mommapalooza

i'll need a hug that reaches around the world

I've never been away from Madeline for more than a few hours. I'm making up for this in a big way on Saturday, when I disembark on a 12 day trip, first to Bangkok to find a new house, and then to northern Cali for cultural orientation training. I know that I will dearly miss my little purveyor-of-compliments, giver-of-hugs, and spreader-of-laughs, but I'm not particularly anxious or worried. And she's not either. She quite happily talks about how her mom and dad are going on a holiday and she's going to hang out with Nana. Last night, we were sitting in her glider, reading bedtime stories, and she chirped about how Nana could read her stories in the glider. My mother-in-law arrived here today, and Madeline quite happily let her manage 90% of both bath-time and bedtime. I know that Madeline usually exceeds my expectations, but I'm still pleasantly surprised ...

I can't remember what time our flight leaves on Saturday. I hope that it's after bedtime.

mommy's little helper

The 108th Wonderful Thing about Madeline

Her chatter from the backseat of the car. She loves to play "I Spy" while driving around, and today she said that she was sleepy so she was cuddling with her carseat.  Amazing that a year ago, I was worried that she'd never have more than a 20-word vocabulary!

first time for everything

My husband has experienced a few "firsts" with Madeline this year. Back in March, he took her for her first real haircut. I had no idea. I was at a hair salon myself, and when they picked me up after my appointment, Madeline chirped, "My had my hair cut!" or something like that from the backseat, and I replied, "Yes, Mom had a haircut!" ignoring what I assumed was a grammatical error. But when I looked at her, I saw a tidy and straight set of bangs! Chris said that she was so terrified that she sat perfectly still and silent while in the big chair!

Yesterday, Chris took Madeline out for the afternoon so I could do some pre-move house-painting during daylight hours. When they walked in the door, nearly five hours later, I'd learned that he'd taken her to see her first film in a movie theatre (Meet the Robinsons was the only G-rated film playing). I wryly asked if Madeline had sat patiently enough to catch all of the previews, but apparently, my little girl sat quietly in her seat through the entire feature. Chris asked her a few times if she wanted to go, and each time her response was a "No!". She shared a slushie with her dad, and seemed to enjoy putting it back in the cupholder in the armrest between their seats. The ten minutes that Madeline spent telling me about her afternoon out with her dad was so cute, funny, and amazing that I had tears in my eyes. For so many months, the word that I'd have to use to describe the relationship that Madeline had with Chris was "rough". Seeing the closeness emerge between them over the past couple of months is the best treat ever.

spin and fly

I read something on the web the other day that I meant to bookmark so that I could blog about it, but I seem to have forgot to bookmark the article, and thus, I have no idea what to say here tonight! So ... maybe I'll post a photo of Madeline in her new tutu in an attempt to make the lack of insightful and witty writing less obvious. Is it working?

Julie and I made this tutu a couple of weekends ago, actually. I'd seen a similar one with a $28 price tag at one of those baby boutiques. I spent about $7 on this one, for three yards of tulle (I already had the elastic for the waistband in my sewing kit). I borrowed the super-easy technique from this post on the Baby Bargains board. I didn't even have to set up my sewing machine!

I don't want to think about how many Fridays have gone by without posting some nifty links. I have some today, though, from The Silent "I" - truly, a blog after my own heart. It's all about traveling with young children. I haven't gone back through all of the archives, but I do have to recommend the posts about navigating through airports with babies and toddlers, and then the inflight experience with babies and toddlers. The next flight I will be taking with Madeline is a doozy: Calgary to Bangkok. Something like 26 hours ... the only thing I am exciting about is trying out her Gogokidz Travelmate wheels ...

Still No Cavities!

Madeline is now a veteran of two dental appointments. I remember grumbling a little bit that her first appointment was kind of spendy, considering the brief amount of time that she spent with the pediatric dentist, but at this appointment, Madeline was invited to sit in the big ol' chair.  I was struck by how grown-up, or at least big-kid, her appointment was. She had a cleaning and a fluoride treatment. The hygienist flossed her back teeth, and had me try, as well. And then the dentist came and used his dentist-tools for her exam. Madeline did a good job opening her mouth wide at all the right times, and I imagine that wasn't the easiest thing for a very active toddler. No cavities, again, which is terrific considering that Madeline was only night-weaned last October, and certainly did not brush her teeth before drifting back to sleep ...

PS: If anyone is looking for a picture book to prepare a small kiddo for a dental appointment,  Madeline has this one (I broke my rule about licensed characters, again), and it's surprisingly good/accurate.