Madison {2.5 Years Old}

Our sweet Madison is 2 1/2 years old!  Madison has grown up so much over the past few months since she became a big sister.  On Sunday, March 6th we went to a local park to take a few pictures of Madison.  It is hard to catch her not in motion these days! 

Weight: 31 pounds   Height: 36 inches 

Food: Madison LOVES any kind of food!  She is not a picky eater at all.  Her favorite dinner that we make is salmon, rice and broccoli.  At 2.5 years old, some favorite foods are grilled cheese, yogurt, Cheese Its, chicken, pretzels, any kind of fruit, especially bananas and apples, broccoli, beans, apple juice, smoothies, M&M's and fruit snacks.

Play: Madison loves to pretend play.  She has tons of character figures that she uses for her Little People school & bus and her Daniel Tiger tree house.  She will line the figures up, put them in different places and make them have conversations. She also LOVES dress-up!  Madison wants to wear her Elsa, Sofia or Mermaid Ariel dress almost everyday.  Every now and then I give in and let her wear the Sofia dress to school.  Her current "favorites" are Frozen, Inside Out, Daniel Tiger, Sofia the First, Super Why and anything to do with princesses. Madison loves music- singing and dancing!

Madison loves anything that has to do with being outside.  She loves to walk the neighborhood and go to the park.  She also enjoys playing with chalk and checking the mail. 

School: We might be a little biased, but Madison is extremely smart!  She can recognize all her letters (sometimes gets confused with X & Z) and numbers to 20, names shapes, counts to 20, counts to 10 in Spanish and knows a few letter sounds.  She loves to read books and soaks up any kind of learning she can. While she is very smart, our hope for her is that she is being a nice friend and a good listener at school.  Her teacher, Ms. Stephanie, does a great job of teaching academics, but also make sure that social, emotional and physical needs are addressed.  Madison tells us about her day every night at dinner and it is the cutest thing ever!

Look mom...no hands!

Madison is a wonderful big sister to Caroline.  Whenever Caroline cries, Madison will get her blanket and pacifier.  She loves getting to sit next to Caroline in the car.  If Caroline spits up (which is often), Madison will get me a burp cloth.  She loves to watch Caroline get her diaper changed and take a bath.

My favorite saying of Madison's right now is "I so excited".  She has a whole "routine" down.

"We go to the park? I LOVE to go to the park.  I so excited to go to the park!"

"We go see Lolli and Pops? I love Lolli and Pops.  I so excited to go see Lolli and Pops!"

Madison is definitely a 2 year old...we have normal struggles of a strong willed child.  Madison is in the stage of wanting to do things herself, such as climbing into the car seat, getting dressed, brushing her teeth and fixing a snack.  Our biggest times of struggle are getting dressed in the morning and stopping an activity when it's time for bed.  We are trying everything we know as parents and hoping we are making good decisions and setting boundaries & structure.

Too sunny!

This picture truly made me realize how grown up Madison is becoming.  She is our miracle and made us parents. We love this girl more than we could ever know.