in the mean time

it is taking me way longer than i thought to post all the pictures from our florida trip, so here is what has been going on around here in the mean time and some other 'milestone' type events from our trip...

- mason sat up in the stroller for the first time when we went to the park this afternoon. i think it was only a big deal to me.

- i forgot to mention our disney shopping experience in my orlando post. the main thing i wanted to note was how unselfish madelyn is while shopping. we let her play with toys in stores but she has to put them back when we are ready to move on. she never begs for anything either. this became a problem when we were trying to get her to pick a souvenir - she kept putting everything that we all agreed to back on the shelf and walking away! when we finally got her to select a stuffed pluto toy she didn't want the larger one daddy picked out. she wanted the smallest size they offered. matt was so proud. we got an accessory for halloween too.

- mason wore his first chargers gear to church on sunday and looked very cute!

- madelyn has become obsessed with spotting a "m for madelyn"! she has been doing this for a little while now but she has taken it to a whole new level while we were on vacation and can spot it with surprising speed. she was delighted when she looked out the window on the airplane and saw "airtran.com" on the wing or as she saw "m for madelyn"!

- at some point last week we were riding in the car and i asked madelyn what she was doing. her response? "thinking about palm trees. hmmmm." she even brought her pointer finger to her chin in a thoughtful pose.

- i think that i mentioned this briefly in a post before heading on vacation, but madelyn has been asking to wear her blanket to carry her turtle "all snugly" like mommy carries mason. the picture shows her turtle all snuggled. i am not sure why she picked the stuffed turtle rattle. as best as i can tell it was a totally random choice but she will only wear the turtle. and the request comes most often when we are heading to the park. maybe because that is when i use my moby wrap most often. i have not been wearing my moby wrap any of the times she has requested to wear her turtle and she runs around frantically looking for her turtle before we head out the door. so maternal.

- mason now says "ma" and it sounds like he is saying "mom" when he cries to eat.

- madelyn heard her cousin, annabell, say "yes, sir" to her daddy (uncle brad) and immediately began, "yes, sir. yes, sir. three bags full." these days almost any phrase she hears sends her into a song containing the same phrase.

- madelyn has taken to sitting on my lap and examining my face pointing out all the imperfections. aren't i a lucky lady?

- madelyn likes to try and do anything mason is doing. she likes to lay down next to him so that she can look up at his toy too. or she will lay down on her tummy to look in his mirror. yesterday (or maybe it was this morning) mason was laying on his belly and holding his head up to look in the mirror. madelyn declared that "mason will be crawling soon!" as she jumped up and clapped excitedly. she just can not wait for mason to be able to play with her!

- mason has started clasping his hands together across his chest.

- i was planning on taking madelyn to the library on tuesday morning to return books and pick out some new ones. but when i suggested that we get dressed and go she told me that she just wanted to stay home. poor kid missed being home. after returning saturday night, we went to church sunday morning, she had school on monday morning, and just wanted to stay home by the time tuesday came around. she spent the morning quietly playing with most of her toys, had a nice long nap, and spent all day in her pjs. it definitely did her good to stay home.

- madelyn's imagination has really started to show itself. she is often telling me about pretend scenarios like "mason and i are going on an adventure in the jungle." it seems like "adventure" has become a popular expression for her; she often tells us that she is "going on an adventure, okay?"

- this is a picture requested by madelyn. i think her face gets blank when she holds mason because she is concentrating so hard on holding him.

- i usually answer "where is madelyn's house?" with our street address so when i answered "at home" when we were driving home from school on monday she got really upset. she said, "no mommy! no talk to me! madelyn's house is on xxxx." saying our street name. she likes hearing our actual address.

- repetition is the name of the game. madelyn asks me to sing songs over and over when she can't remember the words singing them on her own. or in the case of our street address, she will ask me over and over for as long as i will answer her. and she has proven time and time again that she is soaking it all in.

- she was very talkative last night when we went to a local restaurant as a fundraiser for her school (they give 10% of sales to the school once a month). here are the highlights:

• "my tummy doesn't feel well", "why, madelyn?", "there are too many snacks in my tummy. i need to eat my dinner." and after dinner "my tummy is all better because it is full of my food."
• "there is a monster under daddy's chair." in the car, but we discovered that it was a friendly monster.
• "there is the moon up there. it is really high. i need to get a ladder to get it."

- sunglasses have become a staple. the funny part? she mainly wears them out night - like when it is dark. love.