Catching up

We had our second tumbling class. Maggie loves it. She is so excited to go and to be there. It's awesome. She did try to cheat again and got caught this time. :)

We stayed with Laurie, Jeff and Ella Friday night so I could be with Ella Saturday (Mom worked and Dad had a cooking competition in Houston). The girls had so much fun together. They still fight a lot but Maggie really wants to play with Ella. Maggie started waking up before the sun had come up Saturday morning insisting Ella was up and calling for her.

Friday during the day we went to the library. I told Maggie she could check out 10 books. I tried to explain to her that we could look up books by subject but she just wanted to randomly get books. So she went to one area and grabbed 10 random books. It's an interesting mix.

I went ahead and checked out The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because we need a new chapter book. I started reading it and Maggie immediately said she didn't like it and was sure it was going to be scary. I don't remember them being scary so I'll probably try once more before letting it go and getting different books.

When Maggie was 18 months or so I bought her this adorable purple corduroy skirt. It is a size 2T. It was too big for her the first year we tried, also the second, ditto the third. And now she can finally wear the skirt without it falling off. Victory!

Below is a conversation I had with Maggie:

M: Patrick (from Spongebob) says you have to put up your pinkie to be a lady. But that's now how you be a cool lady.

Mom: How do you be a cool lady?

M: You wear a cool suit.

Mom: What's a cool suit look like?

M: A rockstar shirt.

Monday evening we were driving home and Maggie asked me to play the Sherry song. I went through the CD and asked is this it, is this it but no luck. Finally I asked her to sing it but she just said, I talked to Sherry; I talked to Sherry. I don't know how I figured it out but she was talking about "I Shot the Sheriff." Awesome.

Wednesday

Today was our first day of spring semester at our homeschool co-op, Spirit Builders. It went really well. Jake was able to stay in the nursery WITHOUT ME, thank the Lord. So I could teach and assist in classes. 

Maggie did well. She has music, Home Ec (basically living skills: wood work, sewing; today they baked bread), Language Arts, Science, Lego Engineering, and PE. I'm in her Language Arts and PE classes. They were both cool. 

We did reading again today and she did better. I admit I had to bribe her. I got cereal and gave her a piece for every-single-thing she did. I just want her to get her confidence back so she's not dreading it. We'll see how it goes.

We're housesitting for Dad and Maureen. I've told her they are out of town but their cars are here so she keeps asking. Today when we pulled in, Maggie asked, "Are they here?" I told her no, they are out of town and she asked, "Did they walk?"

Tuesday

What a day it's already been. When my boss was pulling out to head to work this morning, she hit my car. Zoinks! Then Maggie refused to put on her ballet shoes and go to ballet, which I was shocked by. I hope this was a glitch and she hasn't decided she hates ballet. We'll see.

Maggie decided she wanted to change into her ballet clothes. So she came up to me and started stripping while I got her tights ready. Suddenly she realized Jeremiah (Jake's Dad) was in the room and she got very embarrassed and shy. She asked him to go away so she could change. It was the first time she has ever cared about someone seeing her naked. I told her that was fine but in the future, she can't strip in the living room unless she's ok with people seeing her naked. Huh, that sounds bad.

She's really hit a roadblock on the reading. Instead of sounding out words with no breaks between the sounds, she's started saying, "C. . . aaa. . . t." Then she can't hear the word. She was getting really frustrated so I just stopped. I'm not sure where to go from here.

She's so scared of being wrong or not perfect. I try really hard to praise working hard and being brave (willing to try) rather than any end result. I hate the idea of her not wanting to experiment and work on new things because she doesn't want to make a mistake.

Also I thought of another thing to remember. Maggie loves to pull her underwear and panties as high as they'll go. She'll pull them way up over her belly button.

