Maddie: 2 1/2

At two and a half, this girl is FULL of personality (to say the least).  Some days she thinks she's twenty and can hold her own in a conversation with the best of us.  She talks all day long about anything and everything and her vocabulary never ceases to amaze me.  She wasn't a super early talker, but has exploded over the past several months.  I honestly don't know where she hears or comes up with a lot of the words and phrases she says.  

She has always loved books and reading and now loves to read the books to us - and she does a really good job!  Her favorites are The Sea of Bath, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Ten Apples up on Top, Are you my Mother?, and pretty much anything else she can get her hands on. She loves to talk on her play kitchen phone and has some of the funniest conversations with whoever is on the other end (usually she is talking about her "parents").  

She loves her name now and goes up to random people when we're out and says "My name is Maddie" and then proceeds to introduce both me and Beckham (she's started a lot of awkward conversations for me that way). She also introduces herself as "Elizabeth Taylor" a lot of the time (Elizabeth is her middle name).  I wear a gold chain necklace with discs for both my babes and she loves to point it out and says "one for Beckham, and one for me!"

She loves to watch movies - especially princess movies.  One of my favorite things she's been doing lately is singing the "flower gleam and glow" song from Tangled while she brushes or combs someones hair.  She also sings it in about 3x slow motion which is also pretty funny and makes it take forever.

She's gotten pretty good at saying her prayers at night and for meals and always says she is thankful for "not the fireworks" and the asks Heavenly Father to bless "not the fireworks."  I think the fourth of July might have traumatized her a little.  She also will carry around the scriptures saying "I've got my scripture power" or "it came to pass."  

She loves music - especially listening to the radio in the car and knows a bunch of songs by name just by listening to the intro music.  Her favorites are "Catch my Breath" by Kelly Clarkson and "We found Love" by Rihanna.  She always asks "What's this song called Mommy?"  Or will say "This is a perfect song!"  

She loves wearing dresses and told me yesterday that a goat we saw at wheeler farm loved her pretty pink dress.  She calls all shoes tap shoes and has the girliest animated mannerisms I've ever seen.  She loves jumping on the tramp, swimming, playing with her toys, and her Dad.  We've been working on manners lately and I honestly think it's been detrimental to me because she now asks for things so sweetly and politely that I really can't say no.  

Maddie keeps us laughing pretty much constantly.  She is smart, strong-willed and sweet and I'm beyond grateful that she still asks me to cuddle and hold her.  She definitely runs the show at our house and probably will forever and we wouldn't have it any other way!