March

Spring is in full bloom here as we find ourselves outdoors more and more. We spent three hours this afternoon just playing in the yard together - enjoying her new swingset (see picture below), doing yardwork and just reclining in yard chairs looking at the trees above. Madeline always seems happier when she's outside, and that's generally where I prefer to be, too.

In March we had to do a little readjustment with Madeline's bedtime. I mentioned last month that getting her to stay in bed was becoming an epic battle of wills every night. She would hop out of bed and come looking for us several times a night, for no specific reason. Finally we decided to just put up a baby gate on her door at bedtime, and let her sort herself out. And it seems to have worked astonishingly well. After the first night she was an absolute angel the next day, and now bedtime is much smoother.

Otherwise, Madeline is enjoying life. She loves preschool - which she attends twice a week - and playing outside, as I mentioned above. She also loves reading, and probably spends more time engrossed in books than she does with any other activity. She reads to herself, she reads to her stuffed animals, she reads to her parents and family members. And when she's not reading, she loves being read to. Holding a book seems to be her default state.

Here are some pictures from the month:

Madeline loves making music. To take this picture I had to interrupt our jam session and put down my guitar.

Instead of going all-out and starting a real garden, we're taking baby steps this year and growing some vegetables in pots. Madeline has been very involved in the planting and watering, and is enjoying watching her very own lettuce and carrots grow.

Madeline writes thank-you notes after her big birthday celebration. She's too young to write her alphabet, but gets excited when her doodles happen to look like real letters.

Madeline and I enjoyed a picnic on the back porch on one of the first picnic-worthy days of the year.

Grandma and the Little Gypsy. Madeline wore her nicest party dress to celebrate Papa's birthday, but needed to bundle up before heading to the beach to check out the snails. She might have been mismatched, but she was warm.

One of Madeline's favorite places to sit in the yard is the daffodil/ivy patch.

Madeline was the recipient of a new (to her) playground set this month, thanks to a friend of mine whose son had outgrown it.

The new playground has a very fast slide - it looks like she's about to slide in the photo, but in reality she sat there for about 10 minutes building up the nerve to make her descent. Once she did it, though, she ran back for more.

February

It's a good thing Madeline's officially 3 years old now, because it was becoming harder and harder for me to think of her as a 2-year-old. She's growing so quickly both physically and intellectually that it still surprises me some days.

It's been a month of ups and downs for us as we slogged our way through a couple weeks of sickness but then wrapped up the month with a wonderful birthday party. Madeline's big gift this year was a true big-girl bed and some other new furniture in her room. Now her little space looks much more like a kid's room than a baby's room. She's got a twin bed, a nightstand and even a vanity with a chair where she can spend all the time she wants checking herself out in the mirror (a favorite activity).

And speaking of her favorite activities, it's struck me recently how good she is at entertaining herself around the house. Maybe it's a function of being an only child or not spending a lot of time in preschool or daycare, but she can spend large parts of the day just playing alone - reading to her stuffed animals or taking care of her baby dolls or organizing the ponies in her My Little Pony stable (which belonged to her mother). I guess I should be happy that she's so self-sufficient, but sometimes I kind of miss playing with her as much as I once did. I guess that's part of growing up - she's more and more independent.

Except at bedtime, of course. Bedtime can become an elaborate dance and a test of wills, as Madeline thinks of every ploy in the book to prolong the exercise. She needs water, she needs to go to the potty for the fifth time, she needs kisses and hugs for her animals in the precise order - it goes on and on. I don't think this is anything that's uncommon, but it can be a struggle nonetheless.

Here are some pictures from the month:


Madeline is getting bigger and bigger - she can completely dress herself and loves seeing how high she can jump.

We took a trip to a (sort of) local park on a brisk day this month. It was chilly as we hiked around the lake. . .

but it was much warmer inside the park's nature center, where Madeline was entranced by the monstrous snapping turtle.

I got my little Valentine her very own rose on that special day.

A pony tail can hardly contain the effects of static electricity on the neighborhood playground slide.

Granddaddy joined us for a picnic at Maymont on one pleasant morning. We sat on a hill and watched the bison enjoy their lunch in the distance.

I will allow readers to concoct their own caption to this photo of Madeline and Uncle Ryan during a visit to a nearby park.

