Madeleline learned about gravity and magnetism today. While playing at the refrigerator door, she let a paper drop.
“Oh, the paper dropped!” she observed. This is gravity, of course.
“That’s because you need a magnet.”
Soon after, Angelina came along and started playing at the refrigerator door. Sure enough, she let a paper drop.
Madeleine explained, “That’s because you need a maggot!”
Good-bye liquid vitamin in a bottle. Hello chewable vitamins for Angel and Maddie! The loved it. Maddie keeps asking for more.
Maddie and I were reading books together. On the back of two of the books, the letter “Y” was very prominent. I asked Madeleine, “What letter is this?” To my surprise, she said, “Y!” I was so happy. She was starting to recognize letters!
The next thing I knew, Maddie exclaimed, “Deep and Wide!” Then she started singing “Deep and wide! Deep and wide!” from the old Sunday School song “Deep and Wide”.
I waited a bit, then pointed to “Y” and asked her what letter it was. “Deep and Wide!” she proudly answered!
“I love you, Mommy.”
“I love you, Daddy.”
We both hugged Maddie, told her we loved her, and this was her reply!
Maddie is a very nosy child. She always wants to know what’s going on or what others are doing. Tonight I thought we woke her up, so I walked into her room to help her fall back asleep. I soon realized she was talking in her sleep. She said, “What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing?”
I gave the kids a snack of club crackers and a spoonful of peanut butter. I was tired, so I laid down on the couch. Eventually, they began to clean up after themselves. They know where the rags and water bottle are for cleaning. (Even though they’re currently not allowed to use the water bottle without permission, I give them points for taking initiative.)
Of course, the water started getting everywhere. But that’s not my story.
Maddie grabbed the Clorox Anywhere Spray thinking it was another water bottle. Come to think of it, maybe she knew it wasn’t a water bottle but didn’t care. But that’s not my story.
My story comes several minutes later when I notice some peanut butter on the wall. I grab a rag and begin wiping it off.
“What are you doing?’ Maddie asks.
“I’m cleaning the peanut butter off of the wall,” I explain.
“Oh. I do again!” Then she runs to the table, grabs her peanut butter spoon, and runs back to where I’m cleaning the wall. This girl is so quick, she almost smears peanut butter on the wall again!
I don’t want to jinx this, but I was very excited that Maddie had dry underwear and pull-ups all day. She still rarely tells us that she has to go, but she did something in the toilet almost every time I had her sit down. She was even dry during her nap. Yay!
To celebrate, we told her she could have ONE prize for having dry underwear all day. We gave her a single M&M. She was tickled pink! I know this doesn’t sound like a big prize, but we don’t want to set up huge expectations and have to meet them every time. And at what point do we stop with the M&M’s? Maybe we’ll take her to ice cream or something as the final prize.
What are we going to do for Angel? She’s not big on sweets. We’re considering renting an inflatable jump house (her favorite thing to do) and let her jump around for a few minutes at the end of a successful potty training day. (=
All three girls wanted to eat some leftover Shanghai noodles. (They’re thick like udon noodles.) It wasn’t mealtime, so I thought I’d make a game out of it. I sat on a step stool in front of them, then explained that they were the baby birds and I was the mommy bird feeding them worms. They said, “Tweet tweet!”, flapped their arms like wings, and opened their mouths until I gave them a “worm.” It was so much fun!
I was getting ready to go to church tonight. Maddie was with me in my bedroom. As I grabbed a rugby shirt, she said, “No!” She pointed to a pink and white striped hoodie.
“You want me to wear this?” I asked.
“Yeah,” she replied. Then I think she said, while pointing to the rugby, “That’s Ba-Ba’s shirt.”
I complied with her request.
At 4 years of age, Jubilee is in her prime when it comes to asking “Why?” I try my best to not get fed up and say, “Just because.” Sometimes I say, “Why do you think so?” If she responds with an “I don’t know,” I may or may not be a little mean and say, “Then I won’t tell you.” (Don’t fret, I usually help her come up with an answer.)
I think Maddie is copying Jubilee. She says “Why?” all the time! She easily asks why four times as much as Jubilee. She is more persistent with asking “Why” than Jubilee. And much to our frustration, there is no reasoning with a 2 year old. To top it off, she probably doesn’t even know what “Why?” means!