"wa-ta"

madelyn surprised me by saying water yesterday when i offered her some to drink. she had two versions "wa-wa" and "wa-ta" but it was very clear what she was trying to say.

in related water news, we spent a good portion of tuesday morning and late afternoon in the kiddie pool in the front yard (there is only one spot in the yard that is flat enough for the pool but we get to talk to all of our friends walking by this way). madelyn was having a lot of fun with the hose while the pool was filling up and even liked spraying it at her head - weird. and then in the afternoon she was using her bucket to pour water over the top of her head. she just thought that drenching herself was hysterical. we went through three swim suits too! her bathroom looked like we spent a week at the beach with all the suits and towels hanging up to dry. but it is only fun for so long and then she is ready to go back in the house and play. so we were in and out a few times which called for a few wardrobe changes.

i probably won't post as frequently over the next month because i have a huge project going at work with a september 1 deadline and i just won't have much free time. i only mention this because people start to worry and email/call me when i go a few days without posting. but we are heading to the state fair this weekend and i am sure that there will be some great stories and pictures to share... love.

s is for sunshine

grandma and big pop gave madelyn a book about florida for christmas (i think?). i am pretty sure that it was intended to make her want to visit florida, but it is pretty dry for a children's book so matt and i didn't read it to her after she first got it. basically there is a historic landmark or endangered animal for each letter of the alphabet with all the background/history/definition sort of information in the sidebar - fun, right?

well this week, madelyn has decided (all on her own) that this is her favorite book. she gets it off the shelf all on her own (we even keep it on a higher self). i had to read it to her at least five times - in a row - at nap time before i decided that i couldn't sit through it one more time and moved on to another book (much to maddie's dismay). this is one phase that i hope passes quickly...

last night matt reminded me of another of maddie's new enjoyments - dancing to the washing machine. this was the first time he had seen her do it and called me over to take a look. i have been having her help me load and empty the washer and dryer lately - really, she is very helpful! and once the washer starts madelyn gets to dancing to the washer's rhythm! it is so funny. i don't know why i didn't think to video it before, but here is a little bit from last night. she is on her way to being done, but you get the idea. she just goes in to stand next to the washer and 'dance'. (excuse the clothes everywhere...)

and now for our latest childproofing dilemma - drawers. madelyn can open all the cabinetry drawers. luckily she isn't quite tall enough to see inside of the kitchen drawers yet so there isn't much attraction to opening them. but the bathroom drawers have opened a whole new world of small items to put in her mouth! she doesn't get much time in our bathroom, so it hasn't been too much of a problem. i did have to empty out the drawers in her bathroom though. so now she just opens them to take a look. what is great is that she closes them when she is done - well most of the time any way.

thankfully maddie turned around a disturbing trend in her napping today by sleeping a total of 4-1/2 hours today (morning 1 hour and afternoon 3-1/2 hours). i have been concerned (and worn out) because for about the past 4 or 5 days, madelyn has only been sleeping 2 - 2-1/2 in the afternoon (or morning) instead of her normal 4 hour afternoon nap. that long nap is essential to my survival. essential. it is when i get most of my focused work done and without it i am having to get up earlier and stay up later trying to get everything done - it was starting to wear me out. plus, madelyn needs that 4 hours of sleep a day. and without it she has been a cranky, fussy girl which is that much more exhausting. but like i said, things took a turn for the better today. wish me luck for tomorrow!

and last night went great in the toddler bed and so did her naps today. she didn't switch ends at all so there was no falling out. hopefully, one fall was all it took for her to learn that lesson. love.

converted

after fearing "the thump" every time madelyn is awake in her crib, i decided to go ahead and convert it to a toddler bed last night. once we finish construction in our basement we will probably go ahead and switch her to a twin bed.

madelyn loves her new set-up! while i was attaching the little guard rail she just kept getting on and off the mattress while laughing. so last night i got her all ready for bed (matt was working in the basement) and after reading some books i put her down and told her to get into bed. she climbed on in, hugged bear and i covered her up. there was not another peep (even when i went in to take a picture while she was sleeping). that is until there was a little thump followed by some crying at 2am. i went in to check on her and she was climbing back up into her bed. i just covered her up and she went back to sleep. (she gets a blanket now because i also dropped her sleep sack.)

what was most surprising is that she woke up this morning and still stayed in bed! she must have been in their playing 20 or 30 minutes before matt wanted to go in and check on her. he found her still in her bed. i am guessing that this won't last long, but she did the same thing at nap time. she didn't want to nap (long story) and just stayed in her bed playing/talking with bear.


earlier in the day we went down to the local "river walk" for a saturday morning stroll and stopped at the botanical gardens and then the playground. madelyn really likes flowers and even knows to be gentle with them. if a petal happens to fall off, she tries to put it back until i stick it in my pocket to hide it. she points out the flowers wherever we are - real or not. so she really enjoyed the botanical garden.

as we were starting our walk i was telling matt that last summer there were signs for a free ski show on wednesday nights on the river and that we should see if there are still doing it this summer. and not 10 minutes later we came across a ski team practice! the tricks were much more involved than i had expected. i was just picturing one guy out doing tricks off the ski jump, but this was an almost 20 member team with 4 boats! they were even practicing a pyramid pose on the dock. we will have to check that out soon (and take some pictures). last year the shows were at 7 so that might be a little late for maddie, but it isn't very far from our house so maybe we can make it.


