A little bit about my girlie....

I wish I did a better job of journaling regularly about different things my girlie is learning, but I thought I would take a few minutes to jot some thoughts down now. Over the past 6 months, I've been amazed at what Madison has learned. Here's just some of her newest nuggets:

ABC's - she can sing the whole song, recognize all the letters, and knows what sound each one makes (thanks to Leapfrog Letter Factory and our Fridge Phonics!)

Songs - she loves to sing! She can sing many different songs by herself, but here's just a few: Jesus Loves Me, Holy God, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Rock-a-Bye Baby, The Little Einstein Theme Song, The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Theme Song, This is the Day, and many Veggie Tale Songs! The funniest part is when she tries to hit a high note, but her voice just gets louder instead :-)

Talking - she talks NON-STOP! :-) Now that she is two, she is truly blowing me away with all of the words she knows and can say clearly. She is now speaking in full sentences, too. She regularly says please, thank you, excuse me (comes out scuse mees), and bless you all on her own. She dictates to me almost all of what she is doing and is now talking to her dolls and toys while she plays.

Dancing - she LOVES to dance! She especially loves to dance to the "Hot Dog Song" on Mickey Mouse and to the Imagination Movers.

Another amazing thing is that she knows and can recognize where we are driving almost all of the time. When we head in certain directions, she quickly tells me that we are going to grandmom's, nana's, church, etc....She knows roads and turns too! Crazy!

She LOVES people - she greets them, hugs them, kisses them, talks about them, and prays for them. It is so adorable. If someone is sick, she asks to pray for them. And, when we do pray, she insists on holding our hands....so sweet.

I will be adding more as I think of more and hopefully I can use this blog as a place to document cute things she says, does, and learns.

Madison's 2nd Birthday

Once again, I am SO aware of how time flies - I can't believe I am writing a post about my little baby girl turning 2 years old! What a fun time we had celebrating her birthday. We had a Minnie Mouse party at my parent's house to celebrate with family and a few close friends. One of Madison's favorite shows is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Playhouse Disney. She had the perfect red and white outfit and we borrowed Minnie ears from Naomi Bang to top it all off. What a cutie pie! Here are some of my favorite moments that we captured from the day. You can see how excited she was and how cute - I love the one with her ears sticking out :-)

On her first birthday, she didn't even want to touch her cake. But this year, she decided all on her own, to bend over (after blowing out her candles) and LICK THE CAKE! It was priceless.

For her birthday this year, she received many fun gifts, but one of her absolute favorites was the sand & water table from Aunt Robin and Aunt Jesse. I know this will provide many, many hours of fun and entertainment this summer on our deck :-) Thanks Aunt Robin!

Then, on the day of her actual birthday (April 22), Joseph and I surprised her with a new pink scooter (just like the one she LOVES to ride at her cousin Jason's house!) and pink helmet. She is really good at riding it! She just has to perfect moving side-to-side. We also enjoyed some fun time at Chuck E. Cheese that night - she is LOVING the merry-go-round these days!

Daddy's 30th Birthday!

I can't actually believe Joseph turned 30! It makes me feel really old to say that, considering I met him when we were young college students! It's crazy how time flies!

To celebrate, we had a small family dinner - chicken parmesan (his favorite) and a small cake (pineapple upside down, also his favorite). What he didn't know was that I was planning him a surprise dinner with some of his closest friends.

On March 28th, I arranged to have our friends go to this neat Japanese restaurant (where a big group can all sit around the table and the cook makes the food in front of you). When Joseph and I arrived at the restaurant, he was totally surprised to see all of them! What a fun night of fellowship. Thank you to all of our friends who showed up to bless Joseph. He truly loves you all very much!

Grace's Wedding Shower

On March 7th, we celebrated Grace & Scott's upcoming wedding (April 5th) with a bridal shower. Danna was kind enough to let us host it at her house. The Apolenis sister-in-laws organized the shower for her. I think Grace was truly blessed and had a wonderful time.