basement fun

madelyn plays in the basement while i work during the day. and she loves it! for some reason she has been wearing a pair for our adult snow boots while playing down there. thankfully, she hasn't fallen down wearing them while running around with the dogs. i thought that she looked cute today in her oversized t-shirt, leggings, and huge snow boots - almost like a caricature.


she loves playing with the dogs. she tries to feed them their food and today was trying to give them their water (it was a big mess). she doesn't always go to "their side" of the basement. sometimes she sits at the gate and shows them things she finds in the office or reads them books. today she picked a few books off the bookshelf and took them over to the dogs' side to read to them. the funny thing is that she chose to read about "uncle josh". i have no idea where the idea of uncle josh came from since we weren't looking at pictures or talking about him or anything recently (i cut it off a little too soon since she decided to say 'bye' all on her own).

usually she 'reads' to the dog a story about a girl in the forest that she makes up. today she added to the story. here is what she has:

"once upon a time there was a little girl who went into the forest. she ate a lollipop."

isn't that a nice story? i usually hear it over and over again as she plays with the dogs.

madelyn has quite the imagination. she is always pretending to find animals all over the house. today she kept falling out of her chair during lunch because she was trying to feed the "puppy" under her chair. or this week we have been running from alligators. she also pretends that friend is her baby. today she put him on the changing table to change his diaper. luckily, i had one newborn diaper left for him to wear. she mimics everything that i do with mason, but not while i am doing it to/with mason. today i heard her trying to teach friend to speak, "ma-ma", "da-da", "mason", etc.

her imagination also goes with her to school because when i ask her teacher about things that madelyn says happened we find out that she is making things up. the funny thing is that she is making up stories that make her sound mean or disobedient. her teacher assured me that madelyn is a very sweet girl and doesn't push people down. madelyn was certain that she pushed down her friend, ava, in the snow and talked about it all weekend. i asked her teacher about it and was told that not only did that never happen, but madelyn and ava are the best of friends and always hugging each other. love.