Building Blocks

It hardly seems like it's been a year and a half since we met Madison.  The images above show the same girl - and the same toy.  It is the sort of toy where you place different shaped objects into the appropriate slot.  Nana - Daddy's mother - gave it to her on Gotcha Day, but you can see by the photo on the right that Madison was still quite shocked at the changes that were going on in her world.  After all, we just met less than two hours ago!

The smiles were far and few between to begin with.  There were a few small glimmers of a smile that first day, but anyone who knows Madison knows that things have changed quite a lot!  Now Madison runs to Nana and Ye-Ye, and has the biggest smile nearly all the time.  She's a bundle of joyous energy!

The picture to the left shows her now, again with the same toy.  Quickly, she shoves each object into the right slot.  Initially, this took a while.  But it's all good now, as she's come a long ways, and learned quite a bit.  Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, and her ability to understand what she's being told is amazing.  She's very observant, but can learn how to do things on her own as well.

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This isn't necessarily related, but it is something we laughed about this week.  She had taken all of her Nativity Set pieces and placed them, one by one, in between each of the railings that divide our kitchen from our living room.  There each one was perched, overlooking the living room.  Of course, she knows where they go in the actual Nativity Set - but occasionally, she'll take them all out for a vacation.  She must have noticed the rain the other day, otherwise she wouldn't have set them all up like this to keep them under cover:

      Today brought a whole lot of energy to the house:  Madison's grandparents arrived from Florida!  They arrived later, as it is a pretty long drive - it didn't help that the weather was so cold and rainy outside.  Nevertheless, they arrived safely, and Madison was overjoyed.  She spent a great deal of time jumping up and down and playing with them, and they were only happy to oblige!  Already, she has them wrapped around her finger...!

     Madison has come so far.  She's always been the beautiful girl we know, but that inner light has shown brighter and brighter with each passing day - and we've been so thankful to spend this part of our lives with her.