Madeleine Makes Music

Julia is not the only one looking snazzy lately; check out Madeleine's choice of accessory to go along with her cute outfit:




I don't know about you, but I think the purple sunglasses totally make the whole outfit work.

Not only is she a fashion aficionado, but she really knows her music, too. Just as she loves to announce, from the backseat of the car, each track that begins on whatever CD we're listening to ("Whicher Cordy, Mom!" "Leaves that are Green, Mom!" "Two Little Blackbirds, Mom!"), she enjoyed identifying the main musical motif from Beethoven's 5th Symphony this morning. I had put the symphony on as she sat playing with blocks in the living room, and had no idea she was playing particular attention to the music as it played in the background. However, as the symphony progressed, then returned to the main theme again, I was suddenly aware that she had indeed been taking the music in. (For any fellow music dorks out there, I'm talking about the end of the exposition, taking the repeat back to the very beginning of the symphony. For non-music dorks, you are probably still familiar with the very famous main theme of the 5th Symphony, so you can most likely still picture the music I'm talking about.) Hearing the main theme begin again, she joyfully announced, "Dun-dun-dun-DUN, Mom!" When the first movement was over, she gave her usual car CD track request: "That one AGAIN?"

Dun-dun-dun-DUUUUUN!

She even went so far as to compose her own song today, while she twirled around holding Dora Mermaid in a pretend-play reverie. I grabbed my video camera towards the end of her singing, but was still able to capture some of the musical magic, despite her temporary distraction as a UPS (or, in her words, "CVS") truck drove by outside our house):

Drawing and Dinner Time

Madeleine did some more drawing today, this time utilizing the "turned off" red marker to create some interesting shading, as well as creating a Dalmation-zebra hybrid with some black stripes and a stray black spot here and there:




While she did an impressive job coloring, the task at which she did not perform impressively today was that of eating her dinner. As you can see in the following videos, my attempts to encourage her to eat were completely dismissed. It was only the threat of an early bedtime, an hour after dinner was put on the table before her, that finally convinced her it might be worth choking down some food. Mmm. Cold sausage and peas.







Julia did a stellar job on her dinner, and earned herself not one but TWO desserts. Unlike her sister, she wisely figured out that eating while the food is hot is way more fulfilling than eating after it has been sitting out for an hour. But that's not surprising, coming from a future archaeologist. Below, she pontificates on the benefits and drawbacks of underground exploration:

JULIA: (in the midst of watching "Dora the Explorer") Mama, I'd really like to know what it's like underground. I would like it to be the kind of underground that's not dangerous that doesn't have things that hurt you when you fall and parts of your body hit it, or whack it. Like, if there were rocks, and you trip over them, then you could get cut or maybe bleeding, or..... nails, except underground doesn't have nails. Let's see, let's see, let's see... maybe cement? I would like to discover dinosaur bones that someone never found before. I would like to see if, like, the dirt is, like, the kind of dirt that can grow vegetables in it, like if I see parts of the kind of vegetables that grow underground, like carrots, or seeds, or weeds. But, Mama, I have to ask you something. Do pumpkins grow underground?

While she was disappointed that pumpkins do not, in fact, grown underground, that did not deter her from her exploratory plans. After all, there are still all those carrots and seeds and weeds and dinosaur bones to see.

Style, Pictures, and Colors

Julia went to school rocking another stylin' outfit today:



She has been SO excited to wear this outfit. She has had it picked out for five days. I'm serious. She has also had an outfit picked out for tomorrow for the same length of time. I can take the hint that she doesn't want to allow me ANY control over what she wears anymore. She is so done with the boring, regular old outfits I pick out.

Because of all of the above, she was not at all willing to let me have any input on anything she put on her body today. So we wound up with a bit of drama when I stepped in and told her she couldn't wear her Hello Kitty shoes, which have just been handed down to us, and are a full two sizes bigger than what Julia currently wears.

JULIA: Well, Mama, then what SHOULD I wear?
ME: How about your sneakers?
JULIA: No! Mama, I ALREADY promised Simi that I wouldn't wear sneakers the next time I come to school!
ME: How about your black dress shoes?
JULIA: (angrily pouting on the couch)
ME: Julia? Why don't you go upstairs and get your black dress shoes?
JULIA: Mama, I'm just feeling FRUSTRATED!
ME: I'm sorry you're feeling that way. What's the matter?
JULIA: Everyone just keeps TALKING to me about what shoes I'm going to wear!

Wow. Please, all you blog readers, forgive me for my error. How could I do that to my own daughter? I mean, talking about what shoes she's going to wear, especially when she's the one who brought up the subject, is about as egregious as it gets.

As you can see in the picture, she decided to go with snow boots.

