Pile-o-Books

This is typical "playtime" for Madelyn: pulling all of the books off the shelf and reading a few pages of her favorites. But she also knows how to put all of her toys and books away when it's time to clean up.

Swings

Madelyn loves to be pushed in the swings.

She also likes to try EACH swing on the swingset.

She signs 'airplane' and goes "sheooooo" when she hears one in the sky.

Mommy's Race

Daddy and Madelyn came to see Mommy cross the finish line at the 5k race. Only they didn't realize what a speed racer she is, because they arrived nearly ten minutes after she finished.

That's okay though, it was great to have their support!

New Blocks

Madelyn and Daddy playing with her new blocks

Cute pigtails, eh?

Play-Doh

We determined that Madelyn has been cranky of late due to boredom. She gets tired of the same books and toys, and she is ready for new developmental challenges beyond the more "baby-ish" toys we've collected so far. So we went on a spree the other day and bought some cool bristle blocks, wood puzzles, and more. And what child's recreational experience would be complete without some PlayDoh?

While she loved playing with the modeling compound, Madelyn got a bit nervous the first several times we operated the "extruder," which is the contraption there that pushes out PlayDoh shapes. The compound extrudes in long, snake-like tubes, and I can see how Madelyn might think they were living, slithering creatures.

She especially liked to have me put them on her wrists like bracelets.

Hooray for new and exciting things to do!

Spinning

Madelyn absolutely loves to spin around on my office chair.

The first time she discovered this amazing pastime, she wouldn't let me stop spinning her.

If the chair would slow down, she would say "MO!" in the most intense/angry voice I've ever heard her muster. It made her sound like a spinning addict in need of a fix.

Combined with the really calm, sleepy look she gets on her face when spinning in circles, it's a little bit creepy. She likes that dizzy/drunk feeling I guess. Must be an effect of all the booze I drank while pregnant.

!KIDDING!

Demitri's House

We enjoyed dinner and visiting with Sarah and Eddie, while the kids had fun playing together.

Madelyn loved crawling through this giant tube (tied down to a short little tube above), so we want to go get one for her at IKEA one of these days when we can make the trek.

We learned that Demitrius loves spinning around in office chairs as much as Madelyn does!

He really loved it when Madelyn pushed him around and around. When she got bored and his mom tried to spin him instead, he would say, "No! Madda!" Isn't that sweet? He can say her name!

Then we went out to play in the backyard.

What a terrific playhouse!

And what a happy little girl!

First Real Babysitter

The time had to come one of these days. It's not that Gary and I don't get out without Madelyn. But we're lucky enough to have both grandparents and other family nearby, so in 21 months we've never had to actually hire a paid babysitter...until now. We went to see Dennis Miller perform at Spirit Mountain Casino with Gary's parents, and my parents were both out of town. Since we would not be home until midnight, we couldn't ask anyone with kids of their own to come over, and also didn't want to burden anyone with trying to put her to bed in an unfamiliar place when we'd be so far away.

Our first choice would have been one of Yuka's good friends, Brittani, but she wasn't available. I got a list of babysitters from Brittani's mom, who is a friend of mine. I made a few calls and reached a young lady who seemed nice enough and made the plans! Phew! Big parenting step underway.

Kaylee was a sweet girl and it seems that everything went well. Madelyn went right to sleep at her normal bedtime without any fuss. So we were relieved and proud of her. Then poor Kaylee had the next 4.5 hours to entertain herself. She was actually asleep when we got home (I really can't fault her for that, it was almost midnight and she did have the baby monitor turned up to max volume), and the evidence suggests that she played a little Super Mario Brothers on our sweet Nintendo. (Not Wii. Not GameCube. Just Nintento. That's right, BE jealous). She apologized for being asleep when I woke her up. Do you think she needed to do so?

A Walk in the Park

The Forest Grove MOMS club campout is this weekend. We didn't go on the camping trip, but the destination (L.L. Stubb Stewart State Park) is only 20 minutes from home, so we drove out this afternoon for a potluck BBQ. That was a lot of fun, and we took the opportunity to do a little hiking. I wanted to show Gary the hike-in campground, which is much cooler than the parking lot-style campground area.

