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.