So long summer!

Last days of summer... First day back. I was so sad to drop Madeley off at daycare today. So sad.

We had the best time together this summer and I'm just not quite ready for it to end. Even though she said "I want you" about 4,527,368 times this summer, I could stand to hear it just a few more times. She is at the most wonderful age and I just can't get enough of her. I know her daddy feels the exact same way. He couldn't love her more!
Here are a few pictures we took over the weekend.




How cute is this...


She's only a little bit spoiled!

Yesterday, Papaw let Madeley practice cutting with scissors. I only freaked out for a little bit, then I watched her cut... for two hours. She surprised me, like she usually does.


She absolutely loves the comics right now. Just can't get enough of them!

Well, we got the "first day back" out of the way... ready for a new school year. Madeley enjoyed seeing all her friends again and seemed to have a wonderful day. She turned in pretty early too...



I love how her finger is still on the iPad. Now it's time for me to rest as well.


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Bird watchers

If you've ever read my blog, you know I love birds. And I guess I'm raising a little bird watcher as well. She absolutely loves to put out seed and wait for birds to come. She's awesome at spotting cardinals and it makes me smile when she can tell me if she's watching a male or a female. We've seen several families of birds over the past few days... so she can now spot the juvenile cardinals. (I sound like a serious bird watcher, right?)

Click to watch video

She sometimes gets so excited that she runs them off!
When she saw this...




She said, "Oh look... he's kissing the mama! No wait, is he feeding the baby a worm???"
I explained that he was feeding the baby, just not feeding the baby a worm.
We also made a bird feeder this summer. Madeley had seen a show where the kids made bird feeders out of pine cones, peanut butter, and seeds. GREAT experience...
















She couldn't have been more unhappy during that experience. The pine cones pricked her hands... she couldn't handle the mess we made with the seed... she couldn't find the "right" place to put it on the tree. To be completely honest, I think it should have been nap time instead of craft time. BUT it all turned out well in the end.




She thought it was more than amazing that a squirrel stole the bird feeder right off the tree and just about ate the entire pine cone. The birds also handled the the mess we made with the seeds, so it was a happy ending after all.
Thanks for reading!
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Mosquitoes

Madeley surprises me every day with the things she asks.
Since she was very little, we've fought mosquito bites. They whelp up the size of a quarter and simply drive her crazy. We've used bug spray and itch cream over and over again, but if she gets close to a blade of grass for more than 30 seconds, she surely comes in with a bite or several. I should have expected her question, since she's wondered so much about God lately...
While stressing over two annoying bites, she asked, "Why does God put mosquito bites out in the summer?"
I said,"Great question!" Just the way she asked it made me smile.
Poor thing though, I have no clue!! I share in her wonders of the point of mosquitoes... so I looked it up. Of course there's a purpose... I need to start teaching her that God wouldn't have made it if it didn't serve a purpose. Anyhow, several bat species feed on mosquitoes, some eating more than 500 mosquitoes an hour... I need a pet bat to keep in the back yard!!
Mosquitoes can also pollenate and serve as a food source to many aquatic species. So now I have an answer for Madeley that will hopefully satisfy her. Maybe next summer I'll get more creative about how to keep the bugs away... like maybe a bat box. :|
So sad we only have a few days left of this summer!




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Mama, you scared me!

So I'm sitting in the recliner, watching a movie with Derrick the other day and Madeley comes in with a scared/sad look on her face and says, "Mama, you scared me!!"
I looked at her confused, knowing I had done nothing of the sort. I asked, "What in the world did I do to scare you?"
She proceeded to show me a picture she had found. I was maybe 15 years old, 10th grade. Long hair, braces. Not the best picture, but not scary that I could see. As reluctant as I am, I'll share, just so you'll see what I saw...




A little bit of an awkward stage, I'll agree, but who didn't go through an awkward stage? Anyhow, still showing the same SCARED look, Madeley hid her face and said, "See, it's scary!"
I said, "What's so scary? It's just me."
Then she said it... I'll never forget it as long as I live...
She said, "Your EYEBROWS!! They SCARE me!!!"
Derrick laughed.
A little tickled and a little hurt, I said, "Oh dear, I guess they are scary!"
Nobody waxed or tweezed their eyebrows in the tenth grade! Or if they did, they didn't tell me. That came later, like 11th or 12th grade. Madeley's just always seen my eyebrows well groomed. I realized the picture must have been a shock to her. She then brought me an entire stack of pictures that she found in the closet. With every flip of a picture, she winced at my eyebrows. Eventually she said, "I'm ready to put those pictures away. I don't like them!" I put the pictures back in the closet, thanking God my eyebrows do not look like that today... my child would be scared of me!!

Here's a shot of me at age 4. The eyebrows were already out of control...



I'm hoping Madeley won't have the same issues. Maybe she'll have her Dad's eyebrows...


:) Thanks for reading!

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Not So Sure

This is not something I'm sure I want to do, but for the sake of Madeley memories, I'm going to proceed...

Madeley is 3 years and 9 months old now. She loves animals and technology. When I see that Kindle Fire commercial with the time limit settings, I immediately feel remorse over the fact that I've never "limited" Madeley's iPad time and made her go outside to play. I guess I can always consider it for the future. For now, she'll just keep buying apps and playing for hours.

Lately, she's asked lots of questions, such as "Why did God put skunks in the world?"
I had to think before I answered that, confident I do not know the accurate purpose of skunks... somehow my response turned to defense mechanisms and why skunks spray. Not so sure that was the answer she was looking for, but she seemed satisfied.

She also asked, "Why does Jesus tell us to sneeze?" First I wondered... Is she hearing a voice that says "sneeze now!"
Just kidding, but again, I didn't have an adequate response. I just tried to explain reasons for sneezing in general. I didn't quite have a Jesus angle on it.

All in all, this is a wonderful age and I am loving it!




















We also have the most wonderful addition to our family, my niece Claudia Elisabeth Lasley. We have enjoyed all our time with her this summer!













Madeley is dying for my phone as we speak, so I'll see you again soon!

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