Magrilless

Yes, this is Maggie on her new bikeacycle she got from Santa. It’s a special “pre bike” that’s all the rage nowadays. The theory is, kids learn how to balance on two wheels — the hard part — before they are distracted by pedaling — a pretty easy task. So tykes who get these pedal-less bikeacycles start by walking over the frame like Mags is doing. Then they sit on the seat and use their feet to scoot. Then they sit on the sit, push off, and coast for a little. And low and behold, they’ve learn how to keep the bike upright with their feet off the ground, aka balance on a bicycle. So Maggie is in stage 1, but she’s loving it and didn’t have to be told what to do the first time she was given free reign (that is, we weren’t in the living room). She walked astride that bike for at least a half hour the first time we were out. We went somewhere flat so it wouldn’t be too hard going up hills or scary going down, and she just went to town, even trying sometimes the sit and scoot. She asks for her bike-a-cycle all the time; thank goodness we haven’t been snowed in yet!

In other news, potty training is clipping right along. We’re not going overboard with anything. I haven’t set the timer for every 30 minutes to make her sit in the bathroom or anything. It’s pretty much, if we’re at home and interruptible a while after a meal, I ask her if she wants to try to pee. Much of the time she says yes; almost always she says yes if I shake the MandMs container. She has a couple of times before nap and bedtime told us she wants to pee on the toilet, which has been awesome; otherwise she lets me take the lead. We did have a breakthrough today when she let me whisk her up and run to the bathroom when she excused herself to poop (when she suddenly stops whatever she’s doing to run to a room alone or yells at me to leave her alone, I know to get a clean diaper ready). I promised her special chocolate if she pooped on the toilet, and woo hoo! One less dirty diaper I had to change in my life. She was very proud and really liked the mint chocolate 3 musketeers. We’ll see if we can have a repeat performance or two or three in the next week. Last box of diapers, here I come!

Merry (post) Christmas! We had a jolly jolly time in Durango. Our house enjoyed its first Christmas, full of people, cheer, blessings, and cookies. Maggie thoroughly enjoyed all those things as well. Baka Sue, Scotty, Uncle Pat, Nana, Baba, Moosey, Eliza Q, Mommy, Daddy…. what more could a little kiddo wish for. Silly songs, games, costumes, painting, decorating, hugs, kisses. Santa came and ate the snack she left, brought her a bikeacycle, and left fruit, drawing supplies, and toothbrushes. Relatives sent instruments and dolls and books and trucks and clothes and a radio and games. And there was chocolate and cookies and snack mix and oranges and lox and pretzels and pies and cranberry sauce and everything that a foodie baby could desire.

She only had a few two-year-old moments. Sugar I’m sure played its part in making a tired child run wild and head-strong. But we managed to get her down for a decent nap every day, even Christmas, and she has been ready for bedtime and willing to get in her crib each night. She’s surprised me by spontaneously singing Christmas carols I didn’t know she was listening to me sing. And each new visitor who arrives in the house has been ordered into her room so she can take them on a tour and tell them all about each toy. She’s so grown up. So talkative. So observant. So independent. And more and more beautiful every day.

I know I missed Maggnificent Monday yesterday. But you’re glad I did because now I get to tell you about the Polar Express. Last evening the three of us bundled up in our warmest jammies and went downtown to board the train to the North Pole. We all stood out on the platform while a loudspeaker read the beginning of the book and then the train whistles in the distance and comes around the corner in a whoof of smoke and steam and it started to snow and all the kiddos were enchanted and it was magical.

On the train, our car’s usher handed us cookies that Mrs. Claus baked for us that morning and of course there’s hot chocolate too and they read the book over a loudspeaker and we all take turns looking at the pictures. Maggie liked the cookie especially, but she also enjoyed painting in the fog on her window and occasionally seeing Christmas lights on houses outside in the dark. Once we got to the North Pole, we could see Santa on his sleigh with some elves out in the snow. Maggie kept yelling that she wanted out at this point, but that may be because some mom had misunderstood what was going to happen and might have mentioned that Mags could go sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what she wanted for Christmas. I don’t know who could have said that to the child.

Maggie was somewhat pacified by the promise that Santa would get on the train and come give her a present. We tried practicing saying “hi Santa” and “thank you Santa” but Mags was too shy to really interact with The Man. She did accept his bell with a kind of awe and enthusiastically jingled it all the way home. (Bill got a bell too, but apparently I haven’t been a good girl this year. Any ideas how to repent for Santa in just a few days?) Luckily there were Christmas carols to sing all the way back so a sugar-highed two-year-old could shake her bootie and jump up and down with spirit.

When we got to the station, I convinced Maggie to yell at Santa “Merry Christmas Santa” and he turned to her and waved and wished her Merry Christmas back. It was really quite a magical trip and will definitely be one of our traditions from now on.

We feel Christmased up now. Merry Christmas!

Boo-yat!

Maggie has two new teeth! This constitutes half of her two-year molars, which is all there is left, baby! These two new bottom dwellers might be the reason she’s been waking up earlier than usual. Other than that, she’s seemed fairly unaffected by them coming in. And I’ll give up that half hour in the morning if that’s going to be all the drama. Especially since we’ve started putting her to bed half an hour early to sort of compensate. She doesn’t seem to mind. It gets so dark so darned early that by the time 7:30 rolls around, it seems like it’s been close to bedtime for hours, even to her. So, welcome, new little chompers! And thanks, Santa, for bringing them early instead of waiting til Christmas (in case there’s drama yet to come).