kicking

baby 2 was very active last night after i got home (from a "mom's night in" in the neighborhood) and matt finally got to feel it moving! i was actually feeling kicks or something of that nature that were very strong so i interrupted his falling asleep so that i could share. and then this morning i could actually see the kicks as the baby moved around. there is definitely no shortage of energy or strength with this baby!

madelyn was a very active mover, but it seems like this baby is even more active if that is even possible. love.

diapers for everyone

madelyn has developed a deep interest in her diapers over the past few days. that is that she has been interested in putting diapers on all of her friends - and herself. she lays the diaper on the ground and unfolds it flat before laying herself or one of her friends on top of it.

not only does she want all her friends to wear their own diapers, but after meals she insists on using a wipe on "bob". even if bob wasn't at the table during the meal, she runs to find him and wipe his mouth too. when she has accomplished her mission she then runs to the trash can to throw it away.

we were both excited to begin music classes again today. madelyn was so excited that she couldn't wait to leave and we ended up getting there pretty early. she wasn't quite participating 100%, but she was definitely enjoying all the songs again. we have been singing a lot of them this afternoon and dancing around the house. after class we came back to ava's house so that her mom could take her little brother to a doctor's appointment. ava was napping the whole time, so madelyn had the place to herself. she was enjoying checking out all the toys in ava's "toy closet" in the basement. the funny part was that she kept calling it "stuff". i have never heard her use this term and it became her favorite word as soon as we got to ava's house. any group of items she referred to were simply identified as "stuff." and it stopped as soon as we got home. i am interested to see if "stuff" comes back tomorrow.

she is becoming much more focused about her coloring. she used to just kind of mark straight lines with the crayons, but now she colors back and forth in an intentional fashion trying to color the picture she is working on.

the best part is that when she is done coloring, she picks up all the crayons, puts the lid on the container we store them in, brings me her crayons and coloring book, and declares that she is "done".

she has just been amazing at cleaning up her toys for me (at times without me even asking her to)! i am so lucky to have such a good helper! love.

baby 2 on the move

since i haven't really posted anything about the current baby, i thought i would give a little update. this baby's movements are different than the early movements i felt with madelyn, in a good way. this baby is very active - so was madelyn! but madelyn felt like being poked or kicked from the inside right from the beginning. none of this "butterfly fluttering" business everyone is always saying that it feels like at first.

this baby feels more just like moving or activity. no butterfly fluttering or poking/kicking like madelyn. i have been feeling it since the end of week 13 and on saturday night felt it on the surface of my belly for the first time (at 18 weeks). i get excited about that because i know that matt will be able to share in feeling the baby move soon. i meant to check my journal (aka pre-blogging), but i think matt felt madelyn for the first time at 22 weeks. saturday was the first time that i have even tried to feel the baby move with my hand so who knows if i would have been able to feel it sooner or not. either way i can feel it now and can't wait to share with matt.

so there you go. i guess that there won't be much more to share until the ultrasound (now scheduled for february 9). we (okay me) are just dying to know whether it is a boy or a girl! love.

you wii, we wii

this weekend we had some friends over for pizza and wii. madelyn was really excited to have kyle over to play and kyle did really well with all of madelyn's "come!" calls. they really played very well together and it looks like kyle is going to do just fine with a little sister in a few months (baby is due in april).

they had a lot of fun climbing up and down the stairs while their daddies were playing wii before dinner. the mommies, however, were not thrilled about the unsupervised trips - often made with an arm full of toys.

after dinner we all headed downstairs for some wii fun and the kids were really interested in getting in on the action - especially when we got out the wii fit board. they kept climbing on with their dads. madelyn climbed on and grabbed kyle by the hand so that he could stand up on it next to her. matt helped them lean to play the soccer game. it probably needed both of them for there to be enough weight because later we tried kyle by himself and the game kept saying that it could not "find" him. we finally gave up since he wasn't really playing anyway. it sounds like kyle is upset in the video, but he was really having fun. they were both really excited to be participating and 'danced' along when their dads hula-hooped and step danced.

it was a late night for the kiddos. i think we went up for cake around 8:30 or 9:00! then they got into their pjs and kyle got bundled up to head out to the car and a long drive home. madelyn had fun showing him how she could hide in the coat closet as we were saying our good-byes. kyle even got in to give it a try before he left.

it took maddie a little while to settle down in her room after lights out. she was just singing quietly to herself a little, very sweetly. i think that she got up around the normal time the next morning so that was nice. usually a late night means an earlier than normal morning.

love.

