back online

as you can see, it has been snow, snow and more snow here (and there is lots more on the way next week). maddie and i were inside all week. except for our single outing in the snow on thrusday in search of internet access. for the average person a few days without internet access would not be the end of the world, but when you work from home and are on a very tight deadline it is devastating. always the resourceful girl, i came up with a plan to get a few hours of internet access in while keeping madelyn contained in a public place - food and coloring. even though the snow came earlier than expected, we still went out before it got too heavy. i had decided that panera would be the best option for internet access. the access was free and madelyn could sit with me in the booth. we ordered a few bagels when we got there which kept her busy for close to an hour. and then she colored for a while. as we neared lunch time we got back in line to get some soup and sandwiches. i felt like i was getting a few dirty looks for sitting there for so long with a small child and working so furiously on my computer the whole time. all and all it worked out really well during an 'emergency'.

the worst part of the outing was trying to get back into the car. i was struggling a little with my laptop case, diaper bag, holding maddie's hand, the falling snow (and the snow slush on the ground), and the limited mobility of being all bundled up. madelyn's hat refused to stay on correctly on the way out, so she was bare headed in the snow. now here is the worst part - we had just gotten to the car (after maddie had slipped and fallen in the wet slush and soaked her pants) when a lady came around the back of the car next to us and said "excuse me". her car was the one next to us and she had us step out of her way and wait while she slowly, very slowly, got into her car. i just kept wondering, who does that. who makes a mother loaded down with bags, with a small child wait in the snow while you take your sweet time getting into the car. and then she didn't even wait for me to get madelyn in the car before she started backing up. really it just makes me sad for her.

anyway, time-warner came out on friday morning and got us back up and running.

now back to the maddie updates. here are just a few of the latest happenings with maddie:

- when i count out numbers, she says "two" after i say "one". she also counts out "two, three" like she says "set, go" when she is about to do something.

- when i spell her name out with her alphabet blocks she points to and says the "m" and the "l". instead of "a" she says "ah"

- "apple" and "off" are the latest significant additions to her vocabulary.

- i was preparing broccoli (frozen) for dinner one night and maddie took a piece and started eating it. realizing that it wasn't as good frozen, she took her stool over to the toaster oven to "cook" it.



- i have shown how madelyn 'swims', but this week she has been laying down on the floor on her belly pushing herself backwards telling me that she is "swimming" or that she is going to "swim".

- madelyn fell asleep thrusday night on the way home from shopping (matt had a christmas party on friday night that we needed to find a gift for) so we decided to just put madelyn to bed without a bath. she actually did great getting out of her clothes and into her pjs without ever really waking up - in fact, she never made a peep. so since there was no bath, i had her take a shower with me in the morning. she was so funny. she has taken showers with me before, but she was really excited about it this time and kept running back and forth under the water giggling. she threw a little bit of a fit when it was time to turn the water off. but once out of the shower, instead of a towel madelyn headed straight for the next obvious choice - breakfast. i guess there is nothing like a shower to bring back your appetite. madelyn ran back to the table to finish off what was left of her cereal. i took pictures of madelyn sitting at the table eating dripping wet, but they were a little too racy for the blog.

- yesterday i was vacuuming and madelyn hides in the laundry room when i do (not that she is scared, it is more of a game), when i turned off the vacuum she started calling out "stuck". of course i thought that she meant herself, but then she came running out.



- madelyn's favorite game these days is "sleeping" and she likes for matt and i to play too. especially matt. probably because matt does a leaping belly flop into the bed. tonight she was getting in the bed and covering herself up to "sleep". it was pretty funny because she was sleeping in her sunglasses (a compromise over her wanting to wear matt's glasses). she is starting to understand that she needs to close her eyes to really play "sleep", not just make the snoring noises. but she is just too excited to see what is going on to naturally close her eyes. her solution - pushing her eyelids closed with her pointer fingers. it is pretty funny because she is still trying to look. so she ends up with half her lid down and half open (like holding the outside corners of her eyes).

as you can see, lots of indoor entertainment here. i am headed to chicago tomorrow and will be there until thrusday (work conference), so there probably won't be any posts for a while. love.