say "cheese"

any time madelyn can get her hands on the camera she looks through it and says "cheese". the change has been that she squints her eyes and smiles really hard - with her teeth clenched. it doesn't really make for the most flattering pictures so today i took some video of her assuming the position. the funny thing was that she was waiting for the flash from me taking the picture and was giving me a "what's taking so long, mom" look.

we had music class this morning and madelyn was happy as always to be there. we started with the recently beloved "big bear" song. she has sang it every day since class last week (where we did not sing it) and was talking about it on the way to class today. she was rocking so large for the big bear verse that she kept falling over. i was considering bringing the camera today, but will definitely bring it in the future. matt has got to see her sing and dance. she was even counting really loud during the jumping song at the end of class (we jump and then stop to count before jumping some more). it must have worn her out because she went down to nap an hour earlier than she has been and slept for over 3-1/2 hours! she got "friend" and asked me to "come" to her room for a "book".

her counting is getting really good and it is something that she is currently very interested in. she can easily count two items and can sometimes make it to four by herself. her favorite number is still "eight" though. she will stay silent during counting 3-7, but calls out "eight" as soon as i say seven. she is even working on using her fingers for counting. she can't quite get how to hold up only three fingers; she just skips from two fingers to five.

her favorite breakfast right now is oatmeal. she usually eats two packets and half an avocado or a banana. she calls it "mealoat" often but can say "oatmeal".

matt is amazed how much her vocabulary grows day to day. he is always telling me things she said or identified and asking where did she learn that? i just tell him that she hears everything and remembers it all. she is getting really good at repeating complete phrases, like "there you go". i need to start writing them down because some of them are really funny to hear come out of her.

countdown - one week from today we get to have the ultrasound! we can't wait! love.