Valentine's Day Party

I was able to get away from work for an hour to go to Madison's Valentine's Day party at school. Unfortunately, I missed the card exchange, but got there in time for cupcakes and dancing! :) Hope everyone had a happy V-day!

P.S. - I think someone lost something (or things)...

18 months

Madison has been busy learning all kinds of new things - both good and not so good and loves showing them off! We're just trying to stay one step ahead and keep things under control! We have a monkey in our house and trying to get a monkey to do what you want them to do is not always easy!! :)

Last Friday Madison had her 18 month check-up. She weighs 23 lbs and is 32 1/2 inches. I don't have her percentages in front of me, but the doctor said she is tall for her age.

Developmentally, Madison is doing awesome! She really just talks up a storm and seems to add a couple of new words to her vocabulary daily. She also shows that she understands concepts - knows when to say "bless you", when to say "thank you", etc.

Climbs on everything!!

Tells us when she is ready for her bath.

Is getting so good at going to bed without a fuss. A couple of times she has eve said, "bye" and "I love you" to me as I walked out of her room! How cute is that?!

Can name all of her friends at school and does so often.

Yells at the dogs to go "owside"... (But whines when the dogs won't give her kisses or let her hold them). I don't know where she learned that??!! :) Oops...

Often goes straight to the couch after dinner, gets up on it, sits back and says, "TV". (In our defense, she hardly ever watches t.v. except for the occasional cartoon while we are getting ready for work. She just knows that Dylan and I are going to end up on the couch at some point in the evening, so she is joining us!)

Is really getting good at going on the potty. We still aren't consistent yet, but she often tells us when she needs to go and actually holds it until we get there. Just within the past few days though, it seems that we have had a small setback and she hasn't been talking about it, so we haven't pushed the issue either. She is still so young and we are just excited that she is showing interest this early!

I am sure that I am leaving something fun out, but here are some recent pictures...

Wearing mommy's shoes - one of her favorite things to do.

At Elijah's birthday party

Super Bowl Party - baby style

Dylan and I had a few friends over for the Super Bowl this year for a very family-friendly party. I can't tell you who won, let alone who played in the Super Bowl, as all the girls were quite busy keeping up with the munchkins. They were all too cute together - I just wish we had been able to get Madison to take a nap before it all started because she wasn't herself at all. Though I know she was excited to have friends over, she was pretty grumpy at times. I did manage to get a few pictures of the little ones playing. Poor little Hudson was outnumbered by all the girls...or maybe I should say "lucky little Hudson". :)

Lining up for a race - they LOVE to countdown for a race! Hudson had to refuel.

This lasted for less then 2 minutes.

Sweet little Marlie

The 24-hour date...well, sort of

Madison spent her first (partial) weekend away from home this past weekend. She spent the day and night with Dylan's parents (Nana and Pappa) Saturday and we got her back Sunday morning. Though Dylan and I spent the majority of the day cleaning and organizing, we had a very relaxing day and then got to spend the evening together doing two things we love to do together - out to dinner and a movie! We ended up going to a late 3-D horror movie (hence the very fashionable glasses - and yes, we do think we look cool) and though the acting was bad and the story was quite silly, it was a ton of fun! Just imagine scary things appearing to fly right towards your face! Also, they had the theatre set up where you could hear other people's screams through the speakers which was pretty neat.

I definitely felt rejuvenated and so happy to have had the time with Dylan. I must admit I was constantly reminded of Madison throughout the day as I picked up her toys, or saw others with their kiddos and it made me miss her so much! We were both super excited to see her the next day and were so happy to hear that she had such a great time with her Nana and Pappa.

Proud moment

Artist at work

First zoo trip and the Children's Museum

Back-to-back weekend fun!