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.

Maggie's story :)

The fish swimming along and a seahorse got in his way. Now he found someone, a fish with sharp teeth who ate his tail. And he was sleeping and going to die. Then the fish was not going to die and was just resting on a rock. Then the shark came and ate his two fins and he was not going to die. He was still resting on the rock and he got up in a little while. Then the shark put him up in the air and then he landed on the ground and humans found him. And then they pulled up their pool and put the fish inside of it so he would still live. And he did. His new skin shedded off and he had a new skin. The End.

Our week

Maggie came home on Monday and was very grumpy. She helped me do some cooking but mostly just laid around and watched TV. On our way home, we stopped and signed up for all of her summer classes. After that we dropped off some meals for our friend Summer, who just had her fifth baby (and first girl!), Abby.

When we got home, Maggie, of course, wanted to play with Nana and Gran. But after just a little while, she was being quite mean. She had trapped Greenley in a "hug" and when Nana and Gran insisted she let go, she kicked and threw things. I can't even remember the last time Maggie acted like that. I went in and got her and took her upstairs, while she bawled about being sorry and to give her another chance. :(  I told her over and over it wasn't a punishment but that I could tell she was tired and we would read and rest together. Poor baby. She eventually calmed down and we read books and she fell asleep.

Tuesday was our day to go to Scarborough Faire. Maggie kept waking up in the very early morning to ask if it was time to get up and I would say no. When the alarm went off she jumped out of bed.  Immediately she wanted me to get her breakfast. She wanted chai tea latte and Cheerios, which I got her. She ate very little and said she was done. We got in the car to go meet up with Kandice and Jake and about half way there she started complaining about her stomach hurting. I assumed it was because she hadn't gone potty yet but a couple of minutes later, it sounded like she was crying and I looked back and she was throwing up all over the car, her carseat and herself. YIKES!

As soon as we got to K&J's I took her to the bathtub. She seemed fine. It took a while to clean her and her clothes and her carseat but she was acting fine. She ate a big breakfast, we played outside. Laurie and Ella came over and we all played in the backyard for a long time. Maggie mostly dug up bugs and put them in her containers.

After Laurie and Ella left and Jake went down for a nap, Maggie wanted to watch her new show, Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? I read about it on another blog and thought Maggie would like it and she definitely seems too. It's a very cute show with tons of historical, geographical, scientific, etc information in every single show. I was still going back and forth and I was walking by and realized that Maggie was asleep! In the middle of the floor! With the TV on! I'm not sure that's ever happened but certainly not anytime recently. Crazy. I moved her to the couch, where she continued sleeping for a total of about 2 hours.

Laurie had wanted to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner but Maggie was so out of sorts we couldn't. Laurie met us at Dad's house and we got take out from a local Italian place. Since both girls needed a bath, we decided to bathe them together at Dad's. When Maggie went to get in, she yelled, It's too spicy! It started out fine but them Maggie had a major meltdown. I had to take her out and lay down with her for a while to get her to calm down.  After that, I decided we wouldn't try for school on Wednesday. She seemed so off.

I let her sleep in a little on Wednesday morning and she woke up fine. The whole thing was weird. So Wednesday we decided we were just going to be calm and relaxed. We watched a lot of Carmen and
Maggie collected more bugs while Kandice and I worked on the garden. I found her an ant egg, which we have put in a container to watch. Ironically, Uncle Steve just sent her an awesome ant hill that she's very excited about. I suspect that will be much more interesting than the egg I found. ;)

Thursday was insanely cold. WTH weather! We went to the big library in downtown Arlington. It was quite fun. We got a ton of books on bugs and Maggie picked a few random books. I also got a few movies although so far she's only been interested in the bug movie.

On Tuesday, when Laurie had wanted to go to CF, I had told Maggie it had a hundred different desserts, so she kept asking to go. Thursday me, Mags, Laurie, Jeff and Ella met up for some dinner. It was kinda crazy. Ella was up and down and all over the place. Maggie was equally crazy. Hoo boy. But the girls did enjoy their dinner and they got to share (with Laurie) a piece of caramel cheesecake. I was so stuff from my insanely large dinner that I think I got one bite. :(

On Friday, we went to a playdate at Anne's house. Anne is part of our Spirit Builders co-op. She has two sons, Alex, 4, and Nathan, almost 2. We had a great time. Alex and Maggie played together so well. Nathan went back and forth between the mommies and the big kids. Jake just explored. He wasn't too interested in anyone but was very curious about this whole new place.

On Saturday Maggie and I were planning on getting family pictures taken. I had emailed the photographer that does Ella's birthday parties and we had set up plans. Saturday morning we got up and got all dolled up. It suddenly occurred to me we'd never set a place to meet at Trinity Park. I emailed her on Facebook but we hadn't exchanged any other information. I finally decided to just drive down there and hoped we see her at the main entrance off University. Which actually probably would have worked except it was Mayfest. Most of the entrances were blocked off and there were tons of people. I had emailed her my cell number and she got it a few hours later. We rescheduled for 2 weeks and we'll connect on Friday to establish a meeting place. :)

Once I realized pictures weren't going to happen, I asked Maggie if she wanted breakfast. We parked in an area I've been to with Laurie and Jeff but all we saw were restaurants (that weren't open yet) and bars.

So we loaded back up and finally (!) found a Starbucks and got some breakfast. Maggie was thrilled with getting to eat outside. She found a bug that she named Bug and we took him home. Sadly, Bug didn't make it.

When we got home, Maggie kept wanting to go outside. But we were all also hungry so we went to a restaurant with a patio for some lunch. Maggie had fun watching the birds and ducks at the pond.

When we got home, everyone went to lay down for a nap. Maggie started out downstairs and then came up to tell me she had already napped but the next thing I knew I was waking up an hour or so later and she was out. All told I think she napped for 2-3 hours. Wow.

That night we tried to go to an observatory in Denton. Gran decided to come with us and good thing, because I had taken my wallet out to go to the restaurant and forgot to put it back in. Unfortunately it was super cold and Maggie was a little scared to go up the ladder to look in the telescope and then she couldn't really see anything. I saw Jupiter and it's moon and Saturn and it's rings. WOW! We decided to go and that we'd practice on Grandpa's telescope and try another time. The people there were really nice and gave us a rain check to come back.

We dodged aliens the whole ride home only to discover they just wanted friends and were scared of the dark. They eventually just made a bed in Gran's trunk. :)

Sunday Maggie and Gran played for a long time. Then all 3 of us went out front and sat in the sun. We threw some bean bags back and forth and against the garage door (to make thunder). Maggie doled out Cheerio's and made various rules to various games. A very nice Sunday.

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.