ten minutes to myself

for the young foodie in your life

The first time that we lived in Calgary was in 2000, and one of our big discoveries was the Cookbook Company Cooks. Chris and I surely bought a lot of exotic salsas and jars of colourful salts there, but most of my memories of the Cookbook Co. are of taking cooking classes in the basement. It was a lot of fun when I started out (I remember volunteering to peel all the potatoes over the six week series if my cooking partner Raj would chop all the onions), but after four or so years, the foodie culture in Calgary had changed the demographics of the class and I wasn't enjoying them as much. We'd had a good run, though.

 Now we're here for Calgary: The Sequel, and we've enrolled Madeline in a week-long day camp at the Cookbook Co. Despite having to drive across the city twice a day, Chris and I kind of wish that we were thirty years younger because it's a pretty awesome day camp and we're totally missing out.

Madeline's made soups and salads and Mexican dishes and pasta dough for ravioli, and she's even eaten carmelized onions and stuffed mushrooms, but the really cool thing about her camp is the field trips. The campers have gone to Modern Jelly Doughnuts, Cibo, Janice Beaton Fine Cheese, the Brulee Patisserie, and Village Ice Cream. Madeline day is always better than ours!

 

how i spent my summer vacation: a study in awesomeness

At the beginning of August, my family loaded itself onto a Qatar Airways 777 and flew across the Atlantic. We spent a lot of our summer vacation in transit - it's a long flight between HCMC and Doha, and an even longer flight from Doha to Washington DC. 

The DC-area is where we experienced the first awesome things about our summer vacation. Starbucks! Iced chai lattes are one of my favourite things in the world, and I have to travel to other countries to find them, so yes, that was a big deal. I had my first iced chai latte of the trip the day that we landed. Another awesome thing: TLC - a channel we don't get here! I totally indulged in garbage tv on our holiday. Whenever we were staying in hotels, I watched a lot of Say Yes to the Dress and Toddlers & Tiaras. I threw in a little HGTV on the side when I was feeling more adventurous. Another awesome thing: I went to an actual Athleta store (yay Tyson's Corner!) and tried on the Nectar dress that I've been admiring for about two years. Turns out it looks absolutely horrible on me, so it's a good thing that I waited and didn't spend a crazy amount of money shipping one to Vietnam. I bought a pair of Dipper shorts instead, and they are pretty terrific. Tyson's Corner also had a store where my children spent their birthday money buying their un-Canadian dolls outfits that cost more than the ones that they were wearing on their very own bodies. But that's what birthday money is for, right?

Part of the attraction of heading back to North America over the summer is the opportunity to fill up on some of things that we miss while we're living overseas, like family and wide open spaces. We stayed with Chris's sister in Maryland for a few days, and it was just lovely to watch my kids play in a fenced backyard, take them to a playground, and even just eat a picnic lunch outside on benches. (The part of this visit where Madeline conspired to play with her five year-old cousin to the near-exclusion of the other three kids was unplanned, though).

Wegmans! We stepped into a Wegmans somewhere in Maryland and Virginia, and it was crazy to be in a regular grocery store again! Gosh, it was spacious and well-stocked in comparison to the types of places that I get to buy groceries here in Saigon. Despite accusing me of going overboard in Target (where I re-stocked our medicine cabinet for the next year), he went a little crazy in the snack-and-drink aisle at Wegmans. The drink where pellets dropped down into the bottle for mixing was kind of neat, but I passed on his super-sized bag of crystallized ginger. 

Part of heading back to an English-speaking county during the summer is about shopping, but the longer that we live overseas, the more content I am to live without a lot of the consumer items that I used to haul back to SE Asia in my suitcase. This trip, we mainly brought home pharmaceuticals, birthday/Christmas gifts for the kids, and a few odd things that I can't locate in Saigon, like duct tape, cork sealer for my Birkenstocks, and sport laundry detergent because my regular clothes were beginning to smell too much like my gym clothes. 

On this vacation, I learned that my kids are generally cooperative enough that I can take them swimming by myself without being way out of my supervisory-and-water-skill league. The first time I took them solo was in Pinehurst, NC when Chris was off golfing. I did get a little nervous when the water they were playing in got deeper than I was comfortable in. This was an awesome development, especially since the alternative would have been hanging out in the hotel room for the entire day instead. This also paid off again when I hung out with my kids at the beach and hotel pool when we were in Hilton Head Island and Chris was off elsewhere in South Carolina watching a professional golf event of some sort. No one drowned, my kids monopolized the water slide at our resort as much as they could, and we came home with new pool noodles and sea shells. 

I also have to mention here that the cleanliness of the public HHI beach was awesome. I certainly wasn't imagining that we'd find an un-ending stretch of sandy shore with no litter or rocks or general ocean sludge. I'm not making this up - it honestly looked like this:

My eleven year-old self (who used to watch Space Camp on a near-daily basis) would have thought that our vacation was totally awesome because we visited the National Air & Space Museum Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center and saw this:

 

Awesome is the only appropriate word.

One aspect of this holiday that I was day-dreaming about before we even left Vietnam was the food. There is a distinct lack of southern BBQ here. However, it wasn't hard to find in the Carolinas. Our first stop after crossing into North Carolina was at some dive in Raleigh where we enjoyed chopped BBQ pork sandwiches and collard greens and stuff. In Charleston, we polished off a helping of boiled peanuts:

And learned exactly why peanuts are a legume instead of a nut. 

The final awesome thing to say about our road-trip holiday is that Madeline and Sadie were good little passengers. They didn't complain much at all about how we strapped them into the back of our rental vehicle for some very long hauls. Madeline usually read or was content to stare out of the window, and Sadie napped or watched Doc McStuffins over and over again on Chris's iPad.  I remembered how I felt about road trips when I was a little kid, and was expecting a lot more tears and tirades. But they didn't happen, so ... Awesome. 

 

those kids that I write about sometimes are still around

There is something sort of backwards about parent-teacher conferences here; I had a twenty-minute chat with my three year-olds preschool teacher (memorable comment: "Sadie applies yellow to all colours indiscriminately") yet had a mere ten minutes to cover four months of progress with Madeline's second grade teacher. 