"run, jesus!"

on thursday we had some friends from the neighborhood over to play for a little while. (we were originally going to someone else's house, but two sick kids made for a cancellation. i was really looking forward to some social time for maddie and i that i invited everyone over to our house instead.) madelyn was really, really excited to have people come to her house. she had been asking for "kayla", the babysitter, all week so this wasn't a huge surprise. the funny thing was that she kept telling the kids to "come" from one room to the next so that she could show them all of her toys. she would run up to them, yell "come" and then run for them to follow. when they didn't come immediately, she would do it all over again. i had to tell her that they were having fun where they were and she should stay and play with them in there.

she also demanded that they "sit" at the table when she had her snack. i was laughing at her being so bossy (i wonder where she could have gotten that from...).

later that night some other neighbors and their son, jason, came over to see our basement (they are looking at using the same company). madelyn was once more very excited to have company. i had to leave shortly after they got here, but i did get to see her tell the dad to put jason down so that he could play with the ball madelyn had gotten for him to play with. she said "come" and "down" while patting the floor. and i guess after i left she started telling jason to "run" so that she could chase him. after a while "jason" turned into "jesus" so she was yelling "run, jesus, run!" (or so matt tells me). here is some video of her calling him "jesus".

this morning after breakfast we were all cleaning up around the house. madelyn likes to get out the swiffer and another floor cleaner of a similar style and "clean" the floors for us as her contribution to the effort. when i was picking up our winter clothes from our walk around the block yesterday madelyn put on her boots, hat, and attempted gloves all by herself. she was saying that she was ready to "go outside". i took some video, but she had stopped her discussion about what she was wearing and where she wanted to go (gloves take serious concentration).

madelyn is such a ham. during snack time (and sometimes normal meal times) she likes to make what i call "squinty face" and smile a silly smile. i tried to get some pictures but they came out awful! she looks way deformed and not at all cute like it looks in real life. you will just have to take my word for it.

this morning when we got in the car after the grocery store madelyn kept saying "cheese". since we had just bought cheese and she had asked for some at breakfast, i assumed that she wanted some to eat. but that wasn't it. when i looked at her saying it she was making "squinty face" so i asked if she wanted me to take her picture and she said "yes"! i explained that i would take her picture when we got home since i didn't have the camera with me but she fell asleep in the car. it was just funny to me that something in that moment made her want to have her picture taken...

madelyn has gotten very skilled at having a phone conversation. she can answer your questions, tell you what she is doing, and what she did earlier in the day. she just walks around (even went up the stairs) while visiting on the phone. if you call, and have some time, i am sure that she would be happy to tell you all about her day. sometimes i call out translations when she is pointing at something in the room - that can be difficult to follow. dad has really enjoyed hearing about her day first hand. love.

first zoo trip of the year

even though the temperature said 9 (degrees), it was sunny and i decided that madelyn and i would try a trip to the zoo. we both needed to go somewhere to stretch our legs and i didn't really want to spend any money if i could help it. i figured the worst case was that it would be too cold and we would head out for "plan b".

madelyn was SO excited to be at the zoo! as soon as we pulled into the parking lot she started with repeating, "yea, zoo"! she practically ran to the entrance and started saying "penguin" as soon as we got inside (that is the first animal you can see). she remembered everything about the zoo and would get frustrated when the way we usually went was either closed for maintenance or was not cleared of snow. in the picture she is giving an enthusiastic "zoo" near the penguins.

surprisingly there were quite a few people there. any time madelyn would see someone outside the exhibits, no matter how far away they were, she would call out "hi" really loudly and wave. there were a few elementary school groups there that thought she was pretty funny and yelled "hi" back.

what was fun today was finding out how many new words she had for the things we saw today. and then being able to talk to her about it all later this afternoon. after we saw the birds madelyn started asking for the lions. i had not planned on seeing the lions because it is kind of a long walk outside and i was trying to limit our outside time. i decided that we would see how she was doing after the monkeys and the fish/reptiles. after we left the fish/reptiles madelyn was still asking for the lions. she was practically crying because she thought i was going to wrong way to the lions when i tried to take a shorter path instead of the longer route we normally take.

when we got to the big cats pavilion madelyn ran in calling out to the "cheetahs". she was just screaming "hi, cheetahs" over and over. i could hardly pull her away so that she could see the much requested lions. and she still had to go back and see the "cheetahs" one more time before we could leave.

