Much better week

Maggie has been having some trouble adjusting when she comes back from her Dad's house. I think she stays up very late there and then sleeps in, which is fine except we have to get up early to get to Jeremiah and Kandice's house on time. So she's usually very tired. But I think also it's just hard for her. She tends to be moody and quick to anger (or be sad). I feel so bad for her. I try to be extra loving and considerate and just make it as easy as possible. It's hard going back and forth and I want to help.

Her reading is just amazing. She reads stories and is starting to memorize a lot of words. She sounds words out silently sometimes and then reads them. She's also started pointing out words she knows in books, which I don't remember her doing before. It's very, very exciting.

On Tuesday we went to the park to meet some new friends and it was FREEZING. Oh my goodness. We stayed about 45 minutes and that was really too long. She had fun though. She pushed her new friends on a merry go round and got to ride in it.

We'd had another park playdate for later that day but it was only getting colder so instead we went to the museum. I had wanted to see a show in the Planetarium but we were a little too late (I refuse to wake a sleeping baby) but we were early for Flight of the Butterflies in the Omni. Since we've been learning a lot about bugs. It seemed perfect. Maggie loved the movie. It was really cool.

Maggie's a bit taken aback by the cruelty or coldness of nature. There was a scene where some fire ants pushed a caterpillar into their ant hill and it started getting covered with ants. A few minutes later, Maggie asked what happened to that caterpillar. I think she thought it was going to flash back and the caterpillar would be saved but. . .

While waiting for our Omni movie to come on, there was an ad for hot dogs. Four hot dogs were wearing different hats. Maggie loves to name/label things. So she said, "Look Mom, a cowboy, a general (?), a magician, and. . . at the beach." Well done. Here are the general and beach hats. The magician hat was a top hat.

General?

 

 

 

 

at the beach

Wednesday morning we got all ready for school. We went and got Jake and headed out. At the 820 and 121/183 split, traffic just stopped we sat there for about an hour before we were finally able to exit and go home. So no school. :(

When we got back to K&J's house I told Maggie to look in our bag that I had packed a bunch of new stuff and to pick something to do. She found a craft where you put beads in a frame of Saturn and bake it. It was fun and turned out very cute.

Maggie's new glasses. Aren't they cute?

After that we colored for a while. Maggie asked to watch bug videos while we colored, which we did.

Then we went digging for bugs. We found several earthworms and a gross larvae thing. I had no idea what it was so we came in and googled images of larvae. It was either a beetle or a June bug. I set it outside for us to explore later but when we looked later, it was gone. Oops. Next time we'll set it up a home immediately so we can watch it.

Later Maggie asked to watch Polar Express! Very odd but we watched it. We also read about a million books through the day. I try to pack up a bag of our books every week so she can choose something to read, if she wants.

On Thursday, we had tumbling class, which Maggie loves. She did a flip on the parallel bars, which was awesome. She even held onto the bar with no assistance.

A little later in the afternoon, we went to a local strawberry patch and picked strawberries. It was so fun. After we'd bought the strawberries, we went to a little pond and watched ducks. Maggie had me pick a flower which she then gifted to me. :)

Keys taste good. Nom nom.

Me picking the flower.

Me receiving the flower as a gift. So sweet.

After that we went to a playground and mostly swung. It would be a great place for a picnic. There are tons of grassy areas and it's about 2 minutes from K&J's house.

That afternoon and evening Maggie did not seem to feel well. She complained of her tummy hurting but she could give any specifics. I offered various things (ginger ale, crackers, rubbing her tummy, going potty) but she didn't want to do any of those things. She also had really bad (and not so nice smelling) gas. Her Grandpa teased her about it and she was so embarrassed. He said, is that you? and she yelled, No! So then she went and hid. I tried to tell her it was okay but she was embarrassed. Later she did go potty and said she felt better. Not sure what that was about. She was also very tired all day, even though she had her regular amount of sleep. When we got in the car to go home, she was fast asleep before I got out of the neighborhood.

