2 Years Old

Madeline is now 2 years old. She just gets prettier, smarter and more lovable each day.

She has been wearing big girl underwear all day for over a month now. We put her in a diaper for naps and bedtime. We usually don't have to ask her if she needs to go. She will just tell us. She has no problem going while we are out either. In fact, we usually make 2 or 3 trips to the bathroom when we are in a restaurant. She will not go poopy in the potty though. She will wait until she has a diaper on for that. So, we are still working on that. In the past month or so, she has only had about 2 or 3 accidents. It has been pretty nice now that Oliver is going through about 386,482 diapers a day.


She's a good winker :)


She got a kitchen for her birthday and has been enjoying cooking for everyone. She makes tea and then adds sugar and cream. She fills up water for us over and over from her sink. She makes happy cake and sings happy birthday to whoever's birthday it is.

She is a great pretender. She makes her little people and animals talk now. This morning she was playing with a mommy and baby. She made the baby say, "I want to slow dance." The mommy said, "Ok." And then she took them in her hands and went twirling around the room with them. She will tell us when her baby is crying and then pick her up gently to pat her on her back or give her a bottle. It also makes her laugh when I make Oliver talk to her.

She is still into dancing. She loves to "slow dance". Which is actually really fast spinning, dipping and dancing with either Andrew or I. She is very particular about what kind of music she wants to dance to. She still likes Chicago a lot.

This day she wanted to be a ballerina. So, I got out her tu-tu so she could be one. (I'm not sure how she knows about ballerinas. I guess I need to look into dance classes for her.)

She's a great singer. She sings most of the "abc song", "Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Jesus Loves Me", and songs from videos that she watches like Dora. I can hear her singing over her monitor almost everyday during nap time.

She is eating much better lately. She stopped getting milk between mealtimes and now she is eating actual food. She went from about 32 oz of milk a day to about 16-24oz. She will eat all kinds of food but her favorites right now are chocolate (Nutella) sandwiches, pop tarts, olives, raisins, fruit, any candy, cold green beans, apple juice, pickles, and string cheese.

~She is communicating so well. She surprises us everyday with what she remembers. She talks about our old white car and how Pawpaw fixed it. She still talks about the fast cars (a ride) at the beach and how we have to get in the car to go to it because it is really far away. She put pretend lemon in Andrew's pretend water last night and told him, "It not too sour." She asks, "What YOU doin'?", all the time. She sounds like Joey from Friends.

~She knows all or most of her capital letters. She can tell us what letter her name starts with and Oliver's. She will ask us, "What you start with?" when she wants to know what letter our names start with. She can count to 10 as well. She will count while pointing to things, but she doesn't necessarily move her finger with each number. She knows her shapes as well. (Square, rectangle, triangle, circle, oval, and octogon).

~She is a very obedient little girl. And she doesn't throw fits very often. If she does, it is usually when she is extremely tired. We have been very blessed by her compliant heart. If she has been crying or upset about something not going her way, she will soon tell us that she is happy and then try to get happy. She will sometimes ask for her "happy paci" to help her get happy.

~She loves her grandparents, all of them. She asks to go see them all the time.

~She has become a very loving child. She was not a very snuggly baby. But, she loves to cuddle and watch cartoons when she wakes up. She gives the tightest hugs before she goes to sleep. And she gives hugs and kisses to Oliver too. She says she loves us so much and shows us with her arms stretch out wide. She thanks Jesus for different people each night (but usually a grandparent). I heard Oliver crying over the monitor this morning while I was getting ready. Madeline ran down to his room to check on him. Then I heard her say, "Mommy's coming to get you." It was pretty sweet.

Madeline continues to amaze us. I'm not sure how she got to be so smart and sweet. But, I am enjoying every minute of it!