January 26, 2013

This weekend Grandma and Grandpa Mortensen have been visiting. Madison has been so cute. She's been an advocate for family togetherness. anytime anyone left the room she'd call for that person till they returned. When she was downstairs and a couple of us were upstairs ,I heard her say, "Everybody come. " she amazes us every day with how well she is starting to understand words and how to put them together. She is so smart. Today while we were driving in the car she started counting on her own, 1-10. and already she is singing the abc song. she's a little unsure how the l, m, n. o, p part goes, but she is so smart. And, music is something that she loves still and if something is being taught thru music it just sticks and sticks, quick. She is also getting a handle of the command of the language especially when it comes to commanding others, "sit down, read this, everybody come, " are just a few of the commands we here often these days.

January 24, 2013

One of the things daddy loves and looks forward to every day is his morning time with his little girl. He and Maddie are like two peas in a pod. They love to hang out together and they love to play. This morning they watched frosty the snow man. In the movie when frosty gets his magical hat, he comes to life and says, 'happy birthday to frosty'. Daddy got a kick out of Maddie, when after the movie, maddie came up on her own to sing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear frosty, happy birthday to you.' Daddy loved it. What a clever girl.

January 23, 2103

Mommy loves the end of the work day when she gets to pick up Maddie from daycare. It warms mommy's heart every time mom first walks in the door to see Maddie and she runs over to mommy with big wide open arms and grabs mommy's legs and says, "Hold you" wanting mommy to pick her up so she can give a big hug. Another thing that makes mommy smile is when Maddie loves runs over to the water fountain and climbs up to the sink to wash her hands. She loves to show off that she knows how to wash her own hands and get water by herself. Mommy can tell she's proud because the whole time she's doing it, she's looking over just grinning ear to ear. She's getting to be such a big girl every day.

January 22, 2013

This morning after getting ready for the day Maddie did what she always does and ran into mommy and daddy's room to wake up daddy and climb in bed to snuggle with him till he gets up to get ready for work. This morning she told daddy, "lets hide". She wanted daddy to pull the blanket up over both of them . When daddy asked , "Who are we hiding from?" Madison said, " from mommy". Mommy loves her silly little girl. She's so fun.

January 19, 2013

Madison is always surprising us with new sentences and concepts she comes up with. Today she climbed up on daddy's lap and put her hand out and said "I need money now". We got her started several months ago learning to put coins in a bank and now that she has this little purse, she needs to fill it up too. What a funny girl.

January 2, 2013

Madison has been very demanding with her new words. She tells mom and dad, "Sit here, Read this, Lay down here..." We are told at day care that she is quite the "firecracker" and that for "such a little thing she knows what she wants" After all the holiday travels, Madison moved from mommy and daddy's room into her own room. The first time sleeping in there since she was very little.Daddy set up a queen size mattress for her. It is low enough to the ground that she can climb on and off the bed herself. She got to pick out her own sheets and pillows and it's her special bed. The funny thing is that now she gets mom and dad to come lay down with her to get her down at night then a couple times thru the night when she wakes up still wanting a bottle she has one of us laying in there for her. So we may have moved her out of our room, but now she's moved us into her room. So really all we did was switch rooms.

December 25, 2012

Today we spent christmas in Green River, WY with grandma and grandpa and aunt julie and cousins kyle and Emily. It was great fun playing with charley the dog and chasing kyle around the house. There were so may presents maddie got tired half way thru opening them all. She also got great use out of her new shopping cart by going around and shopping thru everyones piles of gifts and filling her cart. Madison had a fun time. It was a nice christmas. Grandma Mortensen always makes sure there's plenty of fun.

December 8, 2012

Today was our last day in SC and was Uncle Denis's farewell. Maddie wont get to know uncle Denis. But, he did record a page in her frosty the snowman book, and mommy says he was a terrific brother and served a lot of people and was a wonderful father and husband and son.

December 4, 2012

Today was a very sad day for mommy. Her youngest brother, Uncle Denis passed away. Maddie was such a comfort to mommy. She flew to Sc to play with cousins and comfort mommy during this difficult time. It's been tough to be away from daddy. But, grandma and grandpa really loved seeing how much Maddie had grown and how cute she is.

November 28, 2012

Tonight we went to JcPenny's to have Maddie's 2 yr old picture taken our annual family picture Christmas picture. Madison really is such a pretty little girl. She really has grown up so much over the past year. It's amazing to see how she really does look a lot older than she did last year. The girls taking the pictures couldn't get a single smile out of her. Good thing daddy came to the rescue, he can always get his little girl to smile.

