Shout out to Maddie

It's Maddie's turn...

Oh how I love this girl. Here are some recent "Maddisms":

• I was tucking her in for a nap and she wanted me to open her box of mini nerds. I didn't think there would be too much harm in that. (Boy was I wrong but that's a different story.)As I opened the box and handed them back to her I saw that they were grape flavored (I ADORE grape flavor, it makes me think of summertime) so I said "hey, can I have one of those?" Without skipping a beat she said in her most bubbly voice, "YOU BET MOM!"
• Last week she had on a really cute outfit. The shirt had a skeleton on it and she wore her black shoes for the first time with it. Everyone kept telling her how cool she looked. Well, on the way to church I see her taking off her white shoes to put her black shoes on. They didn't match so I asked her to put the white ones back on. She replied with, "But Mom I need to wear my cool shoes so I can be cool."
• She has a speech impediment that I think is terribly cute. At the park the other day Jonathon is helping her on the monkey bars and out of now where she says, "konnichi". What the heck? Did she just say Hello in Japanese? She sure did. It had nothing to do with her speech. She was speaking very clear! She later confessed that she learned it from the Wonder Pets.

Maddie has an extremely vivid imagination. She loves to pretend and can stay in character for days on end. Yes, we are still all members of the Mickey Mouse clubhouse. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with putting clothes on the girl because she strips them off and puts on her dress-up clothes as fast as she can.

She loves princesses. We tried to simply not introduce the whole princess mania thing to her but some how, some way she found it on her own. She knows all the characters, all the stories and of course, all of their princes. Sometimes I make up obscure Disney Princess trivia for her just to see if she knows the answer...it's frightening how good she is. Her favorite, by far, is Aurora. (Sleeping Beauty for those who need to take Maddie's Princess 101 class.) Maddie is convinced she has purple eyes like Aurora. She has NEVER swayed from this fact. Go ahead, ask her what color her eyes are. She will say, "Purple, like Aurora's" each and every time.

She loves to be silly. She's the easiest person the play hide and seek with. This how it works...She hides her head under a blanket while you say, "Hummmm, I wonder where Maddie is? Is she in/on/under the (fill in the blank)". The sillier, the better. Lately she's been asking me to "make it funnier". My old stand-by of "Is she under her bed?" is just not doin' the trick these days. I have to be more creative and say something like, "Is she on top of the car eating cotton candy?" She usually doesn't respond but every once in a while I hear a snicker and a little "no".

She has the best memory of anyone I know. I now find my self asking her about things that I can't remember. How cool is that? But at the same time we are ALWAYS held to our word. If we say she can't have a cookie tonight but she can have one tomorrow after lunch...you better believe tomorrow after lunch she will most definitely be asking for her cookie. Although there seems to be some kind of memory malfunction when it comes to remembering to stay out of my make-up...

She is and always has been extremely shy when she first meets someone. She isn't one to join in with other kids right away. If we are with a group, large or small, you will most likely find her glued right to my leg or very close by. Lyndon on the other hand...We were at the playground for 30 minutes and Lyndon made about 6 new friends from the ages of 2-9 years old. I'm surprised he didn't have me pass out his phone number.

I really could go on and on about my sweet Maddie. She is such a joy in our lives. I love her more than words can describe.

Enjoy the photo gallery of my Maddie