so much to share

as i am sure you can imagine, we have a lot of entertainment here. i just haven't had the time (or energy) at the end of the day to post it all. here are some updates from the past few days:

- madelyn likes to snuggle up and read books more often lately. usually reading only happens at bedtimes, but she wants just as many stories read throughout the day now. this picture is not from a bed time. madelyn requested to read and instead of sitting on the couch she wanted to read in her bed so mason and i joined her. i called matt to take a picture because mason was looking at the book too, but he moved his head once daddy got there with the camera.

- madelyn has a renewed interest in her mr. potatohead set and play dr. kit. she plays with both of them at least once a day. one thing that she likes to do with the mr. potatohead set is to put the pieces in her mouth so that she can wear the smiles, noses, etc. i was trying to get a picture of madelyn and me because we both had in the toothy smile, but she wouldn't look up at the camera when i leaned in to be in the picture with her - sorry for the disappointment.

- speaking of the play dr. kit, madelyn decided to give mason a physical exam on thursday morning. she used the stethoscope to listen to his entire body. i liked this picture of her listening to his feet. every body part got the "thump, thump" sound effect.

after the stethoscope came the otoscope, but this one makes me a little nervous near mason (or when she does my exam for that matter). madelyn's pediatrician says that there is a "birdie in there" when she does a exam of madelyn's ears and makes a bird-like whistle sound. madelyn had declared that "there are no birdies in there" while examining daddy's ears on monday evening. then she looked in the play otoscope and pointed that there were no birdies in there either. we were surprised that she still remembered that about her doctor's visits because we had not been in about 7 months.

- i was changing mason's diaper on friday and madelyn came in to help. before her nap she had requested that he wear an elmo diaper. she had been trying to find one in the diaper hanger but i was already done changing him by the time she found one with elmo on it. while she was napping i set aside an elmo diaper to put on mason after she woke up to make up for not doing so before naptime. when i told her that we were going to put an elmo diaper on mason she started screaming, "no! i don't want it!" and then she started to take out all of the elmo diapers from the diaper hanger and took them to her room. later in the day i went into her room and found them all lined up in a row on her bookshelf. she loves to line things up...

- mason has sucked his thumb a few times that i have seen, but during his bath on thursday night he was really going to town so i had to get some video to share.

- we got our replacement stroller on friday and madelyn could not wait to try out her new seat. she is almost too tall for it! her head hits the sunshade, but it almost does that in all of the strollers now. i am sure people see her and think, "i can't believe that they are pushing around that 5 year old!" just like i think when i have seen a child clearly too big for a stroller. she still doesn't ride the whole time, but it is easier for us to have it as an option.

- madelyn bit her tongue while eating her dinner and came over to get a kiss (to make it all better) and i thought that she just wanted a kiss on her mouth, but just as i was about to kiss her she stuck out her tongue! at least matt had a good laugh.

- madelyn can say her last name now - and it is obviously a mouth full for her to say. i have yet been able to get her to say it for the camera. while trying to get her to say her full name and birthday, she has combined the two. she now says that her name is "maddie june". full name video to come...

- these are just some sweet pictures of maddie and mason having some tummy time together and then mason asleep afterwards (it was the first time he had fallen asleep on his belly).

- big pop made his famous ribs for us while he was visiting. we all went to madelyn's swimming class before dinner and matt was telling madelyn that we were going to have ribs and potatoes - his favorite - when we got home. madelyn kept saying that ribs and potatoes was her favorite too. and she must have convinced herself that they were too because she ate quite a bit of her ribs! madelyn eats almost no meat and she couldn't get enough ribs. i guess there is a reason big pop is famous for them!

- when madelyn counts to twenty she skips the numbers 5 and 15. it is not that she can't say the numbers or that we don't correct her every time. she just counts "4, 6, 7". it is just funny to me that she also skips 15. i wonder what the number 5 did to get left out...

- and last we have madelyn singing "ring around the rosie" while dancing with friend. finally, she will do it without mommy or daddy spinning in circles with her! love.

rockin' out

i had almost forgotten what madelyn is like when she isn't sick. its like meeting her all over again this weekend - she is a new girl now that she is over the ear infections.

she was being really silly in the car after church today. believe it or not, this is some of the tamer dancing in the video. i thought for sure she was going to tip over her car seat. love.

daddy's girl

i almost fell out of my chair tonight at dinner laughing at matt teaching madelyn a trick he might regret some day. matt was pretty late getting home from work so madelyn had already had her dinner. when matt got home she came around begging for scraps at the table and pulled her chair right up next to daddy. she was particularly interested in his "chips". i told matt that one would be okay and madelyn agreed to "one". she asked for "more" a few times, but for the most part accepted that she already had her one chip. as usually happens at the end of meals, madelyn was being very affectionate and hugging matt over and over. he asked her for one more hug. when she hugged him he said "okay, now you can have another chip"! i said that she was a smart girl and she would figure out that daddy would buy her love. i told him that this was going to make the blog.

matt was also asking her about being a "big sister". tonight she was adamant that she wanted a "girl baby". matt said that it would be okay if another girl was just like her.

she begs for "ring around the rosie" all the time now (i just taught it to her recently after reading that her cousin annabell likes to sing it at the library). it makes me crazy dizzy after just one singing, but she likes to sing it again and again. luckily, she was willing to do it by herself so that i could take some video.