Madelyn keeping the dogs company for a few minutes during the picnic.

Madelyn plopped down in this beautiful sunny area at the entrance of the hike-in campsites to enjoy her snacks.

We walked around the various sites, and hung out at a communal fire pit for a while. It was so peaceful under the tall forest, completely isolated from civilization. Both times I've been here there has been not one camper in sight, so I wonder if it is one of those "best-kept-secret" kind of places. The State Park is pretty new, but I hope we can enjoy this place before too many people discover it!

Here is Madelyn showing us how she "relaxes:" hands behind the head and say "ahhhhh."

Grapes on the Counter

Jack came over for a few minutes today, and these two enjoyed some delicious grapes together, sitting on the counter.

Playing the Piano in the Stroller

Just couldn't think of a clever title right now, sorry.

She's just playing the piano in her stroller and that's that.

Berry Pickin'

Although this would have been a better activity for earlier in the summer, we decided to go berry picking the other day. Our favorites, the blueberries, are no longer available. We got some very tart blackberries, and some tiny strawberries that got too ripe before we had a chance to eat the ones we brought home. Oh, and Gary dashed between the sprinklers to get a few handfuls of raspberries, the second-favorite berry. Good thing they were cheap, because we feel the $5.75 paid for the berries we ate on the premises and an hour or so of something to do.

Madelyn loved picking and eating the berries. She did have trouble distinguishing the ripe blackberries.

She also loves carrying the buckets. She probably feels so helpful.

She knew exactly how to find the good (red) strawberries, and didn't even eat the stems.

Big buckets and a face smeared with berry juice!

The farm had this cool old merry-go-round-type-apparatus. It was a little rickety, but Madelyn kept wanting to spin around MORE!

A perfect afternoon family activity.

Sideways Videos from Sunriver

I forgot I had taken some video footage on my regular digital camera during our Sunriver Family Reunion last month. They are a different format and will not cooperate with my efforts to unlock the secret to rotating them 90 degrees. So tilt your head, folks, or turn your laptop on its side for some darn good un-edited videos!

Dancing around

Talking on the bouncy [squirrel? deer?]..."animal"

When you hear the crystal clear "boppa" she is referring to a non-gender-specific grandparent, i.e. grandpa/ma.

Saying WHEEEE (a lot) on the swing

Learning to Talk

In reference to the sidebar list of words Madelyn can say/sign, I wanted to emphasize that these are only words she says in context and understands their meanings. It is very interesting to me what it may demonstrate about Madelyn's personality that she does not speak in copycat. So far, she doesn't respond to, "Madelyn, can you say, 'bird?'" She won't repeat words like that. I remember when Lilly visited in April, she was already starting to do that, and I just watched a precious video of Demitri repeating all his cousins' names after his mom said each one. But Madelyn just won't do that. We can't coax her to say a word until she has decided to say it herself. I believe it shows that she has a deliberate, purposeful nature. At least hopefully it's that and not a language learning disability.

Lotion and Leis

Madelyn found these Hawaiian shell leis in a box of memorabilia I was sifting through, and she's been wearing them around for the last few days. In this photo she is rubbing lotion on her feet. The girl has an unhealthy obsession with lotion--she's constantly finding bottles of it and bringing them to us with her "uh? uh?" which means "put this on my hand right now!" It is kind of strange. Also, this photo is an excellent example of how Madelyn's hair usually looks without a clip or ponytail of some kind. Her bangs completely cover her eyes so she looks like an unkempt hobo at times, albeit a rather cute one.

Cuddly Octopus

I got this inflatable octopus for free at a garage sale, with plans to incorporate it into an island-themed activity we are doing at Curves. On our way there to set up, Madelyn fell asleep holding it.