Here's Madeline's expression the moment she walked in her room on her birthday and noticed her present - an honest-to-goodness big-girl bed of her very own.

The shock quickly melted into excitement as she scampered into her new bed to test it out. (She then took a successful nap and, upon waking 90 minutes later, proclaimed "I slept very well!").

Here's this year's birthday cake - homemade by Lacey, of course. Banana cake with chocolate icing and cherries (which were a specific request by Madeline).

Madeline patiently waited for the guests to arrive to her birthday party. She was excited to put on her nice party dress for the occasion.

Someone loves being the center of attention!

Here's my annual collage of Madeline through the past year. Check out 2010's edition here and 2009's version here.

January

After spending almost all of December infected with one bug or another, it was wonderful to have a healthy Madeline for almost an entire month in January. And I can write this with no worries about tempting fate, because she fell ill with a virus just this weekend, ending about three solid weeks of healthiness.

In any case, it's been a quiet month, which is just what we were looking for after months of holiday hustle and the above-mentioned illnesses. We spent our free time playing at home and getting outside when the weather allowed.

Madeline has experienced some major changes in sleep patterns this month, perhaps as a result of the string of antibiotics she was on last month or, just maybe, because she's getting older. She has essentially stopped taking her afternoon nap, and we don't know if it's necessarily a good thing. She still sleeps the same amount at night, but gets pretty grumpy toward the end of the day. We wonder if she could still benefit from a shorter afternoon nap. But try telling that to an almost-3-year-old who wants no part of settling down in her bed.

And speaking of settling down in her bed, the second major change to her sleep pattern is her propensity to get up regularly through the night. When we first introduced her big-girl bed last year, she still seemed to not realize that she could easily get out on her own, and would call us to help her out. But suddenly she seems to have figured out that it's not that hard to get out, and she pops up several times a night - usually at bed time when she doesn't want to go down, but occasionally in the middle of the night when she wakes up for no apparent reason.

This all happened when she was ill at the beginning of the month - she would cry out in the night and then we could hear her feet pattering down the hallway to our room. She would come in, still crying, but calm immediately when someone got up and led her back to her room. And, generally, she would climb back in her bed and go to sleep without issue. I wonder if she's having bad dreams or just wants to make sure we're still there.

And, while we are physically present, I have actually slept through this process several times, completely surprised when Lacey mentions it the next morning. It seems to be a pattern I've developed.

Otherwise it's been a good month. Madeline loves preschool and is making friends there. She even passed her very first test - a simple evaluation of basic concepts and motor skills that she aced, except for the "standing on one foot" segment, which she refused to demonstrate because, well, she didn't want to.

Here are some pictures from this month:

Madeline tries out her new tricycle. She picked it up quickly, learning to pedal herself around in a matter of a few minutes.

Here's one of the few times we made it to a local park this month. The views of the foggy lake were wonderful, but the rain started only a few minutes after we arrived and sent us scrambling back home.


Madeline enjoys experimenting with static electricity.

Our second trip to a local park was more successful. Madeline hiked almost the entire 2.2-mile trail to and from the lake, talking the whole time.

Speaking of, um, speaking, I think Madeline likes to hear herself talk. She found the voice recording app on Lacey's iPod and spent a half-hour or more sitting by herself and recording various thoughts and observations.

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Here she is looking much older than what I would envision a 2-year-old to look like.

Another frigid January day, another morning spent inside, just hanging out with dad.

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This scene was not prompted - Madeline asked to sit at the piano and then, on her own, opened the Christmas songbook and started playing and singing to herself. She hardly seemed to notice when I got the camera and started recording her.

December

We crammed almost two months of activities into December this year, and I still feel like we left some out. It's been a satisfying, if exhausting, Christmas season, and Madeline was right in the middle of it. From family visits to holiday activities, we've been busy every day. And, unfortunately, Madeline was beset by several infections throughout the month. It was nothing too serious, but by the end of the month we were just ready for everyone to be healthy and to fall back into our normal routines.

Here are some pictures from this month:

The setup: Mom gets Madeline ready for her annual Christmas portrait. (See 2009 and 2008). Usually these sessions end up being about 20 minutes of frustration and sadness . . .

and about 10 seconds of "That's it!"

Madeline is growing to appreciate the byproducts of spending so much time cooking with Mommy.

