madelyn 4-year check-up

madelyn was not happy that she was too tall for the teddy bear gown like mason's and wouldn't let me take her picture, so i took this one of her back.  we brought both gowns home with us to add to our doctor play kit.

here are madelyn's stats:

height: 44.0962 inches (99th percentile)
weight: 41 lbs. 3.0176 oz. (87th percentile)

she also had her first hearing and sight tests.  what i didn't like is that they took her without me (because they might come to give mason's shot while she was out of the room). but she didn't mind in the slightest.  she said that they just played games.  she had to wear headphones and raise her hand when she heard a beep.  they told me that she passed that test.  and then the game was to tell the nurse what shape or house there was on the sign.  apparently, there were four sizes.  madelyn told me she got them all right and the nurse told me that she had 20/17 (or 20/16 - i can't remember) or better than 20/20 - she gets that from me :).

other notes about madelyn at 4:
- her imagination is incredible!  the stories she tells/plays out are amazingly detailed and she remembers every detail even weeks later.

- along with that imagination has come a healthy dose of lying.  it is getting better but not without lots of tears and consequences.

- she has taken to closing the door to their room so that she can play "in private" and tells us that she just needs some "privacy" to play quietly.  she isn't doing any thing she should be, she sincerely wants to play by herself for a little while.  i don't blame her one bit.

- sometimes she butts heads with mason - literally!  i think the head butting (or really pressing) is how she tries to block him out of whatever she is doing, but it still gets her sent to her room to calm down or gets the toy taken away.

- madelyn has more clothes than she could ever wear and she only wears only about four outfits.  she even told me that "grandma and nana bought her thousands of clothes".  we were talking about how i needed to do laundry because everyone was running out of clean clothes except for her.  she has a very strong sense of style and color combinations.  she also has a strong since of wearing clothes for the opposite season.  after spending all winter wearing her tank tops and summer dresses over long sleeved shirts, she just wants to wear her winter clothes.  we just let her wear what ever she wants - its only clothes.

- she is almost as excited as matt and i about moving into our new house and talks about moving a lot.

- she loves accessories, but never wants to actually wear them.  she just likes to carry them around with her "little things".  we discourage that because they end up all over the place.

- she loves her brothers and is always looking out for their well being.  sometimes she is a little too motherly and tries to disciple mason and carry maddux.  mason just screams "no!" at her over and over and maddux loves it when she carries him (she sort of holds him under his armpits and 'walks' him around). 

madelyn is growing into such a delightful girl.  sometimes i see too much of myself in her - independent and bossy (and i see that as a positive).  but she is social in a way that matt and i just aren't.  that part scares us a little :).  love.