Madeleine news

Both Madeleine and Julia have enjoyed watching for the ice cream truck driving by our house of late. Every time the infamous electronic "Turkey in the Straw" is heard, they both run to the window, Madeleine exclaiming loudly, "Ice Fweam TWUCK!" The first time she did this, I remember being stunned that she could say those words, let alone identify the truck by its sound. However, what I failed to realize until yesterday was that in her mind, ice cream itself is indistinguishable from the ice cream truck. We took the girls to the local ice cream shop after dinner last night, and while Ethan stood in line ordering for the girls, I held a distraught Madeleine in my lap. The whole experience went basically like this:

MADELEINE: Waaaaaaah!! Aunt ice fweam TWUCK!
ME: Daddy's getting your ice cream. He'll be back in just a minute.
MADELEINE: Daaaaadddddyyy!! Ice fweam TWUCK!
ME: Yes, Daddy will bring your ice cream over in just a minute.
MADELEINE: (calming down) Daddy ice fweam twuck.

Once we got our ice cream, we went outside to the nearby town green to eat, and afterwards walked together back to our car. As Madeleine trotted along holding my hand, I remarked, "Wasn't that fun getting ice cream?"
"A fun ice fweam TWUCK!" she enthusiastically replied.

Another misconception she seems to have is that generally any object can function as a phone. Last week it was the Little People picnic basket, and today during the car ride home from church, she began playing with the wild animal toys I keep in the diaper bag, putting the tiger up to her ear and repeatedly exclaiming, "A chicken dough? Chicken dough!" So I now realize that the object doesn't even need to resemble a phone in shape, size, or color to act as a phone in her pretend world.


A phone. (Or chicken dough.)

Finally, this evening the Rowe family had a Skype session with the other Rowe family, namely, our relatives in California. Madeleine was quite interested in Uncle Mike, to the point that she named two of her Little People "Uncle Mike" as she played with them on the windowsill after the Skype session. Interestingly, the two figures she chose to dub "Uncle Mike" are the two favorites Julia had as a toddler: Eddie and Farmer Jed.

ME: (holding up Farmer Jed) Madeleine, who's this?
MADELEINE: Ummle Mike!
ME: (holding up Eddie) Who's this?
MADELEINE: Ummle Mike!


Uncle Mike



Uncle Mike