Regardless of the brevity of the latter conference, everyone is doing fairly well. Even if I don't like how much of an informational black box Madeline's school is, she's happy to participate and her teacher has really been encouraging her reading skills. Madeline's entire grade - so, about 115 students - put on a play last week; Neverland had an astoundingly large population of pirates and Lost Boys, but Madeline sang and danced and spoke her one line in the play with enthusiasm.

Sadie is moving up from the Caterpillar Room to the Butterfly Room. Her preschool supports the multi-age classroom concept, and I think that she's the oldest kid in her current class. I am a little sad that she won't be finishing off the year with her current teacher and friends, but I also think that it will be nice that she'll be familiar with the new room and teacher before the summer break. In theory, this should make the transition back to school in August easier, right? 

 

madelinethings

It's been a long, long time since I last interviewed Madeline for a post here. I was going to do it today, but by the time I'd remembered about it, she's already been tucked into bed for the night. So, maybe I'll just substitute some little factlets about her at age 7.25 years that I find both wonderful and bizarre. 

I bought a new broom/dustpan set the other day, and though it's designated spot is in the kitchen by the utility shelves, she keeps sneaking them upstairs and sticking them in a corner of her bedroom. 

When I have my iPod out, the only song request that she makes is for "Don't You Want Me" - the slightly stalker-ish song that the Human League recorded in 1982 (though I will admit that it's the recording from the tv series Glee on my iPod; apparently, I cannot say no to Blaine Warbler). 

The other music she requests is Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, so she can turn the volume up while videos on YouTube play and then twirl around in front of the computer with her little sister.

She still wants to play dress-up and other nurturing role-playing things, but I can see her interests maturing. Suddenly, she's into scrapbooking and meditation. Meditation? Where did that come from?

She has a penchant for very modest clothes. Her below-the-knee hemlines and high collars would meet the approval of plenty of conservative-values groups. 

Madeline has a crazy amount of patience with her little sister, way more than I had when I was seven and my sister was three. And she still happily plays with the preschool toys with Sadie, whether it's the Little People or Magnatiles. They made wonderful artwork together today, even if Madeline did end up nearly cleaning out my supply of paint.

Since admonishing her that choosing french fries to go with her school lunch does not mean that she picked a vegetable, I've been hearing her say that she had potatoes as a side dish. She knows that I know that she really just had fries again, because she never eats potatoes in their natural form, yet we keep up the illusion ...

She didn't emit one ounce of jealousy a few weeks ago when her little sister was opening birthday gifts, but an inordinate number of those gifts seem to have found permanent homes in Madeline's bedroom. Go figure. She must have been silently plotting, all along.

Over the summer, I realized that the last remant of her toddler-vocabulary had vanished; Madeline's first meal of the day is breakfast and no longer bress-kissed. Sob.

A year ago, she was fussy about sounding out words for reading. Now, she zooms though chapter books like the Ivy & Bean series or the Ramona books at astonishing speeds. And today, when we were playing Monopoly Jr., she was actually playing for her ride tickets with large bills so she'd have to compute her change. This was shocking because a month ago, it appeared that having to do math calculations in her head was a physically painful ordeal. 

six years and six things

1. The (somewhat accidental) tradtion of spending Madeline's birthdays at the movie theatre continued. It was a little tricky, but Chris managed to find out that Toy Story 3 was playing in Saigon. I suspect that it will be a sad June 29 when Pixar stops releasing their new films in early summer. 

2. Madeline really and truly has a loose tooth. I am excited for her, but also secretly hope that the novelty of showing me exactly how loose it is wears off asap. 

3. There are very pretty birthday cakes here in Saigon, and it's a good thing that Madeline really likes whipping cream.

4. Every now and then, Madeline gives us a preview of her future insolent pre-teen self, which I tell myself is just related to her being out-of-sorts about our move. I am rather glad that I have a few years to prepare and strategize before living with that version of my Madeline on a full-time basis. 

5. I can't tell anymore if she's a little kid or a big kid. Her favourite birthday gifts are a stuffed pony (which I sort of think of as "little kid") and a scooter (big kid item, of course). 

6. Madeline's prized possessions du jour: her yearbook from her last school, a purple glitter pen, and a set of Mr. Sketch scented markers that her kindergarten teacher bequeathed to her.

sprinkles, ponies, and backseat chatter

I will always be fond of the month of June because of Madeline and her birthday on the 29th of the month. The tricky thing with her birthday is that it inevitably falls after school is over for the year. The trickier thing is that with our life in an ex-pat community, most families leave for their summer holidays as soon as the school bell rings on the last day of classes, so there aren't a lot of friends left around here. The trickiest thing is that we are supposed to be moving next week, so finding spare time is not easy. All combined, this means that planning a party where Madeline can celebrate with her friends is rather ... well, tricky. Considering my general aversion to parties and current solo-parent status, a big birthday party for Madeline would be hard to pull off ... 

So today, twenty days early, Madeline's been treated to a low-key celebration. I took her and two friends to Build-a-Bear where they all decided to stuff matching white ponies with nylon hair and what looks like mendhi tattoos. I confused one of her friends immensely when I suggested that the fourth letter in the name "Elizabeth" was a "zed" at the animal-naming station at B-a-B. Silly Americans and their "zee"s. After we had all of the ponies named and paid for, we headed to Swensons for ice cream sundaes. Sprinkles were had by all. 

As we rode back from the shopping centre, I had to keep my hand covering my mouth to stop chuckling aloud at the conversation topics of the new first graders. Puking. Underpants. Kissing (they are quite certain that if they kiss their stuffed ponies, they will have to marry them as well). They're all really sweet kids, and I'm sad that Madeline isn't going to have another year with these friendships. 

cannot deny the evidence

Yesterday, Madeline and Sadie were playing on the carpet with three or four of our Little People playsets. I was busy in our storage closet, purging it of empty boxes and trying to organize holiday decorations and so forth. All of a sudden, the background noise of happy sibling interaction was replaced with hysterical tears. 

