big naked

you crack me up. daily, you crack me up.

for as long as i can remember, eliason kids have had to be reminded, 'no naked in the halls!'

you are no exception.

the other night as we were getting you ready for your bath, your shirt was off and you told me, "i'm little naked, mommy." i laughed and agreed. then, when your pants were off too, you grinned and said, "now i'm BIG naked."

More Words

"Mom, I missed you!"

Seriously, does it get better than that?

During the last days of 2017, Ruby started saying "I missed you!" to people when she'd see them after a little time away. That little time away could be a few days trip, or a whole day at work...the point is that she uses the phrase and uses it appropriately. SO love this.

A few days ago, Ruby upped the ante. We were hanging out at the house (because with temps in the single digits and ice on the roads, we were stuck in the house for more days than I would prefer), and from across the room I said to Ruby, "I love you!" She grinned and walked over to me, hugged my leg (which I LOVE) and said, "I love you too, Mommy."

And now it is a routine phrase for her.

Melt. Melt. Melt.

I cannot adequately convey how amazing it is to hear your child put a voice on their thoughts and feelings when it's not something that comes easy. There were days, there are still days, when I would wonder if we would hear certain things from Ruby. Every new word or phrase she gives us is like the best gift in the world, especially because it is not a guaranteed gift.
This is a tricky one for me. I've been on the side (and I know I will many many more times) of seeing Ruby's peers with Down syndrome do things ahead of or 'better' than her. Especially in the area of talking. And when you're in that place of putting in so much work and seeing your child's efforts go without the reward of whatever it is you are working towards, it can be torture to see or hear about someone else's success. But at the same time, I know how important it is for us all to celebrate the milestones AND the hard work. So today I'm celebrating.

Ruby Updates

So much talking with this girl! As I've mentioned before, when we see growth in the area of speech, we usually see decreased articulation (more to say means rushing through previously mastered sounds), but that is a price we are willing to pay. So many of our friends, Ruby's therapists, and people in our community are able to understand her and carry on (small) conversations with her right now. Love it!

Ruby will tell you what song she wants to sing ("Go" for "Let It Go", "bus" for "Wheels on the Bus", "Bad Blood", or "Pi-der" for "Itsy Bitsy Spider"), she will tell you what she wants to eat or drink (usually "Muk" to drink these days), and she will tell you to "go way" when she wants you out of her space. The list of words this includes now is too long to list; she really gives me new words pertaining to her surroundings on an hourly basis. It's a very cool time for Ruby!

A few of my favorites from her:

• "Bless You, Mommy" - anytime she hears me sneeze (just in time for spring pollen!)
• "Thank you, Mommy" - She says this ALL of the time, and unprompted mostly. If you put on her shoe, or give her a cup of water, she will look at you and say this so sweetly!
• "Sing" - She will usually say this to me or Maddux, as in "sing for me!"
• "Bye-bye, Daddy. I love you." - Yes. All of that without any prompts. Perfection.

We are still not receiving PT services, but last week Ruby did start Aquatic Therapy. Once a week she will be able to jump in the pool with a therapist and work on some PT skills in the water (core strengthening, jumping, etc.) and hopefully pick up some swimming along the way.

Speech Update

So many good things happening with Ruby most days. She is talking so much and we are understanding more and more of it all of the time. The sound her myofunctional therapist has been working on for over a month is "s". Ruby has been saying "s" for a long long time, but the primary focus of the myofunctional therapist is correct placement: lips, tongue, teeth. So while Ruby makes it sound fine when she says "s" with her tongue peeking through her teeth, that will relax into a lazy "s" before we know it, so we tirelessly work on getting her tongue up and correctly placed. Ruby does give us many opportunities to do that as she loves to identify letters when she sees them (in books, on clothing, on signs), and "s" is one of her favorites!

Ruby is also 'singing' like it's her job. If she hears one of her songs (she attaches to random songs on the radio), or if I start to sing a song she knows from preschool or therapy, she locks in and owns it. Sometimes she holds her imaginary microphone too. I love that for so many of these songs, especially the preschool or therapy ones, I can leave out words and pause and she'll fill in the blank for me.

Finally, new words are popping out all of the time. I dropped her off at preschool this morning and she hugged me at the door and said, "Bye, mom", totally unprompted and before I said "Bye" to her. She also picked up a more successfully "shoe(s)" this week; she often goes into the mudroom and empties the shelves as she matches and puts on all of our shoes. This week she's been naming them: "E-i. shooo. Addy. shoo. Mum. shoo. Ax. shoo." And her approximation on a few names from her class are starting to happen as well.

