Last week was our wedding anniversary, and Maddy had more questions than usual about what that meant. We watched our wedding video and she was fascinated by the whole event, especially everyone who was there. She thought that we’d be having the wedding again that night and was very offended not to be invited, until I explained that mommy and daddy were just going to a boring dinner alone.

She decided that she really wants to marry her daddy when she grows up, and cried when I told her that wasn’t an option. She thinks we should all live together forever. She asked when Dave “found” me and when (how long after) we got married. When I told her it was 6 years later, she said “oh, so you had time to play together?”

Three months into her 5th year, she’s already decided she wants a scooter and miniature broom/dustpan for her birthday in September, and wants a party at Out of this World Pizza. I’m sure the list of requests will be getting longer and longer over the next 9 months.

Speaking of being demanding, ever since Halloween, Maddy’s had an obsession with treats. I should’ve gotten rid of her candy, because she’s been accumulating more faster than I let her eat it and now we have a huge stash on the top shelf of our pantry. She’s inherited my sweet tooth, and pretty much begs for a treat after every meal.

She’s also inherited Dave’s TV addiction, and her favorite shows these days are Super Why, Dinosaur Train, Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot about That, Franklin, Peppa Pig, Pocoyo, and Curious George. Interestingly, she doesn’t ask for Kai-Lan or Dora anymore, so she’s either forgotten about her old favorites or matured beyond them. When she watches TV her eyes glaze over and she’s completely oblivious to anything happening around her, which is why I attempt to limit her TV viewing to 30-60 min/day). She’s wily enough to find ways around that by getting Dave or Jimmy to put on shows for her, or sweet talking me into letting her use my Kindle to “play games” and then putting on videos.

Despite my concerns that the TV is mushifying her brain, she’s learned to count to 100 (with help remembering 20, 30, 40, etc.) and is working on the months of the year and days of the week. Maddy’s vocabulary seems to be doubling every week or so these days, and her memory skills never cease to amaze me. She can recite her entire “Super Friends: Attack of the Robot” book, including favorite lines like “Superman was trapped in the robot’s mechanical kryptonite claw!” and “That’s the voice of Superman’s archenemy, Lex Luthor.” The other day when we were reading the part about how Green Lantern protects us from threats in outer space she commented that maybe he sees Buzz Lightyear out there.

Unfortunately, she also enjoys using baby talk for some reason. We’re not sure if her intention is to mimic Hayden’s verbal abilities, or if it’s a sign that she wants to slow down her childhood.

Regardless of which “language” she’s speaking, she’s always either performing or bossing around whoever will listen (Hayden, friends, dolls, me), as can be seen in this video:

Maddy’s finally getting better at staying dry all night, although after one full week of success, she had a few wet nights this past week. Oh well.

For the record, here’s a compilation of my favorite recent Maddy quotes:

1/18/12 – “Sometimes I like to pretend I’m throwing up rainbow colors.” (using her rainbow-colored slinky)

1/17/12 – “Wow, there are more snowflakes than those birds we saw” (meaning the Swift birds back in Sept)

1/7/12 – “Why was Annie crying when she was hanging off the bridge? If I was hanging there and I saw the Super Friends, I’d say ‘hey guys, wanna hang with me?’” (watching Annie movie)

12/28/11 – “Look at that mad house” (regarding our neighbor’s extensive holiday decorations)

12/27/11 – Me: “These PJs are getting too small for you.” Maddy: “No, mom. I’m getting too big for THEM!”

12/5/11 – “Hayden, I’m going to put a force field around my dollhouse, so only big kids can play with it.”

11/25/11 – “That Eva is so silly, I can’t keep up with her.”

11/24/11 – Maddy: (regarding what she’s thankful for) “Thanksgiving.” Me: “Are you sure you can’t think of anything else?” Maddy: “Christmas.” Me: “How about something that’s not a holiday?” Maddy: “Halloween.”

11/6/11 – “Today I’m going to eat yogurt to pay for my garlic bread, instead of pasta, okay?”

11/2/11 – “I don’t like someone messing me up when I’m playing a game of order…all putting blues together, reds together and greens together.”

10/25/11 – (deciding whether she wants cake or candy for desert) “You could just put the candy inside the cake…”

10/6/11 – “The problem is that I don’t really like TV, but my brain keeps telling me that I want to watch kids shows and that’s why I have to ask you to watch them all the time.”

