Horray for Spring & All Things New!

So now that it actually feels like Spring around here, my camera has decided to come out of hibernation. It's pretty sad when you realize that you have ZERO pictures from the month of February and like 6 pictures from the month of March. Was our life really that boring?! :-)

Maddie has been totally in her element during these past few days of sunshine. She's always been an outdoor girl and she'd be perfectly happy out there all day. We've had to pry her off the front lawn after the sun's gone down and the street lights have come on! We spent most of Saturday working in the yard and doing a spring cleaning on the cars, inside and out. Maddie helped Keith wash the truck and could've cared less that she got soaked from head to toe...that's half the fun! As she scooped bubbles from the bucket and ran to wash the truck time and again, she'd yell, "Look at me go, Mommy! Look at me go!" :-)




So these pictures will serve as the "before" shots for what's to come. Ever since she was an infant, Maddie has been obsessed with twirling her hair. She does it when she's tired, when she's watching a show, when she's chillin' out. The problem is that she does the same spot over and over until it's a hopelessly tangled rat's nest and the only way to get rid of it is to cut it out! Lately she's been pulling the knots out herself, and at least once a day she'll hand me a big wad of her pretty blonde hair. I keep telling her to stop or else she's going to be bald! So to help remedy the situation, the only thing I could think of was a haircut. She's never had a "real" one before and I got tired of her hair perpetually looking like she just rolled out of bed. So today was the big day!

We headed over to a great kids haircut place called Little Clippers in Clackamas. It's like a kids' dreamland in there! Toys, climbing structures, cool cars instead of boring chairs! They get to pick out a movie/show to watch during their haircut, pick any car to sit in, and at the end they get a certificate with their lock of hair, a balloon and a lollipop! Maddie's going to be begging me to take her there all the time now. :-) Here's our cutie pie...





When I look at this picture, it really hits me--my "baby" is not a baby anymore! She'll be 2 1/2 next month and she's really a big girl now, all grown up. I'm totally loving this age with her--her independence, curiosity about the world, love of learning, being a total chatterbox (she narrates her every move, all day long!) and how her adorable personality shines through in everything she does. :-)