#9 - Top Missed Moments from 2007

Thanksgiving! And boy, did I have lots of thanks to give!

Did you know:
That I've never had to walk anywhere in my entire life?
That I never cook, clean, or do any chores?
That I've never done any laundry?
That I don't even know what the word laundry means?
That I never bathe or dress myself? (Unless splashing water and pulling off my socks counts)
And I never change my own diapers?

A REALLY BIG THANKS to everyone who takes care of me! Especially Mom, who does much more than anyone else. She takes care of me and Dad all the time and still always smiles when she sees me! I'm so thankful for every minute I spend with her, even when she's not cleaning up after me!

Although traditionally celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States, Thanksgiving is actually a harvest celebration that can happen at any time of the year. It's a time to celebrate family and friends. We had Thanksgiving dinner a little early this year, so we could celebrate with Grandma and Grandpa D before one of their trips to Philadelphia. It was like an all you can eat buffet on our dinner table! I never knew there were so many kinds of potatoes!

We also went to a really neat restaurant called White Fence Farm, where they let you pet and eat animals! Dad ate some cow and I pet a goat. It was a great day!

#10 - Top Missed Moments from 2007

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! This may be hard to believe, but I'm actually in this picture. I dressed up as a pumpkin for my first Halloween. See if you can figure out which one is me! Good luck, I'm a master of disguise!

Just like Valentine's Day, Halloween is a special holiday that used to be religious but now is mostly related to candy. On both days people dress funny--on Valentine's Day people dress up in red and try to look pretty for each other, on Halloween people dress up to scare each other. On Valentine's Day people buy flowers, on Halloween they buy pumpkins. They're practically the same day for me, because Mom and Dad won't let me near candy on any holiday.

Valentine? Sister?

Hey everybody! I learned two new words today!

First, Valentine. Valentine was a nice priest in ancient Roman times. A grouchy Emperor Claudius decided that boys made better soldiers if they weren't husbands or fathers, so he outlawed marriage. Valentine thought this wasn't right so he married people in secret anyway. He got in some trouble later (Dad wouldn't explain how) but now he's a saint so he's okay now.

Today is Valentine's Day! And just like ancient Roman times, today is a day where everything that I want is outlawed! There's this stuff called chocolate and these little candy hearts and these pretty flowers with spiky stems... I can't have any of them. Mom and Dad said maybe next year. Hopefully St. Valentine will sneak me some treats when they're not watching. :)

I also learned the word Sister today. Because I'm going to be one! Mom and Dad went to the doctor and took pictures of this little grape sized baby that's hanging out in Mom's uterus (wherever that is). The baby looks like a big ball of lint in the pictures but I guess I'll still have to be nice when they get older.

Dad says Mom's belly will swell up like this balloon in the next several months. I think that's why Mom is staring at the balloon in the picture!

By the way, if you'd like to learn the hand sign for Valentine or Sister, you can try www.ASLPro.com, a website with over 11,000 video clips of different signs in American Sign Language!

Super Bowl Sundaes?

This is so different than I expected! Dad and I went to the grocery store today and it was completely crazy! Everyone in the store looked panicked and in a hurry to get somewhere. I think it's because of the Giants that will be fighting on television later with a bunch of guys who are all named Pat.

I thought everyone would buy ice cream and Cool Whip and chocolate syrup, but apparently other people make sundaes with avocados, Velveeta and chicken wings. YUCK! Even Dad bought Rotel tomatoes and tortilla chips. There's no way I'm putting either one on my ice cream.

I hope everyone is enjoying the special commercials today while they're eating weird sundaes in super bowls. I didn't see it, but apparently a Dalmatian dog helped a big horse lose some weight. Mom cried when Hank made the team. Apparently the guys named Pat are beating the Giants right now and Dad is a little upset. He says cheaters never win, whatever that means.

Well, some guy named Tom Petty is about to break some hearts, so I better get going!

Stay tuned for lots of pictures in Madeleine's Top Ten Missed Moments of 2007!

Hear No Evil

It's been a really long time since I last wrote and so much has happened! I want to tell you all about Halloween and Christmas and my teeth and blowing raspberries and the snow--but everyone only seems interested in my ears these days. The rumors are spreading quickly, so I should probably set the record straight.

I might be deaf, or profoundly hearing impaired. I can't hear sounds, even really loud ones. Apparently people and car horns and iPods (whatever those are) all make the air vibrate. My ears are supposed to notice these vibrations and convince my brain that there's something called sound happening. My ears, however, are only cute.

My ears may never hear sounds. Dad says that's okay, because I won't have to hear all of the mean, awful, ugly sounds that exist in the world. I won't have to hear crying or gunshots or curse words or rude people burping. Mom wishes that I could hear all of the happy things like chirping birds and her lullabies and Duran Duran.

I really appreciate how concerned everyone has been since they found out the news.

I know some of you are really sad that I'm different, but I haven't changed! I think I've always been this way. The only thing that's changed is the fact that everyone finally knows. Each one of us is different in our own way; this is how I am different. That's the only thing we all have in common: we're all different! I'm still the same extraordinarily adorable girl that loves to laugh and eat bananas and smile at everyone I meet.

I've seen a few new doctors lately and they have poked around in my ears and hooked wires up to me and filled my ears with weird pink plastic stuff. They think someday I might be able to use my ears to hear sounds if I get a little help from hearings aids or this thing called a cochlear implant.

