Christmas!!!

The Friday before Christmas, we met up with Grandpa and Ella to go look at Christmas lights.

 Next was Christmas Eve. It was so much fun. Everyone was there, the food was great, and truly, what more can you ask for.

After Santa came.

Next we had our Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa Dennis, and Amanda. Jan had to work Christmas Eve.

Well that's about it. It has been a great Christmas. Dad, Laurie, and I got together last night to watch Scrooged, Christmas Vacation, and Bad Santa. I am so relieved Christmas is over and ready for the new year!

More Christmas Fun

Friday night we met up with Nana and Gran to go on a carriage ride. Unbeknownst to me it had gotten freaking cold outside so we weren't really prepared. But it was still quite fun.

This is Max. Note his pedicure. He wouldn't let me pet him because I didn't have any treats.

A great, Christmas-y day--December 18, 2013

Today was a great day. We started out making ornaments for Christmas presents. I made the dough and had the kids put their hands or feet (Isaac) in them and then baked them. They turned out pretty cute.

Next we made sugar cookies.

Sleepover at Ella's--December 14-15, 2013

Laurie and Jeff went to Dallas to celebrate Laurie's birthday and I stayed with Maggie and Ella. It was interesting. The girls woke up, FOR THE DAY, at 4.30am. They were, surprisingly, not that bad. They made a huge mess but there was no blood.

Superheroes. Note the capes.

Building forts.

Spies. Ella has no pants and Maggie's glasses. Well done.

Hurst Christmas Festival--December 3, 2013

Michelle, Isabella and Isaac joined us to go to the Hurst Christmas Festival. Maggie is still getting used to our schedule and konked out on the way there.

 The first thing we saw were the reindeer. Maggie, Isaac and Isabella.

Next up we went to the play area. The girls jumped and slid in the little bounce house and decided to go check out the big pirate ship bounce house. Maggie did the whole thing (Isabella changed her mind) and loved it. :)

After that the girls did a cute Santa craft that I have no pictures of. There were also very close and loud fireworks.

Last Week, Monday, and Tuesday

I took Jake and Maggie to the museum. We met up with a new group and they were kinda. . . overbearing. We just wanted to go to the giant kid room and I was chasing Jake all over the place. Oy vey!

Hey, have y'all seen this kid that ate baby Jake?

So handsome!

I could NOT keep him off this thing.

We happened to be there when they did a lecture about Van de Graaff generator. This thing:

It's the thing that you can touch and it will make your hair stand up. I thought Maggie would love seeing me do that but it scared her. She was quite upset. She kept saying, That's my mommy.

So Maggie woke up very early on Saturday and I told her to go back to sleep. I woke up a little while later and she was sitting by the bed reading her comic books. She was going through each page very carefully. I guess she likes them.

Monday we all (Grandpa, Grandmo, Aunt Laurie, and Ella) went to visit Memaw, who is finally home from the hospital. At one point Grandpa asked, Who wants to go play in the backyard? Maggie said, Not me. . . maybe me. . . me! She said the whole thing in under 10 seconds.

We went to lunch after we left and I got this picture:

I told them they were accidental twinkies (note the matching pants).

Later that afternoon we went to see Dr. Moody, her eye doctor. We had to wait for a while and when he opened the door, Maggie said (loudly), Ugh finally! He was really nice about it but jeez, I was embarrassed.

Her eye sight has improved. She now has perfect depth perception.

Today we met up with some new friends at River Legacy park. We started out in the Nature Center and then hiked on the trails. It was great. We saw a huge turtle crossing the road. He had a long tail and spikes (little spikes) down the center of his shell and his tail. He did snap at the 7 year old boy we were with when he touched him a little too aggressively.

We hiked back to the Nature Center and played for a long time. They had taken apart a bee and you could look at it under a microscope, which Maggie did for a long time.

After I exercised on the treadmill (which Mags calls the treadmeal) tonight, Maggie asked to go on it too. I made her get on correctly and put it on the lowest setting but she talked about her exercising the rest of the night. She told me she'll need to exercise "right quick" in the morning.

Tuesday

When Maggie was 2 1/2 or 3, we had called her Grandma so she could talk on the phone to her. At one point, Maggie said to her, ok, now put Grandmo on. I guess she thought everyone she loved must be available on the other side of the phone. 

Yesterday, while listening to Little House on the Prairie, Maggie asked if we could listen to the first book (Little House in the Big Woods) again. I found it and we put it in. We haven't listened to it since at least Christmas. In the first chapter, Laura describes Jack as a brindle bulldog! How did she remember that!

This morning I woke up very early, around 5am. So I got up and cleaned and did some work. When Maggie got up, she came downstairs and laid down across me and asked me to scratch her back. It was so sweet.

