31 December 2014

First

On the way to the National Aquarium today, we saw one empty car carrier truck get off of 95 and a full one get onto 95 at the same exit. We were discussing where the full truck may have been going. Madelyn offered up the suggestion that the truck might "take the cars to the zoo if it's warm enough."

Second

Talking about Calypso at the National Aquarium:

Madelyn: She only has one tail and three flippers.
Me: So she's supposed to have more than one tail?
Madelyn, confused: No...

30 December 2014

When I got home from getting my hair cut, Madelyn was very excited and exclaimed, "Your hair is just like mine now!"

29 December 2014

This morning while still at Nana and Poppop's, Madelyn asked, "Nana, can we go play in the sunshine room?" The sunshine room is the sunroom.

28 December 2014

Today can really be boiled down to "being crazy playing at Nana and Poppop's", but more specifically:

While playing Robot Turtles, the idea of the laser to melt ice walls was introduced. Evan, mostly jokingly, seemed confused about the concept. Madelyn declared:

"Don't worry! I'm going to show Evan how to use the lasers when it's my turn!"

27 December 2014

While stuck in traffic on 95 (big shocker there), I switched lanes to the "faster" lane, which meant it instantly slowed down.

Tony: Stupid Murphy. 
Madelyn: Why is it super grumpy?

26 December 2014

Madelyn: Why don't Aunt Becca and Evan have kids?
Tony: They don't want to yet.
Madelyn: Maybe Aunt Becca is growing a baby inside her.
Tony: No, I'm pretty sure Aunt Becca is not pregnant. They aren't ready to get married and have kids yet. They are busy with school and stuff.
Madelyn: Oh, you guys are retired from school.

25 December 2014

While eating dinner, we were trying to get Alyson to eat a bit of her beef, which Madelyn was actually eating.

Me to Alyson: You need to eat one bite and then I don't care.
Alyson: No!
Me: You can have more sweet potatoes if you eat a piece of beef.
Alyson: Yeah....
I moved the fork toward Alyson's mouth to put the beef in her mouth.
Alyson: No!
Me: Madelyn is eating it. Don't you want to try it?
Alyson: No!
Me: What if Madelyn feeds it to you?
Alyson: Yeah....
Madelyn started to bounce up and down in her seat in excitement.
Me: Will you eat it then?
Alyson: Yeah....
I handed Madelyn the fork.
Madelyn, moving the fork toward Alyson's mouth: Open up!
Alyson opened her mouth and easily started chewing the piece of beef. 
Madelyn: Good job, Alyson!
Me: Yay!
Alyson swallowed the beef and then she pointed at the empty spot on her plate where the sweet potatoes had been: More!

24 December 2014

While opening presents at Mom and Dad's this evening, Alyson was the first to open their "hoppers". The girls love to play with my exercise ball, and they had just seen it this morning when I did my workout, so I described it to them as "a smaller exercise ball with a handle." When Madelyn opened hers:

"It's a Doc McStuffins handle exercise ball!"

23 December 2014

Madelyn's Christmas song obsession for this year appears to be "All I Want for Christmas Is You." After reading a friend's status out loud today, Madelyn decided to make up a "new" song to the same tune and was belting it out all over the house:

"All I want for Christmas is thestrongestcoffeeandmaybeanap!"

It didn't quite work.

22 December 2014

First

Observations of a 5-year-old:

"If I were to marry Wyatt, my name would become Madelyn Smith because his last name is Smith."

She said something along these lines multiple times today about multiple kids in her class, even the girls "if they were boys".

Note: Last name changed.

Second

Dinner conversation:

Tony to me: The scallops are good.
Me: Really? Good! My goal was not to overcook them.
Madelyn: I thought your goal was to beat Daddy in a race.

21 December 2014

While putting away the silverware from the dishwasher, Madelyn's hands were "competing":

Madelyn: Whoever puts away the last piece wins!
Me: Who are you competing against? You're the only one putting away the silverware.
Madelyn: Right and Left. That's their names.
Me: Oh, so you're hands are competing.
Madelyn: Yeah. (after a minute) Right hand won because it got to put away the last spoon! But then Left was sad, but it's okay because they're going to share because they're brothers. 

