What a summer we had...

Wow we had such a fun filled summer and so sad to know it's coming to a close... for Madison and Daddy of course since I didn't really have a summer... Anyhow I thought I would recap and write about somethings we might have missed...

At the beginning of Summer Madison was able to put her face in the water comfortably while wearing the arm floats but still totally relied on the floats so our goal for the summer was for her to learn to swim all by herself... She loves diving into the pool and is not afraid of water so I knew it was matter of practice. At the end of every pool time Madison would take off her floats and practice swimming to Dave and at the beginning she would just hold her breath until she got to Dave but eventually she would sink-swim a little then come up for air then sink-swim again... Her kicking got stronger and she started to sink less when she is swimming and now she is floats FREE!! She is jumping and diving all by herself! See it for yourself:-)

We were really hoping that Madison would pick up a lot of Japanese while my parents are visiting and she did but I'm more convinced that I MUST speak Japanese most of the time to her and Dave MUST stop translating for her... I would say a sentence to Madison then she would ask Dave "What Mama say?" and Dave would tell her what I said in English... Grr!! It's really funny and cute to watch but it's not...:-)

She started watching Octonauts and we enjoy it too:-) We decided our theme for Halloween... After a lot of family meetings I think we settled on Minnie Mouse for Madison, Mickey Mouse for Dave and a cast member for me...:-) For now...:-)

Since we spend quite bit of time tending to our plants and veggies Madison started to help us out by watering them which is sooo cute! It's so cute to watch her water each plant/tree until she thinks it got enough water(she does good). And she thinks all the baby veggies and fruits are "SO CUTE!!"

We made it to one of the concerts in the park right by us... Next year we hope to make it to more of the Friday night picnic'n concerts in the park... Here is a video of Madison dancing... It may be hard to ignore the big butts on the right but just try...

This summer Madison also picked up a few new catch phrases..."That's what I'm talking about!" when you successfully choose what she was asking for and "Where are we going after nap time?" whether it be afternoon nap, or bedtime...of course over the summer that question had many exciting answers now it will just have "school" :-(

Madison and Dave were able to put off going to the Dentist until the very last week of Summer, but Madison did awesome on her very first trip and we are happy to report has no "sugar monsters" as the doctor put it.

If my dentist office had blocks maybe I wouldn't be so scared of them...

Starting to figure out what is about to happen...

 But still not freaking out...

 After a moment of putting her hands over her mouth, she was an awesome helper!

 She chose the Zebra as her polisher over the Flamingo and Lion...

 Showing off her pearly whites...

 And now trying to console Daddy who was more anxious than she was...

Yesterday we visited Disneyland to celebrate our last weekend of Summer and Madison got to ride this ride for the first time and she loved it:-) Can you guess which one this is??

Lastly, starting Tuesday Madison will be attending a new pre-school called Montessori Greenhouse in Los Alamitos which is a lot closer to our house and we really like what they have to offer... Plus the person who runs this school goes to the Studebaker Road Church and was able to hold us a spot back in April which was amazing since two classes that they offer hardly ever have openings and those rare openings fill up very fast...  Also there will be one of Madison's friends from church(Jaida) in her class even though she is a year older... Their pre-school programs allow children of all ages to be in same classes so that the older children learn to take care of younger children and younger children will get to learn from older children which creates the cooperating/collaborating environment, etc... This past Thursday the school had an hour of "meet the teachers" event to Dave took Madison and she seemed to like Ms. Michelle and all the things/toys they had... Dave said Madison was busily playing with everything she could see...:-)

We are excited for what Madison will be able to learn and experience here with her new teachers and friends but we would appreciate your prayers for our smooth transition next week...:-)