Interesting description

Madelyn has become pretty independent lately and likes to at least try to go to the bathroom by herself. A couple of days ago, she told me she needed to potty and then said, "You stay here." as she was pointing to the couch. A minute or two later, I heard her talking in the bathroom. She was saying things like, "There are boots and legs. It has hands and feet. It's wearing a hat." I went into the bathrom, and she was standing over the potty and describing what her poo poo looked like. She was actually a little disappointed when I told her she had to flush the potty. At least she wasn't touching it, and hey, nothing wrong with a little creativity, right?!???

God Our Father

We had friends from Charlottesville visiting us a few weeks ago, and they have a little girl who is a few months older than Madelyn. Bethany liked to sing "God our Father" as her prayer before she ate. Here are the lyrics and the song is sung to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?/Where is Thumbkin?":

God our Father
God our Father
We thank You
We thank You
For our many blessings
For our many blessings
Amen
Amen

We were eating lunch this afternoon and out of the blue Madelyn starts singing this song, but she didn't quite get the words right. This is what we heard, and JD and I both had tears streaming down our faces:

God our Fodder
God our Fodder
Sit and poo
Sit and poo
We thank you
We thank you
Amen
Amen

I tried to get this on video, but I haven't had time to take a look at it. I'll post it if it worked out.

Stalling

I know it's been a week since my last post, but our lives have been pretty uneventful lately. Madelyn still loves school and Pierce is drooling like crazy. I wouldn't be surprised to see another tooth at any time.

The latest thing with Madelyn, though, is stalling at naptime and bedtime. It hasn't become a real problem yet. We just have to keep redirecting her to the task at hand. When I announce it's time for bed, I usually hear, "I just woke up.", even though she's been awake for several hours. Then, she has to try to get her pants and underwear off and her pull-up and pants back on all by herself. This can take several minutes, depending on what she's wearing and how much she's willing to let me help. I'm all for developing more independence, but I think her motives might be a little skewed. We also have to limit the number of stories or we would read the entire Bible to her at one sitting. Additionally, you don't have to worry if someone is praying for you, considering we pray for just about everyone in the world. Sometimes she asks to pray for people that I don't know...school friends maybe? Again, I sometimes doubt the motives here.

Oh, her latest phrase is, "I need some pricaty." when she's going to the potty.

First Day of School

Madelyn's first day of school was yesterday, and she had a blast! She told me that she did crafts, ate applesause, went to the park (school's playground), and played with new friends. She was running for the door into the school when we first got there and was pretty hesitant to leave when I picked her up. She kept wanting to go back to the play area. Here are a couple of pictures before we left the house. She is very proud of her Dora backpack.

Buck up!

Just a quick, funny anecdote. Madelyn was being particularly whiny a few minutes ago and nothing I said or did pleased her. Finally, I said, "Madelyn, sweetie, you're gonna have to buck up or go back to bed." She gave me a funny look, sat down on the floor, put one arm over the opposite shoulder and pulled her hand down to her hip (Can you picture this?) and said, "Okay, I buckle up!"

I need to potty.

Football season gives us a lot to look forward to, mainly Saturdays and Sundays lying around watching the tube and flipping between games, as well as the occasional trip to Blacksburg. In addition, we get to look forward to cheap pizza. Papa Johns runs a "Redskins Special" on the Mondays following Sunday Skins games. You can get a large pizza for $8.99 and a free topping for every touchdown, with double the toppings if they win. One game a couple of years ago, they scored 7 touchdowns in their win. When I went to pick up our pizza, they were cooking several 14 topping pizzas...YUCK!!!. But I digress...

As we left the house this evening to pick up the pizza, I asked Madelyn if she needed to potty. "No, Mom." (What's with the 'Mom' business? I still want to be a mommy.) was her reply. So, we pull out of our neighborhood, get about 1 mile down the street, and I hear, "I need to potty." Now, I had a decision to make. Keep on going and pray that Papa Johns would have a public restroom or turn around and go back to the house. I guess my faith wasn't very strong at that particular moment because we turned around and went back to the house. Madelyn indeed had to potty. Then we got back in the car and got our pizza.