Speech Update

So I really really really don't do a good job of getting Ruby's progress, especially speech, on video. I promise to try harder!

As much as I worry we are plateauing in a few areas, she is rocking in others. She still does not say a whole lot unprompted; she will give you 'more' every time she wants food, but has to be reminded to sign or say what type of food (usually not decipherable) and 'please'. When we work on flashcards and/or I prompt her for sentences in our daily activities, she gives me so much, but unprompted is our struggle.

One area she's excelling at (in my mommy-biased opinion) is her ability to say so many letters of the alphabet. I've been working on her with a flip book series since just before round two (so maybe the beginning of October?), and she knows so many letters and words by sight! She will say "a, b, c (kinda), d, e, f" great. Then she'll get caught back up at "l" and go through to "q". But even the ones she doesn't say well, she still gives an approximation. In this series, there is also a book for words starting with each letter. She will do "apple" and "bus" and "up" without any prompting at all; I only have to show her the page with the word on it (no picture).

If you want to smile, ask my girl to point to herself. When we do our family game of "Where's so-and-so?", Ruby loves to point to everyone mentioned, with a huge smile on her face. When you ask "Where's Ruby?", she used to pat her belly, but now she will often turn her pointer around towards her face.....seriously cute.

Therapy Update

Ruby has NOT taken the summer off. Some weeks have even found this girl with four seperate therapy appointments (plus her work at home). She is a rockstar!

Physical Therapy:
We don't need this therapy as critically now that she's walking, but we are still working to strengthen Ruby's core with rotation exercises. (She will sit between my legs on the floor and I'll have toys on either side of her that she needs to transfer across her body, sometimes leaning, sometimes not.) We also strengthen her trunk and arms with monkey bar-like grabs and holds (using a broom stick). For the same reason, we have some soft weights that Ruby moves around the downstairs: from couch to couch, from floor to table. She really loves this! Finally, we are still working on her walking over obstacles (small ones like bumps or sidewalk cracks, She usually doesn't want to slow down to step over these things, but the good news about that is that she is learning how to deal with the uneven surface(s) without falling.

Speech:
Rock and roll. Some days she gives us oh-so many word approximations. Some are recognizable just to me, but many are recognized by others even without my presence. Ruby is working on and can mostly say: eat, more, I did it, mama, dada, eggs, book, yes, i love you (you'd have to really pay attention for that one), I want, please. She makes animal sounds for a cow, dog, pig, monkey.....and Daddy snoring.

Therapy Update

Ruby had to miss Gigi's for several weeks before the holidays due to doctor appointments and sickness, and speech was on a little hold because of teething and a change in therapists with Babies Cant' Wait. Fortunately she's been able to maintain her Physical Therapy. She's still taking 4-5 steps at a time, but never without my prompting. The area she's improved in big time is standing. She still needs to pull up or push up on something to get to a standing position, but once there, she almost immediately let's go and stands unsupported while she's playing.

And even though she hasn't had any speech therapies in the last month, Ruby's signing is exploding. Her intentionality with the motions is huge and she has many words. As of this week she signs: more, please, eat/food, pig, help, hot, fish, all done, dog, book, wash, milk. It's been really cool to see her start to use them more on her own. She is still all kinds of vocal, babbling all of the time and using several consonants, but no words other than 'moh' or 'mama'.

Ruby-Cube

What an eventful time it is with this girl right now! This is not even a therapy update because these things are not all therapy-driven, BUT our lives are so intertwined with therapy, that honestly every minute of her day is shaped in some (therapy-derived) day. Soooo....update on Ruby or therapy or both, I guess.

Newest tricks for my girl include:

