It's June. The winter was so beautiful because it stayed so mild, hardly snowed once and I never even broke out my winter jacket. The spring was beautiful and for about three weeks I was able to keep the windows open in the house (Hello beautiful $85 electric bill!) But now that summer is here, We. Are. Paying. For. It. Yesterday was 102, and at 7:45a as I type this, the temperature is 84 degrees.

The warm weather though is still thrilling. The feeling of sun stinging my skin tells me summer time is here and it's time to get outside and explore! We miss our Lloyd friends, we had to visit RiverRock a couple weeks ago alone. It was a great day though, Mady loved watching the water dogs, and sitting by the water.

Annabelle didn't sleep well that morning so we brought the backpack and lasso'd AK in, to both our surprise she LOVED IT. I felt like we were backpacking a mountain by the looks of the thing, but Annabelle was so content. She screamed the entire carride, cried when I got her out, and then was immediately silent when we put her in the backpack, not kidding - she was silent the ENTIRE TIME. Im seriously considering wearing it around the house during tooth-cutting-days. 








We brought the wagon for Mady to ride in, that lasted about 1/4 of the day. She enjoys pulling it more than riding, no surprise there.

But she's so darn cute!







Annabelle is now crawling and I think it's her favorite past time. She started crawling at 8mo once she figured out how to untangle her back legs, she took off. About 3 days later she learned to stand herself up on her knees at furniture. She was 9mo yesterday and she's still doing that. If I stand her up to something, she can balance herself by holding on but she can't quite get into the standing position on her own yet. 

She is eating like a champ! She's really picking up foods very well. I'm no longer picking her up to find 75% of what she ate, attached to her butt. I've been making a lot of baby foods and she's eating them great. The only thing so far that I have noticed an allergy to is strawberries. Which I'm not really surprised. Because she's eating more table foods, fortunately she is starting to slow down on the bottles, wahoo! That's a huge relief because our insurance no longer covers her $3,192 x month formula supply. When we make a bottle, I usually make either a 6oz or 8oz depending on how long it's been since she's eaten a meal. Regardless what type of food it it, she still likes to eat every 3hours. All this is bizarre to me, Mady never ate over 5oz and only 3x a day. It's amazing how children can be so different.

June 7th, Madelynne graduated Preschool!

It was a warm evening. I picked Annabelle up from the sitter and AK got Mady from school, we ate a fast dinner and made it to the school just in time. They had a luau that day and partied for hours, so she was already exhausted but still excited. She wanted to pick out her own dress and choose a white with pink and green polka dots to wear. The procession every time they perform something is what immediately gets me. Sweet Mady started walking in and was looking everywhere for me, I was so happy I found a seat on the end, near the aisle and yelled her name, she saw me and her little world lit up :) She kept peaking back to smile as she walked down the center aisle and could see me from the stage. I looked over half way thru their performance, and I think AK was crying. It was so cute.. he said "I just couldn't believe that our shy little girl was actually singing out loud and doing the hand signals!" He was right, she's so shy that it was such a beautiful relief and happy moment to see her singing along. Finally they announced her name, and she was graduated from K2. She was SO proud of herself!
 
Both the girls love bath time, but especially Annabelle I think. As soon as we turn the water on, or even walk into the bathroom, her legs start jumping and getting her undressed happens in record timing! She kicks and splashes in the tub and loves every minute of it, she probably also enjoys it so much because it's time she gets to spend close to her sister.

They love each other so much. Annabelle idolizes her sister, she looks up to her all the time, and is always looking for an opportunity to smile and laugh with her. It's adorable. Belle watches her sister the whole time in the car, watches her play, sing and dance around. I know it's only a matter of time before she learns how to walk and will be right on Mady's heels, annoying her every step of the way.

Mady is as sweet as can be, as always, but becoming more and more vocal. With that, she is really starting to pick up sas. Watching her adorable self talk like a teenager at times cracks us up, although we do correct it, we walk away and laugh hysterically.

She's so irrational with her sassyness though.
AK: Mady let's get your jammies on.
Mady: ugh, but dad!
AK: Im not going to say it again, let's get dressed.
Mady: I don't care, dad! .. I don't care :neck roll: I. Don't. Care. :big eyes: and walks away.
Ak and I look at each other in horror at what just happened in front of us, give a small crooked smile and move into action.
AK: Madelynne Marie! You do NOT talk like that, you understand?
Mady: I understand daddy, I love you, Happy Grandfather's Day. :adorable smile with batting eyes:

We leave the room after bedtime, walk downstairs and laugh hysterically while reenacting the whole scene repeatedly and high five at our hilarious kid. The lesson here: My 3yo is surely picking up sas somewhere, I don't know where.. either TV, school, watching us, her friends but somewhere. She's getting it from a trusted source and therefore is testing it at home with AK and I. While it can be funny, that type of thing is NOT tolerated in our house, and I would be damned if she barks an "I don't care!" with a Z snap at me in the mall and turns to walk away. I would really hate to go to jail for public child abuse, to be honest, bail just isn't in our budget this month so it's best to nip these things in the bud the moment they arise.

Beyond those little fun times, Mady is doing awesome. She is singing alllll the time now. While it used to be cute at first, she's so good at singing that she now makes up her own songs with any beat you can think of. If she can't think of words (that don't even make sense together) she will just loudly hum or chime to a sound repeatedly.




Last night during one of Mady's "I can't stop talking, wiggling, squirming and asking 651468413516 questions" moments, and before I snapped, I said loudly to her "I LOVE YOU!" She looked at me in almost disbelief and it took me by surprise. She said "You do mommy?" as if she really did doubt that I loved her. I know the look on my face was of complete shock and horror and I almost melted. I tell both the girls a million times a day that I love them, how beautiful they are, smart, sweet etc. But for some reason, she acted like this was the first she had heard those three words, or maybe it was because I said it loud enough and she really really heard me and believed it. 
I held her hand and said "I do sweety, I love you for a million reasons". And she stared hard into my eyes silently. It was almost uncomfortable to maintain eye contact but I knew for some reason she needed to hear more.

I love you because you are smart.
I love you because you love all things, big and small.
I love you because you listen to mommy when I ask you to do something.
I love you because you give me extra kisses by surprise.
I love your giggle because it makes my heart warm inside.
I love your smile because your eyes light up when you do.
I love you because you like to learn new things.
I love you because you love your sister and set a great example for her.
I love you because you made me love your daddy more from the moment you were born.
I love your feet because they are perfect.
I love your nose so I can 'shoop' it.
I love that you listen to all other adults and your teachers.
I love your voice so I can hear all the things you learn and can tell me and sing.
I love your big heart because you love and complete your grandparents world.
I love you because you made nama smile everyday in her last tough years
I love you because you have an opinion
I love how strong you are.
I love you most because you are my daughter and my best friend in the whole wide world.

The amazing part was that Mady looked dead at me the entire time and never spoke but listened to every word. Then she got down from her chair and gave me a giant tight hug and kissed my cheek and said "I love you mommy, let's go take a bath". It was almost surreal, but maybe amoung life's changes lately, and out of the routine bedtimes/drop off at the sitter times of me telling her that I love her, maybe she needed to REALLY hear how I felt and be reminded. I need not to overlook those things and be lazy in reassuring them. Mady, Belle and AK.

AK and I are really raising some amazing children, I don't know what or how we are doing it but I hope we can continue and not screw these tiny people up somehow.