Madden is the cutest 21 month-old of all time! He made the perfect Alfalfa for Halloween- I felt pretty limited on costume ideas because there was no way he'd keep any type of hat or mask on, and it had to be pretty breezy so he didn't die of the heat. We thought Madden's sweet personality fit his costume so well- he is such a little lover. Although it would also be fitting if we dressed him up as Max from Where the Wild Things Are. Oh well, maybe next year!
We had a really fun Halloween as a family, and we tried to fake chilly weather as much as we possibly could. Madden had a great time at our ward's trunk or treat, and turns out he LOVES suckers. The week of Halloween, and mostly the days afterward, we met a new Madden. This new Madden was loving his candy and wasn't interested in eating anything but his milk, suckers, and an occasional laffy taffy. Madden was constantly hyped up on sugar and he became a monster, literally. I've never been screamed at so much in my entire life! It didn't matter what we said to him, he always responded by screaming, "NOOOOOOOOO!" And on top of that, I was losing patience with the sticky fingers, door handles, toys, blankets, etc. We were going insane so out went all the Halloween candy, and after a couple days of sugar detox, we had our sweet little boy back. Thank goodness, the kid was nuts!
This past month we were majorly spoiled and got to spend 4 days on Captiva Island. Jeff had a medical conference there and Madden and I were invited to tag along. We had a super nice condo right on the beach and had so much fun! It was little mini vacation, it didn't even feel like we were twenty minutes away from home. The resort had several pools and a cute little trolley that we rode everywhere because it was Madden's (and Jeff's) favorite. They even had a little toddler activity center that we visited everyday to see what fun toys they had that day. Jeff had meetings every morning but caught up with us right in time for the fun stuff so we had lots of fun family time together. We spent most of the time at the beach of course, and Madd's favorite thing was to chase the seagulls. He was totally fearless too, unlike me who was freaking out every time they swarmed. It was worth it to get good pictures though. Jeff and Madden played chase on the sand and in the waves for hours. I love watching Madden and Jeff play together, it's one the best things. Madden adores Jeff and is already copying whatever he sees his daddy do. No one can make Madden laugh like Jeff can, and I'm so grateful Madden has him for a dad.
For such a tiny boy, Madden has such a huge spirit. And sometimes it seems, an even bigger personality. At this age, he is bursting at the seams and has so much energy and imagination. Madden's language skills are exploding and Jeff and I are constantly looking at each other and saying, "What did he just say???" Madden loves music and gets a little jiggy every time he hears it. When he's not sleeping, he's practicing jumping, somersaults, spinning in circles, and practicing new dance moves. One of the funniest things he does these days is he closes his eyes while he walks and runs into doors and walls. He falls down laughing and gets up and does it again. And one of the sweetest things he does these days is he runs after me and collides with my legs to give me a huge hug. He always says "Awwww" when he hugs me and sometimes I even get a little bum pat before he runs off again. He gets so excited and runs for the front door yelling, "keys!" whenever we say we're going outside. When it's time for bath time, he bolts to the tub and struggles to get his shirt off. Every night before bed, Madden and Daddy get all crazy again, wrestling and doing their "circus tricks." And every night we play family hide-and-seek. Madden loves this game and always thinks we're hiding behind the curtains because that's where he hides every time. He's always so surprised when we find him and he runs from room to room laughing the whole time. He runs everywhere he goes, sometimes I think he's forgotten how to just walk. Very very rarely when I ask him to hold my hand, he'll reach up and grab it. But just for about 5 seconds, and then he's off running again.
This boy is always on the move and he leaves barely any time for eating. The only thing he will stop for these days is his milk and raspberries. He LOVES raspberries. Last week I bought a Costco vat of raspberries and he ate every last one within a few hours. He has a raspberry eating system as well. He takes one raspberry at a time and sticks it on his finger before chomping it. When he puts it in his mouth, he really does make a chomping noise each time. I tried to get him to share with me, but he would tease me by reaching his raspberried finger up to my mouth, then changing his mind and eating it himself. The only other thing he likes to eat on the regular is hummus. It's so weird and it kind of makes me sick that he likes this, but he eats it by the spoonful, no dipping allowed. When he's eating something yummy, he shakes his head back and forth and says, "Nom, Nom, Nom." And although this isn't food, Madd loves gum! Bubblegum to be exact, he does not like Dad's spicy, minty gum at all. He knows where we keep it and he desperately yells, "dum, dum, dum!!!!" and gets so excited when he gets some.
