Enjoying Spring

With the warmer weather we've had recently, the girls are all about wearing dresses and summer shoes to celebrate the upcoming shift in seasons. Madeleine, however, seemed a little confused as to which season is nearing yesterday, as she modeled her outfit for me. "Mommy, look at my BOOIFUL Halloween dress! And my BOOIFUL crocs!"



Whether the dress is a "Halloween" dress because she wore a dress on Halloween or because it's at least slightly orange-ish (more like peachy pink, in my opinion) is unclear, but she certainly does look booiful; I'll give her that.

Along with the impending spring season comes spring allergies, from which Madeleine seems to be suffering the most. With her nose dripping into her mouth ("Mommy! I'm eating my MUCUS!") to the cough that has been keeping her from getting restful sleep during nap and night, she has been a bit under the weather. Yesterday, she sat licking the side of her mouth after I had wiped her face clean of mucus, milk and breakfast stains. I'm not sure if the wipe itself left a tasty residue or if she was just goofing around, but as she sat licking herself, she suddenly exclaimed, "Mmm! Yum yum!" I asked her what was so yummy, and she struggled for a minute, not sure how to describe it, then answered, "Um... ME!" I'm glad she thinks she tastes so good.

When we're not outside in the spring-like weather lately, Madeleine is busy putting together various small Elmo jigsaw puzzles. She is getting pretty proficient at them now, and doesn't need as much help as she once did, though initially she was calling me over to assist her every few seconds. Yesterday, as we put together one of the puzzles, we took turns attaching pieces:

ME: Okay, I think this piece goes here. Let me put this one in.
MADELEINE: Yeah, you can do that one, and I'll do this one. I'll do the NICE DAY.

You can see what a good job she did on the nice day, which is the piece in the right-hand corner:



She has been enjoying her puzzles so much that she didn't want to stop yesterday in order to go pick up Julia from school. As much as she adores Julia, there's nothing like a puzzle to make her callously indifferent towards her sister:

ME: Okay, Madeleine, we need to try the potty and then go pick up Julia from school.
MADELEINE: Nope. I don't need to. I don't need sisters.

Julia, meanwhile, has been busy with a new project: writing a book. She has been planning it all out since last night, telling me, "Well, first I'll draw the pictures, but I'm not sure what kind of words I'm going to say yet, because I have to wait and see what the pictures are going to be. But Mama, if I need to write the words, I can just write that kind of writing that looks like cursive that I do when I'm PRETENDING to write things."

And since Julia never, ever, ever forgets ANY idea she gets in her brain, there she was in my bedroom bright and early this morning, yammering away about the book she was ready to begin. "So, Mama, can you get me some paper, and I'm going to draw the pictures, but Mom, how can we make the pieces stick together?"

I told her to start on the pictures, and when it was all finished, we would attach it. She actually took the initiative to try and tape the book together, but grew frustrated when the tape didn't hold up to the task at hand.

ME: Julia, why don't I just use the stapler for you instead of tape?
JULIA: But what's a stapler? Oh, wait, I think I know. The thing that clicks and makes lots of holes. We have lots of those at school.

She worked diligently on her book all through breakfast, and when it was finished and stapled, she narrated it to me. I am proud to present to you the official copy of "The Horse is Afraid of Going to Camp":


"Once upon a time, there was a very worried horse. He was afraid to go to camp because he thought no one would be his friend."



"Then he smiled, because he saw a lizard on a mushroom."



"He said, 'Would you like to be my friend?' and she said, 'Of course!' And they both lived happily ever after. THE END."


If you would like to contact the author for Q&A on her new book, feel free to email me.