Madelyn picked Mommy a flower...

...just a couple of days ago, and although I recognize that it's probably not gonna come back to life!, I'm having a hard time getting rid of it!

3 yrs old and already reading labels

It would seem these days that we are beginning a modern Saturday morning tradition that consists of a breakfast of champions.

Even before Roo's early morning Musical Theatre class begun (about a month ago now, and she's REALLY enjoying herself!), Madelyn would come to expect a seemingly once-in-a-while treat of a pancake breakfast on a regular weekly basis! And both Daddy and I love her enthusiasm when she wakes up and realizes it's Saturday - Pancake Day!

Yesterday, as Madelyn and Daddy were enjoying Mommy's vanilla chocolate chip concoction (of which she helped with the mixing and addition of chips!), Roo noticed an opportunity to put her astounding development of recognizing letters and spelling out words she sees with the syrup jug on the table.

The label simply states "syrup". And although she KNOWS which letters she's reading, sometimes she reads a different message than the rest of the general population.

Here is her interpretation of the label, verbatim!:

Tradition in the making!

Face painting!

Saturday afternoon!

I picked up a kit from Michael's a few weeks ago, and Madelyn has been nothing short of ecstatic to have her little face painted up in the style of her choosing.

Today was our 4th run at this crazy fun pastime!

For her first go, she wanted to be a tiger; next, it was a clown; then it was a bunny (on Mother's Day, while Gpa and Baba, Didi and Uncle Chris were over - I was lucky to find bunny ears just

SITTING in her closet waiting for her!); and today, it was a black kitty cat.

When Daddy came home from the store to see what we were doing, he was so excited to see his hyper little kitty, and Madelyn fed on that excitement - being the nurturing and sharing little girl she is, she wanted to give Daddy that experience too, so she offered to paint his face up as Spider-Man (which evolved into a kitty cat at some point as well!). She picked the colours, and my job was simply to load up her paint brush, and she went to town!

Here are the results:

So much fun! I have no clue what she'll want to be next - good thing is, she doesn't care that Mommy isn't an artist, as long as her face is painted, she's having a ball! :)

Sleep talking! :)

Daddy told me Madelyn was stirring last night, so he went into her room to make sure she was ok, and as he covered her up with her blanket, she rolled over and, in her sleep, said, "No, Daddy, I don't want to go to the car!"

Then faaaast asleep again!

I wonder where she thought she'd be going at 4am?!

Snuggle bug!

After Madelyn was left to fall asleep in her room, she began to get a bit restless, so Mommy went in for a quick little cuddle to help her calm down (and because I wanted another excuse to snuggle!).

We were both lying on her bed, her little bum pushed into my ribs, and I was stroking her hair. After quite a number of songs on her Disney lullaby disc, her breathing was getting deeper, and I realized I'd managed to put her to sleep, so I stopped stroking her hair and began to move my hand away. Unbeknownst to me, she was still awake, and instead of letting my hand go, she grabbed onto my thumb, pulled my hand back and cuddled with it against her cheek!

My heart melted - she'd never done that before!

I would've stayed all night if I could have, I was loving every single moment, but I couldn't stay in her little bed - so after another great number of songs passed, and she hadn't moved, I thought for sure I had my chance to slip out of her room silently and undetected.

Only I was, again, mistaken.

As I slowly began to prop myself, she seemed automatically jolted from her sleep and reached around to grab the strings of my hoodie and pull me back down, telling me, "No, Mommy, you stay here and close your eyes with me and go to sleep."

So I did.

Sweetest moment of my life :)

A Day at the Zoo - May 5, 2011

Grandpa came up from Utah to visit with the whole fam damily, and Madelyn had no clue (we like to really surprise her!). He showed up at the door bright and early just as the Roo and I were comin' down the stairs, and his voice through the screen calling to her didn't phase her initially - but once she stopped, listened, and turned to look, the look of pure joy and the oozing excitement was amazing!

And so the adventure began!

We were lucky to have some great weather that day, so after running a couple of quick errands and getting Gpa, Madelyn and Daddy to the McDonald's Playland for a quick lunch, it was time to head out to the zoo!

We had SO much fun checkin' out the scene, and Gpa was lovin' pushing the Roo around in the dinosaur rider she had selected as her ride of choice! After a few brief exhibits, we hit up the play area, and she was off, testing out the monkey bars for the very first time!

This zebra bus with the monkey bar middle had a little side window at the front that she loved to poke her head out of and give us a little royal wave before heading out for another attempt at those bars!

I managed to catch her in her adorable little gesture:

After much fun was had in the play area, it was o

ff to see the snow leopards and the monkeys and the tiger, and of course, the lion, whom she appropriately dubs The Lion King.

