Growing Haines: I have a Kitty Baby

Yes, I have been derelict in my duty of keeping up with the Madeline blog. I apologize wholeheartedly. Since so much time has elapsed, I'll just discuss a few highlights.

Oh yes, you might be wondering about the title of this post...If you've seen Madeline and me lately, you will understand the title of this post. Madeline is OBSESSED with cats, and I am not exaggerating. Madeline has been dressed like a cat everyday for several weeks now. She has her "black kitty jacket"- which is the one I made her for Halloween - and her "pink kitty jacket" - which is the fuzzy diva jacket you may remember from this post, which was over a year ago and is now quite small. I guess it is a kitty jacket because it is fuzzy? And of course, she also wears her tail. Sometimes she also uses an old Christmas headband with jingle bells on it as her "kitty collar." When she is dressed up, she says she is a "Kitty Baby" and I am a "Kitty Mama." Then we talk to each other in meows. It is awesome. :)

Since I've last blogged, we took a family trip to ND! Madeline thoroughly enjoyed her first pilgrimage to her future alma mater. And apparently the most memorable bit to her, which I just learned today, was that she stepped in some fallen cherries under a tree and got red gunk smeared all over her shoes, then subsequently smeared on Andy's sweatshirt because he picked her up and we didn't notice the goop. I know that this was incredibly memorable because she wore those same shoes today, and while we were driving in the car, she said "At Notre Dame, I stepped in cherries and it got on my shoes. But they're all gone now." It's the little things, people. Also as a result of watching ND football, whenever she sees football on the TV, regardless of who is playing, she says "That's Notre Dame!" That's my girl :)

And then, there was Christmas! Christmas was really fun this year. Madeline "got" it and enjoyed all of the parts of the holiday. Especially the opening of presents. Right after Christmas, we were shopping for a friend's birthday present and Madeline kept pulling things off the shelf saying, "I need this for Christmas." Then I had to explain that Christmas was over and we would put it on her Christmas list for next year. Today, while we looked at the gift shop at the aquarium, she added pretty much everything in the store to her Christmas list....She also really loved the Christmas songs, and was really disappointed that we had to stop listening to them until next Christmas. Now when she asks to hear "Fa la la la la," or "Silent Night Hol-ery Night," I tell her we have to wait until next Christmas. Having no concept of how long of a wait that is, she will enthusiastically respond - "When it's Christmas, I can sing Fa la la la la!!!!!!" She also really listens to the lyrics because as we were listening to "Baby It's Cold Outside," she pipes up and says "Baby needs a jacket." Smart girl. Though she has mostly accepted the fact that Christmas is gone for a while, she still tells Andy "Goodnight, Merry Christmas," every night.

And now we come to the New Year!

Here are some other funny things about Madeline:
1. She loves a good timer - I started using this as a strategy to get her moving from one task to another and now she requests it. One of her favorite things to say is, "Not right now. When the timer goes off." Luckily, she still responds very well to the timer, and when it goes off will go to the next activity with very little prompting from me or attempts at stalling.

2. She has an interesting memory - Besides the example I gave above about her shoes and the smashed cherries, Madeline will remember things from a while ago, randomly, and in detail. For example, the other morning, Madeline woke up asking where the fire in her hair went. Several weeks ago, we were playing with the webcam on my computer and the special effects, one of which was a ring of fire around your head. Why she woke up thinking about this is beyond me. Also, she makes lasting associations. For example, one time she asked for a string cheese right before getting in the car. For several days afterwards, she HAD to have a string cheese every time she got in the car.

3. She is excellent at playing make-believe - She loves her kitchen, farm, zoo, dollhouse, and other imaginative toys. Andy or I often have to "do" various objects that she wants to talk to. One of her favorites is a Zebra puppet. If Madeline asks you to "do the Zebra," that means she wants you to make the Zebra talk to her and interact with her. She will ask Zebra questions and cook for him. Another favorite make-believe activity is "tutoring." (Yes, Mommy does a lot of tutoring in the evenings) Her favorite students to tutor are the stone lions that are out in our backyard. Tutoring involves sitting in front of the lions and talking to them about lots of things. And giving them "treats" (gravel) on their paws - I guess for good behavior?

4. She is a musical lady - She loves to sing and play her piano. And she is actually a pretty good singer for a 2 year old (I think so at least, but I might be a touch biased). She has a few old brass candlesticks that I gave her which are her "horns" that she goes around playing. She likes to try to blow notes on my french horn. She has a lot of favorite songs which she requests by name. Besides the typical children's music that she likes, she also requests "Call Me Baby" (Call me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepson), "Hello Lala" (Hey there Delilah - Plain White T's), and "Send me on the way" (Send me on my way - Rusted Root)

5. She's a talker (at least in front of people she knows) and expert listener - Madeline has become quite conversational over the last several months. For better or worse, Andy and I often hear things come out of her mouth that we'd talked about days earlier....we've got to be really careful about what gets said in her presence. Our conversations with Madeline now are quite extensive. Here's a fun one - When Madeline helps me cook, she frequently requests to taste it before it is cooked. So, I've had to convey the concept of raw meat and raw eggs and how they can make you sick, but once the meat and eggs are cooked, you can eat it. So, this is our conversation during a diaper change:
Madeline: I can eat my poop.
Me: Ewww! No, that's icky! Eating poop would make you sick!
Madeline: When my poop is cooked, I can eat it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, at least she's got the concept of raw vs cooked.....:)

And finally, some more pictures: