My Little Fashionista

It’s no secret that I love dressing my kids. When I was pregnant with Madeline (and didn’t know if I was having a boy or a girl) I secretly hoped for a girl because I envisioned all of the precious dresses, and frilly outfits I could dress her in. The funny thing was that she wasn’t interested in dressing pretty. Anytime I put a hat on her head or a bow in her hair she would immediately pull it off and throw it on the floor. When it came to dressing her she could have cared less about frilly dresses, and was instead more interested in running and jumping, and to be perfectly honest if she had it her way she would have never worn clothes!

Until now…

In the past year she has changed from little tomboy to pretty princess. Don’t get me wrong, she still behaves like a tomboy, she just prefers to dress like a princess when she runs around. I have to admit that I have started to invest all of my wardrobe efforts into Anthony since Madeline has become more of a diva than Mariah Carey when it comes to picking out an outfit.

First, she insists that everything she wears needs to be pink, and it can’t have just a little hint of pink. No, the entire shirt should be pink, and then she needs pink underwear, and pink pants, and pink socks, and pink hair clips. Seriously is there some sort of pink gene in little girls? I am so sick of pink, but I can’t convince Madeline to wear anything else.

In addition to her pink obsession, she also prefers to wear dresses and tights which presents a problem when it comes to going to preschool, since they spend a lot of time painting, and playing. She doesn’t understand the difference between play clothes and dress-up clothes. This makes for VERY unpleasant mornings in this house when it comes to preschool. This morning she and I had the biggest battle over a new dress that we had just bought. She insisted on wearing it to preschool, and wouldn’t accept that I was not going to let her wear it. She started to explain to me that all of her clothes were too small, and hurt her and apparently the new dress was the only item in her closet that would fit.

So now I dread having to get Madeline dressed in the morning. For the most part I let her choose what she wants to wear, but when it comes to preschool I refuse to let her wear her nice clothes when half the time she comes home with paint on her clothes.

I did give in to her this past Friday, and I let her pick out her outfit since she was going to be Star of the Day. This is the outfit she came up with (all on her own!).

Don’t even ask me where she learned to pose like this, because I have no clue.

Yes, she wore the hat to preschool, and apparently kept it on the entire time. The little girl who wouldn’t keep a hat on her head now insists on wearing one nonstop. At some point I hope she will decide that she wants to learn about outfit coordination, but for now I just hope that when people see her out and about looking like a crazy kid they realize that I’m letting her express her own personal style.

Take tonight for example. We took the kids to McDonald’s to play and eat dinner and I informed Madeline that she needed to put some clothes on (instead of the monkey costume she was running around in all day). I told her that she could pick whatever she wanted, so she went into her closet and picked a brown shirt (shocking!) . She proceeded to tell me it was beautiful and would be perfect for McDonald’s. Then it was time to pick out some bottoms. She opened her sock drawer and informed me that she wanted to wear tights. I explained to her that tights are not like pants, and you can’t wear them alone. I explained that she needed to pick out some pants. So she settled on a nice pink floral pair of leggings, and after she got them on she decided to put some tights over them. I had to chuckle at her logic. I had explained that you just couldn’t wear tights alone, and she needed to wear pants so she solved that problem. Instead of arguing with her about the proper order of putting one’s clothes on I just let her go to McDonald’s with her tights over her pants and hoped no one would look at us too funny!

Wild Child(ren)

I used to think that my kids weren’t very well-behaved. I tried hard to discipline them, but no matter how hard I tried they weren’t like most of the other kids. Other kids would sit nicely with a toy and play with it, exploring it, and discovering how it worked. My kids would prefer to take the toy and figure out how to launch it across the room, or how to use it to climb up on the furniture more effectively.

I’ve come to the conclusion, though, that I was wrong. I actually think my kids are pretty well-behaved they are just much more energetic than average. Couple that with their extra-small physique and it’s a recipe for some wild, crazy antics!

When we go to see the pediatrician both she and her nurses marvel at how active the kids are. I figure if she sees kids all day long and is marveling at how active they are, then they must be above average in the energy department!

At only 12 months old Anthony was doing somersaults. At 15 months he is working on jumping and he can tear around the house so fast it would make your head spin!

