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.

Tuesday

Another fabulous day. We went on another walk this morning. Again, no little girls or kitty cats but lots of sunshine and a perfect breeze.

Maggie got out of bed when I did (she usually sleeps in for a while after I get up). While we were brushing our teeth, she yawned and I teased her, "Are you still sleepy?" She said no it's just a morning yawn. I'm just letting a little air out.

I've been meaning to write about this newest Maggie-ism. Her new thing is 60 million. It's her way of quantifying anything. "I want 60 million cookies." "Is it 60 million hot?" "Scratch my back 60 million soft." I'm not sure where she came up with that particular number but it's so funny.

Also if the bath is too hot, she yells, "It's too spicy!"

We built a castle today out of cardboard. Then she drew a ton of people and I had to cut them all out. We cut doors and made a bed, sheets and pillows. I took a bunch of pictures but left my camera at Kandice and Jeremiah's house. I'll try to upload them tomorrow.

Nana and Gran came over for dinner this evening. Maggie was so excited about that. We had a very nice time. Well Nana did get slightly mauled by Roscoe. He actually drew blood; I was shocked but sure to tell her that he's Laurie's dog.

Despite yawning a lot and sucking her fingers and laying in Nana's lap, she had a bit of a hard time going to sleep. She wanted this and that, she wanted me to rub/scratch her back, to tell her stories. At one point she said Mom, let's make funny faces at each other. I had my eyes closed and kind of muttered, in the morning. After a couple of minutes she said, Mom, this is gonna be a good one with a funny noise; you better look. How do you not laugh at that?

Monday

Mondays are usually Maggie's bad days. She usually has a really hard time going to sleep when she gets home from her Dad's house and she's exhausted the next day. Today was no different but I tried a different tactic: we just kept moving.

As soon as everyone was finished with breakfast, we went on a long walk. Then we ran errands and went to the grocery store. We just kept going and it was surprisingly effective. She was in much better spirits than usual.

We didn't find anything cool on our walk, although we looked for cats and little girls. :)

Wednesday

Maggie woke up around 3.30 last night and just started chatting. I told her to go back to sleep but she kept waking back up. Finally she told me was starving! So I went downstairs and got her a bowl of cheese. She took one bite and started chatting again. Finally she went back to sleep.

Today, we went on a long walk. Along the way, we saw a cat that let her pet it (as long as I kept Spot far away), she found these really cool flowers (they looked like those weeds you blow the spores off of but they were purple with yellow dots at the end, like fireworks), and met some neighbors with 2 girls.

Not bad for a 30 or so minute walk. After that we went to Lauren's new house. We haven't seen them in a while and Maggie was quite happy. The whole ride over she kept telling me, I need to play now. She devoured several pieces of watermelon.

When we got back to Kandice and Jeremiah's house, her sleepiness started to set in, so I let her watch a movie on her Kindle while I cooked.

At home, we mostly lazed around and talked. She discovered one of the dust buster attachments can be used to amplify sound. So we had an entire conversation through it.

She's been doing this silly walk, where she pretends to be a diva, I guess. She puts her hips out and her hand on her hip. It's so funny.

Tuesday

We had a great day. We played pretty much all day. We went on a long walk and then played some more. Lots of giggling and yelling.

When we got home, Maggie helped me do some cleaning. She's been very excited to use our swiffer. :)

She took a bath and we brushed her hair.

It looks so boring, written out here but it really was a great day.