Tell it how it is...

I'm a little nervous to see what Madie is going to be like in 10 years. She often begins her sentences by saying, "alright Mama, here's the deal..." Yup... I'm in trouble!

The entertainer

Somehow, even when feeling terrible, Madie always can put a smile on anyone's face. At the doctor today, the nurses and doctor couldn't get enough of her. She's just so funny. I think she has an old spirit. On the bright side, the doctor didn't find anything major wrong with her and this sickness. Her breathing sounded a bit off, so he asked if she's ever had asthma, but he didn't prescribe anything for that. He said to bring her back in if she gets worse or doesn't get any better soon. No problem there, we have to go back on Friday anyway to have her urine tested again. If blood shows up in her urine again, that will mean that it's been there for 2 months, and then we have to go see a specialist. Man, I'm so sick of going to the doctor's office and Fanny Allen. My poor little girl. Why can't she just be healthy??? I'm starting to get a little bitter about it. There's just nothing worse than having a sick child and not being able to make them feel better. Babying her has been pretty great, though. Let's hope that Friday is the last time I need to bring her into the doctor's for a looooooooooooooooong time!!!

Sick again?!?

I don't know how it could be possible, but it appears Madie is sick again. This time she has a bit of a fever and a cough and scratchy throat. That's the worst with her. She absolutely hates coughing. Not that I blame her. So, it looks like I'll be finishing off the weekend pumping her full of popsicles and cuddling, not that I mind of course. She's also been pretty irritated with me because I keep giving her shocks. She says to me, as if I'm doing it on purpose... "Mama! Why do you have so much electricity?!? Stop shocking me!" Man, I wish I could. Let's hope she recovers quickly and all is well!

Time to brag

One of the coolest things about Madie is her love of books and reading. It's something that's always been important to me, and her love of books, rhyming, word plays, vocabulary, and letter sounds is blossoming on a daily basis. At 3, she can ID all of her lower and upper case letters, as well as tell me the letter sounds. She can often decode cvc words, and has an endless sight word vocabulary. It honestly amazes me. We just finished Charlotte's Web. In the course of the week, she sat, very interested, and listened to the entire book. She often pointed out some random words she knew on the page. She is just amazing! So, great she'll be a great reader... but that's not all. She also has wonderful number sense. She can count and count until the cows come home. The highest I've ever heard her count without help is 137. She can do simple addition and subtraction problems, and just seems to "get" everything. Seriously, I'm a bit concerned already that by the time she gets to Kindergarten she will be bored. Her skills already are higher than some kindergartners. She also has a November birthday, so she won't be able to start kindergarten until she's almost 6, as I can't register her until she's 5. I'm totally fighting that one, though. Who knows. I guess I'll worry about that when the time comes. Hmmmm, maybe I'll hire her to do my taxes this year! Anyone else want in? :)

Australia

Madie began a unit of study on Australia yesterday at school. She's 3. In a panic yesterday when she got home she said, "Mama, I need a map! Hurry, hurry!" Giving in to her request she made sure to show me where in the world Australia was. Correctly. She then told me all about the koala bears, kangaroos, and snakes that live there. Her daily knowledge expansion is so tremendous that it actually scares me sometimes!

Vacation is over

It's important to remember that children are just as emotional as adults. I need to remind myself of that sometimes with Madie. She's like her Mama... super emotional. It's actually pretty sad. The past couple of days she hasn't been able to get enough of me because she knows I'm going back to work, but at the same time she's mad/sad/frustrated because I'm going back to work. She goes from, "I love you so much around the whole wide world Mama" to "TURN AROUND MAMA BECAUSE I'M GOING TO DO SOMETHING REALLY NAUGHTY!" All I can do is hug her, remind her that I'd much rather be with her than at work, and love her to bits.