Madden is loving cars these days. He makes car noises and even crashing noises. My favorite is when he plays with planes because he screams and then smashes the plane into the ground. He goes, "Ahhhhhhhh poooooshhhhhh." None of his planes ever have safe landings. He loves his big truck and school bus toys, and he comes and asks me for the car keys all the time and takes them back to his trucks. One time I even found him pretty frustrated, with his foot inside the bus and the keys in his hand. He was trying to get inside his toy school bus to start the engine! So frustrating I'm sure. He also tips his bikes over on their side and sits beside them and uses the wheels as a steering wheel. He pretends he's driving and makes "vroom vroom" noises.
Madden also loves bubbles! He always wants to play outside on the patio and begs me to come do bubbles with him. We're trying to teach him to ask for things nicely because right now he acts so desperate and panicked when he wants something. He usually points and yells, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!" In this case, he yells, "Bubbos, Bubbos, bubbos!!!" Eventually we end up sitting out back blowing bubbles for him while he runs around laughing and saying, "Pop!" with each bubble he pokes. He has a hard time when we stop our bubble sessions, so sometimes we bring them into the bath tub with us.
We love going to the park and we go as often as we can. But lately, Madden is very particular about what he wants to do while we're there. He does not like the slides anymore and refuses to go down them. He loves the swings, but only for about one minute and then I hear, "Ah done." He loves following around the older kids and talking their ears off. He's also a little wanderer. Even though he has a giant playground to play on, he prefers to wander around the picnic areas, and look in the bushes, and play with the sand. He ignores me whenever I yell after him to come back, so I have to run my pregnant self over to get him before he jumps in the lake. The only time he'll come back to me is if he falls and gets his hands dirty. He comes back and reaches his hands out to me to wipe the dirt off. The past few weeks at the park, all he wants to do is play in the car. It's pointless to fight him on this, so when he asks me for the keys, I hand them over and watch him run over to the car with a big smile on his face. He fumbles with the key chain and finds the right car key and sticks it into the lock. Eventually I just put him inside the car and he climbs over into the drivers seat, sits down, and puts the key into the ignition. He doesn't know how to turn the engine on, but I'm sure he does a good job imagining he does. He pulls down the seat belt and buckles it behind him, pushes all the buttons, locks and unlocks the doors several times, then settles in and takes the wheel. He could sit there pretending to drive all day, and sometimes it really does feel like we're in there forever! I just sit in the passenger seat and let him do his thing. It's so funny that we come to the park to play, but we don't even leave our car!
Madden loves to talk. He's always babbling about something, and it usually sounds like he's asking us a question, and when I respond saying "uh huh" or "Yes" he just laughs. Some of the words he says are shoes, on, jump, watch, up, down, help, keys, cheese, bubbles, pop, poopoo (thank you Jeff), apple, banana, I know, oh man, no way, I stuck, truck, stop, go, what, and why. His favorite thing to say is, "I stuck!" We think he intentionally tries to get himself stuck in weird places, just so he can say it. Everyday I hear him yell to me from somewhere in the house, "Mama, I stuck!!" Madden loves to count to three. He loves to jump over anything that's on the floor and he says, "One, doo, tee, dump!" Sometimes he also counts before he takes a bite of food and says, "one, doo, tee, chomp"
It amazes me that Madden has been in our lives for almost two whole years! We have so much fun with him every day and feel so lucky to have the sweetest boy to love and teach. Being a mom is the best and I love having such a tiny and perfect soul being so dependent on me. Even though it's overwhelming at times there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. I know that Madden is supposed to be in our family and Jeff and I are meant to be his parents. I love that we belong to each other and can't wait to bring another sweet boy into our family in just three short months!
