Week 77: July 1 - 7

This was a really fun week! Mimi came for a visit.

WORDS & SIGNS
Whenever Mimi is in town, Madeleine’s vocabulary “explodes.” Whether the words are real or imagined is up for debate, but this time, Madeleine really did say a whole slew of new words.

*color & *crayon – these sound a lot alike, but there is a difference. They both kind of sound like they have a couple of “g”s in them, but hey! Whatever!
*sock – sounds like “gock”

Madeleine also told daddy to “color the ball.” Or maybe it was like “color ball.” But still. Communication was had by all.

Did I say slew? Well, it seemed like it at the time!

POOL NUMBER 3
This week, we did the pool with Lesli and her kids again. When we got there, we were the only ones. Awesome! Madeleine cried a little bit before we got in and when we put the sunscreen on her. She was also clingy in the pool, but she got the idea much quicker than last time.

And daddy was with us, so that was doubly awesome. And there were numerous types of balls available to Madeleine, so she was generally quite happy.

We tried the floaty again, with no success. BUT she loves the water, wants down. She likes standing on the steps and playing with things, she didn’t cry once when her face got wet. Oh, we should have reapplied sunscreen halfway through our hour, but she didn’t get burned. Just noticeable color on her arms!

JULY 4 ADVENTURE
Molly gave Madeleine a beautiful red, white and blue dress, so we wanted to get some pictures of her in it. On July 4, we got the baby dressed and packed up for a trip to Marietta Square, where there was sure to be patriotic happenings.

Matt dropped off Mom, Madeleine and I, and we headed for the fountain. There were kids playing in it! I’ve never seen that, so I snapped some pics. Then I felt some rain drops. Uh-oh! Better … do something about it.

The sky looked ominous, so mom suggested we get under a tree. We did. The rain only came down harder, but we still weren’t very wet. We just had a baby with us! There was a little pavilion about 20 feet away. There were some people standing under it, enough that it looked kind of “full,” but not really. I wasn’t sure if maybe it was their tent thing? Because a lot of people had brought a lot of gear for the concert and fireworks that night.

Anyway, eventually, we headed for the pavilion. Which was a GOOD THING because it soon started pouring. Basically, we stood under a flimsy pavilion for about 30 minutes in a thunderstorm. There was lightning, torrential rain, thunder. A bona fide thunderstorm.

Matt parked and made his way to us and held Madeleine for the rest of the time. SHE WAS GREAT. Didn’t make a peep, except to occasionally say “ball” if she spotted something that maybe kind of remotely resembled a ball.

It rained hard for so long that we had to just leave without getting any good pictures! Lame! I did send Molly a picture I took on my phone of the baby in her daddy’s arms, a little bit wet. Oh well, maybe next year?

BATH FUN
This week, Madeleine has discovered the joys of the water faucet in the tub. She wants it on all the time so she can play. And why shouldn’t she? :)

She’s been using her cups to collect the water, which she then pours back into the tub, onto herself, or into another container. This is very Big Stuff.

GRASSHOPPER
I think I’ve mentioned this little rhyme on here before… It goes:

Grasshopper hops, worm wiggles, spider spins, Madeleine giggles!

Since we started saying it and doing all the motions, Madeleine has slowly pieced it together. She usually got distracted after the second line though, but this week was a BIG FIRST.

The whole family—daddy, mommy, and baby—did the WHOLE thing, all together! It was great!

LITTLE THINGS
She loves (LOVES) climbing. Up onto the couch, the chairs, the bench, wherever she can make it happen. Mommy LOVES it (not) because it’s so (not) safe and mommy can (never) leave her alone and can (never) get anything done!

Madeleine can point to something in the laundry basket (shirts, mostly) and identify the item’s owner (mama or dada).

As you know, this baby loves balls. She will point out a ball wherever she is, wherever IT is, including when we’re in the car and she sees a round thing on a billboard! And any oval is definitely a football.

We noticed this week that when sitting at her high chair, Madeleine crossed her ankles. And it wasn’t a fluke, because she did it more than once and kept them that way! It’s just such a lady-like thing to do. And we love her like crazy. I’m sure that’s relevant to this item.

LITTLE BIG THINGS
Madeleine wanted to walk in daddy’s shoes this week! Of course he had to help her, but that just seems like such a BIG GIRL thing to do. I don’t think I’m ready for it!

She is also getting much better at using a fork. She successfully navigated the fork to the plate, speared some food, and got that food in her mouth.

SLIDESHOW