Long Time

Wow….it sure has been a long time since I wrote anything on Madison’s blog. So, lets catch up. Madison is doing great and getting so big. She is now almost able to walk up and down stairs by herself. She is still a bit unsteady, but she has progressed to staying on her feet going up and down the stairs. She uses the rail or our hand to guide her. Soon she will be flying up and down the steps. Her physical therapist had inserts made for her shoes. Madison has extremely flat feet. The inserts help to shape her feet and give her an arch when she wears them. She seems to like wearing the inserts. She has made amazing progress with her speech. There is nothing she won’t say or try to say. Her two favorite words are “either” and “why.” As in, “I don’t want that either.” And Why, Why, Why, Why….about a million times. At some point Rory gave up and said “because I said so.” Now if you ask Madison Why, she will tell you, “Because I said so.” Too cute! The school wants us to get her to the dentist to have her narrow pallet checked out. She also needs an eye exam. The narrow pallet is one of the physical characteristics due to the Fragile X. Our problem is Madison really hates doctors. We know that she will not have to have the narrow pallet corrected until she is much older, so we decided to give her a break from doctors for the summer. We will get her scheduled for these appointments later in the year. Perhaps this is not being a good parent, but at some point you have to say enough is enough and let a little girl enjoy just being a little girl. Madison still has quite a few behavior issues. But, things are improving greatly in that department. We changed daycare centers about two months ago. The center we have her in now is awesome. Madison is in the 3 year old room even though she is not potty trained. Her teacher has her degree in early childhood behaviors. She has worked wonderfully with Madison. Madison is on her way to being potty trained. This weekend for the first time she told us she needed to go, prior to going in her pullup. The doctors told us that potty training would not be easy. So, we don’t sweat the small stuff. We praise her and tell her she is a big girl when she stays dry or tells us she has to go, even if she has already gone in her pullup. And we don’t make an issue out of it if she goes in her pullup.

Madison is all girl. She is totally into the Princesses, especially Cinderella. She has watched her Cinderella DVD about 8000 times. I will need to buy a new one soon. That one is about worn out. She loves to have her hair put up, and then runs to the mirror to check out her new hairdo. Of course she keeps it up about 5 minutes and then wants us to put her hair back into a hair tie. I finally gave up one night and put her hair into 10 little pony tails. She never took one out. I don’t think she knew where to start.

We are preparing to go on vacation at the end of July for a week to Pelee Island, Ontario. We rented a cottage on the beach. We are so looking forward to a week of peace and relaxation. No cell phones, no computers. Only kids and fun. Jake, Becca and Madison are looking forward to vacation almost as much as Rory and I are.

Here are some random photos from the summer and our camping trip last weekend.

Celebrating Becca's Birthday with a walk across the bridge.Playing in the sand at Rory's work picnic

Wild Hair...(I am thinking about getting it cut)

...or I can just put it up in 10 hair ties

...a wig might work also

Playing with Playdoh with cousins Rheanna and Jess

Madison and Aidan agree that camping would not be camping without

Uncle Danny's homemade applesauce!

Madison and Rheanna enjoying ice cream

Madison really enjoys watching birds. We put out 2 bird feeders and 3 humming bird feeders. This "little" fella likes Madison's feeders. Have you ever seen such a fat humming bird? I took this photo with my new digital SLR camera...An early anniversary gift from Rory.