Maddie Says: Something Funny

This morning Maddie wanted to bring something to school to show off to her friends, but could not decide on anything. I sat James down next to her and asked "Do you want to bring James to school?

And she said "No, he's too big to fit in my cubby!"

Video: Maddie talks about Purim

At dinner tonight, all of a sudden Maddie was talking about Haman and saying "BOO" and Queen Esther and saying "YAY!" I remembered she learned about Purim at school and she was telling us about it!  I took a quick video because she's so cute and serious about the story!  Before I was able to take the video, she said "I'm Jewish. You're (daddy) Jewish and you're (mommy) Jewish."

She says:
When you hear the name Haman you say "BOO" because he HURT the Jewish people.
Queen Esther's nice! When you hear Queen Esther you say "YAY!" because she saved the Jewish people. She took them to another house.

Excited for Valentine's Day!

Last night (Monday night) after dinner, Maddie and I prepared Valentine's Day gift bags for her classmates!  Maddie was very excited!  She decorated each card and said who she was going to give it to, then we made the gift bags. Maddie did about half of them all by herself! She made a gift bag for herself and got all the extra items. She didn't want to part with it so brought it up to her room for the night.

When she woke up this morning, she was hoping it was Valentine's Day (Wednesday) but it is only Tuesday! She said she was tired and wanted to go back to sleep and said "When I wake up, it will be Valentine's Day?"  Adorable!!

Maddie Says: Being Hay-ving

This is something cute that Maddie says. When I ask her if she is "behaving" or "are you going to behave?" she says "I'm being having!" as if behaving is a verb.

Vickie: "Are you eating"
Maddie: "I'm eating"

Vickie: "Are you behaving?" or "Are you going to behave?"
Maddie: "I'm being having!" (pronounced "hay-ving")

Maddie Says: Cavities

We were at dinner tonight and the subject of brushing teeth came up. We told Maddie if she didn't brush her teeth she would cavities in her teeth.

Maddie asked "If I don't go poop, I'll get cavities in my butt?"

Hilarious!!!

Video: No Music For You Daddy!

Lately for some strange reason, Maddie has not enjoyed it when Joseph starts to sing or dance! So of course he likes to sing and dance and see how she reacts. For example, one of the shows she watches has 2 songs that always plays.  When the songs come on, she'll turn and look at Joseph to see if he dances!

After dinner one night (before dessert), Joseph started to dance to a song. Maddie turned around to see him dancing and immediately got upset and told him to stop dancing. I turned the music off but Joseph kept dancing and Maddie said "No music!" as in "There's no more music, stop dancing!"  Of course I had to get a video and it's quite hilarious.  Our favorite quote is "No music for you Daddy!"

After Joseph stopped dancing and we calmed her down, Maddie said "It's okay to dance Daddy" and I got a video of her calmed down and telling Joseph he could dance now.

Video: Shoo Fly!

A small fly flew into Maddie's room so Maddie tried to blow it away and sang "Shoo Fly Don't Bother Me" in hopes of getting it to go away!

Cats don't like water or have hands!

On Sunday night we walked Maddie upstairs so she could take a bath before bed.

She was taking her time so to get her to quicken her pace, Joseph said "Hurry! Scaredy Cat is going to take a bath too!" and Maddie says "No, cats don't like water!"

And then Joseph said "I put some books in the tub too, Scaredy is going to read them."
Maddie said "No, cats don't have hands!"

She is so smart and funny!

Mom and Maddie Weekend (with video)

Joseph was out of town this weekend in Milwaukee for a bachelor party so Maddie and I had the whole weekend together!

On Friday we went to my office. Maddie likes to visit as she gets to pick her own snacks! A vendor was also bringing pizza in so we got pizza for lunch!

We also turned her car seat around and she is now finally forward facing!  She loves it!

She loves facing forward in the car!

Eating 2 bags of snacks she got in the vending machine

Playing with a new toy we brought to my office.

Playing around with my glasses (no lenses)

On Saturday night we went to a pasta restaurant for dinner!  Maddie did pretty well pretty much the entire time. At the end of the meal when the server brought over the check, I happened to sneeze, and Maddie said "Are you alright Mama?  Bless You!" And the server said "Oh she is so polite!"

And afterwards we got frozen yogurt for dessert! Maddie wanted to eat outside so we did.

And here is a little video I took at one of the meals. Maddie sings the ABCs, 2 Daniel Tiger songs (lyrics below) and then proceeds to kiss my arm a bunch.

Daniel Tiger "When you wait, you can play, sing or imagine anything"
Daniel Tiger "It's okay to feel sad sometimes. Little by little you'll feel better again"

A Girl Called Maddie

Joseph texted me this while I was at work.

Maddie was laying on the floor and he started to rub her back and she said:

"No! I not kitty. I a girl called Maddie!"

Video: Maddie Twirls and is So Cute!

Here's another video of Maddie. This time she is twirling in her Daniel Tiger dress (which is really a nightgown) and she says "I'm so cute!"

Video: Maddie Sings Rain Rain Go Away

I got her half way through one verse and she loses interested in singing at the end of the video, but it's a cute video nonetheless!

