Adventures with TT and Veronica

So yesterday morning (when Maddie woke up), I told her that TT and Veronica would be coming to play in the evening. She was so excited and talked about it all day, saying, "TT now? TT house? Where TT go?" We even had to have several phone calls so that she could hear her TT's voice. When he came over, she was SO happy and for good reason: Tommy and Veronica are amazing. Here are some pics TT took...

First they went to the park, and then they came home and baked, frosted and decorated cookies. We all know that Maddie loves to shake sprinkles on things and I heard that she devoured the cookies, too!

I absolutely love this picture! And, why is that she lets Veronica clean her hands, with a smile on her face, but she goes bananas when I attempt it?!

After cookies, they set up the giant projector and watched Finding Nemo in the living room.

Apparently, the speakers were VERY interesting to my little engineer. :)

How cool is that?! Today, she keeps saying, "Show onda wall!" Seriously, she's such a lucky little girl and so am I. Thank you guys for being such constant figures in her life; she loves you both so much (and I loved being able to go out!).

Silly Maddie Tales

I have to share a cute Maddie story, one that demonstrates her really good memory (well, I think it does). A commercial came on television today, announcing the DVD release of the movie, Bolt. Remember how she saw it with Tommy? Well, she sees the commercial and starts shouting, "TT! Doggie! TT dare!" Note: I'm assuming "dare" means "there." Anyway, she totally remembered that she'd seen that movie (her only movie) with my brother and that a dog was in it (especially impressive since the commercial was showing some hamster that's apparently in it). Steel trap, this one.

I also need to post an update on our life with Mama Iishey (the fish, in case you missed the post below). She seems okay with not holding the fish, but our new little issue is that she wants to share her toys with the poor thing. Today, she climbed up on the stool (I call it her "observation deck") and dropped in her Mickey figure, a Roll-a-Round and a spoon. Maybe 20 months is too young for a pet...? :) I'm also pretty sure I caught her trying to get Mason to open the jar of fish food today... Rascal.

Time with TT

I spend a lot of time trying to find the good that's come out of this situation with Mike, since I have to know that there has been some good. There are many things, and one of the best is the relationship that has developed between my brother, Maddie and me. From the very minute that Maddie and I were left to our own devices, Tommy was there. From staying over, to calling and texting, to assembling a slew of Christmas presents, he's been there for me. But also, he's been there for Maddie. She adores him. I had told her yesterday that he was coming over, so all day I heard, "TT now?"

Last night was a trip to Disneyland with Uncle TT and Veronica (who, by the way, she calls, "Ron-ca"). If you ask Maddie what rides they went on, she'll say, "Pooh. Ho-ses. Neigh!" I'm assuming that'd be Winnie the Pooh and the carousel. :)

When the park was too wet, they came back and went for a stroll up to the market for some goodies. Seriously, Maddie is a little in awe of TT. Nearly as soon as he left and the door was shut, she started in again with, "TT now? TT now?"

Tommy and Veronica, thank you so much for being there for Maddie. We love you both.

Silliness

This morning, Maddie was playing with her Abby Cadabby doll in her room (I could hear the thing sing and then hear Maddie giggle). Oh, and quick back story: She wasn't wearing a diaper because her recent bout with, ahem, bad diapers has left a nasty rash. Anyway, she's in her room and all of a sudden I hear, "Abby pee-pees!" Obviously, I run down the hall to see that no, the doll doesn't pee-pee but my child had pee-peed all over the floor. I go in there and she looks at me with her eyes all wide and says again, "Abby pee-pees!!" :)

*Oh, and I have to give a movie update from last night's adventure. Tommy said that she did GREAT and sat and watched the ENTIRE movie (they saw Bolt). She has since told me all about it (apparently, there's a "goggie" that said "oof, oof" and that "TT there").

**One more thing... I need your prayers and positive thoughts. Tonight is the first night ever that I will be spending away from Maddie. Daddy is going to have her for the night and I'm on the verge of completely losing it. :( Please keep us in your thoughts; I know she'll have fun and do great (it's not her I'm worried about!). Maybe he'll take some pictures of their time together and I could share them on the blog. I'm going to stay ridiculously busy (so let me know if you need your house cleaned/organized/rebuilt and I'll be there; Lol).

Our Valentine's Playdate

What a fun Valentine's Day we've had! After a really long nap, Maddie woke up to find all of her San Diego friends, here to play! It is always so wonderful to be able to catch up with Ava and Alex and to watch the girls play together. Ava caught some great pics on camera...

Maddie and Avery had fun building with the blocks.

The girls had SO much fun exploring the toys (Maddie even started playing with things she doesn't usually care for).And then... TT came. :) Ava caught this picture of Maddie when she first heard Tommy shout a hello. Think she loves him?!She really was SO excited (and she'd talked about him alllllllll daaaaaay loooooong). They went to see a movie, which will be Maddie's 1st movie experience! We'll see how that goes!