another highlight of our visit to the zoo were the chimpanzees. they were particularly feisty today! normally we don't see much movement from them, but today one of them was running around pushing a crate along the floor. madelyn loved this and kept calling to the chimp to "come" and "run". this chimp was just running all over and chasing the other chimps. when she finally gave up on the chimp running any more, she enjoyed her snack on a bench in front of the orangutans. she liked watching the baby orangutan climb all over and play with a plastic swimming pool. this came up when she was telling dad about her day. he was a little confused when she told him that the monkey was in the pool, but i confirmed that it was indeed true.

we were at the zoo for about 2-1/2 hours and did the trip without a stroller. i only carried her twice during some of the longer outdoor stretches to try and keep the exposure to a minimum. towards the end she did start to get upset from being tired and hungry - like crying and saying "no" to everything i offered her. once we got in the car she was still in a "no" kind of mood. sometimes when she is fussy in the car i just have to let her hold my hand and that is good enough for peace. she fell asleep in the car, without any lunch, and slept for a little over 3 hours. i am so lucky.

it was really nice to get some fresh air. even if it was really cold fresh air. and the walking was really nice too. madelyn has been asking to go outside for a walk a lot lately.

lastly, i couldn't resist taking a picture of madelyn reading several books at the same time while wearing her "book worm" shirt. she brought them out from her room one at a time and set up on the coffee table to 'read'.

love.

baby preparedness

we have been talking with madelyn about a baby coming to live at our house since her "big sister to be" shirt got here and we started telling people. she knows that she is going to be a "big sister" and that a baby is going to come to our house, but i don't think that she truly understands what that means - yet. with the ultrasound coming up in a few weeks, we have been talking about "boys" and "girls" and identify them when we read books or draw stick people. we also talk about how madelyn and mommy are girls and daddy is a boy. off and on we have been asking her about what kind of baby she wants to come and live at her house. for the first few days she would say a "girl", but now she gets excited about a "boy". we will see soon enough about whether or not she gets her wish, but here is some video of her preference.

during lunch today madelyn was standing her 'peas' (crunchy cheetos-like things made from peas and rice) up on her sandwich and then eating them. she had two of them standing up on her sandwich, but she ate one before i could get the camera. i just thought that it was pretty funny because she has never put anything in her sandwich before and they were standing up so well.

i spend a lot of posts talking about what madelyn can say lately that i have been forgetting to mention the things that she can do, so here is a quick list of the latest.

- she can now close her eyes without using her fingers to keep them closed. it has made for some really funny faces at meal times.

- she has realized that she can walk backwards until she runs into something. this has become a sort of game. she will almost moonwalk backwards until she trips or hits a wall and busts out laughing.

- spinning in circles until she is dizzy is another favorite 'game'. she spins and spins and then stops. she holds really still and gets a silly grin on her face while she enjoys the dizzy sensation. it cracks us up.

- she has learned that it is fun to open the closet doors, get inside, close them, and wait for us to find her. luckily she is really noisy about her hiding or i might have really had trouble finding her in the coat closet the first time she did this.

- this one isn't really a "doing" story, but a "saying" story. she calls her favorite toys to "come" when she can't find them. the funniest is "bob" because she often calls him "bobby". when she can't find him she yells "bobby!" in a way that reminds me of how whitney houston is always parodied yelling "bobby!" (i have never actually heard whitney do it, just seen parodies). it makes us laugh every time.

my goal is to take maddie somewhere fun tomorrow. we will see what happens because it is still going to be pretty cold. she was asking to go for a "walk" this morning, but i couldn't because of my meeting schedule. i am determined to get her out for some fun of her own. love.

freedom at last

right before i was getting ready to sit down and post tonight, matt had turned on football on t.v. as soon as madelyn heard the nfl music she turned around and shouted, "go chargers!" her daddy could not have been more proud.

yesterday, madelyn and i finally got to leave the house for the first time in almost a full week. we were heading out to her friend kyle's 2nd birthday party at 2pm. i tried to think of some errand we needed to run earlier in the day, but couldn't come up with anything so we waited until it was time to leave for our first taste of freedom.

