Phone Dump (serious) & More (not as serious)

I was going through our phone pictures and came across these little gems.  I'm not sure words can explain them, but I am going to try to do so.  I'm a little nostalgic looking at my mini Grandma Folz (Madeline Grace), so the explanation is probably way too wordy, but here goes: 

 

My Mom's Mom, "Grandma Folz" to my brothers and I, had cancer many years ago (not long before I was married and had children), and she passed away many Thanksgivings ago.  I will never forget that Thanksgiving meal when my Mom got "the call" from her sister.  But, anyway.  Bless Grandma's heart - she was girly, smelled good, always had a proper manicure, never without her earrings and necklace, cooked THE.BEST.FOOD., and always had a hot meal/delicious snack waiting regardless of the time of day.  My cooking skills may have been dormant for MANY, MANY years, but when they emerged, I thank my Grandma Folz every.single.time. I can pull off a recipe or a meal thanks to my Grandma Folz's instincts!  That lady could flat out cook.  At any rate, I absolutely get my girly girlness from my sweet Grandma Folz.  That woman NEVER went without her once a week hair salon (even when she was sick) appointment, way too rosy pink "blusher"(as she called it),  her red lipstick, and her perfectly manicured nails.  Think Leave It to Beaver (June) - that was my Grandma Folz.  Of course, when she had cancer and received chemotherapy, her hair loss journey began.  She wore a wig that exactly copied her "real do". 

Now, to the point of the pictures: My mother has given my Grandma's costume jewels, furs, make-up basket, wigs (yes, a little weird to me too!), and various other items for Madeline's dress up trunk.  Madeline donned my Grandma's wig out of the blue one day.  Holy Moly.  It's a young Leona Folz (my Grandma), and even more so, a young Carol McCarthy (my Mom) which probably means

 

THIS is ME when I decide to try on a wedding dress over my frog jammas with grey hair:   

 

 

WOW!  I'm so thankful I truly knew the lady that my daughter resembles so closely in so many regards (Grandma Folz), and I'm even more thankful that the other lady Madeline takes after is here with us to be such an important part of Madeline's upbringing, my Mom, otherwise known as just plain 'ol Grandma.

 

More Phone Dump

that is not so serious :) 

 

On a lighter note, Amelia is 100% attached to this Minnie Mouse.  Amelia LOVES to wear socks on her hands now because Minnie has white gloves on her hands.  Oh my gracious.

 

Sisterly love in the midst of Amelia's black eye healing process.  Now you see why we decided upon the "Happy New Year" card.  That little shiner got worse before it got better...oh my.

Shiner and Big Sister are still cute as EVER!

A Homemade Banjo and Silly Glasses

Just another Friday afternoon around our house - two sisters making their parents laugh.

 

All Kinds of Randomness

While working on some other entries, I came across many random pictures that were too good not to share although they have not specific "blog post".  So, I made this post to show the silliness that is my house lately.  We spend A LOT of time on our back porch this time of year...the girls LOVE.IT.

No words for this little Sassafras - well, except that she adores my shoes.

Amelia finally feeling up to snuff after a May filled with illness.

Amelia discovered Madeline's bike helmet, and just like her big sister, she loves an accessory.  We finally had to distract her & hide the helmet because she WOULD.NOT.TAKE.IT.OFF her head!

A Mother's Proverbial Question - "Will they EVER look at the camera and smile AT THE SAME TIME?"

 Our girls can get pretty squeally followed by big belly laughs.

 Sweet Amelia

 Sweet Madeline

Wow...

Some sort of dance move, I guess...

 I wonder who taught her to accessorize with available toys?

The silliness never really ends in our house.  Good times!

Holy Hair Fairy!

The hair fairy had quite a field day with Amelia's hair while she napped on Sunday afternoon!

This view wasn't so bad:
But, check this out:
And, Eric BRUSHED her hair before he brought her downstairs! I'm still laughing.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

This is probably TMI for the blog, but I am going to share anyway because kids say the funniest things, and I want to remember some of Madeline's funnies.

Madeline had to take care of #2 potty business the other day. When I went in to check on her and help with toilet paper duty, the following conversation took place:

Madeline: "Mommy! I stinkied on the potty like a big girl!"
Me: "Yep. That's awesome. Your Daddy and I expect you to do that."
Madeline: "My belly and my bum was crackling when I made my stinky."
Me, laughing: "Thank you for sharing that fine detail."

When it was time to flush, I decided two things:
1) Indeed, her belly was probably crackling.
2) Had this taken place in a diaper, I would've used an entire box of wipes to clean her, & I would've thrown up in my mouth a little.

