Big News From Madelyn Plus an Update on Mei Mei: 2012 Weekly Recaps (27 of 52)

Madelyn has some BIG news!!!!  She has moved from this:

To this:

We have been talking a lot about being a big sister and some of the ways that Madelyn will be different from Mei Mei because of the fact that Madelyn is older.  So, when we inherited a queen-sized bed from my parents during their moving sale, Madelyn decided it was time to transition to a big girl bed and have her toddler bed moved to Mei Mei’s room (to be converted back into a crib).  But first, Madelyn had to personalize the new bed.  We took her to the store to pick out a color for her bed and came home with 6 cans of bright orange spray paint.  Yes, orange.  To add to her already-purple walls.  Thankfully, she liked the somewhat neutral bedspread I suggested!

Madelyn could hardly sleep her first night in the big girl bed because she was too excited.  She told everyone she met this week that she has a big girl bed, and she now frequently requests that we host parties in her big girl bed, since it is so “big.”  Here are pictures from a few of our "parties"…

We also made some definite progress on Mei Mei’s adoption paperwork this week!!!!  We completed all the personal data forms that our adoption agency needs to review, and we have done two out of the three required visits with our social worker in addition to our homestudy.  The last step we need to take before our agency will schedule the home visit is 12 hours of parenting classes.  Fortunately, there is an online version, so we plan to work through those in the next two weeks.  (I should note that we have taken this process a little slower than we originally anticipated we would upon submitting our application.  Given everything that has gone on in our family the last few months, a little slow-down was necessary.)

We are also taking the time to enjoy our summer days.

Time with play doh is a frequent request when the weather is not nice enough to be outside.

Mint chocolate chip ice cream is also frequently requested - in both bad weather and good weather.

It finishes far too quickly these days…

There have also been a few visits to Portland Children’s Museum.  Madelyn’s favorite room is the water play room.

She also enjoyed painting a “kitty cat” face on herself and me (picture not included of the latter).

It’s pretty fun for all of us to go somewhere where we just get to play!

- Tricia Olson, 2012

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The Strawberry Saga: 2012 Weekly Recaps (26 of 52)

Summer isn’t summer until you have picked strawberries and made strawberry jam.  Honestly, I’m not sure where I got it in my head that this was a must-do.  Most likely culprits are Pinterest and the blog universe because I do not recall doing this when I was little.

The Olson Family version of strawberry picking starts with an ice cream appetizer.  (Mint chocolate chip is Madelyn’s current favorite flavor of ice cream.)

Then we hit the fields.  Madelyn and Liesl searched for the perfect row.

There were actually lots of perfect rows, so we got to work.

Madelyn continuously asked me to call out for her Sound of Music brothers and sisters to come join us and help us pick the strawberries.  They must have been having too much fun running the strawberry rows with Madelyn and Daddy.

We surprised ourselves when we got back to the scales.  We had picked TWENTY pounds of strawberries!

Not anticipating such a large harvest, we had to google ways to use our strawberry bounty.  We settled on a double batch of strawberry freezer jam and strawberry popsicles.

Madelyn and I hit the kitchen.

It turns out that I am not very good at pouring liquid into popsicle molds. 

Madelyn was skeptical about my kitchen skills producing anything near as good as her beloved “popsicle” brand ice pops (in her defense, there WAS an earlier homemade mango popsicle fail).  She tentatively used her finger to taste check my spill, then looked at me in surprise, “Oh!  These are GOOD popsicles.” 

Before I knew it, Madelyn started using both hands and gobbled up almost all of the mess before I could even get a washcloth.  (I wasn’t going very fast because I was doubled over in laughter at the exclamations of “MMM!” and lip smacks coming from Madelyn’s direction.)

Once we got two batches of strawberry jam in the freezer, plus the popsicles, we decided to use up the remaining strawberries by having strawberry shortcake for dessert every night.

I should confess that the strawberry shortcake was not as much of a hit as this picture might imply.  Madelyn is in a phase where she protests any mixing of her food.  For example, she loves pancakes, and she loves blueberries, but she refuses to eat blueberry pancakes.  We decided not to turn it into a battle and currently use lots of little snack-sized bowls and divided plates to separate her ingredients.  Alas - we forgot this trend with the first serving of strawberry shortcake.  After poking around her bowl, Madelyn started sobbing about her “biscuit.”  She took out her napkin and tried to wipe the whipped cream and strawberry remnants off of it.  It was pretty sad.  The next night she ate the Madelyn-version of strawberry shortcake: a biscuit, some strawberries, and some whip cream - each in separate bowls!