we had a nice time at the party and kyle's mom (and dad) did a really great job with a sesame street school theme (kyle is into school buses right now - and sesame street). his mom did a school lunch for everyone that was really well thought out and delicious. madelyn liked eating all sorts of foods that she had not had before, like jello. she also enjoyed 'helping' kyle open his presents. she was doing a good job at sitting on my lap and watching at first, but there was an older boy who was 'helping' kyle open gifts and that got all the other kids 'helping' too. the main objective was to keep madelyn out of the way of the grandmas' camera angles. she actually would step back and just watch every now and then. towards the end i had her happily picking up all the torn wrapping paper and putting it in a bag while kyle got to unwrap things at his own speed.

i had worked on madelyn that morning to say "happy birthday". her version was more like "happy day" or "happy b'day" and "kyle" came out more like "color", but she could say it pretty clearly. of course i could not get her to say it to kyle when we got there. she did say "happy day" a few times, but it was too quiet for anyone to really hear her with all the party noise.

after the party, i had to stop by the mall to get my phone fixed. madelyn was so excited to be walking around somewhere other than home that she started crying and asking to "walk more" when we tried to put her coat back on to leave. i don't think that it helped that she didn't really get a nap because we had to leave for the party a half hour after we put her down. i thought that we could carry her asleep into the car and she could sleep on the ride to their house, but she wasn't really asleep when i went to get her and she never went to sleep on the ride over. and

we had one more stop to make on the way home and were later than expected. we had to put her straight to bed after a quick dinner as soon as we got home. she was exhausted, but totally pleasant all day. unfortunately for me, she decided to sleep in this morning. she always seems to want to sleep in when we actually have to wake up at a certain time. on saturday she got up at 6:30am, but today she had to be woken up at 7:30am! i know that she was just catching up from all the missed sleep yesterday.

matt and i had to go bowling with some people from his department this afternoon so we got a babysitter for madelyn. this is maybe the third time that madelyn has had a babysitter so i told her that kayla was coming over the play with her today and had her practice saying "kayla". as soon as kayla got here madelyn said "hi kayla" and started to show her all of her favorite toys. when i went to tell her that daddy and i were leaving, she said "bye" and gave me a kiss (daddy

also got a kiss). apparently she was really good and slept for 2-1/2 hours. i told matt that this means that we will just have to go out more if she is going to be this easy about it! not that i was really surprised. she never has had a problem with babysitters. i think she was really excited to have someone in the house other than matt and i.

(for the record, i beat matt - substantially - the first game and he beat me the last two.)

all in all a nice weekend but one that has left me more exhausted than rested, not the way i like to start the work week. at least it will be a little warmer and maddie and i might get out some. love.

okay - its cold

madelyn and i have not been outside since 10:30am on sunday when we got home from church. it has been cold. in fact "cold" might be an understatement. when matt left for work this morning (and still at 10:30am when i last checked) it was -15 with at least a -29 degree wind chill. there were warnings for -30 to -40 so school was cancelled yesterday and today. i think that maddie and i are both getting sick of the house and wearing on each other a little. she has been quicker to fuss and cry than normal and i have been extra worn out. as a mixed blessing, it has been really busy (and stressful) at work this week and that has been a nice distraction from our containment.

i decided to try sesamestreet.org as something new to occupy madelyn indoors. there were actually a lot of games that just use the keyboard that she enjoyed playing. they aren't so much "games" as something that identifies which keys she pushes on the keyboard. i was glad to find this because we have used starfall.com on several occasions, but she can't quite get the mouse and clicking down yet. it doesn't help that we have a wireless mouse that matt and i have trouble using on occasion. i have at least gotten her to not click the whole time and wait until i get the mouse into location for the click.

today madelyn got out her animal book from the bookshelf and started 'reading' it aloud to herself. she has made sounds from books and pointed out objects on the pages by herself before, but this was the first time she went through every page and identified the item on the page. she even identified animals that i didn't know she could pronounce (i.e. "fox"). (on a side note she brought us her "panda" this morning - which she said clear as a bell.) i went to get the camera for some video, but she had moved on from the animal book (and i couldn't get her to go back to it). but here is some video of her reading from her "first words" book.

yesterday she was singing some letters to herself so i started singing the abcs while folding the laundry. when she asked me to sing it again i paused after every letter for her to repeat it. and she 'sang' the entire alphabet! (well, she skipped the "u" and went right to the "v" without me saying it first.) by the third or fourth time through she was singing every other letter for me through "g". we don't sing the abcs very often at all (like i can probably count on both hands the number of times we have) so i was pretty surprised by this. then today she was doing a pretty good job of singing "you are my sunshine" all by herself. she had asked me to sing it, but when i explained that i was still eating my lunch she started singing it to herself.

