Happy Birthday, Darling Madeline

Madeline, my bright-eyed, beautiful girl with a smile the stretches across your whole face and brightens the room: Happy Birthday!

If you ever want to be around a joyful child, Madeline is that girl! Other words that describe her: confident, head strong, talkative, curious, problem solver, moving, cuddly, dramatic (cries just for effect sometimes!), hilarious, getting into trouble for mooning the babysitter and a few friends, mama’s girl (just ask Geoff!), physically strong, darling, oh, and Star Wars Crazy!

I’ve never known a four year old who claims to have 100 husbands, 100 boyfriends and 100 children; that is, until I met Madeline in her fourth year. She used to have just four husbands: Josh, Geoff, Harry Potter and Han Solo. But then she heard of the number one hundred (from her older sister who had a special "100th day of kindergarten" celebration) and adopted it to describe everything that is important. For a while it was “sixty”, but now all that is good, is “one hundred.” It is liberating, actually, since she keeps adding to her husband or boyfriend list and there seems to be no end to those.

She loves Star Wars. She has seen them all except the third movie when Anakin becomes Darth Vader. She also hasn’t seen the cartoon that came out a few years ago, The Clone Wars. We are going to give that to her for her birthday. Her favorites are A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and The Phantom Menace; though the other two movies come in a close second place. When it is her turn to pick a movie, she says “I need to do eeny-miny-mo to decide.” When the movie begins and the words start on the screen, that is her cue: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away!.....STAR WARS!!!" Those words escape her mouth in machine gun speed and gusto. Then she demands the other narrative part to be read.

Last week she learned to blow bubbles with bubble gum. I gave her a short demonstration with some gum in my mouth. She quickly went to the hallway mirror and started practicing. A few minutes later she exclaimed: “I CANNOT BELIEVE IT!!! I can blow a bubble!” She showed me and sure enough she is now a bubble gum bubble blower.

One of her other favorites is blowing bubbles with soap solution. She adores this and can be bribed into compliance with the promise of this activity.

Her favorite color is purple; however she leaves room in her heart for all the colors of the rainbow. She loves asking others what their favorite colors are and following up with the famous “why?” question.

She faithfully goes to the gym with me in the mornings that she isn’t at preschool. She does this because I promise her that she will eventually get a baby brother or sister out of the deal. “I have to go to the gym to make my bones and muscles stronger so that we can have a baby.” She thinks that the other women at the gym are there because they also are going to have another baby; she doesn’t understand why women who just had babies are there. I guess she’ll learn this when I’m at the gym post-partum. (Not an announcement!)

She is not a fan of preschool. She says it is boring. Well, in her speech it comes out “bow-wing”—love that soft “r” sound! (I wonder if that will go away this next year…) She finds almost anything that she has to sit still for boring. I think she’ll do well in athletics: she is strong, coordinated, fearless and loves to be on the move.

The messes she use to make have slowed down. Well, they aren’t as permanent or as grand as they use to be. The water messes still occur often, but she is learning to clean those up on her own. The kitchen messes (flour, sugar, crystal light powder, cornstarch, etc.) have declined dramatically this past year. Mostly it is blocks on the living room floor, dress up clothes spread across her bedroom, and random toys and treasures throughout the house. I’ve a feeling this next year will bring a slightly cleaner Madeline and home. Just in time for me to have another baby. (Not an announcement.)

She is 50/50 with the sharing and as far as property, possession in 9/10’s of the law. At Christmas time the girls were each given an advent calendar. One night, Madeline was found guilty of taking her sister’s calendar under the bunk bed and eating most of the chocolate from within. Madeline apologized, but when it was discovered that it was her own calendar that she had eaten, she broke out in tears of the betrayed. It is so hard for Geoff and me to be parents and not laugh at them in times like that.

She can make her own peanut butter and jelly sandwich, preferring open face jam sandwiches to the more tradition PB&J with two slices of bread. She requests Mac ‘n’ cheese just about every day, I think for the opportunity to prepare it mostly herself. I boil the water, she pours in the noodles, I drain the water, and measure the milk and butter. She does the rest, including dishing up her own bowl. It’s been this way for the past month. She still experiments with her food at the table. She likes to dip her food into her drink before eating it. (Is my food too dry?)

Maddie is nurturing. She loves to be a mommy to her doll, and even breastfeeds her doll…though she brings the doll to me for its diaper changes. A few days ago Geoff recounted a time when he was putting the girls in the car and Madeline was telling Annalise that she was going to breastfeed her doll. Annalise said, “you can’t because you don’t have milk in your breast.” “I can pretend, and it comes out of my…pimple? Dad, what is that thing called that is on my shoulder?” So I guess we’ll be learning some more anatomical names this next year…

My guesses for her studies at college: Science, Drama or Culinary Arts.

Madeline is a joy to have in our family. She loves Daddy (because who doesn’t?!) and is thrilled to talk to him and play with him. She loves Annalise, whom she has started calling, “sissy” as of late. She misses Annalise during the day and will welcome the summer to have her sister to (fight) play with. And of course she loves me. She is a mama’s girl through and through. (I think I had some addictive drug in my breast milk and she hasn’t gotten over it.) Someday she will realize that Geoff is more fun than I am and will be drawn to him. That day will hurt a lot.

For now I get to have my “cuddle bug” as my side kick to the days. We were walking in from the car the other day and I told Madeline that I will truly miss her when she is at school all day in a few years. I love having her with me. She is joy. I am so grateful and feel so fortunate to be able to be this little girl’s mother. Woodsworth wrote, “Heaven lies about us in our infancy”, and I agree. I will add, though, that this heaven my children brought with them hasn’t faded. Though the reality of life acknowledges to me of this telestial state we are in, I am given glimpses of heaven when I am with them. (Should I add that this is often when they are asleep?)

To my sweet Madeline: I love you and am so grateful to be your mother. Happy Birthday, darling girl. Ich Liebe Dich.