This week

We went to the library for story time this week. It was quite cute. They were celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday. They read Seuss books and did a little dance. We didn't get to do the craft because Isaac was a little overwhelmed. Hopefully next week we'll have better luck.

 After that, I took all 3 kids to the grocery store. I told them if they were good and stayed with me we could play at the McDonald's playground afterwards. And they were so good. I couldn't believe it. No one ran off or grabbed anything off the shelves. It was a true miracle.

We played at the McDonald's playground for a long time. There were 2 boys that followed Maggie around the entire time.

Friday we met up with some new friends at the Grapevine Botanical Gardens. It was quite awesome. Especially this huge spiderweb that all the kids loved.

When Maggie was younger, she was very shy and timid. Around new people, she would hide behind me and it took her a long time to play with new kids. She was never brave or adventurous. She was always very careful. And I guess I've just kept that view of her.

But it's not really accurate anymore. When we're around other kids (of any age), she's always making friends and initiating play. She was the first of all the kids to climb to the top on this spiderweb thing. It's funny to suddenly realize your kid has changed. I suppose I have a lot more of that to look forward to.

She had to go curl her hair

Saturday we went to Richard's hockey game in Flower Mound. While he played, Maggie and I hung out upstairs. There were 3 big kids up there, 2 boys, around 12 and 11, and a girl around 10.

Maggie clearly wanted to play with them but didn't want to ask them or go up to them. So she did what she always does and started playing near them. I was starting to feel bad for her because they weren't paying her any attention. And yet, somehow, within about 15 minutes, she was playing with the 12 year old boy and 10 year old girl and she was the boss. She had them running races and doing jumping games. AND she kept sort of cheating and changing the rules and no one complained or took over. It was crazy.

Another girl joined them but had to leave to go to a registration for curling lessons. When Maggie explained to the other kids where she'd gone, Maggie said, she had to go curl her hair. Curling hair is almost certainly more interesting than real curling.

We finally got 3 car seats in my car and we can leave the house now. It's been great. We've gone to Lauren's house and the library so far.

I also was able to sign all the kids up for classes at the Hurst Rec Center. Maggie will be taking a gardening class, basketball, and soccer. She also on a wait list for tumbling.

Jonah, Maggie, Kyrie and Isabella at Lauren's house

Isaac and Isaac at Lauren's house

A cat, a gold cat

Jeez, I am so behind. A couple of weeks ago, Maggie and I were driving to Nana and Gran's house and she said, do you remember that black car we had when yours was getting fixed? At first I just said uh yeah but then I remembered. A year ago Kandice hit my car and we had to get a rental while it was fixed. She remembered the color and the oh, sh!t bar that she could reach. Crazy!

 

She ended up spending the night and the whole next day at Nana and Gran's. Mom sent me some updates.

 

Here are some stories Maggie dictated:

 

A Cat, A Gold Cat Part 1

A cat was in a cab. The cat's momma came to pick up the gold cat. She went to the store to get a black cat that was a baby. They were kittens, black and gold cats.

The End

A Cat, A Gold Cat Part 2

A mom had a cat. The cat was in the front yard exploring. She met a cow. The cow said, "I am a very lonely cow. Goodbye." The cat came to a sheep, who said, "I haven't eaten today." The cat said, "I will get someone to feed you. Wait here, Mrs. Sheep. I'll be back,"

The End

 

Here is a puzzle they put together:

 The made a spiral out of "jewels (colored stones)":

 I think they had a pretty good time.

Here are the girls sitting on stools on their chairs:

 Here's Maggie with her microphone, dancing:

 Here's her new bride costume. I kind of hate it but she picked it out to be the thing she earned on her behavior chart.

 Yesterday, Laurie, Ella, Maggie and I went to dinner. It was so much fun. They were kinda wild at the restaurant but still. On the way home, Maggie decided we should all tell jokes. Then they played at our house for a while.

Across Time and Space

Maggie and I have been pseudo-sick for the past week and a half. It's very lame. We'll be fine and doing great and then tired and grumpy and sick tummies and then perfectly fine. 

I started making secret messages for the girls. I use whatever numbers we're working on identifying and then write a message. They love it. (Sorry the image is the wrong direction; I can't figure out how to rotate it). I'm running low on messages. I would love to have a cool one but so far the best one I've done is: Let's find some books to read. Then I let them look up subjects and pick books on our library's website.

 Maggie's been very into telling stories. Last week as I was trying to get her to go to sleep, she asked if she could tell me a spooky story. Here it is: "Once upon a time, there was a little girl named Little Red. . . uh, Ariel. No, Little Ariel. No, just Ariel. And she was at her Mom's house. And everything was spooky." I got chills. 

 Then to keep her from falling asleep on the drive home one night. I suggested we come up with a story together. I would say a sentence and then she would. It was hilarious. It was very long but at one point, 3 little girls beat up their mom and stole her car and left her in the woods. Then came back but there were wild animals and the mom left the girls because she was mad.

 Here is a list of Maggie's favorite animals.

She also dictated this story:

• Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Baby Richard and he went into the woods one day and all kinds of wild animals came around so he went and punched them. And he punched and punched and punched and he just could do it for 100 or 50 or 80 and he went back home and he drawed an E on his calendar. And he went to find his yummy smelly breakfast and then he went in his mom’s room and he got something that smelled good. And then he showed the animals it and they liked it. And then he called his mother to help him find his sisters. And his mother went to the forest to find the sisters but she did not know the way back home. So she was not happy. She was mad. She went home madly. And she walked and walked and walked. And then she got home to Baby Richard. The end.

These are dinosaurs and fairies with bubbles around them and shamrocks.

This morning she discovered Siri on my phone. It was pretty funny. Poor Siri would look things up for her and occasionally just kind of talk to her. Maggie asked where she was and Siri answered I'm right here. So Maggie asked Are you on Earth, and Siri said I am across time and space. Then Maggie spent a lot of time asking if she had a rocket, etc. At one point Siri said, I hope you aren't driving. Should I call you a taxi?

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.