X-Mas

It took Maddy a few minutes to get into the swing of things on Christmas morning.  But after she figured things out, she was more than happy to unwrap her presents and help out with Mom & Dad's as well.  We had the whitest x-mas that Seattle has seen in our lifetimes, about a foot of snow at our house and closer to two feet at Meme and Pepe's.  We've lost power twice in the last few days, but luckly it was back on in a few hours.

Puzzles were a big hit.

Delivering a present to Mom.

Another book about dogs.

Getting into the Stocking stuffers.

This has to be my favorite picture of the day, Madelyn will play a good game of "watch me stick my finger in your mouth", if you let her.

Who is this child?

New surprises come day by day for us now.  We can get Maddy to wear hats, mittens and even boots now.  Just three weeks ago if we tried to put a pair of boots on her you would have led to a huge crying fit.  Now she'll round up her boots and a jacket, drag them over to you and tell you GO-GO.  It really does not matter where you go, it's just her way of saying I'm tired of being cooped up in this house.  Still lots of snow on the ground to play in and more on the way.

We have whittled down the bedtime book readings to 4-5.  We were up to 10 for about a week and it was just too many.  She's not much into giving out good night kisses, but would rather nibble on your nose a few times instead.

This is Fred, a gift to Mom and Dad from Grammie.  He's about the size of a toddler.

X-mas Tree farm

Yes that's the pumpkin hat that our kid refused to wear for Halloween.

Last Saturday afternoon found us up at Farmer Brown's tree lot hunting for a tree. Madelyn somehow decided that her pink-kitty boots were 'OK' to wear now and came in handy for walking around in the mud. We have been trying to get them on her feet for about 5 weeks now and she's finally warmed up to them. At this rate we are going to have to start buying next summers sandals next month she she'll be used to them when the time comes. After much deliberating we found a tree and headed on home.

New words this past week have been 'Bbball' and 'brd (bird)' and what sounds like 'this' and 'kitty cat'. She loves the word 'ball' and will chase the big yoga ball all over the house while yelling 'BbbALL', it's great fun to watch. She can pick out a reindeer in the x-mas books, but she's not picking up on what/who Santa is yet. She ate everything in sight this weekend so she's either over her cold from last week or tanking up for a growth spurt.

She's running quite well now, she'll sometimes take off and get going so fast that she crashes, but she's defiantly getting the hang of it all. Walking up the stairs like a big person is a hit and we can coax her to go down them on her tummy most days. Not having to carry her down the stairs is just one of the little things that makes things a little easier.

Kids at this age seem to understand far more than we think they do. I gave Maddy the full trash bag from the kitchen garbage yesterday and told her to take it out to the garage, and off she went. Dragging the bag behind her, it was hard not to laugh too much at the sight. Heck if she wants to keep that up I'll start paying her an allowance. She'll also help drag the dirty clothes from our bedroom upstairs to the laundry chute and want to toss the clothes down.

Books

Madelyn has been in love with her books as of late.  Big books, small books, she loves them all and if the book has pictures of dogs inside she'll want to read it again and again.  This picture is fairly common on our couch now, she'll raid her book drawer downstairs and pile them up on the couch.  Then she'll toss one leg up on the couch and struggle to get up, next if you are sitting on the couch you will be presented with a book that you may read to her.  If you're lucky you'll get past page 4, but most of the time that is where her attention span ends and it's on to the next book.  Reading books before bedtime is always fun, we must keep 10 books beside the rocking chair just so we have enough to read to her, many of them will be rejected depending on her mood.