Madeline is in gymnastics and at only 3.5 is in a class with 5 year olds and we’ve been told that once she turns 4 she will qualify for the pre-team class. I’m shocked at what she can do. She is learning how to run and jump off the vault and do a flip, how to do forward rolls on the balance beam, headstands, and is already able to jump up on the bar and do a flip.

Tonight the kids were showing off some of their wildness.

Here is Madeline showing off her jumping skills.

She likes to dress herself in crazy outfits, and her favorite color is pink in case you didn’t know!

Anthony is trying to keep up with his big sister, and has been working on jumping off of my exercise steps (which are obviously getting a lot of use!).

He’s still figuring things out!

(I should probably tell him that running around with your sister’s dress on your head is a recipe for disaster!).

This is how I was entertaining him last night…pushing him around the house in his car seat! (he spilled all over his car seat because I thought he was responsible enough to drink chocolate milk out of a box with a straw, so I had to bring it into the house to clean it out…lesson learned!).

And just in case all of those pictures weren’t enough, here is a video of my crazy kids jumping.

Trying to Catch Up!

Yes, I know I have taken an unscheduled blogging hiatus this past week. It wasn’t planned, and the sad thing is I’ve been sitting here wondering what in the world I can say that will be even remotely interesting or amusing. So bear with me if this post puts you to sleep. Maybe that’s a good thing, if you’re my mom and have a hard time sleeping. My blog could replace her Ambien!

So, Madeline got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. It’s every little girl’s dream to own their very own Easy Bake, mostly because I don’t think they realize that their “oven” is really akin to a tanning bed for baked goods. Please don’t get me wrong, because I think the Easy Bake Oven is one of the coolest gifts a little girl can get. I used to have an Easy Bake Oven and have many fond memories of making miniature cakes that only tasted good because of the hard work I had put into baking them. At the time I didn’t understand what a vehicle of torture they were for the parents of those children who owned them, though!

The thing you don’t realize about the Easy Bake Oven is that everything is super small! I know this shouldn’t be shocking, but until you’ve tried to mix a teaspoon of water into a packet of cake mix you have no clue how tedious it is shrinking everything down to miniature proportions. Oh, and can someone please explain to me why the Easy Bake mixes they sell cost twice as much as their regular-sized counterparts? I could bake a cake for our whole family for half the money Madeline bakes her cakes for!

The other day Madeline wanted to bake a cake, so we “preheated” her oven so that the lightbulb would get nice and hot. While her oven was preheating, we mixed up the cake batter. It basically involved putting a tiny bit of water with dry cake mix and wondering how in the world such a tiny amount of water was supposed to thoroughly moisten it. I usually end up adding more water just to try to get it the right consistency. After we got it all mixed up I sprayed the little baking tin with cooking spray. While I wasn’t looking Madeline decided to lick the spoon, which involved her “accidentally” eating half her cake batter! When I cook regular-sized baked goods I let Madeline lick the spoons, but she failed to realize that when everything is shrunk to miniscule proportions you can’t lick as much batter without seriously affecting the quality of your cake!

Thankfully there was enough batter left to fill the cake tin and Madeline was able to get it in the oven. She waited patiently for it to be done baking, and when the time was up took it out of the oven. She’s quite the expert at using her oven!

Here she is showing off her freshly frosted cake.

This is what’s so frustrating about the Easy Bake. You spend so much time trying to get everything just right, and then this is your finished product! Thankfully she has a smile on her face and is proud of her creation, even if it looks like a baking disaster!

We did try to make it look a little more presentable.

Sprinkles cover a multitude of baking disasters!

So be forewarned all of you parents of little girls…the Easy Bake Oven is in your future. Just be prepared for frustrating baking experiences, underwhelming results, and be sure to stock up on lots of sprinkles!

You Are the Vacuuming King!

With Anthony’s love of vacuuming, we thought maybe we should indulge him a little and give him a chance to vacuum a little easier.

He’s so funny. He runs with that thing around the house dramatically pushing it back and forth as if he has some major vacuuming crisis he is trying to get under control. It’s too bad that the vacuum doesn’t actually pick stuff up, because I would have a very clean house if it did. It was definitely $15 well spent!

Speaking of my clean-freak little man, he had his 15 month check up today. Madeline was at gymnastics while I took him to the doctor’s office. The appointment was at 9:15, so I figured they couldn’t be too far behind yet. I was wrong. We waited forever in the waiting room, but Anthony was very sweet. We spent time looking at the fish in the aquariums, looking down at the fountain, and wandering aimlessly around the waiting room.