$9.75 Zoo

Madelyn loves looking at the different animals in her books and can identify several of them, so I thought it was a good time to take her to the zoo to see some in real life. Only I forgot how rare it is to actually see live animals at the zoo, and even then they are usually asleep, which to a toddler's eyes is not much different than nonexistent. Then there's the price. Madelyn's admission is free for a few more months, which is ironic because we go there primarily for her enjoyment, but pay only for our own tickets. I laughed out loud when I read on their website, "25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo's Future for Wildlife program." Wow, twenty-five cents out of nearly ten dollars, huh? I think they would have been better served by saying "Two and a half percent of Oregon Zoo's admission revenue helps fund..." A quarter just sounds so insignificant.

Aaaanyway, if I've made it sounds like we didn't have a good time, that's incorrect. We enjoyed what we could (including some great people-watching), and tried to keep a teething toddler comfortable between actual animal sightings.

Our visit kicked off from the "Pacific Northwest" region where we saw these creepy-looking salmon. Next we saw some otters, but the photos didn't turn out, so here are the ducks.
And a pretty creek-ish area with lots of water foul. You can always count on fish and birds at the zoo!
The polar bears certainly rank as one of the best exhibits. They weren't out to play, so we watched them on a television screen instead. Is my disdain apparent?
While Daddy waited in a very long line to buy an elephant ear, Madelyn and I hung out on the grassy knoll. One of her favorite things to do is talk on the phone. Sometimes she actually calls people, and it's a little bit embarrassing.

Now she looks like she's getting ready to send a text. Gary's elephant ear looked delicious, but I refrained from a taste (gold star!). He waited probably 15 or 20 minutes for that dang thing, but that was nothing compared to the line to get in to see the new baby elephant. We declined to stand in what looked to be a minimum 30-45 minute line (there are few things for which I'll wait in significant lines), but the weird thing is there were roped-off zig-zags indicating that the line may well have extended as much as three times its current length! Who are these people? Clearly more elephant-calf-enthusiast than I. However, I did vote for the calf's name online, carefully choosing the least lame-sounding one: Samudra.

Look carefully, there is a huge giraffe standing between them. Yay! Another four-legged animal! Note the finger in the mouth, a sure sign that it's her teeth that have been making her cranky and HOT the last few days.

Madelyn's favorite part of the zoo was when she discovered these great rails for swinging!

Wheee!

Smooch!

I'm being a little bit bah humbug about the zoo, but we did see a few cool things and more animals than what I've shown here. Such as bats, naked mole rats, and sleeping hippos. But Madelyn is still a bit too young to really enjoy or learn anything from the experience. The tiger above was probably our most magnificent sighting, because she actually got up and walked around. It was pretty cool, and accentuated the fact that I don't believe I've ever seen a wild cat awake at the zoo, because it was stunning.

Oh, and on our way home we got to stop at the hospital to visit Madelyn's new baby cousin, Tyce Winkel! We didn't disturb him with any photos. Madelyn reigned as youngest grandchild for nearly 21 months, but now she has someone to look up to her!

Playing the piano

What's with the evil laugh, Madelyn?

Artist's debut

Daddy bought Madelyn some new crayons tonight (we weren't thrilled with those toddler fist-held ones because Madelyn was more interested in taking the crayon out than in coloring), and then he helped her create this beautiful masterpiece. He must have been fairly successful in encouraging the crayons to head toward the paper instead of her mouth.

While the recognizable objects were the work of her father, I'd say that Madelyn incorporated a beautiful use of color and lines.

Fashionista

After I got Madelyn dressed all cute this morning, she exercised her access to the bottom row of clothes hanging in her closet. She handed me each item that she wanted to wear, and when I offered to put on others she dropped on the floor, she said, "NO!"

So this is the outfit that Madelyn so carefully constructed this morning. Denim overall dress layered over her jeans, with puffy vest zipped up, topped off with the shirt from one of her Jin-bei.

I tried to unzip her vest to take a picture of how she didn't quite get the dress on right, but Madelyn insisted that the vest be zipped all the way up.

After a few minutes, it was strip-down time.