The girl has come a long way and she’s growing up fast… one minute she is 3 months old and the next minute she’s in Kindergarten learning her letters, numbers, words… reading! These are the first steps of something wonderful and we’re sooooo proud of her! Enjoy the video and a HUGE thank you to her amazingly, fabulous, wonderful teacher Mrs. Howitt.
PS: One of my favorite parts is at the end… she is a kid afterall! 
WOW!!!! I wish I was blogging back then! Thank you to Gregory Todd for saving this email and forwarding it 
to me… it means so much!
A letter from Maddie on November 14, 2003: if she could write, I’m pretty sure this is what she would have said…
——————–
Dear Aunt Sissy,
Thank you for writing a letter to me. I’m putting it in the baby book you got for me when I was born! You made mom cry, but that’s okay – I forgive you.
I’m doing very well. I was very excited yesterday because mom finally had a day off of work and we were able to play together all day long. I played with rattles and things but most of all I just wanted to be near mom. She makes me giggle when she puts foot rattle socks on me. Those black and white lines on them sure do move a lot!
Mom and I take a bath together every single night… this makes me laugh too. Mom washes her hair before I get in because sometimes I doodle in the tub. Her screams are getting to be less frequent when I do this. I don’t know what the fuss is all about. I see that water and I see mom sitting there waiting for me though and I just can’t wait to swim in the warm water. After we get out of the tub, dad dresses me and then mom puts lotion all over me and then we sing the Lord’s Prayer together. She used to sing to me but now we sing together. Then I get to eat! When I’m done eating, dad wraps me tight in my blankies (I sleep best this way) and then they put me to bed.
I sleep until about 4:30 without waking up. I think mom likes that! I’m only awake for about 10 minutes because I can’t wait to get back to my dreams. I wake up around 6:30 then but mom and dad don’t know this because I just lay in my crib looking at my mobile.. I don’t make a sound. Mom usually comes in around 7:00 to get me up for the day.
I get to go to school with mom and dad everyday and I get to see Miss Hilary. She talks funny and says words like “pooly” and “cheeky” and “clever” a lot. She has a high pitched voice though and makes me laugh. I get to see mom every two hours too. You see, I don’t eat much at night because I’m such a good sleeper so I have to get my calories during the day. I don’t think mom minds because she says teaching is for the birds…whatever that means.
This growing thing is really hard work! I am now 24 inches long so I’ve grown 3 1/2 inches since I was born. It must be because I eat so much!! I’m 12 1/2 lbs too. I take about 3 naps each day but I don’t like to sleep after 3:00 in the afternoon… I think it’s because that’s when mom gets off work and I get to see her for the rest of the day!
I’m having lots of firsts everyday. I can hold onto a rattle now but it has to be placed in my hand. I can hold my head up for a long time and when mom pulls me up by hands into a sitting position, I can keep my head up without it falling back like a rag doll. I can vibrate my lips together to make funny sounds – I think that’s because dad does this to me all the time. Everytime I look at dad, I start laughing so hard. He’s kind of funny looking! I can’t roll over yet but I HATE being on my stomach so one of these days I may get ticked off enough to actually role. That’s really the only thing I hate…
I’m actually a pretty happy little person.. I only cry when I don’t get fed the exact second I want to be fed. (I’m not patient when it comes to food!) Mom knows my different sounds though. She knows when I need to sleep, when I need to eat, and when my nappie is full. Life is good…
I miss you Aunt Sissy and Unca Bubba. I can’t wait to see you next time! We’ll go to Illinois next summer for sure but let’s try to see each other before then, okay?
I love you,
Madeline
And the original email that prompted this response!
Dear Maddie,
This is your Aunt Sissy. How are you? I hope you are well. Please ask your Mommy to help you write a letter to me letting me know how you are getting along and what you think of your new home. Do you know you used to live with me when you were born?
Do you still like to eat a lot? I’ll bet you are getting to be such a big girl! Of course, your Aunt Sissy hasn’t seen any pictures in awhile, so I don’t know this for a fact.
Do you take nice long naps, like a good girl? What about toys? Are your Mommy and Daddy showing you how to play with your toys? Rattles can be fun for now, but there will be lots of fun things to play with and get into while your Mommy and Daddy are busy doing other things. I can show you all of those tricks when I see you next. We will have such fun!
I heard that you like to laugh at funny things. Well, if you come see us again this summer, you can laugh all you want at your Uncle Bubba. He can be pretty funny and is even funny looking sometimes.
I understand that your Mommy and Daddy are very busy helping the little children get smarter. That is a very nice thing for them to do. Someday, you will be proud of them, just like we are. They are pretty special people.
Well, darling girl, I have to go cook Uncle Bubba some dinner now. I’ve enjoyed our chat. Remember to tell Mommy to write to me soon. I love you very much. If you ever get tired of the desert and want to see what snow looks like, you come stay with me! We can build a snowman.
Love, Aunt Sissy
Dress up clothes….
Dress up jewels….
What more could a little girl want?
Maddie has come a long way in a year! I love these 100 day celebrations at school because they are milestones where I can compare her from year to year…. is her hair still curly? does she speak differntly? has her voice changed? I don’t see these changes as much because I see her everyday. As a result, I forget the details because they are always replaced by other details. That is why I have this blog!
For this 100 Days of School celebration, Maddie wanted to print off 100 blog posts 
and put them on a poster. This, of course, took twice as long as it should’ve because Maddie had re-lived all 100 posts we cut out and pasted onto the poster. Example: In this post about her losing her took, I saw the picture of the video and said, “Maddie! This is where you lost your tooth!” She quickly put me in my place and said, “Yes mommy, but I had an ear ache.” Sure enough, when I read the post I had written that she was not feeling well and had not slept the night before. That was March 2008!
Maddie paraded around the elementary school with her classmates and got a lot of attention. Everybody’s knows about Maddie’s blog and all of the teachers wanted her to pause so that they could read a post! At the end of the day, Ms. Howitt put the posters outside of class and when Amelia saw Maddie’s poster she immediately ran up to it. The post that is at the top of the poster is of Andy talking to the girls on Skype a few days ago.
What did Amelia do? She immediately went up to him…. and kissed him.
Daddy is gone recruiting… just when I think Maddie is okay with it, she sneeks into my room at 5:30am, 
wakes me up and tells me that she misses daddy. We were laying in bed and we both heard my computer downstairs. It started ringing…. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her move so fast! I told her to run (carefully) down the stairs and press the green button.
“I know that already mommy! I know…..”
I grabbed Amelia and by the time we got downstairs, there was Maddie staring at daddy on the computer screen… smitten as a kitten.
Understanding the concept of time now has its pros and its cons. Maddie and Amelia get that daddy will be home in six sleeps.
But it’s still six sleeps….
There will be a day that we don’t live in China anymore… really, honest. Do you think we’ll still recognize and celebrate CNY even if we’re not in Asia. Here’s the thing: even though Maddie and Amelia are American, they have Chinese heritage. They know the culture – they speak the 
language – it’s a part of them. I am indeed curious about this and will wait to see if it hangs on when we leave Shanghai. I suspect that it will…
Amelia headed to school this year to watch her sister up on stage… you should have seen the complete adoration AND jealousy in her eyes!
Happy Year of the Ox to you all!
Red 
Yellow 
Green 
Blue 
Maroon 
