Madison's 3rd Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEETIE PIE!

Disclaimer: This post is much longer and more detailed than I intended when I started, so proceed with caution as I am sure all these things are really only cute and interesting to me because I happen to be her mother.Its hard to wrap my head around the fact that I have a three year old! I know its really no different than any other age and as she gets older I'm sure that feeling will continue to strike each year around the same time, but for now 3 seems so old.
For her birthday we were going to be in the car on our way to Maine so we decided to have some presents and sing to her around the breakfast table the day before and just tell her it was her birthday all day long to make her feel special. I know I am lame, but will she really ever know the difference? All she really cares about is that she got presents and that she is "three again" (that what she says when you ask her how old she is) or "three, like Lincoln and Benny." (her friends who each turned three a few months ago).I guess now is a good a time as any to jot down a few Madison-isms or things that make us smile, for my own record...

Ms. Know it all: When you explain something new to her she always responds "yes" as though it is something she has known all along. Talking about telephone lines that we saw outside: Madison: "whats that?" Mom: "Those are telephone lines" Madison: "yes!" Mom: When someone calls you one the phone the sound travels though the lines so you can hear them" Madison: "yes!"
This was her gift from Nana and Papa! She loves these books and CD's they are great for the car!

Copy Cat: She loves to make Samantha laugh and one way we have observed is by getting really close to her face and saying something like " hi chubbers", or "hi funder fighs" (thunder thighs) or just yesterday "Chubarino". All phrases she has heard from us, but she uses them on her own to address her sister regularly.
Linguist: She loves to sing and frequently I hear her singing a song that she is not totally clear on the words to and she will make up a word or merge words together to make is sound similar to the real words. I love to see the Temple: " A house of God a pace (place) of love and beauty, Ill praypare (prepare) myself while I am young this is my secret beauty (sacred duty)"Singer/song writer: She has funny habit of breaking out into random song about things she sees or hears (a trait which we have recently learned she shares with our 32 year old neighbor) Mostly it's the same phrase she just repeats over and over to her very own tune. "I like food, I like food I like food!"Commentator: She will often just for the sake of talking narrate her every move,or whatever she sees. This particular trait seems to be fading, but for a while it was a running commentary on my day. " that chair is blue, I'm putting on my shirt, Samantha is happy, mommy is big I'm just small." that would be a typical sentence, if you can call it that!Eavesdropper: She is very aware and pays attention a great deal to whats going on around her, and has a knack for recalling things. The week of her birthday we went boating and we all took turns on the tube she even rode with us for a short time. The next day we were talking about the tube and she said pointing to our neighbors one at a time and Phil, " I didn't fall off, and you fell off and you fell off and you fell off."
Swimmer: Swimming (or water in any form) is her favorite activity, its the one thing she will do and will make her happy no matter her sate of mind or mood for that day. She has these great water wings that are a blessing and a curse, they make it so she can swim all over the pool totally independent and she even jumps in with them on by herself! The curse however is she thinks she can swim... and jump in by herself when she is not wearing them! So hopefully she doesn't get herself drowned before the end of the summer.
Debater: She is great at entertaining herself and plays pretend on a regular basis. Just the other day however I overheard her arguing with herself. "Bop" "no don't say that" "Bop" "no don't say that" " but I want to say that" " I don't want you to say that." So, not sure what that says about her day to day interactions with me, but I thought it was pretty funny to hear.Cowgirl: She loves to play anything and with anyone, one favorite game of recent is playing horse with dad anytime he is remotely close to being on his hands and knees she automatically assumes he is getting ready for her to climb on his back! Its really fun to watch, just last night she got on his back and as he trotted her into her room for bed shes says "giddy up horsey."
Beautician: Funny side note to that, while we were on vacation dad was trying to do her hair but she was resisting. He suggested she do his hair then he could do her hair, of course she agreed. Together we put some ponytails in dads hair and she looks and him and says between giggles "you look like a horse." It was very random and hilarious. I'm not sure if that came from the horsey rides or from my explanation of ponytails when we first started putting her hair up when she asked about the word ponytail I said something along the lines of " its like a horses' tail."

Entertainer: One of her (ok maybe our) favorite games is pillow fights. These are usually one sided and mostly consists of Phil and whoever else is in the room entertaining themselves by chucking pillows at her as she runs around the room. She really gets a kick out of it as does everyone else.

Hide and seek is a favorite that is slowing becoming a real game of hide and seek, for a long time you could simply count to 10 and say out loud " is Madison in the kitchen" and she would respond "nooo!" and that would continue until you said where she was and she would emerge giggling hysterically. Now, however she is getting very good at staying hidden until you actually find her, which usually isn't hard because if she hears you anywhere near her she can't stop laughing.

Nursery is one of Madison's Favorite places to be, it always has been which is such a blessing, and we frequently use it as a bride for good behavior. Just the other week Phil and I got distracted getting out of the chapel and when we turned around Madison was gone, shortly to find out she had made her own way to the nursery room.

OCD: I don't know that I would call it OCD exactly but Madison is very particular about certain things. For example when playing pretend if you join in with her you have to be sure to go through every step of pretend otherwise you will have to go back and repeat it. We were play driving in the living room, when we got out of our car and I forgot to open my door first, so we had to get back in and open it and then close it after we got out.
Even the way things are arranged can set her off, sometimes she will stop mid sentence to identify that something else is out of place and must go fix it right that minute.

Dreamer: At dinner each night we do this thing where we ask Madison what the favorite part of her day was and then she in turn asks each of us. When we first stared this little converstion starter she was pretty good about selecting something that actually happened that day, now however if she has not had a particularly exciting day she will always choose something more interesting from the past. For example "going to the pool with Claire and Benny" which mind you happened about a month ago and was her favorite part of the day every night for about a week straight after it happened and then again for a few days about a week ago. Telling us that going to the beach was her favorite part of the day, is an all time favorite that she uses regularly and up until last week the only time she had been the beach was when we went in California back in May. I guess I need to try and keep her days a bit more interesting.

We love Madison to bits she is really fun to be around and the fact that she can carry on a conversation makes life all that more interesting to have her around! Happy Birthday Madison we love you!

When we got back from vacation Madison had a card in the Mail from her Nana and Papa and her great grandma and grandpa Capson. These cards were just as exciting for her to open as the presents and then she carried the cards around with her everywhere we went for about two whole days. Here is a little clip of opening one of the cards. The funny part about this one is Dad reads it to her and it says princess in it so she decides she needs to go get her princess outfit on so she can "be a princess" that's why she runs away at the end.