Madelyn will be turning 2 (TWO!!) on September 10, so we had a birthday party for her yesterday. I love planning parties and I especially love a good theme, but I was initially a bit stymied as to which theme to pick for this party. Madelyn loves Elmo and Abby from Sesame Street and she loves Curious George as well but none more than the others. It finally occurred to me one day that my daughter has a particular passion for the color purple. When we began working on colors with her, we focused on the basics--you know, red, blue, yellow. She didn't seem to be particularly interested and she certainly wasn't distinguishing any one color from another, and then one day, inexplicably, she correctly identified everything purple that crossed her path. Go figure. Since then, she has gravitated toward all things purple and will answer "purple" if you ask her what her favorite color is (which is now a fully informed assessment since she has also correctly learned the rest of the rainbow).
Hence, a Purplicious Birthday Party.
It was quite a houseful, but the kids all did great and seemed to really enjoy playing together!
Lea, mercifully taking charge of helping the kids frost and decorate their purplicious cupcakes.
Madelyn specifically instructed both Kurt and me to wear a "fancy dress" to her purplicious party. Neither of us had anything that would suffice, so I went shopping in my sister's closet, which will from now on be my favorite place to shop (she being the maven of all things stylish and whimsical). Kurt managed to talk Maddie down to a purple button down, which he pulled off quite well. I was impressed, actually, with all of our guests' purple ensembles! Well done, folks!
We put on some music at one point and had a little dance party. Here's Maddie gettin' down.
Every year at the end of the summer, our group of friends escapes to the Oregon Coast for a few days to relax, laugh, eat yummy food, and feel the sand between our toes and the salt air in our lungs before launching into another busy year. Kurt and I are blessed to be a part of a friend community that is intentional about the time we spend together and the types of relationships we want to create and nurture. We are eight very different people, but we share a common faith and a value of family, and we just like each other a whole lot. In the last six years, we've added seven whole people to our little community which has only made these little beach adventures all the more fun and wonderous...nothing like children to make you see the world with fresh, excited eyes. Here are some photos from this year's trip to Waldport, Oregon:
Nicole with her little girl, Sarah, and Molly with Ian and Alli's big girl, Abbi.
The kitchen was awesome! Huge and fully stocked. We bring all of our food with us and cook some seriously yummy meals.
Molly and Pat's little guy, Graham. Such a cutie!
Should I be concerned that my not-even-two-year-old voluntarily cleans off her feet without having to be told?
Madelyn, Rachel, and Abbi itching to walk to the beach.
Lighting on the beach is always just gorgeous.
I don't always look like Ringo. The sea air is not friendly to my hair.
"I run so fast! I run so fast!"
Good thing they had a big table.
The Waldport bridge was just out our front window. So pretty in the morning mist.
The babes of the group: Sarah (9 mo.) and Graham (14 mo.)
Lots going on around here lately--so much so that I have been neglecting my posting duties. Sorry about that. But I hope to make it up to you with this whopper of a post...
We went swimming at Wilson Pool here in Portland a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. It's a super cool pool, as you can see, and totally geared to kids. The last time we were there, Maddie was still in my belly, so it was pretty cool to actually see her little legs kicking as opposed to just feeling them!
This is where we find Madelyn at least once of twice per day:
And this...well, this clip pretty much speaks for itself. Madelyn is a total goof much of the time, and we are having so much fun with her, getting to know her personality. Please be assured that she has absolutely no access to MTV:
Two little stories to wrap things up:
1. While lying on the changing table this evening, Maddie began to do "This Little Piggie" with her toes. You know, "This little piggie went to market; this little piggie stayed home..." Evidently, however, Maddie has much more compassion for those little piggies. Here was her version: "This little piggie went to the beach; and this little piggie went to the beach. This little piggie went to the beach too; and this little piggie went to the beach too." And for the big finish, in an utterly delighted voice with a huge grin, "And this little piggie went to the beach!!"
2. While in church this morning, we brought Madelyn into the sanctuary at the very end so she could hear some of the singing. After two or three songs, one of the pastors began to pray and went on a bit longer than usual. One or two minutes passed and Maddie said, in a not-so-indoor-voice, "all done with Jesus; go back to Maddie's house now." She then repeated it about six times, with increasing volume, before I finally walked out with her, laughing hysterically.
As my friend Took also warned in her last post, this post contains major TMI. Read at your own risk, therefore, knowing that you have been dutifully warned :)
So, I took Madelyn bathing suit shopping with me this afternoon. Apparently, I didn't learn my lesson from three weeks ago when I did the same thing and had one of the most frustrating parenting days I've had yet. Alas. I intended to try on only one specific suit in two different sizes and then get out of there. How much of a hassle could it be, right?
The perky sales gal gave us the big dressing room, and Madelyn immediately commenced to making faces in the mirror and climbing on the vinyl covered bench. I got the first suit on and was just in the process of taking it off to try on the next size (read: naked from the waist up) when I heard Madelyn start to say "pee pee...pee pee..." quietly from the back corner of the dressing room, on top of the bench. I ignored it for about 30 seconds when it occurred to me that she wasn't moving on to a new topic. I looked up quickly to see Maddie sitting, slightly awkwardly, in an alarmingly large puddle of, what I brilliantly deduced to be, urine...that was also dripping down the side of the bench onto the carpeted floor. I cursed the specific kind of cloth diaper that she was in and grabbed her and moved her off of the bench and frantically opened the diaper bag to see what might be in there to mop up the pee. Washclothes! I grabbed as many as were in the bag and immediately started mopping up the mess and then followed with wet wipes to get everything as clean as I possibly could.