Finally we went back to the exam room where Anthony got to strip down to his diaper, and I got the pleasure of trying to convince him not to strip completely nude in front of the nurses since he knows how to take his diaper off, and enjoys the feeling of the breeze on his bare bottom.

I was able to keep him entertained with Cheerio’s until the doctor came in to look at him (which was almost an hour after our original appointment time!). While she and I were talking Anthony was running around the room in his diaper, and occasionally coming to me for a few Cheerio’s. At one point while I wasn’t paying attention, Anthony came running up to me, snatched up the bag of Cheerio’s and ran into the middle of the room where he proceeded to shake the bag sending Cheerio’s flying all over the exam room. It was pretty dramatic, and made the biggest mess ever!

Thankfully the doctor chuckled about it and told me not to bother cleaning it up. Anthony didn’t know quite what to make of what he had just done. For a minute he just stood in the middle of the room surveying the mess he just created with just the slightest smirk on his face. After it set in, he decided he wanted to start eating them off the floor. So I had to quickly scoop him up, since eating off the floor at the doctor’s office is beyond disgusting!

The doctor and I did our best to navigate the room, but pretty much everywhere we stepped we were making crunching sounds as we squashed Cheerio’s under our shoes. The rest of the appointment proceeded without any more drama until the very end when I was getting ready to leave. Just as I was walking out of the room (with the Cheerio’s still all over the floor) a nurse came to me with Anthony’s visit summary and when she saw the room her jaw about dropped to the floor. Thankfully she started laughing hysterically, and drew the attention of a few other nurses who also came up and had a good laugh at Anthony’s mess. I’m sure the one who ended up having to vacuum the room wasn’t laughing, but at least they were nice about it.

There was nothing too big that we got out of the appointment, other than that I should not let Anthony have a bottle or pacifier anymore. Seriously, though, why in the world do they care if a 15 month old still uses a bottle? I breastfed Madeline until she was almost 2 (if you recall I had to stop with Anthony at 6 months because of my health and his health concerns). I know for sure I would still be nursing him if I had stuck with it, so why in the world can’t he have a bottle? I mean, do they really think he’s going to be drinking out of a bottle at his high school graduation? I never know how to respond to those questions. Do I lie and tell them what they want to hear so they don’t lecture me on those things, or do I tell them the truth? I do value the doctor’s opinion, but I have my mind made up on some stuff and at 3.5 Madeline doesn’t use a pacifier or bottle so I’m pretty sure we’re doing okay.

Anyway, it turns out that Anthony is still a little peanut. He weighed 20 pounds, which is the 2.5th percentile (up from the 1st percentile at his 1 year check up!), I forget how long he was, but it was the 35th percentile, and his head circumference was in the 5th percentile. So, all of this means that Anthony is close to average in height, but really skinny which explains why it is almost impossible for me to keep his pants up. If they fit him in the waist then they are too short, but if they are the right length then they hang off his butt. For whatever reason it’s hard to find pants with the adjustable waist until toddler sizes, so for now Anthony has a tendency to vacillate between looking gangster (pants hanging low), or dorky (legs too short). Poor guy!

Have Vacuum Will Travel

Anyone have any housework that needs to be done?

Anthony loves vacuuming. Tonight I was sitting on the couch and he came up to me in the way he does when he wants me to follow him, so I followed him over to the closet where he wanted me to open the door. Once I did he began pulling the vacuum out, wanting me to plug it in for him so he could vacuum. Never one to discourage housework I obliged and let him have at the living room.

Do you see Madeline in the background? She’s wearing her new gymnastics leotard that I found on clearance the other day. She has only taken it off for a few hours since I bought it 5 days ago. In fact, she even wore it to preschool the other day under her clothes (I had to convince her that a leotard was not a seasonally appropriate outfit choice). As she was getting ready to leave for preschool I forced her to use the bathroom, because I didn’t want her teachers cursing me at bathroom break time. Just as I was dropping her off and talking to her teacher I looked at Madeline talking to her other teacher, lifting her shirt up and showing off her leotard. She could have at least waited until I left to break out the leotard! I quickly apologized to both teachers and swore that Madeline used the bathroom before school and had a bladder of steel, so they shouldn’t worry!

