Much Ado About Madie

Our little Madeleine is growing so much! This post is dedicated to her and some of the things she has been doing lately. The other day, it hit me that I needed to be recording some of these new 'tricks' somewhere. Especially since we use the blog as a family record and print it into a book annually. So here we go!

• Madie has been signing very well lately. She signs for light, crackers, more, milk, and food.
• Madie loves to play in the kitchen when we do dishes. We will be rinsing and loading the dishwasher, and she is right there working alongside of us...I mean, against us, pulling silverware out of the dishwasher and whatever else she can manually lift out. See Exhibit A below.
• She absolutely loves to climb stairs. When we went on our trip to Maine last week, she encountered stairs for the first time at Grammy Haskins home. She would try and climb the stairs whenever possible, literally. On the way home from Maine during a layover in Philly, we climbed a set of stairs probably 15 times in an attempt to tire her out before the six hour flight back to SFO. See Exhibit B.
• She has one of Mal's old pearl necklaces that she plays with quite a bit. I don't know if Mal would put it around her neck, or if she just figured it out on her own by watching Mal wear her necklaces and me wear my work lanyard.
• Is there a limit to how many cloths/blankets you can carry with you? For Madie, apparently not. The other week, I'm pretty sure she had two spit cloths in one hand and her blankie in the other. She always has to have at least one nearby, just in-case.
• She likes crawling under anything that appears to be a tunnel. Whether it's a strangers legs, Mal doing a Yoga move, you can guarantee that Madie will be crawling under it at some point. She also enjoys climbing over anyone's legs or body that is grounded. Needless to say, she has fallen straight onto her head many times after climbing quickly and not anticipating a steep drop-off.
• Reading is kind of second nature to her. She loves to flip through books and magazines, and does so very elegantly. She started this thing a couple of weeks ago where she flips through pages methodically, and starts to jabber in her 'reading tongue' and pointing at each page of the book.
• She is a busy girl. She can play with her blocks, spoons, books, or anything she is interested in for 15-20 minutes and be completely taken in by them. She is usually trying to figure them out.
• Outdoors girl? Better believe it! She can be throwing the biggest fit, but when you take her outside, she will completely calm down (90% of the time). Maybe it's because we have been camping and hiking as a family? She loves to pick leaves, flowers, and crawl around on the grass. If I don't let her onto the patio with me when I'm busy repairing something, she will throw a fit, or just intently watch me.
• She loves to eat bread.
• She has been standing up to furniture on her own, and she will take steps when you hold onto her arms. When you let go, she immediately collapses.
• She loves music. When Mal sings (which is quite often), she will try to mimic her voice and sign along. She loves playing with the guitar, ukulele, and harmonica.
• Snuggling with blankets is one of her favorite things to do. She will take blankets and wrap them around her so she can get nice and cozy. She still has a hard time wrapping them around her shoulders, seeing as how she only wraps them tightly around her waist over and over. But she'll surprise you every once in a while.
• What kid doesn't like peek-a-boo? She's a huge fan and can play anytime, anywhere.

Exhibit A.

Exhibit B