Madeleine has unfortunately picked up some of Julia's contrary behavior; as you all know, she wants to say and do everything that Julia does. Unhappily, this means she has learned to spew out contrary nonsense when she's feeling aggravated. Case in point: yesterday as Madeleine sat grumpily on the couch, pouting over some inane thing, Auntie Caitlyn, who was loading pictures onto her computer, attempted to cheer Madeleine up. Clicking on a picture she had just downloaded, she called it to Madeleine's attention to try and distract her from her melt-down.



AUNTIE CAITLYN: (pointing to the above picture) Madeleine, who's that?
MADELEINE: (grouchily) No! That's NOT Madeleine.

Those kids of mine SURE know how to give it to you when they're angry.

While she wasn't in the mood for pictures at that moment, Madeleine certainly did enjoy doing "Funny Faces" on Auntie Caitlyn's computer, in which the camera distorts the contours of a peoples' faces in order to make them look as if they're in some sort of funhouse mirror. Madeleine's favorite image was the "swirl," in which the person looking into the camera got to watch her head twisting sideways or upside down into a spiral:


Melded, swirling Madeleine and Mommy heads.

Because she has no other way to describe the phenomenon shown above, Madeleine took to asking Caitlyn: "Can we do Funny Faces? Can you do 'What's happening to Madeleine's head' for me?"

One thing I love about Madeleine's growing verbal skills is her ability to come up with a creative way to work around terms and vocabulary she doesn't yet know. As in this morning, as she lay on the ground coloring. All yesterday afternoon, I kept asking the girls to put the top on the uncapped red marker I saw lying on the ground. Neither child paid me any heed, so finally, hours later, I popped the cap back on. This morning, as Madeleine began coloring with the red, the color began to dry out.

"Oh no, Mommy!" she wailed. "The red is turning off!"

Hopefully this will be a lesson learned, and the girls will listen to me next time I ask them to recap a marker, so that none of the other colors wind up turning off.

Auntie Caitlyn Comes to Town

Julia and Madeleine were thrilled to have a visit from their Auntie Caitlyn this weekend! Madeleine finally seems to understand that Auntie Caitlyn is not, in fact, Auntie Shannon, and is therefore not the owner of Clara the chihuahua.

Then:
ME: Madeleine, Auntie Caitlyn is coming to visit!
MADELEINE: Yeah, and CLARA! But... Clara just keeps lickin' me.
ME: No, honey, Clara's not coming. Clara lives with AUNTIE SHANNON, not Auntie Caitlyn.

Now:
ME: Madeleine, Auntie Caitlyn is coming to visit!
MADELEINE: Yeah, but not CLARA. Because... Clara lives with Auntie Shannon. But Clara just keeps lickin' me.

Unfortunately, Auntie Caitlyn clouded the whole Clara issue a little bit while she was here, first by Skyping with Auntie Shannon and Clara, then by showing Madeleine and Julia a video of Clara that Auntie Shannon had recorded.
Madeleine still seemed to understand that Auntie Caitlyn does not live with Clara, but she did appear to believe that Clara's true home was inside Auntie Caitlyn's computer.

ME: Madeleine, isn't it nice having Auntie Caitlyn here? Did you know she has to go home to Connecticut tomorrow?
MADELEINE: Yeah, and Yia-yia lives at CONNACTICUT!
ME: And where do Nana and Gramps live?
MADELEINE: At the Mont!
ME: Where does Auntie Shannon live?
MADELEINE: At the Mont!
ME: No, Auntie Shannon lives in Atlanta. So where do you think Clara lives?
MADELEINE: (pointing at Caitlyn's computer) Um, in there!


Madeleine and Auntie C watching videos of Clara together

Julia was in for an extra special treat related to Auntie Caitlyn's visit. During Madeleine's nap yesterday, Auntie C took Julia out to the nearby nail salon to get mani/pedis. Julia has been begging me to paint her nails lately, so she was absolutely delighted to go out for a girl's afternoon with her aunt. As they prepared to go, Julia was full of chatter about the last few times she and I went to the nail salon.

"Auntie Caitlyn, did you know that at OUR nail salon, you can get your fingers AND toes painted? And when we first went there, my mom got to put her feet in this water, and then the second time we went, I got to put my feet in the water too! And I was so glad I got to put my feet in the water, because all that time I was, like, WONDERING what it felt like. I was like, 'Is it hot? Is it cold? What does it feel like?' and then finally I got a chance to feel it when I got MY toes done too!"


Showing off their nails


This morning, we got to take Auntie Caitlyn to church with us, which was extra special, seeing as she is Madeleine's godmother.