Bite Your Cheeks

Scene: Madeline was talking on her phone which happened to be a bunch of bananas from her play kitchen while eating a little piece of chocolate.

Conversation: "Hey gurwl! I got my chocolates!" with sassy tone and rubber-necky-head motions!


Eric and I couldn't stop laughing...

More Madeline Cuteness

Over dinner on Sunday evening, Eric and I were discussing some finances & his upcoming bonus check*. We were discussing various goals for our home and summer travel & expenses that come with those goals. He mentioned that perhaps Mama should have a little extra in the budget for some spring/summer clothes shopping. :) Meanwhile, Madeline is obviously listening and interjecting random commentary.

Then our conversation moved onto when the bonus check would actually get dropped into the bank. He was going back and forth on some days when he finally mentioned a specific date. At that point, Madeline exclaimed, "And THEN Daddy can have a brewsky!" Perfect timing.

Obviously in a recent conversation that phrase was used because it was not used in this particular conversation, but YES, Daddy deserves a celebratory brewsky for his hard work to earn a bonus check! Haha!

*Disclaimer --- I only mention finances and bonus checks to set up the funniness of Madeline's perfectly timed commentary.

Madeline Cuteness

We were arriving home from our morning out, and I was scurrying into the house with all of our stuff from the car probably taking longer than necessary. Amelia was still in her bucket seat on the kitchen floor. It was lunch time, and Amelia was screaming, I mean full out, "Feed ME NOW!" screaming. Mama Madeline kicked in, and she first tried to console her by rubbing her kicking legs & practically choking her with the paci. When that didn't work, Madeline says, in possibly the most hilarious, sweetest, "baby talk" voice, "Amelia, baby, we didn't forget about you! We know it's your lunchtime." I love how she used the collective pronoun, "we."

Madeline at Two and a Half

Our sweet girl is two and a half, and she's quite a riot these days.

Some of my favorite recent Madeline-isms are:
In a high pitched concerned voice, "Mommy! She's dripping!" = Amelia spitting up
At the gym kids' care, if one of the ladies is not holding Amelia, they put her behind the counter to keep probing, curious fingers off of her, and Madeline seems to forget this fact. Poor Kathy, she must hear this no less than 50 times: "Miss Kaffy, where's my baby sister?" --- in the sweetest, most concerned voice ever
I have the same little routine for Amelia each morning before we leave --- pump out, make the bottle extra warm in the warmer, and put it into a bottle huggie. It just so happens that Daddy also uses the very same bottle huggie for his beverage in the evenings. One morning, Madeline noticed that I was putting Amelia's bottle into this bottle huggie. She says, "Mommy! That is for Daddy's beer not Amelia's bottle!"
"Mommy, I want to use some ocean too!" (ocean = lotion)
Me hugging Madeline one morning: "You are such a doll baby (or another term of endearment)! I love you!" Madeline: "I am not a doll baby. I Madeline!"

First and foremost, I absolutely love watching her interact with Amelia. The first time Amelia smiled at Madeline's antics, Madeline was busting at the seams with pride shouting, "Mama!!! She smile at MEEEE!" while clapping her hands over her chest. So cute. She even shares baby dolls and jewels with Amelia, and it's so cute to hear Madeline say, "Here Amelia, you can have a turn!" Madeline can be overly helpful and crowd Amelia's personal space, but overall Madeline takes her big sister role very seriously!
Secondly, Madeline is continuing to learn what we expect of her, and she continues to live up to and beyond our expectations 90% of the time. I'm constantly amazed at her ability to not only understand our directions but also to carry them out on a regular basis. For example, Eric was tired of Madeline's desire to constantly snack at the dinner table (initially eat her dinner then get down, then come back for more, walk around, etc.), so he put his foot down one evening. He explained to her from now on she must asked to be excused from dinner. (This also gives us some definitive say to determine if she is really done with her meal.) Since then, at every meal, not just dinner, Madeline says, "Can I get up please?" while holding out her hands to be checked & wiped. Her manners blow me away. I'm so glad that she's such a polite child. I would say that is her biggest complement from strangers.
Thirdly, Madeline is only two, and she has the potential to be a loose cannon. I constantly have to remind myself of this fact. I definitely have the tendency to hold my bar pretty high when it comes to behavior, and I've had dig deep for my patience when dealing with some of her behaviors. She's passionate and has a mind of her own, so when her anger flares, it's pretty intense. While her temper tantrums are few and far between, they still occur, and they are still pretty ridiculous! We are working on her bossiness, her overuse of the word, "NO!", her use of the phrase, "I don't want to ___!" whenever we tell her whatever it is that we are doing, and her interrupting conversation between adults.

