Building a Castle

As we're doing an "Excalibur" series upcoming, Daddy thought it would be a good idea to go ahead and build Madison a castle.

Of course, this one was pretty easy to build, by comparison. Despite the fact that some of the stickers were actually sticking to one another, Daddy managed to get this massive enterprise constructed - right behind Madison's bed. It's a couple feet tall, so it's a fairly large construction. It was a surprise for Madison: when she went into her bedroom, she was quite pleased to see Belle, Aurora and Cinderella on the wall, looking over her bed.

This is just phase one of Madison's bedroom. We'll get those silhouette pictures hung up next, and then maybe a few other items. It'll be real "princessy." Yes, that's a word now. The goal for me is to have it done by the end of March at least, by the end of our Excalibur series.

Today was President's Day, which means Madison had it off. Of course, she has every Monday off this year, mainly because Daddy has every Monday off. The whole concept of a day off sometimes gets lost with us - most of Daddy's holidays are days we have off anyway...

We did a bit of "research" today by watching "The Court Jester" with Danny Kaye. Daddy had never seen the movie before, and it stands to reason that Madison did not either. Still, we all rather enjoyed it - and got a few ideas from watching it.

Just prior to this, Madison had piano practice, and seems to be doing even better now. One tune she's been practicing over and over again is a little more complex, and yet she seems to have gotten the hang of it pretty quickly. Of course, by "more complex," I'm not meaning anything dramatically difficult. Give her a break: she's five! But she does play it well, skipping over the notes and actually reading the sheet music in front of her. To help out, Mommy and/or Daddy point out each note and sort of sing along the notes: mi, fa, so... and so on. But towards the end of practice on one particular tune, she'll do the whole thing without anyone's help, simply looking at the sheet music and playing. She's doing great!

She's also doing great with speech. And writing. We're seriously seeing real progress in both of these areas. This morning, she was reading out the letters of the alphabet to Daddy, something that we could take for granted. But with Madison, things have been a little slower to progress - and to our delight, she's suddenly had a spurt of growth in this area. Proudly, she called out the letters, one by one.

This afternoon, we had a nice time reading books as well. Madison had an epic bath time with Mommy, but just before that, we sat down in the reading area upstairs, going through about five different books. It was nice and relaxing, and Madison was really into listening to each story, from Cinderella to Rolie Polie Olie.

The weather was bright, but still a little cool today. Mommy was feeling a little sick, so Daddy braved the elements with the only trip out of the house made today: the trip to the pizza place. Just down the road is a pizza place, which makes for a nice convenient dinner when everyone's a little tired and we need a quick pizza. That pretty much fit today: it was a day to rest, and spend some time together.

It was a pretty fun day!

"A jester unemployed is nobody's fool!" - Hubert Hawkins