Steppin' Out

Madelyn wanted to take her "babies" for a walk on this sunny--but chilly--day.

New "best friends:" Yuka and Madelyn

Today's babies consist of one small Funshine Care Bear and one magnetic dress-up doll wearing pajamas and bunny slippers. They are wrapped in a pink burp cloth "blanky."

Ice Skating!

We took Madelyn and Yuka for their first ice skating adventure! 

G&G Bonnie and Dale met us at the rink and Dale so kindly shot photographs the whole time.  So at least I have some good pictures of one of our cool activities this week!

At first Madelyn just basically hung on for dear life as we drug her around the ice.  It took some time for Gary and me to get our "ice legs" too!

Ice skating is definitely another one of those activities which carries a fear that we'll pay the money and then Madelyn will be miserable and not want to do it. 

But once again, this girl totally loved the experience, even though it was challenging!

In fact, at one time she said she was done and stepped off the ice with Gary to get her shoes back on while I skated a few more laps (I actually started feeling really comfortable and having fun!)--but by the time I made it back around I found them back on the ice because she decided she wanted to skate some more!

I think this picture is so funny because Madelyn's skate slipped precisely as the photographer snapped!

That's more like it. 

This was a great family activity and I hope we do it often. 

Madelyn got more comfortable with time--just holding one hand now!

Thank you so much to Dale for taking all these great pictures!

Yuka did great for her first time on skates too. Ice skating can be pretty tough--but she says she had a fun time in spite of that.

Zamboni's pending entrance provided our cue to get going, and just at this last moment I urged Madelyn to skate over to Daddy--she skated that entire distance shown all by herself!  Her "skating" was really more like walking on skates, but she didn't fall down!  Yuka appears to be pretty exhausted, probably a little bit grateful we were finished. :)

Photoless Update

I've been completely OUT of the blog world.  And I also haven't been taking as many pictures as I usually do.  Worst of all, Madelyn has been doing and saying such clever and funny things--changing so much--and I'm not recording it here as I would like to be.  This girl makes us laugh every day and is really creative and sharp.  Here are a few little tidbits I can remember:

Recently Madelyn has been frequently asking, "What letter starts with (insert word here)?" We help her listen carefully to the word (i.e. "t- t- tiptoe") and she tells us the correct letter every time.

Madelyn is a master colorer. I don't know what age kids typically become skilled at coloring inside the lines, but I'm always amazed at her skill in this area.

For a couple of months now Madelyn has been engrossed in a puzzle phase. Grandma Bonnie introduced her to real-life jigsaw puzzles, and it didn't take long for her to graduate from the 25-piece to the 63-piece puzzles--which state clearly on the box that they are for ages 5+.  And she can complete them all by herself (this makes me happy in more than one way!).

Madelyn finally learned how to pedal her trike a couple of months ago and still loves going to school.  She gets to spend a good deal of time with Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Dale since I have been working so much, and they report that everywhere she goes people are impressed with her excellent manners and language skills.  She is a social butterfly, essentially earning her a 3rd set of grandparents in "Aunt Shirley and Uncle Ken," which is Dale's ex-wife/Bonnie's best friend.  Madelyn sees them almost every weekend at her step-cousins' basketball games.  (Are you totally confused by this family tree?!?)

Okay, enough of my totally deserved parental bragging (all parents deserve to do a little bit of that!).  I also want to talk about the awesome activities we did this week without a camera.

First, our former exchange student Yuka arrived from Japan on Saturday Feb 20th.  She stayed with us for 10 days to visit! It was a little bit surreal having her back, but very fun.  Madelyn took an instant liking to Yuka; it's difficult to tell if she remembered her from before or not.  Yuka first arrived in Oregon when Madelyn was 8 months old, then returned home to Japan when she was 18 months old.  They got along stupendously during her visit, and observing them got Gary and me thinking about what a great experience it would be to have an exchange student again, if primarily for Madelyn's benefit.

During our "weekend" with Yuka (Tuesday and Wednesday are Gary's days off) we drove up to Mt. Hood and went snow tubing.  This is the kind of activity that takes a ton of preparation and time to get there, and we worry about whether Madelyn will even enjoy it enough to be worth all the effort!  Fortunately, Madelyn loved the tubing, and we all had a really great time.  She even went down all by herself a few times.  Unfortunately, we arrived only 30 minutes before they closed so we didn't have much time.  Of course the biggest bummer is that I forgot the camera.  Seriously, who takes their child tubing for the first time and forgets the camera?!?

Our other weekend activity was a trip to A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village in Salem.  I've been wanting to check this place out since I heard about it a long time ago, so we made our first pilgrimage this week.  Totally worth the hour drive to Salem. It's like a Children's Museum but with more interesting exhibits, an intriguing atmosphere (converted old homes), and tons of unique outdoor play equipment, like this giant animal cell: 

You've just got to check it out for yourself.  Plus, we got in free with our Boonshoft museum membership (it's some museum in the midwest that offers "reciprocity" to zoos and museums around the country, so we get in to all our local attractions with this card for less than the price of a membership to just one of them here. It is terrific.)  You'd think that after leaving the camera behind the day before, I would have been extra-careful not to forget it again, but no. So no pictures of A.C. Gilbert's either.

And now back to the stuff I do have pictures of (thanks to Dale).

Maui Shirts

My parents brought souvenir t-shirts home from their trip to Maui for the grandkids. Madelyn loves her purple one, and I've even allowed her to wear it to school since she likes it so much. :)

Tracing

Madelyn was just a baby when Gary bought two of these cool dry-erase books about numbers and animals. We used to just talk about the pictures of course, but recently Madelyn dug them out of a bookshelf and started writing in them.

On this occasion we discovered her very carefully tracing the numbers and words. 

Cute and smart!

Wings and More

The balloon man at the NW Family/Kids Festival was the coolest. He was so entertaining and goofy--it was as if he truly, genuinely loved making free balloon creations for hours on end.

Madelyn got fairy wings and Jayden chose a jet pack. Awesome.

We also checked out a little gymnastics area, and much, much more. 

I was very impressed with this little festival overall. Every booth had a fun activity or freebie for the kids. We stayed much longer than I had anticipated because there was so much to do!

Sprinkles

The kids also decorated cookies at the kids' festival.

It was seriously one of the yummiest cookies ever. 

And here we are with Jayden and his mom Carly, one of my new friends. :)

Birdhouse

We went to a family/kids festival at the fairgrounds, and Madelyn got to help make a birdhouse.

The hot pink safety helmet was the best part.

This little boy is Jayden, one of Madelyn's "best friends" from school. I invited him (and his mom) to join us at the fair, and we had a nice time with them.  Madelyn was quite wary of the very loud music performance going on nearby at this moment.

Bouncy

Madelyn's favorite toy at the park near our house.