Snuggle bug!

After Madelyn was left to fall asleep in her room, she began to get a bit restless, so Mommy went in for a quick little cuddle to help her calm down (and because I wanted another excuse to snuggle!).

We were both lying on her bed, her little bum pushed into my ribs, and I was stroking her hair. After quite a number of songs on her Disney lullaby disc, her breathing was getting deeper, and I realized I'd managed to put her to sleep, so I stopped stroking her hair and began to move my hand away. Unbeknownst to me, she was still awake, and instead of letting my hand go, she grabbed onto my thumb, pulled my hand back and cuddled with it against her cheek!

My heart melted - she'd never done that before!

I would've stayed all night if I could have, I was loving every single moment, but I couldn't stay in her little bed - so after another great number of songs passed, and she hadn't moved, I thought for sure I had my chance to slip out of her room silently and undetected.

Only I was, again, mistaken.

As I slowly began to prop myself, she seemed automatically jolted from her sleep and reached around to grab the strings of my hoodie and pull me back down, telling me, "No, Mommy, you stay here and close your eyes with me and go to sleep."

So I did.

Sweetest moment of my life :)

A Day at the Zoo - May 5, 2011

Grandpa came up from Utah to visit with the whole fam damily, and Madelyn had no clue (we like to really surprise her!). He showed up at the door bright and early just as the Roo and I were comin' down the stairs, and his voice through the screen calling to her didn't phase her initially - but once she stopped, listened, and turned to look, the look of pure joy and the oozing excitement was amazing!

And so the adventure began!

We were lucky to have some great weather that day, so after running a couple of quick errands and getting Gpa, Madelyn and Daddy to the McDonald's Playland for a quick lunch, it was time to head out to the zoo!

We had SO much fun checkin' out the scene, and Gpa was lovin' pushing the Roo around in the dinosaur rider she had selected as her ride of choice! After a few brief exhibits, we hit up the play area, and she was off, testing out the monkey bars for the very first time!

This zebra bus with the monkey bar middle had a little side window at the front that she loved to poke her head out of and give us a little royal wave before heading out for another attempt at those bars!

I managed to catch her in her adorable little gesture:

After much fun was had in the play area, it was o

ff to see the snow leopards and the monkeys and the tiger, and of course, the lion, whom she appropriately dubs The Lion King.

(The lioness in the exhibit with him is affectionately known as The Lion King's Mommy.)

Right after the lion exhibit, Madelyn knows the camels are coming up. I had just caught on enough to know that when the Roo begins getting excited to see Alice the Camel, it's not that she's looking forward to actually seeing the CAMELS, but rather, the little camel PLAY AREA located AT the camel exhibit! This has a camel slide that she is more than familiar with!

So when I was gettin' her pumped up to see the camels and the Alice the Camel slide, I knew it would be a home run.

Of course, this little girl is full of surprises.

Once we got to the play area, she checked out the slide, but not with the same vigour as per usual - no, this seemed more obligatory. THIS time, she was all about the sand box, and making "a castle for The Lion King".

This "castle" was a pile of sand.

A pile of sand that she became VERY protective over, and even snapped at a little girl who accidentally kicked a bit of it down as she walked by. (That's my girl!)

A pile of sand that she could NOT be pulled away from, not even with the lure of ice cream!

Check out the intensity of this 3yr old in a sand box, dedicated to completing her mission:

Unfortunately, we didn't take many snap shots of Gpa's visit with the Roo, and not even when Grandma showed up a day later for the weekend! We did get a lot of video though, but this little girl was in heaven just by being around 2 of her favourite people!

We went out for dinner at The Keg, and Madelyn enjoyed "Grandma's steak" (the name she gives to all steak now in general, ever since Gma let the Roo sample some of her steak quite a while ago!). Gma and Gpa played with the Roo in the g

arden, and tuckered that little girl out! It was so incredible, and sad to have Gma leave us so soon after arriving, but Gpa made sure to step up his game by going golfing with her for her very first time!

A rainy Monday had us indoors at a black light glow-in-the-dark mini golf facility with dinosaurs and underwater creatures (she L.O.V.E.D. it! - two of her fave things at the moment!). Luckily it wasn't busy there at all, so we had the run of the place, which was great, b/c Madelyn wasn't exactly working on perfecting her technique! She had more fun standing b

ehind the ball and whacking at it with the club between her legs (and then she just resorted to picking the ball up and placing it directly into the hole - y'know, to avoid all that annoying "trying" stuff!) HA!

Gpa got to see Madelyn in action at her Kinder Ballet class that night. Everyone in attendance witnessed Madelyn pay attention to the teacher's words for a few fractions of a second, the rest of the time was spent running over to us and not wanting to participate (I think Gpa still enjoyed the show!). Then that evening, he spoiled her with an incredibly fun game of "Name that Person", where he showed her pics of ppl and she had to guess who they were correctly to get a present!

A couple pics of Mommy, Daddy, Gma and Gpa (not recognizing Gma from the pic though? Gpa was sure to enjoy THAT, he's all about competition!), and the kicker - a picture of Baby Madelyn, which she got right off the bat! Gpa did NOT expect that one!

He spoiled her with pop-up dinosaur books, a glow-in-the-dark Ladybug book, a ladybug piggy bank, a big collection of Dr Seuss stories, a Fantasia dvd, a spinning light-up bunny, and he created the most amazing memory for her: Puff the Magic Dragon - a song he sang to her earlier that day, multiple times in the car as we drove around. She grew to love that tune, and wouldn't you know it, the final surprises consisted of a Puff storybook and a music box that plays the tune!

The evening was topped off with a snuggle session on the couch watching her new Fantasia movie. Thanks for the great visit, Gma and Gpa!!! Madelyn loved every moment, and I know she'll remember it for years to come!