I am very thankful that Madelyn has been so easy to potty train, but at that particular moment, I found myself wishing she had on a diaper. I know there will be many more of these situations in the future. Oh, Papa Johns did have a public restroom--good for future reference.

6-months old!

Pierce is now 6 months old. That's really hard to believe! He had his check-up today and got 4 more shots. Madelyn went with me to the appointment and was really into watching the doctor and the nurse, particularly when the nurse was administering the shots. Pierce weighed in at a hefty 20 lbs even and measured 28 inches long. That's 90th percentile for both weight and length.

Game Day!

Virginia Tech plays LSU tonight. The kids won't be awake to see the game, but we dressed them up in orange and maroon anyway. Madelyn made our day when she looked at her cheerleading outfit and said, "I'm a Hokie." She was very excited that Pierce was a Hokie too. Here are some pictures of the morning. The one of them together is kinda dark which is a bummer.

We're number one!

August pictures

August pictures are posted here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cmtaliaferro

So in love...

Okay, I know this looks a little cheesy, but I had to post it because it gives such a false impression of the moment. We were heading out for a nice family dinner and I thought it would be a great idea to get a family picture. Well, Madelyn was being quite difficult at this particular moment and was refusing to sit still. I'm not exactly sure what JD and I were saying/thinking, but I know it wasn't "Honey, I love you."

Fun in the sand

All 4 grandkids

Their futures are so bright...

The Fashion Sense of a 5-year old

Wow! Taylor is certainly making a statement.

Hide and Seek

Here are some action shots of the girls playing hide and seek:

Taylor is counting in the back while Kathryn and Madelyn prepare to hide.

Taylor is still counting.

Taylor found them!

Family Vacation

We got back yesterday from our family vacation. We went with my in-laws to Atlantic Beach, NC for a week of fun in the sun. The weather was great and we stayed in a fabulous house that was large enough to accomodate all 13 of us pretty comfortably. Now, Pierce did sleep in a bathroom, but he won't remember that. Madelyn also shared a room with her two older cousins and they had a blast together! Three little girls at the ages of 5, 3, and 2 can be pretty entertaining and they can do a fairly good job of entertaining themselves, particularly at 6:00 am. Yes, the girls were up at 6:00 every day. Madelyn usually sleeps until 7:30 or so, and she is worn out! She actually went to sleep in the car on the way home from vacation. She NEVER sleeps in the car.

Madelyn also proved our theory that she is a little dare devil who fears nothing. One afternoon, my sister-in-law and I took the three girls out to the pool. Madelyn had a great time jumping off the side of the pool into the water, and I stood there catching her. She then worked up her nerve to jump in all the way, meaning she put her head under the water. After a bit of time, my mother-in-law brought Pierce out to the pool. Madelyn wanted to go see him so I carried her from the 3-foot deep water to the wading area of the pool. Madelyn played with Pierce for a few mintues, and I suppose she lost interest. I looked up, didn't see Madelyn, asked my mother-in-law where she went, and immediately noticed her at the opposite end of the pool. I yelled out her name, she looked at me, and then she jumped in the pool at the 3 foot end. I don't think I have ever moved as fast in my life, but I swam to the other end of the pool and picked her up from the water. She looked at me and said, "I jumped, Mommy." It didn't even phase her! Meanwhile, my arms and legs are jelly and my heart is exploding out of my chest. She was probably under water for all of 10 seconds, but it was the longest 10 seconds of my life. The scariest part of it all was realizing how quickly it happened. I tried to use this as a teaching moment, explaining that she could only jump in the water when she had the attention of an adult she trusted. It certainly was a good reminder for me.

Other than that episode, things were pretty low-key. JD played some golf and got to have some quality time with the kids. I got some short breaks from the kids and was able to do some shopping and got a manicure and pedicure. I'll post some pics once I have a chance to get some downloaded.