23 Months Old

Madeline is 23 months old now. I can't believe that my baby will be 2 in less than a month! She is changing, growing and learning so much.

She loves to sing. She is learning so many new songs almost everyday. She pretends A LOT. She goes shopping at the grocery story and Target. She bakes cakes. She has birthday parties for her stuffed animals. She takes care of her babies. She is very entertaining to watch. She talks all the time. It is rarely quiet in the car anymore. :) She tells people that her birthday is December 1 and that she will be 2. And she is convinced that she is going to get to drive when she turns 3. She is very excited for baby brother to come home. We will see how excited she is when he actually does come home :)

Who says you can't wear your Halloween costume after halloween? Even when you are all dressed up for church, with your hair curled and too-big-for-you tights.

We love this precious little girl so much. It is so fun to watch her learning and growing.

Happy Halloween!

On Saturday, we headed down Alexandria to spend Halloween with Andrew's parents. Madeline actually got to spend all day with her Nana while Andrew, Andrew's dad and I went to get a new car. But, more on that later.

Madeline was an adorable bumblebee for Halloween.

We had been talking about Trick-or-Treating for a while so she could practice saying it. She did a great job saying it and also saying "thank you" after she got candy.

She loved using her Elmo basket that my brother got her. Thanks Nathaniel! It got filled up pretty quickly.

Then it was time to check out the loot!

Oh M&M's, how I love you!

Madeline is pretty much like her father, in that, she isn't real picky about what kind of candy she likes. She likes it all!

Madeline really enjoyed handing out candy to the other trick-or-treaters as well. She would run to the door as soon as she heard the doorbell ring. Despite the rain, I'd say we had a very successful and enjoyable Halloween. Can't wait 'til next year!

Madeline is really starting to enjoy singing. She "knows" "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", "Jesus Loves Me", "Jacob's Ladder", "Deep and Wide" and "The Happy Birthday Song". Here are a couple videos of her singing.

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

This is about an hour and a half after I laid Madeline down for her nap. I hope you enjoy "The Happy Birthday Song".

There are a few other new videos on the right side of the blog as well for your viewing pleasure :)

Pumpkin Patch

On Wednesday, we headed to a nearby farm, Butler's Orchard, for a playdate with all the moms from our MOPS group. It was one of the first beautiful mornings after a week of rain. So, it was wonderful to spend some time outside, as well as with some fun friends.

We got to take a fun hayride to the pumpkin patch. Madeline searched for the perfect pumpkin. Which is now "displayed" down inside of a pot next to our fireplace. I'm not sure why she thinks it belongs there.


Why are pumpkins so cute in the hands of little kids?


Whoa! It's hard to maneuver around all the pumpkins that grow in/get dumped into a pumpkin patch.

We got to eat some yummy apples. Madeline had 2 while we were there. That's a lot for her :)

We found some other fun things to do as well. Madeline is following all of her friends up the hill to the BIG slides. Unfortunately she didn't get to ride them because they were too big to do by herself and they looked a little too rough for someone that is 37 weeks pregnant.

But, she was happy to play in and on this tunnel.

And she was happy to run "super fast" through the corn maze. At least for the first half of it. Then, momma had to carry her.

We had a beautiful morning out of the house and with fun friends. Fall is just the best time of the year.

Will Pee Pee for Candy!

Last Friday night, while we were working in baby brother's room, Madeline just told us, "I needs to go potty." And she headed to the potty. I didn't really pay attention, because frankly, she sits on the potty a lot and nothing happens. But, this night was different. She shut the door on us and then went pee pee in the potty all by herself. We were so surprised!

Now, she has been going pee pee on the potty for several days. Sometimes she needs a little reminder and other times I will notice that she is gone and she has gone off to the bathroom by herself. She will only go while we are at home. Or if we are at someone's house that has a little potty. So, she still has a few accidents. But, if we are at home, I usually try to keep "big good girl" underwear (training pants) on her so she can go by herself. Sometimes she likes her privacy. And other times she wants everyone to "listen to my pee pees" (in a whispered voice).


So, she isn't really potty trained. But, she is getting very very close. So, Madeline will now pee pee for M&M's. As soon as she is done she says, "I get CANDY!" Sometimes she will keep going back to pee pee just a tiny bit, just so she can get CANDY! We might need to move to a sticker chart soon :)

Now, can I have a little privacy?