• Dancing. Not really dancing, but she's not responded to music much until this last month. Now she will stop what she's doing and swing her arm (usually right) straight out in front of her when she hears music playing. Love, love, love.
• Standing Unassisted. Really. She has been letting go of whatever support she's used in the standing position for quite some time, but lately she will 'climb' up one of us when we're down on the ground and then right herself to a standing position. She pushed herself to standing from Eli's knee the other day and he was SOO excited.
• Walking. Wait...what? OK, not really. BUT she took her first two (totally unassisted, totally independent) steps this week. At least three separate times in the same day too! 
• Eating Unassisted. Sorta. Ruby's been rocking the feed-herself-with-a-loaded-fork for months now, but I've been experimenting with spoons lately too. While it is a messy endeavor, it's starting to pay off. AND she has her bowl-to-mouth accuracy down because of all of the fork practice.
• Signs. Oh, how many she has. In the last few weeks Ruby has picked up several and uses them often. She still does "all done", but it's more intentional and recognizable now. She will sign "fish" when we are reading a book with a fish photo in it, but only when prompted. She will sign "please" all day long and very emphatically. Usually it's a flipping over hand across her chest, but if she can reach her belly (as in, when she's not in her high chair), she will rub her belly like crazy. And "eat". She will bring her hand to her mouth to tell you she wants to eat. Again, and again.
• Imitation. Ruby is showing us that she can be a very quick learner in every portion of her day. While we always put lotion on her after her bath, I just realized a few weeks ago that I never show her how she can do it herself. It only took one time and now she rubs her arms and chest as soon as she sees the lotion and/or bath soap. Love that little sponge!!

All of the Little Things

They add up.

In just the last week I've noticed so many 'little' things with Ruby. They are likely milestones or progress towards milestones that I didn't notice with the other kids, but when you work so hard on skills, and when you scrutinize every movement or sound your child makes, you notice a lot.

Ruby talks a lot. Most of her talking is babbling, but she has many consonants: m, d, b, l, and then vowel sounds (mostly 'uh', but sometimes 'oh'). She says "more" dozens of times every meal. It ranges from "mmmm" to "moh-rh", and I love it. Ruby says, "ah duh" when we are done with meals. We've worked forever on showing her the sign for "all done" and shaking her hands at the end of each meal. She sometimes will shake her hands randomly, but now she says "ah duh" and looks right at you. She signs "fish". Not a sign that most could recognize (it's basically one hand shaking), but I'm certain that the sign we do every day with her books is catching on with her.

She squats down lower than ever when she's picking something off of the floor. She used to plop down to sitting if she had to squat at all, but now she's able to stay on her feet much lower. And she LOVES to crawl up the stairs. Every time we go up the stairs I put her down and she scales them. So well! She knows it's a big deal too because when she gets to the top, she sits down, looks at me and smiles and giggles.

Ruby knows routines. This is good news, since I'm a routine person :) After every meal (once she says "ah duh"), I take her out of her chair and put her on her feet facing the chair. Then I help her push it back into the corner. She LOVES this and giggles the whole way. When we go upstairs after dinner, she crawls right into the bathroom and pulls herself up on the bath edge. She knows it's bath time. And when I read to her before her nap or bedtime, she knows that when I put the books away, it's time to sing a song and go to bed. She turns herself onto my shoulder, smiles and snuggles and starts to suck her thumb.

The tongue. It's one of my biggest sources of frustration for Ruby. I want her to not have her tongue wagging for the many health reasons, but even more so because I don't want people to underestimate and judge her because of it. The last 16 months have found me working to get that tongue to stay in her mouth around the clock, to the point where some days I feel like it's all I do. While we are still not 'there', Ruby's tongue is in her mouth way more than it ever has been. Not only does she pull it in pretty consistently when I tell her to, or when I tap her chin, but way less pictures that I take show the tongue out. 

I LOVE Ruby kisses! She used to give very wet kisses, as many babies do, but in the last month, she has become quite adept at making an 'mmm' sound and kissing with closed lips. She will definitely do it on command too. My favorite thing is when she looks at you, leans in slightly and says "MMMM"; she likes kisses too.

Ruby follows commands very well. She's not great at obeying 'no', but she's at least as good as my other two were at this age. And when we are doing books or flash cards, she will hand objects back to me when I ask her. We've been trying to teach Ruby to not throw her cup when she's done eating, so we've shown her where to put it on her tray; she now will do that 90% of the time. And after eating with a fork (which she does well), she will now hand it to us rather than dropping it on the floor.

Ruby is pointing! Kind of :) Another big thing we've been working on forever is Ruby using her pointer finger to point while also pulling her other fingers under her palm. We are not quite there on the finger-tucking (she's done it twice, unprompted), she is very much using her pointer finger in a more dominant way, and all on her own. She 'points' with it all of the time now.

Waving is something Ruby has done for months, but it's taken off a lot more in the last few weeks. She knows what signals a wave too. When the bus pulls up to the stop in the afternoon, Ruby waves furiously at the yellow vehicle because she knows she will see Maddux and Eli seconds later. And when she hears the garage door open, she looks at me, says "duh" and waves: Daddy's home.