I sprinted out to the living room and gathered Sadie into my arms to comfort her, and noticed Madeline sitting on the sofa, looking a little guilty. "I sort of hit her on the head," she confesssed, looking extremely uncomfortable and guilty. A short convo about what and why and how followed, and Madeline was let off with a stern warning for this seemingly accidental infraction. 

A few hours later, we were hanging out in Sadie's bedroom. I was feeding Sadie, and Madeline was looking at books. I looked down and noticed a new mark on Sadie's arm - actually, a whole serious of little marks, arranged in two semi-circles. I immediately knew what had really happened when Sadie was upset earlier! Unfortunately for Madeline, she failed to anticipate the tell-tale bruising left by her teeth on her sister's arm when she tried get away with the perfect crime and confess to lesser charges. Sigh. 

all good things

Later today, unless Chris and I get cold feet, we'll be telling Madeline that we're moving again. Again is a funny word to use - she's lived here longer than she has anywhere else. What that means is that Thailand is probably where the bulk of her early memories will always lead her, and I am not sure if she really considered Calgary or St. John's serious contenders for "home" or remembers her previous moves at all.

Over the last almost-three years, she's watched far too many of her friends move on, so I think that she understands, on some level,  the nomadic element of our life away from Canada. She's sad and often ambivalent at the same time. Despite that, I am not really sure that she has internalized the permanent part of moving away. Her friend N moved away thirteen months ago, but every time she sees the green Magic Years school bus Madeline will chirp, "Oh, there's the bus that N takes to school!" and if you listen to her chatter as we drive around the neighbourhood, she points out empty houses and apartments and offers, "That's where so-and-so lives!", though we haven't seen little so-and-so for eight months, except in photographs taken outside his or her new home in another country. Maybe it harder, in the community where we live, as moving-away looks a lot like going on a summer vacation. Some of her friends come back at the beginning of August, and some of them don't. And now it's her turn. 

Maybe I am being naive, but I am not much worried about Madeline's reaction to the news. Right away, at least. I feel, at least, that from now until the end of the school year, there is a lot to keep her busy - kindergarten, a trip to the beach at Songkran, swimming, ballet, a visit from her auntie, and her birthday party (if I ever manage to plan something). But seeing our belongings - her animals and books and craft supplies -  being packed into boxes will probably be hard. 

ode to half past five

It was not willingly that I got out of bed this morning at 5:30. It was preceeded by the electricity in our apartment building going off about five minutes earlier, which left all of us without our air-conditioning - I'll admit that makes me grumpy. Of course, when the electricity goes out, it plunges Madeline's bedroom into total darkness, which is a problem as she has insisted on sleeping with the overhead light on for the last three hundred and sixty-five days or so. Of course, my five year old, despite being sound asleep, senses that she's in the hot and dark and immediately starts to wail, "Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy! ..." 

You'd think that these events would wake up the baby, but no, not really. Sadie had been tossing and turning for the last couple of hours. And since she was tucked into bed with us (where you'd think that she'd be content and busy sleeping, right?), tossing and turning really means that she was climbing from one side of me to the other at fifteen minute intervals, stilled only by topping off her milky tummy. 

These goings-on collided when the power went out. Madeline summoned her courage to sprint across the den and fumble her way to the far side of our bed, where there was a small patch of real estate available beside Chris. Despite the darkness and maybe because we were without the hum of the A/C, the pat-pat-pat of her feet attracted the notice of my little tosser-turner, who popped her not-so-sleepy little head up to greet her sister with cheery good-morning-ish babble. That's when I knew that I was done, that we were done, and there was no going back. I checked the time on my iPod, sitting on my nightstand. 5:30 am. I rolled to my right and fumbled for my slippers.

Good Morning. 

the one about jet-lag, fillings, and new blogs to read

I would have posted more this week had my attention not been spend perusing Mom-101's list of top mommybloggers whom were not on the radar screen of Babble magazine (which I haven't really read since they ursurped a photo from Sweet Juniper awhile back). It's time to update my blog roll, and this post is a good place to begin. 

Madeline's dental procedure yesterday was quicker than I'd imagined, largely because her dentist had prepared me to expect a root canal but it turned out that a pair of fillings did the job. My kid was very apprehensive enroute to the dental office, but co-operated perfectly during her appointment. She happily told me that her tooth doesn't hurt when she chews any longer, and the procedure didn't hurt as much as her friends told her that it would.

We've been home from our winter holiday for ten days and nine nights, and Sadie is slowly getting over her jet lag and back onto her regular nap and night-time sleep routine. I should have added a third item to my post a couple of weeks ago about the things I've learned about traveling with a toddler:

3. Your toddler might not recover from jet-lag as swiftly as adults or even preschool-aged children. Traveling across more than two time zones might be on the hold for me for the next couple of years as I really don't want to stay up at night here in Bangkok, waiting for it to be Sadie's bedtime wherever we happened to be traveling. 

Wednesday night Sadie went to bed at a near-normal time and had a near-normal wake-up time, but yesterday she woke up sometime after midnight and was pretty certain that she needed to be awake still. Which really sucks for me. 

requiem for a twelve-month molar

Tomorrow, I'm afraid, will be the last day that Madeline looks forward to visiting the dentist. After Thursday's cavity-fixing (which sounded pretty gruesome, the way the pediatric dentist described it to us), I can't help but think that we'll either be restraining her in the big chair or else looking for a practice with sedation services for our future visits. Darn. I am trying to optimistic that she won't freak out and not make a big deal out of the visit. I'm sort of thinking that it would be worthwhile to dig out our copy of our Dora-the-Explorer-visits-the-dentist (which I normally really like, much as I cringe over the cartoon) because it shows her getting a filling, but I am not sure that the bedside manner of the medical practitioners that we've run into in Thailand are as easy-breezy as Dora's dentist. 

Prior to Madeline's appointment, she'll be out for the first half the day to attend a birthday party at the Funarium. I've never taken my kids there yet, but I'm curious about this new-to-Bangkok indoor playground. The reviews that I've heard thus far as quite postive - it's well-maintained and clean. 

interview: five years, four months

What is your favourite thing in Kindergarten? Playing on the computer.

