nemo interview

madelyn was going on and on about "nemo" while we were riding home tonight and cracking me up. while matt ran into the store for a few quick things i wanted to try and get some of the interview on video. its like the camera distracts her. it is sort of a representative of what she was saying, but when the camera was off/down she made a lot more sense and gave more feedback.

she has been asking me to draw "hammer head shark" all day because of seeing the "stick shark" in nemo and having me tell her that it is a hammer head. and i guess the swimming underwater looks like "swimming in the air" to her. after i stopped filming she starting saying "duuude" like the sea turtles in the movie. she was quite amused with herself.

she keeps saying "okay" because she was really upset about coral, nemo's mom, getting eaten at the start of the movie. i told her that sometimes big fish eat little fish and it is okay. today was the first time this was ever upsetting to her (she has seen it maybe 5 times before). she also got upset when the sharks were chasing marlin and dori; i told her that it was okay because the sharks couldn't get them. so for the rest of the day she kept saying that different things in the movie were "okay".

okay - one last point just because it is crazy. twenty minutes (or less) from our house got 14.3 inches of lake-effect snow today and we had sunshine all day. just crazy. love.

the meanest mom spring giveaway

i have posted about "the meanest mom" before and if you have yet to check out her blog now is the time! she is offereing up some really great mommy gifts in her "march madness" giveaway. here is a link: http://themeanestmom.blogspot.com/2009/02/march-madness.html. i wish you all luck (but secretly hope that i win). love.

pregnant belly

i finally look pregnant enough to have a stranger acknowledge it! when greeting those seated around us at church this morning i got a "congratulations" from the woman sitting in front of us and it made my day. with maddie it was a man sitting next to me on an airplane to be the first stranger to make a comment. i always like knowing that i have passed the 'fat' look into a pregnant look.

since i look pregnant now, i had matt take a picture for me to post. it isn't the greatest picture of me, but i was just trying to let you see my belly today at 23 weeks, one day (i don't have one with from maddie until 26 weeks so i will compare the two then).

matt was feeling a little better today so i convinced him to go to the outlets for some baby boy shopping. it is the first time we have purchased anything for our baby boy to come. and we purchased a lot. we had coupons and there were great sales. we actually got more for maddie than for the new baby. we got maddie a lot of winter clothes on clearance for next year and a few summer items. the best was that we found cute "little brother" and "big sister" shirts (you will have to wait a few months to see them).

madelyn was so cute while shopping. to my surprise, she picked up a headband and put it on her head at one of the stores. i don't know how she knew that it should go on her head, but she wore it all over the store and for several more stores to come (after we purchased it - of course). she was so content for the entire outing (about 4 hours of shopping and store hoping) and had fun walking around and hiding in the clothing racks. at the carters store she played with a block table while we shopped. when we told her that it was time to go, she carefully took apart all the towers she had built and put them back in the bucket in the middle of the table. i was so proud of her for cleaning up what she had been playing with before we could leave. she even told us when she needed to have her diaper changed. needless to say, she fell asleep the second we got in the car after lunch to head home.

her behavior has been a dream since she started feeling well again, but she has been getting up very early (for her) in the morning. she has been getting up between 6:00 and 6:30am (instead of 7:00 - 7:30). on saturday morning she got up early and instead of coming into our room like she normally does she went downstairs to see the dogs. i could tell that she sounded far away, but i was surprised to find her in the basement happily playing.

in other stair news, i have been meaning to post for a while now that she can walk up the stairs holding on to the railing all by herself. she still prefers to hold our hand while going down the stairs but, as you can tell in the previous story, it is not necessary for her to get down. she will try holding the railing for a few steps, but i think she just gets a little nervous and wants to hold a hand and/or slide down on her bottom.

i was all ready to post when i got one more video to share. madelyn asked for paper to color with markers (this is unusual since we haven't used markers in a very long time). i had gotten some new washable markers at the dollar store so i decided this was the perfect occasion to give them to her. she was being so careful with them that i left the room to talk to matt for a minute. she was still doing so well at recapping the markers and putting them away that i had to get some video. love.

bed fun

madelyn is quite the chatterbox and her sentences and phrases are getting more and more elaborate. one of her favorite phrases lately is "i don't want it" - mainly at meal times. the nice part is that she also uses "i want it" from time to time. part of the enhancement to her conversation is the use of "i", "me" and "maddie" and a lot of adjectives ("heavy", "spicy", "big", "little"). almost every conversation has a new little surprise for me about how smart she is. and given how much she talks during the day i get a lot of rewarding moments throughout the day.