Parlor Tricks

Ruby's got all kinds of new skills these days. They are not necessarily things anyone but me would notice; most of the things I'm noticing are because I spend so much time studying Ruby and her movements and her speech each day.

On a side note, when Ruby was born, a fellow mom told me that we would celebrate every milestone because of how hard we would see Ruby working for them. I agree with that, but I think that even more we notice every milestone...even ones we didn't necessarily notice with Eli and Maddux. It is so so cool to see Ruby turn the corner on a skill, even more when it's NOT one that I've been directly working with her on.

Ruby does not have any full words, but she says "moh" very emphatically for "more" at least 50% of the time. (The rest of the time it's "mo-mo-mo" or "MMMMM".) And (and this is big) she uses it for things other than food: toys, books. She will also say "mamamama" to me, and "da!" for Lehr. She does say "da" when referencing other things too, but she definitely knows it's "Daddy"; just last night we were playing in her room and she looked up and said, "DA?" when she heard the garage door open.

We are working on "o", "b" and "p" pretty routinely. Ruby doesn't do "o" unassisted, but when I use the tongue depressor to prompt her, she gives me a great "ohhh!" "B" and "p" are hard because when Ruby mimics what my lips do, she gives me a "ma" (instead of "ba" or "pa") sound. But when I help her out, she doesn't fight me too much and I think she's getting really close to getting it!

Ruby's not quite walking unassisted, but she will pull herself up and cruise around, side-stepping and 'front' stepping now. The side-stepping is new and very cool. And when she pulls up to stand using my hands (I don't assist; she just uses me to steady herself), she immediately starts walking forward now, and with a pretty good gait. Also, her crawling is officially speedy; she's never in sight for more than a few seconds.
We are still working VERY hard on Ruby's pincer grasp and pointing with her pointer finger. Only minimal progress with the point, but her general grasp and control of objects is progressing nicely. The piggy bank toy she's been working with for months is now a task she can do on her own. And some of her other toys are moving through the rotation now because of her new manipulation ability.

The tongue. Oh, how I work on getting that tongue to stay in her mouth. The poor girl has been uber congested for over a month now: between small colds and new teeth (we're up to 6!), she can't catch a break. Obviously a stuffed up nose make mouth-breathing a necessity. But I'm still working with her and I'm happy to report that at least half of the time when I say "tongue in", Ruby pulls it in and closes her lips without me touching her.

One of the biggest things I'm noticing with Ruby is her increasing attention to what I'm trying to engage her with. Because she and I have always spent so much time one-on-one, she stays pretty alert to me, but now she is trying to mimic my actions. She will take the brush and 'brush' her hair, or take a sock and put it to her foot, and her newest one is taking the container of little rubber bands that I use for her hair and putting it (the container) on top of her head. Seriously adorable.

All of this to say, I love this stage. Seriously love this stage. And this girl. SERIOUSLY love this girl.

Therapy Update

I seriously keep waiting for some type of plateau, but so far, Ruby hasn't found one.

A few weeks back we started working with a tension rod in Ruby's closet. Before that we  used a wooden stick to help her work between sitting on a bench to standing. She LOVES this activity and will do it as long as someone will sit with her.

Lehr built this cute little bench for her and we use it for sitting and for kneeling in front of (as a 'table' to play on and support herself). It is the perfect height for her right now because it allows her hips to be just higher than her knees. He knows he will be building new benches very often because this girl is a growing machine. She can also sit on that bench and reach for something flat on the ground successfully. (This requires a LOT of stability and balance.)

Ruby is still not crawling, but she tolerates us or the therapist 'helping' her to crawl. In fact, she doesn't seem to mind. (When we first started trying this months ago, she would cry and cry and cry.) Ruby can now push herself back into sitting from a belly-on-the-ground position. She is very proud of this trick and does it all day long. From sitting, she will rotate herself around and get onto all fours, but she usually doesn't stay there too long.

Regarding eating and speech, Ruby is eating all kinds of new foods. She still doesn't have any teeth (though one is about to pop!), so we are still a little limited in hardness of foods. She will eat most fruits that are soft in large chunks. She just 'chews' them with her back gums: mangoes, pears (her fave), peach, nectarines, berries... And she recently started eating Gardenburgers too. So far she LOVES them. Beans, rice, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, wheat germ...as long as it doesn't require teeth, she'll eat it.

Ruby is drinking water from a straw much more successfully too. In fact, she can even hold the cup most of the time (though she prefers to throw drop it, as most kids do).

