H2 Oh So Cute!
Nothing is more refreshing than a little water play on a hot summer spring day! It’s been heating up here in Ventura County, so I bought this water table on a whim at Costco. It was a good deal! And I’ve read too many blogs and seen too many Pinterest boards about providing sensory experiences for toddlers. So, in order to be Mother of the Year, I bought this little sucker for my little pisher to enjoy.
I even managed to put it together all by myself. I have a rule. Things that don’t require screws or batteries are totally up my Ali Alley. Everything else is Daddy-Only. This is mostly because I can never remember the names of tools. So I snapped in the handful of plastic parts to stand this baby up and was pretty proud of my handy work. Basically, I’m an engineer.
I couldn’t wait. I set it up on our greenbelt and let her go to town. I had the fancy camera handy so I snapped a bunch of pics, capturing a progressively soaking t-shirt and droplets of water that supplemented her happiness. It was a great first encounter with the water table and even when she was finished with it, she was high on cuddles and giggles.
A few days later, I thought I’d try again, but go a little more pro. Madelyn was napping, so while she snoozed, I pushed the table outside, filled ‘er up on one side, and poured uncooked rice into the other side. When she woke up, I was so excited to put her in a bathing suit I’d received at my baby shower (Thanks, Sharona!) that finally fit her and snap photos of playtime at the new water table.
She got pretty into it. She mostly knocked down the waterfall feature and proceeded to mix the dry rice into the water, but it was all a welcome mess. This time, I got photos with my crappy iPhone and they were taken in harsh light in the worst angle, but it was really a picture-perfect vision to behold. My eyes savored the mental snapshot of my beautiful baby on a warm May day wobbling on her chubby legs as she danced with glee from water splashing her face and soaking her curls. Her shrieks of delight are forever engrained in my ears, and my cheeks hurt from smiling so hard as I watched her take it all in.
Gosh, motherhood is awesome.
Moments of Madelyn from the Last Few Months
I’ve slacked a little bit with blogging, so I’ll share some favorite photos from the last few weeks that have been living in my iPhone just dying to get out. They are either part of a bigger, more detailed post that is TBW (To Be Written) or they’re randoms that don’t really have a home, but are too cute to dump. So, this little nook of the Internet is where they shall live.
If there’s one thing I don’t understand, it’s how Madelyn can eat slimy, drippy foods and not have the instinct to want to wipe it away. It kills me! As she eats her yogurt, I want to take a napkin and go to town on her face. Doesn’t she feel that? Doesn’t it bug her? Kids are so weird.
Madelyn got her license!!
Just kidding. I had to put her down real quick while I moved some things in my car, so I stuck her in the driver’s seat. She really liked that. I did not have her chauffer me anywhere, but she did enjoy playing with the steering wheel.
We went to Denver (more on that later) and spent a day at a ski resort. It was Madelyn’s first time in the snow and was very confused by the whole thing. She was so good at walking through the snow in her new boots even though she was packed tight in her winter clothes. Since she didn’t totally hate it, I’m thinking ski lessons are a few years away.
I love this picture of Madelyn and her Grandpa “playing” chess. She likes to go to the chess table in Grandma and Grandpa’s house and rearrange all the pieces. I am never able to clean up after her because I don’t understand chess. I am really good, however, at checkers! Not the same thing?? Anyway, I love how they are both wearing their hoodies and jeans and playing so seriously. That’s what grandpas are for!
Madelyn spent a couple hours in the ER last month when she woke up at 4 a.m. with a 105 fever! Turns out she was suffering from a pretty bad double ear infection. She may have been running a super high fever, but she still took care of her baby at 4 a.m. just like I was taking care of mine. No sickness gets between a baby and her baby!
Madelyn was a flower girl again! Kevin and Lisa just got married on a beautiful, sunny day in April and Madelyn, decked out in a yellow dress, did such a good job walking down the aisle! I was so nervous that she wouldn’t cooperate, but she swung her yellow pomander aka “purse” over her arm and sauntered down the aisle and when she saw us at the end with the rest of the bridal party, she squealed with delight and ran toward us! The crowd loved it and it was a sweet way to start Kevin and Lisa’s lovely ceremony! Anyone need a flower girl? We can rent her out. She’s quiet a pro now.
