Friday, July 30

When Is It Time For School?

Madison loves the drive to Papa's place every morning. He points out "Nana's school" (Samoa College) and "Mommy's school" (NUS) and "Teresa's school" (Vaivase Primary) which are all on the way to Lalovaea.

Just the other night Maddy asked his mommy "Me school?" as if he wanted to know where his school was. I reckon he could manage going to school already. He's fearless when it comes to playing with other kids, he isn't shy and is very bright for a 2 year old. The problem is, he isn't potty trained yet.

I was wondering, when is it time for a kid to go to school? Maybe Aunty Ling can answer that one.

Dude, Where's My Car?

Okay it's been 2 hours now and I'm still waiting for dad to come back with my car. Dude, where's my car? He offered to take it to the mechanic this morning to have the engine looked at.

I've been calling the house at Lalovaea for over 2 hours now and no answer. Where is Papa and Maddy?

Thursday, July 29

Lucky Madison

We're all settling back into something resembling normality now that Madison's birthday has come and gone. The party was great, 19 out of 20 kids showed up and had fun, eating Happy Meals, cake and playing on the playground set.

It wouldn't be a party without a mess and the kids made sure there was plenty of that. Spilled food, drinks and discarded party hats were all over the place. I felt kinda sorry for the cleanup staff of McDees after we left.

Madison has a boatload of new toys to play with. All of his meaalofas were expensive toys, he's so spoilt! He got new clothes, airplanes, helicopters, guns, waterguns, golf sets, spiderman colouring books, crayons, lego sets, trucks, cars and a lot more. In typical Madison style, he needs to play with ALL of his toys everyday so you can probably imagine the kind of mess that he makes everyday now. Sigh.

Tuesday, July 27

Photos Now Available

Madison's photos from last nights birthday party are now on his website. Check them out and leave a comment here (if you like).

Maddy's Birthday

Madison's birthday party was a success. I'm putting together his photos and should have some photos on his website in a few hours. Stay tuned!

Monday, July 26

Happy Birthday Son!

The day we've all been waiting for has finally arrived. Rachel is taking a half day today to get the final preparations squared away. I've got the camera ready to video tape the whole thing. It's going to be fun!

I'll post photos of the party on his website tomorrow.

Friday, July 23

3 More Days

I think I'm more excited about Maddy's 2nd birthday than he is. Only 3 days left to go before this party breaks the bank. I've got the camera ready to go, I'm hoping to videotape the party and transfer it to video tape for Maddy's aiga in NZ to watch.

Tuesday, July 20

Spiderman

What awesome gifts Maddy got from his Nanna, Aunty Sachi and Aunty Lagi.  Maddy found his present box again, and opened ALL the presents this time, finding an awesome red t-shirt with a big picture of SPIDERMAN, a Spiderman rugby ball, 2 x spiderman underpants, 2 x dinosaur singlets, 2 x colouring book set of Lion King and Finding Neemo, 4 x diggers and helicoptor, and 1 x large pkt of crayons - WOOHOO what a blast Mummy and Daddy had with Madison last night colouring in the pictures.  Boy did we have fun (hehe).

Maddy wanted to take his toys next door to show Tita (Teresa) but Mummy wouldn't let him because everytime he takes his toys with him to show his friend, they never come back.  Mummy has to go over and get them all everytime!!

Thank you so much for the awesome pressies - what a lucky boy he is!

Monday, July 19

Madison's Many Gifts

The pressies continue to pour in for our little Madison. He has managed to open up 3 or 4 of his pressies from Nanna and his aunties in New Zealand, which include a mini dumptruck, tow truck and helicopter as well as a Spiderman football. Thank you for all the meaalofa's!
 
He brought a tear to my eye last night when he threw me the ball and I said "catch!" and he held out his hands and caught the ball when I threw it to him. You should have seen the look of delight on his face when he realised that he actually caught it! It was a gem. He seems to be growing up so fast, that before long he's going to think that doing things with his parents isn't cool anymore and I'd better treasure each of these special moments as they come along.