Finally, Madeline is a dear sweet child that loves to learn, read books, eat chocolate, laugh, and play with all things girly. She is the most wonderful big sister, and we are so proud to call her our daughter.

Ha Ha Ha!!

Until I have a chance to sit down and sort through all of our Christmas photos and do a proper post to document the loads of fun we had over the Christmas weekend, I thought I'd at least give everyone a good laugh in the meantime!

And, may I add, that we did not ask Madeline to "pose" for this picture...she was doing this little pose all on her very own when we happened to have our camera ready to snap such hilariousness!

Another Madeline Funny

We were leaving the gym this morning, and a very loud motorcycle was passing by on the connecting road. Madeline stops, points, and says, "Mama! A loud motobicycle!"

I just snickered, agreed, and decided not to correct her. Sometimes, the Madeline-invented-words are just too cute to correct. :)

A Madeline Funny

I was sitting on the sofa helping Madeline change her baby doll's diaper when my belly started to wiggle around from the baby's movement. Madeline pointed to it and said, "What's dat, Mama?" I told her that her baby sister was moving around to which Madeline replied, "Baby sister's playing Ring Around the Rosie!"

Good Mama

Madeline and I were sharing a post dinner "treat" on the screened in porch this evening. It was just a Luigi Italian Ice, but Madeline refers to these types of things as a treat since she doesn't get them all the time. I was holding the cup and spoon alternating bites for each of us. One for her, one for me, one for her...you know the drill. Apparently, my words and actions are rubbing off on her because she blurted out with two funnies. After I gave her a bite of the "treat" (it was her turn to have a bite), she rubbed my shoulder so sweetly, and said, "Good Mama! You share." I cracked up.
Not long after she told me I was a good mama for sharing, she looked at me, and said, "You like it Mama?" I replied that yes, I was enjoying the treat. Then I told her she could have the last bite. She smiled, looked at me ever-so-seriously, and exclaimed, "We need more treat! She (meaning I) like it. Mama like it. More treat to share!"
How could I resist that offer to share more treat? So, we splurged & had another one!

Nope, It's Not a Cast...

It's a bottle huggie.

Madeline donned this bottle huggie as a fashion statement today. Seriously. I didn't suggest it when she flipped out looking for her bracelets which she never could locate. I guess she figured out how to solve her jewelry dilemma on her own. This is what happens when you misplace your jewelry & Daddy's out of town, you resort to borrowing his huggie. Hilarious.

*****************

A Madeline verbal "moment" --- Madeline was drinking out of one of those little Deer Park water bottles, and it tipped over. Of course, the water was spilling out rather quickly into her lap. Immediately, Madeline shouts out in the most concerned voice, "MERCY ME!" Where she heard that is beyond me, but it was too funny.

Two Little Words

Madeline and I were in my office. She was playing and coloring, and I was on the computer. All of a sudden, I heard those famous words, "OHHHH Noooooo!" I turned around and this is what I saw:
Madeline had pulled her diaper tabs apart, and the diaper fell down around her ankles. She was terribly distressed by this, and I found myself laughing so much so that I jiggled the camera as I took a picture.

Then she actually pulled it back up and redid the tabs as best she could. I offered a bit of help.

Then I turned around and saw this:

Madeline then became a ham for the camera.

Never a dull moment around here.

Sharing 101

How ironic is it that in the last post I discussed Madeline's sharing issue and today, well, today happened?

On a sad note, Madeline had her first public time-out today at the gym nursery. Boo hiss. Apparently, Madeline and another little girl about her age were playing famously together the entire time until....the other little girl had "the coveted toy"! Madeline pulled this little girl's hair today because she wanted the toy the other little girl had, and of course, the other little girl was not giving it up. Rightfully so, she had it first. Yes, Madeline's first major public offense took place today, and I was mortified when the lady told me about it.

I wanted to beat her little fanny (well, not really!!!!!), and I KNOW that is not the appropriate thing to do in this situation especially since Madeline had long forgotten about the incident. However, the teacher in me came out, and when I fastened her in her car seat, we had a 'come to Jesus meeting' right there in the Gold's Gym parking lot as if I had just taken her into the hallway out of the classroom to have a 'chat'. Even though Madeline had no idea what I was discussing, I felt better for very firmly explaining the concept of sharing and not being ugly to our friends.

When it was all said and done, Madeline smiled, waved, and said "HI" after I was finished lecturing her about pulling hair and sharing toys. Nice. It was all I could do not to laugh. Of course, I bit my cheeks and kept my poker face.

The concept of sharing has definitely moved up on the syllabus for the "Madeline life lessons 101 class" here on Millhouse Lane.