Outdoor Concert and Red Mango

One of our young women Angela planned a great activity tonight to a concert at the Music Art Center at Indiana University (Summer Band on the MAC Lawn).  They played music from Wagner, Puccini, Sullivan, Tucci, Grainger, Johann Strauss, Barker, Wright, Goldman, and Gershwin. Liv loved it! After each piece, she would clap and say, "Like it! Another song! More, more more!"  I am so glad we went!  This will definitely become a tradition for our family.  We love that Bloomington has so much to do.  Here are some pictures from tonight:

 Liv listening to the band (I couldn't quite get them in the shot)

 Hanging out on the grass

 Enjoying the concert together

Katie, Baby Olivia, and Liv

3 AM Wake-up Call

Liv woke up at 3am, and Tyler brought her in as usual.  She was so excited to talk to us!  She was talking about wanting to go downstairs and play.  She was jumping up and down on the bed saying, "Jump!"  I wish I could remember all the things she was saying.  She was talking even more than usual and stringing more words together.  It was fun to see her so excited over everything.  Fortunately, she went back to bed shortly after that.

Also, as we were reading a book tonight, she said, "I'm a artist."  We were reading, "The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse."  We read it several times, and each time she would say, "I'm a artist." I tried to get in on video, but she got distracted and wanted to hold the camera.  It was so fun, though!  She would also repeat the things the artist painted.  It's fun that she is starting to repeat things even more in books, and often, she knows what is coming next before we even read it! I swear she has the first half of Brown Bear memorized.  So happy she loves talking and reading.  Kind of sounds like her mom...

Our Little Sweetheart

As we were leaving Jo's today, she fell out of the bumbo and was still stuck halfway in it as we walked out the door.  Liv was so concerned because she didn't see her get up.  She kept saying, "Friend Jo.  Fall down.  Hurt.  Bonk.  Okay?"  She repeated a variation of this over and over.  She seemed so upset. Her little face looked so sad as she thought that her friend might be hurt and stuck.  It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen.  She loves her friend!

Liv Loves Lipstick

On our way out of the house, Liv saw my lipstick and wanted to hold it.  She ended up talking me into opening it for her, and this is what I saw when we got to Kayleen's house.  I'd say she got it in the general location :)

Goodbyes

Some of Liv's friends are moving away.  We are so sad to see them go, but we are glad that they could come over and play tonight.  Rachel and Lauren are moving to California tomorrow.  Their mom, Hannah, watched Liv both semesters for us this last year, and Liv loved getting to play with them.  We will miss our dear friends!  It has been so fun living close to them and having our girls spend so much time together (and I was with Ryan in the MTC and in Russia, where we served in Ulyanovsk together).  Liv asked for them about every day while we were in Utah.  Here are some pictures from the last get together.  They had fun taking turns on Liv's horse, reading books, and even jumping on the bed.  We hope we will get to see them again when we are all visiting Utah.

 Pretty sweet picture of the basket flying at me.  We're still trying to teach Liv to not throw things.

 These girls move way too fast for our camera!

The best picture I could get of the three of them.  I'm hoping Hannah got a better one :)

Getting lots and lots and lots of color samples

We are trying to buy a house, and we are getting really excited about the thought of remodeling (you should check out my pinterest--it's insane).  We went to Lowe's and Menards and came home with just about every sample booklet they had.

 Liv's not sure if she's ready for this trip

 Driving through Menards, looking for a deal

A small sample of the hundreds of samples that are now littering our floor

Crazy Monday

Apparently there are repercussions to speaking Russian.  I'm pretty sure I forgot all of my Croatian today lol Luckily, I think it has now come back after four hours of class and a much needed nap!  We started out the day with Liv waking up earlier than normal and Tyler missing his bus.  We got ourselves dressed and out the door to take Tyler to school, and then headed home.  We saw some deer on the way home, and Liv was determined we needed to find some more.  We didn't see any on the way home, but she did get to watch a clip about tigers, which kept her happy.  I had packed a lunch for her the night before, so I threw that in a bag, grabbed some yogurt for me and ran upstairs to finish getting ready.  For some reason, I was determined I needed to wax my eyebrows, so I did that, put on some makeup and looked over a few words for my quiz.