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Tiny Dancer
Madelyn is getting a bit of a reputation as a party girl. The minute she hears music – any music – she smiles and starts to dance. She’s been doing this virtually since the day she could stand up. It is really a thrilling sight to see. First of all, it is perhaps the cutest thing ever, but it also really gets my parental pride meter going. M’s not even two yet and I’m already thinking Juilliard – like Center Stage-style.
Seriously though, what’s cool about this, to me, is that it seems like Madelyn really is into dancing – or at least really into music. I think she must really love music if every time she hears it she gets all happy and breaks out her moves. I mean this is a kid who likes the Sesame Street theme song (the modern hip-hop-like version at least) more than Sesame Street itself. In her early dance days, we’d just loop the opening of Sesame Street and she’d dance around the living room.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4GtfGRFfu0
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgIz8KaaQnU
Sometimes we’ll put on Black Eyed Peas or Lady Gaga in our bedroom and she’ll dance away in front of the mirror with no regard for furniture or walls (or Princeton) and she just totally gets lost in it. I truly can’t wait to see how she evolves as a dancer and if it’s something she takes on as she gets older. You never know what your kid is really going to be into, so I’m wondering if this is our first glimpse of something.
The real fun has been at the two weddings where she was the flower girl. The pre-show was her walking down the aisle – twice! – without any issues. But the main event was her completely captivating the dance floor as she gets the party going with her awesome moves.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbgQUZlfn-A
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5-gSa5GDoI
As you can see, she clearly has a choreography that is all her own. In fact everyone has started calling what she does “The Madelyn” since she, of course, invented it. Here’s a quick tutorial:
How To Do “The Madelyn”
Below are all the moves you’ll need to successfully perform “The Madelyn” at parties. Start out by doing them in order, then you’re free to alternate between each at will. You’ll really impress your friends at parties and if you do it right, you’ll be in the center of the dance floor with all eyes on you.
1) “The Bounce” – Start by putting your arms out about 45 degrees and doing a slight knee bend, bouncing ever so slightly to the beat. It also helps if you flail your arms randomly at times. Make sure to look up while doing this since, of course, everybody is taller than you.
2) “The Sway” – Next, you have to transition into the side-to-side sway. This is a very exaggerated sway though – you have to be sure to actually lift your left leg and tilt right, then slowly switch, placing your left leg down again, lifting the right leg, and tilting left. Repeat this motion while making a very wide-eyed face and smiling big.
3) “The Spin” – At random moments during the dance, stop what your doing and spin in a circle one or two times before continuing. This is ballerina style, except keep your arms kind of half down and half out as if you can’t really decide. It also helps if you almost lose your balance here but then don’t.
4) “The Jump” – This is an exaggerated version of the bounce and only happens very infrequently during the dance. It is usually aided by holding the arms of somebody much taller than you and then hopping up and down uncontrollably. This is the one move that usually ends up completely off-beat from the music as a result of the sheer excitement you get from performing it.
5) “The Applause” – When you decide you’re done, make sure to give yourself a healthy round of applause at the end. In fact, random clapping in the middle of any of the above four steps is also encouraged.
Madelyn hopes to see you out on the dance floor sometime soon!
Leader of the Park
Once Madelyn became fairly mobile on two feet, I started to take her to the park. There’s a beautiful park down the street from our place that has big grassy fields, two play structures, and lots of picnic areas. It’s pretty near perfect, and I was always so excited to introduce this kind of outside play to Madelyn. But she wanted nothing to do with it. Taking after her parents’ Olympian-like athletic abilities (no), she was not at all comfortable with running and climbing and sliding on what other children seem to not get enough of!
I tried every few weeks to see if she’d decided yet to be a park kid, and nope. It wasn’t happening.
Until this week. Her squeals of delight were worth the wait! She has gained so much confidence and loves to go up and down the stairs, whiz down the slide, and explore the nooks and crannies. Watching her figure out how to go around an obstacle or manage the stairs that are still a little too steep for her short legs is fascinating. She is fearless when she scampers while every few steps, she looks back to make sure I’m still there.
Madelyn climbs, runs, and explores like an Ironbaby.
