the alphabet

One of the things I'm hoping to accomplish through a renewed commitment to blog is to catch up on Madsen's life, in written form.  From my scrapbooker's mind, I know it's best to start in the here and now and move on from there.  I couldn't think of a more accurate "here and now" for Madsen than his love for and fascination with the alphabet. 
The earliest memory I have of him and his "lellers" are when he was probably 17 or 18 months old.  I remember him loving to say "O" a lot, but I had no idea it was because he was actually recognizing the letter "O".  I was completely shocked one day when we were grocery shopping at Trader Joe's and Madsen pointed to the "O" in Trader Joe's logo on the shopping cart handle and said, "O".  I took a picture with my cell phone (note to Damon:  locate said picture on some saved drive somewhere and insert here) of Madsen's little pointer on the "O".  It was the beginning of a loving addiction to the alphabet.  Several months later, his Christmas stocking would be filled with his first alphabet set:  the classic foam ones intended for the bathtub. 
Today, over a year (and many, many additional alphabet sets) later, his letters are his best friends.  He talks to them, he imagines with them, he is starting to learn the association of spelling words with them, and he brings them everywhere he can.  Life simply wouldn't be the same without hearing the alphabet song playing (in triple unison) on his Leapfrog electronic alphabet sets played over and over [and over] while Madsen plays with, inspects each letter extra close up with his right eye, and throws them in a dangerous pile down the stairs. 

these super simple layouts took me way too long to create.  I'm super proud (that I actually accomplished something), but not entirely proud of the finished product.  one step at a time. 

 

next up:  what is wrong with madsen's forehead?!