Proud and Tall

It's shocking to see how much growing they do in just four short months. No wonder they need so much sleep.

Fall Who?

Although Megan says it's sweater season (notice in the first picture that Mase is wearing only a diaper with that sweater, must not be that cold), it's still sweet summer around these parts.

And Mads is determined

(see the determination in her stance and written all over her beautiful face?)

to have a ball until summer is really over:

Get it? Have a ball? Haha.

*Hey, Megan! That's what you get for making my kid look like a bully in your blog. Psh.

Duk? Duk? Duck!

Bye? Bye? Duk? Bye? Bye? Bye? Shooz! Shooz? Bye? Shooz-bye? Bye? Duk!

Madelynn's vocabulary, along with the fact that she understands what she's saying shocks me hourly (quarter-hourly even). Wanna go see the ducks, Madelynn? For answer, see above. This is all while she's hunting down her shoes and attempting to put them on herself. How did this happen? How in the world does she know that she needs to find her shoes before we can go bye? Why would she even consider such a thing? She's a baby! Correction, she is a toddler. It's sad and exciting, all at the same time. Who knew motherhood could bring on such conflicting emotions nearly every 30 seconds of every day? They really do grow up so fast.

End sob story. So anyways, armed with a whole bag of hot-dog rolls (which had been in my freezer since... the beginning of time at least), we went to see the ducks today (and we wore shooz). It was an action-packed park fest for sure.

After naming all of the ducks (one was named Duk!, while the others were named either Duk? or Ber [that's "bird" in case you didn't get it]), I cut Mads loose, giving her free range of the entire park. No stone was left unturned. No mountain was too big:

No bridge was too long:

None of the swings went high enough (we tried them all, twice):

She crossed treacherous waters:

And even found some time to stop and smell the flowers:

I'll give you this, Toddlerhood. You definitely keep me on my toes.

I have a beautiful life, made brighter every day by toddler kisses and belly button hunts. Motherhood may be a total mind-fuck, but the reward is priceless.

Too Young?

For sure, but it looks so darn cute. While painting my toes yesterday, Mads comes up with her little pointer finger out saying "Towz! Towz! Towz?" Who am I to deny a girl pretty toes when she asks for it?

Jeffrey was appalled. :)

Feed the Pig

Madelynn has numerous piggy banks. Block shaped, horse shaped and of course pig shaped. Until recently, those piggy banks had been collecting dust on a window sill, occasionally finding themselves on the floor after the Madelynn hurricanes of June, July and August. As Mads gains new abilities, new games are invented, and one of her favorites by far is feeding her pig.

Pinky the Pig is filled almost to capacity with laundry money.

I have a confession. A couple weeks ago, I assaulted that pink pig. I snuck into Madelynn's room like a thief in the night and lifted two whole dollars in silver money to pay for parking. The guilt consumed me, and while Mads was sleeping, I deposited a crisp five dollar bill into Pinky the Pig to make amends. I counted the funds in Pinky two days ago, and Madelynn is fairly rich for a 16 month old. I wonder what she'll buy? Probably not two hours worth of parking.

Side note: It is now Babyleg season once again! There are perks to saying good-bye to summer.

Back to Bowling!

I wouldn't even post about this if I hadn't done so absolutely stellar! Tonight was the second night of bowling season. Last week I did suck, I think I had a 104, 92 and 108. That's suck, but not necessarily suck for me. This week though, holy shit. 148 and a 167!!! That's like, a perfect game in my opinion! Never mind the middle game where I bowled an 84, I had lost my groove after doing so darn fabulous. But fabulous on top of super fabulous, a 167!! WOOT!

Oh how I love bowling league.

The Spins

A Tower by a 16 Month Old

Amazing right? The kid is a frickin' GENIUS I tell you.

Alright, so I built it. Mads knocked it down though. Megan and I took a trip to Kid to Kid the other day and I found some fabulous wooden toys for practically free (thank God I hit the toy aisle before Megan, I thought there was going to be a brawl over the super-fab-super-stacker wooden toy). That was my first trip to Kid to Kid and now I plan to go once a week. Holy super toys. I play with these blocks after Madelynn goes to bed. I'm not kidding, I've played with them for at least an hour every night since I brought them home. You can just make such cool shit with that toy! Madelynn? She throws the blocks at my head.

What's up with that anyways? If there's something in her hand, no matter what it is, she chucks it at my head. I took one of those "fist crayons" to the eye yesterday. Chick has an arm.

?

Why would I take pictures from the play room through a window screen? I haven't a clue, but they were in my camera...

Danger is My Middle Name

It's actually Olivia, but between this tiny stunt:

And standing on the dinner table (which I didn't get a picture of because I was like, OMG-WTF-JHC!!)...

You get the point.