it is cold, very cold, outside!

last night we had some more snow (just 2-3 inches) and matt and i went out in it for his office christmas party. but here is the crazy part - we got up around 8am this morning and it was -5 outside with a windchill of -31! since we had overslept and madelyn still has a cough, we decided not to go out to church this morning. instead we have spent a lovely day at home lounging in our pjs.

madelyn and i were looking at the nativity set on our dining room table (she now says "jesus", but more about that in a minute) as we do pretty much every day. she called for daddy to come see too. so while daddy was busy i was looking outside at the snow blowing all over the place. that was when i noticed condensation on our deadbolt from the extreme cold outside and the relative warmth in our house (a toasty 68 degrees). then matt pointed out that there was some ice hanging off the knob. we took the santa off (it has bells and hangs on the doorknob) and there was frost on the door knob! frost inside the house! we then noticed it on a few of the window moldings too. the wind is just that cold outside. this was a first for us and made us that much happier that we decided to stay home and indoors today.

but poor matt will have to brave the extreme temperatures tomorrow morning as he shovels the driveway and sidewalk before work. you only have 10 - 24 hours (we have conflicting information) to clear sidewalks after a snowfall before getting fined by the city so it has to get done. i thought that the 100+ inches of snow we had last year would have broken matt down to buy a snow blower, but he is determined to shovel this year too. it just says that it is good exercise, but it is pretty miserable.

the good news is that we are guaranteed a white christmas this year! we are supposed to have some more snow on tuesday too. the problem now is where to put it...

now back to maddie. i have been such a slacker with my posts lately because of all the holiday preparations, a stomach bug i caught from matt, and just being too tired at the end of the day. on days i don't post, i at least try to write down some of the things that madelyn says and does so that i can record them later. here are some quick notes and stories:

- the nativity set is one of madelyn's favorite christmas items in the house (second only to the tree - it does have lights). at least once a day, she will go over to the table and call out "mommy coming" ("coming" means come here). once i come she says "sitting" and then points to the set saying "jesus sleeping". our set is shaped so that baby jesus can lay in mary's arms or lay in the hay. madelyn loves this! she will say "sleeping" "in bed" and after i move the figure, she will say "arm" while patting her arm for me to move it back to mary's arms. she can also say "ox" and "angel" most of the time. she loves it so much that i bought her a little set at sam's for under $5 to keep in her room. she has also started to give air kisses to every figure in the set. she directs a kissing noise at each figure and then hugs the table (because she isn't allowed to touch the figurines).

- i guess dinner is the only time madelyn notices that her diaper is dirty. we were eating dinner the other night and madelyn stood up on her chair and said "wet" a few times. she normally only says "wet" to refer to splashing us in the tub or spilling her water, so i was a little confused. then i asked if her diaper was wet - "yes". and then she said "yes" she wanted me to change it! and off we ran to her room for a dry diaper.

- madelyn enjoys spelling. her favorite is "a-e-s". of course this spells nothing, but it is her favorite combo of letters. she will often repeat them over and over to herself as she is playing or just walking around. as her vocabulary grows matt and i have been spelling more and more to talk to each other without using 'trigger' words. we were talking about what the babysitters would need to do for maddie while we went out on saturday night and i spelled "e-a-t". without missing a beat madelyn said "eat"! while i am a little doubtful that she can spell already, wow!, that is quite a coincidence!

- a jar of maraschino cherries has become her favorite thing in the pantry. she gets them out and carries them around. today she ran back to the kitchen to get them before going to her room for "books" before nap time.

- she has a lot of new words. here are a few worth noting: circle, junior (veggietales character), diaper, cat, yellow, blink (as in the lights blink), sun, light, star, empty, shower, and snack (it finally sounds like snack and not sex - hooray!).