Madeline is 4

Is it possible that my baby girl is really four years old??? It has been a long time since I have written about my family, so I thought I would take this opportunity share a little update about my sweetie pie.

• Madeline amazes me by how quickly she picks things up and how eager she is to learn new things. She can write her name (and the whole alphabet!), she is starting to sound out words, and she understands simple math and can do problems using her fingers. Her memory and ability to learn impresses me.
• She loves to draw, and she and her daddy bond through his frequent drawing lessons.
• She is ALL GIRL - she loves all things pink and fluffy, loves to dress up, loves playing with her doll house, princesses, and ballet stuff.
• She has an adventurous spirit that nicely balances out her girliness. She loves climbing, running, and being outside.
• She is independent, self motivated, and a little on the shy side. I see myself in her in so many ways every day.

We had a Princess Party on Saturday, and she loved every minute of it. I have never been a girly girl myself, and I used to roll my eyes at things like tea parties, dress up clothes, and princess obsession. A few years ago I never would have dreamed that I would be joyfully arranging for a couple of the REAL Disney princesses to make an appearance at our house. I adore my girly girl, and it was such fun to see her eyes light up at the surprise of Sleeping and Beauty and Snow White pulling into our drive way. "So that's their car...." she whispered to herself in amazement as she watched them get out of their beige Volvo. :)

The cousins with the princesses - truly a "magical" experience :)

My Sleeping Beauty with the REAL Sleeping Beauty

Princess cake pops :)

A few family shots:

And, of course, birthday breakfast at Waffle House

Wonder of a Child

We are just hanging out, waiting for mom's surgery around here. She is doing great. Seriously, I don't think the cardiology floor has ever seen a patient filled with so much joy. She knows that God has been taking care of her, and she has confidence that everything is going to be just fine.

While we are waiting, I thought I would share some happiness.

When we asked Madeline what special thing she would like to do for her third birthday (back in March), she informed us that she wanted to ride a train. So we took her to ride the Music City Star - the local commuter train in Nashville.

This video captures her excitement mixed with nervousness as she watched the train approach. I have watched it probably 100 times and it fills me with joy every time. :)

Ballet Recital

Three-year-old Madeline's dream came true when she received the gift of "real" ballet lessons for her third birthday. Her ballet class at the YMCA has been one of the highlights of each week for the past three months. The teacher, Ms. Sonja, does an amazing job of corralling a dozen three and four year olds who are more interested in wearing leotards and tutus than actually learning any dance skills.

Today was the big day that we had all been anticipating - her first ballet recital!

The tutu only stayed on for a few minutes before being cast aside.

Jumping skills!

Doing the "Shake a Leg" dance

Playing afterwards with some of the other girls from her class. Benjamin thinks he is just one of the girls. :)

Daisy Aday

My good friend Gillian is selling precious dresses for little girls to raise money for their family. They have just moved several states away to enter into full-time ministry. They have cute jumpers like this one, and peasant-style dresses too. Check out her blog and watch the "Smilebox" video to see all of the fabrics available. I love Madeline's cow jumper!

Meet Ferris

Me: Madeline, what do you think we should name our pumpkin?

Madeline: (pausing to think carefully about this important decision) Ummm, Ferris.

Me: (racking my brain to think of anyone that we know or anyone that Madeline might have heard of with that name) Wow, that's a great name! Do you know anybody named Ferris?

Madeline: Yes

Me: Oh really? Who is named Ferris?

Madeline: The pumpkin.

Cute Kids

Perhaps I'm a little partial, but you've got to admit that these guys are pretty cute. :)

(the surprised look)

(the offended look)

(the just plain sweet look)

We tried very hard to get a good shot of Benjamin in his traditional Ethiopian clothes. This was the best we could do.

Most of them looked like this

...unless he had a cracker in his mouth

And a good picture of both kids together? Not a chance. Oh well.

Madeline in her traditional Ethiopian dress

Life is good. :)

First Night In a Big Kid Bed

Miss Madeline

I have offered lots of updates about how our Little Man is doing lately, but I haven't shared much about what's going on with our almost-two-and-a-half-year-old princess. And that she is: A princess. Where in the world she gets it, I don't know. I've never been a pink-wearing, dress-up playing kind of girl. But my sweet daughter certainly is.

I have kinda been putting off doing this. As she gets older, more complex, more of a real person, it is harder to put together a neat little summary describing what she is like. With a baby you can easily summarize their eating and sleeping habits, include a list of the words they can say and the latest physical milestones, and add in a few sentences about their developing personality. But Madeline is a real person now. There is a lot more to her than how many hours she sleeps at night. And the words she can say? I don't think blogger will allow me to post an entry long enough to include them all.