Ready for church


When we arrived, both Julia and Madeleine decided they wanted to sit down with the Sunday School kids in the front pew, so Caitlyn and I headed up to the choir together. (Ever since getting a little taste of Sunday school, Madeleine has abandoned any desire to come up to "the quiet" with me.) However, no more than five minutes into the service, Julia, who couldn't keep her hands off her sister and was so excited to have Madeleine beside her in the pew, got a bit too smothery with her hugs and kisses and knocked her sister down. Cue the wailing. And I mean high-pitched shrieking and screeching, despite the attempts of the Sunday School teachers to hug and rock Madeleine. So before long, Madeleine was back up in the quiet with us, where she spent a good chunk of time actually being - pun intended - quiet, hugging Auntie Caitlyn and trying to get over her wounded heart after being knocked down by her sis. Once she had moved on, however, she decided it was a good time to talk, full volume, about every little detail of everything she could spy in the church. "AND THAT'S BREAD THAT'S A BAGEL!" she cried enthusiastically, pointing to the round loafs of Artoklasia.

So back down to the Sunday school she went, this time with Auntie Caitlyn accompanying. Julia was back to poking and prodding her sister and gripping her in head-locking hugs, at least until one of the teachers decided to separate her from Madeleine, at which point Julia turned back into the quiet little angel she tends to be at church. Madeleine, however, wanted nothing to do with sitting still, which at least worked in her favor, since the kids were soon to start a procession of icons in celebration of today being Sunday of Orthodoxy.

So, that's how Auntie Caitlyn wound up being part of the kids' Presentation of the Icons. Holding Madeleine as they processed around the church, then pulling Madeleine by the dress as our little imp decided to walk herself and then run into other people's pews, Caitlyn got to make the most of her visit to our church by getting up front and center with all the Sunday school kids and teachers.

Two years ago, when Julia partook in this procession, I watched in complete and utter dismay as, once the kids were at the front of the church, holding their icons proudly during the rest of the ceremony, she stood there clawing and digging up into her nostrils the WHOLE ENTIRE TIME. Today, my heart filled with pride - and relief - as she stood still, holding her icon, making her sign of the cross, and keeping her fingers nowhere near her nose.



I gazed in pride at all of the kids up there, feeling such joy that my kids were taking part.



Then I watched as Auntie Caitlyn wound up holding Madeleine's icon up in front of the congregation, while Madeleine chose to roll around on the floor by the altar and kick her legs to and fro instead. Madeleine did stand up a few times, in order to try and vault her body over the wooden railing, or to pull her dress up over her head and flash the entire congregation. Little did I know what I was dragging Caitlyn into when I asked if she wanted to come to church with us today.



Yup. That little pink blob in the floor is my kid. Sigh.

All in all, though, the kids had a great time with their auntie visiting, and I was beyond relieved to have an extra set of hands helping me out this weekend!

Singing Tangled

Julia sings fragments of the songs from the movie "Tangled." Watch out, Broadway, here she comes!:



I'm so glad that ack last, she sees the light.

Car Trouble

This morning, we were running late to drop Julia off at school, despite the fact that she was desperate with excitement to get there. Today being "Pajama Day," Julia was eagerly anticipating the chance to wear her pjs and slippers to school, play with flashlights in the dark, eat pancakes for snack, and all the other fun things her school offers on Pajama Day. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get out the door on time, so we started off being five minutes behind schedule getting to school. Then, to top things off, I had to try and get our new car out of the garage for the first time. I know it sounds like a no-brainer, but getting a car into and out of our garage is particularly challenging. Our driveway curves to the right, so that we are forced to park at an angle, tilted right; not SO far to the right that we have to drive over the stoop outside of our side-door entrance, but to the right ENOUGH that we allow our condo neighbor ample room to park to the left of us. Furthermore, our garage is a straight shot forward from the non-curved part of our driveway, so getting in and out requires us to veer the car around our stoop, then quickly straighten out in order to pull into the garage (and vice versa.)



Now, with our old Toyota Corolla, I had the whole process down, and was able to navigate my way in and out relatively easily. And, let's be honest, the car was a 2001, so if I accidentally rolled over the stoop on my way out, it wasn't the end of the world. However, because our Kia is brand new, I wanted to try and avoid hitting either the stoop or the walls of the garage. Unfortunately, because I had never done it before, I was completely unused to the parameters with our new, differently shaped car, and I had an enormous amount of trouble getting the angle right. Backing straight out of the garage, I didn't quite have enough room to start curving around the stoop, and instead was in danger of driving right into it. So I went back and forth, turning to the right and forward, then to the left and backwards, occasionally pulling back into the garage to try and start all over again and get the initial back-out angle better.

The kids had no patience for my shenanigans.

JULIA: Come OOOOONNNN, Mom! We're gonna be late!
MADELEINE: Mommy, OH NO, the car is STUCK! Mommy, can you just drive?

