Miss Madeline

I have offered lots of updates about how our Little Man is doing lately, but I haven't shared much about what's going on with our almost-two-and-a-half-year-old princess. And that she is: A princess. Where in the world she gets it, I don't know. I've never been a pink-wearing, dress-up playing kind of girl. But my sweet daughter certainly is.

I have kinda been putting off doing this. As she gets older, more complex, more of a real person, it is harder to put together a neat little summary describing what she is like. With a baby you can easily summarize their eating and sleeping habits, include a list of the words they can say and the latest physical milestones, and add in a few sentences about their developing personality. But Madeline is a real person now. There is a lot more to her than how many hours she sleeps at night. And the words she can say? I don't think blogger will allow me to post an entry long enough to include them all.

My girl is gentle and kind. She is detail oriented and orderly (she often lines up her toys in neat little rows when she plays and sorts things by color and size). She is also a complete mess, leaving a trail of toys, shoes, and hair accessories everywhere she goes. (I often tell Daniel that I feel like someone has hit the "shuffle" button on my house every night, moving all of the contents to opposite ends.) She sings all the time. She talks a lot, but not all the time. I think that she will be an introvert like her mama. She enjoys people, but she also loves to go in her room, shut the door, and read books for thirty minutes at a time. She reads all the time, and she completely memorizes books that I read to her scary quick. (I keep a stash of books in the car, and she "reads" them aloud one at a time, throwing them on the floor when she is done with each one.) She loves Pingu and the Wonder Pets. She does not like to be dirty. (If she dribbles a little bit while she is eating, she won't take another bite until she has cleaned the table or her clothes up.) She has known all of her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, etc. since before she was two.

Climbing, jumping, and throwing are not her strongest skills. She is more of a fine motor skill kind of girl. She can draw smiley faces. She even tries to draw letters and gets super-excited when she gets anywhere close.

My Mattie Lou is half big girl and half baby. She still sleeps in a crib, she still likes to have a bottle of milk before bed, and she loves for me to rock her and sing the same three songs every night. (No variations allowed...) But she also shares her thoughts, tell me where it hurts, and describes what happened during her Sunday school class. She wants to ride around the house on my back in the backpack (because that is what brother is doing), but quickly gets bored and wants to "help" me cook and unload the dishwasher instead. (She is great at organizing the silverware drawer!) She no longer says "foffee"; she says coffee. She doesn't say "Afrifa"; she says Africa. She has quit saying "Aunt Emmy"; and instead calls her Emily. I miss all her cute little baby talk so much. She does, however, still call her dress up shoes her "pancy" shoes (fancy shoes), and I am doing my best to keep her from learning the correct way to say it!

My Sweet Girl loves to have her "poe nails" painted, and she can go through a whole sheet of stickers in no time flat, sticking them to everything in sight. (However, I strictly enforce a "no stickers on the floor" policy.) She still adores her "fuzz pillow" that her aunt Emily made for her, and every morning I clean up a small mountain of polyester fiber fill that she has pulled out of her pillow and thrown on the floor during the night. She sleeps with about six blankets in her bed. She goes crazy over anything soft.

We are NOT potty trained. We made a whole-hearted effort last week, and it just didn't work out. It exhausted and stressed us all, and we just need to take a break from it all. We will try again in a few months.

I am so impressed with how kind and patient she is to her brother. "Mr. Grabby Hands," as we like to call him, just loves to seize handfuls of her hair and sometimes even try to pull her nose right off of her face. She just pushes his hand away and says, "No brother." No hitting or fussing! She loves to help me by giving him his pacifier or a toy. And one of her greatest delights is to make him laugh. I have a couple of videos on my phone of her making him laugh, and she loves to watch them over and over. She quickly picks up on any pet names that I call him, and gives us a laugh when we hear her call him "Little Man," "Dude," or "Big Boy." Things are getting a bit harder now that is he mobile and can get into her toys, though. I have heard the word "Mine!" quite a few times in the last few days.

Madeline has more than a slight obsession with the books about "Gigi: God's Little Pricess" (from Lifeway). She reads Gigi every day, dresses up in a pink leotard, ballet shoes, and a pink feather boa every day, and acts out the story about Gigi taking ballet lessons - over and over and over.

Our biggest struggles these days are whining and refusing to eat what I want her to eat at mealtime. (Not because she doesn't like it; just because I want her to eat it.) She IS two, after all.

Thankfully, she has given up her nap strike that she was on for about three or four months and now sleeps for about two-and-a-half hours every single day. Yea! She really needs that nap. And, well, honestly mama does too.

One of the best moments of my day comes at bed time when we are saying our prayers together. She likes to get down on our knees to pray, and then I ask her what she wants to say, "Thank you, God" for. We go through her list and I add a few too. Then I put her in bed, close the door, and listen to her sing until she falls asleep. Sometimes it takes her an hour or more to fall asleep, but she just sings her heart out until she finally dozes off.

Oh how I love my sweet girl.