Madelyn

I thought I would write about each of my family members. I first wrote about me on my birthday, and then David. So I thought why not do one on the girls as well.

My little Maddie Lou! She keeps me on my toes! She is so active and crazy, that I get tired just watching her. One of the things that I love the most about her is her strong will. Sometimes it drives me insane, but in the real world you need it and I am glad that she has it.

I also love how driven she is. When she has a challenge she really dives in. Sometimes she just frustrated and doubts a bit. But she keeps on trying, and trying (with some screams of frustration and grunts). She loves a good puzzle that challenges her. We got her a 150 piece puzzle for her, and it takes her a full day to get it together (she did it the other day again and finished it in about an hour). The 63 pieces are not challenging enough. I think by Christmas we are going to have to get one of those 500 piece ones. She goes nuts with them!

She loves to learn! She grasps onto things so fast. I just started reading with her and I am very surprised how much she can read. And she always wants to learn a Portuguese word when David is home. And she remembers almost every single one of them. Wow! I also have noticed that she tries to write words out. She sounds them out and writes the letters. And most the things she does is on her own. I watch her and marvel at what she does sometimes. She is even reading books now, and I guess I should have tried earlier, I just had no clue she wanted to but now we do it constantly.

She is crazy! She always has to make silly faces or pose funny for pictures. Its like a photo shoot every time I pull my camera out. She is getting Olivia to do some of her crazy poses as well. When we do our family pictures, she works it. The last time we did it about 2/3 of the pictures were of Maddie. The photographers captured her, there were some great ones!

Madelyn likes to hide her sensitive side. She tries to be tough, but sometimes she lets you see it. She loves to cuddle with you, as long as she doesn't have something on her mind or something she has to do (so that is rare). She has always been that way, even as a baby. She never cuddled with me unless she was sick or if it was Dad (as a new baby she always wanted to be held even to sleep, but when she was about 6 months old that was it). She always tells me that she is a "toughie pants." A phrase my mom taught her! Silly!

Soccer is her favorite thing to do. She even watches some soccer matches on TV with us, especially recently during the World Cup. She loves to play, and she used to just hit the ball. But the last few games in Spring I noticed that she was trying some new things out. Like playing a bit of defense and passing the ball around. It also helps that she loves her team mates. We have the same team this fall that we did last year, and that is good, they already are comfortable with each other. She is such a good big sister. Yeah they fight and yell and scream and get upset at each other but when they play good together, the laughter never stops. She really knows how to make Olivia laugh. She always has! Olivia always laughed the hardest with Madelyn. As a baby, Madelyn would make a silly face and that would send Livs into hysterics. I would do the same thing and Olivia would look at me weird. Madelyn never could wait for her to wake up, she would run in there and talk to her when I am not watching. Madelyn has a sweet love for her sister.

She loves going to church. Sometimes we have to miss it due to sickness or something. And we have giant fits sometimes. Even when we have to go to someone else's church, she still gets upset. Unless it is My mom's ward, she loves the primary there too. She has only gone a few times but she loves it. We had our primary program during sacrament meeting. She memorized her part and during the songs I could hear here (and we sat near the back). She made sure we were always watching her. I couldn't help but laugh!

I love my little angel! She is a handful but I love her so!