Not-so-terrible Two's

Since Madeline turned two in July, it has been fun, challenging, and wonderful to watch her changing from a toddler to a little person, right before our eyes. ( I know she's still a toddler...and I know toddlers are people, but you know what I mean.)
I look at pictures of her as a baby and feel like that was an eternity ago, and yet just yesterday. Time is a funny thing.
I still look at her every day with awe and gratitude that God, in his goodness and grace, saw fit to make me a mother; Madeline's mother.
Madeline is now 2 years and four months old, and we are constantly amazed at how quickly she picks things up and how much she knows! Her favorite thing in the world is animals. When we get in the car, she says, "Talk about animals!" So we do. We have many books about animals, so she knows the names of every animal you can imagine....porcupine, meercat, armadillo, etc. It's hilarious.
Right now, if you ask her, her favorite animal is a giraffe, because it has a long neck and a long tongue. We may we have a future zoologist on our hands. :) She still loves her abc's and letters. She can now tell us what words begin with what letters, which I think is pretty impressive!
I went back to work full time in September, and it has been very hard for me to leave Madeline every day, but she is doing great with the huge transition. She is with her daddy on Mondays, her aunties on Wednesdays, her Mimi(my mom) on Thursdays, and on Tuesday and Friday mornings she goes to a co-op play group. I was especially worried about her going to the play group twice a week and how she would do with that, and it turned out to be a tremendous blessing. It is five 2 year olds, all from my sister Melissa's church, and the teacher is a wonderful lady named Miss Christina, also from Melissa's church. They go to her house, and she is amazing with the kids, and it is cheaper than any preschool out there. Madeline absolutely adores Miss Christina, and I think those mornings are the highlight of her week. She always comes home with arts and crafts and new songs that she learned.So, all of that to say, Madeline is doing well with her new schedule, but I am feeling more certain than ever that working full time is not for me at this season of my life. I am going to finish this year, because I am committed, but I am going to try very hard to work out part time again for next year. I'm even considering moving down to elementary(yikes) to job share. We'll see!
This past two weeks we have gone to Disneyland three times..the joy of having passes! It was so fun because the Christmas decorations are already up, but the park was not busy at all. We went on Madeline's favorite rides, grabbed coffee, and watched a few parades. Then, our favorite part, at the end of the night, we got to see the fireworks and fake snow. Magical! We have had a wonderful time and will go as much as we can this season.