10/5/11 – “Mom, you’re a good chocolate (milk) maker, just like…what’s that clown with the red M at McDonald’s?”

9/27/11 – (singing): “Oh Jimmy, don’t you cry for me, cause I come from New York with a banjo on my knee! Oh Dave, don’t you cry for me, cause I come from Oregon with a banjo on my knee! Oh everyone, don’t you cry for me, cause we come from our states with a banjo on our kneeeeeeeeessss!!!!!”

We took the girls back for their first visit to Cali in the 18 months since we moved, and they had a blast.

It was fun to see a lot of our old friends, and Maddy especially loved getting a Santa hat at Dave’s Bix reunion party, as well as her playtime with six of the craziest Yahoo! offspring…

We also celebrated our nephew Jimmy’s 21st birthday, as well as Dave’s birthday of course.

Dave got very “special” treatment this year, because Maddy had saved up a lot of quarters to buy him tokens at Chuck-e-Cheeses. They had lots of fun playing all the games and redeeming prizes.

The girls enjoyed celebrating the holidays more than ever this year, including making gingerbread houses, caroling with neighbors, and having Grandma (Ba Noi) in town for a visit.

(They kind of liked opening their gifts, too.)

My mom (Ba Ngoai) and I took Hayden for her first viewing of the Nutcracker (Maddy was supposed to go but got sick right before and was devastated to miss it). Hayden watched intently the entire time, and enjoyed sitting on Grandma’s lap. After Maddy recovered, Dave took her to her first symphony performance, where she loved all the holiday music.

And after Christmas, we had even more fun outings – the Portland Art Museum, the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie (Hayden’s 1st, with amazingly no squirming or fear of scary scenes), and ZooLights.

It’s going to be tough to start 2012 with nearly as much fun as we ended 2011, but I’m sure we’ll manage. Especially now that we’re getting more home performances like “the Dance of the Lemon Fairy.” Here’s just a short excerpt of the long show, which Maddy and Hayden regaled us with the other night:

I’m SOOOO excited for Christmas this year, it just can’t come soon enough. Mom says I have to think less about what I want Santa to bring for me, and think more about what I could give other people. So, I told her I’m going to take the whole family – mom, dad, Hayden, Jimmy and Uncle Gavin – to Chuck-e-Cheeses. Then she explained how you have to pay money to play those games, which is kind of a bummer. But I decided I’m old enough to do chores.

So, I help mom do dishes and clean my room and vacuum the kitchen, and she gives me shiny quarters! The only annoying thing is that Hayden always wants to copy me and so we have to fight over the vacuum now. But that’s okay, because I have a pretty good stack of coins no, so I’m not bothering with the chores as much.

Besides spending lots of time doing chores, I’ve also been really enjoying school lately. I kind of enjoyed the tennis class I took last month at first, but then I told mom it was harder than I thought to hit those balls with my racquet. Running around the gym for soccer is easier, but I also get tired from that sometimes.

I’ve also had a few very special activities that I want to tell you about. I took mommy to see Pinkilicious: The Musical for her birthday, and it was so cool! My favorite part was when we got to meet the actors at the end and they signed my playbill.

Then we got to have my cousins Elijah and Eva come stay with us for a couple days, which was my favorite kind of chaos. It was even better when we got to go stay with them the following week and help Aunt Maren take care of my itty bitty cousin Lorna Lia. I just loved holding her and Hayden gave her lots and lots of kisses.

After that, we had a super fun Thanksgiving with everyone at our house. Grandma helped us put on a “show” for the grown-ups, and I ate 4 kinds of desert.

Then last week, Grandma took a bunch of us to see Christmas Revels, a show about the longest night that had lots of dancing and singing. I got to dance all around with the audience and actors for the Lord of the Dance song.

Hayden still isn’t as good as me at talking, but I pretty much know what she’s thinking at all times, so I’ll fill you in on the Hayden happenings also. She paid close attention during the whole Revels show, and loved watching the musicians play their instruments. She actually got scared during two parts (even though I told her it wasn’t real), and she turned around to lean on mom’s shoulder so she couldn’t see the stage. But then when those parts were over she turned back around and was fine.

Lately, she’s been learning lots of letters from playing with our computer and likes to try to sing the alphabet song. She also loves to play hide-and-seek with me, mostly the part where you count and then yell “here I come!” She’s getting better at using the potty, and even does it at school now. Hopefully Santa can find panties small enough for her to put into her stocking.