After a while, we did reading and got ready and left for Nana and Gran's house. She also packed a bag. She took her owl lunchbox and put the most random mix of toys/objects. It was so cute. Maggie had us put on a talent show (although I think she was kind of finnicky about who did what and how--or at least what I did).

Then we went and got Jake and went to the library. I got her a bunch of comic books. It just occurred to me that since she's so into superhero shows she might like comics too. We'll see.


After we bothered everyone in the library, we went to McDonald's play area where it's totally cool to be really loud. :) She made several friends and had lots of fun.

When we got in the car, it was very hot and Maggie yelled, Oh, it's so thick in here. Then she stopped a minute and said, thick starts with th. Smart girl!

Once we got back to Kandice's house, she wanted to draw some more. She made a huge drawing with hearts and her name in several places and asked if she could mail it to her Grandma. I told her we were going there on Saturday but she said she wanted to send it sooner so Grandma "knows I love her." So sweet.

She is very into drawing right now. I love it. There are papers everywhere, filled with pictures. If she can't find paper, she has been known to go get envelopes out of the recycling bin. And if you ask, she'll tell you all about what's going on. Last week she drew mountains with trampolines between them so kids could jump from mountain to mountain and if they fell, they would just jump back up.

Monday

Maggie came home early today. Her Dad had court (as a lawyer :)) and she was here by 8 am. We went and rested for about an hour when she first got here but she couldn't sleep. So we got up and went through our morning routine.

Around 10.30 or so we went to a park play date. The weather was so much nicer today. It was warm with a breeze. Perfect.

Maggie made friends with a little girl named Lila (lee-la). There were a few disputes but mostly they played quite nicely.

After that we ran a few errands and by that point Mags was exhausted and getting grumpy. We went home and she laid down for a little while.

We went over to Grandpa and Grandmo's house for a bit before dinner. Aunt Laurie and Ella were there too. At first Maggie was very grumpy and wouldn't play. But after a while, she was willing. She picked up a tambourine and decided it was her Captain America shield. Isn't that cute and creative? We did have to have a bit of a talk about throwing it at people. In her defense, that IS what Captain America does. ;)

When we got home, I finished dinner and did laundry while she tortured Greenlee. At one one point she told Greenlee, Get real, man! Where does she come up with this stuff?

Last week

Dear Mom,

I'm going on a very long journey. I will miss you. I have to go visit Grandmo in Africa. We had a very busy day. Bye. I love you.

That's a letter she wrote me (sort of) and read to me. Hilarious.

We were in the car, driving to go visit Nana and Gran for the day and listening to Little House on the Prairie audiobook. All the sudden Maggie yells, Mommy, we have to go get the bulldog. I have no clue what she's talking about. So she tells me, Jack (the Ingalls' dog in Little House), we have to go get Jack. I ask her why and she tells me, We have to go get Jack for Grandmo so she won't be sad about Molly.

Two things, one, I am almost positive Jack is NOT a bulldog. I've always pictured him as a pit bull but I think the only description that's ever given is that he's brindle with green eyes (ha, I just googled it and he is described as. . . a brindle bulldog). So I have no clue why she decided he was a bulldog. Two, I about died. Seriously, isn't that the sweetest, kindest thing ever. I didn't have the heart to tell her Jack was long dead.

A couple of weeks ago I made Mags some oatmeal and put some cinnamon in it. She insisted she wanted a bowl of cinnamon to eat by itself. I told her several times I didn't think she'd like it but she was adamant. You can imagine how this went right?

She took a full tablespoon of cinnamon and shoved it in her mouth. Her eyes got huge and she started coughing out clouds of cinnamon and yelling and spitting into the sink.


We went to the FW Science and History museum a week or so ago and right before we got there she announced she was hungry. Of course she was; we'd just spent 5 hours at home with me offering her soup, pancakes, mac and cheese, oatmeal, pizza, etc and her saying no, she's not hungry.

Anyway, we were planning on watching an Omni movie so I got her some popcorn and candy. She picked out Whoppers and loved them. After the movie, we went back to the children's area and played for a while and then went to Kandice and Jeremiah's house to drop off Jake. When we got there Maggie handed me her Whopper box, which had one remaining Whopper, and said, Here Mommy, I wanted you to have this last one.

Maggie's 5th birthday

We started Maggie's birthday celebrations Monday afternoon at Dad and Mo's house. Maureen and Dad had chicken strips, french fries, beans, rice and a birthday cake. Laurie and Ella came too. Maggie was so excited.

