New Goggles and More

Madeleine got a pair of goggles today, and she is BEYOND excited about them.  Having dubbed them her "precious goggles," she insisted on wearing them in the house and during the car ride over to swim lessons.  Never mind that she put them on a little crooked; she was just so happy to have her very own pair and be just like her big sister.

Not a bad look, wouldn't you say?:

Now, if you thought Madeleine liked going underwater BEFORE she got her goggles, you wouldn't even BELIEVE how much she liked going underwater at her lesson today.  In fact, she found ways to submerge herself under the water during every part of the lesson, whether it called for face in the water (in her case, head fully underneath the water) or not.

She was so thrilled with the experience at today's lesson that she professed her love for her swim teacher afterwards.

MADELEINE: Mama, I love Rachael, because...she gives me the OPPORTUNITY to SWIM!

When we got home from lessons and the girls changed back into their clothes, Madeleine firmly decided the goggles would be a mainstay.  They do make kind of a nice accessory to her outfit, no?:

She didn't even let the tinted lenses hinder her from coloring with the goggles on:

Speaking of coloring, Madeleine has been happily hard at work at her "Writing Letters" book, which I had bought for her since she is so interested in trying to write in lower case.  Madeleine is thrilled to have what she calls "homework," just like Julia, and has grasped the concept of writing the letters as well as coloring in the letter-coded pictures on each page:

Sometimes she gets a little creative and decides to work outside of the restrictive color codes, as in her elephant:

After coloring the elephant according to code, Madeleine decided to liven things up by drawing a spray of water coming from the elephant's trunk and hitting me in the face.  She then drew herself on the other side of the elephant, and for extra measure, gave the elephant a pair of big black google eyes.  I applaud her efforts to go above and beyond the expected work in this (and many other) pages.  Extra credit, for sure!

Meanwhile, Julia has been drawing and writing a bunch of love letters and pictures for her family members.  As is typical after saying good-bye to loved ones lately, she has been teary about leaving Vermont, and she has already put pictures in the mail for cousin Emily, as well as one for Nana and Gramps.  Furthermore, she wrote this little love letter to Nana and Gramps last night:

Dear Nana Gramps I miss you so much and I feel like crying evreyday beckas not with you.  I reily injoy seing you.  Love Julia.  XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO.

And Julia is not only expressing her own love for the family members she misses, but she has been looking out for the feelings of other family members as well.  Knowing that Auntie Shannon left Clara behind in Connecticut so she could take a trip to New Mexico (SHOUT-OUT to BLAKEY!), Julia made a picture to comfort Auntie Shannon in case she is missing her doggie:

Anyone else need some love coming their way?  Speak up, and I'm sure it can be arranged!

Madeleine has shown her tender loving care in a different way.  On our walk home from dropping Julia at camp this afternoon, Madeleine carefully and gently picked a handful of wildflowers from the field we walked through.  When we returned home, Madeleine took it upon herself to plant the flowers in our backyard "so they can be ALIVE!"  She dutifully got out a shovel and made holes in the dirt, then placed one shriveled, wilted little wildflower at a time, covered the hole with dirt, and got her little spray bottle to sprinkle water over the flowers.

MADELEINE: Mama?  What OTHER THINGS do flowers need to grow?  Sunshine?
ME: Yes!  Water, dirt, and sunshine.
MADELEINE: Yeah, Mama, so I put the dirt and the water on them already!

Poor Madeleine.  I hope she forgets about the flowers before she thinks to check on their growth, because she doesn't seem to understand that NO AMOUNT OF SUNSHINE, EARTH AND WATER is going to make a dead flower grow.

Then again, this is the kid who communes with Jesus and angels in her bed at night and plans to eat me and have me come alive in her belly, so perhaps she will wield some magical powers of resurrection on those poor plucked flowers...I guess one never knows!