Madelyn’s new favorite event at the Park Olympics: The Slide
Watching her climb higher makes me simultaneously feel proud and nauseous. #MamaBear
I also love watching Madelyn interact with other kids. One sweet boy who was almost exactly her age sat down on the two-by-two slide next to her and held out his hand to take hers and she wasn’t giving it up! I suppose we should be glad about this and hope she keeps this up in 14 years.
However, my kid is also socially fearless! There was a group of boys who were older than Madelyn, maybe about four, who were eating a snack in the corner of the sandbox. Madelyn walked right up to them, squatted down, and pointed to their crackers. They guarded their crackers with their lives and said “SHE’S GONNA STEAL YOUR CWACKAS!!! TELL HUH TO GET A WAAAAAY.” Listen up, boys, she’s not going to steal your cwackas. She’s just curious and friendly. Be a mensch and don’t be so intimidated by a toddler who doesn’t even talk.
Madelyn has also begun to have commercial recognition because we’ve chosen not to raise her under a rock. There’s TV and Target, so she knows about characters. We already know that she’s a die-hard Elmo fan, but she also has taken a major liking to Minnie Mouse. I think she likes Mickey, too, because of his mouse persuasion, but it’s really all about the bow and lashes (such a GIRL!). So when she saw another little girl with a giant Minnie on her t-shirt, Madelyn gasped, went “Ooooooo!” and pointed. The other little girl looked at her like she was nuts, and I decided to bridge the confusion gap and say “Oh, Madelyn likes your Minnie shirt! Do you like Minnie Mouse, too?” and the other little girl stared at me blankly while I suddenly got very self conscious around a preschooler. Madelyn couldn’t get it together and she was fangirling out over this t-shirt and got closer, bent down, and went nose-to-Minnie’s-nose. Yes, my daughter’s face was millimeters away from this other little girl’s bellybutton area. Her caretaker, thankfully, thought this was just as hysterical as I did, while the girl patiently waited for Madelyn to get a hold of herself who was shrieking with utter glee. Finally, for one more zinger, Madelyn blew an air kiss — “mmmmm-ah!” — to this girl’s t-shirt and then continued to point. I decided enough was enough, and scooted her toward the slide for another ride. Toddlerworld is so much different than adult world. Thank goodness this little girl was tolerant enough of Madelyn’s obsession. What if adults walked around pointing to things they loved on other peoples’ t-shirts? What if I walked up to a grown up wearing a t-shirt with a bottle of wine on it and kissed it? Not OK.
Madelyn spots Minnie Mouse on a t-shirt from across the park. It was the gasp heard ’round the world.
Madelyn’s new park antics are definitely entertaining for everyone. Can’t wait to take her again and see how she continues abolish social graces.
Life Is Grand
You know, I rarely talk about serious stuff on here. There was that time, and this time, and that time, but I rarely do serious. I’m not good at serious. I’m better at funny. In fact, there are many times that I turn serious things into funny, like this, for example, and that’s just the way I deal.
So, here I am faced with serious — not a common occurrence in my life, since I like to surround myself with uplifting and light people and situations — and this time, I don’t think there’s much room for joking around. My grandpa, Jules, my mom’s dad, is currently seeing the sun set on his life. Well, he’s not seeing much of it, but we all are. I am lucky enough to not have really seen the face of death in my own life. The only prominent death I’ve experienced is my Poppa’s, my dad’s dad, and I was 17 and not really prepared for what his decline meant. Since then, I’ve felt guilty that I didn’t spend enough time with him, that I didn’t appreciate what I had, that I should have visited more at the end. We were close and I adored him. We had lots of fun together, but at 17, so many other things were going on with my life as a high school senior, that I don’t think I understood the severity of his health status and the imminence of death, and instead, I went through the motions with the rest of my family without really being deeply affected. Of course, now I am affected and I wish I could hear his voice again and joke around with him (I’d like to think I have his sense of humor. I think he’d find me funny today).
So, as with all things in life, we take previous experiences and learn from them. Now that I’m faced with my last grandfather’s final days, I am choosing to reflect on our almost 30 years together and be present by his side and, where it matters most, by the side of my immediate family. It’s not out of obligation, but a greater sense of family and value for my roots.
I’ve been lucky to know all four of my grandparents. And after my Grandpa goes, I will still have two very wonderful grandmothers. I grew up within 20 minutes of both sets, and my positive experiences with my grandparents is the reason why we choose to stay close to both of Madelyn’s sets of grandparents.
