December 2010

Zhu Zhu pets from Grandpa McArtor & Andrea - she loves them!

Christmas book from Valarie & Jerry (we love our book deliveries from the Bordenkirchers!)

TWO barbies from Cousins Brooks & Caleb - including Rapunzel from her favorite movie "Tangled".

Perfect combo - roller skates & ring pop!



Hull Family - Chrismas Day 2010

Thanksgiving weekend/Trip to Moline to visit the Flemings

Visiting the John Deere museum

Jennifer, Kelly, Madison (30 months) , Logan (27 months)

Fall 2010

Kansas City Pumpkin Patch

Minnie Mouse - Halloween 2010

Messy spaghetti

Visiting Great Grandma & Grandpa Ulm

Emily & I ran a 5K together in Kansas City.

Grandpa McArtor & Andrea's Visit

Grandpa McArtor & Andrea came from Ohio to visit us in August. We went to the St Louis Zoo and Madison loved seeing all of the animals. I think the penguins are her favorite, but she likes the elephants too!

Summer 2010

Dancing with the girls at The Hootie Hut for Haley's birthday.

Playing Dr with Theodore the bear.

Little Mermaid balloon bigger than she is.

We have had a busy & fun summer. Started with our beach house trip in Florida, went to the Ozarks for the Hull family vacation & have spent most weekends swimming or at the lake.

We are still working on potty training, but cannot find a "treat" that keeps Madison interested. Last night she told Willie that she didn't want to go on the potty because she was tired of Skittles. We tried to bribe her with a ZhuZhu pet if she went on the potty all week, but 5 days is too far away. She wants immediate gratification.

Madison is enjoying daycare & is excited to go most days. She knows all of her colors & can count to 31 (they count calendar days each day).

I am training for a 5K in October, so my free time has been devoted to that. For you that know me well, I do not run. I prefer to walk, but have found that running is better for weight loss. I am going to Kansas City to run the 5K with my sister Emily.

Madison LOVES to pretend now. That includes playing dress up, feeding her babies & helping them go on the big girl potty. Even though she has not mastered the potty yet, the babies have!

Madison 2 year pictures

Beach House

Madison finished celebrating her birthday with friends. Just when she got the idea that it was HER birthday, it was over and she wanted more cupcakes & presents.

We went to the annual Kids Fishing Tournament at our lake this past weekend. The tournament was 2 hours, and Madison was done after 10 minutes. She only tried to walk off the dock once (I was standing right there & caught her) and caught 2 fish...her total weight was 0.24 lbs :)

Madison had a disease called "Hand Foot Mouth" last week. It is typically picked up at daycare & is very contagious. However, she is the only one at daycare who had it, so we're not sure where she got it. She had a terrible rash on her hands, feet & a few bumps around her mouth. We kept her home from daycare last Tues & Wed and she's much better now. We're looking forward to spending Memorial weekend at the lake & leave for our Florida vacation in 10 days!!

Spring is here!

Spring is here and Madison is feeling much better. One more month until she turns 2!

Here are some pictures from Easter & a recent trip to the St Louis Zoo. She is old enough to know all the animals now & the elephants are her favorite. Ask her what an elephant does with it's nose & she'll swing her arm in the air like a trunk. We are going back to the Florida Beach House with friends in June - Madison is going to have so much fun this year!

She has learned so much since my last update:

*Knows all of her ABC's and loves singing the song - especially the "next time won't you sing with me" part & she can count to 10.

*Knows most of her colors (blue & black are tricky - she gets those mixed up)

*Loves airplanes, we'll be at the park with kids screaming & she will hear an airplane in the sky and look up for it. It doesn't take long for her to find it and say "I found it!"

*Knows the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Row Your Boat, No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed and many more. She must learn a lot at daycare b/c she will start singing songs that I didn't even know she had heard before.

*Knows that play-dough on the carpet makes Mommy "nervous"

*Madison is extremely shy around new people. She will warm up pretty quick, but is very silent until she is comfortable with new people or surroundings.

*We started swimming lessons at the YMCA last week. Willie was in the water with her and she didn't like it. Even though she clung to Willie the entire time & cried, she said she had fun & wanted to do it again. Some friends of ours have a pool & we swam again this past Sunday. She is getting used to the pool & will hopefully do better at lessons this week.

*We have stopped potty-training for now. She did great & used the potty for a few weeks, but then got too busy to care & stopped wanting to go.

*She loves My Little Pony, so we're going to have a My Little Pony theme birthday party. She also loves bubbles, Dora the Explorer, cupcakes, baby dolls, Princesses, Yo Gabba Gabba, play-dough, playing outside and Dum-Dum suckers (I'll admit that we use them to bribe her sometimes!)

She really does amaze us with all she knows. But with knowledge comes attitude. I'm hoping we hit the "terrible twos" early and that this is just a phase.