Raisins

I'm not sure how many of you knew this, but Michael usually writes the posts. However, I had to jump on and add in bit about Raisins. Who knew how much a child could love raisins. Previously they were the food in the pantry that really just sat there.....for years. But now, its a top-shelf staple and and there is always a supply in my diaper bag.

Madelyn has days were she just goes crazy over her raisins. Last Thursday was the day for raisins. She got the bag of raisins from me and drug it all over the kitchen and family room, so proud of herself and desperately trying to figure out how to get into the bag.

And of course, at one point we had tears over the bag of raisins, most likely that she couldn't get into it fast enough!

She had to show Wyatt her raisins. He was not interested!

Letting go, down the slide....

Blog postings have slowed down these past few months and I guess we have just figured out why, we seem to be spending most of our time chasing after Madelyn, or playing with her. Pictures are also hard to come by as she is constantly in motion rarely stopping for more than 10-20 seconds with each toy, gone are the days where we could stick her on the couch and pose her for a few shots.

Madelyn continues to love her new found freedom. I took her to the playground this weekend, her favorite thing to do as always is to watch what the other big kids are doing. If they scoop up bark chips and mound them into piles, then Maddy is sure to follow suit. She loves to climb and after getting to the top of the equipment all that is usually left to do is slide back down, usually a problem with only one parent around. However we watched a 17month old named Colin slide down on his belly-feet first, so of course Maddy wanted in on the fun, so down she went. It was hard letting go of her little hands and the slide made for a good parallel of sorts, but part of process of raising a kid must be knowing when to let go. She loved it so much that she raced back to the steps and wanted to do it again. It's amazing to think that a little over a year ago we took home a newborn and now we have this little person running around. We also managed to get to the Mountlake Terrace pool for another swim session.

Another milestone this weekend was the daycare center at the YMCA. I've taken her into it a few times to get used to the place, the first time we left her, she came absolutely unglued. Saturday was actually different, she cried for about 5 minutes, the cry that peels paint from the walls and tingles the eardrums of everybody who is near, then surprisingly she settled down for the next 45 minutes and played with the toys. Her favorite activity is getting into and out of the little kids chairs, sitting down fascinates her and she's always happy to find a chair that fits her.

Still a picky eater at dinner time but thank goodness for blueberries, strawberries and most recently Pita bread.

New Shoes

Madelyn is still adjusting to life on two feet and like any one year old loves to explore anything and everything within her reach. The new shoes that came today were a big hit.
She can walk around on flat surfaces just fine, scoot backwards when she wants to and has begun to realize that the subtleties of walking on grass or an uneven surface. At the playground yesterday she wanted to get on the slide so from afar we commented, "No way she gets up on that herself", sure enough she hiked a leg up, tossed it onto the slide and climbed on, stood up and proceed to try to walk up the slide as far as she could, while her Dad ran over to act as a spotter.

Still a picky eater, she likes white bread, Ummmmmmm, blueberries and the old stand-by, cheese. Closing doors is a new trick that she's learned, often times she'll shut herself in our walk-in closet with the lights out. I guess I would be more impressed if she turned the lights on first. The cats are still her friends, she'll laugh and bend down to pet Wyatt whenever he's in the room with her.