okay - its cold

madelyn and i have not been outside since 10:30am on sunday when we got home from church. it has been cold. in fact "cold" might be an understatement. when matt left for work this morning (and still at 10:30am when i last checked) it was -15 with at least a -29 degree wind chill. there were warnings for -30 to -40 so school was cancelled yesterday and today. i think that maddie and i are both getting sick of the house and wearing on each other a little. she has been quicker to fuss and cry than normal and i have been extra worn out. as a mixed blessing, it has been really busy (and stressful) at work this week and that has been a nice distraction from our containment.

i decided to try sesamestreet.org as something new to occupy madelyn indoors. there were actually a lot of games that just use the keyboard that she enjoyed playing. they aren't so much "games" as something that identifies which keys she pushes on the keyboard. i was glad to find this because we have used starfall.com on several occasions, but she can't quite get the mouse and clicking down yet. it doesn't help that we have a wireless mouse that matt and i have trouble using on occasion. i have at least gotten her to not click the whole time and wait until i get the mouse into location for the click.

today madelyn got out her animal book from the bookshelf and started 'reading' it aloud to herself. she has made sounds from books and pointed out objects on the pages by herself before, but this was the first time she went through every page and identified the item on the page. she even identified animals that i didn't know she could pronounce (i.e. "fox"). (on a side note she brought us her "panda" this morning - which she said clear as a bell.) i went to get the camera for some video, but she had moved on from the animal book (and i couldn't get her to go back to it). but here is some video of her reading from her "first words" book.

yesterday she was singing some letters to herself so i started singing the abcs while folding the laundry. when she asked me to sing it again i paused after every letter for her to repeat it. and she 'sang' the entire alphabet! (well, she skipped the "u" and went right to the "v" without me saying it first.) by the third or fourth time through she was singing every other letter for me through "g". we don't sing the abcs very often at all (like i can probably count on both hands the number of times we have) so i was pretty surprised by this. then today she was doing a pretty good job of singing "you are my sunshine" all by herself. she had asked me to sing it, but when i explained that i was still eating my lunch she started singing it to herself.

when i went in to join her playing with her kitchen tonight i was surprised to find some of our pantry items in her refrigerator! she often plays with the pantry items, but that she carried them into the other room and put them away in her kitchen was pretty cute. what was even funnier was when i asked her about the V8 soup box she told me it was "juice"; to her a cardboard box equals "juice" and to her credit, it is the same style as a juice box.

because of the extremely cold weather, we didn't spend a lot of time in the basement - it was just too cold down there. but while we were down there, madelyn discovered how to buckle her bike helmet. she was also able to release it one time by herself after i showed her how to squeeze it to release. i am always impressed by her fine motor skills.

my last story of the night is from yesterday. madelyn will lean on my lap and point to her back asking to have me "pet" her. and she doesn't want me to scratch her back, only pet it. it is just so sweet that she wants to have a moment of comfort from me. she has also asked to have her hair "pet" a few nights when she couldn't sleep. i don't know where she got the idea to call it "pet", but that is just what it is that i do. love.

"no, yes, no"

madelyn started answering all questions with "no, yes, no" a few days ago. it comes out as almost one word, she says it so fast. usually she means "yes" when she says this new phrase, but it has made it very time consuming to get an answer to my questions throughout the day. at least today she has started to confirm "yes" after i ask her if that is what she means. she even clarified without me having to ask again a few times so hopefully we are one the end of this little phase.


last night she got to play with her magnet wall for the first time (her hair is a mess and she is just about to go and get her bath). she has since figured out how to put her pictures back up on the wall, but not in the video. she has had a lot of fun playing with the magnets today and thinks that it is fun to have all of her big toys in the new playroom. we don't have everything in there yet because matt is planning on replacing the carpet with hardwoods soon and we need to get some storage furniture on our upcoming trip to ikea (after we have the ultrasound). enjoy the movie.

i was reading an article in parenting magazine today (okay it was more of a 1-2 year old feature than an actual article, but anyway...) and it was saying how an attachment to a stuffed animal or blanket is actually a sign of independence an a major milestone at this age. so we have been allowing "friend" (aka "bear") to be out during the day. i just point out when she is sucking her thumb and tell her that is just for bed time - so far that is working great.

i have a crazy day at work tomorrow so that is all i have for tonight. love.

mourning the chargers

last night was sad at our house as we watched the chargers lose, badly. it was difficult for me to watch. and we had just gotten madelyn to cheer when they did something good (see video for a pre-game test). she had fun cheering with daddy at the beginning of the game, but then everything went downhill. oh well...

daddy and madelyn love playing with the bubbles during bath time. "bubbles" are one of the reasons madelyn gets into the tub in the first place most nights. one of her favorite things to do is to blow them all over. she will scoop them up and hold out her hand for us to blow them off. then daddy will hold them for her to blow. she doesn't always blow hard enough and sometimes needs some help from daddy.

