back home and catching up

i made it safely home on thrusday afternoon. and was really excited to see madelyn (and matt too). she obviously had a really great time playing with jason all week. she was excited to see me when i came to the door and let me pick her up for a hug. but then she wanted to get right back down and show me all the toys she was having fun with over the week.

i got to talk to madelyn a few times on the phone while i was gone. it is so nice that she can actually talk to me and answer my questions on the phone. it makes it that much easier (or is it harder) to be away. matt said that she called out for me during her bedtime routine which is a little weird since matt does bedtime, not me. anyway, i guess some night she was very sad that i wouldn't come when she called out "mommy". (she calls us "mommy" and "daddy" now. i love it!) he also had some trouble with getting her to take off her hippo pjs in the morning. something made her decide that she loves them and could not be away from them for even a moment. (she is wearing the top in the picture.)

i was so worn out and also trying to play catch up that i ran out to grab lunch so that i didn't have to figure out what was in the house (matt did the grocery shopping after i left last weekend). the closest place to the house is mcdonalds so madelyn had her very first happy meal. i went with chicken nuggets even though she almost never eats meat. for a while she just dipped them in the bbq sauce as a way of eating the sauce, but then she actually ended up eating most of them. she of course enjoyed her apple juice and a few french fries. the highlight of the happy meal, of course, was the toy. madelyn loves her my little pony figure - mainly because it came with a comb. madelyn loves that "pink comb".

here is some video matt took while i was gone of madelyn washing her hair. he puts the shampoo on her hand and lets her rub it around for a while before helping to make sure it really gets washed well. she also liked him to pour water above her so that she could put her head under the stream of water like she is in the shower but it was too much full body exposure to post to the blog.

here are a few other updates:

- madelyn says "cheese" when the camera is pointed at her. i don't know where she picked this up because i don't say it when taking her picture - or i didn't until she started doing it two weeks ago.

- i had mentioned in an earlier post that madelyn can say some of the letters in her name, well now she tries to say lots of other letters. she will say "a", "b", "c" when we get out her abc dr. suess book. and lately it has been as if she is spelling words - with random letters.

- she learned how to make kissing noises from staying with jason all week. so that was a nice treat to come home to.

- she has entered the repeating everything phase. usually i have to ask her, but it has been amazing how many words she really can say. i told matt that we really have to be on our toes now (not that we have any trouble with saying things we wouldn't want maddie to say) because you never know what she will repeat...

more to come. love.