We spent a fun weekend at Madeline's grandparents' house doing Christmasy things, like making gingerbread houses and decorating the tree.

Not too long after the Christmas decorations were out, we got our first snow of the season.

Madeline and I spent a fun weekday morning enjoying the Christmas sights at the Jefferson Hotel. We pulled up a bench near the huge tree and watched a performance by a girls choir singing holiday tunes.

We also spent a weekend visiting family in Roanoke, where Madeline found her cousins (and their toys) to be fascinating.

Mommy and Madeline read a book before bedtime at DeeDee's house.

After talking about Noah almost every day since his family's visit to our house this summer, Madeline finally got to spend some quality time with him during our stay at their house in Roanoke.

Madeline helps Mommy bake some Christmas bread.

Christmas morning was fun for everyone. Madeline got the yoga mat she had been asking for. . .

and some things she didn't expect, like this tricycle and helmet.

Later that day, the Christmas fun continued at Grandma Vera's house.

We wrapped up the month with another blanket of snow. Madeline's new snow hobby is making snowballs and throwing them at Daddy.

As a post-Christmas treat, the three of us went to the Children's Museum of Richmond. Madeline was blown away by the variety of fun diversions there, and by the other kids that swarmed the displays. I have a feeling we'll be going there more often in the coming year.

November

While we had a lovely Thanksgiving, and have spent lots of time over the past few weeks engaged in fun activities, the big story from this month was Madeline starting preschool. She's going twice a week and has loved it so far. Her teachers are impressed with her, too. She seems to like the other kids in her class, although they're all still a bit young to be making friends. However, she does have a way with the young boys in class, persuading them to fetch her book bag and jacket with nary but a soft word and a touch on the shoulder.

Holidays: After a fun Christmas last year, Madeline is really getting into the holiday spirit this time around. She loves checking out the store displays, listening to Christmas music, and preparing our house for the season. As we unpacked the decorations from the attic, she clasped her hands together and yelled, "I LOVE Christmas!" It's a great time to start family traditions, such as seeing the Christmas tree at the Jefferson Hotel, opening our advent calendars, hiding the Christmas elf every day, and stringing lights and decorations all over the house and yard.

Senses: It occurred to me that Madeline might not be familiar with the purpose behind some of the appendages on her face, and I quizzed her to get a baseline of her knowledge. After we discovered that ears were for hearing, we moved on to the nose. Here is the actual exchange:
Me: What is your nose for?
Madeline: To put your finger in!
Me: That's funny, but no. What's your nose for?
Madeline: It's where boogers live!
Me: (shaking head) It's for smelling, Madeline. Smelling.

Here are some pictures from the past month:

This is Madeline's preschool picture, which is posted in her classrom to help identify her personal backpack and coat hooks.


Madeline eagerly anticipates going to preschool twice a week. Here she's packed and ready to go, lunchbox and supplies tucked into her backpack.

Madeline spent a lot of time "helping" with the leaves in our heavily wooded yard this year. Although she spent a good amount of time sitting in the piles and kicking them around. . .

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she also helped with the actual raking, both with my rake and her own, smaller version.

We spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the cooler temperatures. Here Madeline reacts to hearing a duck nearby as we played by the James River.

Madeline is becoming quite a hiker. This month we took hikes of up to a mile in distance, and she walked the entire way, navigating roots and rocks like an old pro.

Madeline shows off her pigtails while Mommy gets her jacket zipped. Sometimes she likes having her hair fixed up, but mostly we're lucky to get a hairband on her while she's running around in the morning.

Madeline mugged for the camera while we waited for our dinner to finish grilling one evening.

Madeline and I headed to a local park when the fall leaves were in full descent. She was happy to find this colorful specimen. . .

and she loved sitting on the bench and watching the leaves rain down. She especially loved it when one would land next to her or on her lap.

Madeline participated in her first pageant when her preschool put on its annual Thanksgiving presentation. The kids dressed as turkeys and sang songs. Madeline seemed a little shocked to see such a large audience, but she made sure to clap politely after every number.

Madeline was an active participant in decorating the tree this year. I had fun letting her decorate, but I now have to explain to our guests why all of the ornaments are on the bottom third of the tree.

In addition to our two full-size Christmas trees, Madeline also got to decorate a small tree for her room. Let the holidays begin!