Catch Up

My 365 blog "The View From Here" has been taking up a lot of my blog time.  It is a challenge, and I'm in need of getting more creative with my subject matter as Madalynn is getting quite tired of the camera.  I have learned so much about my camera just over the past month. 

However, the Madalynn adventures have been too much to neglect recording... Most of this post is just for me to record my daughter at 2 1/2 so i have it written down.  I won't be offended if you just skip through all the narrative to the pictures.

Her goofy personality just keeps my laughing, and she's getting so conversational now.  The other night I changed her sheets while she was in the tub (her bathroom is right off her room, so she wasn't left unattended in the tub).  When I brought her in her room to get her PJ's on (I still miss the changing table, I can't count how many times I have to wrestle her back down to get her jammies on), anyway, she looked over and saw her sheets changed "Mawwwmmy.... Woook!!!", then she came over & patted my shoulder and said "Great Job Mawwmy". 

I work from home.  I'm so blessed to have my parents take her 3-4 days a week so I can work, and then I make up the other hours while she's sleeping.  Occasionally she'll be with me, and I'll say 'Mommy has to work'.  Now, she'll set herself up at one of the end tables in the living room with her chair, a calculator, her 'colors' (crayons), and paper, and say "Mawwwmy I do my work".  Her little table & chair set my parents got her for Christmas A YEAR ago still has to be her favorite toy.  She loves it.   Her favorite activities are to do her 'colors', and have a 'tea pawty'.  She even now has a 'tea pawty' in the tub each night.  Sometimes the tea pot doubles as a watering can, and then I have to smell the flowers.  I love it when I get a peek inside her imagination.

At 2 1/2 she can also be very challenging at times. Her latest behavior that we're working on is a high pitched, shrill, ear-piercing, my gosh what are they doing to that child scream.  Sometimes the scream is provoked, she doesn't like my answer to something, she gets frustrated when she can't do something, etc.  There are also times when it will come out of nowhere, for no apparent reason, other than to scream.  This gets an automatic 'quiet time'.  It has improved a bit since I've instituted the immediate quiet time policy, this is usually followed with an attempt at tears with an "I sooo sowwwyyy Mawwmmy".

She is also a climber.... she climbs on EVERYTHING.  She has a toddler bed now, and instead of getting in at the open end, she climbs up & over the side rail.  She has a step stool in the bathroom to brush her teeth & wash her hands, and she steps on the knobs of the vanity to climb up on the counter.  She fell off the back of the couch onto the hard wood floor this week, and then the next day she fell off the front of the couch (missed the rug), and hit the hard wood floor.  She's usually pretty tough, and I know if she's crying she's really hurt, or gotten really scared.

I'm also concerned I'm going to get arrested for shoplifting someday.  As everytime we leave a store she'll say "Mawwmmy... have to pay".  This is what I always tell her when she wants to open something while we're still in the store... "We have to pay for it first". So, now she ALWAYS says this.... ALWAYS.  So, if I go in a store & don't find what I'm looking for, and don't make a purchase, as we're leaving she'll say "Mawwmmy... have to pay".

My favorite expression of hers right now is "Kiss-it" if she wants a Hershey 'Kiss'.  "Mawwmy I have a kiss-it?".  If I give her one, she'll then ask for one for Pooh (I have my doubts as to whether or not Pooh actually gets one).

Last night had to be hands down one of the funniest things she's ever done.  I was working in my office, and could hear her on the monitor not going to sleep.  Finally I heard she had settled.  I went to check on her & looked in her bed but didn't see her, but I could hear her breathing... All the clothes had been thrown out of the hamper, and I looked over to see her little pajamed legs sticking out the end of her hamper, and she was sound asleep.

I LOOOOOVE these piggy toes....

I am head over heels in love with my baby girl.

I'm glad January is almost over, while I know February can be the worst weather month, it just means we're that much closer to spring, and it's a short month.