I don’t even know where to start. Maddy has evolved and entertained us so much over the past month+ that it’s very hard to capture in a blog post. But I’ll try.

She has become SO precocious and SO imaginative and SO expressive. A few examples…

- Of precociousness:
We’ve had lots of strangers around for the past several weeks (realtors, prospective homebuyers, inspectors, appliance delivery people, blinds salespeople, office designers, etc.), and she has tried to make best friends with each and every one of them. Anyone who comes into the house is immediately accosted by her, and then she follows them around / gets in their way until they’re done with whatever they came over to do.

My favorite was when our realtor came by and Maddy, meeting him for the first time, walked right up and said “Hi! I’m wearing underwear! Want to see?”

- Of imaginativeness: Maddy loves to make up little stories, games or songs. The best one lately was at the dinner table when she was just finishing up her sweet potato fries. I was feeding Hayden and noticed that Maddy was mumbling to herself so I started listening and I heard her engaging in a fascinating conversation with her last 2 fries. They said to her in one voice: “Maddy, where is our family? We miss our mommy and daddy!” and she said back in another voice: “Don’t worry. They’re in my mouth, do you want to go find them? You can come inside.” And then she ate them.

- Of expressiveness:

The other morning Maddy was being apprehensive about having Aunt/Nanny Lorna and cousin Jude come over to the house, so I asked her why she didn’t want to play with them. She clearly explained to me “because I don’t want you and daddy to work, I want you to not work and play with me instead.” It was nice but sad to hear her finally express this so clearly – with our old nanny she would complain about having her come over but was never able to explain why.

On a more positive note, when we got to our new house, Maddy ran around excitedly with a frightening amount of energy and then after 2 minutes started singing/shouting: “if you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands!”

Maddy is thrilled that Hayden is able to “play” more now and has to be reminded constantly that just because Hayden can do lots of stuff, doesn’t mean that she can handle a major hug or defend herself in a toddler sharing battle. She also loves her cousins, except when they have a toy she wants, and then the real toddler battles ensue.

Our little Maddy is pretty much potty-trained, and that makes her seem even more grown up. She’s been using the potty consistently for about a month now, except during naps and nighttime when we still put her in diapers. She had such little interest in it for the past 6 months that I was shocked when one day Dave said “I’ve had enough, I know she can do it” – and then she did. She’s only had 1 accident since then (if you don’t count the times she peed in her pullups because we were lazy or out of clean underwear to put her in).

On the less pleasing side, Maddy started having nightmares earlier this week and now bedtimes are quite painful. She’s genuinely scared to be left alone in her room and insists that the closet and hallway light are left on with the doors wide open. That said, she is usually enjoying sleeping in a “big girl bed,” which she’s been doing mostly successfully since we moved. When she wakes up in the morning, she surprisingly resists the urge to come and wake us up, instead she gets a book and quietly sits down in the hallway directly outside our master bedroom door (even when it’s open) and reads to herself until one of us gets up.

Also, she still has this vomiting issue. It happens about once or twice a month, in the middle of dinner, for no apparent reason other than she’s had a lot to eat. It’s not like we’re force feeding her, she just keeps eating until she throws up, and it’s so sad. I do think we’ve identified yogurt/milk as a consistent contributing factor, though, so we’re trying to cut back on those things and hopefully that will help.

If you read this far, I’m impressed – that’s enough for now.