Friday was kind of a cluster. Because strawberry picking had been at 1pm on Thursday, I had it in my head we were going rollerskating at 1pm on Friday. Unfortunately, it was at 10am, which would have been perfect but since I didn't realize the mistake until a few minutes til 10am. Quite the bummer, I think Maggie would love rollerskating. Then Maggie decided she didn't want to go to cooking class and Jake's nap lasted too long to go to Memaw's house.

We pretty much just watched bug videos and played outside. Maggie found 16 pill bugs, which she put in a container. She spilled said container in the car and freaked out. I'm thinking I'll insist on lids from here on out.

We made cookies again and took them to some police officers in Mansfield. They were very nice to Maggie and she seemed to enjoy talking to them.

After that we had a dinner/ice cream date to avoid traffic going back to Keller. Friday night we had a camp out in a school gym to celebrate Jonah's birthday. It was very fun and loud. There were lots of cool games and snacks and fun.

Maggie enjoyed yelling at the boys to settle down so she could go to sleep. I didn't mention to her that perhaps yelling was also impeding her ability to sleep.

We didn't get much sleep before we were up and cleaning up and heading home for Nana's birthday breakfast. We went and had a very nice breakfast. Maggie was very excited about giving Nana her birthday card that she had made.

This Week

We're still reading Charlotte's Web and Maggie still seems to like it. I'm getting a little nervous about the end. She has been very interested in death lately. For about the last year she's asked about my death mostly. Which is awful. She asked me once, "Who would take care of me if you got dead?" :(  Also, her Nana's kitty just died. I just hope it's not devastating or really, even upsetting.

Our project work is still very cool. I got her some digging tools and I'm very excited to start exploring. Plus we need to go to the library and get lots of books.

Her reading is so awesome. She reads little stories now. She still sounds out most words but not all. It's very cool.

Monday we went to the park and met up with Lynette and her son, Eric. After an hour or so, we actually had to leave because it was too hot. So we went to a Chick-fil-a with an indoor playground. Much better.

On Wednesday we went and got Maggie new glasses. Very exciting. She wanted red glasses (big shock!) but of course, the only red glasses were too big for her tiny face. So she finally picked another pair. They are purple and wire and rectangular. I'm excited for her to get them.

We released our butterflies on Monday. They were so much fun and so interesting to watch. It really was very cool. I googled some other insects we could make habitats for and observe and release. I'm surprised how much I'M enjoying learning about bugs. And I hate bugs. I do think we need to make the habitats where Maggie can't open them or make a rule about that because her bug friends rarely make it.

Also we made cookies and a card for fire fighters and police officers. She chose to write Thank you for your service and draw a picture and write her name. So sweet. Unfortunately no one was really available to take it. We gave it to a secretary and she took it to the back. It was kind of a let down. We'll try again.

Today (Saturday) we went to a birthday party for Lily. She was turning 4. I let Maggie decide what gift to get her and she wanted to buy flowers. So we went to the Farmer's Market and she picked out a pot of flowers. Interesting.

They jumped on trampolines, ran around and ate. She also got to hit her first pinata. In her words, "We had to kill the butterfly to get all the candy."

Project

I had decided to do Maggie's first project on space (I thought it was her strongest interest) but she didn't really take to the whole project thing. I would suggest we read one of the tons of library books we checked out on space and she wouldn't be interested. I would suggest we watch a show about space and she wouldn't be interested.

My first thought, of course, was that this doesn't work; I needed a strict, rigid curriculum. School at home! But then I started thinking about it and I realized, she doesn't talk much about space anymore. A year ago she did but not so much anymore. But she is really interested in bugs. She loves to watch bugs and talk about bugs. We still had our butterflies, which she was loving. So I made up a list of everything I could think of that we could do involving bugs. And then I saw a link to an older documentary all about bugs. When she got home on Monday, I suggested we watch it and she was excited. She made me go back and watch some parts seriously about 15+ times. She asked a gazillion questions and every one made it clear she was listening and trying to clarify what she was hearing. She continued asking questions hours after we'd stopped watching the show.

Today she asked to watch parts of the show again and when I pulled up some books and suggested a couple on bugs, she loved it (and these were non fiction, fact filled books). When we got to Dad's house, she wouldn't come inside because she wanted to watch some ants eating a dead bug (which, yeah, gross but still). She told several people about what she had watched.