when i went in to join her playing with her kitchen tonight i was surprised to find some of our pantry items in her refrigerator! she often plays with the pantry items, but that she carried them into the other room and put them away in her kitchen was pretty cute. what was even funnier was when i asked her about the V8 soup box she told me it was "juice"; to her a cardboard box equals "juice" and to her credit, it is the same style as a juice box.

because of the extremely cold weather, we didn't spend a lot of time in the basement - it was just too cold down there. but while we were down there, madelyn discovered how to buckle her bike helmet. she was also able to release it one time by herself after i showed her how to squeeze it to release. i am always impressed by her fine motor skills.

my last story of the night is from yesterday. madelyn will lean on my lap and point to her back asking to have me "pet" her. and she doesn't want me to scratch her back, only pet it. it is just so sweet that she wants to have a moment of comfort from me. she has also asked to have her hair "pet" a few nights when she couldn't sleep. i don't know where she got the idea to call it "pet", but that is just what it is that i do. love.

"no, yes, no"

madelyn started answering all questions with "no, yes, no" a few days ago. it comes out as almost one word, she says it so fast. usually she means "yes" when she says this new phrase, but it has made it very time consuming to get an answer to my questions throughout the day. at least today she has started to confirm "yes" after i ask her if that is what she means. she even clarified without me having to ask again a few times so hopefully we are one the end of this little phase.


last night she got to play with her magnet wall for the first time (her hair is a mess and she is just about to go and get her bath). she has since figured out how to put her pictures back up on the wall, but not in the video. she has had a lot of fun playing with the magnets today and thinks that it is fun to have all of her big toys in the new playroom. we don't have everything in there yet because matt is planning on replacing the carpet with hardwoods soon and we need to get some storage furniture on our upcoming trip to ikea (after we have the ultrasound). enjoy the movie.

i was reading an article in parenting magazine today (okay it was more of a 1-2 year old feature than an actual article, but anyway...) and it was saying how an attachment to a stuffed animal or blanket is actually a sign of independence an a major milestone at this age. so we have been allowing "friend" (aka "bear") to be out during the day. i just point out when she is sucking her thumb and tell her that is just for bed time - so far that is working great.

i have a crazy day at work tomorrow so that is all i have for tonight. love.

mourning the chargers

last night was sad at our house as we watched the chargers lose, badly. it was difficult for me to watch. and we had just gotten madelyn to cheer when they did something good (see video for a pre-game test). she had fun cheering with daddy at the beginning of the game, but then everything went downhill. oh well...

daddy and madelyn love playing with the bubbles during bath time. "bubbles" are one of the reasons madelyn gets into the tub in the first place most nights. one of her favorite things to do is to blow them all over. she will scoop them up and hold out her hand for us to blow them off. then daddy will hold them for her to blow. she doesn't always blow hard enough and sometimes needs some help from daddy.

lastly for tonight here is a random video of madelyn talking to the dogs. i was trying to get her to say their names, but instead she just wanted to tell them good "morning" towards the end. you can also hear her giving them kisses if you listen closely after she tells me that she is "pet"ting them. i am posting it because of the increasing requests from family to see more videos... love.

slacking off

well, on the posts anyway... apparently, even though i am feeling energetic during the day, by the time 6:00 hits i hit the wall and just want to go to bed - hence the lack of posts. at least my daytime energy makes the work day easier. i am only slacking on my personal duties.

madelyn continues to amaze us every day with new words, phrases, and actions. here is a list of notes since my last post (some are things i keep forgetting to post that i wanted to note now):

- madelyn got some pretend food in the fall and we had to put them away for a while because she was having trouble cleaning it all up when she was done (we take away toys that she doesn't help clean up when asked). we got the play food back out when she got her kitchen for christmas. she accidentally stepped on a cardboard box (of pretend food) squishing it flat. she picked it up, examined it, then ran over and opened the closet we keep the recycling bag in and threw it in. i was pretty impressed. whenever she finds some paper on the ground or rips something, she puts it in the recycling bag. and only paper products too.

