m.i.a.

i am currently on a business trip and won't be posting again until this weekend. i had hoped to post pictures of my pumpkin masterpieces sunday night before i left, but it didn't happen. you will just have to keep waiting...

love.

i am lion, here me roar!

madelyn debuted her halloween costume for a play date today (she is the lion to the right of the pirate). this group is made up of kids whose parents were co-workers of matt when we were all pregnant. almost all of them were in utero at a christmas party (a few are second babies). this was by far the best picture i got! it was a little challenging to get all these little kiddos to hold still and look forward.

she did a really good job of roaring nice and loud when asked what a lion says. she also did a nice job of saying "woof" to her friend jack who was dressed as a dog. most of the kids made "woof" noises for jack (jack is on the left holding his little sister claire dressed as a peapod).

madelyn was pooped from all the fun and passed out shortly after we got on the interstate. i thought that she was so cute and took a picture at a red light.


after her nap we got the most wonderful gift from her friend lorelai! - small gloves! they were the smallest gloves i had ever seen and fit madelyn perfectly. she was so excited to have them on that she kept showing daddy and doing a happy dance. here is some of the excitement captured in this video. love.

the 15 month check-up at 16 months

this morning madelyn finally had her 15 month check-up. too bad that she is 16 months and two days old... anyway, here are her stats:


34 - 3/4 inches tall (off the charts at 99.93%)


26lbs. 12oz. (89.6%)


48.6 cm head circumference (98%)

(she is also wearing 2T/3T clothes and a size 7 shoe.)

we talked about other developmental milestones to see how madelyn is doing. she was impressed that madelyn is working hard at trying to walk up and down the stairs while holding the handrail. and not to brag, just to document for future reference, madelyn has the vocabulary of a two year old at over 50 words. and that is not including her signs and animal noises which the doctor counts as "vocabulary".

the doctor also heard an "innocent heart murmur" which is nothing to worry about. i repeat, it is nothing to worry about (that means you two, grandmas). she said that she only mentioned it in case another doctor brings it up - like if we had to go to urgent care or somewhere like that before it goes away. it is very common around 2 years old and might even go away by the next appointment. on another note, her iron levels are fantastic and she doesn't need a vitamin with iron any more but we can still give it to her if we want to (we will keep using the same vitamin (half a one-a-day childrens) because it has normal iron amounts - not extra like we were asked to give her). her iron was just slightly low at the last appointment and i think that it was just because she was sick that week and not eating normally.


poor kid had three shots and then had to go to the lab to have blood drawn. they made the mistake of getting her all set and then undoing it to find someone else to hold her arm still while i held the rest of her still. she was too antsy by the second attempt and got upset before they ever got the needle in. all in all she did great and even said "bye" through her tears and waved when we left the lab. she really had no reaction to the shots this time, she was just her normal self all day.


when madelyn wakes up in the morning, she flies like a bee to couch as soon as we open the door. usually she is signing for milk and calling for "bob" as she runs past us. its amazing she can find the couch behind her hair covering her entire face. i am usually right behind her with a clip to tame her hair so that she can drink her milk and watch veggietales while i finish getting myself ready or whatever else i might have been doing when she woke up.



this morning i decided to capture her bed hair for you to enjoy. love.

scarf

surprisingly, madelyn likes having a scarf around her neck. she picked this one out of the collection in the coat closet while i was hanging up my coat. this is not the first scarf she has worn around the house, but it was the first i took a picture of to share. the first time i jokingly tossed the ends of on she was playing with around her neck i thought for sure that she would pull it off, but instead she pranced around in it and whined when on of the ends fell off her shoulder. maybe we should get her some more size appropriate versions...

we had such a nice day, but i am too tired to post very much - sorry. she was in good spirits, i got a lot of work, work done, we watched the digger truck readying a lot for a new house, and we went to a fun girls only play date this afternoon. love.

after dinner treats

after dinner can be one of the best parts of the day. first it is nice to have daddy home, second we are all fed and content, third madelyn gets extra silly.

it starts with her back and forth "hi" game, then comes the lap hugs where she comes over and hugs our leg and/or lap with the "hi", then she points at us while saying our names ("dad", "mom"), and then comes the dancing to signal that she is getting full and ready to play. we quickly get her hands and face clean before she starts getting her toys involved in the action once the dancing begins.

tonight she was especially silly! she had gotten a halloween package from papa and nana late in the afternoon and she really got to checking everything out after dinner. (i just realized when i sat down to post that i didn't take any pictures of the halloween gifts - sorry.) they sent her several things, but one was a bear dressed as a pumpkin that had a curly ribbon coming out of the top of the costume as a vine. this was the first game. she would pull out the ribbon and then let it bounce back while matt and i yelled "boing!" leading to lots of laughter and giggles. after that she worked her way up to our laps (we were sitting together on the couch while she was running around playing) and was showering dad with hugs. next she got down and i asked if she was going to give dad kisses. she immediately turned around and ran at full speed towards matt - we were expecting a kiss - instead she lunged at his lap before turning back around and running to the fireplace laughing hysterically! but then she turned and ran back to lunge into his lap before going back to the fireplace. i had to try and get some video and thankfully she kept doing it - although she did pause and tone it down when the camera came on. enjoy!

