Maddie getting ready to see Santa and a puppet show. She never sat on Santa's lap this year. We tried several times. It got to the point where she would say, "I no like Santa Claus" or "No, I not"
Madeline loves playing dress up. What little girl doesn't, right? On this particular day, she was in rare form and we had a blast just being silly and having fun. She will not wear the green wig though. I guess she's smarter than me, after seeing my picture. 
Apparently, we spent too much time playing by the look of the mess in the house. lolWe had a blast this winter! It was so much fun watching Madeline enjoy the excitement of the holidays. Maddie's favorite thing was the lights. It was so cute when we went by a house with Christmas lights. She would say, "Look, Christmas lights. Merry Christmas!"
In awe over the snow globe that Dolores sent her.
Merry Main Street was a lot of fun. Of course she loved the lights and enjoyed the horse carriage, reindeer, balloon light show, and Santa. Her favorite part was the elementary school choir. It was neat to see some past students perform.
Visiting Santa's reindeer.
Aunt Laura came to visit. Madeline adores her and still talks about her, especially when we see an airplane. She points to it and asks if Aunt Laura is on that plane. Then she says, "I love Aunt Laura. She's very nice." So cute! We went to Grapevine and Laura, Maddie, and I decorated gingerbread men. I think she has a future in decorating cookies and cakes! Well...maybe not. She spent more time licking the frosting than decorating.
Daddy and Maddie at the Ice show. It was soooooo cold! We were NOT dressed properly and practically ran through it to avoid frost bite.We had Madeline's Christmas photos done today. She was definately on and loved everything about it... the dress, fancy shoes, the camera, all the props... She was a total ham and made the photographer laugh through the entire session. She said Maddie's a character and had so much personality. When we went back to check out the pictures, the lady at the front said the photographer couldn't stop talking about Madeline and what fun she had with her.
The link (could only put it in the labels for post section) is just a little glimpse of some of the photos in a short video. Luckily, they didn't include any that we chose so we can send them out for Christmas too.
It's that time of year! Christmas is in the air. This year is the most exciting yet because Maddie is finally starting to "get it". She has been asking lots of questions about all the decorations and Santa.
We have been telling her about Santa and his reindeer. It's been fun talking about Santa coming down the chimney and watching her face. She had a look like... What? The chimney? That doesn't make sense!
I asked her if she wanted to see Santa and she responded, "NO WAY!" We told her that she has to tell him what she wants for Christmas and she said, "No, I won't. " So we showed her some Youtube videos of kids visiting Santa and she changed her mind. So, we asked her what she was going to ask him for. Her response... "All of it."
We got all dolled up to see Santa and Madeline was really excited. When we got there, she couldn't wait to see him. There was no line so I thought, this is perfect. She asked me to pick her up. We walked up to him and she clung to me and started crying. I sat next to Santa while holding her and she tried to escape like her life depended on it. Maybe next year!
Hugging Daddy
Halloween-Madeline had a blast. She loved trick-or-treating and even started going to the doors on her own, while we waited at the end of the walkway. All went well until she rang the bell and I man in a werewolf costume jumped out and scared her. She shivered all over and said "Trick or Treat????" Total question in her voice. He gave her candy and she said, "Thank you?" again question in her voice. Then she turned around and looked at Chris and under her breath said, "Wow!"
These silly glasses were in her bag of goodies. Better than candy! She was really into the chocolate, especially M&M's.
Sliding down the slide.
Ice-cream! Yum! Of course, chocolate.
I want this one!
Okay....I want the baby one.
No... I want this one!
Last time we tried to capture this photo, she was 6 months old 
Wow! Pumpkins everywhere!
Notice the dimple on her chin.
After 2 busy, exhausting weeks of school, I am thrilled to have a 3 day weekend with my family. The weather couldn't be any better, so we decided to go to the zoo again. The last time we went to the Fort Worth zoo was last fall. That was not the best trip. Madeline was in a mood that day. However, today was wonderful.
The best thing about the zoo this time was that Madeline is starting to actually notice the animals. In the past, it was all about the rocks, trees, and water. Well...she's still focusing on the water, but now she likes certain animals too.
Her favorites were the wambats and giraffe. She's still obsessed with giraffes right now and carries her stuffed one everywhere with her, included to bed at night.
Madeline was revisited by the speech therapist. Actually, there were three. When she was 18 months, they said give it time and she didn't qualify. This time, at 28 months, they looked at each other with surprised faces and said they have never seen a child speak that way. Hmmm? Should we be worried? She seems to drop the first consonant and take the ending sound and put it on the beginning of the word. (i.e. gog, tat, kark for dog, cat park)
So, Maddie has qualified for speech for atypical articulation and will be visited by a speech therapist every week. She loves it so far. It's mostly play time and fun for her.
Our first homework assignment was practicing saying her name in the mirror. Unfortunately, I messed things up. I was trying to emphasize the L sound and told her to stick out her tongue to say Line in Madeline. Now she says her entire name with her tongue sticking out. Good grief!
We went to Okalahoma to visit the animal park. It was a drive through park where the animals come up to the car for food. We were able to feed ostrich, camel, zebra, giraffe and many more animals. Madeline had a great time!
One of our favorite things to do is to walk to the lake to feed the ducks. I feel like we actually know the ducks personally. These pictures were taken at our neighborhood lake.
Maddie often taunts the ducks by eating the bread instead of giving it to them.
Maddie decided to take her stroller, that Leanne gave her, on the walk. She had the duck food in the basket.
She learned not to let go of the stroller when going downhill!
