Adventures of Mama-Dirtyfoot: In The Swing Of Things

Madeline is settled into the school routine and I am enjoying the extra time that I have to take care of errands, etc. when she is in school. Although, it may take me until June to catch up on all the things that I pushed aside over the summer. Yes, we are back in the swing of things - which of course means that Madeline has caught her first cold of the season. That didn't take long!

One of the traditional start of school activities for younger kids is always a getting to know you "interest inventory". The teacher hung these in the hall and the parents had to try to pick out their kid's sheet. A drawing signed by each kid was hung directly beneath so that you could check to see if you guessed right. Another mom and I were laughing that these forms are appropriately named "Who Am I?. I would have NEVER guessed some of these answers.
Favorite color- blue???? Since when?
Favorite animal- duck? I know why she said that (has bunches of rubber duckies for the tub) but I would've guessed cat.
Favorite game - Go fish? She played that once over a year ago. We are just getting into the game stage and she is hooked on CandyLand (I guess I need to crack out the Go Fish cards again)
TV Show- "Cartoons"? She watches a couple but I didn't even new the term "cartoons" was in her vocabulary
Occupation - Dentist. I know why she said that. She has been obsessed with teeth ever since her cousin Anna lost a tooth at the campout but I would've guessed that Madeline would've wanted to be a princess. I like the Dentist idea though!

Madeline's school has a great program but I also try to work with her at home when I can. We are working on writing her name as well as some pre-reading skills. Here you can see Madeline's name that she wrote from copying my model. Also, Madeline read all four of these books to me. (They are very predictable from the pictures and repetitive in structure. Madeline was able to do this after I read the book to her I said, "Your turn" and she read them to me. Like I said pre-reading skills but she was so proud of herself.)

What else have we but up to?? Well, I had my MOMS Club monthly MOMS night out. Love that group of girls!! I wish I had more pictures from September's get together but I only came up with this one. Hmmmm.....can you guess where we went?? Yep, we met out for dinner at a Chinese buffet. I had to laugh a the signage. Something obviously lost in translation. Bacon WARP (?)

Bacon WARP??

We also went for the first time to the annual peach festival in Lewiston, NY. I didn't realize how big that festival is so I am sure we will return next year. Madeline had a blast riding all the rides. We had to try to ration the ride tickets because they were ridiculously expensive (Kelly, I'll take you up on getting pre-sale ride tix next year.....who knew??) Despite the ticket rationing, I tried to explain to Madeline that she could ride more rides if she rode them alone. But Madeline wanted to ride with Mama. I am okay with rides but have found that since I hit the big 4-0 I can't do spinning rides like I used to. The problem, however, is that my dear daughter has NO FEAR and wants to ride everything. Some of these rides have height requirements where that if they are below a certain height they have to ride with an adult. That leaves me because I have always been able to spin more than David. Spinning would've knocked out David for the rest of the day. So for the first time EVER in my life I literally feared for my health on a ride. I pretty much thought I was going to die while riding Starship 4000. If you are not familiar with this ride, riders stand upright while the space car spins. It gets the whole centrifugal thing going to the point that you are sort of "stuck" to the wall. It got to the point that not only were my cheek jowls (yeah, I could stand to loose 20 pounds) sucked behind my ears but ALSO, I felt as though my insides were being squished from the force. Blah....never again! I was however saved when we ran into my friend Kelly at the festival. Kelly's daughter Hailey also has no fear and Madeline looks up to Hailey like she is a super star. So, Madeline was thrilled with the chance to ride Tilt-A-Whirl with Hailey....and I was thrilled that I didn't have too! On the way out of the festival we grabbed some ice cream and also a 2 liter bottle of peach soda (made annually for this event by a local bottling company) to take home. I thought the peach soda would be disgusting but it was awesome!

Waiting for rides

Madeline dragging Mama on rides

Running, running RUNNING for the fun house

Some type of flying contraption

Swings! Making silly faces every time we passed Papa


The ride that almost killed me!

Kelly and Amy


Hailey and Madeline on Tilt-A-Whirl


Ice Cream!

We also had a temporary thought of adding to our family with either a doggie or another kitty. We went to the SPCA and got pre-approved for an adoption. I grew up with dogs and like the idea of them but after really thinking about the work involved (oh yeah, and David (pretending to be a dog) following me around at my side, underfoot in the kitchen while panting and tapping his foot on the cupboard (to simulate a dog rapping its tail) as I was trying to cook dinner quickly reminded me of some of the pain in the butt aspects of a dog). We also considered the amount of travel we do and realized that we are not ready for a dog.....which made us consider another cat. We ALMOST adopted this cutie below. I saw him at closing time on Friday and came back with David the following morning and the kitty already had an orange collar on that morning indicating that he was adopted......whhaaaa!! Oh well, I guess it wasn't meant to be. But, it was soooo cute to see Madeline and this little guy together. That kitty totally let her man-handle him! I guess we'll still toy with the idea of cat/dog and when the time and/or pet are right we'll know.

Madeline at SPCA

And now, David is currently in Germany for business. David and Madeline now have a sweet little ritual when David travels. Madeline began packing a toy for Papa to take on his trip. For this trip they worked on picking out a Polly Pocket together. Madeline almost had a heart attack when she realized that she left Polly in the car as we were dropping David at the airport. Luckily we had plenty of time and I got a parking space close enough to the terminal that I was able to run out to the car to make sure that David could take a Polly Pocket to Germany. Even after getting Polly from the car, Madeline was very concerned that David did not lose her and kept checking that David had Polly. While on his travels, we talk to David on Skype. I don't know if Madeline is more concerned about seeing Papa or Polly on Skype. Occasionally, David will take a picture of Polly doing something in whatever city they are visiting (similar to a school's Flat Stanley project) and he'll email the picture home. As for me, well my ritual when David is traveling it to stock up on chick-flick movies that I know David wouldn't watch, eat crappy food and try to meet-up with friends. So far I watched "Julie & Julia" and also "Coco Before Chanel". Also on tap for this week..."The Back-Up Plan".