A Test of Patience, A Test of Words, and a Test of Balance

When Auntie Shannon got home from work today, desperate to pee, she found our one and only bathroom occupied by one of Madeleine's marathon poop sessions.

This time, instead of her usual "poop toys," Madeleine had chosen an alternative tool to pass the time while on the pot.

AUNTIE SHANNON: (opening the bathroom door a crack) Madeleine?  Can I just go pee?
MADELEINE: (delighted) Auntie Shannon!  Wanna see this AMAZING magazine?

This is the magazine she held out:

Communications ACM is a computer science professional publication.  (ACM stands for "Association for Computing Machinery.")  The types of articles inside bear titles such as "An Integrated Approach to Safety and Security Based on Systems Theory" and "Digital Platforms: When Is Participation Valuable?"  The only pictures inside are either screen shots of code or head shots of VIPs in the coding world. 

Yet, to Madeleine, this was her prime choice for poop reading material.  After all, it's an AMAZING magazine!

In other events, Julia had her very first spelling test at school today, and she aced it:

6 for 6!  Yes, despite her creative interpretations on how words are spelled in her hand-written novels, Julia is right on top of her first grade spelling list.  Each week she will get a new set of 6 words to study for the following Friday's test, and she's reeeeally excited to get past the standard first grade words and into the really tricky ones. I wonder if "cafeteria" will be one of them.


And finally, today's caption for walking to and from Julia's school was: "How many times will Madeleine wipe out and tumble around in the mulch in somebody's yard?"  She was literally covered in dirt, thanks to her infamous face-plants while staggering along in her lop-sided gallop. 

I have honestly never known such a klutz in my life.  To the point that I feel like I should bring up her lack of coordination issues at her next pediatric checkup.  I mentioned this to Auntie Shannon this evening, who reminded me that Madeleine's doctor had noted Madeleine's inability to balance on one foot at her last checkup.

So Auntie Shannon set out to work on this skill.

AUNTIE SHANNON: Here.  Madeleine.  Focus on one thing, like, look here at my wrist and just STARE at it while you stand on one foot.

Madeleine was basically just as good at it as she ever was.  As in, she can do it for about a half a second before she loses her balance.  But she *maybe* improved to about three-quarters of a second after working with Auntie Shannon.

AUNTIE SHANNON: Okay, here's let's try it on the other foot now.
MADELEINE: Okay...(concentrating hard on Auntie Shannon's wrist while beginning to balance)
AUNTIE SHANNON: That's it!
MADELEINE: (wobbling and putting her foot down after about 3/4 of a second)
AUNTIE SHANNON: Good JOB, honey!!!
MADELEINE: (beaming with praise, then losing her balance and toppling over backwards, kabooming to the ground and knocking over a dining room chair in the process.)

Yep.  We still have a LOT of work to do...