
She is quite the little imitator these days, and shows an affinity for cleaning: sweeping while we sweep, drying dishes (even if they were dry already), raking, searching the floor for spills to wipe up, etc. She has her first baby doll now and loves to feed it and put it to sleep as she does with all of her stuffed animals.
Madeleine's second Advent and Christmas season was a delight. She loved reading her bedtime book by the light of the Advent candles and loved even more trying to blow them out. On Christmas day, she enjoyed receiving the attention as the only grandchild and only niece. If she was opening presents but couldn't fully rip the paper off them, she would stop everything, get up, and look around with keen focus saying "Sciss, Sciss" as she searched for a pair of scissors.
Just before the New Year, we freed up room in our freezer by finally planting her placenta under a new rose bush in our front yard. Madeleine was pretty intrigued by the whole affair. Since then, whenever we go outside she makes a beeline for that rose bush, points at the ground, and with arms upraised, asks with her eyes "Where is it?" See photos here.