The sense of humor of a little girl

Months ago, Madeline created a game; I would prompt her, "Can you say 'Mama'?" and she'd grin and say "Dada!" Eventually she did say Mama, but never when I asked "say mama." Anyway, a few weeks ago I was reading a book to her before bed. She was particularly chatty at the time and repeated the words in the book after I'd say them. On the last page, it shows a little boy cuddling on his mom's shoulder, and the word printed is "Mama." I turned to the last page and read it, and Madeline immediately called out "Daddy!" Yes, she is a silly girl...

Fun Summer Times

I can deny it all I want, but the truth is that summer is coming to an end. We've been trying to take advantage of the nice weather and go outside for walks, playtime, visiting with neighbors, etc.

Madeline enjoys it immensely, although one of her favorite things is to wander off the blanket and explore! 

"Who is coming?"

Our neighbors came by to play! Madeline just loves older kids!

And of course, Daddy joins us outside on weekends!

She's been talking more and more lately. Last week, her favorite new words were "Hi!" (initially it sounded more like "i", but now she puts on the "h" sound) and "wow!" She's also said "all done" and "night-night" a few times, although she still prefers to sign them.

In this video, she was in a chatty mood and was repeating every word we said. By the time I got the camera out, she was just about done cooperating - but you get to hear "Hi" and "wow!"

As I mentioned last time, my brother gave her a new bike/car/walker for her birthday. She loves to show off (she REALLY wants to walk alone!) and has a lot of fun. One day, I moved the toys and coffee table out of the way so I could vacuum. The instant I was done, she grabbed the walker and started cruising around!

These days, she's shown a real preference for everything girly - clothes (she often draps them around her shoulders!), shoes, hair things and headbands, purses or bags, and especially necklaces! You'll noticed that in several of the pictures/videoes she has a necklace draped around her neck. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree! (I was very much that way as a kid)

She's been cutting her first-year molars, so she's been somewhat out of sorts for the past few weeks. She currently has five teeth (no molars have cut through yet).

In other news, Caleb and I are celebrating our third anniversary today! We were married on August 23, 2008, in Urbana, IL, on a day that was supposed to rain but turned out surprisingly warm. I thank God for "nudging" us together all of those years ago (started dating Nov '05), and feel immensely blessed to have such a wonderful man as my husband and friend.



Birthday - part 2

All-in-all, we were in St Louis for a four-day weekend. I know the kids loved the Purina Farm visit, but I think another highlight for them was playing in the creek. As I mentioned, we were experiencing a heat wave that weekend so Will had the brilliant idea to take the kids to a shallow creek and let them play. It truly was a great idea! The water was warm, like bathwater, there was a gentle breeze coming through, and even at its deepest point it was pretty shallow.

On the way home (10 hour drive, plus stops for Madeline!) we stopped in and saw Caleb's Grandmother. Madeline is her 23rd great-grandchild! That's a lot of love.

Once home we had to prepare for another TWO birthday parties! That Saturday we had some of our friends over to help us celebrate. Caleb decorated the cake (I made the chocolate flowers and chocolate ladybug), and we had a really great time chatting and playing.

It was a French Vanilla cake with a raspberry cream icing middle. Yum!

Madeline sharing a party plate with Nick, Caleb's friend from work.

The next day we had a smaller party with neighbors. If you will recall, last summer we found out that Madeline was one of SIX babies born within about a month period. We decided to invite the other families over so the parents could get to know one another a little more, with the excuse of celebrating the kids' birthdays. We even had a coupon for a free cake! Yes, more cake... (By the way, Caleb pointed out that this little girl got FOUR CAKES: her name was on the Roblee Jamboree cake, the chocolate clown cake, the garden-party cake, and this one)

 

This is Madeline with Ella. Seconds before, she was giving her a hug and

grinning at the camera. Then Ella fell over. Oh well, it still was sweet!

 In other news, she is off of her reflux medication!!! Yay! We're so glad that she has outgrown her tummy problems. She's still very much a picky eater, both regarding strong flavors and textures of any sort, so the pediatrician gave her until 13 months to improve. If she doesn't start doing a lot better, she'll have to go to food therapy. We're hoping it doesn't come to that, though.

At her 12 month check-up, she was weighed and measured. She's back on the charts for length! She's 9th percentile for height, 17th for weight, and 33rd for head circumference. She's our petite little peanut, but she's growing.

Here she got a banana and actually stuck her finger through it. Doesn't she look proud?

Her hair has been getting long, and pretty much looking like a mullet.

I experimented with a ponytail, just to see how long it was!

So we decided to get her a (professional) haircut. It's a lot shorter than I wanted, but she gets lots of compliments. Can't hide that cuteness! Below is a shot of her, with her short hair, and her new toy! My brother David gave her "her first set of wheels," and she had a BLAST walking with it. By herself, too!

She loves her new toy!

It's a birthday get-away!

Can you believe that it's been a year already??? My little pumpkin is one!

For Madeline's birthday weekend, we went down to St Louis, MO, to surprise Caleb's mom. Her birthday is July 21, just one day before Madeline's, and we thought it'd be nice to get together and celebrate the birthdays! We rented a house together with Valerie and Will's family, plus us and Ted and Jan. The weather was boiling hot for part of it, but we made do.

Happy Birthday to Jan and Madeline! The clown's face got squished

on the trip down, but the kid's didn't seem to mind.

See? I told you they didn't care.

(That's Chase going for the cake, although each kid tried to steal some! LOL)



Madeline was less enthused about the cake...

With a little coaxing, she finally decided it was a fun thing to play with.

We took the kids on a couple excursions that weekend. On Saturday we went to Purina Farms. The kids loved seeing all the animals, riding on the kid-size tractors, and going for a wagon ride. However, it was so HOT!!! Madeline kept turning beet-red and we'd have to go back to the lobby area where there was air conditioning. Here are some pictures from Purina Farms...

Such glee!



"Mom, I want to play in there with the piglets!"

She LOVED getting to pet them! Again, she really wanted to get in and play, though.

Madeline with her cousin Graham.

Gabriella and Will, enjoying the John Deer tractors!

The next day we decided to try an indoor activity. We all went to the Meramec Caverns and took a tour. Inside it was beautiful! Most importantly, though, we learned that kids under 4 (which all of ours were) are too young for caves. They were bored and fussy the whole time (hense the pacifier for Madeline in the shot below). The adults enjoyed the view, even if the kids didn't appreciate it yet.

There is still so much more to share, but I think we're bordering on picture-overload! I'll try to post again in a few days and pick up where I left off.

The Adventures of Madeline!

Madeline is acting more and more like a kid every day, and less like a baby! She's showing us her preference to be treated like a princess (boy does she have a temper sometimes! And she has that sweet pout down to an art...), she likes to engage those around her, and let's not forget the mischief...

You'll notice how she completely ignores my "No, no, honey..." Yeah, we're in for it now!

One evening it was super hot - and humid - outside, so we decided to take a family field trip to Tiny Town, USA. Tiny Town is a little playground for kids at our nearby mall. It was really cute to see her "playing" in there!

On the slide with Mama

Making friends.

Hi there, Daddy!

We love our little girl, and her many quirks. For instance, take a look at what she does when she finds a pile of neatly folded clothes. Oh, and she was doing this for a good 10 minutes straight BEFORE we started taping, and continued to do it for a while afterwards! It really looks like she's searching for something, doesn't it? I can just picture her thinking, "Did I leave it under here? Could it be here? Well, maybe I didn't look under here thoroughly enough... What about this one, have I checked here?" (BY THE WAY: The video is long and much of the same thing. You won't hurt our feelings if you don't watch the whole thing.)