October

Madeline has made some big strides in the past month, inching ever closer to reading on her own. I don't know if it's something she's picked up at preschool or just in bits and pieces with her mother and me, but she suddenly is very fluent with lower-case letters - something that is second nature to older readers but is essentially the same as learning a second alphabet to someone just learning.

Not only can she identify all the letters with ease, but she's gotten very good at identifying the way they sound. A favorite game is to come up with words and figure out what letter they start with, and she's almost always right. And it's not just memorization of certain words - for instance, something will catch her eye as we're driving and she'll sound it out. She'll see a mailbox and say "mailbox" and then sound out the letters: "mmmmmailbox." And then, triumphantly, "M! It starts with M!"

We've also started practicing spelling smaller words with easily identifiable letters and sounds, like cat, dog and me. And once she learns a word, she'll pick it out in the text as we read books together. Slowly but surely she's putting this all together in her mind, and it's exciting to watch her figure it out.

She's also had some success with numbers. She's figured out that numbers generally repeat in tens, so she can pretty much count on her own indefinitely, with occasional help with every tenth number. I think she's counted up to 59 by herself, getting hung up on "sixty." But once I prompt her with that number, she'll continue on until she needs help with "seventy" and so on.

Aside from all the letters and numbers, we've had a terribly fun month. She's really gotten caught up in the excitement of fall and Halloween and has loved watching the season change.

Here are some pictures from the month:


Madeline flies a kite that she made during our annual weekend trip to a boat festival in St. Michael's, Md.

Madeline, in her role as space master, explains concepts from one of her space books to a captive audience.

By the time we made it to the apple orchard this month, many of the lower fruits had been picked clean. So Madeline helped me reach the higher apples.

We also picked up our annual pumpkin during the trip to the orchard.

Madeline soaked up the activities at the kids' area of the Richmond Folk Festival on a gorgeous fall weekend.

The weather has been so nice that we spent many an afternoon just hanging out on Madeline's swingset in the backyard.

We also made an impromptu trip to the zoo, scrapping our planned trip to the salon when we woke up to perfect weather. Madeline gathered her courage to feed the giraffes, which were very friendly.

The giraffes were also very tall.

Madeline got a kick out of leaping over every root in the trail during a weekend hike through the woods.

Madeline made a new friend when we got out the Halloween decorations - he was just her size.

Madeline got to go on two hay rides this month, and loved every minute of both of them.

Helping daddy carve Mr. Pumpkin.

All dressed up and ready to go, Madeline was a little butterfly for Halloween this year. She had a blast going from door to door - the candy was ancillary to the excitement of just ringing people's doorbells and showing off her wings.

Even though we only visited about a dozen houses in the neighborhood, Madeline scored enough candy to last a long time.

Madeline officially wrote her own name for the first time. She had some verbal guidance from mommy, but she did the writing all by herself.

Madeline could hardly contain her excitement as she unpacked the contents of a goodie bag she received at her preschool Halloween party.

September

Our big adventure for the month was a trip to the beach, and it was during this trip that we saw the first real signs of Madeline's new favorite activity - meeting people. We have no idea where it came from, but suddenly Madeline, our shy little girl, finds amazing joy in meeting and talking to people. On the beach she asked us if she could approach strangers nearby and, as we kept a watchful eye, she would walk fearlessly up to them and start asking questions. "What's your name?" was usually the first. Generally a minutes-long conversation would follow. (Lest you worry about Madeline approaching strangers, it seemed like she has a gift for choosing people who would welcome a conversation - mostly motherly and grandmotherly women and preteen girls - and we were always with her, obviously.)

The fascinating thing is that she was having real conversations - listening to questions, replying appropriately and coming up with thoughts of her own that matched the subject and progressed the conversation. She wasn't just talking extemporaneously - there was a real give-and-take. Maybe I shouldn't be so surprised - she's getting older and she's ready to start exploring the world of interpersonal relationships outside of her parents and family. But I've been impressed by her thoughtfulness and boldness, and even her skill. And while the beach was the first time we really saw this in action, she's had many more chances to practice in the following weeks at several larger gatherings we've attended. Even her preschool teacher has commented that she's been more outgoing.

On the other hand, when the AC repairman came to our house this morning, she ran and hid behind an end table!

Here are some pictures from the month:

Most of our time at the beach was spent like this - relaxing while Madeline dug in the sand.

We did get an unusual opportunity to watch a sea-turtle release that was happening just down the beach from our hotel. The timing was perfect, and Madeline got a front-row seat to witness the action.

Lacey and Madeline found a great book at the library that described the annual Mid-Autumn Moon Festival celebrated in some Asian cultures. It just so happened to occur the week we were at the beach, so we created our own festival, and were rewarded with an amazing red moon over the ocean.

Madeline taunts a crab with a stick. Probably not the best idea, but it was fun for a couple minutes.

We spent one morning making sand sculptures such as this well-decorated castle.

Kite-flying was also a fun activity as the weather turned cloudy and cold on our last day at the beach.

Madeline enjoyed her turn at the controls.

Back in Virginia, we loaded up the car with all of our favorite outdoor implements for a fun weekend at the river.

I presented Madeline with my old digital camera, and she spent hours taking pictures with it. Thank goodness it has rechargeable batteries, because she wore them out several times a day.

Our budding photographer snaps a shot of some blooming flowers.

We got a lot of rain in September and it seemed like almost every day was cloudy and drizzly. We didn't let that keep up inside, though.

Madeline was excited to start the new school year. She's happy to go in the morning and excited to talk about her day and her friends when she gets home.

August

The last full month of summer passed quickly, but that doesn't mean we let it pass us by. I had about three weeks off work in August, and we spent much of the time on adventures both near and far. We even decided to pull Madeline out of her final two-week session of summer school so we could spend our days together before the regular school year begins in September.

