Books!

Many of you might remember a video that Kurt posted several months ago of wee Madelyn providing a very thoughtful and provocative critique of her book "10 Little Monkeys." We (ok...I) was tickled that she seemed to like books so much, and I'm pleased to say that her affinity hasn't seemed to waver. Madelyn LOVES her books. We moved all of her board books out to the family room on a shelf that she can reach, and she logs considerable time everyday pulling them off the shelf, sitting amongst them, gnawing on their bindings, and trying her best to flip through the pages. What is so amusing to Kurt and me, though, is that she has clear favorites. Not even 10 months and this little Bugtuss has opinions about which book she'd like to read! I love it. Far and away her favorite at this time is Jamberry. "One berry Two berry Pick me a blueberry..." and on it goes in its delightfully rhythmic and deliciously imaginative way (the illustrations depict elephants skating on a pond of strawberry jam with waffle lily pads, etc.) Madelyn "Busy Bee" Olmsted will actually sit still for the entire 4 minutes it takes to read this book. She "mmm's" her enthusiasm and pulls the pages in close to give them kisses. But the best is when she hears "Strawberry ponies, Strawberry lambs, Dancing in meadows of strawberry jam" and starts dancing. Every time!


On a slightly related note, we've tried to create a little reading nook by the shelf with all of her books. We found this adorable monkey rug that is really more like a stuffed animal pancake. Our intention was to put it at the foot of the rocking chair in her room, but Maddie loves to cuddle with it so much that we decided we couldn't dirty it up with our feet! It now lives right by her book shelf so she has a cozy spot in which to get book lost. Upon coming out to the family room every morning, she has to crawl over to this monkey and lay on it and give it a kiss--an affectionate gesture that is ALWAYS available for the monkey but only sporadically bestowed upon Mommy and Daddy!

Stop to Smell the Roses

Portland is known as the "City of Roses," and today we showed Madelyn why it's a very appropriate name. Just outside of downtown Portland on a hillside overlooking the city and Mt. Hood is a rose garden to beat all rose gardens. It's so sprawling and so spectacular that even though there are probably at least one hundred other commendable rose gardens in the Portland area, you can say "I visited the rose garden today" and everyone knows exactly which one you're talking about. I don't know exactly how many individual roses are planted in this garden but it must be in the thousands. On a warm summer evening such as today, the air is heavy with their sweet fragrance, and the myriad colors are dazzling. We packed a picnic dinner and sat with Maddie out on the lawn in the midst of these gorgeous flowers and felt like pinching ourselves. Some moments in life are just blissful, you know?

(This plate says "Queen Jan," and that is how Nana Jan got her name. Queen Jan was Queen of the Rose Parade the year before my mom was born, and my grandparents liked the name so much they named their first child after her!)

9 months in, 9 months out

At nine months old, Madelyn has now officially been with us as long outside of the womb as she was inside the womb. Wild! Her latest tricks include:

1. Singing. We've been playing a lot of music lately, and every now and then she'll just stop what she's doing, open her mouth very wide, and belt out an enthusiastic "ahhhhh" right along with the song. Typically, this is accompanied with some voracious drumming on whatever flat surface happens to be in front of her.


2. Dancing. Maddie's dance of choice is the twist. She does this torso-hip twist thing with her forearms and hands straight out from her sides that is just too cute.

3. Roaring. Nana taught Madelyn how to roar like a lion when asked "what does a lion say?" We have yet to catch this on video, but when we do, we'll post it. It is HILARIOUS. Sometimes, it's more of a newborn cub than a lion on the hunt, but she does it almost every time you ask.


4. Eating. Madelyn is very interested in food these days...but only if it's on Mommy or Daddy's plate. She'll eat her pureed stuff, but give her some blueberry pancake or a bite of peach or a taste of Rice Krispies in the morning and she literally "mmm's" her delight.

geography IQ test

Hey all~

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, but I figured I'd step out of retirement with this one. This doesn't have anything to do with Maddie (I realize I just lost 75% of my audience now), but it's still pretty cool.

This is a geography quiz game that's pretty fun and ever so slightly addictive... alright, I'm hooked. This one is only for the US as it's the only one I had any chance at success on (next to Latin America... who knew?).

United States IQ Challenge
(click here)

You can do all sorts of different types of these quizes including North America, Africa, Europe, photos, Amazing Race, and even the entire world.

Enjoy!

Mommy Maddie

Already acting like a little mama... now if she would just SAY "mama!"

The World is Our Oyster...

...now that we know we have THE BEST traveling 8-month-old EVER! We took Madelyn to southern California this past week for her first major trip away from home and she did AWESOME. Auntie Kelsie graduated from Loma Linda Medical School (what an accomplishment!), so we flew down to celebrate with her and the rest of the fam for a few days. She was happy and flexible and easy to please and slept well the entire trip. We were so proud of her! Here are some fun photos for you all:

Just Another Day...

Here are a few recent photos for you all. Nothing extraordinary going on right now, but lucky for us, the ordinary is pretty darn fun :)

Our friend Max came over to play the other day, and as you can see, the kiddos could hardly contain their excitement:

Actually, they had a blast together and were literally chasing each other around the room, but every time I got out my camera, they clouded up. I was having flashbacks to that cartoon with the dancing and singing frog that only ribbits and sits there when other people are around.

Madelyn wants to go hang gliding for her first birthday. We're giving it due consideration and thought we'd give her a practice run with Daddy.

She also loves to check email with Daddy. Don't be surprised if she starts writing these posts one day very soon...


Maddie loves looking out our front window. She gets a kick out of the fact that she can pull herself up and stand there all on her own. She bang bang bangs her hands on the glass and squeals in pure delight.

And look what we found in Maddie's toy basket one day?