this little girl

makes me happier than just about anything.

It's so hard to believe she's 18 months old this week. Where did the time go?

Madison has so much personality. She is extremely curious, a little rambunctious, sometimes devious, and usually adorably sweet. She loves to run into my arms and yell, "HUG!" She laughs all day long (she tries to tickle herself and then lets out a big fake laugh). She also sings all day long (gets that from her dad), and knows snippets and phrases from several songs: "up above the..." "bus round round," "I look popcorn," "lead me, guide me," "pa pa pa poka face" (this version by Idina Menzel and Lea Michele, NOT Lady Gaga's. I promise I'm a good parent.)

Currently, Maddi's favorite things to do are dancing, coloring, and looking for bugs.

Madison is one of the chattiest little kids I've ever met. She wakes up in the morning and starts labeling things. Often I will hear, "puppy, blanket, chair, stories, light!" from her room, and when I get her out of her crib she runs around the house labeling everything else she knows. Micah and I were curious how many words she says, so we made a list (in excel, of course). We stopped at 182...
Some of our favorites are: "an moos (animals)," "pockle (popcicle)," "keeno (clean up)," "bess oo (bless you)," "gee koo (thank you)," and "Jeesha (Jesus)."

She is fascinated by animals. She knows the name and/or sound of every animal in every book on her shelf. She can spot a picture of an animal ANYWHERE. The other day we were in the hardware section of Walmart and Maddi yelled, "PUPPY! Roof roof!" Sure enough, there was a tiny picture of a dog on an upside down bag of dog food in a passing cart. I already know the location of every Panda Express in town, because Maddi sees the signs and hollers "Bear!" from the back seat of the car.

Madison brings so much joy into our lives, and I can't fathom my world without her. I'm so lucky to get to spend every day with her. She makes me laugh, makes me happy, makes me want to tear out my hair sometimes, but then makes me feel like the most special person in the world. I love her so much!

*PS: the dress is from Dana's pattern at MADE.