Snowcave!

After Winter Storm Nemo left three-foot drifts in our backyard, I began collecting snow into a large pile. By the next week's storm, I had enough to dig out a solid cave. Madie's been loving it! 

When we were in there today she initiated a game from almost a year ago! She used to be obsessed with Winnie the Pooh. But then princesses entered her life, and Pooh Bear was on the outs. While we were in the cave, she started role-playing that Winnie the Pooh story where Pooh gets stuck in Rabbit's hutch. It was hilarious; we must have switched roles and ran through the script like 20 times. 

Watch Out, Spidey!

My kid's got a thing for Peter Parker. Don't ask where it started or why, but ever since she first saw him all decked out she's been into him. That's all right I guess. I mean, he's a little old, but then he'll still be in his 20s when she gets there, so I'm not worried. Besides, how many women can say their son-in-law can climb up vertical drops? I mean even my mother can't say that. (Though her son-in-law is pretty amazing.)

On Friday after the museum I went over to Target to get a few things. Finnegan has size 12 month long-sleeved shirts and a number of size 6 month long-sleeved shirts, but he's almost 9 months and doesn't really fit either. So I was in the clearance section of toddler/baby boy clothes and Madie saw long-sleeved Marvel character tees. She pointed to one and said, "I want that Spider Man shirt." I held up a red one with Spidey on it and she said, "No, the blue one." I said, "That's Iron Man, Madie. See?" I unfolded it so she could see better. "Are you sure you want that one? This doesn't have Spider Man on it. It has Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk." She said, "Yes, that one. I'll get the Spider Man one later." Oh, well, thanks for spreading them out.

I don't usually buy my kids new clothes--they already have more than they can wear--but this is so different from everything Madie has and she specifically picked it out herself (even though the girl's rack of dresses and spring outfits was right next to us) that I thought I'd go ahead and get it. Besides, she promised she would wear it. So far so good--

we've had it five days and I've had to wash it three times.

MDM

On Friday morning I had some errands to run at Target, which is an hour away, so I figured we should make a day of our trip to Bangor. For Christmas Aunt Alexa bought us a year's pass to the Maine Discovery Museum! I've never been but I had heard it was great, so I packed some snacks and we went for a visit. (Excuse the poor picture quality--we rushed out the door and I left the real camera! These are all from my phone.)

Finnegan sat up to check things out.

I'll be honest, I was a little nervous at first because Madie kept asking, "The museum is like the zoo, right?" I kept saying, "Not really. I mean kind of, but there aren't any animals." I did not want to get there and end up with a grouchy Madie because it wasn't what she expected! It turned out I was nervous for nothing because they did have some animals--not a lot but they were Madie's favorites: reptiles!

Madie checks out an eastern painted turtle. Seriously, she could watch these all day.

They also had some lizards and fish. I don't know what it is about these animals, but she absolutely loves them. I used to take her to PetCo on really rainy days with Kaleb and I would suggest we go look at the cute little kittens or furry chinchillas, and she'd last for about 30 seconds then want to go look at the fish. (Kaleb just wanted to chase the dog toys.)

We spent a good chunk of time on the first level climbing around the beaver lodge, playing with boats in the stream and climbing up and down the raven's nest/giant tree. On the second story there were two sections: exporting and children's literature. Interesting little tidbit of information: Maine exports a lot of wood pulp and paper to Japan. Did not know that. There was also something about Brazil, but I didn't quite catch what it was because someone kept saying, "Look at me! I'm on the boat! Look! Mum! Look over here!

Lady Fiona was so cute working on the boat. 

They also had a big semi truck you could sit in and "drive" and press all sorts of buttons to get it to make sounds. Madie liked driving it; she did not like me pressing the buttons. Haha! I kept cracking up! Next time I'll get pictures. Finn enjoyed hanging in the hammock on the Brazil display. Loved it in fact. But the pictures all came out bad--next time.

On the storybook side, she spent lots of time running in and out of the lighthouse with a little boy, climbing in and out of the Goodnight Moon house, and steering this little dingy. She had the full Mac on but she took it off before I could snap a shot. She put the hat back on and told me, "It's okay, Mum, you can take a picture of me with the hat on." Why thank you, Miss Madie.

Another little bit of info: the Bangor Public Library has the highest per capita circulation of any city in the United States of 30,000 or more.

