The Wise Words of Madeleine Rowe

Madeleine's words of wisdom:


#1
JULIA: Why does Auntie Shannon keep saying it's so LATE, when it's only 7:52?
MADELEINE: Julia.  Remember?  The clocks changed.  'Cause it's NOVEMBER.  Daytime Saving Lights.



#2
MADELEINE: Mama?  Does everything go LOW, and it starts out HIGHER, in the years?
ME: Uh, what do you mean?
MADELEINE: Well, like, if it's 2009...
ME: Do you mean...like, is it a lower number year now that it was when you were born?
MADELEINE: Yeah.
ME: Well, what year is it now?
MADELEINE: 2015.
ME: So what number is bigger?  2009 or 2015?
MADELEINE: Uh...2015?
ME: Right.  Why did you think the numbers started higher and get lower?
MADELEINE: Cause it seems like, a little bit, like 2009 was a LONG time before it.
ME: Before what?
MADELEINE: Before now.  'Cause 2015 seems, like, I don't know, LOWER.



#3
MADELEINE: (lying beside me in her bed, in what I hoped was soon-to-be sleep)
Mama?
ME: Yes?
MADELEINE: Why when I'm trying to cross my eyes and people say "try sticking out your tongue to do it" and I do, and they say "You did it!," then when I do it at HOME, you say, "You're close!" and Julia says, "Madeleine.  You're really not crossing your eyes AT ALL."?


And finally,

#4

MADELEINE: (running up from the play room) EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!  Peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!  (dashing into the bathroom)
ME: Then go!
MADELEINE: (from the bathroom) Oh, GREAT.
ME: (with dread) What?
MADELEINE: Pee AGAIN.
ME: In your undies??
MADELEINE: Yup.
ME: Honey, you've GOT to stop holding it so long.
MADELEINE: Well Mama.  I was looking for a COLORING book.  Because...I couldn't find the GLUE, so I decided I would COLOR instead.


Well, with that totally legit reason for why she simply HAD to hold her pee to the point of her bladder bursting, I guess I can't be too mad, right?

Understanding our Disabilities Awareness

Every Friday, Julia brings home a "Reflections Journal" from school, detailing the important things she studied and learned that week.  My job, then, is to write a full-page response for her to read when she is back in school the following week.  (Is this a lot to ask a parent to do on a weekly basis?  Yes, it is.)  This past week, Julia wrote about the special school-wide unit called "Understanding our Disabilities Awareness" or "UDA." 

"Dear Mommy,
Thursday we had understanding our disabilities of awareness.  Mrs. Gibbons brought in some prostheithes.  We watched 3 videos, one about a girls who could'nt use her legs, a swimming event, and a video about a girls named Macy.  Then we walked to the preformence center to do the activitys.  My favorite was using the wheel chairs.  We learned that you should always think of the person first because people are'nt really disables, they can do anything we can do.  Doing this inspired me with some of the Mintz's friends, and I would really like to meet someone who has a different ability.  The two other groups were crutches, canes, and walkers and the other was something wrong with peoples arms.  I think this was my favorite diabilities of awarness program I've done yet!
Love,
Julia"


I am *so* glad that this unit inspired Julia to create some disabled characters for her imaginary family that she thinks about while galloping through the house.  After all, isn't that what this sort of a unit is for??

Julia's Potty Poem

Although Julia does all of her imagining about the Mintz while galloping, she apparently does all of her deep thinking while on the toilet.

She emerged from the bathroom this evening to recite a poem she had freshly composed:

"The white sheep walk across the meadow
Making a snowy blanket all across the tall grasses
And everyone nearby, raising their glasses,
Know they have seen the symbol of the sheep, white as snow."


ME: I *love* it!  That's BEAUTIFUL!
JULIA: I made a lesson out of this.  Rich, fancy people do this too.  Not to just think of yourself, think of OTHERS, too.
ME: What do rich, fancy people have to do with it?
JULIA: Because rich, fancy people are always RAISING their glasses.


So there's a lesson to you all: when about to raise a glass to your present company, think ALSO of the sheep, and of others, and not only of yourselves.

Counting

Tonight, after Madeleine read a book to Ethan at bedtime, she asked for some Mommy snuggles in her bed.  However, she didn't seem to actually want snuggles, as she complained that I was too close to her and snuggling her too tight.  After laying beside her without actually touching her for several minutes, I decided enough was enough and I would let her fall asleep on her own.