Friday, July 16

10 More Days

Madison can't wait 'til his birthday to open his pressies. He keeps finding his box from Nanna and opens his presents. So far he has opened 3 of his pressies before we can stop him. He's so sneaky.

Ten more days 'til his birthday and the invites have all been sent. Believe it or not but we're expecting 20 kids *gasp* yes, 20 kids!

Thursday, July 15

Our Little Chatterbox

Madison really enjoys talking now. It's almost as if it's a relief for him to be able to communicate verbally now instead of being constantly misunderstood by others when he grunts and gesticulates. Now he can say words and get his point accross.

Of course it takes a little bit of deciphering by mommy and daddy but he is very imaginitive with the words he does know.

Sometimes he is in such a rush to tell us something that he blurts out gibberish at a million miles an hour, with a few recognised words sprinkled in. We have to ask him, "Pardon?" and he'll try and say it again. It's like a new toy with him, he's experimenting with talking and is loving it.

Monday, July 12

New Photos Now Available

I've just posted Maddy's 23 month photos to his website. Check 'em out!

Saturday, July 10

Silly Daddy

I was watching Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban on dvd the other night with Maddy. Never did it occur to me that he knew what he was watching. That is until he curled into a little ball and started crying.

He was scared.

Oka, I turned it off immediately. Silly daddy! I didn't think he understood what was going on but he was actually scared of the monsters he saw on the tv screen. No more scary movies for our household, that's for sure.

On a brighter note, we went to see Spiderman 2 at the movies and he loved it. He went to church with Papa this morning and when we picked him up afterwards he was playing in the playground with the other kids. We had to drag him kicking and screaming to the car because the li'l tyke didn't want to stop playing.

Friday, July 9

Rough Boy

Maddy plays rough. He loves running into things, throwing things and hitting things (people too!). You should see him when he doesn't get his way. Can you say tantrum?

Funny thing is, I'd prefer him to be rough than to be an over sensitive crybaby who starts bawling at the slightest knock. A few of his friends are like that and whenever they start crying (normally after he hits them) he gets this puzzled look on his face as if to say, "So what's wrong with you then? Sheesh!"

Maddy's motto: Get hard or begone.
Maddy's Birthday Party

Madison's 2nd birthday party is set for the 26th of this month at McDonald's. After much to-ing and fro-ing, we've finally decided to have it on the day instead of having it on the weekend before or the weekend after.

The invitation list has grown to 16 kids. Hopefully we can fit them all in! I'll make sure we take lots of photos and post them on the website for all to see.

Saturday, July 3

Self Sacrifice

Until last night I don't think I really knew the true meaning of self sacrifice. All parents must go through the same things I have been going through with Madison and it makes me appreciate how much our own parents gave up on account of us, their kids.

We all had a rough night last night. Rach and I had a shouting match and it must have scared poor li'l Maddy because he wouldn't go to sleep at all. I ended up staying up all night, without a wink of sleep, trying to comfort him and rock him to sleep on my shoulder.

No matter how tired I was, he wouldn't let me get any rest - he was not in a good mood and the sun came up and he and I were still seeing who could outlast the other.

I think it's human nature to just want to lose your temper but as a parent, you realise that it's not the kids fault and you just have to put the good of your child first, no matter how you feel, no matter how important something may seem to you at the time.

That to me is the true meaning of self sacrifice. Gee, 35 years old and I finally get it.

Thursday, July 1

Model Citizen

Madison has been a very good boy lately. He wakes up in the morning, has his bottle of juice and gets dressed for Papa's place. In the car on the way there, he names everything he sees, including Nana's school, cars, buses, trees, diggers, boys, dogs and airplanes.

He's going to be talking in complete sentences soon, he loves stringing 2 -3 words together at a time and is so proud of himself.

So are we!