My girl is gentle and kind. She is detail oriented and orderly (she often lines up her toys in neat little rows when she plays and sorts things by color and size). She is also a complete mess, leaving a trail of toys, shoes, and hair accessories everywhere she goes. (I often tell Daniel that I feel like someone has hit the "shuffle" button on my house every night, moving all of the contents to opposite ends.) She sings all the time. She talks a lot, but not all the time. I think that she will be an introvert like her mama. She enjoys people, but she also loves to go in her room, shut the door, and read books for thirty minutes at a time. She reads all the time, and she completely memorizes books that I read to her scary quick. (I keep a stash of books in the car, and she "reads" them aloud one at a time, throwing them on the floor when she is done with each one.) She loves Pingu and the Wonder Pets. She does not like to be dirty. (If she dribbles a little bit while she is eating, she won't take another bite until she has cleaned the table or her clothes up.) She has known all of her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. since before she was two.

Climbing, jumping, and throwing are not her strongest skills. She is more of a fine motor skill kind of girl. She can draw smiley faces. She even tries to draw letters and gets super-excited when she gets anywhere close.

My Mattie Lou is half big girl and half baby. She still sleeps in a crib, she still likes to have a bottle of milk before bed, and she loves for me to rock her and sing the same three songs every night. (No variations allowed...) But she also shares her thoughts, tell me where it hurts, and describes what happened during her Sunday school class. She wants to ride around the house on my back in the backpack (because that is what brother is doing), but quickly gets bored and wants to "help" me cook and unload the dishwasher instead. (She is great at organizing the silverware drawer!) She no longer says "foffee"; she says coffee. She doesn't say "Afrifa"; she says Africa. She has quit saying "Aunt Emmy"; and instead calls her Emily. I miss all her cute little baby talk so much. She does, however, still call her dress up shoes her "pancy" shoes (fancy shoes), and I am doing my best to keep her from learning the correct way to say it!

My Sweet Girl loves to have her "poe nails" painted, and she can go through a whole sheet of stickers in no time flat, sticking them to everything in sight. (However, I strictly enforce a "no stickers on the floor" policy.) She still adores her "fuzz pillow" that her aunt Emily made for her, and every morning I clean up a small mountain of polyester fiber fill that she has pulled out of her pillow and thrown on the floor during the night. She sleeps with about six blankets in her bed. She goes crazy over anything soft.

We are NOT potty trained. We made a whole-hearted effort last week, and it just didn't work out. It exhausted and stressed us all, and we just need to take a break from it all. We will try again in a few months.

I am so impressed with how kind and patient she is to her brother. "Mr. Grabby Hands," as we like to call him, just loves to seize handfuls of her hair and sometimes even try to pull her nose right off of her face. She just pushes his hand away and says, "No brother." No hitting or fussing! She loves to help me by giving him his pacifier or a toy. And one of her greatest delights is to make him laugh. I have a couple of videos on my phone of her making him laugh, and she loves to watch them over and over. She quickly picks up on any pet names that I call him, and gives us a laugh when we hear her call him "Little Man," "Dude," or "Big Boy." Things are getting a bit harder now that is he mobile and can get into her toys, though. I have heard the word "Mine!" quite a few times in the last few days.

Madeline has more than a slight obsession with the books about "Gigi: God's Little Pricess" (from Lifeway). She reads Gigi every day, dresses up in a pink leotard, ballet shoes, and a pink feather boa every day, and acts out the story about Gigi taking ballet lessons - over and over and over.

Our biggest struggles these days are whining and refusing to eat what I want her to eat at mealtime. (Not because she doesn't like it; just because I want her to eat it.) She IS two, after all.

Thankfully, she has given up her nap strike that she was on for about three or four months and now sleeps for about two-and-a-half hours every single day. Yea! She really needs that nap. And, well, honestly mama does too.

One of the best moments of my day comes at bed time when we are saying our prayers together. She likes to get down on our knees to pray, and then I ask her what she wants to say, "Thank you, God" for. We go through her list and I add a few too. Then I put her in bed, close the door, and listen to her sing until she falls asleep. Sometimes it takes her an hour or more to fall asleep, but she just sings her heart out until she finally dozes off.

Oh how I love my sweet girl.

We Are Crawling!

Look what happened at our house yesterday!

Look out world, here he comes!

In addition, we are doing "Potty Training Boot Camp" at our house this week. Yesterday we enjoyed five successes and only one wet diaper! And today has brought several more successful trips to the potty. Woo hoo!

