Madelyn Ruth @ 3.5 Years

Next week our Mads will cross the 3.5 year mark. 

This picture pretty much sums up her personality for me. 

•  Maddie is kind, thoughtful, sticky sweet ("Mom, do you know who I love more than anyone else in the WHOLE WORLD?...YOU!..and Isaac and Davy and Papa..."), feisty, demanding, fiercely independent, determined, and unpredictable. 
• She loves to help out unless it involves cleaning up toys.
• She is as friendly as she was 3 years ago and makes new friends anytime we go out in public.
• She loves to eat just about any fruit, candy, carbs, carbs, carbs, and carrot sticks. She rarely eats anything I make for dinner without a lot of coercion. 
• Like most three-year-old girls she also loves princesses and Rapunzel is her favorite. She wears her Rapunzel dress just about everyday. 
• Her favorite colors are pink and purple and I overheard her tell Isaac that she would be happy if the whole world were pink.

She loves her brothers and loves to fight with them, too. You wouldn't believe how fast she can turn on the water works in an attempt to get her way.

• Maddie is my little sidekick. This past semester I was called to team teach an institute class downtown and she and Davis come with me while Ike is at school  Maddie insists on wearing a dress and tights, too, because I am required to dress up. 
•  She loves school and has recently shown a growing interest in learning how to read. I have been doing lessons with her in the same book I used with Isaac. We are about halfway done with the lessons and I am really proud of how far she has come--it's hard work learning to read (you'll have to turn the volume all the way up if you watch the video--it's a little muffled).

• She insists on picking out all of her own outfits and I usually let her have full reign in that department...even if it means snow boots in the summer or socks on top of her tights. I do, however, make her get dressed if we are going out. She loves loves loves her pjs so this is often a battle with us. Just yesterday, in fact, though I reminded her several times that she needed to get dressed, she wasn't ready when it was time to go. So I made her leave the house in her underpants. She was not happy but she was ready with clothes on in plenty of time this morning =)
• She is still small for her age. In fact, she and Davis currently wear the same size footsie pajamas (2T).

Making a paper countdown chain for Christmas.

Just this morning I had the following conversation with her:

Maddie: "When I am thirteen I am going to be a mama, too!"

Me: "Uhhh...or maybe when you're twenty-three...or even thirty?"

Maddie: "Yeah, or twenty-eighty!"

Me: "Sounds good to me."

She is constantly cracking me up and putting a smile on my face. I will continue to record the funny things that come out of her mouth for as long as she continues to say them!