All About Madeline

Madeline is two. Dos. 2. 1+1. Dy. Time has flown by these last couple of years and I feel absolutely privileged and blessed to be her mama. A few details about her life so far:

Born on March 2, 2012 weighing in at 6.11lbs at 5:23am a very purple Madeline came rearing into this world with her toes spread wide apart and a cute little cry that stopped when they set her on my chest. She knew her mama from the beginning. We had a list of names for her, but none fit her round little face and red little hairs. She went without a name for two days, but we found one: Madeline Neve. Madeline--because I used to love the book and movie with the cute little girls in two straight lines. Of course, our Madeline isn't the smallest one like the little Madeline from the books. She was 21" fully stretched out! We pronounce her name Mad-e-lyn, even though I prefer Mad-e-line. But it was a compromise we made to get our little girl a name. Neve means radiance which I thought was fitting for our little ray of sunshine.

When she started eating solids she hated pears, and still hates them. I guess texture is a big thing to her, which isn't surprising because a few of her aunts and uncles (namely Aunt Alicia) hate gritty and slimy things even if the taste is good.

Her first word was "more" in both baby-sign and verbally which is very fitting since she has been eating non- stop since birth. I blame it on a fast metabolism because that little girl has no cute little baby rolls; just long legs and round cheeks.

At 8 months old, Madeline started crawling and the only thing that motivated her was, of course, food.

Her first steps took place at 13 months in my parents' rental in California because it only had hardwood flooring which hurt her knees so she decided to start walking.

She is skilled with small motor movements like drawing and began holding a pencil the correct way pretty much at 14ish months. I think she skipped the whole palm grasp stage, but she does hold a fork like that sometimes.

Her first "boyfriend" was David. He was such a chunky baby, but he kissed Maddy at least 5 times on their first playdate. Her most recent boyfriend is a boy named Aiden. They are trouble-makers but cute together. At the last ward party they escaped the gym and we found them in the kitchen washing dishes together--they had pulled two chairs to the sink and were standing on them.

Cute things:

• Sometimes if I am laying on the couch she slips her favorite blanket (the duck one her Manga/Grandma Lisa made for her) over my legs.
• She calls a sandwich an "on-wich" and I can't decide where she is hearing that sound /on/ from. 
• She knows that Sampson is not allowed to run in the house and sometimes when he does she says "Sampson, stop it. Shush." It cracks me up every time because she is very serious at him, but then she'll tuck him in with her blanket if he is sleeping by the couch. 
• She is obsessed with brushing her teeth.
• She loves animals--especially dogs, fish, monkeys, elephants, and horses. We got her little plastic figurines of animals for Christmas and she takes at least two of them anywhere we go, along with her blanket.
• Sometimes she grabs our fingers and guides us to her closet or under the kitchen table to play. Last Sunday I couldn't find her at all but then I heard her giggling from my closet where she decided to play a round of hide-and-seek without letting my know first. 
• Whenever I do my nails she waits for me to put some on her nails. Depending on if she is feeling patient or not she will wait to have her whole hand done or just stand for one finger.
• She loves riding on her papa's back like a horse.
• She likes to color.
• She has to be eating what we are eating or something very similar.
• She walks better in heals than I do and she has an early fascination with shoes of all kinds--especially boots.
• She knows the letter M and the shapes heart, circle, square, triangle, cylinder, and star. 
• Sometimes she takes herself to bed at night and then we follow her to do our nightly prayers and kisses. 
• Her favorite show ever is Little Einsteins which drives Marcus and me nuts! But we love her so much that she gets to watch it if she says please. 

Fun pictures:

Madeline went from such a small bean to...

...such a tall little sassy and spirited little girl with teeth and long curly red locks of hair. What a beauty. 

Coloring is a regular activity for Madeline and she sometimes assigns pictures names like "hearts" even though they all look like scribbles.

She always puts socks on her hands...it's weird and I don't understand why except that we have mittens for her and maybe that's where the idea came from. 

You can see the socks better in this photo. Plus she is smiling all cute. 

Papa and Maddy cooking some banana pancakes before I leave for school. I wish I could stay. 

She put the head band on all by herself and then she wanted to show me her drawing. She doesn't get the concept of "smile for the camera" even though she sometimes says "cheese."