there was lots more running, laughing, and playing so i expect her to sleep really well tonight! love.

enjoying a sunny day

after spending almost all day inside yesterday due to a cold, rainy day, when i saw sunshine this morning i knew that we were going outside. i did have a moment of doubt when i saw 36 on the local news graphic, but that's what coats are for, right?

madelyn and i bundled up and headed to the zoo - of course. after about a half hour is was warm enough for me to take off my coat and maddie's hat, but i kept her in her coat until we got back to the car. it was so gorgeous! not a cloud in the sky and all the fall colors. here are a few picks from the zoo for you warm weather folks...















madelyn had such a great time. her skills of observation have dramatically improved. they have always been really good, but in the past week there has been a substantial jump. we spent more time than normal in the fish and reptile building today. madelyn took her time at each exhibit and seemed to look at every animal and plant available. at one of the fish tanks she kept calling out "turtle" and pointing. i was in the middle of correcting her and saying that there weren't any turtles in that tank when i saw the turtle she was seeing. and for only the second time she showed interest in the snakes. not only that, but she said "snake" instead of "hiss". she was excited running between exhibits with some little boys - maybe elementary school age.

and those weren't the only boys she took an interest in at the zoo. she is a huge flirt! there were some boys acting silly while we were watching the cheetahs pace outside and she kept laughing at them. of course that only made them act sillier and sillier until their dad took them away. then we ran into them again on our way out of the big cats' building and she just gave a coy smile while hiding behind me a little.


she barely stayed awake until we got to the interstate. and then she slept for three hours. since the sun was still out and it looks like we are going to have more rain the rest of this week, i took madelyn to the park this afternoon. she had a lot of fun crunching the leaves. they had blown into strips or piles and madelyn ran from one to the next stomping her feet. it was cute, but i didn't get a good video. then she had fun trying to keep my sunglasses on her face while swinging.


yesterday, madelyn and i had our first day in the basement office. madelyn really enjoyed having all the open space to run around in. we haven't gotten the dogs cleaned up and groomed yet, so they are mainly in their crates/cages when they aren't outside. plus, they are too excited to see madelyn and she doesn't like their forever kisses and bumping. she does love them and even brought her book out to read to lady. i know that she was "reading" because she pointed out everything she had a word or noise for as she turned the pages. it was so sweet. of course, she also tried to feed lady tissues... love.

kiss it better

i am proud to say that i am posting tonight from our newly completed basement office! matt has been working so hard on all the finish work so that we could move all my stuff down here this weekend. the lighting is so much better down here and it is warmer than the upstairs now that the weather is getting cooler (something to do with being under ground).

matt even took madelyn to monkey joe's (i guess it is a cross between chuck e. cheese and pump it up) after church so that i could have a few uninterrupted hours to go through all my work files and clean them out before moving everything down during maddie's nap today. i will post pictures once we get some more of the basement cleaned up and ready - so you can get the full impact.

quite a while ago we taught madelyn to "brush it off" when she fell down. no matter what part of her body gets hurt, we will tell her to "brush it off" and she will brush her hands together and the go about her business. recently we added "kiss it all better". which after a few times started to put an end to tears. now today for the first time, she came to have an ouchie kissed better. she was exploring the new office and pinched her fingers in a drawer. she ran right over to me and put her fingers to my mouth and then ran away after she touched my lips. i was sitting on the ground so she didn't need help reaching my mouth and i didn't even have to really kiss them. she did bring her injured fingers back a few times for some more kisses, but there was no more crying. love.

veggietales live

so i was so excited for today! we had three tickets to see veggietales live at a local church. the show started at 4:15 and i was shocked when it ended after 6pm (granted there was a 20 minute intermission)! it was a really long time for maddie to sit still during dinner time without any food. i started talking to her about "going to see bob" yesterday and today she seemed to understand what we were doing. i told her that when daddy got home we would be going in the car to see bob, and when matt got home she was excited and couldn't wait to get her jacket and shoes on.

just for good measure i let her bring her bob toy in the car with her. we were also listening to veggietales music on the ride to set the mood. the picture shows her hugging bob tightly in the backseat (you can only see his hat sticking up near her cheek) with anticipation. the bob toy is hard plastic, so you know that the squeeze is for love and not a snuggle. the other benefit of bob is that madelyn held him with one hand and dad's hand with the other on our way into the church. handholding has been a little trouble lately, but then i discovered that if she has something to carry she will hold our hand without complaint while walking. so far it has worked and made a huge difference in our trip from the car.