- i think it was on thursday that madelyn said "kiss" and "hug" for the first time. she was asking the dogs for "a kiss", but she stood with her arms spread saying "hug" to me. and when i ran over to give her a hug, she said "love my mommy". she often says "i love you" (not that clearly, but we are positive that it is what she is saying), but this was the first time she had said this. it was such a happy day with lots of hugs and kisses for daddy and i.

- on a related note, madelyn gets very affectionate after meals. she will come over to you and give you a huge hug. the downside is that it is usually when she is coming to get her hands and face wiped. it is hard to turn down her hugs, even if she is covered in peanut butter. and when i point out that she got some on my jeans, she tries to wipe it off for me.

- similar to "i love you", madelyn does not say "thank you" clearly. these are the only two things she says that are not really even close other than their context and the number of syllables. instead of saying "thank you" or after she says "thank you" she will also say "welcome" - very clearly. it is funny because she says "please" and "welcome" but "thank you" is apparently much more difficult to pronounce. who knew?

- "welcome" was the greeting i got when i went to get her out of her room this morning. usually, she greets me with "morning" (very clear). sometimes i get a "g'morning". but today it was "welcome" over and over while she got out of bed. maybe she meant to say "thank you"...

- i had gotten madelyn's halloween candy down off the top of the refrigerator to raid the chocolate and set it on the kitchen counter. i had forgotten to put it back up and the next day madelyn used a bumbo chair as a step up to reach the "candy" when i left the room to take a phone call. i had never heard her say "candy" before and she has never shown interest in it (even when it was given to her). but that day all she wanted was candy. since she willingly gave me back the candy when i asked her for it, i decided that i would let her enjoy a lollipop for being so cooperative even when she really wanted to eat the candy. she really enjoyed her pineapple dum-dum!

- so bear's new name is "friend". as with a lot of new words, it took me a minute to figure out what she was saying and what she was looking for. before christmas i started telling her that bear was for sleeping and she needed to go put him back in bed. she would turn back around and after a few minutes come back with a "yea" and clapping her hands. we had a few weeks of this easy cooperation, but then she started to not give him up willingly. so i would hide him as soon as she put him down and looked away in the morning and after her nap. she never asked for him or looked for him until nap time or bed time. that is until this past week. now she asks for "friend" and cries when she can't find him. luckily, i can usually distract her and she is fine. the reason for removing bear is that she was starting to carry him around and suck her thumb during the day. she doesn't suck her thumb unless she has bear. and she doesn't look for or ask about bear unless she sees him so that is why we started to hide him away during waking hours. i am hoping that the "friend" requests lessen over the next few days. it is nice that she finally gave him a name that she can say and we can understand - "friend" is it!

- madelyn now requests specific videos on lorelai's blog. she will say "ho-ho-ho" for santa visiting her house, "painting" for watching lorelai paint, or "dance" for an older video or lorelai and trae dancing together. she also comments on the video's more. she was watching a video of annabell running and pointed and said "annabell run". she used to just watch and laugh and then comment when the video was finished, now she comments during the action.

- she has added more phrases to her conversations - "fix it", " i (verb)" (i.e. "i cook", "i color", etc.), "see it", and "dump it"

- she requests peanut butter and "jelly" for lunch. she says something before the "jelly", but i always miss it because i am in the kitchen making her lunch. i think she says "pea jelly".

- madelyn loves, loves, loves any veggietales cd. i get a new one every now and then from the library because i get tired of the two or three we have. we have been listening to a christmas one for over the past month and just recently switched back to our original cd purchase. madelyn loves this cd and has heard it at least 300 times (not that i count, but we have been listening to it since she was born and it feels like more than that). she and i were going out thursday night just to get out of the house and listening to the cd on our way. madelyn often sings to herself along with the tune, but not usually the actual words. but that night were were listening to a song (i think it is called "God is good") and it ends "good to me" and madelyn sang the "good" and "me" right along with the song! i was so impressed with her singing the actual words! it makes me really excited for our music classes to start up again in a few weeks. she loves for us to sing, but she mainly listens, dances, and/or plays her instruments. it will be extra fun to have her sing too.
- madelyn has discovered that she can push one of her toys to the front door and unlock the deadbolt to open the front door. i don't think that she is trying to get outside, but now we have to make sure and check that it is locked.

- she got new step stools with daddy a few weeks ago. she got one for upstairs and one for downstairs so that i don't have to lift madelyn to wash her hands (she is getting heavy and i need both hands to help her with the washing and drying). madelyn has discovered that they are also good for reaching the light switches. she has a lot of fun making the lights "on" and "off" or "light" and "dark" (depending on what she wants to call it each time). she has been having fun trying switches all over the house trying to figure out what they all do in each room. not that she really needed any help reaching things, but i love that she has even more independence.

