Madi 2 years 2 months

The change in Madi lately is astonishing. She is really taking off at daycare. She counts from 1-11, can sing her ABCs, plus Wheels on the Bus, Happy Birthday, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Row Row Row Your Boat, Jesus Loves Me and probably more I can't think of right now. She gets her shapes and colors right about 70% of the time. She's talking in sentences and you can have a regular conversation with her, she'll follow along & respond. Madi says Please and Thank You, uses a napkin during mealtime. Every afternoon she comes home with at least two pieces of art she made that day. It is so comforting to know that she's in the right place. Lately she's gotten interested in playing with baby dolls and is fascinated with trains and school buses. We feed the baby, change it's diaper and when it gets hot - take off all the clothes. Her interpretation of things is funny at time, like being hot and taking off your clothes! Madi also loves Christmas lights and looks for them on the drive to and from school. She's been sleeping in her "big girl" bed since we got back from Texas. We simply put her mattress on the floor instead of a toddler bed she could roll out of. If she's ready for a nap or bed and we haven't started the routine yet she'll go into her room, grab Buddy, a blanket and lay down. It's one of the sweetest things. She gives kisses and hugs on a regular basis. It's so much fun to watch her grow!

We weren't going trick or treating so I hadn't really planned to dress Madi up for Halloween. Well then Dan dropped her off at school and a lot of the kids were dressed up so I had a HUGE case of Mommy guilt for not sending her in a costume. (Like she even paid attention.) We knew we were headed to Jill & David's for a fire & chili supper after work so it was either a store bought costume or something homemade. Dan came up with the idea of using a pillowcase - either make a ghost or pumpkin. I ran to WalMart at lunch and surprise, surprise, all white pillowcases & twin size sheets were gone. Easy enough decision - pumpkin it is! I grabbed a set of orange pillowcases and went to the craft section for some black iron-on patches and ribbon. No luck on the patches (too small) but I remembered I had some iron-on stuff from making her 1st b-day onesie. Grabbed some ribbon and hit the check-out. I left work just a little early to rush home, chop the top off the pillowcase, fold it under and make a casing for the ribbon. Went to get Madi, met Dan back at the house and finished working on the costume. I have oodles of black Convention shirts so I "up-cycled" one, as they call it, to use as the face pieces. Dan drew & cut while I got Madi dressed in all black, including her new boots which we'll talk more about later. We cut the pieces, laid them out and then got to ironing. I think the whole transformation from pillowcase to pumpkin took about an hour and turned out spectacular as far as I'm concerned:

Check out those cute boots!

And the all important fire...

everybody say Cheese

So - here's the famous story about Madi's boots and the fire. I picked up those boots that day during lunch since Madi's only "warm" shoes were snow boots. I thought they were super cute with the fur on top and little pom poms. Dan was holding Madi around the fire shown in the picture up above. I think she kicked her feet or something but somehow her boot flew off her foot and landed in the fire. Of all the places it could've gone...  We're just standing there in awe, really, how did it manage to land in the fire?! Gregg reached into the fire, pulled her boot out and dropped it on the driveway. That broke the spell and we all started laughing. The boot fur was singed and the outer "suede" parts were pretty much non-existent. Madi looks at the boot and holds her hand out like Stop and says "Boot hot." Yes honey, your boot is hot. "Boot fell in the fire." Right again, your boot fell in the fire. Little did we know that for the next hour, day and week all we'd hear about was "boot fell in the fire." Everyone at the party knew what happened to Madi's boot, her teacher and the entire breakfast room the next morning knew what happened to Madi's boot. Heck, ask her now and she'd probably tell you the story all over again. It...was...memorable...

So within a couple hours of buying the boots they were ruined. At least we have the pictures and a pretty awesome story to tell of their demise. What was the most awesome thing that happened to you on Halloween??