well, maddie just woke up from her nap so i have to run. love.


p.s. this is post #200!

mouth tricks

i managed to get some of maddie's latest tricks on video today. here is she blowing kisses and showing her tongue when i was talking about the cat's tongue in her book.

and this one isn't a mouth trick, but it is a trick that she has been doing for a few weeks and i have just never posted about...

love.

to the zoo again

tuesday morning, after music class, madelyn and i headed off to the zoo for the morning since it was a nice cool, breezy day.

what a huge difference in madelyn since the last time we had gone about a month before! she was so excited! people were even commenting on her excitement as we strolled between exhibits. she was clapping, laughing, banging her hands on the stroller tray, squealing, kicking her feet, and of course smiling as we made our way around. it helped that the animals where the most active i have ever seen them.

we had heard that the animals are more active when the weather is cool, but wow! the elephants were even out and moving around quicker than i had ever seen an elephant move. and we got to be about 5 feet from the giraffes because they do meal time twice a day up on a platform where guests can feed them (it sells out really quickly to do that) and other guests can stand a few feet away and watch. madelyn was pretty still during that part. she kept looking at me to make sure that it was okay for us to be that close. (at least that is what it looked like she was thinking from her expression.)

and then the most surprising part was when we went into the fish 'house'. madelyn asked to get "down" from her stroller. now keep in mind that madelyn screamed and cried while holding on with a death grip the first time we took her to see the fish. then tuesday she was laughing and running up to the tank and pointing at all the different fish. i could not believe how quickly she had overcome this fear. i will definitely make the effort to take her more often now that she enjoys it so much more. and will probably just let her roam free in some of the exhibits since we aren't in a rush and don't have to see the whole place every time.

changing subjects - madelyn really loves her daddy and now that she is getting older (and more obedient) they can do more things together. madelyn goes out with daddy to water the grass and plants in the evening and then they go to get the mail together. well last night matt was working on a permanent baby gate for the top of the deck stairs so that maddie can spend time outside with us when we use the grill and maddie got to help/watch.

aren't they cute? love.

look who's talking!

(i know - lame title, but that's what it feels like.) over the past three days madelyn's vocabulary has more than doubled! and not just words, but she is using them in the correct context. here is a list of her latest words:

"ouch"/"ow" - says it when she falls down or bumps into something

"up"

"truck" - it is more like "tuck", but she says it when she sees a truck in a book or in real life

"go"

"peacock" - actually she only says "cock", but she says it when looking at her zoo book (in the picture) and lifting the peacock flap

"cracker" - more like "cak -ker"

"cookie"

"gone" - she added this one yesterday afternoon, but i got some video this morning. she says it when she is out of food or something gets taken away from her.

she also makes a few animal noises when looking at the zoo book. she lifts the snake flap and goes "hisssss" and lifts the monkey flap to say "oo-oo-oo". she definitely likes the snake noise best! it is so great because she only makes the noise when the flap is open showing all the snakes (they are 'hiding' under some rocks).

she is also trying really hard to say "milk" but it is more like just a "k" sound. she is also saying "ca-ca" a lot and i think that she is trying to say "monkey" because we are usually pointing at some monkeys when she makes the sound. the other one that is a little bit of a stretch is "zebra" - she is saying it "ba-za".

i am trying to pay close attention when she is "speaking" to me because she is definitely trying to tell me something. she has this non-stop stream of babble all day long (well maybe not all day...). she stops when i get the camera, but i am hoping to capture it because i want to be able to remember it.

she has also added the sign for "diaper" on occasion as she heads off to the changing table when i ask her if she wants to change her diaper.

this is just so much fun! i love that she is talking more everyday! love.

got milk?

this week madelyn has been helping me get her milk by pulling the carton out of the refrigerator while i get her cup. as you can guess, some days it is heavier than others. so sometimes she sort of carries it an inch at a time before setting it down to get a better grip. thankfully, she isn't quite strong enough to open the refrigerator by herself. not that she doesn't try really hard! sometimes she will go and get the water dispenser tray and bring it to matt or i as if we had been searching everywhere for it.

she has been helping with meals quite a bit. she really likes to get cans or other food containers out and insists on eating whatever is inside. she carries it to her booster seat and puts it in the seat while she goes back to get me. then she goes back to her seat to get the can and bring it to me. and back and forth and back and forth until i open the can for her - adding signs for "eat" and "more" for emphasis about what she wants. she has also learned how to open the pantry cabinet in the kitchen (in addition to the corner cabinet where we keep canned goods - shown in the picture) and spends dinner prep time emptying everything out that she can reach. every now and then she will start putting things back, but it must be more fun to take it all out.

and she has been eating great! not that maddie has ever been a bad eater, but she is eating her veggies better and pretty much cleaning her plate at meal times - breakfast in particular. she eats about a cup of porridge (today's was rice, yellow split peas, kale, kelp, and brewer's yeast - i know - yuck!), half and avocado, a whole banana, and still signs for "more"! a few grapes or other fruit usually get her full enough that she asks to get "down" - literally.

more about her new words in my next post! love.