Minding Madeline

While Kathleen was sick Mama and Daddy had to divide their energies.  While one person comforted Kathleen, the other was in charge of minding Madeline.  Our hope was that we'd be able to keep Madeline happy, while still keeping her far, far, far from Kathleen's germs.  This was a daunting task because Kathleen is probably Madeline's favorite person in the world.  Madeline normally runs to wake Kathleen in the morning, and she's always eager to follow her big sister, to play with or near her big sister.  Separating the girls is always hardest on little Madeline, but we knew we had to do it.

Fortunately for us, Madeline never got has not yet gotten Kathleen's terrible influenza virus.  (It's not clear whether that was a result of our diligence in separating the girls or the flu shot that Madeline had gotten, but Kathleen had not, but whatever.  We're just glad it stopped there.  And let's hope I didn't just jinx us.)  We were also fortunate on a couple other counts, too.

1.  Madeline does a good job of entertaining herself.  

Case in point: the arrival of a large box of popcorn.  It's not that Madeline wanted the contents of the box (though she does enjoy popcorn -- carefully supervised, of course).  She was completely content to play with the box itself.

First, it provided the perfect place to read a book.  Who'd have known?

And after she'd finished reading, she'd just climb up to play.  Socks are a good toy, too, you know.

2.  Cousins provide endless hours of entertainment.

The girls' cousins were great about playing with Madeline.  They'd play ball with her, or read her stories, and just follow her around the house, following her little commands and making sure she didn't get herself into too much trouble.

When school was cancelled Friday due to a major ice storm, Madeline also found lots of entertainment in watching her cousins play in the snow.  We bundled up and sat on the porch, taking in the wintertime fun.  That's not something Madeline had ever seen before!

Madeline was very tentative in the snow. She didn't bound after her cousins as she normally would -- she went only as far as the front walk.  

We'd have encouraged Madeline venture out into the snow more, and certainly have sent her on a sledding run with her careful cousins, but because of the ice storm the snow was hard and slippery -- not exactly toddler friendly.  Maybe another time. For now, our girl was perfectly happy to watch -- and we were just happy that minding Madeline wasn't nearly as difficult as it could have been!

What a sweet little snow girl!