- Tricia Olson, 2012

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Swing High and Swing Low: 2012 Weekly Recaps (25 of 52)

Father’s Day week - Madelyn and I’s opportunity to thank Troy for the happiness and joy that he brings into our lives.  We are both so thankful for all the ways in which he shows us that he loves us.  We are also extremely thankful for his uncanny ability to deflect and deflate our stress and emotions when they bubble over.  Every household of girls needs someone like Troy.  Seriously - he is amazing.  (We had to buy him coffee since he is the coffee maker in the house...)

Madelyn also got to spend Father’s Day weekend with her Papa and Grandpa when they came over to help Troy build Madelyn’s long-anticipated swing set.

She was beside herself with excitement.

It took the better half of a day.

But Madelyn awoke from her nap to find it finished!

It was a pretty big deal.

Her first swing ride was a little tentative.

But she quickly got the hang of it.

She was soon jumping on all by herself!  (We took a video, but didn’t realize the sound was off - oops!).

Now we literally get to spend hours sitting outside while Madelyn swings upside down and all around.  EVERYONE is pretty happy about that!

- Tricia Olson, 2012

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A Few of Our Favorite Things: 2012 Weekly Recaps (24 of 52)

Madelyn says so many cute things that I want to hold in my memory forever.  This week contained some of the best to date.

First, Madelyn came home from Grandma’s house with a new imaginary friend.  Her name is Liesl from Sound of Music - one of Grandma’s favorite movies (or at least it was until Madelyn requested to watch every single song, every single time she was at Grandma’s house).  Liesl is Madelyn’s favorite because she is the oldest sister just like Madelyn is going to be and she is “16 going on 17.”  (Exact words from Madelyn’s mouth!)

Madelyn has had a few imaginary friends before, but this one has developed impressively!  Liesl has now been joined by Louisa, Marta, Gretl, Friedrich and Kurt Von Trapp and Madelyn has deemed them her brothers and sisters (Alas - she seems to have missed the middle sister, Brigitta).  They go everywhere with us now, and when there is not enough room for all of them, Gretl and Marta sometimes ride in their own car with the Captain and Maria.  When I asked what type of car the Captain and Maria drive, Madelyn explained that it was a little Honda (although sometimes she says it is a Toyota).  She also explained that the Captain was mad, but the songs have made him happy.

While on an errand, I accidentally sat on Liesl and had to apologize.  I did a sincere apology, remembering well the stories of my own imaginary friends when I was three years old.  My Mom recently reminded me of a particularly traumatic incident, when I was three, and my dad shut my imaginary friend Rocky in the car door.  I insisted that my dad reopen the car door and apologize to Rocky.  Madelyn and I are three-year-old kindred spirits!

After Liesl’s appearance, Madelyn also decided that it was a lot of fun to play school.  She sets up her stuffed animals at bedtime and props a book up at the front of the classroom so that Liesl can teach from the book.  Imagine my thrill when Madelyn subsequently asked me to play school and be the teacher!  I LOVED to play school when I was little!

Still not a big fan of messy hands, by the way.

A few of our other random, favorite “Madelynisms”:

• “Toots make the grumpies go away.”  (Madelyn is at the wonderful stage where any sentence that somehow involves “poopie” or “gas” is funny.)
• “That’s a really dark cloud - its going to rain.  We need to hurry!”  When said cloud hangs over us all day, “Those clouds aren’t moving very fast - they must be tired from being out all day!”  Can I get a collective “Amen” from all Oregonians??
• Troy promised Madelyn one treat on a trip to Trader Joes.  She selected chocolate pretzels instead of her typical gummy bears and asked Troy if it would be alright if she ate them in the car.  Troy said that would be alright.  Then, at checkout, she spotted gummy penguins: “Daddy, chocolate pretzels might melt all over me if I eat them in the car, but gummy penguins won’t, so can we get those too?”  The cashier congratulated Madelyn on her sound logic and Daddy felt obliged to buy two treats.
• And our very, very favorite: “I love you Mommy.  I love you Daddy.  You’re a good Mom.  You’re a good Dad.  You’re my two favorite people.”  I was feeling pretty special until I found out that she has started using this line on all of her family members.  Uncle Timmy recently reported that Madelyn told him HE was her favorite person in the WORLD.

- Tricia Olson, 2012

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