Where are the birds?

Madeline's signing and vocabulary are growing by the day. I don't know why I'm always surprised when I discover that she knows what something means, but I am. We were reading a flap book this morning and underneath one of the flaps are some birds. I asked her where the birds were and she signed bird and went straight to the flap with the birds. The same thing happened when I asked her where the dolls were, the balloons and the ball, except the vocalized those words versus signing them. It is amazing what she understands.

Madeline is starting "school" this week. It's really a Mother's Morning Out program at a church, but I'm calling it school when I talk to her about it. Madeline is not going to enjoy it. She doesn't do well in strange environments without one of her parents around, but I know it will be a good thing for her. She still cries when we drop her off at the church nursery (especially when I do the dropping off). I desperately need that time to work, but the transition is going to be hard on both her and me. This will be the longest period of time that I've ever been separated from Madeline (four hours). I know it's not a long period of time and that people do it all the time, but it's still going to be hard.

Craig has done it again. He busted a hole in the wall. But this time it's because he wants to and not because he was forced to. I love that my husband is such a handy-man. We originally wanted to put a Harry Potter closet under our stairs, but when Craig tore off the sheet rock, he discovered lots of pipes and plumbing. We discussed a faux floor, but the pipes went up an entire foot and that wouldn't leave much room in the closet, so we axed that idea. Craig came up with an alternative, and while it's not going to provide as much room as a closet, it will certainly help. He's making a bookshelf! I'll have to upload some pictures to show you what it's looking like, but I'm excited to have the extra space. He even Skyped my dad to have him help install an outlet so we have electricity there, too. We'll use it to store toys, but a future owner may want to put a CD player there or display a light over something fancy. :-) We don't do fancy around here.

Those are my thoughts for the day. Good night!