so back to veggietales. i wish that i could have gotten video of her in the beginning of the show. we were just starting to loose her when the show finally started (it was general admission so we got there kind of early to make sure we could see well). at first she froze in her tracks and studied everything before realizing that this was fun and got up to dance. she was waving her arms around like the dancers who were not in costume. she was so happy and enthusiastic. after 4 or 5 songs she started to get really wiggly, but by the end of the show she got back into it for the last 3 songs busting out an impromptu dance in a burst of energy.

after the show we thought that we would make a night of it and pick up some dinner. madelyn had apple juice with dinner and it gave her a huge second wind! we had a chatter, laughter, and song filled car ride home. all and all a fun evening.

i thought that veggietales was all i had to report for the day until i downloaded today's pictures off my camera. its amazing how far away morning seems after all day with madelyn...

the day started with purple lips. yesterday started the same way, but after milk, changing out of pjs, and eating some breakfast they were not purple anymore. today, they stayed purple. so i broke down and turned the heat on - to 65. that made the difference. it is funny because madelyn kept saying "hot" when she obviously meant "cold". i did get her to give a few "burrrr" it's cold equivalents though.

madelyn has always liked to play and hide in the laundry room, but lately she has taken it one step further and "hides" behind the ironing board. i had to squat down a little to get her face in the picture and that is where the "hiding" comes in. no eye contact equals hiding. which is fun for both of us all day. we hide behind blocks, hands, toys, knit blankets, anything large enough to cover our eyes.

something new for today was play-doh. i had read that a plain place mat used repetitively for new activities can help with attention and focus. so i bought this purple square one at the dollar store this summer. little did i know that her tumbling class would use a red square to indicate where the children should sit. and when i decided that we should play with the play-doh on the floor she sat down on her square.

madelyn did not really know what to do with it. and really, neither did i. going for the easy solution we made a snowman (we have been reading a snow book where they make a snowman) and a snake. madelyn liked the snake best and was upset when it 'broke'. i showed her how easy it was to pinch it back to fixed and that really got her into the play-doh. there was lots more "uh-oh" it's broken and then smiles for it being fixed again. and the best part was that none of it got eaten. it got sniffed a lot and licked twice, but none was consumed. surprisingly, most of the fun was putting it back into the container and trying to get the lid on. we probably took it out and put it in four times before finishing up our arts and crafts for the day.

we have a pretty full chore list for this weekend, so there may not be many posts. love.

rocks in my pocket

about a month ago we picked up corduroy at a local library. madelyn liked it so much that i picked it up again when we went to the library this week. we also picked up another one about corduroy getting a pocket. she is too interested in corduroy's overalls getting a spin the dryer to actually get through that one yet (in her defence she has usually sat through a few times of the original corduroy book before agreeing to the pocket one). my point is that we talk about corduroy having a pocket on the cover.

over the summer one of madelyn's little jumpers had two pockets on this hips and i used to stick toys in them for her. it just blew her mind that clothes could have pockets! and she never forgot. every time she wore that jumper she would get the same two toys i had used and try to put them in the pockets, ultimately having to ask me to help her. now that she is wearing jackets and other winter apparel there are pockets almost every day.

today we played outside for a little bit in the morning because it was really windy and there were quite a few leaves in the front yard. i was trying to show her that she could throw them up and they would blow away in the wind. she wouldn't do it herself, but kept asking me to do it. and then she found some little rocks (her new size preference in rocks - pebble sized and smaller). since my hands were starting to get pretty cold from the wind i put them in my pockets and wanted to show madelyn how to do the same. so i decided that the rocks could make some good bait.

i put them in her pocket and she then proceeded to try and put both hands in that pocket to retrieve the rocks. it did result in a little circle turning trying to get the opposite hand to reach the pocket. the best she got was one hand all the way in as you can see in the picture. the look of concentration is because she is feeling the pocket seams for her two, small rocks.

i am torn about putting her in mittens because they limit her dexterity, but gloves don't come in her size (at least i haven't been able to find any that don't start at a size four - but maybe i should give them a try...). i had the same struggle last winter (to cover her hands with mittens or not), but for a totally different reason - thumb sucking. life is just full of choices isn't it? love.

the mystery continues

so madelyn started vomiting at midnight last night again. the good news is that there was only one vomiting incident. and my wonderful husband went out to walgreens at 1am to buy her some gas drops because her stomach was making the sort of exaggerated noises that they use in movies to imply severe stomach trouble is about to come. plus she was crying out every 10 - 30 minutes in pain.

thankfully, after a dose of gas drops and a dose of motrin the night didn't have any more interruptions. and today went really well too. although, there were some rumblings as we were reading books tonight before bedtime so i gave her a dose of the gas drops.

i put a call in to the doctor's office this morning and they said that it was just one of those mystery things that kids pick up and for me just to make sure that she stays hydrated. matt and i are starting to think that it might be some sort of food intolerance - even though there is no obvious possibility and no real changes to her diet. i had thought that it might have been something she ate after the mess last thursday night and have been joking that she must have licked her shoe or something. if she is still having trouble sleeping by thursday night we are supposed to bring her in on friday. so we will see what happens.

