life at warp speed

madelyn changes so much every day that a few days skipped and i have quite a few stories to share!

first of all - happy mother's days to all you moms! my first mother's day was pretty nice. we went to church this morning and i got a surprise gift from madelyn when we picked her up from the nursery. they had stamped her hand on a coffee mug for me with her name and the year on the bottom. on the back there was this message:

"This isn't just a mug as you can plainly see.
I made it with my hand which God made a part of me.

It comes with lots of love especially to say,

I hope you have a very special Mother's Day!"

of course that made me tear up! it was so thoughtful of them to make that with her. (although i don't know how in the world they got her to hold still long enough to get a clear imprint of her hand!) madelyn did her own artwork at home for her grandma and nana mother's day cards. usually i let her hold a marker, but i decided to try crayons. the markers must not taste as good as the crayons is all i have to say about that...

it was if madelyn knew that it was mother's day and said "ma-ma", "mom" and "mo-mi" a lot more than normal today. matt and i also agree that she is starting to call us by the correct names. (as you regular readers might remember, matt and i have to agree on a development before it 'counts'.) she will look at him and say "hi, da-di". or reach to one of us and call us "ma-ma" or "da-da". she does call matt "da-di" more than "da-da" though and i get called "mom" mostly.

and here is video of matt and maddie playing 'catch' today! she is not ready for the majors or anything, and the timing of her release needs some work, but you can tell that she is trying to throw him the ball. she was actually doing it mainly with her left hand and i was going to post this saying that she is a southpaw, but as soon as i got the camera she switched hands on me! figures, huh? enjoy.

just in case my life wasn't exciting enough, maddie added a new death-defying feat to her resume - standing in her highchair. now, i know what you are thinking, lots of kids can stand up in their high chair. but how many can climb up it to get the seat in the first place under the age of 1! she got up and in and up to standing in under 15 seconds! the speed at which it happened was probably the scariest part. of course this was not the time for a picture!

she has also really dropped her morning nap for good (i think so this time anyway). it makes my mornings a little longer, but i am pretty much guaranteed at least a 3 hour nap in the afternoon. she has even gone as long as 4-1/2 hours!

another new activity of madelyn's is talking. not just making noises, but actually 'speaking' softly as she does things or when she wants me to understand her. i don't quite know how to explain it and haven't had much luck getting a really good example on video, but it is so sweet. my favorite is when matt or i are holding her and she touches our face and talks softly to us. however, she also has the opposite form of talking where she grunts - until she gets red in the face. and these are not the same as poop-y noises. she does these for her own amusement and we find it to be hysterical! which of course makes her do it more. this video is a vocal version of the grunting, but she does it silently too until her face is almost purple and her eyes are bugging out and then she will stop and start laughing. it is just a game and not a tantrum where she holds her breath. take a look to see what i mean.

and here she is playing with the same puzzle with some grunting, but she does two other things that i wanted to share. first she thinks that the puzzle board is a big book and is trying to get it to open by turning the pages. if you watch you will see her try to lift the bottom corner and then turns it on the side to try and use her thumbs to get it open (this is how she acts with her books is the only reason i understood her confusion). and then she starts kicking her legs with all the puzzle pieces. you can even see at one point she tries to bring some of the pieces back within kicking range. she does this with her blocks too. it thinks she likes the noise of them all banging together and seeing them jump around when she kicks her legs. (warning: it is kind of long - almost 3 minutes)

lastly, i just wanted to share a picture of some of the tulips that i cut from our backyard this weekend. they are one of the first signs of spring around here. this morning there was frost, but the tulips promise spring! i really can't wait for our peonies to come in! we plants the bulbs almost three years ago and had all but given up on them and then - surprise - the bushes are coming in this year! yeah!

sorry for such a long post. love.