"Lexie, my name is Lexie"

This is a post about our girl, Lexie. Oh, you didn't know?  Lexie is synonymous with Madeline around these parts.  Sometimes she's Miss Ashley or Sarah Grace but I believe that's only when she's wearing her pink dress or her star shirt.

She's 3 1/2, you know.  Mind-blowing, but probably only to us, but those who have kids can relate. It goes by quickly.

Anyway, to put it mildly, the first part of three was kind of difficult. Rough. People talk about two being a difficult age, but with Madeline -- it was three.  Until I woke up one day and realized much of our stress with her had disappeared and a sweet, respectful, albeit highly emotional, little girl had emerged.  She is a girl after all, and she lets her emotions bubble to the surface.  Some instances, like when her jacket button has come undone and she can't button it back herself, are unnecessary.  But on the whole, I truly believe if she harnesses her emotions she will go very far.  I pray she chooses something to be passionate about and uses her emotions to pour herself into it.

Madeline now calmly says "please" and "thank you" when requesting something.  When the answer is "no", she calmly finds an alternative without throwing a fit.

She goes around the house singing songs, making up songs, and reciting Bible versus.

She is still a little jealous of Gabe so she acts like him and/or inappropriately, but she works through it.

She loves to make Gabe laugh. And I love to hear her make him laugh.

She's finally smiling in pictures...be still my heart.

The girl has a sweet tooth, which is weird since she literally didn't have sweets for nearly the first three years.  She didn't even eat her 3rd birthday cupcake.  Now? Not a crumb is spared.

She doesn't nap anymore, and on the rare occasion she does, she's wired until 11 pm.

Dinner time is the most stressful time with her. She simply doesn't want to eat most nights, nor will she even try a bite of dinner many nights.  We are working through it!

She is opening up a little around other kids. This is huge for her and the fact that she will play on the playground with other kiddos running amok is a big step.

She loves playing with her homemade play-doh, blowing bubbles, playing with her baby who is named Mightly...formerly named Little Baby, Emma, Lexie, in that order.  She doesn't have a favorite animal because it changes frequently, but for now, it's the reindeer Santa gave her.

She keeps us busy for sure...kids tend to do that.  But it's a good kind of busy.  We love you, Madeline Lexie!