maddie-isms

Maddie with lotion on her nose--it was a little raw from her headcold.

Maddie's latest maddie-ism has been 'last day'. 'Last day' would apply to yesterday, the day before, a week before, sometimes even a year before! :)

Maddie has two maddie-isms for 'remember.' Normally it's 'ahmember.' However, if she's asking a question, it's simply 'member.'

Let's put the two together, as Maddie often does:
'I ahmember when I got hurt last day and I cried.'
'Last day when I was at Nonna's house, I did play-do, member dat?'

little house on the prairie

At lunchtime each day, we've been reading a chapter from Little House on the Prairie. Maddie has really enjoyed the story. Even Caleb, I found out, has been following along. We were reading the other day about Pa going hunting with his gun and Caleb piped up, "Gun? Weh's gun? Ah wa see gun." It's innate--he's a boy! I can't think of any other book or movie or toy he has where he has ever seen or heard of a gun, yet that's what he pulls out of the story and that's what he wants to see. Along similar lines, yesterday morning Maddie woke up and came into my room saying dramatically with big eyes, "I heared a woof howling last night. Just like Laura and Mary!" Sometime later I saw her standing on a stool looking out her window "looking for the woof I heared last night."

qotd

This morning at breakfast Maddie and I were going over the days of the week. As we got to Saturday, I stopped, but Maddie continued: "...Friday, Saturday...Cold Day."

a sweet qotd

Madeleine and I were in a clothing store, and I was looking through shirts. Maddie was carrying around her little baggie of cereal and raisins, and she was chomping away and looking around. Every now and then she'd say something. There was a long pause while she was eating some more cereal and looking around at everything. Then she very thoughtfully (and loudly) said, "Mommy, you are a very beautiful lady." A lady a little younger than myself was standing next to me looking at similar shirts. She about fell over when she heard Maddie's comment. She looked up at me, put her hand to her heart and said dramatically, "Ohh! THAT is the most adorable thing I've ever heard." I thought it was very sweet.

swivel sweeper

Caleb's new favorite toy.

This is my swivel sweeper. My friend Jerusha introduced me to it. It's the best little thing! It's a small swiffer-sized battery operated vacuum. It's not a replacement for a vacuum by any means--it's kind of more like a carpet sweeper I guess--but if you have kids and wood floors, it will be your new best friend. Just whip it out and the crumbs disappear.

Caleb and Maddie love to 'bakoom.' It occupied Caleb for a full 20 minutes yesterday, another reason why I love it. :) ...which brings me to my quote of the day: This morning Caleb was vacuuming after breakfast, and then Maddie wanted a turn. After a few minutes, she tired of it and brought me the sweeper saying, "Here, Mom. You can play with it now."

my baker boy

(This was when he was licking the plain flour and saying, 'mmmm guht!')

dinner time qotds

Dinner tonight was one of those you wished you had your video camera rolling. The kids were in rare form, saying one funny thing after the next! Here are a few of our favorites that we can still remember.

"Can I have some grumpynillabars?"

What color is Daddy's shirt?
"Fuhbah cowahs."

Maddie doesn't like my painting hanging over the fireplace, because "it is all dry."

teeth

Seeing those pictures yesterday reminded me that I forgot to mention that Caleb has FINALLY cut his third bottom tooth. You may have noticed in the pics that you can still only see those 2 bottom teeth in the front. I was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to get the other two. He cut his molars months ago. But right in the middle of all his sickness a couple weeks ago, he cut the tooth on the left. Still waiting for the one on the right, but I'm guessing it'll pop through soon.

playing around with Caleb

First, a bobe-ism: two ones
Maddie still says 'two ones' sometimes, and I think he's picked it up from her.

Next, a qotd:
Out of nowhere in the middle of the day, Caleb called to me and then said, 'Fa-Fa gih me chucks.' Evidently that remote controlled truck my dad bought him and showed him last Sunday at his house made an impact.

Now for the pictures:
When you ask Caleb to show you 'silly', this is the face he'll show you:

This was his own new variation today.

And this is just a cute one of him 'answering' his phone and saying 'hi.'

qotd

We're in a big quote of the day season. Maddie really seems to go in spurts with her quoteables. This is the conversation we had this morning.

Maddie woke up and came into my room to say 'good morning'. I was sitting on my bed with her in my lap, letting her snuggle. I rubbed her hair back out of her face.
"God doos that to me, too."
"What? Rub your head?"
"Yeah. He doos it to me, too."
"When does He rub your head?"
Braden came in about this point and repeated my question.
"He doos it in the day."
..."God wakes me up each day when it's sunny."
"He does?"
"Yeaaahhh."
Braden walked into our closet and Maddie called out,
"Hey, Daddy...God has a new house for us in heaven."

There's a lot going on in that little head of hers!

qotd

We were eating dinner, and Maddie pulled a tiny tough piece of spinach stalk out from between her teeth. "Mommy, one of my teefs fell out and turned into this little green line."

qotd

Maddie and Caleb were playing and pretending that Maddie was giving Caleb medicine. (Can you tell we've been sick over here?) Well, after a few doses Caleb decided he didn't want anymore medicine. Maddie, in an effort to convince him said, "But, Caleb, it's very good. It tastes just like butter!"

I smiled and said to Braden, "She's definitely your mother's granddaughter."

Susie, you don't have to worry, she's Irish.

qotd

We were walking up the stairs together when Maddie asked Caleb, "Caleb, what's your favorite color?" I was just getting ready to tell her Caleb probably doesn't understand that when he paused on the stairs, looked down at his overalls, pointed to the yellow 'oshkoshbgosh' logo and said, "Wehwoh. Ah pick wehwoh cohwer." Wow!

qotd

Maddie pulled on her eyelashes a little with her fingertips and said, "Watch this, Mommy. See? This is how I fix my hairbrows. I fix my hairbrows in the morning."

laundry overload

After more than a week of family illness, here's the mound! ...and this picture does not include the loads I did while we were sick, the load waiting to go into the wash, the loads currently in the washer & dryer, nor the 5 baskets of clean sheets and clothes waiting to be folded or put away!

S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G

Maddie's new hobby is spelling. 'Mommy, how do you spell ___?' That's a question I'm getting all the time these days. In fact at dinner alone, she must have asked Braden or me 10 times or more. However, it's paying off. She can now spell: mom, dad, tree, cow. (No, Maddie didn't write that! She can't write her letters yet--she spelled and I wrote.)