Week 85: August 26 - September 1

Still continuing with the easier format. It’s just not possible to record all the words she’s saying and understanding. But it is AMAZING to watch. If she would let me, I’d just sit and watch her all day long.

BIG TRIP
Our big fun for this week was a trip to Collierville, TN, to see Eddie and Melaine again, who were staying with her parents. The car trip was not too fun. Madeleine slept only 30 minutes AND we lost an hour with the time change. When she finally went to bed, it was like 7:30 our time. She fell asleep almost immediately, but she woke up pretty early (had a short night). So that stunk.

But I’m getting ahead of myself! Our evening was super fun. We got there about 4pm/3pm Central, hung out, held the baby (Nathan Legg), started a game of Settlers: Cities and Knights, ate some yummy food. Madeleine ate really well, and was in general a super well- behaved little girl—especially considering how tired she must have been!

Thursday, we went to the Memphis Zoo. It was Madeleine’s first zoo, and really her first BIG day out. I think she’s just a little too young to really enjoy the zoo, or the aquarium, or anything like that. But, I’m thrilled that we went, and she had a great time. We saw lions, tigers, and bears (oh my!), and Madeleine granted through-the-glass kisses to the black leopard and a black bear. She went without a nap, but slept about 20 minutes in the car on the way home. She was SO tired. The rest of the day and evening was spent watching the opening college football games and playing “Heroes of Might and Magic V” on the computer, in teams. Dinner was great, company was great. LOVE them so much.

Baby went to sleep late again and woke even earlier, about 5:40/4:40 Central. Man, that stunk. I got her up, expecting to be up with her since Matt had gotten up with her the day before. But when I went to interact with her, I knew she wasn’t quite ready to be up. I rocked her a bit, and she just laid her head on me and snuggled in. So we did that a little bit, but she couldn’t get comfortable. Finally, we got in bed. Here again, she had trouble getting comfortable, but eventually, she fell asleep. It was about 1 hour, 20 minutes before she fell asleep, right beside me, my arm around her. She hasn’t done that since she was TINY, and I LOVED it. She slept for 30 minutes.

Friday, we returned to Atlanta, and even though it was technically week 86, I’ll write about it here to wrap up the Memphis trip. Basically, it was awful. Madeleine was tired, she slept only 30 minutes (again). But it was so sad. She woke up after 30 minutes, crying these pitiful little tears because she was SO TIRED from her poor sleep while we were away. She kind of nodded off and on for another 30 minutes, making those pitiful cries whenever she was awake. After that, she was just really quiet for awhile, then was her normal self. When we got home, Matt dropped Madeleine and I off because he had to go get Layla. Madeleine was asleep in about 10 minutes. YAY!

One thing Madeleine definitely got from our trip: she learned the word “no!” It’s really quite cute the way she says it. So far, she hasn’t said it like, “No, I won’t obey,” but she can tell us if she wants something or not. Though, before learning no, she would shake her head, so I guess no great increase in communication came from learning this word. So far, it’s just adorable when she says it.

NOTES FROM WEEK 85

~ Madeleine is definitely doing some teething. Her bottom two I-teeth popped through, but she isn’t done. I guess she’s getting her top I-teeth now. It really seems to bother her sometimes.

~ Last week, Madeleine was kissing her boo-boos. This week, she’s getting everyone in on the action, including Lamby!

~ Something she’s been doing for MONTHS but I don’t think I’ve ever written about it: Madeleine will take my glasses off my face and hand them to Matt. He’ll put them on and then “mimic” me, and Madeleine just thinks it’s good fun.

~ While taking a walk one day, we saw the weimaraner that lives a few houses down. Madeleine saw it and said, “Lelu.”

~ She is starting to really ride her little bike well. She’s getting the hang of it a bit, not too good with steering still, gets stuck in places, but then she just picks it up and moves it to where she wants to go.

~ One day, after her nap, I took Madeleine into our room to take off her sleep sack. She then crawled up to my pillow and sat on it, then told me to sit on Matt’s pillow. We just sat there for a few minutes. She was super happy about it!

~ I gave Madeleine some plum one day, and she ate it all, then told me she wanted “more.” With the word. She also did the sign for it, but she said it! Very cool.

~ We are using cloth diapers again! Turns out I just couldn’t let go. LOL.

SLIDESHOW