my notes from the past week

i have been taking very few pictures but i have been trying to keep notes on the kids. here is what i have from the past week:

- mason has started to make an 'o' face for his own amusement. it is kind of funny because it is a long 'o' face.

- mason loves to dance, i have mentioned before, but now he spins in circles as part of his groove.

- mason is adding more signs and using them more frequency without my having to remind him. the newer one is 'water'.

- he has also started his own version of nodding. he sort of tucks his chin to his chest and tilts his upper body almost as a nod. he also adds a high-pitched affirming sound. and it has been extremely helpful for him to answer our questions. tonight, as a joke, i asked him if he was going poop in his diaper and he 'nodded' yes while grabbing his pants and started to walk towards the changing table, gesturing for me to come too. sure enough, he had pooped.

- related to the dirty diaper above, mason was trying to pull his pants down in our bathroom while backing up to the edge of the toilet. he was trying to get on and nodded when i asked if he wanted to go potty. if we weren't running late for church i would have let him try it out.

- we were playing in the playroom and mason found some coasters he had brought in the day before. he picked them up and took them back where they belong in the living room - all on his own! i was so proud of him. this wasn't the first time he has done something like this but this was the only specific one i jotted down.

- as a sign of approval we have been giving mason high-fives. he comes running to you with his hand up and ready to go; very cute.

- mason loves his shoes. as soon as we get him dressed (or sometimes before we get him dressed), he heads over and picks out a pair of shoes. he tries to put them on himself and then brings them to me for some help. he is also getting better at sitting down to take them off when we come back home.

- madelyn mortified me this week when the internet/cable guy was working in my office with us to fix our modem and she said, "mommy, i am scared of that man." did i mention she was less than five feet from him and he was black? (i might have been more sensitive about this because all summer we have been doing racially charged readings in our book club.) i suggested that she tell him hello and tell him her name. he was so nice to her and introduced himself. she obviously felt comfortable with him because when the stink from mason's diaper could be ignored no longer, madelyn chose to stay in the office with the internet/cable guy. when i came back they were chatting away like old friends about the picture she was coloring.

- on one busy and exhausting day of parenting this week madelyn and i took some time to just color together before bed time. she and i had some confrontations about behavior that resulted in her spending time alone in her room more than once. i was asking her about how she enjoyed her day (we had gone to the library, etc.). i asked her what her favorite thing was from the day. she said that she didn't know so i started to name off some of our highlights. then she said, "mommy, you are the best part of my day" and gave me a big hug and kiss. that was the best part of my day!

- mason is obsessed with belly buttons. if he is with me when i am getting dressed he can't resist my outtie. i finally have to cut him off and cover it with a shirt because otherwise he wouldn't stop pushing it in. and he goes after his as soon as his shirt comes off. the funny part is that he tries to see his belly button but can't quite bend enough over his belly to see it.

- madelyn is convinced that only one person can sing a song at a time. even if she asks you to sing a song because she can't remember all the words, you can't sing when she starts singing. it has kind of put a damper on car trip sing-alongs. i figure she will have to get over it once mason can join in.

- out of no where madelyn came to me and said, "mommy, i tell the truth and you don't." apparently "truth" falls into the same category as singing - only one person at a time. she was unable to give me any example of when i didn't tell her the truth and i couldn't think of any instance where i have told her even a 'white' lie.

- other recent expressions are "you hurt my feelings when..." and "my eyes were starting to water". each of these usually comes into play when she doesn't get her way or gets into trouble.

- her "eyes started to water" and her "feelings got hurt too" when i was trying to comfort mason after madelyn had unintentionally slammed three of his fingers over and over and over in a door. it must have been almost 10 times. she had opened up the door to the storage part of the basement while i was working on friday and i told her that she needed to get out of there (it is where the toys that aren't taken care of end up). i realized that she was having trouble closing the door and that mason was crying. i asked if she was getting his fingers in the door and she told me no. another minute or two of door slamming and crying and i got up to investigate. i thought that mason was just crying because he didn't want the door closed. she had left the light on so i opened the door and turned it off. that was when i saw how mason was holding his hand perfectly straight. his fingers were being pinched in the hinge side of the door. i would have taken a picture of his fingers because it was dramatic, but he didn't stop crying for almost an hour (well, it was off and on once i got him calmed down and eating a little lunch) and i just couldn't justify a picture. i am happy to report after lunch and a nap he was perfectly fine. he has no discoloration either which is truly remarkable after seeing the initial injury. there is just a faint red line where the fingers were actually pinched - no knuckles or nails were caught. having had my fingers slammed in a van door as a child, i knew how bad his hand hurt. madelyn felt just awful about the whole thing and i had to assure her more than once that i knew it was just an accident. she was really scared when she saw that he was really hurt.

i am going to do a separate post about their sleeping in the same room tomorrow. love.