I feel so much more excited about this, especially seeing as how this is only day 2 and we haven't started digging in. I've been making a list of things we can do.

• continue watching the documentary and look for others
• continue reading books about bugs
• look more closely at the display in our library of bugs and maybe try to identify them
• there's a display of butterflies at the FW Science museum where we could do the same
• watch youtube videos of specific bugs doing specific things she's interested in (we once watched in super, super slow mo ladybugs opening their wings and taking off for about an hour)
• making bug habitats and catching bugs
• finding bugs in various yards and just observing them
• drawing/photographing bugs and labeling them

 If anyone can think of anything else, feel free to let me know.

Tuesday through Saturday

 We've been reading Charlotte's Web, which Maggie seems to be interested in. She doesn't talk much about it when we're done but she always wants to read it and asks for the Charlotte book.

We had coop on Wednesday. It was raining cats and dogs. She seemed to have a really good time, as usual.

We are getting ready for the Talent Show. I still feel like I have no idea if she'll actually do it. Most of the time she doesn't really dance with me (when we practice) but then I see her trying to dance other times. I guess we'll see.

Thursday I hurt my back again. :(  I'm sure it's because I haven't been exercising. I have to carry Jake and his huge diaper bag and my backpack. Yikes! So I must exercise.

Saturday we went out to Paradise and got to visit with Grandma, Grandpa Dennis and Amanda. Maggie was so super thrilled. We really had a great time. We played a game on the way out there where we counted all the red cars we saw. It was fun for a while then we switched to listening to Laura (we're on Little House on the Prairie now).

Bits and pieces

• Mom and I were sitting in the living room talking while Maggie was playing in the library with Gran. All of the sudden Maggie came running into the living room and said, Momma, Nana, we have to have a serious talk. So she came and sat down in her little red chair at the front of the room and told us there are ghosts in the library. She told us something about getting rid of them using kraken. Not sure what that means but good Lord, it was cute.

• I'm starting to think Maggie is going to be a motivational speaker when she grows up. She brought me something she wanted me to fix. I told her I wasn't sure if I could do it. I started working on it and the whole time she said, "You're are doing so good. I'm so proud of you."

•  She's really made big improvements in her reading. She was really struggling with sounding out words without breaks (ie. m. . . a. . . t, instead of mmmaaat). But she's really starting to get it and is having a lot of success. It's so exciting. 

•  On the drive home, Maggie asked me, "Mommy, what can I do to grow?" I talked to her about healthy foods, etc. but I'm not sure where the question came from. The only thing I can think of is she associates growing with getting older. And the only thing I can think about that is maybe she wants Bodie to pay attention to her and she thinks being older will help. That is a completely random guess but jeez, I can't think of anything else.

• One morning last week, we saw a car on the side of the road, broken down or in a wreck or something. I said, "Oh, what a bad way to start your morning." Well I guess Maggie thought it was funny because she's said it a few times since. I haven't actually seen any of these alleged broken down cars but I digress. Today, as we were driving home at 6pm, she said, "Mom, there were two cars on the grass. That's a bad way to start their morning."

•  Maggie wanted me to hide Easter eggs most days this week. She loved hunting for them. I taught her the hot/cold game too (where you use hot, cold, warm, etc to help them find something) and she loved it. She tried to do it to but she didn't correspond it to actually looking for anything. She would randomly say, "Warmer, warmer, colder, you're on fire!"

• Maggie asks questions all the time. I try to answer as thoroughly as possible every time. Occasionally after I explain something (ie how traffic lights work), she ask me, "Tell me the story of traffic lights again."

• She is starting to notice family ties. She'll ask about how people are related. She refers to being a child's bio mom as having borned them. She tells everyone, "Mommy only borned me; we just take care of Jake."

• I watched her tonight sing the monkey/alligator song. She put up 5 fingers and sang, "10 little monkeys playing in the tree, teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me. Along came the alligator and snap, 4 little monkeys playing the tree." It was cute to watch her do all the hand motions and count her fingers each time to make sure she sang the right number. 

