Run, Talk, Laugh, Pose for Picture...Repeat

September 4, 2010

Labor Day Weekend!

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.

Speech

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!

July 19, 2010

Animal Park

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!

Daddy and Maddie checking out the sights.

We let her pick out whatever she wanted at the gift shop. She was REALLY into the giraffes (affs) and wanted a stuffed one. However, there were 4 different options. It was funny watching her try to negotiate getting them all with Daddy. When he said just one she said 3. Again, NO! Maddie's response was to hand me one and hand Chris one and she held one. She's smart. She did have one giraffe. She never noticed us put the others back and you can tell from the picture she was thrilled. She has slept with him every night since.

This is Chris feeding an animal through the car window. Maddie loved this and then got scared. Okay, maybe it was my screaming and panicing that did it. They are so aggressive!

Feeding Ducks!

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!

"WaWa Ark"

We are so lucky to have 3 splash parks near our home. This is definately Madeline's favorite summer activity. It's so fun to watch her have so much fun! She loves running around with the other kids too. I'm really proud of how well she shares her toys. She brought a bucket, tea kettle and a truck and the kids kept asking if they could play with them and she would share nicely with them...most of the time!

She was actually attempting to squirt me!

Nanna and Poppa

The picture below is when Madeline tackled Poppa from behind and knocked him to the floor. He didn't see her coming. He laughed his head off. Okay...we all did!