Madeleine at 10 Months

On Christmas Eve, one day before the official 10 month mark, Madeleine took her first steps while we were at my parents' home. She is so little to be walking, which makes it extra cute when she does. And only in 1-2 step spurts. When she gets bored of this, she likes to just flop right into the waiting receiver's arms. Either way, she loves the applause. She also loves to applaud others, especially if she sees other people applauding. And she often will "lead"music. Really. It is so cute.

Madeleine still has 4 teeth--I thought for sure there would be 5 by now, since you can see another bottom row tooth just beneath the surface, and she seemed to have a lot of pain associated with it.

Madeleine is a pooping machine. For example, today she had 4 such diapers. And that is totally normal for her. Considering how much she can eat, I suppose it makes sense, since I think she often eats at least as much as Avery or Abigail, plus breast milk.

Madeleine loves to bite me. Not so much when she is eating, but when she wants to tell me she loves me, or she is feeling neglected, or wants to be set down. Those 2 daggers on top and 2 on bottom make the most perfectly painful pinch on my thigh, my upper arm, the top of my foot, my chin...Sometimes I wear a jean jacket just because she can't bite me through it.
A few months ago, Andy gave a Family Night lesson about being a good example, what that means and how people learn by watching. As an experiment, he told the kids that if every family prayer we all folded our arms, Mattie would too, and it would be so cute. Well, that day arrived this month and it was SO cute. You can watch the short video below.
It's been a big month for her arms, as she also waves now. Tonight, she just kept waving at Andy across the room while he read to the kids. Very sweet.

Madeleine is very adept at mimicking words and intonation. Once it was "clever", another time it was "fold your arms." She also has done "Madeleine", "Papo", and "Sarah". Her pitch/intonation imitation is very accurate and funny, and when she tried to say the mouthful "Madeleine" I laughed out loud.
She loves to be outside, and can get there very quickly. She loves to swing. She likes cups and trying to drink from them. She even likes other people more than last month; 2 weeks ago she crawled over to my friend Becky and sat on her lap during church. I was stunned.
Madeleine is delightful and an extremely determined child. She is loved by all her siblings, as evidenced that each time she awakes from a nap, Abigail sings, "Hail to our princess!" repeatedly.
We love you Mattie!

Nutcracker

I love the pleasure and concentration evident in these photos. It was Christmas Eve Day and I needed pecans cracked and shelled for candied yams. I called out, "Who wants to make 50 cents cracking nuts?" thinking Warren or Abigail would respond. But it was sweet Avery who called out, "I do!" and walked right into the kitchen. I had my doubts, but I showed her how the nutcracker worked and she set herself to the task and stayed at it quite a while. She is such a doll lately, so sweet. On a related note, whenever I am mixing something for baking, Avery always helps, and she loves to surreptitiously "sample" whatever we are eating. Always one finger sneaking into the bowl.

Christmas Deconstructed

Abigail took about 15 ornaments off the tree today to play with them at the table. It seemed the perfect start to taking down the Christmas tree. So she spent part of the afternoon with me taking the ornaments off and sorting them by owner into boxes. I left for an afternoon sanity run since Andy was home from work--he's been going in at 5:30 am so he can come home early--and asked him to finish the ornaments and put away the tree.
Tonight as I put away the rest of the Christmas decor, I couldn't find a few items, like the tree skirt. I asked Andy about it, and he said, "The kids protested when I started taking the tree down, yelling 'Save Christmas' and carrying the top third of it into their bedroom."
Sure enough, there at the bottom of the closet was the tree skirt, and a few other items were tucked in their blanket basket. Ha ha ha.

The Stockings Were Hung...With Care

This is what our family room looked like after "Santa" visited our house. (And Aunts Nat and Sarah who pitched in with a little late night wrapping session--I love having sisters!)

This is what Andy foaun when he woke up about 7. Guess who got up early, checked out his lookt and then went back to bed?

Of course, no Christmas is complete without the Polar Bear Swim. I went in. Yikes, it was cold.

Christmas Fun

Go here for Christmas laughs involving my kids! Merry Christmas.

Friendly Beasts

Here is the follow-up to last week's post about the kids' Nativity roles requests. They all got their top choices. Even Avery as a monkey. But I suppose if you can get a picture with Santa Cow at Chick-fil-A then you can have a monkey in the Nativity, right? Madeleine even had some forced participation, as a sheep. I think the enjoyable part for her was eating the cotton balls off of the ears.

Believe

Abigail: "We believe in Jesus, Santa and the Tooth Fairy, right? Cuz they're the ones we need."