What do you want to be when your are a grown-up? A librarian

What is the best thing about being a big sister? Getting to play with my little sister

What is your favourite movie? Bolt

What is your favourite colour? Shiny sparkly violet purple

What is your favourite book? Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire

interview: four years, seven months

What's your favourite colour? Silver and violet!
What's your favourite movie? Wall-E
What is your favourite thing to eat? Corn and alphabet soup!
What is your favourite book to read? Colors of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
What is your favourite thing to play with? Dolls!

two-ness

Yesterday, on the 15th, the baby turned one month old and I made my first trip to a department store in a month. I had both kids with me, which wasn't as intimidating as I feared it might me, though there was still a certain learning curve to overcome. Teaching Madeline that squeezing past the stroller in tight spaces isn't cool comes to mind, as does not walking in front of it and coming to a quick stop! Sadie slept in the Bjorn pretty much the entire time, and Madeline and I picked up some basics that the baby needed and a fairy colouring book that she figured *she needed*.  It actually felt really good to get out somewhere besides the grocery store down the road, and it also felt like I was getting some one-on-one time with Madeline, too.

One month out, things are going okay. Everyone is getting some sleep, everyone is well-fed, Madeline hasn't regressed in any way we've noticed and hasn't really acted out since the first couple of days at home, and sometimes we get a smile out of the new little person. So far, I'm quite relieved. And hopefully I haven't jinxed our family by writing that ...

The Interview: Three Years, Eight Months

What's your favourite colour?: pink and purple and red
What's your favourite program?: Little Einsteins
What's your favourite book to read?: Your books - fun to stack!
What's your favourite thing to eat?: Broccoli
What's your favourite thing to play with?: You!

The Interview: 3 Years, 7 months

Madeline, what's your favourite colour?: Black and yellow, just like bees!

What is your favourite film program?:  Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

What is your favourite book?: A bee book!

What is your favourite thing to eat?: Ice cream!

What is your favourite thing to play with?: You! (I hope that she was just being funny)

Interview: Three Years, Six Months

Madeline, what's your favourite colour?: Pink! And purple!

What is your favourite film?: Backyardigans. The mermaid one.

What is your favourite book?: Gruffalo!

What is your favourite thing to eat?: Broccoli! (editorial note: Is she serious???)

What is your favourite thing to play with?: My big and little turtles!

What is your favourite thing about preschool?: Going outside to play with the slide and treehouse!
 

we wish you a merry christmas

  Madeline's Christmas Gift to Us 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Well, we're getting on a plane tomorrow for our very first Christmas vacation, so I don't have much to say today other than I hope hope hope that all of Madeline's jeans still fit. She hasn't worn a single pair here in Bangkok. 

Instead, take a peek at the cool Christmas art stuff she's been working on in preschool. I adore the gold antiqued frame. Why wasn't I doing any faux antiquing when I was three?

Notice the brown bear on the card. Still everything bears ...

The ornaments are prominently displayed on our tree. The reindeer one is my favourite. The circle one is really cool - her class wrapped painted cardboard rounds with gold and silver cord. And yeah, there's a polar bear ...

Interview: Three years, four months

Madeline, what's your favourite movie? "Nemo! And Cars!"

What's your favourite colour? "Pink and purple!"

What's your favourite thing to play with? "My princess game!" Note: we don't have a princess game ...

What's your favourite thing to eat? "Pocky!"

Trick or Treat

how much damage can one little virus do?

Last Monday, Madeline came down with some viral infection that is still doing a number on her tummy, although she's been fever-free since Friday night. The longevity of this bug has blown me away. I can't believe that she's been sick for nearly eight days. She's missed five days of school - about one-third of the school year so far. It's quite a good thing that I'm retired whilst in Bangkok, because I don't think that it would have been easy for Chris and I take this much time off of work to care for her. I have no idea when Madeline can return to school. It already seems like she's away forever. I've stuck her back in diapers, too (she didn't have the energy to run for the potty last week), which has probably sabotaged her potty-going efforts significantly. Ugh.

I took Madeline to see a pediatrician twice last week. It was surreal - I could actually make her appointments for the same day. In Calgary, the soonest that M's doc has ever been able to see her is five days in the future. So, we'd end up going to the icky walk-in clinic, and waiting there for a couple of excruciating hours to see a doctor who's goal is to get his/her patients out of the office in two minutes or less.  Of course, here I had to pay for 100% of the appointment before we left the building, but the availability of medical care more than makes up for that when my kiddo is sick ...

First Day

  Madeline @ ELC 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Today is Madeline's first day of preschool, and the three of us arrived at eight o'clock. Madeline was a little shy with the director and her teacher, but she was excited to see the other kids, and even more excited to admire their respective backpacks (Nemo! A turtle! A ladybug!). Her teacher gave her a quick tour of their classroom space, and showed Madeline her cubby. She has a great spot, right on the end, waist-high (Madeline's waist, that is). Her teacher started the day with circle time on a carpet, and Chris and I ducked out when we heard Madeline's little voice answering a few questions. I don't have to pick her up  until noon, and hopefully she's having fun ...

always a mover and a shaker

Madeline, as nearly always, is being a trouper. She was pretty terrific on the flight over to Bangkok, and it was a long one, too. We flew from Edmonton to Denver to LA to Singapore to Bangkok. I lost track of how many hours it was. I gave her an exemption from the “you must sit in your carseat” rule for the flight from LA to Singapore, as we were flying in the business class cabin (courtesy of Chris’s company) and she’d need to use her tray to enjoy the yummy stuff that Singapore Airlines feeds it’s youngest passengers, let alone recline her seat into a bed for sleeping. Madeline did really well without the carseat, staying seated and belted in. She was pretty mesmerized by the in-flight entertainment system and watched “Meet the Robinsons” at least three times. Kicking myself though – I brought the portable DVD player with me, but neglected to bring the power cord that also charges the battery. Ugh.

Now that we’re here, she’s adjusting. It took her three days to sleep in to a decent hour (and by that, I mean until after 6 am). Behaviourally, she’s quite a bit more whiney and needy than usual, but I know that it’s unfair if I get frustrated with her.

fun was had by all

The Official 3rd Birthday Cake
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

I was kind of (unfairly) grumpy this morning, Madeline's third birthday, when she decided to start ripping open her gifts that I'd wrapped for her while I was outside, getting her grandmother's garbage to the curb on time. But the day did get better, and I think that Madeline had a special day, even with her dad half a world away.