lastly for tonight here is a random video of madelyn talking to the dogs. i was trying to get her to say their names, but instead she just wanted to tell them good "morning" towards the end. you can also hear her giving them kisses if you listen closely after she tells me that she is "pet"ting them. i am posting it because of the increasing requests from family to see more videos... love.

slacking off

well, on the posts anyway... apparently, even though i am feeling energetic during the day, by the time 6:00 hits i hit the wall and just want to go to bed - hence the lack of posts. at least my daytime energy makes the work day easier. i am only slacking on my personal duties.

madelyn continues to amaze us every day with new words, phrases, and actions. here is a list of notes since my last post (some are things i keep forgetting to post that i wanted to note now):

- madelyn got some pretend food in the fall and we had to put them away for a while because she was having trouble cleaning it all up when she was done (we take away toys that she doesn't help clean up when asked). we got the play food back out when she got her kitchen for christmas. she accidentally stepped on a cardboard box (of pretend food) squishing it flat. she picked it up, examined it, then ran over and opened the closet we keep the recycling bag in and threw it in. i was pretty impressed. whenever she finds some paper on the ground or rips something, she puts it in the recycling bag. and only paper products too.

- i think it was on thursday that madelyn said "kiss" and "hug" for the first time. she was asking the dogs for "a kiss", but she stood with her arms spread saying "hug" to me. and when i ran over to give her a hug, she said "love my mommy". she often says "i love you" (not that clearly, but we are positive that it is what she is saying), but this was the first time she had said this. it was such a happy day with lots of hugs and kisses for daddy and i.

- on a related note, madelyn gets very affectionate after meals. she will come over to you and give you a huge hug. the downside is that it is usually when she is coming to get her hands and face wiped. it is hard to turn down her hugs, even if she is covered in peanut butter. and when i point out that she got some on my jeans, she tries to wipe it off for me.

- similar to "i love you", madelyn does not say "thank you" clearly. these are the only two things she says that are not really even close other than their context and the number of syllables. instead of saying "thank you" or after she says "thank you" she will also say "welcome" - very clearly. it is funny because she says "please" and "welcome" but "thank you" is apparently much more difficult to pronounce. who knew?

- "welcome" was the greeting i got when i went to get her out of her room this morning. usually, she greets me with "morning" (very clear). sometimes i get a "g'morning". but today it was "welcome" over and over while she got out of bed. maybe she meant to say "thank you"...

- i had gotten madelyn's halloween candy down off the top of the refrigerator to raid the chocolate and set it on the kitchen counter. i had forgotten to put it back up and the next day madelyn used a bumbo chair as a step up to reach the "candy" when i left the room to take a phone call. i had never heard her say "candy" before and she has never shown interest in it (even when it was given to her). but that day all she wanted was candy. since she willingly gave me back the candy when i asked her for it, i decided that i would let her enjoy a lollipop for being so cooperative even when she really wanted to eat the candy. she really enjoyed her pineapple dum-dum!

- so bear's new name is "friend". as with a lot of new words, it took me a minute to figure out what she was saying and what she was looking for. before christmas i started telling her that bear was for sleeping and she needed to go put him back in bed. she would turn back around and after a few minutes come back with a "yea" and clapping her hands. we had a few weeks of this easy cooperation, but then she started to not give him up willingly. so i would hide him as soon as she put him down and looked away in the morning and after her nap. she never asked for him or looked for him until nap time or bed time. that is until this past week. now she asks for "friend" and cries when she can't find him. luckily, i can usually distract her and she is fine. the reason for removing bear is that she was starting to carry him around and suck her thumb during the day. she doesn't suck her thumb unless she has bear. and she doesn't look for or ask about bear unless she sees him so that is why we started to hide him away during waking hours. i am hoping that the "friend" requests lessen over the next few days. it is nice that she finally gave him a name that she can say and we can understand - "friend" is it!

- madelyn now requests specific videos on lorelai's blog. she will say "ho-ho-ho" for santa visiting her house, "painting" for watching lorelai paint, or "dance" for an older video or lorelai and trae dancing together. she also comments on the video's more. she was watching a video of annabell running and pointed and said "annabell run". she used to just watch and laugh and then comment when the video was finished, now she comments during the action.

- she has added more phrases to her conversations - "fix it", " i (verb)" (i.e. "i cook", "i color", etc.), "see it", and "dump it"

- she requests peanut butter and "jelly" for lunch. she says something before the "jelly", but i always miss it because i am in the kitchen making her lunch. i think she says "pea jelly".