Hmm. Should I be concerned?

Happy 3rd Birthday Avery!

Dear Avery,
What a delight you are! I love being your mother. You are a firecracker--full of sparkle and energy, dazzling.

Your birthday display highlights some of the things you love. The books "Madeline" and "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom." You {exasperatedly} love how dad starts every book with you by saying, "I think this book is too scary." A boot from the set you wear in all sorts of weather, a bit a of a trademark for you. "Mary Poppins," your favorite movie, full of music you love to sing and to dance with. A baby picture of you in the swing, something you still adore and ask to do multiple times a day. Your Tinkerbell lunchbox; you remind me of her, flitting about from place to place, and a fiery spark along with your sweet personality. Your "Avery: The First 2 Years" book. You love reading it and looking at your pictures, and you got another book this year, all about your 3rd year. A box of Macaroni and Cheese--yum. A picture of you a year ago, with concern all over your face. You are more lighthearted now, but still very conscious of the underdog.

You asked for a tea party birthday, so we had Carolyn and Kate, & Payton and CJ over. You ate Cheetos--compliments of Warren--crackers and cheese and orange smiles, and apple juice, all on my China set. Then you each got to choose your own frosting colors and decorate mini-cupcakes. You wanted a "big, blue cupcake." Once I showed you a teapot cake to see if you would like that, and you reminded me that you wanted a "cupckae like the one [I] made for Tutu."

You keep me on my toes, always keeping me humble and realistic about my parenting abilities. You love to answer, with a mischievous grin, "I don't know" when I ask you, "Why do you think?" You don't love to stay in time-out, and you definitely don't have an "inside voice." You have a booming singing voice and great dance moves. You love to be naked, and cold doesn't seem to bother you. Bathtime is a favorite with you, as is a cup of water before each nap and bedtime. You love to help me mix and bake. You love to sample the batter or dough even more.
You have a twinkle in your eyes that melts me and a sincere heart that disarms me. You are every sibling's best friend.
I love you Avery.

Mom

Abigail's Dance Recital

Abigail loves to dance anywhere, especially on our rug at home and on our backyard stage. It is delightful to see the added grace that pre-school ballet class adds to her moves. She was so excited to wear make-up for the recital, by the way.

Nativity Role Requests

I asked my kids what they wanted to be in the Blake Family Nativity and this is what they said:

Warren: "I want to be Joseph" (his second choice would be a shepherd and his third choice would be an angel)

Abigail: "I want to be Mary" (her second choice would be an angel)

Avery: "I want to be monkey" (her second choice would be a monkey)

I included this picture since it illustrates the allure of the monkey. For Halloween, Avery had a really cute butterfly costume, very much like Abigail's, but in blue and purple. After wearing to to one party, taking off her wings, taking off her tutu, taking off her antennae--she only had her leotard on--we got home and she asked, "Mom, can I be a monkey?" I thought about what was in our costume bin, and said, "Yes." So we dug out the monkey costume and had a happy little monkey all night long. Avery flipped the long tail and loved it. Not to mention it was SO COLD that night and she stayed nice and warm.

Avery also asked me yesterday, "Tan I be a monkey when we do Chritmat Caroling?" (Can I be a monkey when we go Christmas caroling?) I told her yes.

(This is my neighbor with my kids; he was dressed as a redneck for Halloween, he is very respectable looking in real life :)

Generous Hearts

This picture is from last month, but it is such a happy memory, so I had to include it. Abigail is really in to having tea parties, and we spontaneously had one with Abigail and Avery's good friends. We used my real china and Abigail served crackers, carrots, pudding and apple juice, I think. The cute thing was that it was Kate's birthday, and Abigail didn't know that, just that it was close to her birthday. So, she made sure a candle was lit for her to blow out. When we found out it was her birthday, we turned on special "princess" music and we all sang to her. She loved it and they all loved it, even though they weren't all the center of attention.
This morning, Abigail couldn't find her lunch box, and without a moment of hesitation, Avery said, "Abigail, you can use mine." Actually, it sounded more like, "Abidail, you tan ude mine!" Avery emptied the whole thing out and sent it with Abigail. It was so sweet.

Laundry Gnome and Pretty Pilgrim

While moving laundry today, Madeleine and I discovered this forgotten hat. And now I have a laundry gnome. She really liked it and talked very excitedly to herself in the mirror for a long time.
Below is Abigail's pilgrim hat. It was embellished all over with drawings of red-cheeked pilgrims with broad-brimmed hats, rainbows, rain, sunshine, flowers, and striped in the back with pink and black.