The Countertops are in!

Well, it took a little longer than we had planned. But, we finally have countertops in our kitchen. We were using our old ones to make due until we got real ones.

I love my giant new sink. I think both of our kids could take a bath in it!


This is all new countertop space. Our fridge used to be in this corner. But, we added more cabinets and therefore, a ton more counter space.


A little more close up.

Well, we still aren't done with the kitchen yet. But, it is certainly very close now that the counters are in. We still need to tile the floor, add some filler pieces, get a refrigerator, and do something with the backsplash. But, I think my new countertops will hold me for a while! :)

22 Months Old

Well, Madeline is now 22 months old. And this is basically our last month with just her. (I didn't really think about that until just now. sniff sniff). She is growing up so fast! She definitely seems like a little girl to me rather than a baby. But, I still call her my baby. And probably always will.

She has definitely enjoyed all the renovations that are going on around here. We just finished painting baby brother's room. So, she has had fun climbing the ladders in there and yelling as loud as she can to make it echo. She also likes to yell really loud while we are out in public and then she will tell me, "no echo", like she was just checking.

The old cabinets are now gone from our house. But, while they were here, she certainly enjoyed the playhouses that she made out of them. Some of them became ovens to cook her food in as well.


She helped Andrew measure and install our new clothes rack in our laundry room. This will be our closet now.

She's still not quite sure about this "thumbs up" thing. So, she just decided to bite daddy's finger instead.

She has been enjoying books, especially at bedtime (anything to procrastinate going to bed). Her favorite right now is Olivia Saves the Circus by Ian Falconer. She can basically tell us the story now as we look through the pictures. It is fun that she is getting into longer books now that actually have story lines.

She still doesn't really care about food. She just doesn't eat much. So, she is still a tiny little thing. She can't keep her pants up unless they have the adjustable waist. I think it is going to be heavier to carry baby brother in his car seat than her. But, that's ok, she is still growing. She likes french fries, hot dogs, Nutella sandwiches, and usually anything sweet. But, she mostly loves her milk.

She loves to snuggle on the couch after she wakes up and watch cartoons. She likes Dora a lot now. We have cartoons on demand, so we have watched some of the episodes over and over. She can tell us whats going to happen next. She is also starting to talk back to the tv shows when they ask for audience participation like, "say backpack!" Some other shows she likes are Mickey's Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Zaboomafoo, Blues Clues and Wonder Pets.

She can basically say everything now. And she is really funny to listen to.

~The other night Andrew was reading a book and said, "The skunk is stinky". Madeline replied, "He needs a new diaper."

~She is very fascinated with the moon lately. In the car a few weeks ago she was getting very upset that she couldn't reach the moon. She said, "I can't reach the moon. I needs a really really big ladder."

~She is also very fascinated with stop lights right now. She knows that red means stop and green means go. She will stretch her neck over to see the lights so she can tell me when they turn green. If she happens to still see another red light when we start moving, she will say, "uh oh" because she thinks we are going when we shouldn't be.

~She says "Bless you, (insert name)" when someone sneezes. And she will also say, "Excuse me, I have a burp."

~She is very considerate of me since my belly has started to get much bigger. If I act like I am tired while carrying her, she will say, "I'm too heavy. Mommy is carrying baby brother."

~She told her Gigi the other night, "you look pretty Gigi". I thought that was pretty sweet.

~She is certainly getting the important parts out of our bible stories at night. In the story of Jesus' crucifixion she said, "Everybody wear flop flops" while pointing to all their sandals.

~She is also really into having other people make her animals talk. If I ask her if she wants to sit on the potty, she will say, "no". But, if her bunny asks her, she will do it right away. She will usually do whatever her stuffed animal or toy asks her to do.

Madeline is certainly a joy. But, she is also showing her "two-ness". We had our first crying battle over eating a bite of food last night. She just had to eat one more bite before she got her juice and it made her cry and cry. But, she finally did it. She is also picky about which color jackets or shoes she wears. She definitely has an opinion. But, it is fun to see her growing up. She truly has a sweet and compliant spirit. I love spending my days with her. And I love being her mommy. She is a precious gift!