we give her. What she loves more than eating is bath time. Sometimes she will not eat all her dinner just so that she can have a bath. She never forgets to tell me that it is bath time after dinner. She loves to grab her towel off the hook and then turn on the faucet in the tub. She is always quick to remind me to put bubbles in her bath. She loves bubbles. After I take her clothes off she puts them in the laundry basket. Then she sits on her little potty. She got her first little pink potty this summer and loves to sit on it so that she can flush the silver handle and hear the flushing sound. She doesn’t have any patience for actually doing anything on it but that’s ok. Towards the end of the summer Madeline developed a love for cooking with me in the kitchen. She always grabs her apron and makes me put mine on as well. She loves to help put the ingredients in the bowl and turn on the mixer. At first the mixer was a little loud for her and she would cover her ears every time it was on. Then she would tell me we were all done when she turned the mixer off. It was cute. She loved making cookies and eating the cookie dough at the end. I would only give her a little bit and she would keep asking me for more so I had to be quick getting the cookie dough on the baking sheets. This has been the most exciting month to watch Madeline as her vocabulary has doubled in one month alone. She is so animated when she talks, and she can say simple phrases. Some of our favorites things she says are:
I dunno ( I don’t know) - and she puts her hands in the air whe she says it Hmmm - she puts her finger by her chin as she thinks What's this Up and down Can count from 1-10 with 6-10 being her strongest numbers to say Stop (she puts her hand out when she says it) Nah (no) and es (yes) Nigh nigh (night night) love ewe (love you) Madeline loves to be outside and she loves doing bubbles. The kids have had so much fun doing bubble with her when the sun comes out. Madeline also loves to hold the bubble gun and run around catching and popping the bubbles. She loves to sit and rock on the glider bench on the porch and will sit still for quite a long time as long as I am rocking with her on the bench. Madeline still loves to play with her shopping cart and will put her baby dolls in the front seat and then she wipes off the handle just like I do when she and I go to the grocery store. It is so cute to see her model what I do. Madeline also loves to color with markers, even more than she loves coloring with crayons. I love to watch her curiosity as she draws random lines with all the different colors. |
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