Drag-Racing Princess

You've never heard of such, you say? Well, welcome to our world. Within mere hours, Maddie transformed from a mild-mannered pirate princess to a drag-racing diva. But the pics really tell the story. It has been a pretty low-key couple of weeks, but the weekends were fun.

Let's back up a bit to two weekends ago. The weather was gorgeous. Everyone wanted to be outside, including us. Besides lots of walks and swinging, I took Maddie to the park to meet Stella Dot, who happened to bring her Mom, Amy.

They were pretty gracious with taking turns on the slide.

Then it was on to swings. Maddie is a swing addict, while Stella Dot knows how to ration her swing time. Since Maddie made no effort to de-swing, Stella Dot reconsidered and hung out a little longer.....several times.

And then it was lunch time. The genius Moms packed healthy lunches for the girls...um, but nothing for themselves. Did I mention that I also left all Maddie's lunch items on the counter and Frank had to deliver them to the park. Right....

Picnic time! We were the envy of the playground.

So that was two weekends ago. Fast forward to this past weekend. Cold, dreary, and raining all weekend. Maddie had cabin fever and so did we. I returned from nursery duty at church to find this.
I think we've been watching the Dora pirate movie too much. Frank had her convinced she was a pirate princess.

Later yesterday, we invited Robin, Waylon and Noah over for some toddler interaction. Poor Noah has been sick and we were all tired of the rain. It was a very long weekend. Did I say that already?

Noah and Maddie were a little low on energy and so were we. After some Mexican food takeout, we all felt better. Apparently, the kids felt so much better, they started drag racing with the doll stroller and the push car. They had a blast and we hated to break it up. But we did...

Tinkle tinkle lulu dah!

Daddy taking over the blogging duties for tonight.

Ah, the joys of toddler development! Maddie's language skills are really, really taking off now. More and more often, she is speaking in complete sentences, still interspersed with random babble and incomprehensible run-on sentences that can only be met with, " Really? OK!!!" even though we have absolutely no clue as to what she was just trying to tell us. At least we're responding.
Here are just a few prime examples from tonight:

Mommy was already at home when Maddie and Daddy arrived. Maddie ran to Mommy and said with a huge goofy grin, "Look Mommy, I take off my coat." (which she then attempted more or less successfully).

Dinner tonight was a weirdish concoction to suit everyone's tastes; bruschetta for Mommy, fish sticks with a side of bruschetta for Maddie and bratwurst, beer (daddy juice) with a side of bruschetta for Daddy (hey, I'm German after all). Maddie met the bruschetta with mixed enthusiasm and there was quite a bit left which prompted Mommy to ask for a bite. Sure, no problem. Maddie hands over a piece and then has a fit when Mommy actually tries to eat it......remember in toddlerdom we still don't share. Back goes the piece to Maddie's mouth, but then she promptly offers it back to Mommy. Mommy reaches for it, confused as to who will win the tasty treat. Then Maddie makes her intentions clear: " Nooooo, I hold it, you eat it!!!!!" And so they did.

Finally, when we walked in the house tonight we saw the lovely hairball remnants that one of our cats had coughed up. I cleaned it up and explained to Sassy pants that sometimes the cats have tummy boo-boos. Later, after dinner, Sunny walked around in the living room and Maddie walks over to him with a very concerned face. She squats down to eye level with the cat and says," Sunny, does your tummy hurt?".......So sweet and such a bittersweet reminder that the baby days are irrevocably gone.

The only baby in the house now is the one she hauls around everywhere. Below is a short video of Maddie putting her babydoll to bed. Our little nightime routine after bath and books is a short rendition of Twinkle twinkle little star (tinkle, tinkle lulu dah) after she is snug in bed under her blankie. I think she is trying to pass on the tradition here.

Another happening this weekend was a much appreciated playdate for kids and parents at Noah's house. Maddie, Stella Dot and Noah had a great time playing together and their parents enjoyed some grown up conversations, dinner and libations while the wiggles were entertaining themselves.

Here's our cowgirl on Noah's horse:



Sunday was really rainy and we were stuck at home for the entire day. Luckily Maddie showed the sweet side of her personality and we had a fun day just being a family. Here's some early morning cuddling on the couch with books:





An indoor tent provides a much needed retreat for reading to one's babydoll:


But despite all the indoor fun cabin fever finally took over and Maddie was ready to:"Go to store!"