water color painting

Dear Madelyn,
I love to watch you experience new things. The wonder in your eyes. The smiles. The laughter. The newness of painting with water colors made your day. It made mine too.

I love you, sweet girl.

Love,
Mom

dinner.

Sometimes we stand when we eat and that is more than OK with this mom. As long as she's eating...something...we can stand on our heads for all I care! Now that she can ask for what she wants, meal times have suddenly become more complicated. Convincing a toddler that meals aren't the same as snacks is much harder than I an anticipated!

Goodness, she's cute!

my little Monk

Madelyn likes to finger paint for about 37.2 seconds lately, at which point she frantically looks at her hands and starts screaming, "Wipe! WIPE! WIPE!". Monk, anyone?

preach it.

  MK got out her Bible and stole Mr. Potato Head's glasses and pranced in to the living room Sunday afternoon. The glasses were a little snug and didn't last long, but the sermon was preached.

  It went a little something like this:

Thank you, Jesus.

The cow says moo.

 Jesus. Jesus! JESUS!!!

T

The duck says quack, quack.

Moo cow. Quack duck. Moo cow. Quack duck.

Thank you, Jesus.

 

 Amen and amen.

Thank you, Jesus!

21 months

Dear Sweet Madelyn,
You are 21 months old (well...as of 2 days ago!). At just three months shy of two you are already proudly proclaiming it! When we ask you how old you are, without missing a beat you answer, "two". I guess a few months of hearing us say, "almost two" after you would answer with, "one", it started to sink in. For a few days you've even said, "21 months". Just another reminder that you hear and remember far more than we often give you credit for.

At 21 months you are fun, full of life and a full on toddler. Our days are filled with laughter, kisses, coloring, tantrums, tea parties, making messes, cleaning them up, singing, dancing and more. Key word in the previous sentence: filled. There is never a dull moment and most days, when you nap, I give myself at least 15-20 minutes to be lazy and do nothing.

Lately you have wanted someone right by your side to do just about everything. You say, "hand...hand...hand...HAND!", until we oblige and hold your hand while you pull us along to our next adventure. You are not at all lacking in persistence. Ha! Some days I wonder if most toddlers proclaim things 15 times without taking a breath like you do. It's pretty funny most of the time. And for the times that it's not...I just remind myself that it's just a stage and "this too shall pass".

At 21 months you are looking more and more like a little girl every day. Your features are changing. Your baby rolls disappearing with each passing day. Your face looks so much more mature than just a few months ago. While I love watching you grow, it seems to be happening all too fast.

The number one thing that I want to remember about this age is just how verbal you are. You have made a few sentences for several months now, but within the last month you are making them all the time! Tonight you said, "I don't want to eat green grapes". I am still constantly in shock after a new sentence is uttered. You can articulate most things that you want to say well enough for us to understand and are needing less and less translation for others to understand you. One of your new favorite words (thanks to Aunt Rachel) is "awesome". The best part about it is that you use it appropriately! Even though every word is not clear, there are certain words that we know exactly what they mean. My favorite of those is when you sing the "clean up" song. You say the same sound over and over. I think I love it so much because it's one of the last of your improvised words. So precious.

This month we hit the potty training at the beginning of the month pretty hard, but the last week and a half you have been uninterested to say the least. I am not worried about it in the slightest. I guess it's just not as exciting to you at the moment. You had a few tummy issues for about a week and I think that threw you off. You still talk about the potty non stop and despise having a dirty diaper so I am thinking you will get back to it soon.

The funniest moment from this month happened just last week. Aunt Rachel was staying with us this week and one morning she told you to bring me your paci (yes, you still have it!) because you don't get it when you are awake. You walked over to me, pulled on it and said, "It's tuck (stuck)". We both laughed so hard! You are a hoot and I never cease to amaze me with your wit! You keep us laughing!

When you aren't being funny or throwing a tantrum (which happened a lot more than normal last week), you are the sweetest little thing. You give the best hugs, sugary sweet kisses and have the softest touch. Words cannot even begin to describe how precious each of those moments is to me.

You love to watch Sesame Street (or Elmo as you call it) and Leapfrog Numbers Ahoy (or Two as you call it). You usually watch TV for about 30 minutes a day now. Some days still not at all, but it's a great pre-nap wind down for you.

You want to take a baby doll with you everywhere you go. I love to watch you scurry throughout the house searching for what you want to bring with us when we tell you it's time to go. Most of the time both arms are full of sippy cups, baby dolls, purses and blankets. The other day you grabbed a purse, put a pull up and wipes in it and said, "Let's go momma. Get in car!".

Your favorite song is the clean up song. Haha! I am not sure why, but it definitely gets you the most excited! This month we have been buying books that come with a CD when we go to story time at Barnes and Noble. The first one we bought was Five Little Monkeys. Every single time we get in the car, you immediately request monkeys! I love to watch you say, "No, no monkeys!" and point your little fingers. You pretty much have the book memorized. We threw Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear? in to the mix and you request it sometimes now too.

Your smile lights up our house, Madelyn. Being wife to Daddy and mom to you is such a blessing to me. You are a joy. Precious. A true gift to our family.

You radiate with joy and I pray daily that you never lose that!

We love you to the moon and back.

Love,
Mommy 

He has overcome.

I remember very clearly the morning that a sweet friend of mine told me that she was pregnant. After struggling to conceive their second child and already losing one, it was an announcement where two very contrasting emotions perfectly collided, excitement and fear.

Within the hour, she miscarried.

I remember scrounging for the words to say.

Racking my brain for something. Anything. Words to encourage.

And then John 16:33 came to mind. It didn't need my spin on it. It's scripture. It's truth. It's hope.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

He has overcome.

Then there was the time that a friend from high school, still in the "honeymoon phase", announced that she and her husband of just one year were getting a divorce.

My heart was broken for her. I had no words. Divorce? I was 22, a newlywed and unsure what could end a marriage so prematurely.

I was speechless.

And then John 16:33 came to mind. It didn't need my spin on it. It's scripture. It's truth. It's hope.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

He has overcome.

I'll never forget her sobs. A complete stranger whose burdens were heavy, unloading the torture of the past three years over the telephone. She didn't know me. Her mother barely did.

I was caught off guard. Unprepared.

And then John 16:33 came to mind. It didn't need my spin on it. It's scripture. It's truth. It's hope.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

He has overcome.

Listening to this song reminded me of those moments today. I am so thankful that he has overcome.

buddies from the beginning

Grandma bought MK this sweet doll the day we found out that we were having a girl! She's been with us every day since.