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:

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

She’s talking a lot more, and some of the cutest things she says lately are “dank you, mommy!” and “okay mommy!” Less cute is her adamant demand of “not dis!” if there’s a song, TV show, or food she doesn’t like. She also tells me a lot about her “poo poo” and “pee pee,” and sadly she and Maddy find it endearing to say “hi poo poo baby” over and over again to each other for some reason. The two of them go from silly crazy giggles laughing at each other, to screaming and yelling mad about something being claimed “mine,” and back to silly crazy giggles at least 2-3 teams each mealtime.

Hayden loves to count things in both English and Vietnamese, and will grab my finger to point it at the things I’m supposed to count and then attempt to count along. She also practices her alphabet by having me write and spell out her name for her on anything she’s coloring, which remains another favorite pastime. She still loves reading, and two of her favorite books these days are Pinkilicious (even though it has no lift-the-flaps or anything) and her One-two-buckle-my-shoe book (because she loves to “knock on the door”).

I think she’s in love with Calliou, which she pronounces “kay-ya” and will sit down and watch him whenever we’ll let her – sometimes she even sits still for the whole story.

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:

For example, she’s very pushy when she wants to worm her way into a discussion, play situation or just a spot on the couch. She maneuvers herself as best she can into position and then says “beep beep” over and over again until we move aside and free up her rightful spot. She also thinks its hilarious to slam doors closed, knock on them while saying “knock knock” until she’s let back in, and then say “bye bye” and close the door in my face to start the cycle again.

If she’s already hanging out in a perfect spot and we’re not participating, she lets us know that we need to join her by saying loudly “sit down!” and patting the spot on the floor or couch where we should clearly be. Also, if there is ever any mention or indication of possibly leaving the house, she starts saying “’side! ’side! shoes! ’side” until we let her outside.

She’s also very aggressive about trying to copy whatever Maddy’s doing, which as you can imagine leads to the inevitable sibling battles, although it also often leads to sweet sisterly games, like in this video where Hayden didn’t seem to mind being the boss-ee instead of the boss-er:

She loves her sister and her daddy and asks for them both every time she wakes up. If she finds out one of them’s still sleeping, she holds her finger to her mouth and says “shhhhuuussshhhh.” She’s then somewhat careful to play quietly until they wake up (although that often doesn’t last long because she runs to jump on top of them the second I turn my head).

Now to her latest milestone – after much encouragement and futile experimentation, Hayden finally used the potty for its official purpose on Tuesday, August 8th. She’s now peeing in it about every other night before bed. Yay for baby steps, the end of diapers is in sight!

P.S. Here are her official 2 year stats from the doctor: she weighs 21 lbs, which is STILL in the 0 percentile; she’s about 31 1/4 inches tall, which is in the 2nd percentile; and her head is 46 centimeters around, in the 13th percentile.

We kicked off the celebrations in NY on Sunday with some presents from Dave’s family – an adorable stuffed monkey and a bunch of super-cute dresses. Then on Wednesday, it was her actual birthday, and Hayden started off the day by opening a cute present from her Grandpa Busath and Nana Angel – an adorable soft doll that giggles when she hugs it. Later, Maddy and I made some cupcakes to bring to our weekly neighborhood playdate where we celebrated at the park with a few friends. Then we went out to dinner with my mom, and sang Happy Birthday when we got home with a funny-looking mini cake I made for the occasion.

On Friday, our present for Hayden finally arrived from Amazon, but with critical parts missing. It is a standing easel (Hayden LOVES to draw), and I let the girls play with it briefly before putting it away to wait for the replacement easel that hopefully won’t fall over onto the girls every 5 minutes. Luckily Hayden has very low (actually, no) expectations about her presents and didn’t seem to mind the issues.

On Saturday, we had a little birthday party for Hayden at the park, with all her cousins and even some bonus guests from California (Nicole, Glen, Sierra, Lily and Micah just happened to be in town visiting family). We had tons and tons of bubbles and Hayden enjoyed the mayhem, despite being run over twice by bigger kids riding her own tricycle. She loved all her presents – some cool stickers, books and a tambourine from the CA contingent, really neat books from Lorna, Maren and mom, and a beautiful Alice in Wonderland musical snowglobe from Gavin.

To top off the week, on Sunday we even got to go to Lily’s 2nd birthday party (she’s 2 days older than Hayden), which was a real treat because we’ve missed the last few Leverich birthdays since we moved to Portland.