while watching me make her lunch today madelyn was "smelling" her strawberry jelly like crazy so i got the camera because i don't think that i have mentioned this interest. she smells everything which has been fun to explore while buying produce at the grocery store or doing anything with clear scents. she doesn't actually "smell" in the video until the end. love.

madelyn and the nonspecifically grumpy day

madelyn was in a grumpy mood today and from what i can tell it was for no obvious reason. i mean she was agreeable for the most part, but not her normal enthusiastic self. except of course when she put on daddy's chargers knit cap and rode her horse. i checked her for new teeth, a new injury, fever, diaper rash, anything i could think of at all, but there is no obvious source for her discomfort. maybe it is just "growing pains".

for the past several nights madelyn has been waking up crying a painful sort of cry several times a night. it started a night or two before the vomit night and is still a problem. sometimes she cries for only a few seconds before falling back asleep, but most times i have to go an stroke her forehead or rock her a little. last night we gave her a little motrin because she cried three times between 8 and 10pm - totally out of character. it seemed to help and i got my first full night of uninterrupted sleep (5 hours) in almost a week.

so today i thought that we would head to the zoo since we had to go that way for a few errands. she got excited as soon as we pulled into the parking lot and began 'naming' (with their sounds) all the animals we would see. she was practically bouncing up and down in her stroller on the way in, but somewhere between the entrance and the primates building she lost her enthusiasm. usually as soon as we see the gorillas she jumps out of her stroller and runs from exhibit to exhibit after studying each one. instead she insisted on riding in her stroller and when she would get out it would be to come to me and ask to be carried - "b-up" (it used to be just "up", but last week she added the "b"). she also fell down every time she would try to take a step or two. sometime later it occurred to me that i think that she had a growth spurt in the past week - could her feet have spurted as well? um, yes. her toes were so jammed in that she couldn't keep her balance. i think that pair lasted all of two months and we bought them really big! how big can you buy shoes and still have her be able to walk? needless to say we are going shoe shopping this weekend.

after the zoo and errands madelyn was too tired to sit up and eat her lunch, so here she is reclining eating the peanut butter half of her pb&j. she pulls it apart and picks all the jelly off before eating each half of the sandwich on her own. its not the most efficient way to eat a sandwich but she eats the whole thing. you might also notice that we wasn't feeling the texture of her pears today. she would put some in her mouth chew it up for a while and then spit it out on her shirt before getting some more and doing it again. if it wasn't such a mess i would have laughed more.

i thought of something else after i posted last night - madelyn says "hi" during dinner. she says "hi" a lot. when we all sit down for dinner at night madelyn looks at matt and says "hi" (enthusiastically) until matt says "hi" back, and then she looks to me and says "hi" until i say "hi" back, and then back to matt. if you don't respond after about 4 "hi" attempts she will get out of her chair and come over to you in case you didn't hear her the first four times and need her to put her head in your lap for acknowledgement. it is very sweet, but after the 20th time or so it gets a little difficult for matt and i to carry on a conversation. she was doing this tonight while the contractor, jim, was here. she just kept going back and forth between matt, me, and jim. matt and jim were busy going over some numbers and didn't have time for this game so i had to absorb all the "hi"s. she sure is a friendly little kid. love.

more catch-up

there have been lots of other things going on with madelyn besides injuries and sicknesses, so here are a few:

- she hugs my arm to her face when i am changing her diaper. it is so sweet and with such enthusiasm that it makes my day - even if it does make it impossible for me to finish changing her diaper.

- madelyn is really into bugs right now. she points them out everywhere - in print, in real life, in songs, even imagined bugs (aka lint). she can only identify "bees" by name though. and she held a ladybug at the park today which was pretty exciting.

- colors can now be identified upon request. if asked for the "red fish" she will bring you the red fish. the camera is still too distracting for me to get any video, but hopefully i will have some soon.

- last week was a crazy eating week! she ate more food at a sitting that i could. one morning she ate two waffles, a banana, half an avocado, and a handful of grapes! we are guessing that it was a little growth spurt. i actually think that might have attributed to her lip injuries this weekend.

- when in the car she requests for her "bob sing" (aka veggietales cd). if i turn it off when she gets into her book or switch to the radio, she looks up and calls out "bob". nothing gets by this girl.

- if i tell her to "wait one minute", "just one more time", or "one more book", she will hold up one finger to show me how many. and there is no complaint after the "one".

- she is getting really close to jumping. she actually left the ground tonight for a split second. but the enthusiasm and effort she puts into trying is more fun than her actually jumping.

- coloring and stickers have become a new favorite activity. it amazes me how well she places the stickers in the book. she understood instantly that you have to put down the sticky side and then get your fingers out from underneath it while holding down one side with your thumb. i didn't even have to show her how. this is another activity that i hope to catch on video.