Aside from her abiding fascination with everything related to space, Madeline also loved running this month. She would velcro on her running shoes and just take off, running laps through the house or running circles around its perimeter on nice days. Madeline also loves cooking in her little kitchen - a present from Santa a couple years ago - and spends lots of time coming up with exotic concoctions of imaginary spices and fruits, some of which actually sound tasty.

Speaking of her imagination, Madeline has a couple well-developed imaginary companions - Daley (a girl) and Morrow (a boy). They have their own complex families and relationships, and also their own homes, which Madeline assures me are close to ours even though she often points to central Africa when locating them on the globe. While she doesn't talk to them, she often talks about them, using them in her own way to make sense of larger ideas and concepts. Frequently she'll bring them up in conversation with other people, talking about their exploits as easily and confidently as she would mention an actual occurrence she witnessed with her own eyes.

Here are some pictures from the month:

After briefly visiting the playground at the local park, Madeline loves hitting the baseball diamond, where she just runs . . .

and runs . . .

and runs.

Madeline and Granddad engrossed in some playground conversation on a lazy summer morning.

One of our many activities this month was visiting the children's garden at Lewis Ginter. Madeline loved playing in the kid-sized houses.

She also liked tidying the natural accouterments that cluttered the structures and then sweeping the concrete floors.

But the highlight of the visit - even more exciting than climbing a tree or walking through the maze or running to the top of the treehouse - was playing in the sprinklers at the children's garden.

Papa John delivers a rocket to the young slugger, who, with the support of Grandma's steady presence, knocked it out of the park, or at least well into the driveway.

Another of August's adventures was a trip to the Science Museum. They had an expansive space-themed display that kept Madeline rapt, but she got some hands-on experience in the science lab upstairs, where she viewed some pond life under the microscope.

Madeline and Mommy check out the train engine at the science museum. Trains are also high on Madeline's list of excitement-inducing subjects.

Not all of our fun was had away from home - I built Madeline an amazing fort (if I do say so myself) in the living room. She gathered some stuffed friends and read - you guessed it - space books.

Probably the highlight of the month was our trip to Maryland to visit with some relatives - Claudia and Jared - who both happen to study space professionally. Madeline was in heaven discussing facts and ideas about the solar system, reading new books about space, and watching technical videos of the Mars exploration rovers. Oh, and we also spent a morning at Great Falls National Park, checking out the amazing falls of the Potomac.

While we were in Maryland, we visited the National Aquarium in Baltimore. We had a great day and saw tons of sea life - from sharks to seahorses - but I accidentally left behind my camera!

At Great Falls, Madeline built up the nerve to sit atop Molly the Mule.

The last adventure of the month was Hurricane Irene. The storm left us plenty of debris to clean up, and also took our power for a few days. We made the most of the situation and Madeline was pretty understanding about it, but we were still happy when the lights finally flickered back to life.

From the archives

I'm not sure why this video was never posted. I know I'm biased, but watching this today made me a little nostalgic - it's cute and it made me chuckle. It was recorded on Nov. 16, 2009, when Madeline was about 21 months old. You just have to ignore the nonstop leafblowers and dog barking - the prices we pay for living in the suburbs.

July

The big, wonderful news from July is that we're finally diaper free! After her success from last month, it was only another week or so before she said she was ready to not wear a diaper to bed. So she didn't, and hasn't had any issues since then.

Otherwise we've had a fun month. Madeline spent two weeks in preschool summer camp and the other two at home with me during the week. We had lots of fun together, and now that preschool's out for the rest of the summer we have a long list of fun summer activities to keep us busy through August.

Madeline has been great this month. It's been a long and gradual process, but the 'tude she was so good at wielding during her late-1s and 2s has subsided. It's not that she was a bad kid, obviously, but we now know that the Terrible Twos is not just a myth. But the last few months have just been, well, easier. She's still having some trouble at bedtime, but from what I've heard that's a pretty common issue with kids her age. But we've even been making progress there in the past week or two.

Something that hasn't subsided is Madeline's interest in all things space. She's still acquiring an encyclopedic mastery of information about the planets and the solar system. As a tangent to that, she's also becoming familiar with global geography. I got a 12-inch globe earlier this year, thinking she would find it interesting. Sure enough, she can spend a long time checking it out and describing to her dolls where certain countries are located and where imaginary people live. She knows some real things, too - like where we live and the locations of Australia, China, the Equator, the north and south poles and, oddly, Namibia.

Here are some pictures from the month:

Madeline participated in a July Fourth pageant at her preschool. After observing the first song or two, she actually participated in later numbers, both vocally and physically.

She enjoyed getting decked out in her red, white and blue accessories for the occasion.

Madeline tried out the hula hoop at a neighborhood picnic.

After our original Brian the Goldfish didn't make it past the first night last month, we got a new one. Happily, he's still thriving a month later.

Madeline and Papa share a story.

Madeline was so excited about the annual summer visit from our cousins. So excited that cousin Noah started feeling a little, um, crowded.

Much of the visit was spent playing in the backyard with the soccer ball and the swingset. Fun was had by all.

Madeline and Mommy got to enjoy a quiet kayak ride together on the neighborhood lake.

Madeline and cousin Caleb enjoyed creating many gustatory delights in Madeline's kitchen.

Madeline points out the location of some imaginary friend's house on the globe.

To help foster Madeline's love of space, I pulled out the telescope for her to check out. Of course, it's hard to see much of space during the daytime, and it doesn't get dark until an hour after she's in bed for the night, and she doesn't even know how to close one eye to peek through the viewfinder. But maybe this winter when the days are shorter we'll have a chance to see some celestial objects together.




Madeline burns off a little energy during the lull between bathtime and bedtime.