(apparently i cannot opperate my camera properly and will have to try the video again tomorrow.)



i thought that i would show why there are so few pictures these days. she was laying on the couch quietly reading a book yesterday, but the second i held up the camera she jumped up and stood on the couch with her "cheese" face. the picture of her laying down was a reenactment after i asked her to lay back down and read again. love.

the day after

madelyn and i had a fun morning playing at home while daddy went to work until around 1. we played with her mr. potato head toys for a long time. she was having a lot of fun trying to get the glasses to fit on her face. she was so proud when they would stay on for even a moment. (i think that she looks a lot like me when i was her age in this picture. in fact, i called my mom because i thought that there was a picture of me with mr. potato head glasses on, but it was brad.)

she was so cute dancing to one of her toy's music today that i had to share. she was so happy jamming to it! she wasn't really playing with it, but wanted to keep it on for the dance beat. i think you can tell how big her smile is in the video.

she went strong until daddy helped her with lunch and made our first attempt at nap time. thankfully, she went down without a fight and napped for about 3 hours. she was a little bit out of sorts from the long nap when she woke up, but after some milk and rudolph, she was ready to run errands with daddy and mommy. her new thing is to say "out" when she is done riding in the car. it always makes me laugh because she just thinks of it all of the sudden like "oh, here is my stop - let me out".

other words to mention - heavy, cake, stool (as in step stool), mug, and play. love.

dancing machine

madelyn was a dancing machine today! she was having so much fun doing her 'cha-cha' dance all over the house. she particularly liked dancing in the guest room after turning on the radio. this was the best video i got because she has decided that it is more fun to watch the videos than to do whatever i am trying to catch. it is so cute how excited she gets to see the video. i did get her to run out and dance for a few seconds before racing back to watch, but it wasn't really worth posting.

today brought a flood of new words! here is some video of me trying to get her saying the first new word of the day - "turtle". most of the time it sounds like "turd", but she is trying to identify the turtle toy. if you listen closely the first time sounds the most like "turtle". she said it much more clearly other times, but this was the best i got on video.

in addition to "turtle", she said "bean" a few times while eating her green beans at dinner, "comb" after dinner (she had been playing with several combs before dinner with daddy), and her first really clear "uh-oh". she has been making the "uh-oh" sound for a while, but this was the first time that she has said the two syllables clearly. i get so excited when she adds a new word to her vocabulary! i am working on a list of all the words, animal noises, signs, and other identifying noises for her 15 month appointment next week because so many people keep asking me how many words she has in her vocabulary and i never have a good answer. i will post my final tallies after we go to her 15 month appointment. love.

speaking or shrieking?

we just hung around the house today and played with madelyn. matt worked on his reviews (he is almost halfway done with writing around 40 reviews) and i cleaned up and did laundry. i had planned to start christmas cards, but they may have to wait to be done during the weeknights - the clock is ticking though and i am starting to get nervous if i will get everything done before christmas!

today i was reading about the "sixth month" in the what to expect book and it was explaining that babies should have "a-goo" type vowel/consonant combinations for their babbling. maddie was doing that at 3 months but has now moved on to a shrieking and grunting type of expression. she does make other consonant type noises, but being the perfectionistic, over-achiever that i am i of course wondered if she was still on track. (before everyone tries to reassure me that all babies develop at their own pace, i am not really worried. i just question everything.) here are some videos of her "talking" to dad today. they were at it for about 20 minutes before maddie rolled over in favor of a toy. since it was after 3 the sun was already starting to go down here and i didn't realize how dark it was (the final video always looks darker than it does in the preview screen while recording it) so this is more for listening than the viewing (which is too bad because she gets really excited and animated when she 'talks').





here is one more video of her 'dancing' with daddy for your viewing pleasure. standing is quickly becoming her favorite thing to do...

the only other excitement of the day was the introduction of pears into her food options this morning. they were a huge hit! she couldn't get enough of them! and she also drank the most water from her cup yet - maybe it was all the sweet flavor or the grainy consistency. the pears were so grainy that i had to run her hands under the kitchen sink instead of just wiping them off. she really thought that was great because she likes the running water. that's all the excitement for today. love.