What a BIG girl!

Madi is at such a FUN age right now! She is learning so much everyday that it's hard to keep track of when she started doing something new. Her whole first year of life I kept a very detailed calendar of all her "firsts" and major milestones. Now that her one year calendar is finished I have no other way of recording everything that Madi is doing, except right here! So, just a warning- many of you might want to stop reading here and just scroll down below to see a few pictures.

It is just truly amazing how quickly kids learn and change in such a short amount of time. Being a first time mom, I am in awe everyday of all the new things Madi surprises me with. One of my favorite things is that Madi has become such a big helper! I've heard that this is when kids start becoming interested in wanting to help, and sure enough- Madi now takes things to the garbage when I ask her to "throw it away". When buckling her into the car seat, she hands me the strap and holds the buckle to help me latch herself in. After I heat food up in the microwave and hand it to her, she'll begin blowing on it and say, "HOT!" When picking up toys, all I have to say is, "Madi it's time to clean up" and then Spencer or I will sing the "clean up" song while she proceeds to put all her toys into their correct place. Once, Spencer tried being tricky by putting toys into the wrong containers. Madi quickly found the mistake and moved them to their correct home!

She has totally mastered folding her arms (yes, on command now) and has actually made it through an entire prayer- well, with taking a sip of milk during the middle. Now I'll I have to say is, "Madi, it's time for prayer" and she quickly folds her arms! I LOVE it! I am totally one of those moms who loves seeing kids walk into and out of church with their arms folded. When we walked into church on Sunday I told Madi to be reverent and she proceeded to fold her ams as we walked from the car into the church building. However, it didn't last long as she became a little too excited when we walked in and saw all our friends at church. Then the screams began!

Ya, I guess with all the great and fun things of growing up there's bound to be frustrations. My biggest frustration is definitely the screaming!! Nothing gets my blood boiling faster than when Madi let's out her ear piercing screams! I'm currently at a loss of how to deal with it too. I've tried flicking her mouth (just leads to crying- but doesn't stop the screams). I've tried being calm and saying, "use a softer voice Madi". I've tried ignoring. We've even done time-out (in the bathroom for 30 seconds)! I've just come to the conclusion that my daughter is a screamer and I don't know how to fix it. Does that make me a bad parent?!?

Along the lines of screams, she's actually become quite the daring and adventurous type (well, more so than she's ever been- which used to be not brave at all)! She loves the slide at playgrounds and has no fears about going down head first! Then she'll proceed to climb back up!

It's actually fun talking to Madi (or should I say bossing her around:), maybe because now I KNOW she is listening and understanding. She follows almost every command I give her. For example, at bath time I'll say, "Madi, stand up so I can wash your bum", and she stands up. "Madi let's clean up your toys", and she starts cleaning up. "Give mommy a kiss", and she gives me a nice big kiss! "Take a drink" and she'll grab her sippy and take a drink (she's not a huge milk drinker, so I have to remind her to do this a lot). It's SO great! I do realize that this might be one of the few times in her life that I'll get a positive response with no complaining and/or objection! She does give me a "no" every once in awhile, but usually related to not wanting to eat something that I'm forcing on her.

Being a mom is by far the BEST job I've ever had! I get excited about all the things that Madi has learned, and look forward to all the things that she will someday be able to do. What a BIG girl!