tonight's post is going to be a hodge-podge of stories from the past two days - i just wanted to warn you that i am going to jump around topics quite a bit.

this weekend i tried to have madelyn 'help' me with cleaning by letting her hold the spray bottles (chemical-free) and use a similar towel to mine for wiping. she really liked when i cleaned the front windows because the are the type that fold-in (i don't know what the proper phrase is). i mean she really liked it. now every time i open the windows she want me to fold them in and expresses it with a little fit and all.

yesterday the high was around 94 and then a cold front moved through to leave us with a high of 72 today. when the front moved through last night matt and maddie were at the park. it was still pretty sunny out and i was surprised to see that it was raining. here is a picture of matt and maddie after their walk home with the wagon in the rain. matt said that madelyn kept turning her head to the side trying to keep the rain from hitting her in the face. her cheeks look extra big with her hair wetted down.

speaking of leaving the park... madelyn has decided that she will just get in her stroller/wagon when we ask her if she is ready to go home. this is huge progress for us. once she started walking she fought leaving more and before walking we delt with not wanting to leave the swing. when we are ready to go we just ask her if she is ready to get into her stroller and she walks right over.

today madelyn had some fun playing with the hand-down doll stroller from the neighbor across the street. the funny thing is that she does not put any of her dolls or stuff animals in the stroller. she strolls around with her rubber duck, then a baseball. she just cracks me up. and later she spent some time serenading the dogs. i got the camera because both dogs were sitting next to each other and madelyn was banging and 'singing'. the dogs shifted around a bit when i came back and her song lost some of its momentum, but isn't she cute performing for them? and she really is doing it for them and not just near them.

with all the flying we have been doing, i tried to teach madelyn the sign for "airplane". (the sign is the "i love you" hand gesture going from one side of you to the other in an upward motion.) madelyn can't get her fingers into the right position, but she waves her hand in the general motion whenever she sees an airplane in real life or in a book. today she took it a step further when she heard one flying over our house. without any prompting from me (she heard it first), she started doing the sign and ran to the screen door and looked up at the sky to see the airplane. she always seems to surprise me with her ability to put concepts together and apply them. (not to brag.) love.