- she says "no" or "nope" when she means "yes". you have to ask her - "do you mean yes?" if she does then she says "yes" if not she repeats her "no" or "nope".

the pictures are just a few from today while she was being extra happy eating her snack after her nap. love.

finally a pumpkin!

sunday was much more enjoyable. and madelyn barely looked like she had hurt her lip so much on saturday. its amazing how fast her injuries healed up! after church we headed to a popular local farm. apparently they are known for their smiling barn and apple pie baked in a brown paper bag. it opened at 10 and we got there around 10:30 - there were already lines everywhere.

it was much warmer than saturday (i think it got up to 84) so madelyn couldn't wear her cute halloween shirt, even though i managed to get all the blood stains out. so i went with a farmer inspired outfit instead. she has really outgrown the shirt, so she was showing a lot of belly. oh well.

this farm provided an opportunity for apple and pumpkin picking, but with long lines for apple baskets and apple picking we decided to just head up to the pumpkin patch on foot to find a pumpkin or two for the front porch. it was a little less than a mile walk (there was a hayride up, but the line for that was pretty long too), plus you got to walk along the apple orchards and watch everyone picking apples. it took madelyn a little while to start the trip to the pumpkin patch because she was too interested in all the people and the hayride. she did pretty good walking for a while, but all the rocks and apples on the ground proved to be too tempting and dad carried her the rest of the way up.

it was really hot in the pumpkin patch! this was not the wisconsin fall outing i had wanted, but there were a lot of pumpkins. not only was this a first pumpkin patch for madelyn, but for me too! after trying to pick up a few pumpkins that she couldn't move, madelyn went for more size appropriate gords (they had orange tops and green bottoms). we ended up picking out two pumpkins and madelyn picked out two gords to take home with us. you will have to tune in later to see what we do with them...

so now that we had our pumpkins, we had to make our way back down the hill to pay for them. matt and i had to trade off carrying a poopie madelyn and two pumpkins. by now we were all pretty sweaty too. so matt stood in line to pay and i took maddie to try and find somewhere to change her diaper. there weren't really a lot of options so i had to settle for a picnic table next to a family eating

their lunch less than 5 feet away. it didn't really help that madelyn was sweetly saying "hi" to their daughter the whole time i was changing her. at least she held still.

we did wait in line to go into their farm store though. and it was worth the wait! we got some apples, cookies, and their famous apple pie baked in a brown paper bag. let's just say that the pie is not low fat - you can taste the butter. and it is fantastic! i am not much of a pie fan either, but it was really, really good. i think that we will be taking a return trip for a thanksgiving pie or two. love.

we should have stayed in bed

we had plans saturday, but we should have stayed in bed. the plan was to meet friends at a local farm at 9am, eat lunch, and maybe pick a pumpkin. i have been looking forward to going to a farm and picking a pumpkin for about a month. i was trying to go a few weeks before halloween and after the weather had gotten cooler. that was the plan, but here is how it actually went...

madelyn woke up screaming at 6am. i got her settled back down and then she woke up to start the day at 7:30am. i was still exhausted from madelyn's night of vomiting, but since matt had been up until 3am working on the basement floors i got up with her. while she was eating her breakfast, i was working on putting together a packed lunch for us to take to the farm. and then madelyn started screaming. she fell into the chair next to her at the table. i guess she was distracted (she gets a little dance-y when she starts to feel full) and tripped landing lip first on the neighboring chair. well, her lip busted open and blood started pouring out. i was torn about if i should take her to the emergency room for a stitch or two or if it was just a bad cut. the bleeding seemed to stop in a reasonable amount of time and once she was calm she wanted to finish her breakfast. so i assumed that we didn't need to go for stitches because from what she would let me see, it wasn't too bad.

once matt was up i was able to start getting myself ready to go. once i was presentable it was time to get maddie into her halloween shirt so that we could get some cute pumpkin patch pictures. by the time i had directions on how to get to the farm it occurred to me that we were going to be two hours late. if we were two hours late madelyn would be cranky and hungry by the time we got there and would be ready for her nap. but i was determined, so we all got in the car.

on the way to the farm madelyn started to get sleepy - as expected - and yawned. the yawn opened up the cut on her lip and it started bleeding profusely. i was trying to reach back and control the amount of blood stains by this time we were late, exhausted, and madelyn was wearing a now bloodstained shirt with more blood coming from her mouth - it was time to give up. so matt turned the car around and we headed back home with a hungry, tired girl demanding "snacks" in the back seat.

still unwilling to give up on our fall fun i suggested that we head to a nature center just down the street from us to hike up one of the trails to the top of a hill and check out the fall leaves after madelyn woke up from her nap (with her hand, thumb, face, and linens stained with blood). the day was gorgeous and surprisingly warm and i refused to spend it indoors.

the nature center was pretty crowded, but as soon as we headed up to the information center (to check out the fish tanks and stuffed wildlife) we realized that this too wasn't really going to work out. the ladybugs were swarming! it doesn't sound like a big deal, but ladybugs here bite. we were covered from head to toe with ladybugs by the time we got inside. after a quick brush off of the bugs we spent some time inside taking in the staged wildlife. madelyn was excited to see all the animals and we spent more time inside than we would have if it hadn't been for the ladybugs.