She enjoyed the movie, complete with strawberry fruitopia to drink and a bag of gummy bears. Loved that she could wear her pink-and-purple nylon-and-tulle princess dress (gift from her Auntie Marian) all day. I decided that since it was her birthday, she was entitled :) Everyone kept telling her how beautiful she looked in it, and I hope that she understands that she's beautiful everyday, and that what she wears doesn't change that.

 

Auntie Julie decorated the vanilla cake that I baked from scratch last weekend, and I think it was very cute! Madeline appeared to understand the "blowing out candles" concept, and ate all of the ice cream in her dish, leaving most of the cake. I should have predicted that!

Before bedtime, I shared the birthday message from Chris that he emailed for her, and then we read our usual stories and had our bedtime usual chat. A normal ending to the day, except when Madeline told me that she was going to dream about birthday cake :)

Three and Fabulous

  Happy Shmoo 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Madeline is three years old today. It’s kind of a sad birthday, at least to us, with Chris working on the other side of the planet, but Madeline and I are going to endeavor to make the best of it regardless. We’re going to catch a screening of Ratatouille, and it will be the first time that I accompany her to the cinema. A few hours ago, I asked her if she remembered The Movie Theatre Rules. “Quiet!” she shouted. Rule #1, ironically. She needed a gentle reminder for Rule #2: Sit in your seat. We’re ending the day with cake (vanilla, Madeline’s favourite), baked by me and decorated by her Auntie Julie.

I guess that the fact that most of her birthday gifts are either on a container floating towards Bangkok also makes it a kind of sad birthday …

But without further ado,

Madeline's Greatest Hits: Year Three

Madeline talks all the time. She uses pronouns, adjectives, prepositions, and all of those other fancy parts of speech. I frequently shake my head at the person I was, about sixteen months ago, fretting about her delayed language development. Now Madeline even tells knock-knock jokes, albeit one-sided and hilarious only to herself … and she loves to chat on the phone to her dad, her grandparents, and her aunties, too.  She's even memorised quite a few of her picture books, and reads them aloud to herself and  others ... 

Madeline finally started to say her own name! She first did it just before Christmas. For awhile I was wondering if it was a little unfair of us to give her a three syllable name …   

Big strides in the self-care department: Madeline does very well with a spoon or fork at mealtime, and elects to use them most of the time. She also likes trying out cutting her own food, but it’s usually too hard. She can wash herself at bath time, and can dress and undress herself if her clothes are stretchy. She’s the most successful with her pajamas …

First “professional” haircuts – one in March and one just last week, in June!

Though she doesn’t like to let on, Madeline has learned a fair amount of numbers and letters. She also gets that people and animals are divided into “boy” and “girl” camps, and that everyone has (or is entitled to) a name.

Here's hoping that her fourth year is just as fabulous :)

hair model

  hair model 
  Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Hi Dad!

How is Bangkok?

Mom said that she couldn't take me to Bangkok looking like a shaggy dog, so a few days ago, she and Nana took me to Beaners for a trim. It was my second real haircut (I don't count Mom's attempts at trimming as authentic)! I got to sit in a pink truck instead of a chair, and wore a purple smock with puppies on it! The stylist was wielding a pair of scissors, so I thought it best to sit still and listen to her instructions!

After my cut, she put glittery gel in my hair to keep it off my face! And Nana bought me some hair clips with gems - I like them in my  hair, at least some of the time!

Miss you!
~ Madeline

mommy's little helper

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.

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.

throne

Since we stepped back onto Alberta soil about one month ago, Madeline's potty seat has become a forgotten friend. I was okay with giving her a couple weeks grace, and her enthusiasm for wearing undies did return, but we were back to the old routine of holding for hours and hours and hours and then having an accident. Because she refuses to have anything to do with the potty seat, of course.

I thought we'd turned the corner this week when she asked me to find her a pink potty. If she'd use it, I certainly didn't mind investing in a different potty. We went to Superstore, Wal-Mart, and TRU looking for pink potties. No luck. At TRU I told Madeline that she could pick out any other potty that she liked, instead. The store is undergoing renos, so the potties were in a temporary location with no prices marked anywhere. I figured that M would choose the Dora the Explorer one. But no ... she picked the flashy musical one that resembles a toy toilet. I nearly died when the clerk rang up the total at the cash desk. I think that Madeline picked the most expensive potty in existence! A case of disposable diapers would be cheaper! Gosh, I hope it suits her royal behind because it's the last potty she will ever own ...

a rare naptime post

Long time no post ...

Enrolled Madeline in Gymboree classes again, as she seems starved for social interaction. I mind that insidious clown more than the price of the classes. Madeline was mesmerized by the bubbles, as she was a year and a half ago. I'm glad that some things haven't changed!

Madeline hasn't been on a nap schedule since returning from Edmonton back in January. She seemed to do okay with the missing sleep for awhile, but I think it's clear now that she does need an afternoon nap, however brief. More and more she's dozing off at 5 pm, and then she's up until 10:30 or 11 at night, which isn't cool with me. I am planning on introducing the concept of "quiet time" in the afternoon next week, and thinking of setting up a little napping corner of some sort as well. Of course today, Madeline nodded off on the sofa at a completely acceptable quarter to three ...

Somehow we misplaced the x-ray fish from the Little People zoo during the move from St. John's, and I am going batty trying to locate it! Madeline, of course, noticed that it was missing right off ...

quotable madeline, take two

Madeline spies a plastic filler egg beside her easter tote this morning. "Where did this come from, Mama?" she asked.

"I have no idea!"

"Maybe it came from Michaels!"