ME: Okay, honey, I'm gonna go.  Good-night, I love you.
MADELEINE: (clutching me) No!  Mama!  I want you to STAY!
ME: Honey, I'm not even snuggling you, I'm just lying next to you.  You don't need me here.
MADELEINE: But Mama, I *do* need you!
ME: What do you need me for??
MADELEINE: You're my COMFORTER.  You make me comfortable.  You're one of my BEST comforters.
ME: Well, I can stay for another few seconds and then I'm gonna go.
MADELEINE: How about ONE minute.  How about, like, TEN minutes.
ME: How about I'll stay and snuggle you a bit if you can quit yapping?
MADELEINE: Okay!

So I snuggled her as she lay silently, yawning with more and more frequency, and decided I'd gotten her settled enough to fall asleep on her own.

ME: (kissing her cheek) Good night, honey.  I love you.
MADELEINE: (distracted) Good night, I love you too...one thousand sixty-six, one thousand sixty-seven, one thousand sixty-eight...
ME: What are you doing??
MADELEINE: Oh.  I just started COUNTING in my brain while I was trying to fall asleep.

So I left her to her counting; that is, until I had to put away a shirt I had finished ironing in her room.  I figured she'd be asleep at this point, but nope, I saw her bright eyes gleaming up at me from her blanket burrito she was wrapped in.

MADELEINE: Mama?  After the TRILLIONS, I just said, "infinity," because I don't KNOW what number comes after the trillions.
ME: I'm not sure I know either.

(Quadrillion?)

I'm mighty impressed with the speed of Maeleine's brain counting, if she was able to get all the way through the TRILLIONS that quickly, seeing as she was in the mere thousands when I had left her earlier in the evening.  Let's just face it: with superhuman mathematical ability like that, this kid is bound to be a rocket scientist.

Howsis

Madeleine's lovely little poem, for those who are not on facebook:

howsis by Madeleine rowe

"sum howsis are sginny and sum are brocin down sum have to windows and sum are small thay all are uniqu, gust the waye thay are."


I love her sentiment.  I love my own uniqu house, gust the way it is, even though it's not sginny and it's not brocin down and it has waye more than to windows.  And even though it smells of dead mowsis.  Bravo to Madeleine Rowe for her poem embracing an all-inclusive appreciation of howsis!

Dinner and Drawings

A typical dinner time conversation:

JULIA: Mommy, Mommy!  I made up a song!  Wanna hear it?  (beginning a faux rap) I turned into a canteloupe last night when I ate an antelope. 
ME: Wow.  That's great.
JULIA: (thoughtful) Uh...maybe I should've done "I turned into an ANTELOPE last night when I ate a CANTELOUPE."

I can see she really thought her song through before she began singing it to me.


And here is some typical Madeleine craft work.  You might worry that kindergarten is turning her atypical artistic streak straight, but luckily, she still has her own unique Madeleine style.  Here are just a few of the crafts I found on our dining room table today:

It's a donut and a turkey.  I *think* this is what it says (in non-kindergarten spelling): "Arnie meets Twisty.  'Hi I'm Arnie,' "Hi Arnie I'm Twisty." 

Because it's a totally logical idea to have a talking donut and turkey that are the same size, just chilling and chatting together, right?

While Madeleine might make her numbers correctly at school nowadays, you can rest assured that she still makes a lot of them backwards at home, and she still has not mastered the art of starting small enough with her letters so as to fit her entire name across one line.

And then we have the brown sun.  Because...why not??

Mittens

Even though it has been unseasonably warm over the past week, the girls apparently have winter on their minds.  While I am living in the now and refusing to even think of the coming colder months, Julia and Madeleine decided to get crafty this morning by decorating cut-out mittens.  Both girls decided to make me a pair of paper mittens, with words of encouragement to help me through my worst days of Seasonal Affective Disorder, come winter weather.

Julia delightedly presented me with the following mittens:

JULIA: (with joyous pride) So Mommy, I thought, when you're feeling glum about winter, you can just look down at the sun on these mittens!


Madeleine's mittens contained an encouraging message:

"SUMR KUMS Soon Wintrs Gunu pas."


Wow.  Thanks, girls!  I'm certain that during the bleak, cold, snowy days of winter, these mittens will give me just the boost I need to keep my spirits up!