(The lioness in the exhibit with him is affectionately known as The Lion King's Mommy.)

Right after the lion exhibit, Madelyn knows the camels are coming up. I had just caught on enough to know that when the Roo begins getting excited to see Alice the Camel, it's not that she's looking forward to actually seeing the CAMELS, but rather, the little camel PLAY AREA located AT the camel exhibit! This has a camel slide that she is more than familiar with!

So when I was gettin' her pumped up to see the camels and the Alice the Camel slide, I knew it would be a home run.

Of course, this little girl is full of surprises.

Once we got to the play area, she checked out the slide, but not with the same vigour as per usual - no, this seemed more obligatory. THIS time, she was all about the sand box, and making "a castle for The Lion King".

This "castle" was a pile of sand.

A pile of sand that she became VERY protective over, and even snapped at a little girl who accidentally kicked a bit of it down as she walked by. (That's my girl!)

A pile of sand that she could NOT be pulled away from, not even with the lure of ice cream!

Check out the intensity of this 3yr old in a sand box, dedicated to completing her mission:

Unfortunately, we didn't take many snap shots of Gpa's visit with the Roo, and not even when Grandma showed up a day later for the weekend! We did get a lot of video though, but this little girl was in heaven just by being around 2 of her favourite people!

We went out for dinner at The Keg, and Madelyn enjoyed "Grandma's steak" (the name she gives to all steak now in general, ever since Gma let the Roo sample some of her steak quite a while ago!). Gma and Gpa played with the Roo in the g

arden, and tuckered that little girl out! It was so incredible, and sad to have Gma leave us so soon after arriving, but Gpa made sure to step up his game by going golfing with her for her very first time!

A rainy Monday had us indoors at a black light glow-in-the-dark mini golf facility with dinosaurs and underwater creatures (she L.O.V.E.D. it! - two of her fave things at the moment!). Luckily it wasn't busy there at all, so we had the run of the place, which was great, b/c Madelyn wasn't exactly working on perfecting her technique! She had more fun standing b

ehind the ball and whacking at it with the club between her legs (and then she just resorted to picking the ball up and placing it directly into the hole - y'know, to avoid all that annoying "trying" stuff!) HA!

Gpa got to see Madelyn in action at her Kinder Ballet class that night. Everyone in attendance witnessed Madelyn pay attention to the teacher's words for a few fractions of a second, the rest of the time was spent running over to us and not wanting to participate (I think Gpa still enjoyed the show!). Then that evening, he spoiled her with an incredibly fun game of "Name that Person", where he showed her pics of ppl and she had to guess who they were correctly to get a present!

A couple pics of Mommy, Daddy, Gma and Gpa (not recognizing Gma from the pic though? Gpa was sure to enjoy THAT, he's all about competition!), and the kicker - a picture of Baby Madelyn, which she got right off the bat! Gpa did NOT expect that one!

He spoiled her with pop-up dinosaur books, a glow-in-the-dark Ladybug book, a ladybug piggy bank, a big collection of Dr Seuss stories, a Fantasia dvd, a spinning light-up bunny, and he created the most amazing memory for her: Puff the Magic Dragon - a song he sang to her earlier that day, multiple times in the car as we drove around. She grew to love that tune, and wouldn't you know it, the final surprises consisted of a Puff storybook and a music box that plays the tune!

The evening was topped off with a snuggle session on the couch watching her new Fantasia movie. Thanks for the great visit, Gma and Gpa!!! Madelyn loved every moment, and I know she'll remember it for years to come!

Kinder Ballet!

On April 9, Madelyn started her first Kinder Ballet class!

The program runs until early June, and each onday the small kidlets learn how to point their toes and feet positions and the like.

Of course, Roo seems to have her own agenda!

She loves getting all dolled up for ballet, but doesn't enjoy the "listening" aspect of it too much! She'd much rather get up and run over to

Mommy and Daddy watching from the sidelines to tell us to "Hushhhhhh! Be quiet!" and then scurry back to her group, OR she'll run up to us and ask us for a snack (she ate a whole sandwich during her class tonight!). The only time she's actually doing what the teacher tells her to do is when the teacher instructs everyone to just dance around, and that's when she's at her peak!

Nonetheless, it's something to learn, and it

keeps her busy, and she DOES enjoy getting dressed up and

twirling around. Of course, if she'd be kicking and screaming and not wanting to go, we wouldn't do it, but she's always excited to go and be a funny little disturbance for the rest of the class, and a full-on entertainer for those of us lucky enough to be there watching!