Ruby is signing 'more' for food, but not for play or anything else. She sometimes signs 'all done' at the end of a meal also. During a round of "Row Row Row Your Boat" the other day, I really think she was communicating back and forth with me at the end, but no video yet.

Both therapists are happy with her progress. In fact, the last time the PT came, she couldn't believe what Ruby could do. And after 'testing' her with a few things, witnessed her pull herself to standing from the floor, all on her own. At that point she said she expected Ruby to answer the door the next time she came to visit.

MORE! MORE!

So we've been working with Ruby on a few signs, and then started focusing just on 'more' about a week ago. I didn't expect much since both other kids didn't start till closer to a year, with just as much pre-work from mom and dad. Last night Maddux and I were eating dinner outside with Ruby when, as I cued Ruby to sign 'more' to receive a puff, she did!! And to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I prompted again, and again, and again...all with success! I didn't want to disrupt the moment too much by running to get the camera, so I just grabbed a few examples with my phone while feeding her with the other hand. Amazing!!

That Girl

How many posts do I have with that title? If I had to guess, I'd say a dozen or more (per year)...

Maddux and I had a quiet afternoon with Ruby today; after school Eli stayed for a cardio program. While we talked about the day's events, I asked if she made good choices? She assured me she did, and we went through what that meant. One of my questions to her was, "Did you have your listening ears on?"

In true Maddux fashion, her answer was an emphatic, "Yes!" Then she followed up with, "I did not have my not listening ears on...." I laughed and asked her if she left those at home. She assured me they were saved for bedtime.

Exponential

That is honestly the only word I can use to describe Ruby's progress in many many areas over the last week.

When I guide Ruby into a sitting position, no longer do I need to hold her trunk to make sure she doesn't fall. No longer do I need to put something behind her so she doesn't topple backwards. No longer do I even need to place a few fingers on her hips/thighs to make sure she stays 'anchored' down. Nope. My girl is sitting for over a minute without toppling. Much longer than that at times, in fact. AND (and this is a big "AND") she is playing in that position. She's so balanced that she can lift her arms up from her knees or legs and use them. (That's big time.)

When I guide Ruby into an all-fours position, she will weight bear on her hands/arms for many many seconds, but not quite a minute yet. She will tolerate staying on her knees for a loooong time, but I do need to give her arms a break now and then. She will play in this position, which means she has to balance on one of the arms so she can use the other. And her newest trick is using her core to pull her knees in when I prompt her at the hips, which means she is doing most of the work getting into the position. She also pushes up into 'up dog' and holds it there for a looong time.

Ruby likes to say 'mmmm', but she is also giving some 'gggg' (usually when she's eating a toy), blowing lots of raspberries, and occasionally throwing a 'lllla' in there. Also, she gives a cute little cough/laugh very intentionally to Lehr or I and waits for a response from us. Total communication.

This girl can put her hands up like the ceiling can't hold her.... She is reaching for things over her head when standing (in the exersaucer) or sitting, or when I'm holding her in a standing position. And she's discovered her hands so she studies them so so intently. All of the time. And she eats her toes and that's just cute.

It's been a crazy busy week or so for Ruby; she's impressed the therapist thoroughly two weeks in a row and even her friends at group therapy have noticed her big changes. This girl is on a roll!

Let's All Go To The Movies

With two weeks off from school, and a few visits from Grandmas (to help after Lehr's surgery), I thought the holiday break would be a good time to steal away with the two older kids without Ruby. Don't get me wrong: that girl is a rock star and has yet to limit our ability to go to the park, the river, even the movies. But with her nap schedule falling more solidly into place (and there being only two of those each day), I thought it would be fun for Eli and Maddux to hang out, schedule free.

A few months ago when I took the kids (all three) to see "Planes", we saw a preview for an upcoming Disney movie: "Frozen". They asked me right then and there if we could see it at Christmas. So today found the two 'big' kids and I at the theater! What a fun movie; Eli and Maddux LOVED it. (So did I!)

As with most outings with the kids, funny things were said and realizations were made. I think I noticed them more because I was less distracted without Ruby.