Kinder Ballet!

On April 9, Madelyn started her first Kinder Ballet class!

The program runs until early June, and each onday the small kidlets learn how to point their toes and feet positions and the like.

Of course, Roo seems to have her own agenda!

She loves getting all dolled up for ballet, but doesn't enjoy the "listening" aspect of it too much! She'd much rather get up and run over to

Mommy and Daddy watching from the sidelines to tell us to "Hushhhhhh! Be quiet!" and then scurry back to her group, OR she'll run up to us and ask us for a snack (she ate a whole sandwich during her class tonight!). The only time she's actually doing what the teacher tells her to do is when the teacher instructs everyone to just dance around, and that's when she's at her peak!

Nonetheless, it's something to learn, and it

keeps her busy, and she DOES enjoy getting dressed up and

twirling around. Of course, if she'd be kicking and screaming and not wanting to go, we wouldn't do it, but she's always excited to go and be a funny little disturbance for the rest of the class, and a full-on entertainer for those of us lucky enough to be there watching!

Pirate Captain Madelyn

When she was just a weeeee little baby, Madelyn loved The Backyardigans.

One episode we watched on repeat was one that highlighted Pablo, the little blue penguin, as a cleaning-obsessed pirate on his ship. Pirate Captain Moody was his name. And he had a little ditty that he sang (as they all did, all the time). As Madelyn watched it on repeat, she was able to learn the words:

"Clean, clean, clean, my ship must be clean..."

She'd sing this while "helping" Mommy sweep the kitchen floor, or putting her toys away, or whatever required her attention.

Lately, she hasn't been too interested in The Backyardigans, instead focusing her attention on the Care Bears or the standard Dora or even The Little Mermaid.

However, today, Madelyn channelled her inner pirate, a throwback to her Backyardigan days, by picking up a roll of paper towels and looking through the tube at me. "Arrrrr, Mommy, I'm Pirate Captain Madelyn!" she exclaimed in her best pirate voice as I was making supper.

"Oh really?" I said. "Well, it's very nice to meet you, Pirate Captain Madelyn!"

Noticing what I was doing, and not being a fan of the concept of supper to begin with, the Roo stated, "Arrr Mommy, pirates don't eat supper!"

"They don't? Well then what do pirates eat?"

And without hesitation, Madelyn responded: "They eat treats and carrots."

Perhaps she was getting "pirates" mixed up with the "Easter bunny". Understandable, since the holiday was just a few short days ago. (I should note that she eventually DID eat her supper, carrots included!, with the promise of enjoying some Easter treats for dessert!)

All dressed up and ready for dinner!

Here are some pics of the Roo in her pretty Easter dress, ready to head out to Baba and Didi's for an Easter Feaster!

Easter 2011!

Finally, Madelyn is at an age where she can appreciate the glory of the Easter egg hunt!

And her reaction and devotion to the craft of holiday egg retrieval was a magical and satisfying experience!

Upon waking up early in the morning, the Roo was greeted with her Easter basket, complete with a chickie that cheeps when you squeeze his tummy (thank God she's at the age where she

doesn't care that she got that chickie LAST year,

she was STILL so excited to see it!).

Also, Bunny Bunny (a gift from Baba and Didi for Madelyn's first Easter) made a welcomed appearance. (I can only guess that, when she's in her teen years, this trick of reusing items from past years to bring a smile to her face will only be looked upon as "cheap" and "unappreciated", so I'll play this out for as long as I can!)

After filling up on an Easter basket cupcake for breakfast (we knew right outta the gates that

this day would be devoid of nutrients), it was time to get her geared up for her first REAL Easter egg hunt!

And it was a BLAST! I thought I'd done a good job of hiding some of the eggs, but this is one clever little girl we're dealing with here, she was ON her GAME. Once she caught on with what we were doing, there was no stopping her! She had so much fun that I do believe I will find ways to incorporate the concept of the Easter egg hunt into normal everyday life.... "Madelyn, can you find all the socks that the washing machine ate?"

Thanks to Daddy for recording the whole ordeal! Here it is as it unfolded, the hunt in all it's glory:

What goes "bump" in the night...

The other night, probably around midnight, well after everyone had settled in, Madelyn took a tumble.

Now no one knows for sure what happened, we can only go by what she told us, and what she told us was that she had fell out of bed (not sure how with the bed rail?) and hit her head on the floor!

Regardless if it was the floor she hit her head on, or if she just bumped it against the wall or her headboard as she's done once or twice before, one thing was certain - her noggin took a bit of a lickin'.

She was sobbing. I would've, too! You're woken from a deep sleep, you're in pain, it's pitch black, maybe you've just had a bad dream too...it must have been scary for her.

By the time we got to her bedroom, all of less than 30 seconds since she stared crying, we threw open the door and found her sitting on her bed, crying. I climbed onto her bed, and pulled her into my lap. She was curled up on me, her sobs starting to dwindle, as we asked her what had happened. No goose eggs, no blood, her crying stopped, and she was leaning back towards her Dora pillow, so we kissed her goodnight, and that was that.

Hated that she was upset and crying, but LOVED the chance to get that good snuggle in. And it was a good one. Short, but I adored every moment of being able to hold her and have her just cuddle into me, and loved that I was able to calm her down.

The next morning, Donovan told me that when he went in to get her up, the first words out of her mouth were about that moment during the night, but she corrected herself as she recounted the story for Daddy:

"Daddy, I fell and hit my head and I was crying and then Mommy held me...no, first Mommy picked me up and THEN Mommy held me and I stopped crying and went back to sleep!"

I was able to relive that precious bittersweet moment all over again, but this time it was more sweet than bitter, because it meant THAT much to her, that not only was it the FIRST thing that she told Daddy about, but she made sure to tell the story PROPERLY!

:)