It has already been a big week at the Dubois house!

Poppy Dip!

My friend Sallee has been raising money for their THIRD Ethiopian adoption by making adorable dresses and skirts for little girls out of the cutest fabrics you have ever seen. She calls her little fundraiser company "It's Poppy Dip!" after a cute saying of her son's. I have loved the dresses since I first saw them, and I've wanted one for Madeline forever. A couple of months ago I WON THE GIVEAWAY on Sallee's blog by guessing how many dresses she has made over the last months. It's a lot! Here is Madeline in her cutie patootie Poppy Dip dress:

Check out Sallee's website and her blog and see for yourself all of the cute fabrics she has available. She just posted all of the new Christmas fabrics she will have for this year. I want about six!

Our Life in Pictures

I have no idea how you mama's out there who have four or five kids are able to keep up with a blog. I hardly have time to go to the bathroom these days, much less write long and thoughtful blog posts. By the time they go to bed, I am beat. I am a tired mama these days. But I sure do have two cute kids! :) Here is a peek at some of the cuteness that our little house has been filled with lately.

Cuddling in mama and daddy's bed before bedtime. Yes, our pillow cases don't match the sheets. Yes, there is a wet spot from a bottle that leaked. Focus on the cute kids please.

Bath time. Oh how our boy loves the bath tub. Splashes and laughs and splashes and laughs. He even lets you pour water over his head and thinks that it is funny.

Dress up. We do this A LOT. She wears the tiara and the high heels (her "pancy" shoes) at least half of the time.

And, of course, Elmo needs to dress up too.

Madeline loves raw corn on the cob. I let her try it once because she was being so impatient when I told her that I needed to cook it first. I thought one bite would convince her that she would rather wait. Nope. She ate the whole thing.

"Don't touch me, brother!"

More dressing up. She has learned how to do the "cheese" face.

And more dressing up. Notice the wings she is eating while eating supper.

Madeline goes through spells where she wears these rose-tinted sunglasses all the time. Even while watching Pingu on Netflix. Oh yes, and holding her friend Mr. Potato head at the same time.

Quite a handsome guy, don't you think? :)

The little guy LOVES to make noise. The more noise the better in his opinion.

Ready for the 4th of July parade in our little town.

Spraying Daddy with a squirt bottle to help him keep cool. Don't you love the feather hat that she got at the parade? :)

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Cool dude. He LOVES to swing, and the higher the better. Quite the opposite of my cautious little girl who likes to just barely move on the swing. I lightly push her, and she tells me, "Too high mama! Too high!"

Gotta love the icing goatee. July 2nd is the birthday of one of M's friends, so we had some cupcake fun with them on the 4th.

Yea for birthdays and yea for cupcakes!

Yes, and yea for sparklers too! Madeline thought this was great fun. I LOVE that she is getting old enough now to do fun things with.

Flowers that Daniel sent me on a particularly hard day. Yes, I will admit that the transition to having two young children has been overwhelming on some days. Daniel has been so helpful and supportive.

Playing in the water on a very hot day at my parents' house. My sis and her daughter came to visit for a week earlier this month.

What a cutie!

Benjamin and his cousin Abigail are only three days apart.

Isn't she beautiful?

A little over two years ago, there were no babies in our extended family. Now there are four with a fifth on the way! These are fun years. Abigail jumped off the stairs only moments after this was taken.

Rachel and Abigail - two beauties.

A couple of my college friends had a shower for us a couple of weeks ago. It was such a special day. Isn't this the best cake ever?

Mary, me, and Chrissy. Friends since college. I love these girls.

And I love this one too! Kristen was my roommate for four years. She has three sweet girls with a fourth on the way!

My friend Gloria from Sierra Leone

Playing by the creek at the park

Lots of diapers! The best present ever!

And this is what Benjamin thought of the shower... A great opportunity to take a nap. :) He is such a great sleeper. He goes to sleep easily and even sleeps in the stroller occasionally. He has slept through the night ever since he got over his jet lag, and slowly but surely he is sleeping a little later in the morning too. Yea!

Daniel's co-workers had a shower for us too! Lots of diapers and money for formula. :) It was so special and appreciated. They were so good to us.

Cool beach cupcakes

Lovin' the blue icing. And notice the "silly bands" on Madeline's wrist. She got her first silly bands as a gift at the shower. She loves the things. So funny on a two year old.

Everyone signed a "Go. Seek. Love." shirt for us. I love it! I can't decide whether to frame it or make it into a pillow.

The guest of honor.

(The photos of this shower came from Daniel's co-worker Joan.)