Busy, busy, busy

I feel like I have so much to post, which is probably part of why it has taken me so long to actually do it. I know, that only makes it worse because then there is even more to post. Zach is still always super busy with homework. His spring break started this weekend and it has been nice to actually spend some time with him. 

Here is what I have been up to lately as far as crafts go: I made a bunch of invitations for Lori's bridal shower. That kept me pretty busy for a while. It took me longer than I had wanted to find a layout I liked. They match the colors she has picked for her wedding. There are four versions, here they are:

That was my craft of the month for February. For March, I got my inspiration when I walked into Michaels on Friday. I saw that all of the Easter baskets were half off. I realized Madie will need an Easter basket and so I started looking through the assortment. Needless to say, I didn't find anything I loved, or anything I liked at a price I was willing to pay. Call me cheap, but I just didn't want to pay eight dollars for a basket when I knew that the dollar store sells them and I could just decorate it myself. So I continued my shopping and happend to walk down the isle with all of their other baskets, which were also half off. I found one that was $2.50. I can handle that price. So I wandered over to the dollar ribbon bin and found this roll of cute yellow felt flowers. Add some white and pink paint and some pink satin bows and voila! A cute, girly, home made (or home decorated, at least) Easter basket, for a grand total of $3.50!

Pavlov's Madie???

Classical conditioning at its best: Madie gets excited when she hears the microwave beep...she knows food is coming. When I realized that she had made that connection I thought of Pavlov’s Dogs. She also gets excited when she hears "la la la la, la la la la, Elmo's World" no matter where she is or what she is doing she stops and finds the tv or computer screen and get excited and claps her hands. She even likes when I sing it, she smiles at me and laughs. This has become her new favorite place to watch tv.

Yes, she likes to stand as close as physically possible. We're just waiting to see how long before she figures out that there are buttons on the tv and when she pushes them all sorts of fun things can happen.

Since I don't want to end on a serious note I will talk about her doctors appts now and finish with all of her latest shenanigans. We went to the physical therapist a week ago and she basically said she has no idea what is wrong with Madison. She is showing signs of a couple of different things and they kind of contradict each other. So she showed me some excercises to do at home with her and said that I don't have to bring her back unless I have any questions. I was glad to hear that since the place I have to take her to for all of these appts is up by St. Joe's hospital, which is about a half hour drive without traffic. She also saw that we had an appt for last Friday with an orthopedic surgeon and advised us to not do surgery at this point because what they would most likely do is muscle transfers and that often makes the situation worse. So we drove  back up to Phoenix on Friday, the surgeon looked at Madie's arms and said to just do what the physical therapist showed us and to come back in 6 months because she is too little for surgery right now anyway. 

Now on to my crazy, silly child. She discovers a new way to be silly pretty much every day. She likes when I take her pacie from her with my mouth, and then she leans in and grabs it back with her mouth. I started turning it around before I would put it in my mouth so it would be backwards when she grabbed it. For a while she would just use her hand to get it but then she decided it would be funny to grab it backwards with her mouth. I thought it was hilarious and when I started laughing she started laughing. 

Madison pulls up on everything now. Here she is pulling up on one of our kitchen chairs. She often uses her mouth as a third hand to help get herself up. 

She has also discovered her tongue (again) and loves to stick it out...or just leave it hanging out while she crawls or walks around. 

Does anyone else see the resemblance??? :)