And since there really is no cohesive train of thought on this post I’ll end with a conversation I had with Madeline today. This morning Anthony was breaking into Lucy’s dog food bowl which I had neglected to put up on the counter. I have no clue why in the world toddlers think dog food is such a culinary treat. Madeline was the same way. As he saw me coming he quickly tried to shove the food into his mouth before I could pry it out of his hands, and I told him that dog food was gross and he shouldn’t eat it. Madeline quickly agreed and told him that dog food had germs and would make him sick. Of course being the fool I am, I blurted out that he might turn into a puppy if he ate it…you know that whole “if you eat a watermelon seed one will grow in your stomach” thing they tell you when you’re a kid? Immediately after I blurted that out I wanted to kick myself. Instead of having to explain to Madeline that sometimes mommy says silly stuff without thinking, I found myself cracking up. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Anthony, stop eating that dog food. That’s yucky!

Madeline: Yeah, Anty. It has germs and makes you sick!

Me: Yeah and if you eat it you might turn into a dog!

Madeline: Yeah, and then we’d have to get a new baby.

A Little Winter Break

If you were to ask Madeline what her favorite things are, one of the top things on her list would be hotels. A while back my mom and dad took Madeline to a hotel for a little getaway, and ever since then she has been addicted. She talks about going to the hotel all the time, and repeatedly packs her suitcase in preparation for her next trip. My parents have taken her a few times since that first visit, and Madeline thoroughly enjoys their trips. They always go to the same hotel, until now. Instead of going to the usual one they took her to one here in town.

Yesterday they picked her up from preschool and headed over to the hotel. I guess she wanted to go swimming right away, so they took her down to the pool area. This hotel is nice because they have a small indoor waterpark. After swimming she got to eat dinner at the hotel’s restaurant, and then got to sleep in the big bed.

Today Anthony and I joined them at the pool for some swimming. I thought Anthony would love the pool, and although he seemed initially excited about it he quickly changed his mind when I tried to put him in the kiddie pool. He was not having anything to do with it.

Thankfully he was ready for some hot tub action.

Madeline was happy to get in on the hot tub action.

Eventually I convinced Anthony to try out the pool.

After a while he was even happy to go down the slides.

The kids shot some hoops.

Eventually Anthony had enough of the water park so we decided to call it a day. We went back to the room and got changed and then had the pleasure of hauling everything out of the room down to the car, including 2 crazy kids who were sufficiently worn out from their time at the water park.

A Lot of Nothing, Followed by Footie PJ’s

I know I’ve been gone for a while, and I have no excuse other than not having anything interesting to say and I have been so tired! I’ve been keeping up with my Shred and I think that’s what’s wearing me out. I moved up to Level 2 yesterday, and it’s probably not a good idea to have moved up a level after taking 4 days off. It’s seriously kicking my butt! It probably doesn’t help that every time I get on the floor to do sit ups or push ups Anthony decides to crawl on top of me and sit there or bounce up and down on my stomach. It’s really cute and I wish I had a picture of it. Well maybe I don’t, because I’m fairly certain that it would be horrifying to behold a picture of me in all of my workout glory, and by “glory” I mean sweaty, huffing, puffing , blotchy mess.

I have discovered that working out in the morning is a much better option for me. I’ve actually set a goal for myself to get my workout in before I head to Starbucks. There’s nothing like a little caffeine motivation to get me exercising first thing in the morning! I’ve noticed it doesn’t wipe me out quite so much to get it done in the morning, and I’m much happier to have my afternoons free to clean the house. Exciting, right?

Thankfully Madeline is back in preschool, and we’re back into our regular routine. I have to admit that I didn’t miss having to get up earlier in the morning and ready to be out the door by 8:00. It was nice to just lounge around and take our time before heading out the door, but now that she is back in preschool I drop her off and then come home and do my workout while Anthony plays. It works pretty well, although he does use me as a jungle gym part of the time. In all honesty I don’t mind too much because it gives me an excuse to slack off on my workout.

That’s about all of the interesting stuff I can think of (I use the term “interesting” loosely in this situation, since I know hearing about my exercise routine, and Starbucks addiction is not overly enthralling).

So, instead of going on about more boring stuff, here are some pictures.

