Cheese!!

It is her very Favorite, Cheese that is. I am pretty sure that if that was the only food we ate she would be content! She also loves to say "CHEEEESE!" for the camera, it is pretty cute! She is getting so big, growing up so fast, and intellectually - it seems like she makes leaps and bounds every day! She is talking more, and her babbles are still frequent, she is a chatterbox. I have gotten a couple videos, but I am striving to get more, I know I am going to miss these days! My most enjoyable moment yet with her has been this -- she pulls my face close to hers and whispers, "i love you" it is so precious and sweet.

Motherhood still amazes me daily, Madi has challenged me and helped me grow in so many ways. Being a Mom is the most amazingly beautiful thing that I have experienced and at the same time, it has been one of the hardest most challenging ventures I have experienced~

"I Love you" she whispers sweetly, as she pulls her face close to mine. I can feel her breath and it is so sweet! She is so passionate and loving. She cuddles, and kisses, hugs, and will even embrace your face in her hands or wrap her arms around your neck and squeeze. I love it when she blows kisses my way as she leaves to go with her Daddy. It is in these moments that I am reminded of how awesome it is, and what a privlege it is to be her Mommy. Times get tough and she throws many challenges my way, screaming to get her way, or demanding and yelling at me. We are learning how to work with eachother more and more everyday, it is a learning process for both of us. Neither of us are perfect, but we are perfect for each other - Her as my daughter, and me being her Mom. I know that I am here to help her to choose the right path for her life, being Madilynn's Mom is awesome!

She has been talking more and more everyday, it is great! I am so proud of her, she has been trying really hard! We do flashcards once in a while and I even work with her on learning different words like up, down, hot, cold and so on. I love her dialect, she still babbles, and it is adorable! Her new favorite word is fritty, meaning pretty - other than the words "No! Mine!' when she gets frustrated. She can say peoples names now, or even pick up on random words that I say, now it is becoming imperative that I watch what I say. She will attempt to say things now when I prompt her - sometimes she has her moments where she will completely ignore me though. As Alyshia said, sometimes we feel disrespected when they completely ignore us, but that is the beauty of the 2 year old! I know that sooner or later she is going to be talking my ear off, so I try and remind myself not to rush her or put too much pressure on her to advance.

I am pretty sure that she is going to be a singer someday. She loves music, and along with that she loves to Sing, scream, and yell! Her lungs are amazing, she can hold a note forever, and if she puts forth that energy in the future toward something positive, I have a feeling that she will sing beautifully.

This age has been particularly challenging due to many factors. With being almost two years old and just learning how to communicate - which isn't all the effective yet, it is usually her babbling or screaming trying to get me to understand what she is saying, through frustration. Not only that Madi is discovering that she is her own person, and she wants to make her own decisions, regardless of wether or not it is a good choice. If I step in she tends to defy me. She is strong willed (and so am I), stubborn, and opinionated. But like I said, we are both growing together learning how to work with one another. Through all of this the one thing that has been a great tool for me is timeout, it works wonders. She has atleast one timeout a day (I can say that for sure, if not many more!) typically she is forewarned that if she doesn't make a good decision that her conseqence will be timeout. I am hoping that she is starting to comprehend the concept of consequences to her behavior. Positive reinforcement has been great tool as well. Clapping, or even telling her that she did a great job and giving her a high five really gives her motive to want to make good choices! This has been especially effective when it comes to cleaning. When she plays with toys, I try to keep them to a minimum, that way she doesn't get overwhelmed with the amount that she has to clean up when she is done playing. I always help her clean as well, and when we do clean we sing the clean up song, then we clap after it is all done.

She loves baths as long as I don't wash her, in her opinion they should be strictly recreational! Speaking of the bathrom, she has been going to the potty!! She Loves the her potty chair and the toilet. When I suggest it she typically runs to the bathroom and attempts to pull her pants off, saying 'Potty!! Potty!!' the whole way there - she makes me smile. But she is not quite to the point where she will communicate when she needs to go. Usually she goes in the big girl potty about once a day now, and I figure that it is a great way to introduce it and to start the process of potty training. I don't want to be forceful, I know that when she is ready she will let me know. I like to make things that seem like they are a chore, fun for her, that way her learning to get in the habit of doing them won't be a struggle - it will be a choice that she can make and feel good about. For now she is still in diapers - boy it will be awesome to retire them!