• You know the guy Phillipe something that tightrope walked between the Twin Towers in the 70s? Well I think that guy and his story is amazing. I used to show my students a video about it. I found a documentary on him on Netflix and tried to show it to Maggie (this was quite a while ago). I don't think she really understood what she was seeing and seemed to have no interest. Then tonight while I was putting her to bed, she said, "You remember that guy that type rope walked in the sky?" I couldn't believe she remembered that.

Monday

Maggie didn't get back from her Dad's until after 2 pm but we still managed to get all of her school work done. She was grumpy though, which is typical because her Dad keeps her up late so she'll sleep in.

After that we went and played with Ella while Laurie and Jeff did restaurant stuff. I got a bit of video of the girls. It's on FB because blogger hates me. :(

Maggie and Ella were playing with letters and Maggie decided to spell out words she knew. That was very exciting. She at least spelled out her name and red.

Putting the girls to bed was less than fun. No one wanted to sleep so I did a lot of walking back and forth and putting little girls back in bed, etc. Although it was fun doing the whole bedtime routine with both girls. Both girls went potty and put on jammies and brushed teeth and listened to stories. Very sweet.

Lame Week

This week was a wash. We managed to get reading done every day and that's about all. Everyone was sort of sick. The kind of sick where you are fighting something off but you still go about your routine so you just feel cruddy.

On top of that Jeremiah's mom ended up in the hospital to have her gall bladder removed so we stayed with Jake from 8 am until 10 pm one day. Thankfully Dad let Maggie stay at his house until she woke up on her own the next morning.

We didn't go to classes or playdates or even school. We did read a lot (The Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte's Web).

I hate weeks like this. Here's hoping next week is better. :)

Easter Saturday

I had talked up to Maggie leaving a basket at the front door for the Easter bunny to leave her gifts. I didn't think to take a picture of her Easter basket. The Easter bunny got her 2 Berenstein Bear books (Get the Gimmes and Get Stage Fright), a set of E.B. White books (Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Trumpet of the Swan) and a little stuffed chick/owl thing. She was very excited to go get her basket.

Next up was Memaw's house for breakfast and an egg hunt. The girls had a blast.

Ella now says a forever extending cheeeeeeeeesssssssssse. So darn cute.

Ella looks like she is annoyed to have to take a break. :)

I saw a lizard and pointed it out to the girls. Dad grabbed it to show them up close. Maggie immediately reached for it and it bit her. She was not impressed.

Her shoes were also very muddy.

:(

After that we went to Laurie's house. Ella didn't get her nap so she was, um, moody. You know, up, down, all around. At one point, she ran out of the room screaming, "Just leave me alone!" I assisted in the situation by hysterically laughing. You're welcome, Laurie.

Thursday and Friday

I am so excited about Maggie's reading. Today she was able to read an entire sentence. She sounded out each word, looked at it for a minute and then read the entire thing. Woohoo!!!

She had her tumbling class today. We met another family there. The little boy, Jackson (Maggie's name had she been a boy), was in her class. She was very social with him. After they exchanged names, they chatted in class, played after class and Maggie said goodbye to him and his sister.

We made cauliflower pizza for lunch and it was a disaster. Everything that could go wrong did. I was not very graceful about the whole thing.

Maggie made an Easter card. Instead of telling her each letter, I wrote out what I wanted her to write and had her copy it. She did even better that way.

We spent some time in the afternoon outside. Maggie tortured some bugs, but I think they all survived. Progress, not perfection.

Thursday night Maggie fell asleep in the insanely (over an hour) long car ride home. When we got home I carried her in but she fell right back to sleep. When she finally woke up, she was wide awake and was still awake when I went to bed at 10.30 PM!!!

Needless to say, she was quite tired and cranky today. But not til this afternoon. This morning we did all of her school work. I know I keep saying this but I am shocked. It's like we were in the same place forever and all of a sudden, bam!, she leaps forward in skill. It is so exciting and I think it's really boosted her confidence.

She had cooking class today as well. Today she made egg salad and chocolate nests. Very cute.