Life is good

Maggie has been so hungry lately. Every time she eats, she usually wants seconds and thirds. It's crazy but I guess she's finally going through a growth spurt.

Gran and Nana got her a cute Hello Kitty fedora. She loves it.

The other day while we were walking to the park, Maggie was riding on her scooter. Isabella said she wanted one too. Maggie told her, ask Santa, he'll make all your wishes come true.

When we got to the park, for the first time ever, Maggie climbed the entire rock wall to the top. Very exciting.

She has gotten so confident in her ability to read that she will read in front of other people (not me). She read for Nana and Gran and then for her Grandpa. She also reads a story to Isaac and Isabella before their nap time.

Her behavior has so vastly improved, it's amazing. I can't believe how happy she is every single day. Every evening we do high/low (what was the best part of your day? what was the worst part of your day?). In the past, she has used this as an opportunity to air her grievances with everyone who wronged her in any given day, but lately she's been giving great answers to her best part. And then, one day last week, she actually couldn't come up with a worst part. Woo hoo!

Keeping on. . .

Maggie absolutely loves The Toadies, especially I come from the water. She's been so obsessed I had to cut her off.

We've been exercising every day (mostly to make sure we get lots of activity and it's so freaking cold!) and yesterday while we were doing an aerobics/jumping around type exercise, Maggie went and stood in front of us and put on a yoga class. It was so cute watching her do a crescent moon and telling us, Good, good.

Today we were doing that same workout and the lady has us do hip circles in the warm up. Maggie asked what they were called and I told her. Then she said, more like butt twirls.

Michelle bought each of the kids a cute little notebook and some mechanical pencils. This was the girls all day. Maggie drew and wrote stories and made mazes. I love it.

Back to normal

We've spent the past couple of days getting back in our routine. I love routine so I've been thrilled but Maggie keeps asking about Christmas and Santa.

Thursday night I gave all 3 kids a bath. When I went to brush Maggie's hair the whole underneath was a giant rats' nest. It looked like it hadn't been brushed in a month. After brushing for about 20 minutes, I could see that it was really 5 or 6 little clumps of glue. It was awful. She cried pretty much the entire time and it took almost an hour. She actually lost big clumps of hair. And the worst part is that she was using the glue to make a picture for me. :(

This morning the kids were playing outside and it was cold, like 27 degrees. I saw Maggie showing Isabella to put her hands in her pants to keep them warm. She looked she had saddlebags.

Maggie requested I take this picture; I'm not sure why. She's eating a green bean.

Here are the girls with babies in their tummies. I sent Michelle this picture with the caption: We're grandmas!

After this was taken, Maggie said, ok let's go to the dentist. Isabella asked, why? Maggie said, so he can help us birth the babies.

Maggie was reading me a story today and she read the line, Pigs are fat. She paused a second and said, that's harsh.

We met up with Grandpa, Aunt Laurie, Uncle Jeff, and Ella at Dave and Buster's tonight. Maggie and Ella went and played games with Uncle Jeff and Grandpa. I think she had a really good time. When we got in the car to go home, she asked if we could come back in the morning.

She won a frisbee and a sticky octopus thing, which she promptly used to freak my old cat out. Not cool, Maggie.

Happy New Year!

Maggie's reading and spelling has exploded. She is constantly saying, I know how to spell x, and I'll say, how, and every time she's right. Today she correctly spelled most. What's crazy is we've never even read that word. Every time I read her books, she is constantly pointing out words she knows. She asks me to read and pause when it's a word she knows (or can decode).

A week or so ago, we were driving when Maggie spotted a hawk. She asked me what hawks eat and I told her mice and other small animals. She thought for a minute and asked, do they eat baby kangaroos?

Around that same time, I was putting her to bed, when she started quizzing me about various sea life. It was so funny. Her questions were what crawls along the bottom of the ocean; what has a fin and sharp teeth; what has a fin and is black and white; what has 8 tentacles and a big head.

We had a great NYE. We went to Laurie's house and Grandpa came over too.

 I bought sparkling water and plastic champagne glasses for the girls. Laurie added a frozen strawberry to each glass. We did lots of cheers-ing.

 This was mostly amiable roughhousing.

 Grandpa and the girlies right before bed. We did a countdown for them at about 8pm.

 The next morning Ella was up by about 6.30 but her mom made her stay in bed until 7.30 and then I got up with them until 9.30. Then Jeff relieved me and I slept til after noon. It was great. I don't know how he kept them so quiet for over 3 hours but well done.

This is their tent. Ella looks really sad down there but they were having fun.