I am in awe, more than anything, that in 2011, Madelyn was born into a family of THREE great-grandmothers and one great-grandfather! Madelyn got to meet every one of them and Bryan even explained his very similar feelings when Madelyn met his then-only living grandparent when she was four months old. He wrote about it in December of 2011, and Grandma Jeannie passed away three months later. Her yarzheit, the anniversary of her death, was actually this week, and we are going to temple tonight to commemorate it.
Knowing that my Grandpa’s life will most likely be over in a matter of days, if not less, as projected by the wonderful and compassionate Hospice nurse, Madelyn will be losing another great-grandparent before her second birthday. I am just so grateful that she got to know my Grandpa, her Grandy, and even though he’s been fairly ill for all of her life (Alzheimer’s is a mean and nasty disease), I know he enjoyed spending time with her. Even when he asked how old she was 17 times in a single visit, he smiled wider than when he wasn’t with her. He always talked about how beautiful she is, how cute she is. He stared at her with true contentment on his face. We might have walked out the door and those moments never happened in his memory, but they definitely left their mark in our togetherness.
He’s 92. He hasn’t lived a short life. With three daughters and three sons-in-law, five grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren, the youngest being Madelyn, he has seen the world and then some. And even though my most recent visit with him on Monday showed a dying man, to me, he looked like a well-lived man. He didn’t speak much — he can’t — and I really don’t even know if he knew my mom and I were there, but when he woke up for minutes from his frequent snoozes, he reached out for our hands and even had the strength to squeeze them lightly. He was cold, but I felt warmth. He was quiet, but he spoke love.
I don’t think that when he told me stories in his house or took me to my Girl Scouts square dance in first grade that I would have ever imagined I wouldn’t have my Grandpa at any point in my life. I’m sad that his time is coming to a close, but it’s a strange thing because it’s concurrently difficult and comforting. I’m just so glad that he’s been part of my life for so long, that he walked down the aisle at my wedding, adored Bryan like his own grandson, and his eyes twinkled for Madelyn.
When he’s finally gone, I will miss him, but I will be proud to take on the responsibility of talking about him and keeping him in everyone’s memory. Madelyn will know about him because we will talk about him. We will tell funny stories about him and even joke about how he chews everything — even Jell-o — for five minutes on both sides of his mouth. We will also talk about his generosity toward everyone and his well-dressed, dapper appearance. I even remember him charming all my friends in high school with a wink — always the flirt, in that cute old Grandpa way.
Life is short. This isn’t news to any of us. We always say this when something bad happens or when someone dies. My Grandpa will leave a legacy, though, not just in the people left behind, but as a reminder to me to be like him: thoughtful, kind, and loving. I think back on 30 years, and instead of taking him for granted, I know that he’s made life — his and mine — grand.
A truly moving and loving tribute to my favoite Uncle. The chewing part gave me a chuckle as that is what I always teased him about when I ate Chines food at your house every other Sunday. I only have the most wonderful. loving memories of all of your family. Your Mom and Dad always made everyone around them feel speicial and loved. I will take all of my memories and smile every time I think of that wink.
Love
Cousin Fred
Beautiful.. R.I.P. Grandpa.
That was beautiful Alison. Thank you for sharing. I’m sorry for the impending loss of your grandfather but you are right…..he will live on in your heart and your memories!
Allison,
This made me bawl, what a beautiful and touching post. I lost both my maternal grandparents while pregnant with the boys and I am still so sad they never got to meet them. My last living grandparent (Bubbie) is also declining in health and it is such a difficult time. You were lucky to have had such wonderful times with him.
Sending Love,
Lisa (Jeff too!)
what a beautiful tribute. He sounds like a wonderful man. Wishing you and your family much peace and love in these tough weeks ahead.
Ali, this is such a sweet post. It very much pulled my heart strings. This past summer I lost my paternal grandfather. He was my first grandparent to pass away. The only thing that got me through it was that he passed away with a loving family surrounding him, and knowing that he had THREE great-grandchildren on the way, including Abigail. His birthday was this month, just like Abigail’s and I can’t help but hope there is some bigger meaning in the universe that he passed away knowing about her, but never getting to meet her. I wish you strength in these upcoming days.