when we finally decided to venture outside again we just went on a quick lap around the short trail to check out the apple themed scarecrows. madelyn didn't quite know what to think about them - they were a little creepy and not in the fun halloween way. about halfway through the trail madelyn started to melt down and we had to leave.

after the nature center ladybug swarm, we went home and i started dinner. matt got to finally start preparing the basement floor for stain. i decided that since it was a nice evening i would grill the fish outside instead of cooking it in the oven. madelyn was snacking on some apples while i was preparing everything for the grill. when i would go out she would sit in a chair by the glass sliding door so that she could watch me put the food on the grill without getting too close. when i came in the second time she jumped down to follow me into the kitchen and landing face first down on the hardwoods! and as you might remember from the beginning of this long post, madelyn had already busted her mouth in the morning. the blood was twice as much this time. she and i were both covered in blood all over our shirts and she wouldn't let me anywhere close to her mouth to see where she was bleeding, if she had any teeth left, or wipe off any of the blood. in the mean time it was time to get the fish off the grill and matt was still downstairs in the middle of applying the etcher/degreaser to the floor.

i got madelyn calmed down, took off her shirt, got her some milk and put on some "bob" (aka veggietales). this time her bottom lip was split in two places on the inside. i think that it split more because it was still swollen from the trama in the morning.

bed time could not come soon enough! all and all the day was a bust - literally for madelyn. the weekend could only get better, right? love.

sanitary cycle

in the past 24 hours i have gotten to use the sanitary cycle on my new, fancy washer about 5 times. and not just for the joy of doing laundry, but because madelyn decided to spend the night emptying out her stomach. i finally got into bed around 12:15am (i was working) and madelyn woke up and made a mess of her bed around 12:30am. and then again at 1:15am. and then again at 2:45am. and then again at 7:30am in the living room. and last a huge mess at 8:30am that put us both into the shower. thankfully, she never had a fever and seems to be done.

she managed to time it out that i would just be drifting off to sleep after changing and starting the laundry from her last mess when she would wake up with another mess again. i finally gave up and put her in bed with me in the guest room so that at least matt would get some sleep and i could make sure that she stayed under the covers since i had also given up on keeping her in pjs after the second strip down. bear couldn't be cleaned well until morning because she would not be able to sleep without him and his odor kept me awake for much of the remaining night (he took a spin the sanitary cycle first thing this morning though). it didn't help that maddie woke up at 7am ready to go. i guess it was lucky that she never actually felt bad. the only thing i can guess is that she got into something that made her stomach really upset. who knows. i was really thankful for our three ultimate crib sheets because they made clean up a 'snap' - literally! (i highly recommend the ultimate crib sheet.)

she was really in a great mood all day. although last night she wasn't really happy about being forced to take a bath when she just wanted to be sleeping. after a three hour nap madelyn was able to eat a waffle and some banana and drink a lot of water. tonight she was her normal self (she is playing with some crazy squash dad brought home from work in the picture.) yea!

in other happy news, madelyn has a new cousin. bradford james ii (junior) was born early this morning. they are going to call him ford since his dad (and namesake) already goes by brad. love.

maddie-in-the-box

i wasn't going to post tonight because i hadn't really used the camera today, but then maddie was in a silly mood this afternoon! (maybe it was the birthday cake at matthew's 9th birthday party today.)

here she is playing in an empty diaper box. she has played with them many times, but this was the first time that she would climb in and pull the flaps down to hide herself better. she is really starting to get the hang of this hiding thing.

then we were trying to get her to march while i was making dinner because she was dancing and we have been "marching" in music class. but when i told her to "pick up her feet" she took it literally and bent over to pick up her feet - she even let out a grunt for her effort! i thought this was pretty funny but when i got the camera she ran to her room and hid in the box. after some coaxing she went along with it.

and then "bonk". madelyn was getting ready for bath time and started crying. when matt went in she was standing near her bed so we assumed that she had bumped herself on the bed railing. then while giving maddie her bath matt noticed that she was starting to get a nice welt on her head. my goal is for her to make it to 5 without a facial scar. i am sure that she was diving into her bed after bear because she was running to her room at full speed after him (dad was carrying him back for bedtime after madelyn had tried to bring him to the dinner table).

she isn't dull - that's for sure! love.

i live in wisconsin

even though we have lived in wisconsin for over four years i am still a little in shock that i live here. especially this time of year. while it is really exciting to me for the change of seasons and i love the fall and winter wardrobes because of all the layers, it is still crazy how long winter lasts! last night on the local news they were pointing out that there has been record of snow from october 6 - may 10! that is more than half the year! i, who once spent most of her free time at the beach, now live where snow is possible for more than half of the year! they also said that we are losing 23 minutes of daylight a day. i think we only have daylight from 7 - 7 right now. pretty soon matt won't see the sun except for weekends because it will be dark when he leaves in the morning and dark when he gets home in the evening.

