random things I want to remember about Madden at this age

Maddens been loving preschool!

We almost didn't put him in preschool this year, and I am SO glad we did!

On his 2nd day of preschool, he was all dressed, shoes on, backpack on and ready to go, when all the sudden he stopped and said "Wait! I need a sign to hold!" :)

He always comes home so excited to empty his backpack and show me what he learned about that day.

And he's become a pro at hanging his own school work on the refrigerator to showcase to everyone :)

He was chosen to be the "spotlight" in his preschool this week and he got to bring treats for his preschool friends.  He chose chocolate cupcakes and wanted to help me make them.  While we were frosting and decorating them, he kept asking if he could eat them and I told him no cuz we were eating dinner in a couple hours and he could have one after dinner.  He said ok, but then he proceeded to "ruin" cupcake after cupcake with his overload of sprinkles and messing up the frosting on them and then he would say "aw man.  Mom.  I messed this one up so I guess I'm just gonna have to eat this one.  Ok?"

He got to choose 3 items from home that tell a little about him to bring for show-and-tell.  He brought his favorite Chicago book with pictures of all the cool places he's been to in Chicago, his soccer ball to tell them about how he recently started playing soccer, and one of his favorite toys.

He is obsessed with the #5 right now.

Don't know why.

But everything is in 5's...

"How many goals did you score at your soccer practice, Madden?"

" Five."

"You can pick 2 toys to take to bed with you, Madden."

"How about five."

"Take 2 more bites and then you'll be done."

"No, 5 bites."

"Ok, Madden, 10 more minutes and then its time to go to bed."

"No, 5 minutes Mom!"

We pulled away from the apartment one day when I suddenly remembered I'd forgotten something.  I just had to run in real fast and grab it and didn't really wanna unbuckle Madden and take him across the apartment parking lot with me, since I knew I'd be much faster without him.  So I pulled in front of our apt and said "do you wanna wait in the car, or come with me?" And he said "Um....I think I have to come with you.  Because if you leave me in the car the police will come and get you in trouble."

Pretty sure I've given him that line before when he didn't want to come into one of my "boring mommy" stores with me. :)

I've been working hard on painting our kitchen table and chairs.

I finished my white table and then started working on my first chair, painting it a mint green color.

After the third and final coat on it, I set it next to the table and Madden came over and said "Oh no, Mom!  They don't match!!"

He loooooooves dogs and wants his own puppy soooooo bad.

He has an imaginary pet puppy that he carries around in his hands everywhere we go, but he asks for a real one every single day.

Last week, his cousin Brooklyn came over to play and she brought her new puppy.

Madden was excited to play with it, but then suddenly he turned to me, and with huge tears in his eyes and a quivering bottom lip, he told me "I just really really really want one of my own, Mommy."

How the hell am I supposed to say no to that!?

If we lived in our own house and weren't renting an apartment, I swear I would've gotten in my car in that exact second and gone and bought him his own puppy.

(So its probably a good thing we are renting an apartment because I probably would've regretted that decision)

But then he saw the puppy bite Brooklyn and I think he decided that maybe his imaginary puppy wasn't so bad after all :)