behind bars

madelyn loves playing with our dogs in the basement. she was having such a great time playing while i was working in the office. today's fun was playing in the larger of the dogs' cages. she even brought in some crayons and paper and sat in there drawing for a while. she was also insisting on feeding them their food by bringing it to them. and after a while she had to chew on some of it herself. she always tells me "the dog food is yummy".

here is the cutest conversation from the morning:

"be back, maggie, okay." and then she ran towards the stairs.

"madelyn, where are you going?"

"getting pants for maggie."

"getting maggie pants?"

"yea!"

"why?"

"to go to the park. pants for maggie to the park."

i had to convince her that maggie did not need pants and that it was raining so we wouldn't be going to the park. i don't know where she got the idea that maggie needed pants, but it made me laugh.

here is some video of her laughing at maggie from inside the cage.

other sayings that have me amused these days:

- "hurt myself. okay." - the "myself" was something new today, but the declaration that she is "okay" has become a regular part of her recovery routine. she might even be crying, but she still manages to get out an "okay" through the tears.

- "where are you?" - she calls it out, loudly, when she is looking for someone or something. sometimes even if she can see them/it. when we were at the zoo she was calling out "tiger, where are you?" entertaining all the adults around her who giggled to themselves. i haven't been able to get it on video yet, but i hope i can because the way she says it is priceless to me.

love.

fun in the backyard

after madelyn was kind enough to sleep in until 7:30 this morning, i headed off to an hour long massage at a local spa. it was a baby shower gift from some neighbors and it was wonderful! the masseuse was a little surprised by how much tension there was in my neck and back - actually so was i. i couldn't believe how many knots there were and how long it took her to work them out. i feel so much better!

while i was out this morning, madelyn and daddy had a morning out of their own. the went to their breakfast place (einstein bagels) and a few hardware stores. they were on the hunt for gardening tools. the idea was that they could get some maddie-sized tools so that she can help daddy with their gardening this summer. unfortunately every store was out of stock.

after madelyn's nap she went looking for daddy so that she could get to work. of course she had her red snow shovel to help with, but she also liked helping with daddy's tools. i was particularly impressed with her ability to control a full-sized hammer. and now construction is complete on their two vegetable garden boxes. next will come the planting soil and a few more warm weeks before the seedlings are planted outside. matt and madelyn have been lovingly sprouting their seeds inside the house preparing for their impressive summer garden plans.

in addition to helping daddy, madelyn had some fun playing with our dogs. maggie will hold still long enough for madelyn to pet her, but lady gets way too excited about the attention and tends to knock her down. madelyn has mastered most of their commands - "drop it", "no", "sit". she has also figured out that they are bringing her the ball so that she will throw it. when she is just on the deck they bring it up the stairs and she pulls it through the gate before dropping it over the side of the deck or just down the stairs for them to chase.

while daddy finished up the second box, madelyn used it as a sandbox. maybe that will be one of his next outdoor projects... love.

the power of packaging

madelyn is addicted to gerber "yogurt melts". we discovered them on our recent trip to florida and may bring a whole case of them on our flight to california in a few weeks. seriously. they are that powerful. we try not to give maddie too many of these "sweet" types of foods because she eats her "healthy" food so well we don't want her to sway to the sweets like her mommy. but in a must cooperate situation (like an airplane) they are extremely useful!

i have discovered another benefit to her addiction - the yellow bag. madelyn wouldn't touch her raisins so i went to get the bag and she started signing for "more" (remember that she uses that sign for "eat"). so i pulled some from the bag and put them on her plate. she gobbled them up and signed for "more"! it took me a minute to figure out what had changed, but then it came to me - the yellow bag! i am going to look for more healthy foods that come in yellow bags and exploit her illiteracy as long as i can.

we had a few more firsts today. madelyn has learned how to open the screen door and let herself out on the deck to be with the dogs. so we won't be leaving the sliding glass doors open for air any more. before she did that though i realized that she was trying to give the dogs "kisses". she has never tried to kiss anything but people before and usually at our request, so this was defiantly a first. we have always told her that the dogs are giving her "kisses" when they are licking her all over so that she doesn't get scared when they are double teaming her (all the time) and i guess she put it together that she could "kiss" them back. lady licked the screen and then maddie put her mouth in its open "o" for kisses on the screen in return. and then she would do it on request so of course i got it on video.

next is her riding her horse. its long and is mainly for the grandparents. enjoy!