It was about this time that I realized I had not managed my morning as well as I should have (meaning I left at the time that is usually fine, but I perhaps should have anticipated the drop off not going so smoothly).  And then the real fun started.  Russian words and some fog were swirling around my brain as we loaded up the car to head to the babysitter's and get me off to school.  We left our street and I remembered I didn't exactly know HOW to get to our babysitter's.  I called them, and Kaylene was gracious enough to talk me to her house.  Liv wasn't feeling well (I think she's teething), so we had kind of a rough start.  I stayed a bit longer than I should have (about ten minutes too long) because I felt so bad that I was leaving her when she was sad and not feeling well.  Jo was so sweet, though, and was showing her toys to Liv, and then sat on the bed to watch Signing Time with her.  I finally left with Liv in tears asking to go home with me.  The bright spot in all of this was knowing I was leaving her with great people, and that she would have fun once she recovered from my leaving (it turns out she only cried for a minute, and then she and Jo had a lot of fun playing together).  I was a little frazzled as I tried to find the fastest way to school without getting lost.

I was a bit late, and our class had already started on our quiz.  Our professor was very understanding (I love her!), and I finished the same time as everyone else.  I had studied the wrong thing and was thinking in Russian all through class, but I guess that's just how Mondays go sometimes!

Tyler let me sleep, and I already feel much better and up for a new week of Croatian class (which is good considering I have a presentation and a midterm this week).

All in all, I think I might need to swear off speaking Russian for a few weeks!  Or at least not interpret the day before a quiz :)

Russian, Croatian, Ukrainian...

As some of you know, I am taking an accelerated Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian course (I came in never having spoken any of them and should be at a third year proficiency by the end of the eight weeks).  We are three weeks in, and I absolutely love it!  I have been worried that I will forget my Russian, though.  Luckily, I had a chance to use it today!  A woman has moved into our ward from Russia, so I was able to interpret for her for the last two hours of church.  Admittedly, I slipped in at least two Croatian words and was battling off the Ukrainian, but it was so fun!  I love learning languages, and I love getting to use them :)

New Goal: A Picture a Day

We're going for it!  One picture every day, with hopefully at least one sentence about what is going on in A Day in the Life of the Madsens (gotta start somewhere, and yes, that was a play on a title of a Russian novel).  Liv is growing up so fast, and so much happens in one day.  This is our attempt to document life for ourselves, and to keep all of our loved ones in the loop.  We hope you enjoy! 

As you can see, Liv is already skeptical about this goal :)

Taste of Bloomington

We went out with our friends the Wheatleys to Taste of Bloomington.  Over 30 restaurants were there, and they had fun live music.  We tried some yummy BBQ and a smoothie from Kilroy's and toquitos from what we're calling cinco de cinco.  We followed it up with some vegan chocolate and regular vanilla ice cream from Chocolate Moose (a great local ice cream shop here in Bloomington).  We'd heard that Bloomington has so much to offer by way of local food, so we had a great time finding out how true that is!

Liv was about ready for bed at this point, but she was a good sport through it all (especially the ice cream part).

Check-ups

We took Liv for her 15 month check-up last Friday (even though she turned 16 months yesterday). She is at 28 months according to the development test! She is really strong verbally, so that is a lot of what pushed her so far ahead. She is 21 lbs (25th %) and 30" tall (50th %). She still hates being at the Dr.'s because she knows they will give her shots. Can't wait until we're caught up and don't need them every time we go!

Another Show

Liv loves saying that. We let her watch an educational Russian show for toddlers, and she loves it! She has started saying the Russian word for triangle, and it's so sweet! She also says the Russian word for peek-a-boo now instead of the English. In Russian it's ku-ku. She also likes to watch a Russian cartoon called Masha and Bear, which is a cute cartoon about a little girl and a bear, as you may have guessed. She just laughs and laughs. She doesn't watch signing time as much, but still really likes it and occasionally uses signs still.

