I Love This Kid

And not even because I am told at least once or twice a week that she's a mini-me. :)

I love this kid, for one, because she cracks...me...up! Oh, she has her moments. Her I'm-too-overcome-to-do-anything-but-fall-to-the-floor moments. Or her I'm-feeling-grumpy-because-I-love-my-sleep moments.

Thankfully those are pretty few and far between, though I'd love her anyway even if they weren't.

Instead, she spends a lot of her time rather quietly, subtly coming up with all manner of HAM. She'll be in a corner trying on this ridiculously too big pair of pink shoes she loves, just laughing at herself.

She'll grin like no tomorrow over successfully pulling up a pair of her sister's big girl panties. Over top of her pants, of course. Then insisting she wear them around for the rest of the morning just so she can look down and giggle.

In fact, she can keep herself quite content over the smallest things like putting chalk in and out of a bowl or laying on her belly to color a picture. Even putting on "hats" (definition: any and all things that she can get on that peach fuzz head) can keep her mighty entertained.


Until.

Until she just can't stand herself anymore and has to foil Hope's Little People plots. That's when Maddie will out of nowhere run over, grab no doubt one of the two boy figures we have, and make a break for it. If I'm not in the room, I always know this happened by the way I hear, "Nooooo, Maaaa-deeee!!!" Followed by the pitterpatting of four little feet chasing each other round and round.

All the while, little person triumphantly high in the air, Maddie just keeps on grinning. Sometimes hollering, "I got him!" Quite often, even with that victory cry, the grin comes along too.

That giggle, that smile... like bottling up sunshine on a rainy day.

L-O-V-E!
~Katrina