Two years old!

Miss Madeline turned two last week! She was fully aware it was her birthday and loved singing "Happy Birthday" to her herself (and continues to do so). We started the day with presents and birthday pancakes in the morning and then took munchkins to school to celebrate. I have vowed to not do big parties until they are old enough to appreciate them (my opinion so far is age 4) so we were just going to have cupcakes at home but then I got a stomach bug and was down a couple of days. Clay took the kids to Chik-fil-a for dinner and our wonderful friends the Smiths, showed up there with pink cupcakes, balloons and presents for Madeline. She was so excited and we were so thankful for their thoughtfulness!

There are few words to describe Madeline sufficiently. There is so much personality in such a small body. We are constantly amazed at her energy and her vocabulary. I do not remember a time when she did not talk. She is a constant verbal train of thought. You can have full conversations with her. She loves to sing and will sing to you or to no one at all. She sings in the car and in the bathtub. She sings real songs and ones we don't know. Her current favorites are "Child of God" and "Bringing home a baby bumblebee." She says her own prayers at night including thanking God for our whole family, her teacher Marian, her friend Jonah, school and playgrounds. When Madeline wants to do something she knows she should not, she will look at me and say "Go away Mommy." She is so smart and sometimes devious. My dad has nicknamed her "Sam" from Bewitched :)Madeline likes me but she LOVES her daddy. He has almost as much energy as her so they make a good pair. She runs into his arms every night and loves playing tag, chase and hide and seek with Clay. She spends most of her time during the day bugging Jack like a good little sister should and he tolerates her 80% of the time. He invents games for them and leads her in fort building or pillow fights. It warms my heart when they play together. Madeline loves Virginia Ann and feeds, rocks, burps, etc her baby dolls just like I do with VAC. I can't wait to watch their relationship develop. Madeline is such a blessing in our family, pure entertainment every day. Happy Birthday Madgirl!