maddie had a pretty uneventful day - music class, three hour nap, playing at the park, playing in the front yard, dinner, bath, and bed. more later. love.

every time is something new

every time we go to the zoo madelyn discovers something new or decides to be adventurous in a new way. today it was giving the baby gorilla statue hugs, figuring out how to turn on the water fountain (or locally known as the "bubbler"), and climbing up into the foot massage chairs throughout the zoo.

it was a blustery fall day and pretty much the only people there were parents of toddlers. when we stopped that the playground in the "family farm" on our way out the 2-5 play equipment was crawling with kids, but the 5-12 set was totally empty. the zoo has put out some halloween decorations so that was something new to see and talk about as we worked our way around to all the animals.

the most entertaining animals of the day were the hyenas. they were pacing around and one of them would do a turn on its hind legs when it got up near the glass. the first time it did this madelyn just looked at me like "what just happened here? that isn't normal." but then we both started laughing as it did it again and again. i bet we watched at least 20 rotations. here is some of maddie laughing at this trick - and asking for it "again".

on the way to the zoo i was singing madelyn songs. when she would call out "again" and "please" i asked if she wanted me to sing, so she said "sing" "please". it is so funny the words she says and the ones that she still doesn't. we can't believe that she doesn't say "bear" with as much as she loves hers and as often as we say "bear". i know that she will say it some day. love.

socks away

i had to run a few errands this morning and madelyn fell asleep at 10:30 (her mid-morning hump) whining for "snacks". when we got to the house i went to get her out of her car seat and she woke-up shouting "snacks"! i thought for sure that she was awake for good, but instead she snuggled up into my neck and went back to sleep. i was a little torn about whether to encourage her to wake up and eat her snack or just let her go to bed. the risk was only getting a one hour nap and a cranky girl for the rest of the day. i decided to go with it and put her in bed - where she stayed for the next three hours!

dryer update: the electrician came out and it was just a loose wire in the electrical cabinet. yes, that would mean that our old dryer still worked. yes, that means that we spent money we didn't need to. yes, matt may never get over this. needless to say i have been doing laundry ever since the electrical was fixed.

when matt got home he helped sort and fold while i worked on dinner. to keep maddie out of the kitchen for me, matt had her putting away her socks. she made this trip at least ten times, but i decided to get some video right as she was starting to loose interest. we were speculating about what we would find in her room - would the socks actually be in her dresser or just scattered on the floor? watch and find out. (i couldn't decide which video was better and posted them both - the lighting didn't look as bad while i was filming.) love.

bloody sunday

disregarding the mess that is our garage right now behind her, take a look at our sweet little madelyn's right knee. she tripped on the way to the car after church riping her tights and scraping her knee so that it bled through her white tights. but like the big girl she is, she brushed herself off and kept right on going. a quick tight change at the house and we were off to do some more appliance shopping. three hours and a lot of money later, we had a new washer and dryer installed today (yes, they delivered today - sunday - at no extra cost). we had looked at getting a "scratch-and-dent" dryer just to get us through a few more years, but we couldn't find one under $300. and it just made more sense, economically, to buy the pair since we didn't have a lot of years left on our washer either.

i was so excited to get caught up on our laundry (a little over two weeks worth) and got right to it. i was very impressed by the wash cycle and pulled the clothes over to the dryer. only the dryer wouldn't turn on - at all. after flipping the breaker a few times, matt and i felt sick because we just dropped a lot of money that we would rather have not done and it is looking like there was actually nothing wrong with the dryer (and washer) that we let the appliance store hull away for us. it might actually be something the electrician did while working on our basement last week. of course we are calling the contractor first thing in the morning to get the electrician back out here (he is already slated to come by tomorrow anyway). i will give you an update tomorrow, but for now we are not that happy. although the washer is really great so far!

during our appliance shopping yesterday we returned some left over tile but could only get a store credit. off we went to try and find things that we actually needed and not anything we just never knew we 'needed'. i was pleased to find a solidly made wooden step stool. i have been looking for one for madelyn because standing on a chair isn't something i want to teach and she is getting heavy for me to hold up while she washes her hands or watches me cook. and for $6.99 i felt like it was a steal. madelyn is just tall enough to use it at the kitchen sink. she keeps climbing up to wash her hands, but i don't indulge her every time only when she actually needs to wash her hands. there was a little hesitation at this purchase because she will easily be able to move it around to reach anything she wants to; and she is already starting to realize that benefit of the stool. hopefully, this won't be a purchase i regret... love.

first frost

we woke up to a white world this morning - sort of - due to our first official frost of the year. the yards, roofs, and road were shaded white by a layer of frost. by march i am tired of winter, but this time of year i get excited to bundle up and hope for a white christmas. but for now, everyone is gearing up for fall.