love.

can i go out and play?

madelyn loves her dogs. she likes to stand at the door and watch them while banging on the glass and 'talking' / yelling to them. since the weather is nicer she can get a little more interactive with only the screen separating them. it gets a little crazy when she is actually out on the deck, so the screen works best for me.

i didn't notice that she was pointing at and then signing "ball" until after i stopped the video. her sign isn't the greatest, but she does it after she points at the ball or when looking at it so i figured it out (she kept doing it for a while after i turned off the camera - that's how i made the connection). watch towards the end of the video and you will see her pointing/"ball" combo.



this morning i took madelyn to one of the biggest pizza places i have ever seen - unfortunately i left my camera at home. they do a mom's morning out from 9 - 11 during the week and i thought that we might check it out as a practice outing of getting somewhere on time in the morning before her music class starts next tuesday. they had a water play room with cascading tables and toys (they even had vinyl smocks to wear and keep clothes dry), a train room, a pizza restaurant play kitchen, a large block room, a face painting room, and a hamster style play gym. some of our friends met us there too. it costs just under $5 and includes a coffee, juice, milk, pastry, fruit, and cereal buffet. i think that we will try it out again sometime - especially in the winter months.

matt is such a great dad. i know that i am biased, but he is so cute with her. we stopped to get a quick dinner tonight while running errands and matt was sticking cheerios on his tongue and then sticking it out for madelyn's amusement. i had to remind him that madelyn wasn't the only one who could see him... then when we were leaving sam's, matt had her on his shoulders and was skipping. yes, matt skipping. i wish that i could have captured it because she was laughing and squealing and bouncing on his shoulders while matt skipped the whole way to the car. so sweet. i love to watch them together.

good night. love.

we've got a climber!

so matt was playing with maddie in her room while i was prepping some food for maddie in the kitchen. when i heard matt call out "michelle come here. you've got to see this!" i knew that i should grab the camera on my way (i keep it on the kitchen counter for easy access). here is what i found...

she kept going up and down, up and down so i am sure that we are going to see this again. she has been lifting her right leg up to climb a lot lately, but hadn't figured out how to actually go 'up'. oh boy!

maddie really loves dogs - as i have mentioned before - and here she is 'talking' to the dogs outside. please notice that she is in just a diaper and our deck is covered in snow...



madelyn has added "ba", "bye" and "va" to her vocal repertoire yesterday. she also waves one hand and says "hi" when she wants you to look at her.

yesterday we didn't quite have the adventure that i was hoping for, but we did get out of the house. our big outing - the local library! actually, it was a really nice library and we got several books and music cds for madelyn. all in all, it was a very successful outing that i think we will repeat in the future.

today was warm (30) and sunny so we went to a new(er) outdoor shopping center on the north side of the city. it is funny to think of 30 as 'warm', but really it feels warm. matt and i didn't wear coats, hats, or gloves. and people working in the stores were commenting that it was much busier today because of the warmer weather. it was so nice to spend the day outside. we even went for a walk around the neighborhood after dinner. but it started to get cold again as soon as the sun started setting so we high-tailed it home. we have a big outing planned for next saturday, but you will have to wait and see what we do (pray the weather cooperates!).

hi, doggie!

madelyn is extremely interested in our dogs now. she crawls over to the glass sliding doors to look for them out on the deck. and when they come up she laughs at and talks to them. i think "dog" or "doggie" might be her next word. she has come pretty close to saying it while looking at her books with dogs in them. she is just missing this vowels by saying "dg". you can see her trying to give maggie a 'kiss' in the picture while lady waits her turn.

matt went out last night to brave the cold because we were worried that maddie wouldn't be able to breathe with her congestion. so matt came home with a bag of supplies from walgreens and we woke her up. after plugging in a vapor fan in her room, putting saline drops in her nose and sucking them out again, and rubbing baby vicks on her chest we were all breathing easier.

and we all had a great night's sleep! due to concerns about frostbite (it was colder than -30) and maddie's sniffles we stayed home from church this morning. i hate missing church but it really was in madelyn's best interest. she slept until 8:30am!

here is a video of a well rested girl showing how fast she is getting at crawling.



did i mention before that she gives "kisses" now? she mainly gives them to matt (not that i am jealous or anything). they are the big, wet, open mouthed, "i'm going to eat your face" variety, but she gives them on request. very sweet. well, that's all for now. love.