MAMA

So she said it! It only took two months of babbling "mamamama" to her during her every waking moment, but she said it! It's such a great feeling hearing those words come out of my little girls mouth.

This past weekend Madison also had the opportunity to have her first train ride and bouncy bounce experience. We took her to a Goblin festival for little kids at the Discovery Museum in Saulsilito. She dressed up as a bumble bee. I'm not sure how excited she was when she first put on her costume, but once we got there and she saw that she was the cutest kid there, she was a happy camper! She was such a good girl. She liked the train, but truly her favorite was sitting with the kids in the bouncy bounce watching them jump up and down. She kept laughing and screaming. She just LOVES other kids.

Another thing Maddie loves is animals. There is no doubt that growing up with two 60 pound boxers has contributed to this. Maddie just loves her doggies, and so she thinks every animal she sees is a doggy.. even a goat. There was a small petting zoo at the festival and I took Maddie inside. I bent down so that she could nicely pet the goat. I slowly leaned in and Maddie had her hand out. She slowly began to touch the goat.... and then she grabbed a hand full of hair! The goat jumped up and so did I! I then realized that every animal was her doggy.

Last but not least, things came to a head with the sleeping arrangements. Madison had been waking up two times a night and it became obvious that we had to do something. She wasn't hungry, did not need a diaper change, and would fall right back asleep as soon as we picked her up. BUT.... the moment we left the room she would start back up again. Mike and I decided that we would give the sleep training thing a whirl. We still had no clue whether it would work or not, I'm a softy and I hate hearing my little one cry. However, even Madison was miserable during the day from lack of sleep, so we had to do something. The first night we put her down, kissed her, and then walked away. She immediately started crying and standing up in her crib. Mike watched the monitor and I tried to occupy my mind. She only cried for 10 minutes and then she laid down and put herself to sleep. Mike and I both looked at each other in amazement.... was this literally all it would take? Why didn't we do this sooner, this little girl was obviously begging for someone to teach her to sleep!