after spending the morning looking at all our options for a new dryer (ours died last weekend), we stopped by "harvest fest" at a local grocery store. we were offered a pumpkin for maddie to paint and thought that we would give it a try. she has been doing really well with her crayons, spent fifteen minutes writing with a pen on some paper, and we were headed home after this stop so a mess could be handled. she did so great! of course i didn't really get any pictures or video of how good she was doing at dipping (she is a really good dipper and has added "dip" to her vocabulary) her paint brush in the paints to paint the pumpkin or how well she did drawing on it with a marker. here is some video of daddy helping her paint.



and here are front (with help from dad on the eyes) and back (all maddie) pictures of her finished pumpkin on our front porch. hopefully, she (the pumpkin) will have a larger friend in the next few weeks.










the lady at the store offered us some ribbon and let maddie pick from two choices - madelyn went for the literal option with pumpkins on it. she is getting so opinionated thanks to all the options we give her for almost everything (clothes, toys, stroller v. wagon, etc.). i stapled the bow on top as a salute to maddie's ever present bows.

late this afternoon we went down to the neighborhood park for some outdoor fun after all the appliance shopping in the morning. the most exciting part was that we didn't take a stroller or wagon with us! madelyn walked the block and a half there and back (up hill both ways - really). anyone who has even tried to walk even to the next house knows that is quite an accomplishment. toddlers are easily distracted and tend to wander. not that we got there quick or anything, but she didn't even ask to be carried and didn't wander off the sidewalk. it is just extra energy burned. we did stop often to checkout some of the halloween and fall/harvest decor, pick up a bird feather, blow some dandelion seeds, and point out rocks and flowers. i wish that i had my camera for video. everything was greeted with a "hi", then examined and discussed ("what's that?" and my answers), and then waved to with either a few more "hi"s or a "bye" before continuing on her way. i thoroughly enjoyed our walk.

once we finally made it to the park madelyn lost interest in the feather after her first trip down the slide and enjoyed climbing, sliding, and swinging. and tonight she discovered the joys of swinging herself in the big kid swing (aka regular swing). she finally figured out how to get on her chest/belly and push with her legs to swing. again i wish that i had brought the camera with me for video (the pictures are from my phone). she has gotten on the swing like this before, but not figured out how to actually swing all by herself - she was so excited about and proud of this accomplishment.

she also spoke her first sentence - "mom swing, please". i have been swinging next to her, counting to three, and then jumping off while she is swinging in the infant swing. she asks me to do it "again" and "again", but tonight i got the full sentence request.

last is one more picture of her by the swing because i thought it was cute. love.

new bubble game

after a few rainy days, today was a beautiful fall day. (granted matt had frost/ice on his windshield this morning that couldn't be scraped off by his windshield wipers.) since it rained last night, i thought that the playground might be too wet for playing this morning. instead we went back to the lotza fun room. we haven't been there in at least 6 months and they had a lot of new toys. and madelyn had the whole place to herself for over an hour! i guess they were really busy the past two days because of the rain, but we were the only ones all day today.

madelyn was totally overstimulated by all the toys. she went around the whole room saying "hi" to everything and could hardly play with anything before seeing something else that needed her immediate attention. she did spend quite a while feeding all the baby dolls in the play house in the middle of the room. and any other toys that got her attention for more than 5 seconds took a trip through the jungle gym tube. she would carry them through at least once and laugh the whole time. the picture shows her taking the bottles through when she was finished feeding all the babies.

after the lotza fun room we went home for some lunch and her nap. i had to fight to keep her awake on the drive over there because it was 10:30 and if she is in the car at 10:30 she falls asleep and if it is long enough that is her only nap for the day. i have been working on getting her back to a 1:00 or 2:00 nap time. she starting going down for her nap before noon after we got back from california and i hadn't really tried to push it back because when she sleeps 2-3 hours it didn't really bother me. but it is starting to be inconvenient to feed her lunch after her nap and it makes it difficult to keep her nap time consistent when we have to run errands in the morning.

because it really was a beautiful day out, we went to the park late in the afternoon. madelyn has been obsessive with her bubbles lately. she carries them with her everywhere when we are outside (i don't let her bring them in the house). sometimes she wants me to blow them, but most of the time she wants to "dip" the wand herself and can even blow out a bubble or two. so here is a new game that got her laughing when she was swinging with her bubbles (it is pretty bumpy because i am pushing her and picking up the bubbles).

yesterday afternoon we went to the park for a few hours. the sun had finally come out and the rain had stopped for a while. we did have to bundle up (i wore my first scarf of the season), but with the sun out it was a nice time to go. my trick for getting a little more out of her warm weather clothes is to put a long sleeved t-shirt under it. it was a lot easier this spring when she didn't care, but now she didn't like having to put on two shirts because it slowed her down from being able to "go".

all of the gorillas/apes/chimps/monkeys were inside and madelyn was very excited about seeing animals in every cage (usually at least half of the exhibits are empty because the animals are outside) and as a bonus almost all of them were swinging around and playing. she also gave a baby gorilla statute a close examination. she has never had any interest in it before, but we had also never gotten to see so much activity from the gorillas before and spent more time at that exhibit than normal.

love.