My Madeline

Maddie has been so incredible lately!  Some days I feel like I'm being too hard on her, or expecting too much of her for being only 2.  I hold her to a higher standard than most parents hold their children, but I don't use her age as an excuse...I expect her to use her manners and be on her best behavior.  I see it paying off in how well behaved she is.  She is just absolutely amazing.  Don't get me wrong, she has her typical "toddler" moments but overall she is one of the best behaved 2 year olds I know.  She says "please" and "thank you".  She says, "yes please" or "no thank you".  She says "excuse me" when she burps (sometimes she needs reminding).  She also tells me "God bless you" when I sneeze.  These are all things I would never expect a two year old to be capable of doing, but she proves that if you start them out young, they can be expected to have these habits already formed at a young age! 

So, today Maddie played by herself and entertained herself ALL DAY!  This is HUGE.  She only sat on my lap for about 5 minutes today, ate 3 good meals and is only sitting down to watch tv now (at 7:00pm).  Her imagination has REALLY taken off lately and she continues to impress me with her knowledge every day.  Yesterday she said to me, "Mommy, I like to eat flowers."  I said, "Oh, are you an animal?"  "Yes, I'm a jaguar".  "Really?  That's nice.  What other kind of animal eats flowers?" (I thought she would say a rabbit because of watching Bambi where Thumper eats the clover flowers).  She replied, "a puma".  I didn't even know she knew what a puma was!! 

Maddie likes to pretend to be different animals or people.  Today she was a hummingbird, a babysitter (miss Stephanie...who watched her about two weeks ago), a baby lion, a puppy and a vet.  Whatever she is, I'm the mommy version of it.  So, when she was being Miss Stephanie, I was Mommy Miss Stephanie.  It's so cute to hear her come up with these things!

Maddie's really into dressing up now.  She doesn't have any dress up clothes, but she has a princess crown, some bracelets and necklaces, her sunglasses, my shoes and my purses.  She puts on her sunglasses (puts the case to my sunglasses in the purse), a couple necklaces and bracelets, the crown and a pair of my shoes (or slippers), puts the purse on her shoulder and then tells me she has to go somewhere.  She goes to the vet, she goes to the store with her "poucons" (coupons), takes Snuggly to school and sometimes she goes to Lowe's or the car wash (thanks Daddy!)  :)

Most of the time Maddie calls me Mommy.  Not too long ago she started calling me Mom.  I'm not sure if I like that!  When I would give her something, she'd say, "thanks, Mom".  She's not consistent with it, so it's ok :).  Yesterday she was calling for me when she was awake saying, "Mommy, where are you?  Mommy?  Mommy!"....long pause..."Mother!  Mother!".  I couldn't help but laugh.  (thank you "Are you my Mother" and other books).  Today when she climbed up on my lap she called me Mister Mommy.  I asked, "did you just call me Mr. Mommy?"  She said, "yes". I just laughed.  Then I called her Mister Maddie and she laughed histerically like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard in her life. 

I have so much fun with Maddie.  I complain a lot, but I think it's just because I'm tired.  She really is a good girl and I'm so thankful for her.  I hope by already having her established with good manners (mostly) that she won't give us too hard of a time when the new baby comes next week.  I can't believe she's going to be an only child for just a few more days.  Please pray the transition goes smoothly and that she adjusts well to Grandma B staying with her while I'm in the hospital!