• Eli saw some random preview over the summer and commented that he thought the actor that played some part was the same one from another animated movie we saw, just with his hair cut. Kinda funny, since he wasn't saying that the voice was the same, but the actual person (animated) on the screen. When Frozen started, Eli leaned over and said, "I think that's the same actress as in Rapunzel, just with shorter hair." Smart boy, as the two movies do have the same drawing style for the faces, but once again, I was reminded of my little boy's innocence.
• We had to park rather far away due to the large number of people who had the same idea as we did for the day after Christmas. As we were walking (and walking and walking!) to the ticket counter, Maddux chatted along the way but stopped when we got within throwing distance. "Mommy, I'm going to look to see if I know anyone here." That sounds about right because Maddux is *slightly* social and does tend to know a lot of people. Then wihtout missing a beat she said, "Oh, HEY ADDISON!" Yup....of course she saw a friend right away.
•  If you've see Frozen, you know there is a scene at the end that hints at the main character's death. This storyline plays out for about 1 1/2-2 minutes. Just long enough for Maddux to totally tear up and lean on my shoulder. When the character starts to 'melt' and come back to life, I watched Maddux wipe away her tears (many, many tears) and smile. Love love love that sweet girl.
• This one is unrelated to the movie, but it was awesome and I don't think I blogged about it yet. A long while back we were having a conversation about horses and unicorns (and maybe some other horse-ish animals). While we talked, I made some comment about unicorns being horses, but with a horn. Maddux insisted they were not the same at all, horn or no horn. We went around and around about it, but in the end Maddux's defense was that they are different because 'horseys are giddy-up' and unicorns aren't. I guess that's that!

Pipe Down!

So Ruby likes to make noise. Just for the sake of making noise. This is familiar territory as Maddux was the same at Ruby's age. Ruby's is less loud though...more of an 'exploration of vowels'. Lehr caught a few moments of it while I was sleeping off my surgery last weekend. (Yes, she's on a hardwood floor; no babies were harmed in the filming of this video.)

Soccer Girl

Maddux is still loving every second of soccer. We will definitely be playing this sport again. This morning, Maddux and her team progressed even further, playing actual positions a few times during their game. At one point, Maddux, who was playing goalie, took the ball all of the way down the field, scoring a goal. When she ran back to her position, very far away from where she'd traveled, she looked at another girl on her team and said, "I just scored a goal for our team. Did you believe?!?!?" (She meant, "Can you believe it?")

What-What!?!

This is Maddux's favorite expression. Truth be told, I use it, especially with the kids. Just cuz it's fun. As of late, I've heard Maddux use it on many occasions, most of the time, appropriately.

• (After making three matches in a row during a game of "Rememory" with me.) "Three, Mommy! WHAT-WHAT?!?"
• "Rock-paper-scissors-shoot! Paper covers rock..What-what!"
• "What's for breakfast, Mommy?" "Pancakes." "WHAT-WHAT!!?"

Love that girl.

Maddux Musings

Maddux has an unlimited supply of crazy random thoughts that come out in every day conversation. I wish I could capture them all, but they are far too many and frequent. Here are a few from this week that I remembered:

• One of Maddux's favorite books to read is "Beginner French", which is just a book full of pictures labeled with french words. She's always like to flip through it, but recently has asked for me to read it to her at bedtime, as if it were a story. Last night when I read it to her, she repeated the words to me, as usual, but with a very "Joey-from-Friends" flair to it. "Om-floo-fee! Sew-too-pew!"
• For Mommy-Maddux-Monday this week, Maddux requested we go to the library. Or as she calls it, the 'live-berry'.
  
• We had another one of our 'when I grow up' conversations this week. When I asked Maddux what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said "a mommy", as she usually does. Then I asked her if there was anything else she wants to be, in addition to a mommy. Her answer was, "Princess", as one might guess. The kicker was her response to my inquiry about what it is that a princess does: "Marry".
• The kids have a few place mats for the table still, all with an educational theme. One of Eli's favorites has pictures and names of the Presidents of the United States. Maddux pulled it out for her own use this week and asked me several questions about them. Among the questions was, "Can only boys be presidents?" I told her that girls can be presidents too, but none have been yet. Then I asked her if she would like to be President one day. She shook her head and said, "Nah. I don't want that much 'sponsibility."

Mommy Maddux

It warms my heart when I hear Maddux and a friend or two talk about what they want to be when they grow up. No matter how many fun and cool jobs the other girl(s) throw out there, Maddux almost always states, "I want to be a mommy."

And she does! I know this girl could run the country if she wanted to; she's got enough initiative, charm and spunk to do it. Her calling is to be a caregiver though, even if it's only part of what she does when she grows up.

This morning we were driving to school and Maddux told me (again) that she wants to be a mommy when she grows up, probably because we were just with three younger cousins. Then she tells me, "For brefix (breakfast) every day we'd have oatmeal and pancakes."