November 23, 2012

Madison has really become much more loving. It's very often that she'll run over to both mommy and daddy with wide open arms and say " I lub U" . We eat it up every time. She repeats a lot of things we say she amazes us every day with a new word we didn't know she knew. We tell her how smart she is. She is quick to learn. Madison's favorite thing at the park is the slide. There is one in her classroom at school. Everyday when mommy picks her up she has to show how she can go down the slide. Another thing she loves is to play in the water fountain. Any time she sees one and she HAS to have a drink from it. She comes home almost daily with a new shirt on than what she left wearing because of playing in the fountain.

November 10, 2012

Today Madison had a great time! We celebrated her two year birthday with friends at one of her favorite places. We sent invitations of Maddie wearing her Minnie mouse dress that mommy made for her. Her friends, Graycee Preece, Nathan Antzak , and Emery and Ashton Keyes met us down at the dinasour park at city creek and they all had a great time playing and then we had a pizza party and minnie mouse cupcakes and open fun gifts. She got a Rapunzel doll with a brush she could comb her hair with, and a seseme street music book with records, and a homemade ballerina that Adrianna made, a large mickey mouse doll and a little computer that she could practice her abc's on. she also got her first purse. Then at night she had another party with grandma and grandpa mortensen. They decorated their hotel room with a banner and balloons, mommy brought cupcakes and grandma and grandpa gave her a whole bunch of fun presents. Maddie had a great time playing bounce the balloon with grandma. What a fun weekend! Grandpa kept asking Madison if she was a "party animal" and she'd say "yes" and that made us all laugh.

October 4, 2012

This month Maddie started a new day care, Young Explorers. It only took 2 days before she was walking right in and not even clinging to us or remembering we were dropping her off. she was still crying every day , 8 months later at the last place we went to. I know she's a little older but, it's amazing when you have found the right place, the right people to try to take your place during the day... it makes a HUGE difference. Madison is so little they as us every day, "are you sure she is 2 yrs old. She is so tiny." Two of the days they teach preschool and already Madison is showing an interest in wanting to recite her abc's. What an exciting thing to see her want to learn and to feel her excitement. At a young age she already knows the importance of repetition. After reading a book with her, or singing a song or singing the abc's, she'll say "again!". She loves to learn and she wants to learn. This month Madison is sleeping out of our bed, not quite out of our room just yet, but our little plan to help with her transition worked! She loves to be near mom and dad. She now has her own little bed in our room; It's actually her crib matteress that has been made up for her on the floor of our room, but she'll sleep there all night. She is still waking up 2 to 3 times thru the night for a bottle so we need to figure out how to get more in her belly so she is more full.

September 2, 2012

Madison says some funny things. One of her favorite things is to call either me or lance "mamma-daddy. She'll say "Hi mamma daddy." , she is also always looking for or carrying around what she calls her "this" which is really a cloth diaper she has gotten attached to. Luckily, its a generic item and we have about 10 of them on hand at all times so we don't have to worry about loosing it. Madison is always reaching up for one of us to hold her and says "hold you.." . She is now 22 months old, we can hardly believe that in 2 months she will be 2 years old.

August 21, 2012

Five days later Madison is finally being released from Primary Children's hospital. It was not the norm for children to stay that long for the simple procedure she had done, but some don't progress and eat and drink right away. It was better to make sure she didn't become dehydrated but once we convinced the doctors she is a bigger bottle drinker than a solid food eater, they finally released us once she was drinking a certain amount of fluids. Even though it was a tough stay, Madison sure enjoyed the wagon rides, the visits from volunteer doggies, free books and trips to the children's art room. Madison had to have an IV put in 3x while she was in the hospital.One replacement was after she stuck her hand in a bowl of spaghetios, the nurse worried it may have gotten contaminated. We argued the need since she was drinking on her own at this point, and because it took the iv team 3 tries before they were able to get the last one in. It was hospital policy in case of emergency so she had to be stuck again. When the same nurse that came previous we said she wasn't allowed to try and she just assisted. Her coworker got it in on the first try. The next day we went home. For a week Madison ate nothing but ice chips and otter pops and let her bottle drip down her throat. It took 18 days before she ate her first solid food and unfortuantely her experience in the hospital gave her an aversion to loratab and also to medicine syrynges. She has an absolute fit if one is headed her way. Luckily, the experience as dreadful as it was, was totally worth her not having sleep apnea or trouble swalling food. She has more energy now and is sleeping better. Eating better too even though to mom and dad it still seems she doesn't eat enough to get by. But she is still a bottle lover.