Thursday, April 17, 2014
Maddie is such a happy little girl. She loves to play, climb, run, be outside and play with the dog and cats. She is talking more than she ever has and it makes me smile and laugh just watching her. Maddie will stand in the middle of the room and dictate a speech to an unknown audience. If there were a crowd, they would be moved to action! with her nonsensical words. But her words don’t just stop with baby talk. This girl is starting to understand and follow commands. If I ask her to close a door or cabinet or, her favorite, the gate at the top of the stairs, she will do it without hesitation. If I tell her that it’s time for lunch, she runs to her highchair. When I say that we are going to play outside, she is lined up ready to bolt out of the door. And throw any word at her and she will try to repeat it. She is just way too cute.
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| See what I mean? Way too cute! |
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| Maddie loves this teddy bear. We brought it to the doctor's office when she got her shots recently and he cheered her right up! She's a trooper! |
Just within the past week or two, Maddie discovered that the cats and the dog are hilarious. I found her one day with all but her feet underneath our bed, giggling as she tried to reach the cat who was hiding. She puts her thumb and index finger together as if holding something out for the animals and watches as their heads follow her hand as it moves back and forth. For some reason, this cracks Maddie up. I love her laugh: the giggles and then the crack as she really gets worked up. It makes me laugh and then she tries to imitate my laugh with a fake-sounding , “ha ha ha.”
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| Little smart aleck |
And, has anyone ever been as excited to run up and down the sidewalk out front than this girl? Oh, maybe her mama! She bolts outside and loves experimenting with the different surfaces and textures under her feet, walking from sidewalk to grass to rocks to sand.
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| (except when she is in the air) |
Speaking of running, another exciting thing that happened recently: Phil ran a 5K with our friend, Jay Ishikawa. They did great! Phil said it was the best run of his life and he had tons of energy the whole way through. Maddie enjoyed ringing the cowbell as they ran by and I am so proud of my husband. Way to go!!!
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| Who needs more reason to run than to get to see this cutie cheering for you? |
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| Congratulations to these rockstars! |
And speaking of feet, she’s obsessed with shoes! She’s such a girl! But, she doesn’t just love her shoes, she loves our shoes, too, and is constantly trying to get them on her feet and walk around in them. My favorite is when she put on my rubber rain boots and it went all the way up her entire leg.
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| Ready for the puddles! |
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| Just a little growing left to do and then it will be a perfect fit. |
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| Who need pants when you have cute shoes? |
She is really getting into books recently, too, with her favorites being, “You are my cupcake,” and “Chicky Chicky Chook Chook.” She never tires of hearing them….poor mom and dad. She especially liked the “ Crash! Bang! Wallop!” from the one book because we say it really loud and bounce her on our lap when reading it. I think this might be the reason why she is always yelling when she pretends to read books herself. Silly little one.
I think that we are all just in a good mood now that it is starting to get a little warmer. the sun is shining, the vegetable plants are in the greenhouse, Luka gets to play out in the backyard with us and we get to watch as the grass turns from brown to green and the flowers start to bloom. It is such a beautiful time of year!
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| Cutie Patootie on the left! |
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| My two favorite people! |
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| Luka Boy |
Speaking of renewal, Easter is this Sunday and I am looking forward to celebrating. Easter has become my favorite holiday over the past 3 or 4 years as I really started to recognize the significance and importance of Christ’s death and resurrection. He died an agonizing death in my place and then claimed victory over death not only for me, but for everyone! How could I not celebrate and be joyful?
1 Corinthians 15:3-5
“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve.”
Romans 6:4
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”
AMEN!
