Mad Skills

Madden has ball skills. Seriously. This tiny bird-like creature is destined to be a basketball superstar! She can fire a ball at you without even looking. Hitting you squarely in your hands. We call it the fish-eye. She can dribble almost as well as Jack. But she's 5 and a little over 4 feet.

Now I know, letting your child bounce a ball around the house is a bit unconventional. But, it's not what you think. For one, I have about 4 nick knacks left in my house. All the others were destroyed long ago by Master Jack. She's more of a leaving-a-trail-of-junk-behind-me-as-I-go kind of messy. Yes. She will bounce her ball off the wall. Duh? So she can catch it. And if you didn't KNOW she had skills, you might get a little nervous when she rears the ball back behind her head. catapult-style. (Much like the people at the Y childcare center, who were ducking and bracing when I walked in to collect her.)

I'm hoping to grow a college scholarship right out of this little hobby.

Madden's Dance Class

My sweet little Madden had her first dance class on Wednesday. I signed her up in the same class as Hays because she seemed so interested watching from the other side of the door. Well, let me just say..she's not ready. The teacher at the Y is very serious about ballet. Hays is thriving in the class. The other mom's were saying, "This teacher isn't very fun." and "I'm very disappointed..blah,blah,blah!" I had to ask them, "Has anyone ever TAKEN ballet? I mean, it's not about fun, it's discipline, precision and tough." blank stares. I'm just saying, if I wanted fun, then I would have signed up for Gymboree. I want some BALLET here.

Anyway, back to my Madden. She was under the impression she could just run back and forth the entire time. She didn't care about 1st position, 2nd position or any of that. Just give her a scarf, tutu and music..she'll take it from there. She obviously has the toe point thing down.

It's Functional

The day after Thanksgiving, I did what every other person in Nashville did... I went to the Y. When I got back, with Wendy's for everyone no less, I found my youngest dressed in a Tommy Original. No, not Tommy Hilfiger...Tommy Clinard. My husband has a real knack for dressing the girls in the most non-girl outfits. Let's see, today we have a lime green Hanna play dress with red, green and light blue polka dots, Hanna leggings with pink, light blue and lavender strips, a yellow jacket with pom-pom trim and to top it off, one light pink sock and one hot pink sock. Wow!!

His response, "It's functional, it covers everything." Yes. Yes it does. At least he did use girl clothes and not Jack's.

Words that make you laugh

Here lately, Madden has been cracking herself to bits over certain words. I remember all of them going through phases of cracking themselves up over little things, but this is my first child to actually give themselves the hiccups for saying...dog. Or, if you're Madden, "gog". Madden will usually start first, "Gog!" Then look over at you and wait for our response, "Dog!" we would reply. giggle, giggle, giggle. "Gog!"--"Dog!" haaah, haah, haaah. "Gog!"---"Dog!" Well, you see where this is going. This continues for at least a couple of minutes. Think about that. Saying variations of the word dog for a couple minutes and laughing until you hiccup...every time! I guess I shouldn't be shocked. There are commercials that come on that I laugh at every time I see them. One that comes to mind is that stupid armadillo commercial. The one with the armadillo super hero who is creating his own Capital One credit card and his wife sneaks up behind him with guacamole then he snaps into a ball. I mean, I've been laughing at that one all year. I tell myself, "Okay, here it comes..I know what's going to happen and I'm not going to laugh." And I do. Hhhmmm, this is confirming what we already know about me...silly.

Other words that crack Madden up are...spider, hippo, toes. She really likes to say, "Bye-bye boo boo baby." over and over and over. It's funny that Tom realizes her favorite words more than I. We were eating dinner and Madden was boring a hole into Tom. He looked at her and said, "Bye-bye boo boo baby." Madden immediately said it back and laughed. It was exactly what she wanted from him....what a daddy's girl.

Gimme Fries Lady!

I was trying to get Madden to actually say, "I want fries please." Without prompting. Leave it to mean mommy to hold the fries just out of reach and wait for her to ask. All while taking a picture-- no less.

But, she said it.

I win, I win, I win. Ah, it's the little victories isn't it?!

Serenity Now!

Madden is really something today! Swim diaper-check. Standing in chair-check. Knife in mouth- WHAT?!

While I was typing my story about Hays' day as a hairstylist, Madden runs into the kitchen and grabs a knife (not a sharp one, but..), stands on the chair and begins to "eat" it. What's even more troubling, I grab my camera.

Now as I'm writing this..she is coloring my walls with a yellow marker!!

I need to call Tom to find out how many days until school starts and open a fresh bottle of wine.


UPDATE: All knives have been put in a cabinet above the stove..butter, steak, bread, serving, etc. Madden has new teeth coming in and is mouthing on "everything" like a new puppy. BTW, the knife she is playing with won't even cut a peanut butter sandwich.

Happy Birthday Maddie-Cakes

My baby is four. The fourth birthday is always hard for me. At four, they are not typically viewed as babies anymore. They get too big to cuddle, they're temperamental and are talking up a storm. But, Madden is different. She still carries her blanket that she's had since she was born, she vehemently loves her passy, she seeks out a snuggle and she's still a wee little thing. So, I think I'm just going to tell people she just turned three. I think she can pull it off.

She was sick on her actual birthday. So, we had the party on Sunday. She played in the pool most of the day, had her favorite foods, ate suckers whenever she wanted, cranked up the bubble machine. Later that night, the grandparents came for dinner, then my sweet neighbors came over and we made ice-cream sundaes with homemade chocolate, vanilla, banana and peppermint ice cream. It was a great day!

I'm still going to say she's three.

Aaahhh!! To Be Three.

How fun it must be to sit in a plastic box with blue paint on your face! Madden was full of spirit this morning. I guess it was because she was allowed to sleep until 9. I have yet to find the blue pen/marker/whatever she used on her face. I'm sure she has squirreled it away for later.



After we got her cleaned-up, we went shopping and she wanted a little plastic giraffe and wouldn't leave without it!! I had already said no to a Little People farm, a My Pretty Pony "value-pack" and The Littlest Petshop hotel. I guess, she was determined to leave with something. So, plastic giraffe it was. The weather was horrendous so we were just killing time in Wal-Mart. She spent a good 8 minutes attacking a Spiderman weeble -wobble that was a good foot taller than she was. All done with a bow in her hair and on her tippy toes, no less.

She then had her usual lunch of french fries, 1 chicken nugget and juice box from McDonald's. Like I said, it's great to be 3!!