Winter wanderings...

It's not even half way through January and we've had a pretty full month so far! It's only going to get even "better" (?) as our calendar is pretty much filled through March! It is amazing how fast time goes and how quickly you can get over scheduled *grin* So what is coming up in the next few weeks? Let's see, we're going on a wonderful family vacation for 2 weeks, we're going to celebrate Maddie's 2nd birthday, I'm doing a short trip for work, we're going to host a Chinese New Year party for family, I'm hosting Ladies Night in February and that is just a sampling!

We were able to take down the Christmas decorations which is a good thing and was able to set up a mini play area in the family room for Maddie, the big play area is still in the 3 season room, although I still have to do some work out there to make it more usable. We'll figure out how to fit that in at some point! I did get to go up to Lancaster over the New Year weekend and visit with Amy and Miss Lily! Miss Lily is adorable and her Momma was beaming with pride. It was wonderful to see Amy and her little one, can't wait for Lily to be mobile enough to play with Maddie!

So..what you really want, more Maddie! She's chatting up a storm, repeating odd words from the middle of conversations that she hears. She definately knows what she does and doesn't want to do. She asks to sing certain songs (Where is Thumbkin is current favorite), she still loves to read books, color and draw, as well as pretend to talk on the telephone to Nana, Mom mom, Pop pop and recently started having pretend conversations with Aunt Kristy. Maddie has this mini boom box type thing that is the size of a thick deck of cards that my sister gave her that has 4 Sesame street songs, you put one in, press the button and it plays. Maddie is loving that right now and she is getting the words to the songs down! She is definately communicating more, she understands when she should or shouldn't be doing something you can often find her testing her limits. She loves to "help" with everything. Taking the laundry out to the couch to fold, carrying bags or groceries in from the car, wiping up her space when we're done with a meal.

What she is, is amazing....of course, we're biased, but that doesn't mean it isn't true!!! Ok...here are the photos, enjoy!

Maddie having a blast at Lee's 3rd Birthday party at the YMCA. She was scared of the big tubes at first, crying and screaming until she saw all the fun the other kids were having!

Undecorating the Christmas tree turned into a candycane bonanza for Maddie. Every pocket, including two back pockets that you can't see had candycanes in them.


You can see Lily blooming through the eyes of Momma Amy and Daddy Doug in all of her glory at her own blog.

Maddie thoroughly enjoying her new play kitchen. Each day she makes either breakfast, lunch or dinner for her two Elmo dolls that she has. She takes them out of their cubby hole, puts them sitting next to each other on a chair, recently in her rocking chair, and then proceeds to "cook" in the oven and feeds them when it's ready. Maddie uses her spoons to stir, and taste the pretend meal, use her oven mit to take the pans out of the oven and says "hot". She's soooo soooo observant, it's amazing!