- madelyn loves, loves, loves any veggietales cd. i get a new one every now and then from the library because i get tired of the two or three we have. we have been listening to a christmas one for over the past month and just recently switched back to our original cd purchase. madelyn loves this cd and has heard it at least 300 times (not that i count, but we have been listening to it since she was born and it feels like more than that). she and i were going out thursday night just to get out of the house and listening to the cd on our way. madelyn often sings to herself along with the tune, but not usually the actual words. but that night were were listening to a song (i think it is called "God is good") and it ends "good to me" and madelyn sang the "good" and "me" right along with the song! i was so impressed with her singing the actual words! it makes me really excited for our music classes to start up again in a few weeks. she loves for us to sing, but she mainly listens, dances, and/or plays her instruments. it will be extra fun to have her sing too.
- madelyn has discovered that she can push one of her toys to the front door and unlock the deadbolt to open the front door. i don't think that she is trying to get outside, but now we have to make sure and check that it is locked.

- she got new step stools with daddy a few weeks ago. she got one for upstairs and one for downstairs so that i don't have to lift madelyn to wash her hands (she is getting heavy and i need both hands to help her with the washing and drying). madelyn has discovered that they are also good for reaching the light switches. she has a lot of fun making the lights "on" and "off" or "light" and "dark" (depending on what she wants to call it each time). she has been having fun trying switches all over the house trying to figure out what they all do in each room. not that she really needed any help reaching things, but i love that she has even more independence.

- other food related words - "broccoli", "eat", "fork", "spoon", "plate", "bowl", "pizza"

okay. i think that i am all caught up for now. love.

bagel as big as your head

we went to the doctor's office for 15 week check-up on the sibling-to-be today. for the first time ever my doctor gave a heart rate (and everyone always seems to ask me) so i will note it - 155 (i think - now i am not sure...). we get to try and find out the sex on feburary 10, so we are pretty excited to start the preparations after that!

after the doctor's office we stopped by a local library so that i could pick up a book for the neighborhood book club (like i need one more thing to do, but i love to read and could use some adult interaction). we also picked up a few books for madelyn. we ran into some of our neighbors in the children's section and madelyn's "hi"ing proved to be too much for her friend today. she would burst into tears whenever madelyn would do it after the first two times she said "hi" back - madelyn just kept coming back for more. and then madelyn was playing with a barn and animals with another girl who was at least two, if not three. that girl's mom kept telling madelyn not to push (madelyn wasn't "pushing" more just trying to move closer for a better view of what the other girl was doing/looking at in the barn. i was watching.). i wanted to say that she is only 18 months and doesn't know that she is doing anything wrong (not that she was). our neighbor couldn't believe that the other mom was scolding maddie. oh well. this is the curse of being tall, madelyn, get used to it. i don't get upset about it and just had maddie move on to another toy (since the other girl was pushing madelyn) until they left.

the picture is from sunday and i just thought that it was funny to see her eating such a huge bagel. and she ate the whole thing too! i think she had some banana with it (matt was handling breakfast). she has an appetite this one...

this video is from yesterday. it shows how madelyn gets things to show the dogs while i am sitting in the office working. i got some video because she was cracking me up with calling the dogs ("woof") because she wanted to show them her "dough boy" (grandma works for general mills - owns pillsbury). "dough boy" was a new word/phrase/name for the day and i think that is why she was more excited than normal about the figure. she is also wearing her padres hat that was a huge find at a local marshalls last year. she requested to wear it and was very proud of it. she even stepped up on her stool in the bathroom and turned on the light to get a look in the mirror.

this one is from last night as she was getting ready for bed. daddy called me to come and see this. of course i brought the camera...

now, he says that he knows the paint is wet in the video, but after the video cuts off he told me that he thought it was all dried up on that roller. he is putting up some magnetic paint base for our new playroom and madelyn went in to check it out. apparently she opened the door, walked in and started painting. i am not even sure she has seen us paint before.

well, that is it for today. i am pooped and still have some work, work to do before laundry. love.

peanut blossoms

madelyn spent all morning with daddy. matt got up with her and let me sleep in until 9:15! that was such a treat. and then he took her with him to run some errands and get some lunch. i think they went to babies-r-us and home depot before stopping for a brunch lunch at einstein's. madelyn came home sleeping and slept for more than 3 hours. daddy really wore her out! and i think that they both really enjoyed their time together. plus their outing allowed me to get some things done around the house a lot faster than normal.

after her nap i decided to have her help me make my last batch of cookies - peanut blossoms. (i didn't get them done in time for our new year's parties and already had the ingredients.) she helped unwrap the kisses for pushing into the cookies after they were finished baking. and then i let her push a few of the kisses into the warm cookies. i was very impressed with her focus unwrapping the chocolates, i tried to ask her some questions in the video, but she would only give a soft "yes". the video is long (2 minutes) so you might not want to watch it all since it isn't very exciting. she was very thorough in getting every last bit of foil off the counter and into the trash bowl.

she also got to eat one of these cookies after dinner. i am pretty sure that this is the first real chocolate she has ever had. that is probably why i didn't have any trouble with her trying to eat the kisses as she unwrapped them. love.

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.