the best is when she 'reads' to me while i change her diaper. it amazes me how much she remembers and can repeat back from books we haven't read in weeks or months even. since she does this mainly while i am changing her diaper it might be a while before i get a nice video of it to share here.

we were laying/reading/playing in her bed today and she told me that she needed her "choo-choo" and told me that "i will be right back" as she took off out of her room. and sure enough a few minutes later she came back with all four of her train cars from the playroom.

she loves laying/reading/playing in her bed. one of her favorite things to do is hide under the "covers" or "blankets" and wait for us to 'find' and tickle her. she looks so funny during this game because her hair gets so static-y and all over the place.

last night she got some friends (lilly, friend, and cookie monster)and arranged them with their heads on her pillow before snuggling in between them. then she carefully pulled the blankets up around all of them and we read books for bed time. while i get the rest of her room set for bed time (humidifier, music, etc.) she 'reads' the last book on her own until i turn the lights off. she just looked so cute with all her friends that i had to take a picture. love.

"no, thank you"

madelyn spent some time in her room sitting next to the bookshelf 'reading' for a while this morning. i love (and sometimes hate) that she never gets tired of her books. its also nice that she has a different favorite every day, especially with all the "again please" requests.

the book of the day was what's wrong little pookie? - over and over and over. for those of you not familiar with this literary masterpiece the basic plot is that a little boy, pookie, is crying and his mom is trying to guess why by asking him questions. we don't read this book very often but madelyn brought it out to me to read today. later she got up and gave pookie's responses when i read the mom's questions. it was pretty cute. the best part was when she said "no, thank you". this was significant because madelyn has never said "thank you" anywhere close to what it should be and now here she was saying "no, thank you" clear as i would! but when i then asked her to say "thank you" she still couldn't (or rather wouldn't) say it - that is until i asked her in this video...

here is video of her solving her shape sorter. please don't feel the need to watch it. i know that it isn't very exciting over all but i think that is pretty exciting that she can do it now (without any major frustration).

i took a pseudo sick day today (meaning that i worked but took a nap and tried to stay off the phone) and for the first time - ever - madelyn took a long nap when i needed her to take one. she slept for three hours and i got to sleep for two - hooray! i am definitely feeling better than i did on sunday but still not able to breathe very well. this is one of the weirdest things i have ever had. it is not a sinus infection and not anything i caught. i am guessing this is what allergies feel like. my head is so clogged that it is hard to hear! hopefully i can sleep well enough tonight to finally shake it.

i will definitely get some more video of madelyn this week. she is so happy to be feeling better and really loves to sing (even though she doesn't know all the words). 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.

bilingual?

languages are important to me and i have tried to expose madelyn to as many as possible. (i read that early exposure helps 'map' the ability to learn a language later in her life.) we read translated books, watch the baby einstein language dvd, and talk through a spanish vocabulary book on occasion. before curious george they give a few spanish words during the pbs intro and yesterday madelyn repeated the spanish word for rabbit - conejo - when they the lady said to repeat it. she was quite proud of herself. and so was i!

madelyn is finally acting and eating like herself again. i, however, have bad congestion. i don't think that it is a cold because i have had the sniffles and sneezing for a while now. i think it just finally turned into something more serious in my sinuses. it has been a very long week. here is her enjoying her playroom now that she is feeling better:

i asked her to say "manatee" because we were reading her s is for sunshine book or as she calls it her "beach book". and she pointed at the manatee and said it syllable by syllable "man-a-tee". it was the first time she had worked so hard to pronounce a word correctly so i thought it was noteworthy.

"friend" the bear has been very involved in our day to day activities around the house. if mommy puts lotion on her feet, madelyn wants lotion on her feet, and friend wants lotion on his feet (per madelyn's instruction). friend has a specific seat at the table and often shares in meals and snacks. i posted a while ago about how madelyn likes friend to wear diapers when she gets changed ("friend diaper"). now friend has to get dressed too. mostly she wants him to wear her coat, but she has also asked for shoes, bracelets, etc. the shoes were funny because she would walk him around the house in them and try to get him to stand up on his own. friend is leaning against a foot rest in the picture (she posed him like that).

we made major progress in setting up madelyn's room today. matt built the dress, book shelf, and his own special addition, a chair like his favorite one just for madelyn. she loves her new set up and loves, loves, loves her new chair. she has been climbing up in matt's new chairs all week and was so excited to see that there was one just her size in her room. she picks out a book from her shelf and climbs up to 'read'. it is so cute to see her finish one book and take it back for another off the shelf. she is actually getting really good a 'reading' each book on her own. she points out everything in the pictures and remembers much of the story to some of the shorter books.

we just have to get the glider (aka rocking chair) out of her room and into the nursery before i take some pictures to post. love.