Things to remember

I wanted to write about some things that Maggie says and does so I won't forget them. Maggie likes to be rubbed/scratched on her tummy, back, arms, feet, etc. If I start to scratch or rub, she'll say, "Mommy, will you rub/scratch my tummy/back/whatever VERY softly." She almost always has her fingers in her mouth when she says it and it's so sweet.

When she's sleepy and sucking her fingers, she takes the fingers of her other hand and rubs her upper lip.

When she wants to do something or eat something or whatever, she usually say, "Mom, I haven't had cereal in years" or "I haven't gotten to watch Spongebob in a million years" (even if she is currently watching it).

Thursday

Maggie was so excited this morning because she knew today was tumbling day. She was excited to get dressed, eat, everything. It was quite cute.

We got to tumbling class a bit early and she played with a few other little girls. Finally she went in. I was able to see most of this class although from quite a distance. They started with stretching. Then they did a backwards bear crawl across the mat and Maggie totally cheated! I guess she thought they were racing so when no one was looking, she stood up and ran across the mat and yelled, "I did it!" I couldn't tell if she got caught. Stinker. 

Then they practiced somersaults. Maggie can do these quite easily so she was proud. They also jumped on trampolines and jumped off mats. Everything she did, she did with flair. She was so excited just to be there. She was jumping around and doing the exercises even after the teacher had moved on. In fact when class ended every other child came running to their mom but Maggie. I had to go get her to get her to leave the gym. 

A few hours later, at home, I wanted her to start reading. She seemed very reluctant and said she wanted to do an easier lesson. She had a hard time with it today. She wouldn't really sound the words out so she couldn't tell what word she was reading. I was super helpful by yelling at her and threatening to put the book away and make her sit on the floor. I know, I know, but I didn't get any coffee this morning and I was irrationally angry. :(

After I apologized to her, she said, "Mommy, you were kinda grumpy." Yes, I was.

Wednesday

Today we had Safety Day at our homeschool co-op. It was very cool. We wanted to cover what to do in a fire or other emergency. We had several firemen come and talk to our kids. We practiced stop, drop and roll and staying near the floor in an emergency. It was a nice way to ease back in to school. Next week we start regular classes.

When we got home, we did reading again and again she rocked it. It was amazing to see. She sounded out and read several words independently.

I've been wanting us to watch less TV so I've been encouraging games, toys, reading, anything but TV. She's been pretty open to it. We've read a ton of books, including finishing our Magic Tree House series. I'm thinking about getting a copy of the Narnia books next.

Maggie isn't a big fan of games. She doesn't like that there are rules you have to follow. She insists we play her way. I go back and forth (which I'm sure is helpful) on whether I insist on the rules or her way. Usually I make her follow the rules or I won't play with her. She doesn't like that so she won't play most games, which is CRAZY. What kid doesn't want to play Candyland????

We stayed at Dad's house but when we got there the TV was broken (woohoo--Mom; boo--Maggie). So I talked Maggie into getting in bed early and reading a ton of books. It was so fun. We read over an hour. We finished our last MTH book, read Madeline and the Jungle Book.

Tuesday

Today Maggie started ballet. The first class of the semester was last week (I didn't realize classes started so early). The teacher had allowed the parents to observe the first class but none after that. :(  So if you want to know how Maggie's ballet's class was. . . well, so do I.

She seemed very excited when she left. She had made friends with a few girls, which she talked about a lot. Other than that, she wouldn't tell anyone about class. I'll assume it went well.

After class we went to McDonald's. We were supposed to go to a snow ball fight with our fellow homeschool co-opers. Maggie ate a little but mostly played with the other kids. There were 5 five families there and they each had one girl 2-4 playing. It was perfect. Maggie was bossing everyone around.

When we got home it was reading time. We haven't done reading in a while due to the holidays and having the flu last week. So I was planning on taking it really slow but Maggie did awesome. Seriously she did all her sounds and words with no problem. Then at the end she sounded out a three letter word completely on her own with no help or example. I am so proud of her.