Friday,
October 11, 2013
The things that melt your heart. Oh, how blessed I am to watch this
precious girl grow up. I just have
to mention a few things that little Maddie does that express her cute
personality and that I just absolutely adore.
Maddie’s
kisses: Well, Mads loves to
give kisses of the open-mouth variety. I really look forward to the day when
she learns to close her mouth instead of slobbering all over my face when I try
to give her a little peck. But, all
babies do this for some time. There is a different “kiss” that Maddie has
learned that I want to highlight here. Well, for a couple of weeks, Maddie had
a really runny nose and the idea of not only kissing Maddie’s drool, but having
her snot drip into my mouth….well, needless to say, it didn’t seem too
appealing. So, for a few weeks I was giving her kisses in abundance on her
forehead. So, now, when she hears
the sound “mmmmm-mah!”, she will press her forehead to my lips. And she will continue to do this as
though head-banging until I stop her or put her down. I’m not going to lie; there have been a couple of times when
I feared that she would knock my teeth out with the force of her so-called
“kisses”. Ha! But, I love it:
every morning when I walk into her room after she wakes up, Maddie asks for a
head-banging kiss and this goes on all throughout the day.
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| Boo! |
Maddie’s
way of saying “Hi”: Maddie
and Dada clearly have a special bond.
While I receive a shriek and a smile when I walk into her room after a nap, when dad walks in to get her instead, Maddie immediately stands up, smiles and
gives him her backwards wave while chanting “bah bah. Bah bah” or “bah da da.”
She hasn’t quite figured out that there is a difference between “bye bye” and
“hi”, but she’ll get there (and….come on, it’s adorable). Dad and Mads have
another special thing that they share and watching it as a third party has
given me the opportunity to try to interpret it’s meaning based on their body
language and facial expressions. They simply point their index finger at each
other and then touch the tips together signifying, “Hi Dada/Maddie, I love you
and all of your silliness.” Maddie’s smile and scrunched up nose in this moment
are clearly expressing, “Dada, you are goofy and so am I and I like YOU.” As a
mother and wife, I will never tire of watching these moments.
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| Maddie and Daddy at the Pumpkin Patch last weekend |
Maddie’s
love of feet: Mads loves
feet. Period. If you are around Maddie, you should never be surprised to look
down and find a baby holding your foot and shrieking in enjoyment. Oh, the
simple things. Mads also loves
socks for some reason. Let me explain; she doesn’t like to have socks on her
feet, but rather, in her mouth. If
Mads finds one of her socks on the floor, she will pick it up, stuff it in her
mouth and walk around the house. Whatever floats your boat, Mads.
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| We took these pictures months ago, but just added the talking and thinking bubbles to Maddie's scrap book. This is Maddie's friend, Elizabeth, who is about 2 weeks younger. |
Maddie’s
dance: Ok, so we are
horrible parents. I used to laugh
about the fact that I apparently watched “The Terminator” with my dad at a very
young age because it is clearly inappropriate for a child to see all of the violence.
So, it shames me to admit that Phil and I love to watch Law and Order. And,
when you have a baby that doesn’t go to sleep until 10PM, this means that any
and all TV that you watch is also watched with said baby. She doesn’t really watch the show, but plays, rather, while
we have it on in the background.
And, she is soooo young that she couldn’t possibly be understanding the
violence and everything (a mother’s rationalization). But,we did start to notice
something a while back. It started when the credits would come on and the Law
and Order theme song would start to play.
A smile would appear on Maddie’s face. So, we started paying attention
and watching her reaction every time we watch the show and, without fail, she
gets excited every time! Now that she can walk, watching this moment play out
is the highlight of my day. Maddie
stops whatever she is doing when she hears the music and then starts
singing “dah dah dah dah dah dah dah” and dancing around the room, moving her
hands up and down. It is so funny to watch that we have often rewound and
replayed just the theme song so that she can dance a little longer.
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| Learning to walk outside with her shoes on |
Maddie’s
compassion and love for other people: Maddie clearly has a loving heart. She loves people and will run up to anyone to give them a
hug (she leans her head towards people) or a pat on the leg. She does so well in the nursery at
church and loves to play with others at the library, too. I have noticed, also, that Maddie
understands emotions at a high level. If I am sad or crying, she looks at me
with a sad expression as if she wants to try to make me happy again. And when I
am happy, silly and laughing, she smiles really big, laughs and runs to me for
hugs. So, it didn’t surprise me too much when Phil told me that one of the
women in the nursery at church reported, “Maddie did great (again). She was
consoling the other babies when they were crying.” I never got a clear
explanation of what exactly happened, but I imagine that Maddie crawled to the
other baby and sat next to him while he cried. And isn’t this exactly what we
all want when we are sad? Another person’s presence to remind us that we are
not alone in our suffering?
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| 14 months old. |
My sweet girl is going to make such an impact
on this world. She has a shining
personality already and I know it is going to take her far.
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