Today Liv came up and asked to watch something, but I couldn't tell what it was she wanted. She kept repeating it over and over, but I had expected ku-ku or Masha. Turns out she wanted Cinderella! She watched part of it at her friend's yesterday and remembered it. It was pretty cute :) She calls it Cin-rella.

Still Our Little Reader

Now for the exciting stuff: Liv! She is such a smart little girl and learns so fast! She still loves to have us read to her, and just this week she has started pretending to read the books to us or to herself. It is so sweet! She has these little Disney board books that she likes to carry around and read. Her favorite books, though, are "I Love You Through and Through," "The Artist Who Painted the Blue Horse," "I Love You Mommy," and "Where is Baby's Pumpkin?" Really, there are many more she likes to read, like the ones with googly eyes and a host of others, but I thought I'd at least put those ones down.

Tyler and Kimberly School Updates.

So I've decided it's time to start blogging again. It has been so long and so much has happened since I last wrote. An update on school:

Tyler will be teaching 2nd-year Russian this summer at Indiana University's SWSEEL. And I will be taking Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian there. I found out today that I got Title VIII funding, which is such a blessing! Tuition is covered, and I get a stipend. I also have a FLAS for Russian for Fall-Spring 2012-2013 which is very exciting! Things couldn't be going better as far as school and funding goes :)

My little reader

I love that she loves books!

Beads!

Checking out the camera

Looking for the beads under the bear

She loves her beads!

She kept holding them up like this and laughing

I wore pearls to church Sunday, and Liv just loved them! So I took out some plastic beads I have and let her play with them. She loved it! This one's all girl :)

Balancing tricks +

She's got this move down!

I just love this face :)

Balancing tricks

Tyler put a toy ring on Liv's head, and it was so cute, because she would just put her arms up in the air like she was balancing, then she'd knock it off. I finally got a couple of pictures with it on, some with it falling off, and others with it on the floor after being knocked off. Then there's the ever famous scrunchy face while balancing!

Liv crawled!

Well, it's official, we have a little crawler on our hands! Liv got the coordination down and loves crawling around! Pretty soon we'll see just how un-baby-proofed our house is!

Liv gets playdates while mommy and daddy get to go to class

Our amazingly wonderful neighbor watches Liv while Tyler and I are in class. After this year, we'll set up our schedules so one of us can be with Liv while the other is in class, but there were two classes we both needed to take this semester. So Tyler and I dropped Liv off with Hannah and her two cute girls for a couple hours this afternoon. We were hoping Liv would be good for them, and we were so happy to hear that they'd had a great time together.

When we got to Hannah's to pick Liv up, she said that Lauren had so much fun with Liv. Lauren is two, and is such a sweet and hilarious girl. She kept saying to Hannah, "That baby named Liv wants to play with the trains," or "That baby named Liv wants to read this book," etc. and then would go get out whatever "Liv" wanted to play with. I thought that was so adorable! And cutest of all was when Hannah told us that when Lauren got up from her nap, she saw that Liv was there and was really concerned. She said to Hannah, "That little baby doesn't have a mommy and daddy!!" Hannah explained she had just come over to play, and that Liv indeed does have parents, and Lauren was happy again.

Lauren says the cutest things. She was jumping and spinning and told her mom she was teaching us how to do it. Another time, she told her mom she wanted to do a "salt and pepper." Well Hannah didn't know what she meant, then started thinking about the things they had been doing that week. She finally realized she meant a sommersault! So funny! My favorite, though, was when she was mixed up with "me" and "you." She came up to her mom and said, "Help you!" And when Hannah said she didn't need any help, Lauren got really sad and kept saying, "Help you, help you." Hannah realized she meant "help me." She thought Hannah was "me" and that Lauren was "you." It totally makes sense--Hannah would have referred to herself as "me" and Lauren as "you." It made it all the cuter when Lauren went up to Hannah and held out something to her and said, "For me." Imagine this in a cute little girl voice :) It really is adorable!

So happy to see mommy!