Until then, I'm learning to hear with my eyes and my fingers and my nose. My eyes are really good at hearing things and I can certainly talk with my hands! (Hopefully Mom and Dad will figure out what I've been saying to them!)

If it's possible, I wouldn't mind if my ears could pick up on those vibrations in the air. But if I can't, I know I'll still be just as happy because my family and friends love me so much!

I'm going bananas!

How do adults do it? I've been so busy lately! I'm having lots of fun, but life just doesn't seem to stop! With my Monday night trips to Starfish Swim School (I'm learning to swim underwater!) and day visits on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to Dayton Learning Center (aka Jack and Jill's), you'd think that I would take it easy on the weekend, but no!

Mom went to Winter Park on Friday; Dad said she was long overdue for some "personal time." Dad and I stayed at home practicing my two new favorite tricks: sitting up and the belly crawl!

Saturday, 27 October 2007

4:30am
My tummy usually starts grumbling early in the morning so I wake up and eat, then I go back to sleep for a couple more hours. Today, however, Dad and I just stayed up!

5:45am
Dad and I hopped in the car and went to Boulder. He said that he would drive so I could take a nap.

6:30am
We met a couple of Dad's students and coworkers at Denny's for breakfast. Apparently the students were taking some test called the ACT, but I didn't know that there were special tests for acting. We wished them good luck and dropped one of the students off at the test.

9:00am
Then we drove to Broomfield, up on top of a big, windy hill. It was beautiful outside, a cold mist floating in the air and turning my nose pink. We picked up Dad's friend Kyle and headed back to Denver.

10:00am
Here's where everything gets a little weird. We parked underground in a garage on the 16th Street Mall. Then, Dad put me in a banana costume he made last night while I was sleeping. Then he and his friend put on gorilla suits.

10:30am
Suddenly, there were gorillas everywhere!! They all looked a little different, except most of them were wearing running shoes.

11:00am
And we were off! Hundreds of gorillas all chasing me because I was dressed like a banana! Dad ran and ran, trying to protect me, but there were always more! They were all oohing and ahhing at me, which is something that gorillas apparently do when they think something looks cute or delicious.

1:00pm
After the Denver Gorilla Run nobody tried to eat me because Dad finally changed me out of my costume. The gorillas kept oohing and ahhing at me, though.

3:00pm
We all went home and Kyle borrowed our shower. He was getting ready to go to something called the World Series, where a bunch of Rocks were competing against a pair of Red Socks to see who could hit more balls with sticks and run in circles. It sounded really silly if you ask me, but Kyle was very excited.

4:30pm
Dad loves Mom so much he couldn't wait any longer to see her, so we packed up some clothes and drove up to Winter Park. He did all the driving again while I slept (I'll make up for it when I'm sixteen, I promise).

We swayed back and forth on curvy roads beneath giant white mountains.

6:00pm
Yay! Mom looked prettier than ever.

8:30pm
I fall asleep, dreaming of gorillas wearing red socks hitting rocks with bananas.

Swimming, Relatives and World Peace!

There's so much going on lately! It seems like every day I meet someone or learn something new!

On September 9th, Aunt Suzanne flew all the way from Korea (which is like a hundred miles away or something really, really far like that) to visit me. She was really excited to see Uncle Stanley so she only stayed one night, but we still had fun!


I've been staying with my 3rd grandma, Ghodsi, on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. She's teaching me Farsi, so I'll have an easier time promoting international peace when I'm the President or Secretary of State. Speaking of peace, did you know that there's an international ceasefire day tomorrow, September 21? I didn't understand why anyone would set the seas on fire, but Mom and Dad explained that it means some kids aren't as lucky as me to have such a peaceful life. I was really sad at first, but then they explained that we can help by using our own talents to make the world a better place! So, I pledged at peaceoneday.org to use the greatest talent I have right now--cuteness--to encourage world peace! I hope it works!


It's really fun to play with her but soon next week I start going to Jack and Jill's Learning Center, which isn't nearly as bad as it sounds. I don't have to climb any hills or fetch any water, and there are really nice people there that will be sure that I won't fall down and break my crown! There are lots of toys to play with and I'll get to make even more friends, this time with people who are my age!

In case you didn't know, I'm six months old now. Mom and Dad took me to Wash Park Rec Center to celebrate the occasion with swimming lessons! There were lots of other kids there, too, and we all had tons of fun playing in the pool! I don't mean to brag, but I think I'm the youngest person in the class and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who really understands you have to kick your legs to move around. I don't even mind dunking my face in the water, even though Dad says I shouldn't drink too much pool water or there won't be any left for other swimmers...

Grandma and Grandpa J visited last weekend for five days! They took care of me on Saturday while Mom and Dad took a bike ride around Dillon Reservoir. That night I guess Mom and Dad slept for 12 whole hours but I don't really know why--they certainly haven't done anything like that since I've known them. Grandma J and I stayed up late (don't tell Mom and Dad!) and then I slept the entire night dreaming about red and blue birds with buckles on their shoes.

Oh, I almost forgot! Grandpa J turned 70 on Tuesday, even though he still acts like a little kid around me. Happy Birthday!

Uncle Andy visits this weekend. Since becoming the Godfather he's moved to Dallas and bought a really cool house with a nice backyard for my cousin Vegas. We're going to ride bicycles in Fort Collins on Saturday!