Just Mommy and Madi

I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day today. It was the first day this year that actually reminded me of last spring. Our day started early, with Madi awake at 6:15 and Spencer on his way to school by 6:45am. It was a quiet morning with just the two of us. After trying out my new preschool curriculum on Madi, complete with math, art, singing, and reading, we headed outside at 9:45am, just as the clouds were parting, making for a beautiful day. 

Last spring Madi and I went on walks every morning. Then on the way home we always stopped by my favorite spot.  Well, now that Madi's older, she rarely likes to sit in the stroller. If we're out for a walk, Madi insists on walking!  Today she surprised me by willingly jumping into the stroller and practically buckling herself up! With my work-out cut short this morning, I was very happy for the nice power walk.  Madi just sat back, taking it all in. The trees are finally getting their leaves back, the birds are busy building their nests, and squirrels were out gathering acorns! It was fun to witness it all. After a nice long walk, Madi and I stopped back by the house to pick up some snacks- I had not anticipated her lasting this long. Thinking it'd be fun to make a snack to feed the birds, I whipped out the popcorn popper. However, Madi and I must have both been pretty hungry ourselves because we sat up on the counter together and finished off all the popcorn in 5 minutes (sorry birdies)! I packed a couple of other snacks, topped off my water bottle, grabbed a beach towel, and we were off again! We spent the next half hour just hanging out in the grass together- like the good old days! It's times like these that I've very grateful for my mellow child that will just sit and hang out with me. We ate some snacks, blew bubbles, picked dandelions, and then had a leisurely stroll back home. Of course I had also brought along my sidewalk chalk, so we made sure to leave a note for daddy before heading back inside. Seriously the perfect morning! 

After a 3 hour nap, a trip to Target, and Barnes & Noble, the dark clouds rolled back in. Just as Madi and I pulled up to the house the rain drops started to fall. I let Madi out of her car seat, telling her to run into the house. All of a sudden a huge clap of thunder sounded and Madi flipped out!  The only reason I mention this is because it's the first time Madi has ever shown any reaction to thunder. From this point on, until going to bed, all Madi could talk about was the "funder". Every few minutes she'd ask some question like, "hear the funder?" or "where'd funder go?" or "funder go sleep?"  Spencer and I tried changing the subject, switching activities, etc. but our conversation always seemed to come back to the funder. I put Madi to bed tonight telling her that the thunder had gone to sleep and now she's going to go to sleep too. While she usually talks for awhile every night, I didn't hear a peep out of her tonight. Guess she took the thunder going to bed very seriously!