Umm ...

project runway: toddler edition

I didn't think that Madeline was actually able to get dressed by herself until yesterday, when she rejected the jeans and tee that I'd brought downstairs for her to wear. She was so mortified by my taste in toddler apparel that before I even knew what was happening, she maneuvered herself into a pair of pants and long-sleeved tee of her own choosing. Huge accomplishment! The only negative was that the outfit she'd chosen was her favourite thing to wear: her purple jammies with the fairy appliqué. Not quite what Chris or I had in mind for a St. Paddy's Day lunch ...

miss manners

Madeline and I went to the Y today, after a three-week hiatus created by snow and our jet-settin' ways. I was kind of in a blue mood during my workout, but that changed when I went to collect Madeline from playing with her friends in the child-minding room. One of the caregivers came over to me and was gushing about how charming Madeline was. I guess that Madeline had wandered over to her, and then had this conversation:

Madeline: Hi! What's your name?

Caregiver: I'm Sherrie!

Madeline: Nice to meet you! I'm Madeline! (imagine hand offered for shaking)

And I was told that Madeline ended up repeating this exchange with the other caregivers and the older children. What a little shmoo she is ... charming when I'm not around, trying to to flood the kitchen when I am :)

Anyway. I heard an exciting announcement on the radio this morning, for anyone in St. John's who is reading along still. Aliant Winterlude Family Fun Day will be celebrated in Bowring Park on Sunday afternoon, from 1-4 pm. The weather might be okay for some outdoor fun ...

the small 3-0

Madeline and her NYE Date, Mr. Lobster ...
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Madeline turned thirty months (or 2.5 years) last Friday, as she was in a plane completing her third trip across the country. I can't help but wonder if that journey across seven provinces and five time zones sped up the aging process! All of a sudden, it seems like she wants to play pretend nearly all the time. Sometimes she's a penguin (and lucky me - I'm a mommy-penguin), a cat, or a Wonder Pet-ish superhero (in which case she dons a cape and usually rescues her dad or I from a puppet with bad intentions). We'd had many picnics and tea parties.

Madeline would stay in her jammies all day long, I think, if I didn't insist that she wear non-sleepwear when we go out.

There is a list, in my Ann Douglas toddler book, of various skills that 30 month-olds are supposed to have achieved. The only ones that I couldn't mentally check off for Madeline are cutting with scissors and being able to dress and undress herself. I guess I don't let her practice with scissors as often as I should, and Madeline's affinity for her jammies would seem to be an obstacle in terms of getting her to take them off on her own :) Anyway, I hope that she's as amazed by her progress in 2006 as I am!

The 102nd Wonderful Thing about Madeline

Yesterday afternoon, Madeline spent a good chunk of time giving us tattoos with her washable Crayola markers.  She was really quite thrilled with her artwork :)

Visions of Gingerbread

Madeline's first homemade ornament
Originally uploaded by goingdomestic.

Faux gingerbread people ornaments were the craft at Little Learners this past Thursday. This little person is Madeline's first homemade Christmas ornament, and I think she did a great job (though I did help her with the glitter-glue outline on her gingerbread person's hair). Madeline showed more restraint with glitter than the rest of her classmates did. I didn't ask Madeline's teacher where she found the foam gingerbread people, but I suspect it was at Michaels ('cause it's the only place in town, pretty much).

This is Madeline's third Christmas, but it's the first one where I'm trying to explain the "Christmas" concept to her. She really likes looking at the outdoor lights when we are driving to pick up her dad from work after the sun goes down. We were going to take her to our community's children's holiday party yesterday, but she elected not to go (well, she elected not to get dressed, really), even when I explained that there were cookies and a present involved. She generally thinks that reindeer are moose, but in her world, all antlered creatures are moose (she's done a lot of growing up in Newfoundland, after all). We've bought her two Christmas-y books to read (Merry Christmas, Curious George and the delightful Bear Stays Up for Christmas), and she likes them, but I'm not sure how much she truly understands yet. But it's okay; she's still quite little, and I'm sure that next year she'll be too excited to go to sleep on Christmas Eve.

my report card

This lovely creation is the my craft project from Little Learners last Thursday. Madeline was more interested in reading books in the book nook than cutting her mom some slack and doing the project for most of craft-time, but it went well enough. My plan to make the little drums was to cover the sides of a coffee can or large yogurt container with construction paper (with parental help), decorate the sides with crayons, stickers, and the like, and then top it off with waxed paper held on with an elastic band. Turns out that it's harder to cover the sides of a yogurt container because they slope, and glue isn't the best adhesive for doing it (I think that double-sided tape would have been ideal). But the toddlers (and even Madeline) enjoyed decorating their drums, and happily beat away on them for songs afterward. Madeline kept hers in the truck for the day so that she could perform for her dad and I when we picked Chris up from work.

Storytime also went okay, though I still wish that I'd been able to find the hardcover version of Hand Hand Fingers Thumb (HHFT). I hope that I made the story more interesting by asking Madeline and her classmates to show me their fingers and thumbs, and drum enthusiastically on their knees for the "dum ditty dum ditty dum dum dum" parts. Madeline started storytime off by getting all possesive of HHFT when I pulled out the book to read (fair, I suppose, considering that it was her book, and she used to cuddle it in her crib), so there was a bit of a delay in getting started.

I'm still hoping for a B-minus :)

Thursday in Three Acts

Act I

It's 7:53 am. Time to pile into the truck to take Chris to work. Madeline is happily playing with her Little People Farm and not particularly interested in getting a move on. Chris tries to win her co-operation, "Dad gets to be the Bad Guy," he says, moving to scoop her up, "Time to go!" Madeline moves away from his arms as quickly as she can, squealing. Back to playing with the wee plastic cow, pig, and rooster. My turn to try. "Madeline, I think that your animals would love to go for a car-ride with you!" I say, thinking that I'd hit upon a win-win situation for my two favourite people. Alas, no bite either.

Two different tactics, same result. A remote-controlled toddler would come in handy on some mornings.

Act II

Dinnertime. Madeline is intent on mastering the art of the spaghetti slurp. Sometimes she does it wonderfully. Sometimes she gets mixed up and instead of sucking in, she blows out. Stray noodles go flying all over the table.