Dad and Mo got her a Robin costume, an Ariel mermaid doll, and a huge art set with an Ariel theme. Maggie immediately wanted to put on the costume. Then Ella created a superhero costume for herself and they played (with Grandpa too) for quite a while. So cute.

Maggie slept in her costume that night. I made her take off the cape and mask but first thing when she woke up, she put them back on.

The day of her birthday we were on the go. We had a quiet morning and then met up with a group of friends at Veteran's park. She made a couple of friends and had a good time but by the time we left she was drenched in sweat and uncomfortable (ie grumpy). We went to the FW Science and History museum with Kandice and Jake. Maggie had lots of fun being a superhero/doctor/fire fighter/construction worker (now that's a resume).

By then she was pretty tuckered out, so we went home and curled up in bed to watch a little TV. But then her Daddy came over. Luckily he was cool with laying down with her and just being calm. He brought her some presents and a beautiful bouquet of flowers. He also brought her a dress he had bought her for Christmas and she had seen and asked to wear for her birthday so she actually changed out of the Robin costume. She had black glitter from the mask all over her face. It's still on there and I've washed her face 3 times!

We went to Razzoo's where Grandpa, Nana, Gran, Aunt Laurie, Uncle Jeff, Ella, Kandice, Jeremiah, Jake, Marie, and Mahlia met us for dinner, presents, and ice cream sandwiches. Maggie was seriously on Cloud 9. She had so much fun playing with Mahlia and Ella. It was so fun. She got a ton of Ariel stuff and she loves all of it. She's looked at her cards over and over and is constantly playing with her toys and wearing her jewelry (including a shell necklace that does about 5 seconds of the Ariel voice singing--not at all annoying to hear that 500 times in a row (in fact, when we got in the car a while ago, she informed me, "Good news, Mama. I brought my necklace so we don't have to listen to the yucky radio.")). We read the Little Mermaid book about 50 times too.

All in all, a great 5th birthday!

One more quick story, the morning of her birthday, we were doing reading and Maggie, who was in full Robin costume gear, informed me, "Mommy, superheroes don't do reading."

Wednesday

Today was great. We went to Kandice and Jeremiah's house this morning to help with Jake (Kandice had an interview and some work to get done). At one point Maggie turned to me and said, "It would be good for me to go poo poo," and ran out of the room.

We met up with Aunt Laurie (who clarified to Maggie that no, she did not laugh when I busted my face open) and Ella for dinner. While we were waiting for them, Maggie decided to teach me some dance moves.

A few minutes after they got there, 3 other families sat down; each with a girl about Maggie's age. The weird thing was I was just complaining to Laurie about finding some friends for Maggie in this area (Keller is too far!). Anyway, Maggie wanted to play with all of them and invited them all to our house. She told everyone, Just follow our red car. I gave 2 of the moms my number so hopefully we can arrange some playdates. :)

I made Maggie a visual schedule for her morning and nighttime routines. Her nighttime routine is review tomorrow's schedule, bath, jammies, brush teeth, brush hair, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood, books, sleep. Well tonight we ran out of toilet paper and I went under the sink to get some more and saw that she had taken down and hidden one of the pictures under there. Can you guess which one? Brush hair.

Also, people have started asking her about school (whether or not she goes) and she told someone tonight, I do homeschool school and it's the kind of school where you learn lots of things. :)

Tuesday

Maggie didn't get home until 8 last night. We went straight upstairs and started the nighttime routine. Today was very mellow. I spent Monday cooking and my stupid oven broke so we had to stay around the house to wait on the guy to come fix it. She did a lot of drawing. She has really come to enjoy drawing and it's so fun to watch. She draws a ton of stick figures with ponytails and if you ask her (or not) she'll give you this huge, involved back story.

Tonight on Mr. Roger's Neighborhood he went to an ER and talked to a doctor about what happens when a kid needs stitches. So all during book time she was drawing doctors and patients, all of whom needed stitches. I told her about the time I needed stitches near my eye from jumping bed to bed (and falling). Her first question: Did Aunt Laurie laugh at you?

Update

So we got a kitten. Or rather I found a kitten and didn't know what else to do with him so we have a kitten. Maggie named him Cooper. I wanted to name him Logan after Wolverine but Maggie stayed strong.

He's very cute and sweet. He was a little over a pound when he showed up and I'm sure he's about 3 pounds now. He and Spot love to play together, which is nice. Spot is thrilled to have a buddy.

Maggie and I were playing one day and she loves to pretend to be zombies. It's so funny because, to my knowledge, she's never seen zombies (once at a park a little girl wanted to play zombies and kind of explained it to her). So we made a fort for us (and Jake) to hide out in.

She decided Spot was a zombie gorilla. Jake didn't quite get the game so he kept leaving the fort and Maggie would yell, "Protect your brain!"