We celebrated Christmas with David’s extended family this past weekend. Here’s a picture of Madeline and Anthony with their cousin* Mackynzie, and David’s cousin Ryan (Mackynzie’s uncle). Don’t you love Ryan’s footie PJ’s?

*Mackynzie is really David’s cousin’s little girl, but I don’t know what that makes her to our kids (second cousins?), so we’re just going to call her a cousin.

It was very difficult to get a good picture of everyone.

Eventually Anthony got tired of the photo shoot, and this is where we found him.

He’s so cute!

These 2 kids make me so happy. They are just too darn cute, and entertaining!

15 Months

Today Anthony is 15 months old. I honestly can not believe how fast the time has gone. Maybe it has something to do with the sleep deprivation that Anthony has caused David and I but I feel like it isn’t possible for him to be so old.

I haven’t done a great job of using this blog to document all of Anthony’s milestones, but I decided I would do a little update on where he is at right now (mostly because I am doing a horrible job of keeping up with his baby book, so maybe someday I can reference this blog post and update it!).

Anthony has been walking for the past 3 months, and when I say walking I really mean sprinting. This kid does not walk, he lives life in fast forward. If you want to keep up with him you need to jog because he can tear around the house like an old pro. You’d think he’d been doing it forever the way he runs without wobbling or falling.

When he is playing with something he isn’t supposed to have, for example my hair gel, he takes off running the moment he realizes we have noticed what he’s playing with. Then like a little convict on the loose he does his best to evade us, but the moment he realizes he’s about to get caught he quickly ditches the evidence by throwing it as far away as possible and then stopping like he wasn’t doing anything wrong. Totally cracks me up.

He also still has a major fascination with the toilet. If we leave the toilet unattended for even a moment he quickly throws it open and wants to stick his hands in it. Thankfully everyone in our family does a good job of flushing, so we are able to quickly sanitize his hands without too much drama.

Anthony has also been enjoying playing pretend. He plays with Madeline’s fake food and makes smacking noises when he pretends to eat it. He also makes a “vroom” sound when he plays with trucks, cars, and anything else with wheels. Today he was pretending to blow out the candles on Madeline’s play birthday cake. He is constantly wanting to put our shoes on, and he pretends to dress himself with whatever article of clothing he can find.

He also loves to dance. He spends a great deal of time in the car swaying back and forth to the music. It is so stinkin’ cute. He just can’t listen to music without moving to the beat whether it’s music on the radio, or just a toy playing a tune.

If he can see that someone is upset he will walk up to them and crouch over and put his head on them. It’s his way of giving a hug. Even if you aren’t upset he will just randomly walk up to you and give you a hug sometimes. Even Lucy gets in on the action. Usually Anthony is very sweet with Lucy. He will randomly walk by her and practice his gentle touches, although every now and then he decides to experiment by giving her a whack with a toy, or a little tug on her hair. Thankfully Lucy is the sweetest dog known to mankind and sits there with her signature apathetic look without ever showing even the slightest bit of aggression.

Anthony still loves his pacifier (or facipier, as Madeline calls it). He is content without it, but given the opportunity to have it he will gladly shove it in his mouth and carry on with his business. His eyes light up if he finds one somewhere around the house. Even if he already has one in his mouth he will still get excited and switch the old one out for the new one.

Anthony’s a good eater, and one of his favorites is vegetables. His two favorites are green beans, and edamame. Surprisingly he is not a huge fan of fruit, although he loves to eat apples. He loves it when I give him an entire apple and let him run around the house with it. I may or may not have found a shriveled up apple under our dresser when I was cleaning the other day at which point I might have decided to keep a better eye on him after I give him an apple!

When it’s time to sleep Anthony still gets a bottle. He takes 1 nap a day, usually anywhere from 2-3 hours long (he also has a tendency to take a little cat nap in the car when I’m on my morning Starbucks run). When he’s drinking his bottle he holds his blankie that Mimi made for him (it’s got a soft side, and a satin side and is edged with satin). He likes to find a corner and then proceeds to rub the corner over his ear and eye. I’m not sure why he does it, but it’s gotten to the point that I just find a corner, and hand it to him so he can start rubbing his face with it.

He is also talking up a storm. I’m sure it’s a second-child thing, but I can’t believe how many more words he says than Madeline did. He will repeat just about anything you ask him to say. Some of the words he uses regularly are uh-oh, buh-bye, more, water, dada, mama, papa, cookie, cracker, puppy, hello, block, bottle, elbow, poo poo (yeah, I know. He poops a lot so how could he not know that word?).