I started working mornings on campus in the School for Public and Environmental Affairs. While I'm away, Liv stays home with Daddy. They have been having lots of fun together, and she's been taking great naps for him. Today Tyler took me to school because he had some errands to run, and then came and picked me up because he needed to go to the bookstore before our class. I met him in the parking lot, and as I was walking up to the car, Liv saw me and let out a big, happy squeal and gave me a huge smile! I just love her so much! I was so happy she was excited to see me. I love my job, but I miss getting to be with her. I'm glad Tyler gets to be with her in the mornings, and that she sleeps for a lot of the time that I'm gone, so I don't miss out on as much!

Snuggles with Daddy

So for the last few weeks, Liv has been wanting me to hold her and not leave her with anyone else, not even Tyler. He was feeling a little bit sad, or at least left out. But then Saturday I had just finished feeding her, and she turned out of my arms towards Tyler and gave him a big hug! It was so cute!

A bit later, she would come to me, give me a hug, then turn and go to Tyler, give him a hug, then come back to me. She went back and forth about 15 times. It was so funny! She is so sweet to give me and Tyler attention now :)

Ice cream!

Liv caught with her hand in the cookie jar! Or in this case, face in the Oreo shake...What can I say, she loves ice cream!

Crib time

Gotta love that mischievous look!

Another scrunchy face while standing all by herself in her crib!



Liv realized she didn't know how to let go from standing up. She took the topple well.

Happy baby :)

Bedtime

Tummy time!

Checking out the camera up-close.

Looking for more stuff to play with.

I finally got a good one of her scrunchy face!

Liv hanging out in her jammies.

Liv likes to hold her lotion bottle after we put her lotion on. I didn't get a picture of it, but she also really likes to suck on the cap. I guess lotion tastes good?

Stuffed Animals

Livvy was so excited to play with her stuffed animals today! She was sitting in front of me and kept trying to pull the basket with them in it over. She finally got it!

Sharing pears with daddy

Pull ups

Liv also tries to pull herself up to standing. Poor thing got caught on the chair the other day--too close to sit down, too close to stand the rest of the way up!

Push up time!

Liv now goes from crawling to push-up position. It's so funny! I think she's stronger than I am...

One more messy face

Messy face!

So, we basically strip Liv down when it's time to eat, because as you can see, it gets everywhere! But it's pretty cute, so we'll allow it :) She started doing monkey face, which meant her favorite sweet potatoes ended up in her hair, on the back of the chair, and smeared all around her face (she moved just as I went to put the spoon in her mouth). We have a fun time at meal times!

Cuddling up on a Sunday

After church, I was laying on the floor after Liv finished eating. She rolled over and cuddled up to me. So cute! She's also been giving me her binky lately, which makes me love her even more. I had held it in my mouth a couple of times (backwards) when I'd be doing something else before giving it to her, and she would take it, put it in her mouth, and then try and put it back in mine. Now she just randomly will give it to me sometimes, and I think it's so sweet she's willing to share her binky with me.

To crawl or not to crawl...

So Liv really wants to crawl. She spends all day practicing. And she's so close! She is so good at getting her knees under her and supporting herself. She rocks back and forth, lunges...and then dives on her tummy. She can really scoot around sideways and backwards, but what she really wants is to be able to go forward. I'm expecting any day now. She'd probably have it by now if it weren't for all of those days in the car lol

Monkey face!

So Liv has started doing this thing where she covers both her ears with her hands, and it is so adorable! I call it her monkey face, and it makes her laugh. Every time she does it, I say, "Monkey face!" in an excited voice, and she just cracks up. Sometimes, I make the face back. Yes, even at the grocery store. But hey, I even do little dances and songs for her at the grocery store, so that can't come as much of a surprise. But back to the monkey face. She was doing it the other day over and over at the grocery store. We were having a great time! While daddy was shopping for produce, Liv and I were playing the monkey face game. A college-age girl near us said, "That's so cute she does that!" And it really is. I'm trying to get a good picture of it, and of course erased the one that ended up being the best because I thought it was blurry at the time. Here's one that turned out okay, too, though.

Vroom-vroom

So Tyler is taking Liv on an imaginary car ride in hopes that she'll fall asleep. He buckles her, then puts down the cover. As he walks around the house taking fake turns, he makes fun car noises *vroom-vroom*. It's actually really endearing.