Act III

The gingerbread house sits on the dining table, and Madeline pulls me over. "Ginger-house, please" she says. I did promise a bite of gingerbread if she ate most of her dinner. I ask her what part she'd like, and she picks one of the tree-shaped cookies that she and Chris decorated this past weekend. I start the task of removing all of the jellybeans and hard candies from the tree before passing it to her. Madeline's little hand reaches out and grabs a red jellybean. "Have this?" she asks, and I shake my head. "But I big boy!" she insists, "I big boy!" I want to laugh my head off, but I just give her a hug. And eat the jellybean myself.

tuesday snapshot

Last night, Madeline refused to go to bed unless the overhead light in her bedroom was left on. Same thing for her nap this afternoon. She told us that the dark was scary. "Scary" only entered her frame of reference a few days ago and I can't figure out why!

Today I realized that Madeline's come really far in the Mother Goose program. When we started it, she had no idea what was expected of her, and I doubt she really cared. It was more fun to run around the room with the other toddlers and preschoolers. But lately, she's been singing and clapping along, and waiting patiently for Sleeping Bunny time, which is her favourite.

Unrelated but cool: I read about the new international symbol for breastfeeding on Blogging Baby today. It's think it's perfect!

The 82nd & 83rd Wonderful Things about Madeline

#82: The way that her enthusiastic "Happy Birthday Daddy" seemed to make someone smile all day long.

#83: Going to bed at 8:20 pm on Friday night and not waking up until 5:30 am on Saturday morning. The fullest night of sleep she's ever had!

evolution of imagination

I've noticed that in the last month, Madeline has been playing pretend like she's never played pretend before. My first memories of her engaging in imaginative play are go back to about March, when she'd pretend to put her (one and only) doll or a stuffed animal down for a nap. Sometimes she'd offer her little stuffed pals a drink from her sippy cup, and I do remember one night before bedtime where she figured that Mr. Bear, who was happily cuddled in her arms, needed some breastmilk as well (I was torn between thinking "how cute!" and "how weird!").

A few months later, Madeline started playing what Chris and I call the "night-night game". At any given time of the day, Madeline will climb up on our bed, or the spare bed in her room, crawl under the covers, say "night-night", close her eyes, and pretend to sleep, complete with simulated snoring sounds. It still cracks me up!

Act III brought us to "playing baby". Madeline will bring me a blanket (well, to be honest it's a spare fitted crib sheet!) and ask to be swaddled. Over and over again.

Madeline's imagination has had her pretending something completely different this week. When we are getting ready to go outside, she'll put a pair of shoes on her hands as well as her feet, declare herself a doggie, and walk on all fours outside (hence, the extra footwear on her hands, I guess).  I have no experience with dogs. Luckily, neither does she, so I can lure her to the car with promises of "doggie snacks" (raisins) while I buckle her up or by saying that doggies don't like to get wet, so I'm able to pick her up and pop her in the truck.  She was a sad little doggie this morning on the way to Chris's office as I didn't have any doggie snacks on me, and we couldn't convince her that the Baby Mum-Mum that I did have packed was really a Doggie Mum-Mum ...

completely gratuitous madeline post

Today, Lester's Farm in Mount Pearl held it's annual Pumpkin Fest. Madeline liked the corn maze, looking at the huge piles of pumpkins and gourds, but seemed to be the most impressed by the pumpkin-flinging festivities over by the trebuchet.

The 72nd Wonderful Thing About Madeline

When Chris and I are out walking on the sidewalk with Madeline, we tell her that she has to hold one of our hands to cross the street, or else she gets scooped up and carried. Recently Madeline has taken to giving us a grin and then firmly clasping her hands together behind her back. Sure, she's holding her own hand ... but it's not really the result that we were aiming for. So I repeat that she has to hold my hand, or her dad's hand, but inside my head I am cheering that my little girl has a little bit of a bad-ass inside her - that's she's trying to push the envelope and see where her boundaries are.

That behaviour reminded me of something that she was doing a couple of months ago. Her Auntie Julie was visiting us in St. John's, and Madeline prefered to hold her hand when were were all out for walk. This allowed Chris and I to hold hands, but a couple of times when Madeline saw that her mom and dad were holding each other's hand, she promptly ran over to us, and squished her little hand in between ours so that the three of us were holding hands ... I hope that just as many passers-by thought that the three of us looked cute as the amount that thought we looked really odd ...

St. Acetaminophen, the Patron Saint of Teething Toddlers

Madeline's honest-to-goodness last tooth has been coming in over the last two days, and I'm elated! Well, I feel bad that her gums are hurting, but I'm elated that it's the last time that she'll go through this for a number of years (fingers crossed, of course). Teething hasn't been a happy time for us, really.

On Thursday afternoon, Madeline ran up to me before her naptime and said, "Tylenol, please!"  Part of me wondered if she really did have a headache or pain afflicting some part of her body because I imagine that it's not hard to become fond of her watermelon-flavoured Tylenol Melt-Away tablets, but when I asked, "Does your mouth hurt?" she nodded and pointed at the back right of her upper jaw, where her expected 2-year molar were conspiculously absent.

I figured that if my girl was being that specific, she really was in some degree of discomfort and I gave her two tablets. That night when I was brushing Madeline's teeth before bedtime, I got a peek into her mouth and there was a brand new molar poking through - in the exact position that she'd indicated to me earlier!  That meant that she was only one molar away from a complete set! Whee!

The "Tylenol, please!" scene repeated itself on Friday afternoon, except she pointed to the opposite side of her mouth, and during toothbrushing time I noticed that the last molar was threatening to erupt through her gums. It was still bothering her at bedtime last night, so it must be really close. I sooo can't wait!

mini me

Today is Friday, and that means that Madeline and will be having our traditional Friday lunch of scrambled eggs topped with shredded cheese. I've been making scrambled eggs on Fridays for many months now, and last week Madeline got in on the act. Doesn't it look like my assistant takes her job seriously? She didn't spill any eggs onto the countertop, I'm proud to report ...

Lately it seems that Madeline's favourite thing to do is be my little helper. She's not as fond of helping with the laundry as she used to be, but give her a broom, and she's happy. Even happier if she can help unload the dishwasher. The ultimate is helping me cook! I can't even peel an apple without hearing a little "Me help!" and seeing a tiny figure dragging her step-stool towards the kitchen counter.  I've had to repeat "the stove is only for mommy and daddy" many times, but we haven't had a mishap yet.

