big helper

madelyn is such a good helper! sometime she 'helps' a little too much, but overall she really is a help to me. and not just getting me things either. she can get him to take a pacifier better than i can! she usually offers to put it back in his mouth before i can even ask. i do have to ask her not to give it to him when he is already sleeping though.

she helps set the table for dinner by putting out napkins for all of us and then picking out three forks from the drawer to put on the table for us to use. she has been picking out her own spoon and fork for several months now, but letting her pick out forks for matt and i is new. she does a really good job of it too.

this week for dinner she shucked all five ears of corn for me out on the deck. and she often gets her stool out of the bathroom (before i can get her kitchen stool down off the refrigerator) to help with the rest of the cooking. i try to let her do as much pouring and stirring as i can but mainly she just watches and talks to me about what i am doing. or she gives mason "magic kisses" and his pacifier to help him stop crying for me.

madelyn's manners also continue to improve. she will now say, "may i please have [blank], mommy?" i love the "may i". and she rarely has to be reminded to say please or thank you any more. she is getting very consistent about saying "thank you" for complements too.

this week we have eaten cantaloupe. madelyn has eaten most of it. she eats half a decent sized cantaloupe with dinner and/or lunch before i cut her off and switch her to another fruit. matt can't believe how she puts it away! she really likes to put the halves back together to make a circle - she pointed this out to me while i was preparing her lunch one day.

everyday when we pick her up from school she tells her teacher (and anyone else who will listen that i am her mommy and he is her brother mason. then she tells us how much she missed each of us.

since the other two pictures on the page didn't show her face, i added this one from last night when she was showing me how she fit in the "closet" (aka the kitchen pantry cabinet). her hair had been in two front pig-tails, but she had one fall out after nap time.

the one thing madelyn doesn't really do to 'help' is ask to hold mason. she tells me that she is going to pick him up sometimes, but she doesn't really ask to hold him. this morning though she asked to "carry mason" (this is how she asks to hold him). and this video shows the last part of their time together. madelyn asked me to take her picture with mason (and i did) so i knew that she wouldn't mind the camera and used the opportunity to get some video since she has been so temperamental about the camera in general lately.

my last comments about my "big helper" would be that she daily points out that mason is "cute" and the past few days she has been commenting that he is getting bigger. she also tattles on herself if she "bonks" him with her body or toys in any way. mason isn't crying, she just tells me, sadly, that she bonked him. overall she is very careful and loving around him. she has not shown anything purposefully hurtful at all which is really nice. we feel very blessed to have such a great big sister around! love.