Happy Father's Day! I Love You! (Video)

I took these videos of Maddie wishing Joseph a Happy Father's Day as he was still in Tulsa.  And lately she's been saying "I Love You" and it's absolutely adorable and melts our hearts!

Memorial Day Weekend Fun (with Video)

We had a nice relaxing long weekend for Memorial Day!

On Friday Joseph took Maddie to the Library and then to the "sand park" which is Ehrler Park that has the sand pit.  On the way back Maddie got a huge kick of the inflatable dancer guy in front of the mattress store!

On Saturday Maddie got to cuddle with both cats on the couch!

I absolutely love this video!  Whenever we get the cats to come around, and they smell either of our feet, we say "Scaredy smelled my stinky foot!" or we will ask Scaredy to "smell my stinky foot?"  I finally got video of Maddie asking Scaredy to smell her foot and then afterwards she says "Scaredy smelled my stinky foot!"

On Sunday we went to Ikea to buy Maddie's "big girl bed"!  We loved finding bins full of her favorite toy "Green Ball" and she even tried to take a nap with them.

On Monday we had a few friends over for a barbecue since there was no school.  Maddie had fun playing with play dough and "washing" her clings before they arrived.  After they came over, the kids played in the bouncy house, on the swing set, and also with the new water table we got from Costco. We filled one side with water beads and they had a blast!

Lillian had come over dressed as a bug and we called her a Lily Bug. After Lily left, Maddie wanted to dress up like a bug too! So this is her in her bug costume (red devil ears and red bandana for wings) and we called her a Maddie Bug.

Video: Maddie's Not Bossy

When Maddie's in a grouchy mood we'll say something like "Maddie's tired" or "Maddie's grumpy."  Maddie will usually say "Maddie not tired" or "Maddie not grumpy."

We were in the workout room where we keep a ton of games and Maddie wanted to open game after game. At one point I said "you are bossy right now" and she said "Maddie not bossy!"  So I had to get it on video!

Video: Green Ball Where Are You?

Maddie LOVES her red and green balls from Ikea.  Here's a cute video of her asking "Green Ball where are you?"

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at home in Chicago this year as we were in Tulsa earlier this month (and also the travel cost would have been expensive).

While Joseph prepared the turkey, I took Maddie over to Dean Park to spend some time outside. Dean Park is also right next to the grocery story and we had to pick up a few things.

Maddie loves Dean Park as there are So Many Sticks!  She loves to pick up sticks and put them in piles. I will sit on the swing and she will bring me stick after stick!  She did not want to leave, but it was getting cold, so I told her to give me twenty more sticks and then we would go to the store.  We counted them one by one and at 20 she was ready to leave.

We came home, had lunch and Maddie went down for her nap. Joseph and I cooked everything else for our Thanksgiving dinner.  We did not take many photos during dinner, but the couple I took are below.

Videos: I Love Balls

Joseph and I were discussing what the "theme" of Maddie's 2nd birthday should be... In deciding between Cars or Trains, Maddie then said Ball, and we decided we'd make the theme "balls" and have a ball pit and lots of balloons!  I asked Maddie if she could say "I love balls" which she did so of course we had to video it!!

3 videos below, the last one is the longest and the cutest.  She says "no cookie" because I told her no more cookies. Then I asked her if she could say [I love balls] one more time and she says "one more time" and she says "I. Love. You" which is why I say Awwwww. Then she proceeds to say "I love balls" a bunch more.

Finally! Maddie says "MADDIE"

It finally happened last night (9/28 Wednesday) as I was putting Maddie to bed...

She said her name correctly!

Not "Mah Mah" but "Mah DEE!"  She had knocked something off of the table and I jokingly said "Maddie!" and she said "Mah DEE!" emphasizing the "DEE" sound. I asked her to say it again and she did!  I pulled my phone out and got it on video!!

Here's the video of her from last night saying MADDIE!

If you listen carefully, after the second time I ask her if she can say "I can do it" she says very quietly "I can do"

This morning I tested her to make sure she remembered, and she did!  Yay!

On another note we are also working on getting her to say the word Water better. Right now she pronounces it as "gnaw gnaw" but today she said "gnaw TER!"

Fun at Maplewood Park

On Sunday Maddie did not nap all day - again! This is the second time she has not napped at all! I think we tried to put her down for a nap too late.... So we put her in her red wagon and walked about a mile to the new gym our friend is opening up! Maddie at first did not want to go in as she really wanted to go to a park that is nearby. After a few minutes though, she realized she would climb onto the gym equipment! She loved climbing onto an inclined bench and sliding down. Then she would run into the dance studio and look at herself in the mirror.

After our visit we went to nearby Maplewood Park which is amazing! It is so toddler friendly!  Maddie went up and down about half of the slides and also went on the swing.

Lately when she's on the swing she will yell out "Maddie!" (pronouned "Meh Meh!") and "Swing!" and sometimes together "Maddie Swing!"

Here are some super cute pictures and video of her saying "Maddie!" on the swing.