first frost

we woke up to a white world this morning - sort of - due to our first official frost of the year. the yards, roofs, and road were shaded white by a layer of frost. by march i am tired of winter, but this time of year i get excited to bundle up and hope for a white christmas. but for now, everyone is gearing up for fall.

after spending the morning looking at all our options for a new dryer (ours died last weekend), we stopped by "harvest fest" at a local grocery store. we were offered a pumpkin for maddie to paint and thought that we would give it a try. she has been doing really well with her crayons, spent fifteen minutes writing with a pen on some paper, and we were headed home after this stop so a mess could be handled. she did so great! of course i didn't really get any pictures or video of how good she was doing at dipping (she is a really good dipper and has added "dip" to her vocabulary) her paint brush in the paints to paint the pumpkin or how well she did drawing on it with a marker. here is some video of daddy helping her paint.



and here are front (with help from dad on the eyes) and back (all maddie) pictures of her finished pumpkin on our front porch. hopefully, she (the pumpkin) will have a larger friend in the next few weeks.










the lady at the store offered us some ribbon and let maddie pick from two choices - madelyn went for the literal option with pumpkins on it. she is getting so opinionated thanks to all the options we give her for almost everything (clothes, toys, stroller v. wagon, etc.). i stapled the bow on top as a salute to maddie's ever present bows.

late this afternoon we went down to the neighborhood park for some outdoor fun after all the appliance shopping in the morning. the most exciting part was that we didn't take a stroller or wagon with us! madelyn walked the block and a half there and back (up hill both ways - really). anyone who has even tried to walk even to the next house knows that is quite an accomplishment. toddlers are easily distracted and tend to wander. not that we got there quick or anything, but she didn't even ask to be carried and didn't wander off the sidewalk. it is just extra energy burned. we did stop often to checkout some of the halloween and fall/harvest decor, pick up a bird feather, blow some dandelion seeds, and point out rocks and flowers. i wish that i had my camera for video. everything was greeted with a "hi", then examined and discussed ("what's that?" and my answers), and then waved to with either a few more "hi"s or a "bye" before continuing on her way. i thoroughly enjoyed our walk.

once we finally made it to the park madelyn lost interest in the feather after her first trip down the slide and enjoyed climbing, sliding, and swinging. and tonight she discovered the joys of swinging herself in the big kid swing (aka regular swing). she finally figured out how to get on her chest/belly and push with her legs to swing. again i wish that i had brought the camera with me for video (the pictures are from my phone). she has gotten on the swing like this before, but not figured out how to actually swing all by herself - she was so excited about and proud of this accomplishment.

she also spoke her first sentence - "mom swing, please". i have been swinging next to her, counting to three, and then jumping off while she is swinging in the infant swing. she asks me to do it "again" and "again", but tonight i got the full sentence request.

last is one more picture of her by the swing because i thought it was cute. love.