Maggie doesn't really like it when Cooper and Spot play. She's always yelling at Spot not to hurt Cooper. The other day she yelled at Spot, "Get out little sir!"
The way they play is pretty much for Spot to gnaw on Coopers head and neck (which are always damp) and Cooper scratches Spot. Maggie came downstairs and saw this and yelled, "Spot's trying to cut Cooper's head off!"

She was sick yesterday and today. She came home from her Dad's at about noon. I pulled out our schedule but she didn't really want to do anything. After a little while (we read some books and did a science experiment), she asked if she could go upstairs and take a nap. I figured she just wanted to watch TV but when I went up after her a few minutes later, she was in bed with the covers up to her chin and sucking her fingers. Within an hour, she was burning up from head to toe. She responded well to the Tylenol and fell asleep at normal time.

This morning she didn't get up until after 10 am. It took an act of God to get her to eat even though I knew she was starving. She finally ate a pancake and perked up a little. She was kind of blah all day but she got better all day. It took her forever to fall asleep. I think by tomorrow she should be fine.

Monday

We saw Toby again. Because we had Spot with us, Maggie ran ahead to pet him and we hung back. I saw her pet him but at one point she came running back to me. She said Toby had hurt her. I never could get a full story and she didn't have any marks so I'm not sure what happened. She told me she thought maybe he hadn't remembered her. :(

Maggie's been having a lot of behavior issues lately. I've spent a lot of time talking to her and trying to get to the bottom of it but I think what it comes down to is that she's had too much upheaval in the last couple of years. I will continue talking to her but today I started a behavior chart. I want her to have feedback on what is and isn't acceptable behavior and to feel consequences (good and bad) right away.

I made a color chart; red, yellow, green, light blue, blue, dark blue, purple. She starts on green and if she is aggressive it moves down. Yellow is a warning and red is a time out. If she makes any kind of good choice, it goes up. I'm really trying to focus on the good. I'm going to use food as her reward. I know you aren't supposed to tie any food to a reward or punishment but I want her to have immediate feedback and I can't think of anything else that's so immediate. I'm going to buy hippie candy from Whole Foods. Can you tell I'm not sure about this???

Today was her last princess class. She seemed to enjoy it. She got to keep a ring and a bracelet.

After princess class, we came home, ate lunch and headed straight back out for the splash park. It was so freaking hot. We stayed out there almost an hour and had to go because I was burning up.

We worked with felt today. She really enjoyed cutting out tiny scraps and using them to create pictures on different colored felt.

We went to the grocery store after that. She is so cute at the grocery store. She wants her own bag and to put some of the groceries in her bag. At Whole Foods, there is a little pretend mart at the front of the store with real fruit in it for kids to have. She got out some oranges and wanted to give them to various people. It was so sweet. She gave one to our cashier, who was so kind about accepting it.

When we got home, Maggie went straight upstairs. While I was unloading groceries, she came back down and sadly told me Greenlea (our cat) was mad at her. I asked her why and she told me, Well (you always know you are going to hear an interesting story when it starts with well. . . ), I think I forgot to be nice to Greenlea and was accidentally mean.

Wednesday through Saturday

We met another kitty on our walk. His name was Toby. He was very friendly (as most non-feral, outdoor cats are). Maggie adored him.

When Mom and Mark came to visit, Mark and I went upstairs to hook up the TV they kindly gave to us. When we came downstairs, Maggie was laying on Mom's lap listening to Sleeping Beauty. Later that night, she sort of retold me the story. I was impressed by her ability to retell it. She asked me the name of the bad witch in Sleeping Beauty, which I had no idea. So she asked for the name of the bad witch in Ariel (Ursala). So she continued the story using "Hersala" as the bad witch. :)

I also didn't get a chance to write about our 4th of July. I added the pictures below. We went to the Hurst thing again. Mom and Mark met us up there. We got Dickie's bbq sandwiches. We listened to music. Later, after Mom and Mark left, we met up with Lynette and her family. We got a funnel cake, which Maggie loved (although she mostly just ate the powdered sugar). She got a burst of energy before the fireworks and we danced and sang. She did all kinds of interesting dance moves. She loved the fireworks too.

Here are the pictures from her building a castle.

Climbing in the box.

To make a bed.

The bed.

Pillows and sheets.

Doll doors.

Lots and lots of people. I had to cut them all out.

Today we went to visit Mom and Mark. On the way there we heard a car honk. She asked who honked and I told her I didn't know. She said, Someone honked at Grandpa but he was a morn (moron?) because he would have got hit by a truck. Thanks, Grandpa!

Roscoe went home today. Spot has been asleep since. They definitely wore each other out.