according.to.kim

Madeline's new word

When Madeline tries on shoes that are too small, she says her toes are "scrumpled". I think it's pretty cute, but I see she wasn't the first to say scrumpled.

Madeline just said...

...in a very demanding tone, "I want pita chips, corn chips, brown crackers, and celery with dip for supper!" I think that last bit about the celery -- a very uncharacteristic request from Madeline -- came out in response to the look on my face from her tone and the start of her request.

Madeline is becoming a better eater, but as you can see, her preferred food group continues to be crunchy carbs.

Daily pic: 15 Jul 07

Georgia brought her Funky Monkey home from Sharon's for the weekend, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to get a photo of the girls with all six loveys: Georgia's Funky Monkeys, Madeline's Peekiepoos, and Sophia's Honeybunnies. They each had one for our house and one for the babysitter's house (I've also written about this here and here). Sophia and Madeline don't sleep with their loveys anymore, but when Neil fetched them from the basement today, it was pretty obvious how much they still love them.

P.S. I want to add that Sophia lost her sixth tooth on Thursday evening (July 12). She was determined it was coming out that night, so she worked on it for probably 30 minutes straight before it came out. Also, Madeline cracked me up today when she said, "I can't believe we have a printer!" as I was printing out a picture for her to colour.

Not yet!

Last week at the farm, Madeline came to the dinner table to show everyone her freshly made-up face. We couldn't help but be instantly amused. Neil's mom asked Madeline, "Where did you get that lipstick?" and she replied, "It's yours." 

"Oh, I see. Did you ask Grandma if you could use her lipstick?"

"Not yet!"

Had to write this down

While watching me peel and cut up fruit this morning, Sophia kept fidgeting and sort of dancing around. I said, "Do you have to go to the bathroom?" She replied, "No, I'm just bored, but I like watching you." Then, after a brief pause, she said, "My feet don't, but I do."

***

A few weeks ago, Madeline and I were walking toward our van in a parking lot. I noticed some brake lights come on right next to us, so I hurried Madeline out of the way of the car that was about to back up. As the car backed out of its spot (with the driver window down), Madeline stopped, put her hands on her hips, and said to the driver (a 20-something guy with a soul patch) in her most serious-angry voice, "You should watch where you're going!" He looked at her and said, "Uh... yeah, I should," while doing his very best not to crack a smile -- which I can attest is not easy when you get a scolding from Madeline!

***

While skimming through past months looking for favourite posts, I've come across many things my kids have said. I'm very glad that when I started quoting Sophia and Madeline, I created categories called Sophisms and Madelisms. In the future, I'll undoubtedly create one called Georgiaisms... or should it be Georgisms? Hmmm.

Dada and mother

Madeline has been calling Neil "dada" for a couple of months and she just started calling me "mother". I think "dada" is kind of cute, but "mother"? Not so much!

According to Madeline

Yesterday afternoon, Madeline said to me, "I want brown crackers." (Brown crackers are whole wheat soda crackers and Madeline wants them about 20 times a day.)

I replied, "You've had enough brown crackers for today. The next thing you're going to eat is fruit or vegetables."

Madeline thinks about that for a second and says, "Pretzels have vegetables in them."

"No, they don't."

"Yes, they do!" Sees look on my face... "They doooooo!"

Nice try.

Kidbits

On Easter weekend, I said to Madeline, "I can't believe you're wearing that dress again!" (a silly thing to say, really), and Sophia responded, "Well, she's a dress-loving girl, so she can't help it! And I'm a snake and dinosaur and frog-loving girl!"

When we were at the pool for Sophia's swimming lesson last Friday, Madeline got my attention and pointed to her flip flop floating in the middle of the pool. When I asked, "Why did you do that?!", she replied with a giggle and a huge smile, "Funny!"

When we're out in the van and Madeline sees a Canadian flag, she shouts very excitedly, "Canada!" and then, "I love Canada!" every single time. We can't help but smile, every single time.

A few days ago, Sophia decided she's not going to use sippy cups anymore. We agreed wholeheartedly.

Madeline had her entire swimming lesson this evening with the instructor (without a parent) and she was the only one in her class to do so. The instructor said she did very well.

Last night was the first time Sophia and Madeline slept in the same bed all night -- and they liked it! Around 5:00 a.m., Sophia started calling me and woke Madeline in the process. When I went to her room, Sophia asked me if I'd stay. I said I couldn't and then tucked them in. Without a word, Sophia started rubbing Madeline's back. I didn't hear from them again until it was time to get up!