20 December 2014

Madelyn got a Christmas card today from Bill and Amanda that had activities in it. One of the activities was a hidden picture search. She was having a hard time with it and put it down to go do something else. When she came back to it, I was impressed that she was suddenly able to find the pictures. Next thing I knew, she flipped over the card to look at the answers to see where the last one was.

Me: Hey, are you looking at the answers?
Madelyn: Yeah.
Me: That's cheating!
Madelyn: Why?
Me: You have to find them yourself.
Madelyn: Eh.

19 December 2014

Trying to figure out "brunch":

Me: We're going to see Bill and Amanda for brunch tomorrow.
Madelyn: What's brunch?
Me: It's the meal between breakfast and lunch.
Madelyn: So, we're meeting them for breakfast?
Tony: No, brunch.
Madelyn: So lunch?
Tony: No, brunch.
Madelyn: Lunch. Brunch. Hey! Lunch and brunch rhyme!

18 December 2014

While we were talking and cuddling before Madelyn went to bed:

Me: Just one more day of work and Grandma's and then two weeks off!
Madelyn: Why?

Too young to get it. ;-)

17 December 2014

Madelyn: Today at school we had a party for Jesus's birthday. We had star cookies!
Tony: Do you know why the cookies were stars?
Madelyn: Yeah, because of the star over the stable.
Me: Yup, it's the Star of Bethlehem.
Tony: It's also called the Star of David.
Madelyn: Why "David"?
Tony: Because Jesus is the son of David.
Madelyn: Is David God's nickname? 

(Theology is hard. Explaining theology to a five-year-old is harder.)

16 December 2014

During their gingerbread house decorating party, all of the preschool kids were also eating their lunches. For most of the hour, decorating and eating went something like this:

We finished a section of the house we were working on.
Me: Okay, Madelyn, eat a couple bites of sandwich.
Madelyn glared at me and grabbed her sandwich: Humph.
She ate a bite or two and looked at me as if asking, is that enough? I would make her take one more bite, and then we would go back to happily decorating.

15 December 2014

During dinner, Madelyn couldn't fit her burger into her mouth.

Me, teasing: You just have to learn how to unhinge your jaw.
Madelyn: Did you know that monkey wrenches have things called jaws, too?

Um, okay then.

14 December 2014

After watching "Hercules" today, we were talking about various parts of the movie during dinner. Tony and Madelyn were talking about when Meg dies after a pillar falls on her. Madelyn made the observation that:

"A pillar is kind of like a leg for a building."

13 December 2014

While taking photos with Terry today, we attempted a photo with Tony laying on the floor, me on top of him, Madelyn on top of me, and Alyson on top of Madelyn. The photos didn't turn out very well because the entire time, Madelyn was yelling, "Alyson is too heavy! Get her off me!!!"

12 December 2014

Sick children are so much fun! Madelyn was at the point tonight where her body just wanted her to sleep. After being asleep for a bit, she half woke up and was moaning. Tony went up to see what was wrong. While he was with her, she starting singing "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" pretty much in her sleep.

11 December 2014

On our last Sam's Club trip, we bought some orange chicken and ate it not too long after.

Me: What are we having for dinner?
Madelyn, remembering from a conversation yesterday: Chicken.
Me: What kind of chicken?
Madelyn: Orange chicken!
Me: We don't have any.
Madelyn: Yes, we do! We bought it at Sam's Club.
Me: But we ate it already.
Madelyn: Oh.

10 December 2014

Often the elves and reindeer hide during the day. There are times, though, when the "nap" during the day and don't play and hide. Today was one of those days. As soon as we got home and saw them just laying on the floor where they were left, Madelyn asked me in a slightly accusatory manor, "Why didn't the elves and reindeer hide today?!"

09 December 2014

As we were getting in the car to come home, Madelyn was telling me about some of the things they learned in school today.

