Tuesday, December 15, 2009

"What was I like at 3 and a half years old?"

I thought it was time for an update on Maddi at three years and 8 months of age to be more precise! What a way to title this post with a question! Maddi loves to ask questions and will analyse the answers. She’s not satisfied until she gets an answer and the questioning goes deeper and deeper until we end up saying “that’s enough now Maddi” Maddi is quite a chatterbox and will not only talk to people her own age but adults as well. Often when Alex’s work mates come to pick him up Maddi will run to the door to greet them and chat to them, on those days Alex tends to be running a little later for work! She could spend hours just talking if we let her and isn’t satisified unless you engage in the conversation with her. She has a good sense of humour and picks up quickly when people are being cheeky.

Maddi is a social butterfly and will make a new friend wherever she goes and often when we are in a waiting room, she’ll chat to the adults around her. She can’t wait to go to school and will walk on her tippy toes and say “I’m a bit bigger now..... I’m ready for school.” I know that Maddi would just love going to school for the sociality of it all. Maddi loves to draw and could go through a ream of paper just in drawings. She is very imaginative too, and will create animals out of things around the house. She loves to do craft (or crafting as she calls it). She is starting to write letters and numbers and of course recognises that her name starts with the letter ‘M’ which is the same as McDonalds.

She is very thoughtful in her prayers, and every night prays to “bless Bishop will get on his motorbike.” This has been going on for about 6 months now. We have no idea what she means by this, but we can only guess she wants Bishop to take time out to himself.

Maddi is a great sleeper. As soon as her head hits the pillow (once she has stopped talking), she is asleep and will sleep for about 12 hours a night. In the mornings she often comes out of her room with a clothing item on top of her head pretending to be a ghost. When the sun is up, she’s up too as she doesn’t want to miss a thing. She really could have a daytime nap, but won’t let you know that she’s tired as that to her is a sign of weakness, and there’s no way she will let anyone else nod off too. You definitely know when she’s tired as she changes from this sweet happy little girl into a devil in disguise. After 4 pm is about the time that the little devil in her comes out and she will be really whingey and demanding, but when she’s not tired and grumpy she’s a good natured girl. One of Maddi’s most commonly used phrases is “I’m hungry.” Maddi is a grazer and will eat all day long a little bit here and there. I’m not too fond of her being a grazer as she keeps me busy preparing snacks all day. However she is a good little eater and will eat what’s good for her and try new foods.

Maddi knows what she wants and won’t back down at all. She is very persistent and persuasive. Grandma and Grandpa think she will make a great lawyer or a great interrogator. She is very smart too and can manipulate things to her advantage.

Maddi loves to watch movies. With the wet winter that we had, she got hooked on watching the same movies over and over. Her favourite movies are School of Rock with Jack Black in it and The Little Rascals. She quotes parts of the movie and sings the songs and knows all the kids names from School of Rock and knows what instruments they play. Maddi loves singing and music and picks up songs very quickly off the radio and will sing the tune later on with different lyrics sometimes. Like a while ago she picked up the Beyonce song Single Ladies and sang, If you like it, you should put some rain on it!”

Maddi is really sweet and positive most of the time, and will tell you how much she loves you and will often tell Little Alex that “I love you more! And have a good sleep Little Alex!” before his daytime nap (if that happens). She can be really positive too and say she LOVES this and that. She reguarly comes up and give me compliments throughout the day, which of course makes my day. Maddi reads people really well and watch people’s facial expressions. She will say to me “Mum, why have you got your grumpy face on?” Sometimes I won’t even realise I have a grumpy face on and she will show me the facial expression I’m showing, which doesn’t look good at all!

Maddi has been having a sympathy pregnancy with me. She told us she was having a baby girl called Lucy and she was going to be born at Christmas time. She picked up a lot of things from my pregnancy and related it to her own pregnancy. One day when she had an upset tummy and she told me Lucy was making her feel very sick. On days she was tired- Lucy was making her tired. The other week Lucy was born according to Maddi. Now she is such a good little Mummy to Lucy, but told me that I will be feeding Lucy when our real baby is born!

We recently went to the Child Health Clinic and Maddi was weighed and measured.

Height: 98.5cm ( Just above the 50th percentile)

Weight: 14.85kgs ( Just below the 50th percentile)