Madeline Madness

Trains have been replaced as Jack's favorite play activity and topic of conversation. We have moved on (and backward) to Madeline. I'm thrilled to have something to talk about other than tenders and smokestacks and roundhouses, although our current repertoire of storylines is still a bit limited and starting to get somewhat tired. Until he starts remembering all the plots of the stories, which we've just started reading again, the favorite by far is pretending to fall off a bridge into the river. At least 20 times a day, Jack informs me that he's on a bridge, saying, "I'm not being careful..." to which I'm supposed to respond, "Oh, no, Madeline, don't fall in the river!" Jack then dives to the floor, yelling, "Splash!" One of us has to find his stuffed dog to play Genevieve and drag him to the shore, whereupon I (Miss Clavel) give him a big hug and tell him how glad I am that he's okay.

In the second favored place is the play in which Jack groans in bed, I proclaim, "Something is not right!" and we "drive" (I carry) Jack quickly to the "hospital" (downstairs couch) where he gets a full checkup with his doctor's kit and has his appendix removed.

I knew this was not just a passing fad when, after the first day of Madeline play, Jack woke up twice during the night and instead of calling out "Momma," summoned me by yelling for "Miss Clavel." Requests for Ben are even more complex as Jack has dubbed him Pepito, who is the son of the Spanish Ambassador who lives next door. So when calling for Ben, even during the middle of the night, Jack asks for "Daddy Pepito son of the Spanish Ambassador."

He has, however, started a couple of irresistible bedtime rituals that melt my heart. He knows this and exploits it to full advantage. First, he has ingeniously replaced goodnight kisses (which he started refusing a week or so, to much protest and sneaking of kisses from me) with nuzzles, which he very freely gives. He rubs noses, although he moves his head so quickly that's it's generally better for the recipient to just stay still and wait to the nuzzle to come. Second, instead of accepting going straight to bed after his goodnight lullaby, as soon as we start to leave, Jack says, "Momma, will you stay wit me?" That request is quickly followed by, "Talk about our day," which leads to a quick recap of the events of our day. It has become my favorite 10 minutes of the day.

I have to say that I greatly prefer this to his previous routine of falling asleep on the floor in his doorway. Every night for about two months we had to put him back in bed before we went to bed ourselves.