I was dimly aware as I was de-peeing the bench that I was still rather...exposed. Oh well. No time to worry about that.
It was about this time that the perky sales gal came back to ask us how things were going. "Great!" I replied and prayed that the slatted door wasn't nearly as see-through as it looked from my vantage point. She left, and I grabbed Maddie to strip her down and begin cleaning her off as well. As is frequently the case with these kinds of debacles, the urine had miraculously traveled into seemingly every nook and cranny of her body as well as all over her clothes and down into one of her shoes. Honestly. I laid her down on the floor and wiped her off as thoroughly as I could and began to put a clean diaper on her. Not accustomed to being changed in such close proximity by a topless mommy, Maddie immediately started giggling and, ahem, amusing herself with my exposed anatomy...and let's just say she wasn't exactly being gentle. As if the child hasn't already ruined "the girls" once in my life. No no...she had to do a little encore performance, all the while giggling and squealing "naked mommy!" for all the dressing room to hear.
Sigh. I figured the least I could do was buy the suit.
Those are the moments when I fully realize that you can't even put a hypothetical salary on motherhood: unconditional love is the ONLY motivation for that kind of job description :)
Ok, so it's been a long time since I've posted, but it's because we have been busy busy busy around here! All with super fun things, so here is a whirlwind photo tour of July 2009 thus far:
My dad, brother, and husband all rode their motorcycles (or "mm mmm's" as Madelyn calls them) down to Laguna Seca, CA for the annual MotoGP race over the 4th weekend. They look pretty tough, don't they? :) They all had a GREAT time, and most importantly, they were safe the whole way down and back up. Lord willing, I think they plan to do it every year. Kurt brought this little t-shirt back for Madelyn. She adopted the proper "motorcycle mama" stance right away.
Since the guys were going to be gone, us gals decided to plan a little trip of our own to Cannon Beach, OR where our family has been vacationing for decades (since my mom was a little girl). Madelyn has been to the beach before, but not as a bi-ped. She was THRILLED by the ocean and the sand, and we heard a steady mantra of "Maddie, Mommy, Nana play sand" all weekend long. Poor thing. We did play in the sand, but she also learned that at the Oregon coast, the weather is a moody temptress who taunts you with sunny forcasts and springs clouds and chilly mist on you at the last moment. Good thing the coast is gorgeous no matter what :) The sun did stick around long enough for us to attend the little Cannon Beach 4th of July parade. It so reminded us of the town parades we used to attend (and march in) growing up in Naperville, IL. One morning, we hopped over to Seaside to ride the surreys with Madelyn. She was hesitent at first, but within minutes, she was beaming and screaming "yes!" when we'd ask her if she was having fun! And it was quite a workout! Historically, we've ridden the 6-8 seaters with my whole family, so riding around with just my mom and me (and a head wind seemingly both directions...) was hard work! Such a fabulous, relaxing trip, and it was so cool to introduce my child to a place that holds such intense, wonderful childhood memories for both my mom and me.
My garden is awesome. Totally out of control, and I'll do things quite differently next year, but still awesome! Here is my second harvest:
Finally, last night, we went to a Coldplay concert up at the Clark Co. Amphitheater in WA. I've been to some pretty cool concerts in my life, but this show was arguably the best I've seen. Chris Martin, the lead singer, was so polite and gracious and funny--not common for a major rock star! They are incredibly talented musicians who really get how to please a crowd. At two separate occasions during the show, they left the stage and moved into the crowd to play on two mini stages--the last being way out on the lawn where we were sitting! Kelsie, Kris, and I got as close as we could to them--about 40 feet away. So awesome. When they played "Yellow" these gigantic yellow balloons came floating out into the crowd, and when they popped, confetti went everywhere. They played "Fix You," my absolute favorite (and the blueish photo below), and let the audience sing the last chorus, which is always great. They even did a little MJ tribute and sang an acoustic, mandolin version of "Billie Jean." Just a fantastic show, and we're so thankful to both of our parents for providing us with the opportunity!! (My parents treated to the tickets, and Kurt's parents watched Madelyn overnight so our 1:30 a.m. bedtime wouldn't kill us the next day...)
Madelyn will be turning 2 (TWO!!) on September 10, so we had a birthday party for her yesterday. I love planning parties and I especially love a good theme, but I was initially a bit stymied as to which theme to pick for this party. Madelyn loves Elmo and Abby from Sesame Street and she loves Curious George as well but none more than the others. It finally occurred to me one day that my daughter has a particular passion for the color purple. When we began working on colors with her, we focused on the basics--you know, red, blue, yellow. She didn't seem to be particularly interested and she certainly wasn't distinguishing any one color from another, and then one day, inexplicably, she correctly identified everything purple that crossed her path. Go figure. Since then, she has gravitated toward all things purple and will answer "purple" if you ask her what her favorite color is (which is now a fully informed assessment since she has also correctly learned the rest of the rainbow).
It was quite a houseful, but the kids all did great and seemed to really enjoy playing together!
Lea, mercifully taking charge of helping the kids frost and decorate their purplicious cupcakes.
Madelyn specifically instructed both Kurt and me to wear a "fancy dress" to her purplicious party. Neither of us had anything that would suffice, so I went shopping in my sister's closet, which will from now on be my favorite place to shop (she being the maven of all things stylish and whimsical). Kurt managed to talk Maddie down to a purple button down, which he pulled off quite well. I was impressed, actually, with all of our guests' purple ensembles! Well done, folks!
We put on some music at one point and had a little dance party. Here's Maddie gettin' down.