Favorite Friday

Maddie had SUCH a fun night on Friday. Uncle TT and Veronica took her to the mall, where they rode the carousel THREE times. :) That is, by far, Maddie's favorite ride so I'm sure she was completely in heaven.

They even got some Mrs. Field's cookies! What a lucky little girl she is. Tommy and Veronica, I love you guys and can't thank you enough. Maddie and I owe you, big time.

Thanks to TT and Morning Activities

First off, I have to thank Uncle TT for being so wonderful. Last night, he watched Maddie (which included changing a poopy diaper AND putting her to bed!!) so that I could go out to dinner and a movie. Maddie just adores him and looked all through the house for him this morning. I keep asking her if she had fun making pillow forts or playing with dolls or getting horsey rides and she says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah!" We love you Tommy.

Second, I wanted to share some things Maddie has been up to. I rearranged my office so that one half is set up with her Montessori-inspired materials. She LOVES going in there and doing activities. When Mason is with us in the mornings, it's super cute that they both sit on the rug and do things together. Today, she sat and chose a bunch of different things to do. Here are pics of some of the things she chose:

This is still one of her favorite things. She's learned that if she shakes it, the toothpicks will come out, which saves the stress of getting the lid off. She did it about four times.

She loves playing with her letters. She sits and takes them out, one by one, and then we flip through the book to match them. I kept trying to trick her today, to see if she really knew the letters, but she wouldn't be fooled. She'd hold a letter and I'd flip to the wrong page, asking her if that was the right one. She'd get this mildly annoyed look on her face and say, "No." :)

Then, she'd match the letter on the correct page. She insists that a "Q" is an "O." We got into quite the debate about it today.

Me: What letter is that?

Maddie: O!
Me: No, actually that's a Q. See, there's a line.
Maddie: No, no, no! O! Oooooooo!!

First, take a moment to smell the plastic flower. She'll smell it say, "Mmmm!"

Then, sort! She's gotten super picky about each flower being in its own cube. We used to group by colors but she flips out if there's more than one flower per section.

It was a fun morning and it's always fun to watch her concentrate, make decisions and problem solve.

Some New Activites...

Before I begin, I have to say that I'm humbled by the comments left on my "Thankful" post. What an amazing circle of friends we have. Seriously, you all bring tears of gratitude to my eyes. I don't ever, ever wish this experience on anyone, but I do pray that someday, somehow, I'll be able to make up to you the kindness that you've shown to me.

So, Maddie loves letters. I'm always trying to think of new ways for her to experience letters and was excited to find this bucket of letter beads. I showed them to her yesterday and we started off stringing them. That was WAY too hard (it was tricky for me!) so we moved on to sorting (a favorite pasttime). By the way, anytime she sees the camera now, she poses and smiles. Darling. :)

Once she filled up one ice cube tray, she ran and got another. Oh, and an exciting thing (okay, exciting to me) is that she started putting the same letters in the cubes together. She'd pull a letter from the bucket and search and search for the same letter (and did you know that 'x' and 'k' look really similar to someone tiny?).

I'll start with the primary reason I'm posting this picture. I made these shapes from foam sheets and introduced them today to Maddie. Okay, now the second reason I'm sharing this picture is because she has become insistant on wearing multiple "bow-bows" in her hair. One is rarely enough; at least today she chose appropriate colors. :)

She did SO well matching up the shapes! After a few rounds of matching, I started asking her to hand me certain shapes or colors. I thought she did really well (until she insisted that the basket they live in be put on her foot and threw a fit when I removed it).

And, as a bonus, I had to share a picture that Uncle TT took of tonight's castle. He came over so that I could go out (thank you, thank you, thank you Tommy!!) and he and Maddie had a fabulous time. Whenever I say that we're going to Nana's house, she ALWAYS says, "Eh TT?" I'm taking that to mean, "And TT?" :)

We Love Uncle TT!

This is a really bad picture (it's hard to get an action shot of these two), but Uncle TT gave Maddie some very fun piggyback rides tonight. She is very much in love with him and is constantly whispering, "TT, TT, TT." :)

Fun Times at Nana and Poppa's House

Maddie had a great weekend with her Nana, Poppa, aunts and uncle. I have Thanksgiving pictures to share, but I wanted to show these first. My sisters and I went to see Twilight today and Maddie got to play with some of her favorite people!

She LOVES playing with the white board and markers (under close auntie supervision, of course). We also put a big white shirt on her so that her clothes remain unstained.

Tommy and I used to play on this same stage when we were little! I should also mention that Maddie is wearing one of Megan's sweaters, hence the grown-up sweater coat look. :)

Poppa and Maddie had fun on the slide!

Swinging on the big girl swings with Uncle T!