We spent two hours at the museum and didn't even get to the third floor. She was really upset when I said we had to leave. She wanted to look at the turtles some more and climb up that raven's nest again.

Sad face.

Not to worry Miss Madeleine. It's a year-long pass we can use over and over and over again. Thanks, Aunt Alexa!

L. O. V. E.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

I know some people are anti-Valentine's but I'll be honest, I really enjoy this holiday. But then I've never been one to bash on love. I've also never felt like this is an exclusively romantic holiday either. But don't worry, I'm not going to go into my schpeil any further.

Just remember: I heart love. And you should too.

Soap box gone.

This was a fun one because Madie is finally old enough to really participate in some things--not that they weren't fun in the past with just Mike and I of course, but with Mike's class being on a Thursday, we haven't had the chance to actually celebrate our end of it. Mike bought Madie and I flowers. Madie thought they were both for me until I put one of the bouquets in her room that night. 

 

There's a little vase of fake flowers on the dresser in our bedroom down here that the owners keep up there and ever since she saw them, Madie has wanted some in her room. I have been meaning to put that vase in her room but keep forgetting to, so this was fun for her to wake up to. (These are a lot prettier too.) We also put some chocolates out for her, but I made the mistake of rolling them in cocoa powder. Madie won't actually bite into anything first, she has to lick it--well, plain cocoa powder is gross so if that's all she's getting she doesn't like it. I even made them mint flavored per her request. 

Trying to wake the Fi before Mike leaves for work. 

For breakfast I made pancakes. I showed Madie I could make a heart but she only wanted a circle. Then I told her I could make an M for Madie and she said, "Yes, a M and a heart." So here she is with a sweet smile on Valentine's morning getting ready to eat her heart and M shaped pancakes. I felt like Grandpa Clark shaping out the letters.

We let her have the same for dinner too. C'mon, it was Valentine's! Besides, I snuck a little rhubarb in there. I don't know what's in rhubarb, but I'm sure it's healthy.

Madie doesn't usually go to school on Thursdays, but this week they were going to sing Valentine's songs at an assisted living center and I promised I would help. The preschool has grown a lot in the last month--at Christmas there were 7 kids who went to sing (not all the kids enrolled, but the majority), and on Thursday there were 19. It was fun for Madie too because she's been wanting to ride on a bus, and she got to with just her friends! (And teachers obviously, but not me.)

"Skidamarinky, dinky, dink!"

And we'll close with another shot of Mr. Finnegan. Here he is playing with his little train from Nana. (And displaying the latest in spring fashion.)

"Fresh Snow!"

On Wednesday we got a good snow fall--nothing huge, but it gave us enough to sled on--so I used the offer of play time to get Madie to come home with me after preschool. (It almost didn't work, and then I would have ended up with Miss Meghan playing in the snow with me and Finn instead.)

She was so excited to play in the "FRESH SNOW!" she wouldn't even let me take her inside: we changed into her snow gear in the car. Then Finnegan and I went inside and changed while she played outside the sliding doors where I could watch her. Then I grabbed the sled and we joined her. At first Madie was upset that I had brought the sled, but I told her it was actually for Finn and then she insisted on helping him sit up. It worked out great because then I could carry them around the yard for a bit of a ride!

Right before our 15 minute sleigh ride. Everyone's excited!

Aaaaand now we're done. Haha! Really he had a lot of fun, he just kept slipping further and further down and finally had this blank stare on his face. "Vacancy."

The next day Madie showed that she could sit on Finn's lap too! 

"Okay, this was fun, time to move it, sister!"

Then Saturday we hunkered down for Nemo. It really wasn't too bad here, but the wind was gusty. All the same, Madie really wanted to go out. So Mike too her out and let her play while he shoveled the drive. After nursing, Finn and I suited up and joined them. I knew it was still windy so I put Mike's rabbit-fur hat on him to help block the wind.

A cute little furry guy!

 It was mostly successful at doing so. This face is caused by the wind blowing right into his face! He couldn't even breathe, poor tyke.

Way to represent the name, Madie!

Some of you may remember Madies preschool photo on the snowman around the holidays. They took that down and sent it home with the kids this week. Lucky us. They took a new photo for a Valentines Day themed board. Lucky them! I can't remember a time in my life when I was this excited for St. Patrick's Day.

Life according to my iPhone