And, of course, they were full of suggestions for how I could be doing things better.

ME: (turning the wheel to the right and pulling forward to try and get at a better angle for backing around the stoop)
MADELEINE: No Mommy! Not THAT way! Mommy! You need to go THAT way! (pointing behind us.)

By this point, we were a full ten minutes behind schedule, meaning we were actually five minutes late for school. Still, I continued on like a buffoon, trying to figure out how to get the car out as if I were at my first day of drivers ed. Finally, Julia threw her hands up in exasperation. "Mommy! We're NEVER going to get to school if you keep driving like this!" she lamented.

So, over the stoop I went. It wasn't pretty, but at least it allowed us to get out of the driveway, and to get Julia to school a mere 12 minutes late.

Back at home, Madeleine's day has progressed much as did yesterday. She has done some ridiculously controlled, in-the-lines coloring:



And she tried out raspberries again. They were still not a great hit, although she enjoyed sticking her finger in the hole again and saying "Boop!" just as we did yesterday.

MADELEINE: Boop! Mommy, I did "BOOP!" Mommy, it's just very really so funny.

While she wasn't so scared of the hole today, she still did not seem to particularly like the taste of the raspberries. In fact, as she colored, she openly spit out a chewed-up raspberry, paid no mind to it, and continued coloring with the spit out red goo right next to her coloring book.

ME: Ew, Madeleine, what is that?
MADELEINE: It's just my raspberry. I just SPIT it out.
ME: Yuck, honey, we no-no spit out our food. You need to eat it.
MADELEINE: Mom, can you color with me?
ME: No, sweetheart, I'm going to go make my lunch now.
MADELEINE: Yeah, Mommy, you just need to go spit out your raspberries.

It's the new way of eating, everyone! No need to diet! Just chew up your food to get that delicious taste, then spit out the mush and leave it on the floor for your mom to clean up. Come on, everybody's doing it!

Markers and Raspberries

Madeleine continues to enjoy coloring with her new markers:



While I continue to marvel over her fine motor abilities. She is SOOOO not my child in this regard. I love how much attention to little details she gives to her artwork, like the various patterns and symmetries in the Hello Kitty page she colored yesterday:




Meanwhile, Julia seems to take more after her mother, with a devoted and invested interest in coloring, coupled with a lack of patience for slowly and carefully working on the little details of her drawing:




Thankfully, however, she seems to exert much more focused energy on her coloring than she did on making her bed.

Now, Madeleine may be exhibiting some artistic ability beyond her years, but I assure you, she has very far to go before she's really figured out the world. Today we were able to move her one step closer towards understanding the world, in that she was able to learn an important fact: Raspberries are nothing to be terrified of. She ate the berries for her first time today, mixed together in a bowl with blackberries (which she loves.) Upon bringing her the fruit bowl, I popped a raspberry into her mouth so she could try it. Not actually seeing the fruit as it went into her mouth, she was able to form an unbiased opinion:

MADELEINE: Mmm! Yummy! Mommy, can I have more raspberries?
ME: Sure! (handing her a raspberry out of her bowl) These ones are the raspberries.
MADELEINE: (looking at the raspberry in distaste and taking tiny nibbles out of it, then abandoning it in favor of a blackberry.) I want the BLACK!
ME: Okay, good, eat your blackberries. But have some raspberries too.
MADELEINE: But... Mommy... the raspberries just have a HOLE.
ME: It's okay. They're supposed to have a hole. That's how they look.
MADELEINE: Mommy, I just want the BLACK.
ME: (picking up a raspberry and extending it towards Madeleine's mouth)
MADELEINE: (grabbing it and tossing it back into the bowl) No, Mommy, the raspberries just have a HOLE.
ME: That's okay. That's how raspberries look. They have a hole. Here, let me show you the hole (picking up a raspberry and holding it out towards her)
MADELEINE: (trembling with terror, warding off the evil raspberry) No! Mommy! I don't want the hole!
ME: Here, watch, I'll stick my finger in the hole. Wanna see? (Sticking my pinkie finger inside) Boop! See! Do you want to try?
MADELEINE: (very nervously extending her finger and sticking it in the hole) Boop! I did it!
ME: See, the hole is not scary. Now try eating it.
MADELEINE: (taking one minuscule, nervous bite)
ME: Just pop the whole raspberry in your mouth.
MADELEINE: But it just still has a hole.
ME: Here, watch, I'll show you. (picking up a raspberry and popping it in my mouth.) See? Now you try.
MADELEINE: (popping a whole raspberry into her mouth.) Mmmmm!!! Yummy HOLE!

I'm glad I can be there at such important moments, to teach her the kinds of life-long lessons like the fact that the hole in a raspberry is nothing to be scared of.