Madi is big and healthy - growing like a weed! She is about 37 inches tall and 27.6 pounds. She has a very solid build like her Dad. I am determined that she is going to have a very athletic body type, maybe she will be a hockey player some day ;) She is so beautiful, it really amazes me. Her hair is growing, and the curls remind me of my own hair. She has perfect eyebrows, beautiful big brown eyes, and gorgeous long eyelashes that bring out her eyes. She is perfect, often I stare at her in awe! God has really blessed me with an amazing little girl.

It is really cool to watch her personality bloom. Sometimes she reminds me so much of myself. She is so sensitive, crying at any little thing. If I tell her no, or try to quiet her down when she is screaming by saying 'Shhh'- she will start to cry and look for consolation - as if I just shamed her. It makes me giggle, only because I myself am too familiar with being sensitive. I have grown out of it in so many regards, but when I was her age anything would set me off, and my feelings would be hurt, and of course the tears would start to flow - just like Madi! It is so true, that statement "You get what you give."Another thing that is pretty cute is that she loves her arms, legs, and even her belly to be rubbed, and tickled. She will pull her sleeves up and hand over her arm, asking me to rub her. I just love it, I am the same EXACT way - anyone who knows me will get a good chuckle out of this It is great having a little mini me.

She loves to hang out with her friends too. She is a social butterfly, and sometimes she will request me to take her Bye-bye. We love hanging out with Alyshia, who is a very close friend of mine from highschool, and her daughter Sophia who is almost one year older than Madi. They play great together, and it is awesome to watch them play - I don't think that either one of us thought back in the day 'our daughters are going to grow up together and be friends,' it is just really cool to have that! We also have some other really good friends from church. Our Ladies Group' as we call it, almost all of us are Mom's - it is great to have one another for suppor. It is awesome bringing our kids together to play and socialize. Madi and I have an amazing group of family and friends in our life!

As for playtime, Madi has really started to take an interest in toys that are more interactive, and geared toward toddlers and young children. Instead of playing with the usual baby toys, she is starting to gravitate toward other interests like: Barbies; puzzles; playing with dolls and treating them as though she would a real baby; her doll house; she especially likes cars that she can put her dolls in - she even makes cute noises and such mimicing noises that people would make or wha a car would make; She loves books, and will even go sit in her reading nook and look at books and pretend read to herself, it is adorable; she loves to dress up; no matter what she is doing it needs to be hands on. She loves to be active in everything that she does, so if it involves running around she is all for it - her energy astounds me, she is seriously like the energizer bunny.

She just recently has really started to take a liking to TV and movies... It is great! Not many parents would say that, but in my case I believe that TV, in moderation of course, can be a great thing!! There are some amazing shows, especialy on the sprout channel, that are great in helping develop a babies mind, and to aid them in learning some basic things like counting, ABC's, and so forth. She loves to cuddle up on the couch with me to watch a little TV, we don't do it often, because we don't watch too much, but it is fun great when we do.

As for her sleeping habits, they are great. She has been down to one daily nap for the past few months, and goes to sleep usually with no issues at all. For the most part there are no tears or crying, and she embraces nap time and sleepy time well. She wakes anywhere from 7am-8:30am, takes about a 2-3 hour nap, then goes back down around 8pm (usually, unless we have something going on). She sleeps with a paci, and Melody and is a great self soother - very seldom do I have to go and tend to her at night!

She is a risk taker just like her parents - I see it even more when she is playing with other kids, she will do things that the other kids won't do. Madi isn't scared or timid of anything it seems, other than when she is first introduced to a dog. She will jump right up and give anything a try for the most part, even if it is jumping off of a toddler chair, only to crash down on the ground leaving her with a big bump on her head. It doesn't help at all that she is definitely accident prone- which is becoming all to familiar these days, running into the wall or falling to the ground with a crash. I dread the first broken bone, or serious injury.

When she gets hurt she always wants to turn to three things for comfort - other than the comfort of me that is: Melody - her bear, her pacifier, and a sippy cup. The paci is pretty much my worst enemy, I am constantly fighting against it, and Madi is fighting for it - it is a battle that has yet been won. Hopefully soon we can get rid of them. I sometimes wish that I had never introduced them to her. Two will be the cut off for me though, so hopefully at that point I can rationalize with her that they need to go, and explain to her that she is a big girl now. We will see how that challenge goes...

Just one more month from today and my baby will be two years old! Where has the time gone? Looking back it is mind blowing to see how far she has come physically, developmentally, and mentally. It is no wonder that our minds forget the beginnings of our childhood, so much happens in such a short period - it is probably incomprehensible to a babies mind.