Madelyn's bike accident

Madelyn had a major bike accident today.

She took a right hand turn without slowing down first. Her tricycle tipped with her on it, sending her face first into the pavement before rolling her right over.

I tried to keep a calm demeanor as I picked her up off the pavement. Inside, I was terrified!

She immediately let out a wail, which was totally expected. It was quite the spill. To her credit, like she always does, she recovered very quickly, and wanted to go home to get a band aid. Her finger was covered in blood.

Before bed, I asked Madelyn about the tricycle incident. Her recollection was quite different than mine, and it painted her in a better light, which I thought was adorable. Now, we're all guilty of embellishing stories, or painting embarrassing moments from our past in a better light when we retell stories. Here's Madelyn's moderately inaccurate recollection of the accident.

According to her, her tricycle tipped over.

And then she said "Oh No! Why did I do that!?"!

Really?! Because that's not what I heard, unless something was lost in translation in the "WWWWWEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" she screamed!

I'm not posting this to make fun of our little trooper. To the contrary - she cried for less than 20 seconds before sucking up her pride and politely asking if we could go home and get a bandaid for the bloody finger. A lot of kids her age would wail and whine for an hour.

I just fell in love with her slightly different version of events.

Donovan

Playtime

After everyone left this morning, I tried to do a bit of tidying up. This is how I found Madelyn's playroom.

She had all her Little People animals all lined up, looks like they were gettin' ready to board Noah's Ark.

And then, once everyone was home again, Roo was overheard making an announcement to her friends by stating in a very loud and commanding tone, "Ladies aaaaaand Jellybeans!"

Yep, she CAN stop talking!

Watercolor

During last night's "splish splash", Roo re-discovered her bath crayons.

The only thing that sucks about her love of bath crayons is trying to figure out how to hang her bathtub art on the fridge. I think I need stronger magnets.

Roo: "Can I have some gum, Mommy?"

Me: "No, I don't think so."

Roo: "Mommy, can I please have some gum?"

Me: "No, sweetheart."

Roo, after picking up whichever inanimate object was closest to her: "Madelyn's Mommy, this is Madelyn's friend, the pen. Can you say yes, can Madelyn have some gum now?"

Hey Bono, Madelyn loves you, too!

Mommy's FAVOURITE band is in town for a show tomorrow night.

It promises to be the biggest rock 'n roll show this city has ever hosted.

I have been a fan of U2 for more than 20yrs, and anyone who knows me can attest to this.

In fact, the mutual love of their music was one of the reasons Dono and I hooked up in the first place (see: http://yaciuk.blogspot.com/2011/05/bono-kissed-my-wife.html).

So when I heard they were going to be in town a couple of days BEFORE their concert, shooting a documentary, and I knew WHERE this doc would be shot, I made sure I was there, in the wind and sleet (yep, crappy weather at the end of May - welcome to Winnipeg!) to meet them.

Surreal.

That was last night.

Tonight - well, tonight was about sharing the experience with my family.

Late in the afternoon, after receiving a tip from a fan friend we had met in line the day before (oddly enough we were both at the Bomber Store purchasing U2 merch with Madelyn in tow!), we decided to swing by the house and pick up the camera and do a drive-by. Y'know, just in case.

Well, the drive-by turned into a full-on waiting game, with rumours it would be "any time now" that we would see them, and Donovan and I weren't gonna pass up a chance to have Madelyn meet "the man"!

We were equipped with a lawn chair, snacks for Roo, water, food, an umbrella, the camera - it was quite the haul. Madelyn did SO WELL, keeping busy by throwing rocks into puddles through the mini barricade that was set up between the fans and the Burton Cummings theatre (the site of the documentary filming where the band was inside, doing their thing).

My friend from work Christina showed up (she's as big a fan of the band as I am), and begged to take over and keep Madelyn entertained (she's surrounded by boys - only has sons and LOVES Madelyn!) while Daddy took a much needed break during our 4hr stint waitin' for the band!

They had so much fun playing Ring Around the Rosie, and high 5's on repeat!, that Madelyn really developed a love for Auntie Christina!

At around 9 or so, the cars started to move into position on the other side of the barricade. We got ready to take our pics and have our merch autographed! Roo was up on Daddy's shoulders, and had prime line of sight when the band finally came out and started greeting their fans!

By the time Bono was about 2 people away from us, signing autographs and taking pics, Madelyn said in her normal speaking voice (after a quick prompt from Mommy!), "I love you Bono," and after I told her he didn't hear, she yelled as he posed for a picture with a fan, "I LOVE YOU, BONO!" He smiled and looked up at her in a moment of distraction!

And then came our turn!

As he approached me and smiled and said hello, and gave me ANOTHER hug (he embraced AND kissed me the day before!), and as I passed him the tour book to sign, I said, "Bono, if I could just take a minute here to introduce you - this is my daughter Madelyn..." Donovan had at this point took her off his shoulders and was holding her in his arms, right beside me.

Bono said, "Well hello, Madelyn!"

I continued: "...and Madelyn was conceived to the Achtung Baby album!" Bono started laughing, as did the fans around us.

"I was wondering if she could get her picture taken with you!"

Bono: "Haha, she truly is an Achtung Baby!" Cue picture.

Donovan: "Madelyn, can you give Bono a kiss?"

Bono and Madelyn leaned in towards each other (right in front of my face!), and she kissed his cheek - not sure if he kissed her back, as his face was on the other side of hers. "Well thank you Madelyn, you made my day!"

Bono continued, as he was being ushered along the line, "Which song was it?"

I started laughing - I wasn't prepared for him to ask ME a question - although I think I ended up saying something like, "Who knows!"

Donovan told me after he was dying to blurt out "Even Better Than the Real Thing", but thought that would be awkward, since that's only the 2nd track on the album!

At any rate, even though SHE has no clue what just happened, we will definitely be printing out the pic and framing it, along with the autographs we snagged.

I'm sure she'll learn to appreciate it as she grows older!

Ariel said WHAT?

A few days ago, while I was making supper, my iPod had just finished playing (what Madelyn calls) The Skittle Song (or what I called The Fiddle Song, which is really John Denver's Thank God I'm a Country Boy) and, in its Shuffle state, played Salt-N-Pepa's Push It.

My hands were covered in chicken juice, so I couldn't race over to the iPod to change it back to The Skittle Song, which has become a Roo-favourite, so I just hoped she wouldn't put up too much of a fuss having to listen to that tune while I quickly tried to finish up with the raw meat and wash my hands.

To my surprise, she was DIGGING IT.

In fact, she loves it! She even mimics the breathing effects!

Tonight as I was reading The Little Mermaid storybook to her, she was listening and enjoying the funny voices I was throwin' in there every now and then, and suddenly, out of the blue, Madelyn pointed to a picture of Ariel and said, "Mommy, look, Ariel says (insert breathing sounds) Push It!"

HAHA! Whoops...