Finally, this picture just makes me laugh:

More Madelisms

Like most three-year olds (I would think), Madeline mispronounces a few words. We get a kick out of "petuter" (computer), "pascetti" (spagetti), and "petainer" (container). Most of the time though, she is pretty articulate and speaks very well. The other day she said to Neil, "There's my towel! I've been looking for it all day. Why didn't you tell me it was here?!" I can just imagine the cross look she must've had on her face. That look makes me giggle inside--it's so cute!

The towel is another story. Madeline is currently obsessed with swimming suits and her "moo cow towel" (a huge beach towel with funny cow astronauts on it). When at home, she insists on wearing any one of three swimming suits that fit her and she carries the towel around the house too. Of course, she also has to take the towel and suit to bed with her. This has been going on for a couple of weeks. I guess the twirly dresses are passe now. (I'm sure they'll be back!)

Added Mar 28: "han-tizer" (hand sanitizer)

Things Madeline says

"I don't love them / it / ____." For example,

Madeline: What are you having?
Me: Green beans. Do you want some?
Madeline: No, I don't love them.

Madeline: Did she poop? (as I'm changing Georgia's diaper)
Me: No, just pee.
Madeline: I don't love poop. It's yucky.

"Take the peelings off." (her toast)

"But but but but but but but but but..."

"I'll do it in a minute!"

"I'm the mom and you're the big sister." (She says this to me often and then calls me "big sister" for the next hour or so.)

Kid quotes

Sophia to Neil, this morning, in the whiniest voice possible, "It's like I'm Cinderella and you're my step-mother and you're making me do eeeeverything!" (Neil asked her to help clean up a few things before they embark on their mission to create a replica of the solar system.)

Madeline, yesterday, with her arm around Sherlock's neck, "I'm a purple princess and this is my purple horse!" She has a thing about purple. A couple of weeks ago, we took her to Costco and she announced, "This is my purple Costco!"

Madeline's birthday

Our birthday celebration for Madeline yesterday was pretty low-key, but good. Neil took her to Sharon's in the morning (no need to mess up their alternate days in the first week), so after Sophia finished preschool in the afternoon, we took some cupcakes to Sharon's for a little celebration with their friends. Mom happened to be in Regina yesterday too, so she came to Sharon's house as well and brought helium-filled balloons for the kids. They were a big hit. After we got home, Neil's Mom and Dad came to our house. We ordered food for an easy supper and Madeline opened her gifts. So, no big party or anything, but I think Madeline was quite happy. We may still have a real birthday party for both Sophia and Madeline, but not until after Sophia's birthday.
***
Madeline is so funny right now. I was eating some toasted pecans today and Madeline asked for one. I gave her one and as soon as she ate it, she remarked "I do love them!" which was a pleasant surprise. I'm sure if I had offered it to her, she would have refused. She's very choosy about food. Then a little later, I saw that she was eating something, so I asked what it was. She pointed to the bowl of pecans and said, "my fiscits" (which sounds like "Triscuits", a popular cracker in our house). Then she kept saying "I'm eating my fiscits!" Even when I told her they're called pecans, she insisted that they're fiscits.

Things to remember

Sophia has been practicing singing the alphabet song in French over the past couple of weeks. It's really cool! I'm very proud of her. Neil said she was having trouble remembering it in English now, but Thursday night--in the middle of the night actually--Sophia sang the alphabet song right through in French and then again in English and she didn't seem to have any trouble at all. (No, I didn't have a very good sleep Thursday night!) When I was at preschool yesterday, the teacher told me that Sophia is doing really well.

Last night after I read some books to Madeline, Madeline said to me, "Sophia's my best friend." and then she said, "You're my big friend." So cute!

Speaking of reading to Madeline, all she wants to hear these days are Franklin books and the new Dinosaurs book she received for Christmas last Sunday. We have six Franklin books and she's very attached to them. She carries them around and insists on them every night--especially Franklin Runs Away--that one is unavoidable! They're pretty long stories so we only read a couple of them before bed. The Dinosaurs book (Oh My Oh My Oh Dinosaurs by Sandra Boynton) is much shorter and Madeline likes to "read' it back to me or Neil after we read it to her. After hearing that book just a few times, she's got it down pretty well. Incidentally, Sophia refuses to hear the Franklin books, so we've taken to reading to the girls separately again. Thank goodness Sophia will allow Neil to read to her while I read to Madeline.

Kidbits

Madeline sometimes gets a really disgusted look on her face and says, "Heaven's sake!". It's so funny! I know where she gets that from...yes, I say "For heaven's sake!" quite a bit around here. I wonder why. ;-)

As we drove by a large building today, Sophia stated, "That building has twenty-five point one people in it." Really?! She cracks me up sometimes.

