She's THREE!!!

Nobody ever warned me about how melancholy your own children's birthdays are! Yes, it's exciting! But seriously, how could she possibly be that old?  I often say that I want to capture her at this age and keep her here forever.  I don't want it to slip by and then only be a faint memory, but I guess that's the reality of this life, right? Just a short, teensy, tiny part of a long rope...

Anyway, so as to prevent any tears, here's a sweet picture of our birfday girl and all my favorite things about this age...

{This is totally out of focus and super grainy, but her smile is so sweet!}

* Her 'ten octaves too high voice' when she talks to her brother, "Hey Em! Over here, Em bug".

* My little helper - the other day I caught her emptying the bathroom garbage into the garage garbage (which is what I usually do) without me ever asking her.  I think she might already like to clean. ;)

* She LOVES to snuggle.  Matt and I always talk about how we hope this will never end, although we know that's not very realistic.  Matt always puts her to bed and she often says, "Mama you wanna cuddle me?" if I put Emmitt down after she's in bed.  It's pretty hard to resist.  She wraps her arms around my neck and gently tickles my back.  Seriously, she knows how to work it.

* Her pronouns! "Yours" comes out "irs" or "ors"depending on how fast she says it and although she's gotten a little bit better she almost always replaces "for" with "to", even if she's repeating something that we've JUST told her! Me, "Madi, this is for tomorrow." Madi, "This is to tomorrow?" Yup, every time...

* Nap time.  Yeah, I pretty much never want it to end.  She snuggles up on her bed so well, sticks her thumb in her mouth and drifts off to never never land.  It's just that easy!  In fact, it's so easy, it sort of makes me want to curl up and take a nap everyday!

* She talks NON stop, about pretty much everything! Although, she does have stranger awareness and freezes up when she's not comfortable.  Not a big surprise for a 3 year old though.

* She loves to talk about Jesus.  Most of the time in context, but not always.  The other day she was running from Emmitt (or so she told me) and she jumped up on her bed yelling, "Emmitt's gonna get me. Emmitt's gonna get me." I said, "Oh yeah, what's he gonna do?" She replied (without skipping a beat), "He's gonna die me on a cross!" Yeah... I was pretty much speechless. I thought it was so funny and yet so inappropriate all at the same time...

* She's been waiting to turn 3 so much that all day we've heard, "Madi free now." We'll often say, "No way. Can you stay 2 forever?" And she's quick to respond, "Yeah, Madi am. I'm free."

* Her dinnertime prayer, "Dear Jesus, Thank you to this food! Jesus name, Aaaaaa-men!"

* She LOVES to read books.  She can sit and be read to for HOURS! I suppose such is the life of a little one with two teachers as parents, but it's awfully sweet!

* This is definitely not my favorite thing, but it's definitely 'Madi' right now - changing her clothes! And by changing, I mean 14 times a day! No. Kidding. We've had to lay down the law because it makes me go c.r.a.z.y. to say the least, but if she could she would put on every outfit in her closet everyday! Some people tell me it's a girl thing, but I asked my mom and she told me I wasn't like this, so I guess that means I can blame Matt. ;) And she's getting PICKY! Oh, my! She throws the biggest fits over her socks or leggings having a wrinkle in them! It usually doesn't bring out the best side in me either... This can, however, be blamed on my brother.  I remember my mom warning him hours before we'd leave the house so that he'd have ample time to find "right" and "left" socks.  *sigh*

* Her overall love of life! She loves her family, she loves her friends and she just loves being alive! It's awfully fun to live life alongside her! And I feel SO blessed to be her Mama! Oh what a blessing she has been these last three years.

I'm sure I'll think of many more things, but for now this sums up our baby girl.  And yes, she'll always be our baby girl!  We love you, Madelyn Ann! Thank you for blessing our life!!!

*** Post Publish Edit***

I thought of a few more I don't want to forget!!!

* Madelyn is THE BEST at playing independently.  I actually have to remind myself to stop and sit down and color with her.  She has SUCH a good imagination and she could play with a blank wall, a stick, and a blanket and still be having fun! She's often turning laundry baskets into baby beds, couches into cars, etc.! She's all over with her imagination and I can literally sit back and watch her read books to her crowd of stuffed animals (often referred to as "babies"). I love it!

* Lately, Madi has turned into the best little hostess.  I hated the stage she went through when other people would come to our house and she hoarded everything! Seriously? She hadn't played with something in 2 months and she'd still want to rip it out of their hands! She is the complete opposite now (thank goodness) and she often is a little over bearing! We were watching a friend a few weeks ago and she was SO excited that she was here to play that she tried giving her every doll/blanket/toy/shoe she could get her hands on! She was even trying to feed her (and she's the exact same age as Madi) and wanted to make sure she needed to go to the bathroom about every 5 minutes! As Matt put it, it was a good thing her friends are passive!

* She loves to "colo" (color) and she totally sucks at it! I was actually just wondering if she really got my artistic abilities or if this is (hopefully) a skill that develops a little later?!?!  Cause this sista is gonna need some serious help!

* Finally, and how did I forget? She loves to "sneak" into our bedroom in the middle of the night and cuddle us.  She learned quickly that I will take her straight back to bed.  Her dad, on the other hand, is sort of a sucker, and he rarely wakes up... as such, she just crawls into his side. He flops his arm open, she crawls in and the two snuggle up until someone wakes up too sweaty and then she gets sent back to bed! It's cute, but if I start getting kicked it all comes to a quick end!!! ;)