- other food related words - "broccoli", "eat", "fork", "spoon", "plate", "bowl", "pizza"

okay. i think that i am all caught up for now. love.

bagel as big as your head

we went to the doctor's office for 15 week check-up on the sibling-to-be today. for the first time ever my doctor gave a heart rate (and everyone always seems to ask me) so i will note it - 155 (i think - now i am not sure...). we get to try and find out the sex on feburary 10, so we are pretty excited to start the preparations after that!

after the doctor's office we stopped by a local library so that i could pick up a book for the neighborhood book club (like i need one more thing to do, but i love to read and could use some adult interaction). we also picked up a few books for madelyn. we ran into some of our neighbors in the children's section and madelyn's "hi"ing proved to be too much for her friend today. she would burst into tears whenever madelyn would do it after the first two times she said "hi" back - madelyn just kept coming back for more. and then madelyn was playing with a barn and animals with another girl who was at least two, if not three. that girl's mom kept telling madelyn not to push (madelyn wasn't "pushing" more just trying to move closer for a better view of what the other girl was doing/looking at in the barn. i was watching.). i wanted to say that she is only 18 months and doesn't know that she is doing anything wrong (not that she was). our neighbor couldn't believe that the other mom was scolding maddie. oh well. this is the curse of being tall, madelyn, get used to it. i don't get upset about it and just had maddie move on to another toy (since the other girl was pushing madelyn) until they left.

the picture is from sunday and i just thought that it was funny to see her eating such a huge bagel. and she ate the whole thing too! i think she had some banana with it (matt was handling breakfast). she has an appetite this one...

this video is from yesterday. it shows how madelyn gets things to show the dogs while i am sitting in the office working. i got some video because she was cracking me up with calling the dogs ("woof") because she wanted to show them her "dough boy" (grandma works for general mills - owns pillsbury). "dough boy" was a new word/phrase/name for the day and i think that is why she was more excited than normal about the figure. she is also wearing her padres hat that was a huge find at a local marshalls last year. she requested to wear it and was very proud of it. she even stepped up on her stool in the bathroom and turned on the light to get a look in the mirror.

this one is from last night as she was getting ready for bed. daddy called me to come and see this. of course i brought the camera...

now, he says that he knows the paint is wet in the video, but after the video cuts off he told me that he thought it was all dried up on that roller. he is putting up some magnetic paint base for our new playroom and madelyn went in to check it out. apparently she opened the door, walked in and started painting. i am not even sure she has seen us paint before.

well, that is it for today. i am pooped and still have some work, work to do before laundry. love.

peanut blossoms

madelyn spent all morning with daddy. matt got up with her and let me sleep in until 9:15! that was such a treat. and then he took her with him to run some errands and get some lunch. i think they went to babies-r-us and home depot before stopping for a brunch lunch at einstein's. madelyn came home sleeping and slept for more than 3 hours. daddy really wore her out! and i think that they both really enjoyed their time together. plus their outing allowed me to get some things done around the house a lot faster than normal.

after her nap i decided to have her help me make my last batch of cookies - peanut blossoms. (i didn't get them done in time for our new year's parties and already had the ingredients.) she helped unwrap the kisses for pushing into the cookies after they were finished baking. and then i let her push a few of the kisses into the warm cookies. i was very impressed with her focus unwrapping the chocolates, i tried to ask her some questions in the video, but she would only give a soft "yes". the video is long (2 minutes) so you might not want to watch it all since it isn't very exciting. she was very thorough in getting every last bit of foil off the counter and into the trash bowl.

she also got to eat one of these cookies after dinner. i am pretty sure that this is the first real chocolate she has ever had. that is probably why i didn't have any trouble with her trying to eat the kisses as she unwrapped them. love.

happy new year!

okay. so this could be a long one. and, unfortunately, there aren't that many pictures to share. my lack of posts has definitely not been from a lack of activity here! madelyn has been adding at least 5-10 new words a day and it has been fun to see what she will say new each day - i can hardly keep track any more!

we had a pretty busy new year's eve. matt and i both worked during the day, but after matt got home that evening we headed down the street for a get together at a neighbor's house. we had another party to get to after dinner, so it was nice that we were able to make it to both. madelyn was excited to be walking outside, even though it was freezing! we had considered driving, but it seemed silly to drive down four houses or so when it wasn't even snowing.