The other day Sophia untied the dress-up skirt Madeline was wearing. Madeline cried for a few seconds, then stopped crying completely and said sternly, "I'm really mad at you, Sophia." I told Madeline that was a great way of expressing herself. It sure beats crying or hitting.

When leaving the airport today (we dropped off Laurel and Bronwyn), Madeline had an all-out laying on the floor kicking and screaming tantrum because she wanted to go on the escalator again. Man, if it's not one, it's the other! It's much more understandable at Madeline's age though, and her tantrums are so far and few between. I can handle that. Plus, I can just pick her up and haul her away--unlike Sophia who's practically 50 pounds of pure muscle (fortunately, Sophia rarely has tantrums in public).

The girls right now

Just a few things the girls are doing or saying or singing right now...

Sophia will often sing (or shout at the top of her lungs) this funny song she learned at Sharon's:

"Tarzan, the monkey man, swinging on a rubber band, bumped into Superman, and knocked him in the garbage can!"

Madeline has learned it too and enjoys singing along with her sister. Sometimes, Sophia shouts this over and over as she swings in the back yard.

The girls love watching The Care Bears. It's practically the only thing they want to watch these days. Even Madeline asks for it now. There's a selection of about 8 or 10 Care Bears shows on
"Treehouse-On-Demand", and so we always have to read the list of show names to Sophia and then she picks one (very often the same one, of course).

Lately, the bedtime books of choice are from a series called "National Geographic Books for Young Explorers" from the 1970s. We purchased this set of 26 books at a garage sale for $25.00. Sophia will choose three of the books (such as Honeybees, Dinosaurs, Wonders of the Desert World) and then I read five or six pages from each book to Sophia and Madeline before bed. A series of Usborne First Encyclopedias of Science, Space, etc. (given to the girls by Laurel) are also favourites. The girls love these educational books and I'm learning a bunch of things I didn't know before!

Sophia has gone crazy with her clothes. Well, it's driving us crazy anyway. She wants to pick out her own clothes now and she only wants to wear certain things (and she'll have a fit if what she wants is in the wash). She also changes her clothes two or three times a day on days when we're at home. This is all new for Sophia and us. I know many girls get choosy about their clothes earlier (e.g., only pink or only dresses), but we're not used to this!

Madeline's language skills and vocabulary are really great, like the other day she asked me, "Why you eating in the car?" (I think that's pretty good for 30 months.) There are a couple of thing she says often that are really cute too... When she wants a push in a swing, Madeline always says "big high" or "I want big high". And whenever we talk about going somewhere or doing something, Madeline tilts her head, puts her hand on her chest, and asks, "and me?" in her cute little voice.

Added July 20: The girls love to watch for flowers wherever we drive in the city, especially on the way home from Sharon's. They shout "flowers!" every time they see some on their side. I'll help them too by alerting each of them to flowers that are coming up on their side of the van. It's great except occasionally when Sophia thinks Madeline is seeing more flowers on her side. Sometimes I take a little detour on the way home so they can spot new flowers on different streets.

The girls' heights

I measured the girls today. Sophia is 43 inches and Madeline is 34.25 inches tall. On July 12, 2003, at the same age as Madeline (almost 2.5 years), Sophia was three inches taller.
***
Last evening, Madeline said something that made us laugh: "Sherlock's eating my eyeball!" He was actually eating her meatball.

More good things

It was great to see my Grandma Mantay twice in the past two weeks. It had been much too long since I saw her last. On June 2, I visited with Grandma over my lunch hour while she waited at the airport between my aunts' flights. Then again on Thursday, I met Mom, Aunt Gloria, and Grandma at the airport for lunch as they waited for my uncle to arrive. It's so lucky that I work right next to the airport as it's so easy to zip over and spend a whole hour there.

Last evening after their bath, the girls were giggling and laughing together for several minutes. The TV wasn't on or anything. There was no other sound in the house--and their combined laughter is the best sound in the world!

We always get a kick out of how Madeline says hamburger; she says "hangeber". I've been meaning to blog that for awhile. She says it often. That's her word for anything like a sandwich. She'll stack three crackers together and say "I'm eating a hangeber!"

Home-grown humour

Wearing just a Pull-Up, Madeline fell down onto her bum. Then she walked over to me, pulled down her Pull-Up, turned around sticking her bum out slightly, and said "Kiss my bum." I love it!

And so a new category is born--Madelisms. (A natural addition since I categorize Sophia's amusing statements as 'Sophisms'.)

Speaking of Sophisms...
Earlier today, after a dispute over whether to make a long or a short tunnel in the living room at the farm, Sophia said to Madeline, "What on earth were you thinking? You need to think about your attitude."

Madeline's sentences

I drop it.

TV comin' on?

Bopie talkin' to you.

Thank you mommy.

(I love her little voice!)