New maneuvers and new imaginary friends

I cannot believe what a little monkey Madeleine has become over the past couple of weeks. She is maneuvering her way into EVERYTHING. Yesterday she climbed into her Baby Bumbo seat and used it to prop herself up so she could reach Julia's wooden blocks, then pulled some blocks out of the bin and started sucking on them. This morning I watched her crawl over to Julia's art table and literally pitch her body over the rung at the bottom. She made it over with her body and one leg but couldn't seem to hoist the other leg over. I considered my options: a) extricate her from under the table, b) at the very least, remove Julia's box of art supplies (which were under the table... in an old Sam Adams box, of all things) or c) grab my camera. So I did what any good parent would do and went for option c. Here she is after lunging herself over the table rung:



And wouldn't you know it, she started trying to get that second leg over:


Of course she was successful. Before I knew it, she was under the table - I still can't believe she climbed over that rung all by herself and got under there. I guess Julia's artwork is not safe in a box pushed all the way against the wall under the table. Time to find a new, out-of-reach spot for it.


Success!

And moving on to Julia news. After going for a run this morning, I was stretching on the rug in the living room, and Julia was sitting on the couch, babbling away to me about a dinner plate and different foods. I was half listening at first, but as I started paying more attention, I realized I wasn't 100% sure who she was talking about. Here is what I caught: "And when I ask her what she wants for dinner, she usually picks pasta. But sometimes when she says pasta, she really means rice. And sometimes she wants stuffing. And Mama do you know which plate is her dinner plate? The PINK one. That one is her dinner plate." I was embarrassed to ask who she was talking about because it would be evident that I hadn't been giving her my full attention, but I asked anyway, and it turns out I hadn't actually missed anything, because Julia herself didn't seem to know who she was talking about. She sat there for about 30 seconds thinking hard, and finally came up with, "Mmm... ahhh... mmm... her name is ARA." (Not sure how to spell that one, but it rhymes with Sara.) I then asked her which one is Ara (assuming it was one of her little dolls or figurines.) She responded, "Um, the one with the pink dinner plate." Yes, I got that part. "But is she one of your dolls?" I asked. Julia got a huge, shy smile on her face, and I then asked, "Oh, is she invisible?" She admitted, "Mommy, she's PRETEND." She then launched into a physical description of Ara, despite the fact that she's invisible. She wears a ponytail, but not a big ponytail, just a medium one like the one I was wearing. And she has brown hair just like me. She also looks like me. So, it seems I have an invisible twin walking around our house, wearing a ponytail and eating pasta, rice, and stuffing on the pink dinner plate. When I was a little girl I used to constantly pretend that I had a twin sister; little did I know my daughter shares my exact same fantasy.