after some fun and festivities (and lots of snacks for us all), we went home to get some more supplies and head off to madelyn's friends avery and tess' house for the long haul into the new year. we started putting the girls down around nine because they were starting to reach the beyond tired point. matt was quite the ladies' man for story time! it was funny because his lap wasn't big enough to hold all three girls at once and it took some time to get everyone situated on his lap and seeing the book (it didn't really matter that matt couldn't reach around them all to hold it).

madelyn had a very difficult time going down and around 10 we let her come back downstairs so that matt could try driving her around in the car for a while. when she came down she wanted to eat and when i asked her what she wanted she said "meat". now this almost knocked me over! i asked her again what she wanted and she said "meat". madelyn doesn't eat meat - almost never. i had to get matt to come and hear her new word and the request itself. since she was so positive, we gave her some deli ham and she ate at least 4 slices before switching over to cereal. this was so out of character that i wasn't sure what else this evening was going to bring out in her.

matt drove her around for a while and brought her back asleep. well, at least she was until she came back inside. then she was wide awake again. i took her back upstairs to our friends' bedroom and laid her down on their bed. she patted the space next to her and said "sleeping". meaning that i should lay down and sleep with her. we laid there side-by-side for awhile and maddie was not getting any closer to sleeping. i knew that if i left she would fall asleep, but every time i moved an inch she would pat the bed and call out "sleeping". so i sat next to her and pet her hair for a while. when i would stop this she would pat her head and say "pet"! i have never pet her head before like this and i am not sure where she even heard the word before. anyway, i finally made my escape by telling her that mommy had to go potty (a very common statement these days) and that she should wait here. and low and behold, she did! and she even fell asleep around 11:00 or so.

we had thought that the sleeping trouble was just the new place, but she did the exact same thing the next night at home and requested milk (it has been almost 8 months since she has had milk at bedtime, so this was very unusual). we have determined that she just needs a larger dinner than before (she must be having a growth spurt) and has just been hungry.

here are some other maddie stories that should get me all caught up again:

- she has added "um" to her pretend phone conversations. as in "hi, um, gibberish, gibberish, um, gibberish" while she wanders around talking on her phone. every now and then she will throw in a name like "daddy", "nana" or "pop" too.

- she drinks from her play cups by saying "gulp, gulp" and then "ahhh". just like daddy taught her.

- yesterday she was proudly "marching" and told me so. she would come up to me and lift her knee really high and say "marching". she was very proud of this.

- she also told me that she had made a "mess" yesterday with her toys in the living room and was also very proud of this too. i am not sure whether she was proud of the mess or the fact that she could say "mess".

- matt is working on redoing my old office into a playroom so that we can move the christmas presents and arts and craft projects out of the living room and into a room where we can close the door. but matt can't just paint the walls. he is also climbing in the attic to drop in some can lights and considering putting in some wood floors. this was just going to be a simple project, but matt is feeling bored now that the basement is done (except for furnishings).

- i changed out my wallpaper on my computer to a picture of maddie from christmas (the one with the mr. potato head glasses on her face) and madelyn kept saying something about it. i had no idea what she was talking about, but she kept repeating the same word over and over while i tried to guess what it was (obviously a new word). finally, after she pointed, i figured it out. in the background of the picture she was telling me that "archie" (from veggietales) was on the coffee table in the midst of all her other toys. how that was the first thing that she saw, i will never know, but at least i figured out what the word was!

- while i work, madelyn has been pulling the extra desk chair from my right to my left so that she can open my desk drawer and go through my office supplies. there is nothing all that interesting in there, but she can spend a long time without any help from me so it works out for us both. when she does find something of interest, she gets down and takes it over to show the dogs. the dogs are on the other side of a baby gate to try and keep their hair away from the computer equipment, so maddie goes to the gate and talks to them about what she has found. maggie humors her the most and will lay down with her nose under the gate to 'listen'. after one particularly long session, maggie got up to get some water. madelyn was so disappointed. she just kept saying "woof! coming!" and patting the floor. it was so sweet. she was so upset that her audience had left her and she wanted them to come back. she even gives them air kisses when they come over to her. she can say their names, but prefers to call them "woof".

i can't believe that i waited so long to post! i will try to get some more pictures and video soon. love.