She definitely has her favorite things, like this Pete Seeger story/song called Abiyoyo. When it comes on in the car, she says “Abiyoyo favite!” When my favorite songs come on, though, she says “doan yike it!” and tries to get mom to skip them.

The other day it was so sunny out that mom took us to a park we haven’t been to in a while, and as soon as we turned on the street of the park Hayden yelled “duck park!” That was pretty impressive, since we were still far from being able to see the park or even see the duck pond.

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you about my scary accident. This week we were decorating our Christmas tree, and I was soooooo excited that I couldn’t hold still. After dumping every single ornament in a pile on the ground, I ran down the hall to get something and on my way back I wasn’t paying attention and ran full speed into the door frame. I was pretty shocked that my face had hit the wall so hard, but luckily mom and dad were right there and put lots of ice on my bump and my fat lip. Today, you can barely even tell anymore, ‘cept for a few purple spots.

Love,
Maddy

And Dave was inspired by Jimmy Kimmel to record this experience the next day:

Later, Maddy chose Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (because of their delicious chicken tenders and cool crowns), and then we wrapped up the day with some ice cream cake! I better get spoiled on my birthday too…

Hayden enjoyed the festivities for the most part, except for this moment —>

Maybe I shouldn’t have laughed at her, but I just love this face she uses all the time. It doesn’t typically accompany much crying, just the upside-down smile, sometimes with an “owie!” or 20. Hayden’s very sensitive and wants to make sure we’re aware whenever she is mistreated (which is often). She also points out her boo-boos to us for days and days after they’ve occurred (usually scrapes or scratches that we can barely see).

I’m trying really hard to get a video of Hayden talking or singing, because it’s just too cute (see below). She is gradually getting more understandable and also more insistent (she’s wanting lots of “wide!”s lately, which means please carry me everywhere). She loves to torture Maddy by waiting for her to be out of sight and then sneaking over to play with her sister’s precious toys. Hopefully Maddy will soon learn the lesson of keeping her things better hidden.

Hayden had a big milestone yesterday by doing a #2 on the potty, and Maddy’s been getting better at staying dry during the night. I can almost glimpse a future with no more diapers…

We got both girls immunized and measured at the doctor’s office yesterday, and Hayden finally broke the zero percentile barrier! She’s now up to the whopping 1st and 2nd percentiles for 27-month-olds, at 22.5 lbs and 31.75 inches. Maddy on the other hand is super-normal, weighing 34 lbs (41st %) at 40.5 inches tall (66th %). She also got her vision and hearing checked for the first time, which she found strange. Maddy’s vision is 20/30, but she didn’t exactly pass her hearing test with flying colors, although that may have been due to Hayden distracting her the whole time.

UPDATE: Just got these must-share videos to add

This past weekend, we had a joint birthday party for Maddy and her cousin Eva, who also turned 4 recently. Maddy has been seriously obsessed with the party for the past month and I believe it lived up to her expectations. First, she made THE LIST, and checked to make sure I carefully wrote down every name she dictated – including family members, friends from school, and neighbors.

I didn’t have the heart to limit her list because I was so impressed at her vast social network after only a year and a half in Portland. She was sure to tell everyone she’s seen over the past month whether they were on the list or not, and had me make revisions as needed.

Then at the party, she greeted each guest immediately with their favor bag (because she wanted to get rid of the favors and make sure there’d still be some left for her). Everyone did lots of art projects, played soccer, played on the playground, and ate a very very very large cake.

Maddy loved all her gifts and is very proud to be 4 – thanks to everyone who helped her celebrate!

In addition to lots of fun playdates with neighbors and cousins, we:

- Completed the Library Summer Reading program, and enjoyed performances by BJ the Clown and a bizarre family of magicians.

- Went blueberry picking twice, once at a local farm and once with Eva and Maren in Salem.

- Enjoyed a fun visit from Grandpa Busath, Nana Angel, Crystal, Addi and Bennett, including lots of family time and a trip to OMSI.

- Went to the big summer party put on by Parks and Rec and got beautiful butterfly faces painted.

- Hosted the Noonans (Leigh, Jim and Blake) all the way from AZ/RI and did nearly every fun Portland thing to do, including Multnomah Falls, the Portland International Rose Test Garden, the Oregon Zoo, the Nike employee store, splashing in the waterfront fountain downtown, and going to see the Winnie the Pooh Movie.

- Went to Oaks Amusement Park, the local teeny-bopper haven, where we rode some fun rides and marveled at the clientele.

