After nap time the other day, we played with legos and Maddie put the little flowers on her fingers and starting to sing the "Daddy Finger" Song.
It goes: Daddy Finger, Daddy Finger, Where Are You? Here I am, Here I am, How do you do?
and it repeats, Mommy Finger, Brother Finger, Sister Finger, etc. We usually say Maddie Finger instead of brother or sister.
Maddie was on a roll and I was able to video it! She sings Daddy Finger, then Maddie Finger, the Mama Finger!
We took Pau Pau and Uncle Jeff out to dinner the night before New Years Eve to celebrate our birthdays! (Vickie = September, Uncle Jeff = November, Pau Pau = December). We went to a place in Chinatown that we've been to often that has really good seafood.
Earlier that day we told Maddie we'd like her to sing "Happy Birthday" to Pau Pau when we saw her.
Here's the video. She starts by counting to 8! She can actually count up to 12 with no issues (and counts to 20 but messes up the numbers a bit in between). So cute!
The other night before bedtime, Maddie got her hands on a big package of toilet paper rolls we hadn't gotten around to putting away yet. She would bring a roll into thee bathroom and unwrap it. I showed her how she could stack them, which she loved!
Here are a couple of videos. The first video is kind of long but shows her stacking a tower of 7 rolls - a tower as tall as she is!
We stayed home in Chicago for Christmas this year. We had lots of toys ready for Maddie when she woke up Christmas morning!
The first thing she went for was her stocking that was filled with goodies from Santa. The first things she ate that morning (besides her morning milk) was a ziplock bag full of gummy candies! (After opening all her presents I realize all she had was candy that morning, and she threw the biggest tantrum when we took it away from her!)
Maddie got so many great toys, she loved each and every one of them! Some of the toys she got that morning were: a Ball drop toy from Grandma , an OU hat and a memory card game from Grandpa and Nana, a Trampoline from Aunt Jenny, and a dollhouse from Dad! Maddie had tons of fun in the morning and barely ate anything all morning.
After her nap, I put her in a cute Santa dress and we got ready for our Christmas dinner with Pau Pau and Uncle Jeff. When they arrived, Maddie got to open another round of presents! Pau Pau got her a little set of Winnie The Pooh beanies! She got a Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet! We had a delicious dinner of ham and potatoes and sides. And we actually got family photos before everyone left to go home!
Tons of pictures and videos below!!
Eating all the candy in her stocking!
The cutest smile as she settles down to watch some tv.
We potty trained this weekend! This is the first day she has worn bottoms in a few days. This is as far as she can pull her pants up!
On Thursday, Joseph and I headed over to Maddie's Day Care for their Hanukkah party at 5:30pm. The first half of the party was in Room 3 where we ate potato latkes with apple sauce and sour cream. They were delicious but Maddie wasn't interested in them. She had a bit of a melt down while eating so we brought her outside in the hallway. After she calmed down we brought her back into the room and she had some apple sauce instead.
At 6pm we headed upstairs for the music concert. They had a lovely musician named Susan Salidor singing and playing instruments. She conducts music classes on Mondays. She was very entertaining and had a lovely voice. We left before the final song as Maddie was getting fussy and hungry (not to mention it was really hot and crowded in the room) and we wanted to beat the rush out.
I forgot to mention that we noticed Maddie had what looked like a bite mark on her cheek! At first I thought it was maybe lipstick from a teacher but upon closer inspection, it was raised and we could see the indentations of little teeth! When went back to her room to get our coats, I looked at the "What I did today" sheet and noticed they read a book called "Teeth are Not for Biting" so we are not sure if they read it because Maddie got bit, or she got bit after they read the book to the class... She probably got bit before and they read it as a result.
We headed to a Mediterranean restaurant on the way home and had dinner there. Maddie loved picking pieces of salad off of Joseph's plate and looking out the window. Lately she has been saying "What's that??" a lot (even when she knows what "that" is). She saw someone strange walk by the window and said "What's that?" I did not see him but heard Joseph say "Whoa!" so I turned my head and it was a guy with very big dreadlocks walking by. Joseph said not only did he have big dreadlocks but also had lots of piercings and was wearing leather chap-like pants and was overall crazy looking. No wonder she said "What's that?!?"
Chilling on the couch in Room 3
Dancing to the music
Aw, cuddles with Mommy
Watching the musicians
Photo of Susan Salidor and Matt. Taken from the JCYS Facebook page
Look at all those kids and parents celebrating! Taken from the JCYS Facebook page
Close up of her bite mark
Notice where it says : Today We ... Read "Teeth are not for biting"
Maddie's day care sends out a monthly newsletter. Here is the most recently newsletter. Pics of Maddie are on pages 2 and 3. Click on the photos and they will enlarge so you can read the text.
On Monday night before bed, Joseph was talking to Maddie about going to school tomorrow and asking her about who she would see and what she was going to do.
She just loved hearing the word "school" and would giggle every time Joseph said the word.
Here is a cute video of her telling us who she was going to see at school "See Miss Shira, See Miss Brenda, Miss Melanie." And her best friend is of course Miss Shira.
Maddie's new favorite thing to do is listen to the Winnie the Pooh song and the Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too record we have. Her face lights up with the cutest smile when the record starts and she rocks side to side during the songs. She of course also bounces during the songs as well.
Here are some adorable videos of her dancing AND singing to Winnie the Pooh!
This next video is a bit long, there's a long stretch in the middle where Maddie kind of zones out but she's just listening to the narrator talk. She starts dancing once the song starts.
Maddie and I went to the Garfield Park Conservatory Sunday morning! While it was very sunny out, it was extremely cold. We couldn't exactly go to the park so we went to the next best thing! Maddie had a blast at the Garfield Park Conservatory! We missed the children's programming (starts at 12noon on Sunday's) but she had such a good time walking and looking at all the plants and flowers. She was very good about not pulling any plants, she only poked them, until we got to the eucalyptus plant and she pulled a few leaves because they smelled so good.
She loved looking at all the fish! There were about 4 total ponds that had fish in them. In all we had a great time and need to remember there is such a great, indoor, and FREE, place nearby we can go to whenever we want!
We even ran into a classmate of hers there! I recognized a little boy and wasn't sure if he was in her day care class or one of the park district classes until I heard his mom say his name, then asked if he went to JCYS, and he did! They are in the same classroom!
Only a few pictures below as it was really hard to get her to sit/stand still for a good picture!
Maddie's class was playing with snow when I went to pick her up! They put a bunch of snow in the sensory table and dyed it with food coloring. When I walked in, she was putting her cold hands on Ms Melanie's face!
We went to the front yard as Joseph was shoveling the side walk. Maddie had a ton of fun but then wanted to go to the park! So we walked to Wicker Park and she had the best time on the swing!
I made a bunch of gifs of her on the swing.
Before getting pelted with snow....
Yes, Joseph decided to throw a bunch of snow on Maddie with the shovel!
She was so surprised! She liked it at first then started to cry because it was so COLD!