Most of the time I'm thrilled that Madeline wants to help - it's the first step to being a contributing member of the household, of course. It's usually cute. It is hard, however, to remain calm and patient when my little helper wants to help by taking her wee little broom to the pile of dust and debris I've collected, sending it flying towards the perimeter of the room again. Or when my little helper helps me wash the lunch dishes, but creates an urgent need to mop the floor. I don't insist on keeping a spotless house, but I find it really frustrating when something that I've just cleaned/tidied up gets dirty/messed again right away ... One of these days she'll understand. I guess this is just another one of things that I have to be patient about.

Final Friday in September Links:

• Chris discovered the Kids in the Kitchen section on the Food Network (Canada) website. There are recipes for quick and healthy lunches and snacks, as well as an entire section devoted to Jamie Oliver. I wouldn't make all of the recipes to share with Madeline just yet, but I love having a place to look for more ideas when she tired of our usual culinary routine
• This recent post at Ask Moxie is about smoothies (with spinach in them - I kid you not!), and it includes several recipes. We still have to try them, but I'm waiting until I'm less squeamish about buying packaged spinach.
• The Cost of Safety at This Sister's Journey. Reading this post just made me feel like giving Madeline a hug ...

first day

Here's what was on the schedule for Madeline's first day at Little Learners:

• decorate nametags with stickers
• decorate folder (to hold art projects) with Crayola pseudo-oil pastels and more stickers
• story-and-song time
• art activity - painting the palm of the hand with a paintbrush, then making a print on a piece of cardstock
• free play - with animal figures or playdough
• more songs and goodbye ritual

Phew. It may not sound like much, but Madeline and I am both a little wiped out from this. The morning just flew by! She wasn't much into the songs and storytime, preferring to sit with a book of her own choosing, but she enjoyed the art project (the paintbrush tickled her hand) and loved exploring the other activities in the classrooms. I think she was impressed to see gigantic version of some of her favourite books. The Very Hungry Caterpillar isn't so little when the book is two feet high, no matter what he hasn't yet eaten!

I thought it was really cute to see a hook with "Madeline" spelled out below it in the teeny tiny coat room in the facilty. It was too warm for jackets today, but next week I hope that Madeline will get to try it out. I was also impressed to see the facility plastered in signs requesting that no peanuts, tree nuts, fish, or kiwis be brought onto the premises, which a little blurb underneath about common early childhood allergies.

Madeline is supposed to arrive next week with a photograph of herself for her teacher, and a completed survey about her favourite things. I'm also supposed to note the things that I hope she learns from being in this program for the year. I've jotted down co-operation, sharing, better listening skills, but I'm stuck for ideas beyond that. Am I supposed to say that want her to be able to spell her name and do single-digit addition? I'm more interested in age-appropriate social skills, I must admit.

The Highlight Reel

My post for this Friday is going to start off with some highlight-reel-worthy Madeline moments:

• On Sunday, Madeline completed her first unassisted somersault! We were at the Brigus Blueberry Festival, relaxing on the grass, and Madeline was running around and climbing on empty chairs. Then she started getting into her somersault starting position (in her case, bent over on all fours, kind of like a downward-facing dog), and one time, she pushed herself over in just the right way! She was so thrilled!
• On Wednesday night, just as I was eating my last bite of a tuna-pasta-mushroom-and-pea casserole at dinner, Madeline turned to me, pointed at her nose, and exclaimed, "Pea! Up! Pea! Up!" Goody! It took me awhile to extract the trespassing pea with the narrow-tip tweezers from my serger because they tickled Madeline's nose ...
• This week, Madeline started murmuring "thanks" all on her own, quite reliably, when I pass her a cup of milk, the book she asked to look at, etc. "Please!" is also coming along nicely.
• The other day, she leaned in to look at a book on my lap, and went to stand up without leaning back, thus bonking the underside of my chin with her really hard head. "Madeline, that hurts!" I exclaimed, holding my throbbing chin. I didn't say that crossly, but Madeline still became upset, uttered "Sorry!" and held out her arms for a hug. Awwwww .... her first "sorry!"
• Yesterday, Madeline seems to have decided that if she has to go, she has to go, no matter if she's wearing her undies. How quickly things change. (And Chris and I did eat that box of Reece's Pieces)

Last night, Chris took Madeline's eleven o'clock wake-up, and they both did awesome.

My link of the day is the very humourous post and I'd like another bag of pretzels while you're at it over at a little pregnant. Madeline and I are embarking on a trip to see the the rellies a week from today (via a short stop in TO with Chris), so I'm reading all I can about traveling with little people. I'm sad to have to leave Madeline's sippy cups empty before we board under the new (new new) passenger safety requirements. Hopefully she'll be able to get a beverage to drink before the plane takes off, instead of having to wait until the plane reaches crusing altitude like us grown-ups do.

(The second-runner-up link is this post at babyfruit, for the pic of the cutest baby belly button ever).

proof I'm raising a slacker

Madeline and her potty have been aquaintances for about three weeks now, and I've only had to clean up three accidents. Some parents might nod their heads approvingly at that statement, others might even be a little envious. But the three accidents are only half the story.

The other half? Well, while Madeline understands quite well that it's not optimal to pee in her underpants, instead of telling me when she has to go, or even just wandering over to the potty herself, she appears to be holding it in. She'll stay dry for a mind-boggling 3-5 hours at a time. I'll put a diaper on her at naptime, and after naptime, it will be ten times heavier. It seems that she's only making a half-effort with this potty-training thing. I think this week we'll take a break, maybe have some casual chats about how it's okay to pee in the potty when one is wearing underpants - low pressure stuff like that - without any pressure about the actual potty. I hope that she starts using it regularly soon - I have a new box of Reece's Pieces waiting in the fridge for successful potty deposits, and as each day goes by, Chris and I are more tempted to break it open ourselves :)

Goodnight Somebody

Chris dashed out shortly after dinner this evening for his ultimate frisbee game. Madeline went to bed before he was back. She insisted on holding his photo id for work in her hands while I tucked her in, and as I closed the door to her room, all I heard was a tiny little voice repeating, "'Night Dad! 'Night-'night Dad!" ...