Madelyn: We don't have dangerous things at school.
Me: What do you mean by "dangerous things"?
Madelyn: Like guns. We don't have guns at school.
Me: Oh, okay, like weapons and other things that can hurt people.
Madelyn: A gun is a weapon. And zombies. We don't have zombies at school because zombies don't have brains and you need your brains to learn.

08 December 2014

From the random Madelyn files:

Alyson was rolling around on the floor "talking" to her daddy on an old cell phone. She randomly laughed at something in her conversation. Madelyn asked her, "What's so funny? Did he say he was going to make a dispenser robot? (She laughed at herself.) That always makes me laugh in my dreams!"

07 December 2014

Madelyn, looking at the Finding Nemo plate her (leftover) cake was on: Why is Nemo black, white, and orange?
Tony: Because he's a clownfish and that's what colors they are.
Madelyn: Why is Dory black, yellow, and blue?
Tony: Because of the type of fish she is. You keep throwing me off because you're saying the colors the opposite that I would.
Madelyn: Huh?
Me: Normally, people say the color that is the most first. Like for Nemo, they would say orange, white, and black.
Madelyn: Oh. I was confused because my voice doesn't have hands to throw you off!

06 December 2014

This evening after Madelyn's birthday party she was opening her presents. As she was about halfway through and opening a gift from my coworker:

Madelyn: What? It's a package from zulily?
Me: That's just the box she used to wrap it.

Once she finally got the box open:

Madelyn: Mickey mouse! My favorite!
Tony: So we can just take back all of these presents?
Madelyn: No no no!

05 December 2014

During dinner Madelyn randomly asked, "Why did Jesus die for us?" As we were preparing our answer, she added to the question by singing over and over, "in Buuunnnnnnyyyyytown!"

04 December 2014

In the car on the way home, we were talking about months and what is in each month.

Madelyn: What's January?
Me: Well, you know two people with birthdays in January.
Madelyn: Caroline and Ellie!
Me: Okay, yeah, Caroline and Ellie. That means you know four people with birthdays in January. Who else?
Madelyn: Ummmm.... Aly?
Me: Yup. Who else?
Madelyn after being quiet for a while: I'm thinking!
Me: No idea?
Madelyn started guessing kids in her class.
Me: No. It's someone else in the car.
Madelyn: Aly?
Me: You already got Aly. Who else is in the car?
Madelyn: You!

(We had just had a conversation about January birthdays with her yesterday. Nice to see she was paying attention.)

03 December 2014

Alyson and Madelyn were pretending that a baby doll was taking a nap in the playroom, so the door was shut. Madelyn didn't want Alyson to put some toys away in the playroom because she would wake the baby, but she had been being loud herself in the dining room.

Madelyn: No, Aly, don't go in there! You'll wake the baby!
Tony: I'm pretty sure the baby is already awake since you've been so loud.
Madelyn: But the door to the playroom has been closed. 
Tony: And she probably already heard you.
Madelyn: No, it's a secret no hearing door to the playroom. She can't hear me!

02 December 2014

On this rare occasion, the girls had a different dinner from Tony and me. Their dinner was ready about 10 minutes before ours, so they started eating. At the end of dinner when I was almost done (about three more bites, and Madelyn had maybe three or four bites left:

Madelyn: I'm going to be the winner! I'm going to finish first!
Tony: That isn't too impressive when you had a ten minute head start.
Me: I'm almost done. You better hurry up if you're going to win.

Madelyn frantically started getting her food into her mouth as fast as possible. I kept eating at the same pace, but then slowed down for the last bite to let her win.

Madelyn: Yay! I won!
(Me, under my breath: Nope, I think I won.)

01 December 2014

As we were finishing up dinner, I was telling the family about a silly conversation with my supervisor, whom Madelyn loves. Her response was:

"Oh, Ms. Cat! She's a crazy person! (and then deadpan serious) Tell her that."

(Now, if only she knew that I had to go rescue my supervisor at work around 8:30pm because she locked her keys inside a controlled access room....)