- Spent a day at the Oregon State Fair, where Maddy had her first “volunteer from the crowd” experience in the Crazy Animal Races and even won a prize for successfully cheering on a goat.

- Hiked and picnicked in beautiful Forest Park with Lorna and the boys.

- Had fun sleepovers at Aunt Sarah and Aunt Maren’s houses while Dave and I spent a weekend in Vegas. While there, my cousin Kendra gave Maddy a sparkly magnet, to which Maddy said “I really love this magnet, I’m going to remember this day for the rest of my life.”

- Visited Aunt Sydney’s, where Maddy had her first horse ride on Tilda. Even though she was really nervous at first, once Sydney convinced her to give it a try she didn’t want to get down!

And of course, we also had lots of silly sisterly moments hanging out at home, just like this one:

Not only will she be in Level B this fall, she also started braving the waters on her own a few weeks ago. In the past, she’s never been willing to let go of an adult, no matter how many floaties she was wearing, but after watching her older cousin Sage, she started swimming around the pool like it was no big thing.

She also had a lot of fun in her pre-ballet class this summer, and she sure likes to pretend that she’s graceful. This fall, we’re hoping she’ll give soccer a legitimate try and we plan to get her started with tennis – we’ll see how long before she starts begging to take ballet or gymnastics again

Maddy’s favorite games are to play mommy with any small objects, and to organize her collections. She’s getting better with Hayden and trying to include her in her games more often, which Hayden mostly loves until she gets bored and moves onto something else (much to Maddy’s dismay).

She’s still pretty emotional when things don’t work or someone is “mean” to her (usually that would be me giving her a time out), but I think she’s getting better at letting things go more quickly and resisting the urge to lash out psychically at Hayden when she does something Maddy doesn’t like. This afternoon they actually worked out a toy disagreement themselves without adult intervention! Maddy explained to Hayden in a calm voice why she couldn’t play with one of her toys, and Hayden actually listened to the long lecture patiently and then gave back the toy with an “I was bored of it anyway” look.

Maddy still loves to be read to, and she practically memorizes all of her favorite books. Today I got her to “read” one to Hayden in the car, and it was pretty impressive how well she followed along the with plot using her own words. She loves to hang out with her cousins and has been asking for them a lot lately, since we haven’t been seeing them as much as we were earlier in the summer. She’s very very excited to turn 4 next month, and has been dictating an extensive list of invitees for what she hopes will be a butterfly princess themed birthday party. We’ll see about that.

I haven’t put any Maddy quotes on the blog in forever, so here’s a compilation of the best ones I’ve shared on Facebook over the past year or so:

8/28/11 – After using the toilet: “It feels good to get all that pee out, because when I have a lot of pee inside I get all crazy and you and dad don’t like that, so when I go pee it makes you happy.”

7/27/11 – Commenting on when I check to see if she’s napping: “I’ll do the same thing I do every day, turn to the wall so you can’t see if my eyes are open.”

7/24/11 – While watching Dave’s tennis practice: “they need a coach to tell them not to hit the ball outside the lines.”

7/24/11 – “I love it when Hayden giggles like that. It’s soooooooo cute!”

7/8/11 – “Mommy, you’re the best mommy in the whole world. Even when you’re mad at me and send me to time out I even love you still when I cry.”

7/8/11 – “I’m hot in all this stuff, so I’m going to take it off and be naked forever.”

6/21/11 – “Mommy, did you put the clothes in the dry off machine?”

6/21/11 – “My tummy sounds like a fox, it’s going ‘arrghooooooo-o-o’”

6/16/11 – “I’m done with my pasta, now I want to eat some healthy food because I want to grow up and be a mommy.”

6/8/11 – Counting Hayden for banging her toy: “Hayden, that’s 1…that’s 2…that’s 3…that’s 4…that’s 5…that’s 6…!”

6/6/11 – Saying a prayer: “I hope daddy comes home okay in the weather and the clouds. I like this dinner and the salad. I like everything we did today, and all the flowers we picked. Jesus Christ, Amen”

5/23/11 – “You make the coolest rice I ever had in this whole country.”

5/20/11 – After being told she’s not allowed to hit: “You smell stinky!”

4/28/11 – Pointing to her cheek: “I have a russellsum!” Me: “Huh?” Then “Ohhh, do you mean a freckle?” Maddy: “Yes, I have a freckle, just like you mommy! I have 2 red ones and 1 brown one.” Me: “Um yeah, those 2 are actually little pimples.”