Anthony is such a sweet little guy, and we are so thankful for him. He makes us smile and laugh all the time, and between him and Madeline I feel so full of joy and love.

Sometimes he’s a little naughty, but you gotta love him!

Thank God for non-toxic markers!

And a little video of Anthony dancing in the car and eating an apple at the same time. This isn’t the best example of his dancing skills, but you get the idea!

Princess Madeline

This week at preschool they are doing a Castle theme. So the kids are learning about kings and queens, castles, jewels, and all sorts of other castle related topics. On Monday the kids made crowns and wore them all day today. I have to say that seeing 12 preschoolers wearing these adorable hats was pretty stinkin’ cute. I’m sure her teacher will post a picture of all of the kids together, but for now here is my little princess.

I believe this was her grumpy troll impression.

Here she is modeling one of her princess dresses.

Have I mentioned how much I love Madeline’s preschool, and her awesome teachers? Yeah, I do.

Have I also mentioned that the holiday season is officially over and my beloved Pumpkin Spice Latte has taken an extended vacation? Yeah, it’s gone and I miss it.

Did you also know that Anthony poops 4-6 times a day? Yeah, he does. I’m tired of poopy diapers. He gets it all out of the way before noon, so I usually end up changing it every hour in the morning. Sometimes I get his diaper changed, go downstairs and then 10 minutes later have to go back upstairs to change it again.

Finally, I leave you with a question. What in the world is up with TLC’s obsession with midgets little people? Seriously, have you noticed how many shows they have about little people? “The Little Chocolatiers”?!?! Seriously?

Out Of The Running

We’re only 4 days into the new year and I believe I’ve already been taken out of the running for the “Mom of the Year” award. It’s a total bummer too, because I was really thinking this year was my year!

You see, today was the first day back at preschool after Christmas break. Madeline’s had 2 weeks off, but I felt like I was on top of things. We had received an email from her teacher explaining that they were going to be doing a family project this week that required us to collect a bunch of pictures, clippings, etc of things that define our family. I have to admit that when I first found out about it I was a little freaked out because I started feeling like I was back in school again, and I know this is preschool and the stakes are low but seriously! What if all of the other kids had mothers who were highly motivated and gathered all sorts of cool family paraphernalia and Madeline was the loser child whose mommy couldn’t muster up the energy to clip the appropriate pictures!

Thankfully we were able to get everything figured out yesterday, and Madeline was excited about what we came up with. This morning I got the kids bundled up to brave the arctic temperatures to drop Madeline off, and as we walked down the hallway towards Madeline’s classroom I noticed the Mystery Box sitting rather close to Madeline’s coat hook.

I was about to tell Madeline that one of her friends with a hook near her must be the “Star of the Day” until I realized that all of the coats were hanging up on their respective hooks and all of a sudden I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach that said, “mommy just messed up big time!”

Yes, Madeline was the Star of the Day today and I failed to realize it until it was too late. In my defense Madeline was the Star of the Day the Monday before break, so I thought there was no way she could be it again that quickly since there are 11 other kids in her class who would want a turn being the star! Whatever the reason, she was the Star and I was the schmuck who failed to keep up with the preschool communication system set in place to prevent mishaps like this.

When a child is the Star they get to bring in something special from home to put into the Mystery Box (show and tell, where the kids get to ask questions and try to guess what’s in the box). I thought about letting Madeline go back out to our van and dig through the pile of crap random toys Madeline and Anthony have brought along for the ride at various times and have not made their way back into the house. But it was so cold outside and I was hauling Anthony around so I decided to let her teacher help her pick out something from the class to put in the box.

Then I got the pleasure of running to the grocery store to buy the snack that Madeline was supposed to bring. Thankfully a complete crisis was averted, and Madeline was just excited to be the Star of the Day.

She did ask me later today, “mommy, why you not let me bring a toy to school?” I had to explain to her that mommy forgot, and apologize for the umpteenth time for being a scatter brain. There’s nothing quite like mommy guilt. I’m just thankful that Madeline is such an adaptable kid and was more than happy to find a toy from her classroom instead of melting down on me!

I guess I’ll stop writing my acceptance speech for that award. There’s always next year!