4/12/11 – Speaking to her bowl of fruit: “Cantaloupe, you’re sooo silly! whenever i pick you, you turn all around.”

3/30/11 – “Mom, thank you for everything in your entire life.”

3/5/11 – After orange juice pulp getting stuck in her sippy lid: “I have a wedgie in my cup!”

3/1/11 – “I guess Forbes and Lumas are the same because they both have black fur…”

2/18/11 – “I colored this pictures for you, so be happy. I made them for your happy-versary in Vietnam.”

11/24/10 – Playing doctor: “Mom, now don’t be scared when we shot you up.”

11/12/10 – Regarding Halloween candy… “The label says: Almond Joy, don’t share with mommy”

11/5/10 – Not wanting to go to bed: “When I get bigger, can I stay up late and do a little work and do the dishes at night like you guys?”

11/1/10 – Coming out of her room 5 times after bedtime… 1st: “I need the monitor in my room,” 2nd: “I need to go potty,” 3rd: “I want another lullabye,” 4th: “I farted,” 5th: “I peed in my Pull-up.”

10/26/10 -While I’m opening a box of cheesecake on one side of the kitchen: “It’s easier if you open it over here cause I’m lonely.”

9/21/10 – “Mommy, Hayden took off her sock again! We should glue it to her foot. No, actually, we should throw it out the window then the birds will get it and take it to Santa at the North Pole and he will wake up and say ‘Good Christmas morning! Hayden I’m bringing your sock to you!’ and he will bring it on his sleigh with the reindeer because he doesn’t live that far away.”

9/17/10 – “Oscar lives in a trash can and makes sure our dirty diapers are safe.”

8/23/10 – “Sierra, Sydney and Eva are my sisters, Hayden’s just my friend.” Me: “So, why don’t they live with us?” Maddy: “Because they live far away.”

7/24/10 – “Daddy is my best friend.” Me: “That’s great, but what am I?” Maddy: long pause, then… “Meagan.”

6/30/10 – When asking how preschool was: “You Talk ‘Bout It!” (then gets excited when I read her teacher’s daily report to her)

5/20/10 – “Mom I’m cutting up mangos for you. These are Lego mangos. You can eat them, but they’re really gross.”

5/19/10 – “We go in the girls bathroom, not the boys bathroom because that one is DIRTY!”

We got to go on a big airplane ride and I tried my best to stay up all night, but I ended up sleeping for a little bit. When I woke up it was morning and raining in New Jersey and me and Hayden slept for a loooong time while Daddy drove us to Albany. I was so super excited to get there and see Aunt Monica and my cousins TJ, Jimmy and Malcolm. Malcolm graduated from high school and I was almost as proud of him as I was in love with his cute graduating teddy bear.

The next day we hopped back in the car again and brought TJ along for a weekend on the Jersey Shore with new (Emily, Jacob, Tommy, Sarah and Olivia) and old (Greg, Karen, Faris, Lisa, TJ and Heather) friends. We slept some more in the car, and then had lots of energy for the BEACH in Point Pleasant. Hayden wasn’t so fond of the sand the first day, but I kept telling her to “try it and you might LIKE it” and she finally joined me in some digging.

Then came the BOARDWALK, which I loved except for the times when I was busy whining and being bratty because I’d skipped my nap. Despite my bad behavior, I still got to watch Daddy win and loose at Whack-a-Mole, and I got to go on super-fun airplane and swing rides with TJ.

On Monday, we played some more with all our new friends and then said goodbye and hopped back in the car for another nap on the road back to Albany. The rest of the week we had lots of great family time with the cousins, aunt, uncle and grandma, and visiting special people, like the DiPietros, Barbara and daddy’s high school friends Elana and Margaret.

My favorite part of the whole week was probably going to Build-a-Bear with Aunt Monica and picking out a fancy outfit for my new Hello Kitty doll, who I named Hello Sparkles. She is so beautiful and fabulous. Hayden got a cute teddy bear with an SU t-shirt, and dad named him Watson (the name of the college dorm where mom and dad met).

Thanks to everyone who took the time to see us and especially to you guys who spoiled me rotten – you know who you are!

- Maddy

P.S. When we got back we had a super-fun block party with all our neighbors on the 4th of July. I loved eating lots of watermelon and treats, blowing lots of bubbles, watching fireworks, and riding around like a crazy woman on Hayden’s tricycle.